Middle East live: 28 killed, 54 wounded in Israeli strike on Gaza school as Lebanon peace talks ‘intensify’

Leaders from the Islamist group Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement will hold further unity talks in Cairo on Wednesday, a Hamas official said.

The media adviser of the Hamas political chief, the Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo on Tuesday, according to reports.

It was led by Khalil Al-Hayya, the group’s chief negotiator and Hamas’ second-in-command, currently based in Qatar.

“The meeting will discuss the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, and the challenges facing the Palestinian cause,” Hamas officials said.

Two people were killed in a town in northern Israel that was hit by rocket fire from Hezbollah in Lebanon on Wednesday, Israeli authorities said.

Israel’s ambulance service said that a man and a woman had been killed in the town of Kirya Shmona. The military said about 20 projectiles had been launched from Lebanon in the barrage.

The Israeli military said it had destroyed an underground weapons store found seven metres below a residential building in southern Lebanon.

“The soldiers located hundreds of weapons, including an underground weapons storage facility approximately seven metres under a home within the village where the troops are operating,” it said.

“Within the weapons storage facility, the troops discovered sniper rifles and numerous weapons.”

Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Wednesday about a potential Israeli response to Iran’s missile strike last week.

Biden and Netanyahu talked about Israel’s plans in a call that lasted 30 minutes, the White House said.

The discussion was “direct and very productive,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, while acknowledging the two leaders have disagreements and are open about them.

Relations between Biden and Netanyahu have been tense over the Israeli leader’s handling of Gaza and Lebanon. The US has tried to prevent hostilities from escalating and has unsuccessfully sought to broker a ceasefire in Gaza.

Israel has promised that arch-foe Iran will pay for its missile attack, which caused little damage, while Tehran has said any retaliation would be met with vast destruction, raising fears of a wider war in the oil-producing region that could draw in the United States.

Biden last week made comments discouraging Israel from striking Iranian oil fields and said he would not support Israel striking Iranian nuclear sites.

Some analysts say Israel is most likely to respond to Iran’s Oct. 1 attack by targeting Iranian military installations, especially those that produce ballistic missiles like those used in the attack. It could also seek to destroy Iranian air defence systems and missile-launching facilities.

Over 100 Israeli soldiers have threatened to stop fighting if Netanyahu’s government does not secure a hostage release deal.

In a letter addressed to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister Yoav Gallant, 130 soldiers said: “If the government does not change course immediately and work towards securing a deal to bring the hostages home, we will not be able to continue serving.

“For some of us, the red line has already been crossed, and for others, it is rapidly approaching: the day when, with broken hearts, we will stop reporting for service.”

The group includes both reserve and regular soldiers, some of whom have served in Gaza and on Israel’s northern border since last year’s 7 October Hamas attacks.

The Israeli military says it has hit around 185 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in the past day. Soldiers had “dismantled” launch pads that “posed a threat” to northern Israel and located weapons, it added.

Hezbollah militants had also been killed in “close quarter encounters” and aerial strikes. In Gaza, the military said its operation against Hamas was still taking place, with “dozens” of fighters killed in the past 24 hours.

Weapons, including grenades and AK-47 rifles, had been destroyed, along with “infrastructure sites” and rocket launchers, it added.

At least 18 people were killed in overnight military strikes on Gaza as Israeli forces pressed on with a raid on the Jabalia refugee camp in the enclave’s north.

The Israeli military says the raid, now in its fifth day, is intended to stop Hamas fighters staging further attacks from Jabalia and to prevent them regrouping.

It has repeatedly issued evacuation orders to residents of Jabalia and nearby areas, but Palestinian and UN officials say there are no safe places to flee to in the Gaza Strip.

“At least 400,000 people are trapped in the area,” Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Palestinian refugee Agency (UNRWA), posted on X on Wednesday.

“Recent evacuation orders from the Israeli Authorities are forcing people to flee again & again, especially from Jabalia Camp. Many are refusing because they know too well that no place anywhere in Gaza is safe.”

Hezbollah claims its fighters have managed to push Israeli troops back near the border village of Labbouneh, having fired several rocket salvoes.

Further east, the Lebanese militant group said it had attacked Israeli soldiers in the village of Maroun el-Ras and unleashed missile barrages at Israeli forces advancing towards the twin border villages of Mays al-Jabal and Mouhaybib.

Video footage posted on social media and geolocated by Reuters had shown three Israeli soldiers raising their country’s flag in Maroun el-Ras, marking the first time for decades they are known to have done so on Lebanese territory Israel occupied from 1982-2000.