GAZA/BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Hezbollah launched a barrage of more than 200 rockets and drones at Zionist army positions on Thursday as tensions soared amid the almost nine-month-old war raging in Gaza. The Iran-backed group said its latest attack, which followed over 100 rockets fired the previous day, came in response to the Zionist entity’s killing of a senior Hezbollah commander in south Lebanon.

UN chief Antonio Guterres voiced concern Wednesday “about the escalation of the exchange of fire”, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, warning of the risk to the wider Middle East “if we were to find ourselves in a full-fledged conflict”. Hezbollah and Hamas are part of an Iran-led “Axis of Resistance” against the Zionist entity and the

United States, a regional alliance that also includes Yemen’s Houthi rebels and armed groups in Iraq and Syria.

The Zionist military confirmed Hezbollah claims that over 200 rockets were launched on Thursday and said that its forces were “striking launch posts in southern Lebanon” in response. The Zionist entity killed senior Hezbollah commander Mohammed Naameh Nasser with a strike in the Lebanese coastal city of Tyre on Wednesday.

Speaking at Nasser’s funeral, top Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine warned the Zionist entity against “imagining that targeting these heroes would ever leave the south exposed”. “When any leader becomes a martyr, another takes up the banner and proceeds with new, firm and strong resolve.”

The Zionist offensive in Gaza has killed at least 38,011 people, mostly women and children, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry. The Gaza war has meanwhile raged on, and gun battles, air strikes and shelling rocked Gaza City for an eighth day on Thursday. Gaza’s civil defense agency said at least five people were killed in a strike that hit a Gaza City school.

Fears of renewed heavy fighting have also surged in southern areas near Khan Yunis and Rafah after the military on Monday issued a sweeping evacuation order that the UN said impacted 250,000 people. The Zionist entity has faced an international outcry over the soaring civilian death toll, punishing siege and mass destruction in Gaza. The UN humanitarian coordinator for Gaza, Sigrid Kaag, this week called for an end to the “maelstrom of human misery”.

Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Thursday he has agreed to send a delegation for talks on securing the release of captives. In a statement after telephone talks with US President Joe Biden, Netanyahu’s office said: “The prime minister updated President Biden about his decision to send a delegation that would continue negotiations for freeing the hostages.”

Netanyahu called a meeting of his security cabinet for late Thursday to discuss proposals sent by Hamas through Qatari mediators to end the Gaza conflict, media reports said. Hamas said late Wednesday that it had sent new “ideas” for a potential deal and Netanyahu’s office said the government was “evaluating” them.

Qatar, Egypt and the United States have been mediating between the two sides and sources close to their efforts said there had been a renewed push to bridge the “gaps” between the foes in recent weeks. Biden announced a pathway to a truce deal in May which he said had been proposed by the Zionist entity and which included a six-week truce to allow for talks and eventually a program to rebuild devastated Gaza. “There are important developments in the latest proposals with positive options for both sides,” said a diplomat briefed on the latest proposals. “This time the Americans are very serious about this.”

A Palestinian official close to the mediation effort told Reuters that Hamas has shown flexibility over some clauses that would allow a framework agreement to be reached. In Gaza, Palestinians reacted cautiously. “We hope that this is the end of the war, we are exhausted and we can’t stand more setbacks and disappointments,” said Youssef, a father of two, now displaced in Khan Younis, in the south of the enclave. “Every more hour into this war, more people die, and more houses get destroyed, so enough is enough. I say this to my leaders, to (the Zionist entity) and the world,” he told Reuters via a chat app. – Agencies