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(NEW YORK) — As the Israel-Hamas war continues, tensions are escalating after the assassinations of two Hamas and Hezbollah leaders this week.

Here’s how the news is developing:

Hamas leaders decline ‘new conditions’ in cease-fire talks

Hamas leaders are asking mediators of the cease-fire negotiations with Israel to present a plan based upon previous talks instead of engaging in new ones, according to a statement Sunday.

Hamas also appeared to decline to discuss the “new conditions” proposed to the cease-fire plan by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in July, saying Israel then “went on to escalate its aggression against our people and commit more massacres.”

The new development in the ongoing cease-fire negotiations came after a diplomatic push from the United States, Egypt and Qatar for a new round of talks to take place between Israel and Hamas on Aug. 15 in either Doha or Cairo. Israel agreed to send a delegation, but Hamas had yet to respond –- until now.

The upcoming talks were widely seen as the last, best possible chance at securing an agreement between the warring parties.

-ABC News’ Ghazi Balkiz, Nasser Atta

IDF expands evacuation orders in Khan Younis

The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday ordered civilians in the al-Jalaa neighborhood of northern Khan Younis to evacuate as Israeli troops began raiding the area it alleges is being used by Hamas terrorists.

The IDF said the area — part of a humanitarian zone the Israeli military had initially set up in the southwestern Gaza Strip — was being exploited by Hamas “for terrorist activity” and is now considered “dangerous.” As a result, the IDF said, the boundaries of the humanitarian zone would be adjusted to exclude the al-Jalaa neighborhood.

The move comes just days after the Israeli military launched a fresh assault on Khan Younis, ordering civilians to evacuate the heavily destroyed eastern districts, where many Palestinians had returned less than two weeks ago after the IDF’s last incursion into Gaza’s second-largest city in July, according to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency. The area was also once part of the designated humanitarian zone.

“Due to significant terrorist activity, exploitation of the Humanitarian Area for terrorist activity and rocket fire toward the State of Israel from the al-jalaa area, remaining in this area has become dangerous,” the IDF said in a statement Sunday morning. “Accordingly, at this time, the Humanitarian Area will be adjusted. The adjustment is being carried out in accordance with precise intelligence indicating that Hamas has embedded terrorist infrastructure in the area defined as a Humanitarian Area.”

The IDF said early warnings to civilians were being made to mitigate harm to the civilian population and keep civilians away from areas of combat.

-ABC News’ Morgan Winsor

World leaders react to Israeli attack on school killing 85 Palestinians

Leaders around the world have condemned an Israeli strike on a school in Gaza, making an appeal to the international bodies to stop the killing of civilians and protect displaced Palestinians. They also address the potential damage this attack has on the potential cease-fire negotiations.

“The deliberate killing of these huge numbers of unarmed civilians whenever the mediators’ efforts intensified to try to reach a formula for a ceasefire in the Strip is conclusive evidence of the absence of political will on the part of the Israeli side to end this fierce war,” the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement.

Qatar called for an independent international investigation into the strike and for full protection for displaced people.

“The State of Qatar has strongly condemned the Israeli occupation’s bombing of a school sheltering displaced people east of Gaza city, which led to dozens of martyrs and injured, and deemed it as horrific massacre and brutal crime against defenseless civilians and a flagrant infringement of the fundamental precepts of international humanitarian law,” Qatar said in a statement.

Turkey also called it “a new crime against humanity.”

“This attack demonstrated once again that the Netanyahu Government intends to sabotage the negotiations for a permanent ceasefire. International actors who do not take steps to stop Israel are complicit in Israel’s crimes,” the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement.

The European Union said it was “horrified” by the images of the strike.

“At least 10 schools were targeted in the last weeks. There’s no justification for these massacres We are dismayed by the terrible overall death toll,” Josep Borrell High Representative of the EU said in a statement.

Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur, called Gaza the “largest and most shameful concentration camp of the 21st Century.”

“Israel is genociding the Palestinians one neighborhood at the time, one hospital at the time, one school at the time, one refugee camp at the time, one ‘safe zone’ at the time. With US and European weapons. And amid the indifference of all ‘civilised nations.’ May the Palestinians forgive us for our collective inability to protect them, honoring the most basic meaning of intl law,” Albanese said.

