Beirut, 29 October 2024 (dpa/MIA) - Heavy Israeli strikes and shelling struck the Lebanese port city of Tyre on Monday as heavy fighting continued between Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants deep inside southern Lebanon.

Videos circulating on social media showed heavy calibre shells exploding and large plumes of black smoke covering Tyre.

Shortly beforehand, the Israeli army issued a warning to people living in the area to move to safe locations.

"It is hell. We do not know where to hide as Israeli shells are falling everywhere," a resident of Tyre who is still living in the city told dpa.

Israeli soldiers meanwhile continued their ground operation in southern Lebanon, combing the border area around Kafr Kila, the Lebanese state news agency NNA reported.

Israel's army also attacked the area with artillery, tanks and fighter planes, the agency said.

The Lebanese Health Ministry has counted more than 2,600 dead and 12,400 injured in Lebanon since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah escalated a year ago.

The Islamist group said its attacks on northern Israel were demonstrating solidarity with the Hamas militant group in Gaza, but it has since become a wider war between the two sides waged on Lebanese territory.

Hamas was responsible for the October 7, 2023 massacres in Israeli communities, which provoked a massive air bombardment of the Gaza Strip and an all-out Israeli ground offensive into the Palestinian territory to eliminate Hamas.

Israeli army ends operation in Gaza hospital

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Monday that it had concluded its deployment in the Kamal Adwan Hospital near the Jabalia refugee camp in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Around 100 suspected terrorists who had barricaded themselves in the hospital grounds had been detained after several days of fighting, a spokesman said.

According to the IDF, around 50,000 Palestinian civilians have left Jabalia and the surrounding area, mainly for Gaza City. The humanitarian situation in the camp is reported to be catastrophic.

The death toll in the war between Israel and Hamas has now claimed more than 43,000 Palestinian lives, the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in the region reported on Monday.

More than 101,000 others had been injured, the ministry said. Most of the victims are civilians. While the information cannot be checked independently, Health Ministry figures are generally seen as reliable.

New initiative discussed at ceasefire talks

Parties to the ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas in Qatar have discussed a new initiative that combines previous proposals, the Israeli government said in a statement on Monday.

The initiative "takes into account the main issues and recent developments in the region," the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, without providing further details.

The head of the Israeli foreign intelligence service Mossad, David Barnea, left Doha after talks with CIA Director William Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

Talks with the mediators are to continue in the coming days in an effort to reach an agreement.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi proposed a two-day ceasefire on Sunday to allow four Israeli hostages to be exchanged for several Palestinian prisoners. Egypt, along with the United States and Qatar, is one of the mediators in the negotiations.

Israeli Cabinet meets at secret location

The Israeli government's weekly Cabinet meeting was reportedly relocated to an undisclosed location for security reasons on Monday.

Typically, the ministers meet in the office of Prime Minister Netanyahu or at the headquarters of the armed forces.

Information from the ynet news website stated that ministers were also prohibited from bringing their advisers to the meeting, which is being held underground.

Monday's Cabinet meeting is the first since the Israeli air attacks on Iran in the early hours of Saturday. Israel said the strikes were retaliation for a wave of Iranian missiles aimed at Israeli territory at the beginning of October.

More recently, Netanyahu's private house in Caesarea was the target of a drone attack.

Photo: EPA