Israeli forces storm Gaza shelters and strike Lebanon banks

MAIN HEADLINES 

• Israeli forces blew up homes and besieged schools and shelters for displaced people as they deepened their operations in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, residents and medics said. READ MORE BELOW

• The Israeli military said troops were continuing ground operations across the Gaza Strip, dismantling militant infrastructure and tunnel shafts and killing fighters in the Jabaliya area. 

• Israeli strikes killed at least five people in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip and four in two separate strikes in Gaza City, medics said.

• Israel attacked sites in Beirut, southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley targeting the branches of a banking system that Israel says is run by Hezbollah to finance its operations. READ MORE BELOW

• U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein held talks with Lebanese officials in Beirut on conditions for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

• Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said there was no alternative to UN Resolution 1701, which mandates a peacekeeping mission on the border – but he added that "new understandings" could be reached to implement it.

• The Israeli military said its warplanes struck short-range missile launchers in southern Lebanon which were directed towards northern Israeli settlements. Fifteen launchers were hit, it said.

• Iran has complained to the UN nuclear watchdog about Israel's threats against its nuclear sites, foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said.

• The U.S. military has rushed its advanced anti-missile system to Israel, which is now "in place", U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said during a trip to Kyiv.

• The Arab League's priority is an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon, its secretary general Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in Beirut, calling for Israel's prompt withdrawal from any Lebanese territories it has occupied or entered.

• French President Emmanuel Macron told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he sees the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as a chance for a possible new phase of negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza.

IN DETAIL

Israel blows up homes, besieges shelters in Gaza

Israeli forces blew up homes and besieged schools and shelters for displaced people on Monday as they deepened their operations in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, residents and medics said.

They also rounded up men and ordered women to leave the camp, they said.

Medics at the Indonesian Hospital told Reuters that Israeli troops stormed a school and detained the men before setting the facility ablaze. The fire reached the hospital generators and caused a power outage, they added.

Health officials said they refused orders by the Israeli army, which began a new incursion into the north of the Palestinian territory over two weeks ago, to evacuate the three hospitals in the area or leave the patients unattended.

Troops remained outside the hospital but did not enter, they said. Medics at a second hospital, Kamal Adwan, reported heavy Israeli fire near the hospital at night.

"The army is burning the schools next to the hospital, and no one can enter or leave the hospital," said one nurse at the Indonesian Hospital, who asked not to be named.

Palestinian health officials said 18 people had been killed in Jabalia and eight elsewhere in Gaza in Israeli strikes.

The Israeli military said troops were continuing ground operations across the Gaza Strip. It said in a statement that over the past day, troops had dismantled militant infrastructure and tunnel shafts and killed fighters in the Jabaliya area. It did not comment on the immediate situation regarding the hospitals and camps.

Israel attacks 'Hezbollah-run' Lebanese banking sites

Israel attacked sites in Beirut, southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley targeting the branches of a banking system that Israel says is run by Hezbollah to finance its operations. 

Hundreds of families fled homes near the targeted locations ahead of the strikes, though no casualties were immediately reported.

The Israeli military said before its attacks that it was targeting the Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association, an alternative to the Lebanese banking system which the U.S. has said is used by Hezbollah to manage its finances.

The association has more than 30 branches across Lebanon including 15 in densely populated parts of central Beirut and its suburbs.

There was no immediate statement from the organization, Hezbollah or the Lebanese government.