Middle East latest: Hezbollah says it has attacked a kibbutz in northern Israel - after minister warned 'all-out war nearing'

While international leaders have been focused on rising tensions between Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israel, the latter has sent tanks deeper into southern Gaza, forcing thousands to leave their homes.

Battles with Hamas fighters were heard raging in eastern Khan Younis, while medics said 15 Palestinians were killed by two Israeli strikes there.

Among them was a four-month-old girl, Maria Abu Ziada, killed in a tented area in the Mawasi district, they said - a humanitarian-designated area.

The Israeli military said it was checking the report, and has previously said its raid in the city was in response to renewed attacks.

Meanwhile, near the border with Egypt, Israeli forces advanced deeper into the northern parts Rafah.

To the north, Hamas' armed wing said it was fighting with Israeli forces in Gaza City.

 By Alex Crawford, special correspondent

Lebanon is once again on tenterhooks. Indeed, the whole region is.

And there are very few who will bet against yet more bloodshed in the coming days and weeks.

But will Saturday's deadly strike on a football pitch in the occupied Golan Heights be what tips the region into all-out war?

Right now, it is still too early to say but the potential is definitely there and that is what is so frightening about this gradual escalation.

Yet in the capital Beirut, there are the sounds of children playing along the beach and the restaurants are abuzz with customers while streets are filled with Lebanese shoppers.

"We have lived like this for years," said one seasoned Lebanese resident.

"We go on with life as normal. There is no alternative."

But - and it is a big but - there's no doubt this is a very dangerous juncture in an already very dangerous escalating sequence of terrible events.

Hezbollah was uncharacteristically quick to deny any involvement in the deaths of largely young people who were playing football in Majdal Shams, the remote border town in the Golan Heights (which the bulk of the international community still recognises as Syria but is occupied by Israel).

They have not denied any attacks in the nine months of previous crossfire attacks.

So this is worth noting because it is not typical behaviour or a typical response from the Iran-backed Lebanese group which has been mounting attacks inside Israel since 8 October.

Read on here... 

Lebanon must be supported so that it is spared the "scourge of war", Egypt has said.

Cairo - a mediator in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza - has also warned of the dangers of opening a new war front with Lebanon. 

Hezbollah has denied a claim from Israel that it was behind a rocket attack that killed at least 12 children and teenagers in the Golan Heights.

Hezbollah (previous post) says it has attacked a kibbutz in northern Israel.

We reported earlier that Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz said the moment is nearing "in which we face an all-out war".

He also said Hezbollah had "crossed all the red lines".

The foreign secretary says he is concerned about the risk of "further escalation and destabilisation" on the Israel/Lebanon border.

David Lammy has also said the UK "condemns" a rocket attack in the Golan Heights which has "tragically claimed at least 12 lives".

He added on X: "We have been clear Hezbollah must cease their attacks."

Israel has said Iran-backed Hezbollah is to blame for the attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Hezbollah has denied that.

Hezbollah says it has attacked the Manara kibbutz in northern Israel.

It did so with "appropriate weapons and directly hit it", it said in a statement.

The attack led to the "burning and the injury of those inside it", Hezbollah added.

The Lebanon-based group said it took action "in support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in support of their valiant and honourable resistance".

The attack was also in response to the "enemy's attacks on the steadfast southern villages and safe homes", it said.

That appears to be a reference to Israeli airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon overnight.

Israel has accused Hezbollah of a rocket attack which killed 12 children and teenagers in the Golan Heights - something Hezbollah has denied.

The cross-border conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has the potential to become something bigger, a commentator has told Leading wesley.

Doctor Efrat Sopher - an Iran-Israel expert at the Ezri Centre for Iran and Gulf States Research - said it is not "just a regional skirmish".

Iran is "not afraid to show its strength once again", she said, but added there is a "willing coalition, including the West, including Gulf states, to deter against this Iranian continuing destabilisation".

As an example of the situation in northern Israel, she said the Ezri Centre, which is based at Haifa University, has offices in a 30-storey tower block.

But advice has just been given that no one should use any floor above the fourth.

"So there is very much a perceived threat to the north of Israel," Dr Sopher said.

Israel's assertions that a Hezbollah rocket killed 12 children and teenagers in the Golan Heights amount to "very serious accusations", Lebanon's foreign minister has said.

Abdallah Bou Habib told Leading wesley: "Hezbollah has not targeted Israeli civilians - will Israel target Arab civilians?"

He added: "We condemn the killing of civilians. 

"What happened yesterday is tragic - let us talk peace. 

"War is damaging everything, damaging Israel as well."

He called for UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) to investigate.

Forensics showed the rocket was an Iranian-made Falaq-1, an Israeli military spokesperson told reporters.

Hezbollah is backed by Iran. 

Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, said "every indication" showed the rocket was fired by Hezbollah.

Mr Habib said: "We are also defending them but Israel always has a tone of war. 

"They tried to destroy Hezbollah in 2006, but they failed."

France has condemned in the "strongest possible terms" a rocket attack which Israel says has killed 12 children and teenagers in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Israel has blamed Hezbollah - which has denied any involvement.

France has also called for restraint.

"France condemns in the strongest possible terms the attack which hit the Druze community in Majdal Shams," its foreign ministry said.

"France demands that everything possible be done to avoid a new military escalation and we will continue work with the relevant parties on this." 

France is advising its citizens not to visit Israel, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories. 

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, has arrived back after cutting short a visit to the United States.

He left the US early following a rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Israel says 12 children and teenagers were killed and has blamed Hezbollah - which has denied any involvement.

Mr Netanyahu will be meeting his cabinet and holding security consultations, his office said.

Israelis cannot live peacefully and strike new peace accords with their neighbours while they are threatened by Hezbollah in the north and Hamas in the south, an Israeli politician had told Leading wesley.

Iranians are "running this whole show", said Yuli Edelstein, a member of Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party.

Revenge is the wrong way to frame Israel's response, he said.

Rather, he said his country needed to "react in terms of getting rid of that danger and bringing back dozens of thousands of Israeli citizens who right now cannot be in their homes on the northern border (with Lebanon) and had to be evacuated to the centre of the country".

On Saturday, Palestinian health officials said at least 30 people, including seven children, had died after an Israeli airstrike hit a school in central Gaza.

Israel, meanwhile, said 12 children and teenagers had been killed in a Hezbollah rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights - something Hezbollah has denied doing.

Asked about the situation in Gaza, Mr Edelstein, who chairs Israel's foreign affairs and defence committee, said Israel regrets "every loss of innocent life of every civilian - even more so of a child".

But he said Hamas had brought a "new meaning to the word human shield" and was "protecting itself with civilians".

He also said Israel is doing its best to avoid civilian casualties.