Israel-Hamas war latest: Palestinians killed in West Bank as world leaders try to avoid regional war

Eight Palestinians were killed, including four teenagers, and another seven were wounded by Israeli fire during military raids in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials said Tuesday, as world leaders try to stop tensions in the Middle East from boiling over into a regional war.

Israeli airstrike on a village in the Lebanon's south killed four people, the country's Health Ministry said Tuesday. It was not immediately clear if the dead were civilians or militants. The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it launched a drone attack early Monday on northern Israel that the Israeli military said wounded two Israeli troops.

Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily strikes for the past 10 months during the war in Gaza.

Leaders in Egypt and Turkey say they are exhausting all avenues possible to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from becoming a wider regional conflict after the killings of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and Hamas’ top political leader in Iran. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet over the weekend that Israel is already in a “multi-front war” with Iran and its proxies.

The only corridor for humanitarian aid to enter southern Gaza has been shut down, apparently because of fighting in the area. The Palestinian territory has been plunged into a severe humanitarian crisis in the war ignited by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel.

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Here’s the latest:

NAHARIYA, Israel — A drone apparently launched from southern Lebanon struck Tuesday inside an Israeli town near the border.

Sirens sounded in Nahariya before a loud blast was heard and smoke began rising from an intersection. Earlier, an Associated Press reporter saw a drone flying over the city. The reporter later saw emergency crews rushing to the scene.

Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said it was treating two people wounded by shrapnel, one of them in serious condition.

It was not immediately clear if the attack was linked to Hezbollah’s vow to avenge the killing of a senior commander in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut the week before, which has raised fears of an all-out war. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Hezbollah has launched near-daily drone and rocket attacks along the border since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in what it says is an act of solidarity with the Palestinians. Israel has responded with airstrikes, one of which killed four people in southern Lebanon earlier Tuesday, according to Lebanese authorities.

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.

The coastal town of Nahariya is some 6 kilometers (4 miles) south of the border with Lebanon.

JERUSALEM — The only corridor for humanitarian aid to enter southern Gaza has been shut down, apparently because of fighting in the area.

The Israeli military said that the Kerem Shalom crossing was open, but the humanitarian route leading from the crossing into the city of Rafah was closed Tuesday until further notice.

Hamas’ armed wing said it attacked an Israeli tank in the area. It is not possible to confirm battlefield reports in Gaza.

The Palestinian territory has been plunged into a severe humanitarian crisis in the war ignited by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel. The vast majority of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have been displaced by the fighting, often multiple times, and hundreds of thousands are sheltering in crowded, squalid tent camps. International experts said in June that Gaza was at “high risk” of famine.

Aid groups say efforts to bring in desperately needed food and supplies have been hindered by Israeli restrictions, ongoing fighting and the breakdown of law and order.

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s Health Ministry says an Israeli airstrike on a village in the country’s south killed four people. The ministry said Tuesday’s airstrike targeted a home in the village of Maifadoun near the market town of Nabatiye.

It was not immediately clear if the dead were civilians or militants.

Since early October, Hezbollah began attacking Israeli military posts along the border calling it a backup front for their Palestinian allies in the Gaza Strip. Since then, more than 500 people have been killed in Lebanon, including around 90 civilians. On the Israeli side, 22 soldiers and 24 civilians have been killed.

JERUSALEM — Israeli police say a stabbing at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Jerusalem lightly wounded one Border Police officer.

Police said that the attack occurred after Israeli officers at the checkpoint asked passengers to disembark from a bus for what it called a “routine check.” One of the passengers then stabbed a Border Police officer with a screwdriver.

Military Police immediately shot and killed the attacker, police said without identifying the assailant. Israel’s rescue services said the 20-year-old female officer wounded in the attack was fully conscious and was being transferred to the hospital.

Violence has surged in the occupied West Bank since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack triggered the war in Gaza. More than 600 Palestinians have been killed, mostly in military raids, gun battles between the army and militants, and violent protests. Palestinians have carried out a number of attacks against Israelis, including stabbings at checkpoints.

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian officials say eight Palestinians were killed, including four teenagers, and another seven were wounded by Israeli fire during military raids in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Tuesday that four people, including two 19-year-olds and a 14-year-old, were killed in an overnight raid in the village of Aqaaba in the northern West Bank. It said another four people, including an 18-year-old, were killed in an Israeli strike on a vehicle in Jenin — a frequent flashpoint — where the Islamic Jihad militant group said its fighters were battling the army.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Israel has carried out near-daily military raids across the West Bank since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza triggered the ongoing war there. Palestinians from the West Bank have also carried out a number of attacks on Israelis.

The Health Ministry says over 600 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since the start of the war. Most were killed during military arrest raids and violent protests.

Israel captured the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state. The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority exercising limited control over population centers. Over 500,000 Jewish settlers, who live in scores of settlements across the territory that most of the international community views as illegal or illegitimate, have Israeli citizenship.

SYDNEY — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday condemned as “abhorrent” an Iranian ambassador’s social media comment on Israel.

Albanese said ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi had been called in for a meeting with Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials over his recent post on the social media platform X.

Sadeghi cites Hamas spiritual leader Ahmed Yassin advocating that “wiping out the Zionist plague out of the holy lands of Palestine happens no later than 2027.” Sadeghi added: “Looking forward to such a heavenly & divine promise Inshaa-Allah.” The Arabic expression means “if God wills.”

Albanese told reporters: “I make it clear: There’s no place for the sort of comments that were made online on social media by the Iranian ambassador.”

“They’re abhorrent. And they are hateful, they are antisemitic and they have no place,” Albanese added.

Asked by a reporters if the ambassador should be expelled from Australia, Albanese did not directly answer.

The Iranian Embassy in Australia later told The Associated Press in an email that Sadeghi’s post “has nothing to do with Jewish People, anti-Semitism or raising hate speech or violent ways.”