Scores killed following strike on school in Gaza City

Scores have been killed following a strike on Al-Tabeen School in Gaza City early Saturday.

Al-Tabeen School is in Al Darj area of Gaza city and the school was housing hundreds of displaced persons, officials in Gaza said.

Many of the displaced people sheltering at the school had been performing dawn prayers at the time of the strike, according to the Government Information Office in Gaza.

Initial reports from Gaza officials said almost 100 people have been killed and dozens wounded, with an official casualty count expected to come from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

“Today, an Air Force aircraft attacked, under the intelligence guidance of the Israel Defense Forces, the Shin Bet and the Southern Command, terrorists who were operating in a military headquarters located in the ‘Al-Tabin’ school complex near the mosque in Darje Tafah area, which is used as a shelter for the residents of Gaza City,” read a statement from the IDF following the strike.

Gaza’s Civil Defence said two floors of the school were targeted: the first was housing women and the ground was a prayer hall for the displaced.

There were a total of “93 martyrs, including 11 children and 6 women, as a result of the massacre committed by the occupation against the displaced people in the Al-Tabaeen School in the Al-Daraj neighborhood,” according to the Gaza Civil Defense.

Israel raids eastern Khan Younis for at least 4th time in past month

For at least the fourth time in the past month, the Israel Defense Forces raided the eastern part of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Israeli forces have killed at least 29 people in the central and southern areas of Gaza so far on Friday, including 19 in Khan Younis, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.

The IDF ordered civilians east of Khan Younis to evacuate Thursday. On Friday morning, the IDF announced that its troops have begun “operational activity in the Khan Younis area” after receiving “intelligence indicating the presence of terrorists and terror infrastructure.”

The IDF withdrew from the east of Khan Younis just 10 days ago.

Since dawn on Friday, there have been dozens of bombardments and shelling in various areas across war-torn Gaza, including the southern city of Khan Younis. The hardest-hit areas were Al-Maghazi camp, east of Al-Nuseirat camp; the eastern areas of Khan Younis; Bait Lahia in the north of Gaza; and Zaytoon neighborhood in the east of Gaza City.

At least 23 people have been killed in the central and southern areas of Gaza so far on Friday, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.

US official says there’s ‘significant’ work to be done in cease-fire negotiations

A senior U.S. official told ABC News on Thursday that the call from President Joe Biden, the ‎‏Egyptian President and the Qatari Amir for Israel and Hamas to return to the negotiating table to work out a cease-fire deal was a step forward, despite more work needing to be done.

“It’s not like the agreement is going to be ready to be signed on Thursday,” the official said. “There’s still a significant amount of work to do, but we do believe that what’s left here really can be bridged, and there’s really just no time to lose.”

The official said that both Israel and Hamas have “very firm positions” on “about four or five issues” each. And though the official said they might seem to be “unbridgeable,” they have been able to find a way forward working through the issues one by one.

“We are determined to do all that we possibly can, recognizing that lives are on the line,” the official added.

US, Egypt and Qatar call on Israel and Hamas to resume cease-fire talks

In a joint statement, leaders from the U.S., Egypt and Qatar called on Israel and Hamas to resume discussions on Gaza.

The statement — signed by President Joe Biden, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Amir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar — called for both sides to meet in Doha or Cairo on Aug. 15.

“‎‏It is time to bring immediate relief both to the long-suffering people of Gaza as well as the long-suffering hostages and their families,” the statement read. “The time has come to conclude the ceasefire and hostages and detainees release deal.”

Palestinian death toll climbs to 39,755

At least 39,755 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

On Oct. 7, about 1,200 Israelis were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage.

IDF soldiers accused of abusing Palestinian prisoners denied release

Five Israel Defense Forces soldiers who are in custody under suspicion of aggravated abuse of a Palestinian prisoner have been denied release by a military court on Thursday, according to the IDF.

The Military Court of Appeals approved the detention of the suspects until Sunday, stating that from the evidence presented, there is “reasonable suspicion of the commission of the acts attributed to them. The military court also determined that there was a clear cause of danger from the attributed acts,” the IDF said.

