According to Israel, it hit more than 50 sites associated with Hezbollah, an Iranian-supported Lebanese group, in Syria since the Gaza conflict started on October 7, 2023.

The top military spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said this during a briefing that mainly dealt with Hezbollah’s attacks in support of Hamas. “We will be wherever Hezbollah is. We will act wherever necessary in the Middle East,” he said.

According to Hagari, Israeli forces had struck 34,000 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon to date, comprising 120 border monitoring outposts, 40 missile and weapon caches and more than 40 command centres. He added that the attack had resulted in over 200 enemy deaths.

Hamas official says no agreement on Gaza ceasefire yet A senior Hamas official said on Saturday that there was no final deal yet on stopping the four-month-long conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.

The top Hamas official in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, said that the leaders of the group were examining the proposal by senior officials from Israel, Qatar, Egypt and the US, but they needed more time to “declare our stance”.

He said at a press conference that his movement “has always said” it was “willing to consider any initiative… that would end this savage attack on our Palestinian people”.

He verified that the group had received the proposal that was prepared by top leaders in Paris, but he said that there was no agreement yet and that the plan lacked some details.

“We will declare our stance” soon, “based on… our wish to end the attack that our people endure as soon as possible”, he added.

US military says it hit drones near Yemen In another event from the Red Sea crisis, the US military said on Saturday (Feb 3) that it had carried out strikes targeting six anti-ship missiles that belonged to Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

The missiles were “ready to launch against ships in the Red Sea. US forces spotted the cruise missiles in areas of Yemen controlled by the Huthis and decided they posed an imminent threat to US Navy ships and commercial vessels,” Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a post on social media.

Earlier that day, CENTCOM said that the US forces had shot down eight drones near Yemen on Friday (Feb 2) and destroyed four more before they could be launched.

It also said that the ones hit on the ground were owned by the Houthi rebels backed by Iran. However, CENTCOM did not name a country or group linked to the missiles shot in the air.

Israel’s devastating campaign in Gaza, which started on October 7 in response to unprecedented attacks by Hamas, has provoked anger across the Middle East.