Israel-Hezbollah latest: Netanyahu says would-be Hezbollah leader Safieddine killed in airstrike

Hamas’s leader-in-exile Khaled Meshaal said the Palestinian group would rise again and that it continues to recruit fighters and manufacture weapons.

Israel says Hamas no longer exists as an organised military structure and has been reduced to guerrilla tactics. Hamas fighters account for at least a third of the roughly 17,000 Palestinian deaths in Gaza, according to Israeli officials.

“Palestinian history is made of cycles,” Mr Meshaal, 68, a senior figure under overall leader Yahya Sinwar, told Reuters.

“We go through phases where we lose martyrs and we lose part of our military capabilities, but then the Palestinian spirit rises again, like the phoenix, thanks to god.”

Beirut’s southern suburbs were rocked by fresh Israeli airstrikes overnight, with Israeli forces claiming it killed senior Hezbollah commander Suhail Hussein Husseini.

If confirmed, the death of Suhail Hussein Husseini would be the latest in a string of Israel’s assassinations of leaders and commanders of Hezbollah and its ally Hamas.

More than 2,080 have been reported killed in total, and a further 9,869 wounded, since Israel began its bombing operations in Lebanon last month.

The Israeli military has pusher further into southern Lebanon as Beirut was rocked by a fresh wave of airstrikes overnight.

Israeli troops have moved into south-west Lebanon after nine days of focusing on the eastern side of the border - where Israel invaded on 30 September.

The 146th division will carry out a “limited, localised, targeted” ground operation against Hezbollah militants in the area, Israel claimed, as up to 1.2million people have been displaced across Lebanon.

The presence of Israel tanks near an outpost where some Irish troops are stationed is “concerning”, the UN’s mission in Lebanon said.

The UN mission said the position of IDF troops “immediately adjacent“ to the peacekeeping post was “an extremely dangerous development”.

The mission “is deeply concerned by recent activities by the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] immediately adjacent to the Mission’s position 6-52, southeast of Marun ar Ras (Sector West), inside Lebanese territory,” it said in a statement.

“The IDF has been repeatedly informed of this ongoing situation through regular channels,” the mission said.

“UNIFIL urgently reminds all actors of their obligations to protect UN personnel and property.”

Ismail Ghaani, the commander of the overseas arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, is alive and well, his Deputy Brigadier General Iraj Masjedi said, dismissing speculations about his death.

Mr Ghani, who leads the Guard’s overseas military service, has been missing from the public eye for more than a week amid speculations about his death in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon.

His deputy told local reporters yesterday that there was no need for the Guards to release any official statement to shut down the rumours, according to the Financial Times.

“He’s healthy and well and doing his job,” Big Gen Masjedi said of Mr Ghaani, while declining to provide further details.

A teenager from north Gaza has shared what her life is like living in a tent after she was displaced under Israeli bombardment.

Enas Tantesh is 17 years old and lives in the Al Mawasi so-called humanitarian zone.

“This is a tense life... You cannot set a routine, you cannot do whatever you want. You might be displaced or even die at any moment,” she said.

China will provide emergency medical supplies to Lebanon, China’s official foreign aid agency said this morning.

Li Ming, the spokesperson for the China International Development Cooperation Agency, said in a statement that as the fighting escalated recently, explosions and air strikes “have occurred in many places in Lebanon, causing a large number of casualties”.

“At the request of the Lebanese government, the Chinese government has decided to provide emergency humanitarian medical supplies to Lebanon to help Lebanon carry out medical assistance,” the statement said.