Palestinian health ministry says Israeli strike kills 18

At least 18 people were killed in the West Bank refugee camp of Tulkarm, the Palestinian health ministry said, following an air strike that the Israeli military claimed killed a local Hamas leader.

A source within the Palestinian security services said that the air raid was the deadliest in the West Bank since 2000.

"Eighteen martyrs following the bombing of the Tulkarm camp by the occupation," the Palestinian health ministry said on its Telegram account.

The Israeli army confirmed the strike on the town in the northern West Bank, describing it as a joint operation carried out by the Shin Bet internal security service and the air force, according to a brief statement by the military.

The Israeli military later said the strike had killed Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi who was a Hamas leader in Tulkarm.

The army accused Mr Oufi of participating in numerous attacks in the West Bank and said he was in the process of planning another assault.

Hamas condemned the air strike, calling it a "cruel attack" that would prove to be a "dangerous escalation".

Tulkarm was one of the towns and Palestinian refugee camps targeted during a large-scale Israeli military operation in late August against militants based in the West Bank.

Violence in the West Bank has surged alongside the war in Gaza which began after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October.

Since the Hamas assault, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 701 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Read more about the conflict in the Middle East

At least 24 Israelis, including members of the security forces, have been killed in Palestinian militant attacks during the same period, Israeli officials say.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and its forces regularly make incursions into Palestinian communities, but the current raids as well as comments by Israeli officials mark an escalation, residents say.

Retaliation

Meanwhile, the US is discussing strikes on Iran's oil facilities as retaliation for Iran's missile attack on Israel.

As Israel weighs its options after its arch-foe Iran launched its largest ever assault, Mr Biden was asked whether he would support Israel striking Iran's oil facilities.

"We're discussing that," Mr Biden told reporters.

Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon told CNN his country has "a lot of options" for retaliation and would show Iran its strength "soon".

Beirut's southern suburb of Dahiye, a stronghold of the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah, came under renewed strikes near midnight after Israel ordered people to leave their homes in parts of the district, residents and security sources said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed Iran will pay for the missile attack, and the US said it would work with its longtime ally to ensure Iran faced "severe consequences."

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, speaking in Doha, said that Iran would be ready to respond.

G7 Calls for restraint

Israel's military told residents of more than 20 towns in south Lebanon to evacuate their homes as it pressed on with a cross-border incursion.

The latest warnings took the number of southern towns subject to evacuation calls to 70 and included the provincial capital Nabatieh, suggesting another Israeli military operation was imminent against Hezbollah.

Beirut's southern suburb of Dahiye was hit by more than a dozen Israeli airstrikes, Lebanese security sources and residents said.

Israel, which has been fighting Hamas in the Palestinian Territory of Gaza for almost a year, sent troops into southern Lebanon after two weeks of intense airstrikes in a worsening conflict that has drawn in Iran and risks involving the United States.

The Group of Seven nations, which includes the US, Britain and allies, condemned Iran's missile attack and reaffirmed their commitment to Israel's security.

But the group also called for restraint, a ceasefire in Gaza and halt to hostilities in Lebanon.

Hezbollah says it killed 17 Israeli troops

Israel says its operations in Lebanon seek to allow tens of thousands of its citizens to return home after being forced to evacuate from northern Israel due to Hezbollah bombardment during the Gaza war.

More than 1.2 million Lebanese have been displaced by Israeli attacks, and nearly 2,000 people have been killed since the start of the Israeli attacks on Lebanon over the last year, most of them in the past two weeks, Lebanese authorities said.

Lebanon's health ministry said that 27 people were killed and 151 wounded over the prior day.

Hezbollah says it has repelled several land operations by Israeli troops, including with ambushes and in direct clashes.

The group said it killed 17 Israeli military personnel in combat in southern Lebanon, citing its field and security sources. Israeli forces did not comment on the claim.

Israel's military reported the death of one soldier.

The Lebanese border front opened after Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel a year ago in support of Hamas in its war with Israel in Gaza.

Iran's other regional allies - Yemen's Houthis and armed groups in Iraq - have also launched attacks in the region in support of Hamas.