Israel launched about 150 strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, says military

World powers on Sunday implored Israel and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement to refrain from escalating their conflict as the Gaza war threatened to spill over across the Middle East.

Hezbollah and Israeli forces have traded regular cross-border fire since Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel sparked the devastating war in Gaza.

Hezbollah's deputy leader Naim Kassem said Sunday that his group is now in an open-ended battle with Israel and he threatened more displacement for people in Israel's north. "We admit that we are pained. We are humans. But as we are pained, you will also be pained," Kassem said at the funeral of top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Akil.

Britain will keep under review possible new sanctions against Israeli settlers in the West Bank and will act if it has to, foreign minister David Lammy said on Sunday, adding he was concerned by actions that were inflaming tensions.

Britain announced sanctions against Israeli settlers in February and May this year over what it said was extremist groups perpetrating settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Lammy, who became foreign minister in July after a Labour election victory, indicated the new government would take a similar approach and said that further sanctions were possible.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel had "landed a series of blows on Hezbollah" after a night of intense cross-border fire and attacks this week in Lebanon.

"In recent days, we have landed a series of blows on Hezbollah that it could have never imagined. If Hezbollah did not get the message, I assure you it will get the message," Netanyahu said in a statement.

Civil defence rescuers in Gaza City said an Israeli strike Sunday on a school-turned-shelter killed at least 7 people, with the Israeli military saying it had targeted Hamas militants.

The vast majority of the besieged Gaza Strip's 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once by the war, sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, with many seeking shelter in school buildings.

The Israel Defense Forces carried out fresh attacks early Sunday on Hezbollah positions in Lebanon after the group launched rockets at northern Israel. The IDF claimed that Hezbollah targeted civilian areas, leading to widespread disruption. This escalation follows an Israeli airstrike in Beirut that killed multiple people, including senior Hezbollah leaders.

An Israeli airstrike on a school in Gaza on Saturday killed at least 22 people, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The Israeli army claimed it targeted a Hamas command center embedded in the school, using precision munitions to minimize civilian harm. Video footage showed civilians searching through the rubble. Meanwhile, the Gaza Health Ministry reported five workers were killed in another Israeli strike on a medical warehouse. The conflict has led to widespread displacement, with Israel accusing Hamas of using civilian sites for military operations, while Palestinian casualties continue to rise. Tensions escalated further after Israeli strikes in Lebanon killed senior Hezbollah commanders, sparking protests in Israel demanding a cease-fire.

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah announced that it fired a barrage of missiles at a military base deep inside Israel early Sunday following an Israeli airstrike more than a day earlier that killed at least 37 people, including one of the militant group’s senior leaders as well as women and children.

It was not immediately clear if any of the rockets had hit their target. Israel’s emergency medical services reported that a man was lightly wounded by shrapnel from a missile that was intercepted in a village in the lower Galilee.

Local media reported that rockets shot from Lebanon were intercepted in the areas of Haifa and Nazareth. The Israeli military said only that it had monitored the launch of “about ten rockets” from Lebanon, of which most were intercepted.

Hezbollah said it had launched “dozens of Fadi 1 and Fadi 2 missiles" - a new type of weapon the group had not used before - at the Ramat David airbase, southeast of Haifa, "in response to the repeated Israeli attacks that targeted various Lebanese regions and led to the fall of many civilian martyrs.”

Israeli forces raided Al Jazeera's office in Ramallah, ordering a 45-day closure without providing reasons. The Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate condemned the action as a violation of media freedom. This follows Israel's earlier revocation of Al Jazeera journalists' press credentials and a ban on the channel's operations within the country.