Saleh al-Aruri

Palestinian group Hamas said its leader in Lebanon was killed Monday in a strike on the country's south, as official media reported a strike on a Palestinian refugee camp.

"Fatah Sharif Abu al-Amine, the leader of Hamas... in Lebanon and member of the movement's leadership abroad" was killed in an air strike on his "home in the Al-Bass camp in south Lebanon", a Hamas statement said.

Top U.S. diplomat Antony Blinken was set to meet Israeli leaders Tuesday as part of efforts to contain the war in Gaza, a day after strikes in Syria and Lebanon killed high-profile members of Hamas and its ally Hezbollah.

Israel killed a top commander of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in a strike on south Lebanon, a security source told AFP Monday, adding to fears the conflict in Gaza could spread.

Hezbollah later announced the killing of a "commander" for the first time, naming him as Wissam Hassan Tawil. It said he died "on the road to Jerusalem" — the phrase used for fighters killed by Israel.

Israeli strikes hit south Gaza and across its border with Lebanon, the army said Monday ahead of a visit by the top U.S. diplomat who is seeking to avert a wider war.

Gaza's health ministry said 73 dead and 99 wounded had arrived at Al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza's Deir al-Balah city over the previous 24 hours.

Israeli bombing killed dozens of people overnight in Gaza, the health ministry of the Hamas-run Palestinian territory said Thursday, as regional tensions have surged over the almost three-months-old war.

The Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah said on Telegram that it views the killings of senior Hamas members in Beirut as a "serious attack on Lebanon" and a "dangerous development in the course of the war between the enemy and the axis of resistance," Reuters reported.

The Israeli army has said it is "prepared for any scenario" in the aftermath of a strike in Beirut that killed Hamas's deputy chief, stoking fears the war in the Gaza Strip could boil over into wider regional conflict.