Three months into the battle with Gaza-based Hamas militants, Israel's army says its focus has moved from the northern Gaza Strip to "dismantling" militants in the center and south of the territory governed by the Palestinian militant group.
Gaza's health ministry says 99 wounded people arrived at Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah city over the previous 24 hours. 73 died amid attacks between the warring parties.
In the southern city of Khan Yunis, troops and warplanes overnight Sunday-Monday struck 30 militant targets which a military statement described as "significant." These included underground targets and weapons storage facilities, it said.
A drone also killed 10 militants "preparing to launch rockets toward Israeli territory," the statement added.
Also overnight, the military said it had hit "numerous Hezbollah targets" in Lebanon.
Israel and the Hezbollah movement, a Lebanese backed militant group and ally of Hamas, have engaged in regular cross-border fire during the war that began on October 7 with an unprecedented attack against the Middle Eastern nation by the Palestinian militant group.
But a strike last week in a Beirut stronghold of Hezbollah has been a major factor contributing to rising fears of spreading conflict.
Speaking to AFP, a U.S. Defense Department official said Israel carried out the strike that killed Hamas's deputy leader Saleh al-Aruri.
The Hamas attack which triggered the war resulted in about 1,140 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Hamas, considered a "terrorist" group by the United States and European Union, also took around 250 hostages, 132 of whom remain captive, Israel says. At least 24 are believed to have been killed.
Israel has responded with relentless bombardment and a ground invasion that has resulted in the death of at least 22,835 people, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.
UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan (C) and UAE National Security Adviser and Deputy Ruler of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (R) meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at al-Shati Palace in Abu Dhabi on January 8, 2024
On his fourth regional trip since the war began, Blinken is due in Saudi Arabia after talks earlier Monday in UAE capital Abu Dhabi.
The top U.S. diplomat will meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the desert city of Al-Ula, a Washington representative said on condition of anonymity. Early in the war, Riyadh announced it had suspended talks with Israel on normalizing ties.
Blinken's visit comes alongside that of other top Western diplomats trying to stop the conflict from spreading and to boost desperately needed aid to Gazans.
In Qatar on Sunday, Blinken warned that the violence could "easily metastasize" into a regional conflict.
Over the weekend Qatari officials also hosted relatives of captives still held in Gaza, said Ruby Chen, father of 19-year-old captive Itay Chen. The release of more hostages "serves the bigger objective, as they see it, which is creating regional stability," Chen said on returning to Tel Aviv.
Qatar earlier helped mediate a one-week truce that saw dozens of hostages freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Talks with Hamas on a new truce are "ongoing," the emirate's prime minister said.
Since October, violence has surged in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels have launched more than 100 drone and missile strikes towards targets in the Red Sea, a major global trade route, and Israel.
Washington, Israel's main ally that provides it with billions of dollars in military aid, has grown increasingly concerned over the war's civilian death toll.
Most of Gaza's population has been displaced, according to the United Nations, leaving them in overcrowded shelters or tents in the winter chill.
The World Health Organization has warned of the risk of famine and disease, with only minimal aid entering as people struggle to find water and other necessities.
Washington has said Blinken will press Israel on its compliance with international humanitarian law and ask for "immediate measures" to boost aid to Gaza.
"Our home and my son's home have been destroyed and we have 20 people martyred in our family. I don't know where we will go even if I survive," said Gaza resident Nabil Fathi, 51.