United Nations experts have called the reported widespread torture of Palestinian detainees a “preventable crime against humanity.”

“Reports of alleged torture and sexual violence in Israel’s Sde Teiman prison are grossly illegal and revolting, but they only represent the tip of the iceberg, independent human rights experts warned,” U.N. experts said on Tuesday.

Around 9,500 Palestinians, including hundreds of children and women, are currently imprisoned — about one-third of them without charge or trial, according to the U.N.

27 killed in Gaza, IDF says Hamas weapons workshop found in Khan Younis

At least 27 people were killed in different parts of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. Of those killed, 18 Palestinians were killed in eastern and central Khan Yunis.

The Israeli Defense Forces said they found a Hamas weapons manufacturing workshop in a tunnel below Khan Yunis in a statement Wednesday.

-ABC News’ Diaa Ostaz and Jordana Miller

Egypt advises airlines to avoid Iranian airspace

Egypt has issued a notice to all Egyptian airlines to not fly over Iranian airspace at times when Iran is conducting military exercises on Wednesday and Thursday.

59.3% buildings in Gaza Strip damaged or destroyed, CUNY analysis shows

A new map based on open-access satellite data shows the damage across the Gaza Strip through July 27, where an estimated 59.3% of buildings have been damaged or destroyed since Oct. 5, 2023.

According to the analysis, most of the destruction in July was in Rafah, where 750 additional buildings were damaged or destroyed last month, bringing the total infrastructural damage in the southernmost city of Gaza to 45.4%.

The damage analysis of the Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite data was done by Corey Scher of CUNY Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University.

-ABC News’ Camilla Alcini

2 killed, 6 injured in Israeli strike on southern Lebanon

At least two people were killed and six others were injured in an Israeli drone raid on the town of Joya in southern Lebanon Wednesday.

The attack comes as Israel awaits a military response from Hezbollah or Iran after it assassinated leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas.

Hezbollah said it carried out three retaliatory strikes on northern Israel on Wednesday — attacking the Al-Raheb site with artillery shells, the Jal Al-Alam site with artillery shells and the Al-Malikiyah site with rockets.

IDF calls Sinwar terrorist following appointment, remains committed to killing him

Shortly after Hamas announced it appointed Yahya Sinwar as a the head of its political bureau after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, a spokesperson for the IDF said Israel remains committed to killing him.

“Yahya Sinwar is a terrorist, who is responsible for the most brutal terrorist attack in history – October 7th. There is only one place for Yahya Sinwar, and it is beside Mohammed Deif and the rest of the October 7th terrorists. That is the only place we’re preparing and intending for him,” Daniel Hagari said in an interview with Al-Arabia.

Last Israeli designated missing after Oct. 7 attack confirmed dead

Bilha Yinon, the last hostage who was unaccounted for by the Israeli government, has now been confirmed dead.

Yinon was killed on Oct. 7, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Yahya Sinwar will replace Haniyeh as head of Hamas political bureau

Hamas has announced that Yahya Sinwar will replace Ismail Haniyeh as the head of the group’s political bureau after Israel’s assassination of Haniyeh. Sinwar was the head of Hamas in Gaza.

Sinwar has a $400,000 bounty on his head following the group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Sinwar was chosen unanimously in negotiations managed by leadership, according to a top Hamas official.

-ABC News’ Nasser Atta and Ghazi Balkiz

‘Hezbollah is obligated to respond’ to Israel, Nasrallah says

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has vowed to respond to the Israeli assassination of senior official Fouad Shukr, and predicted a response from Iran after Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran last week.

“After the assassination of Commander Sayyed Fouad Shukr, Hezbollah is obligated to respond, and the enemy is waiting, anticipating, and calculating that every shout at him is a response. This Israeli weeklong waiting in anticipation — for a Hezb response — is part of the punishment, part of the response,” Nasrallah said in a speech Tuesday.

Multiple IDF troops injured in Rafah, humanitarian road closed

Several Israeli troops were injured and a humanitarian road was shut down after anti-tank missiles were fired toward them during operations in Rafah.

Injured troops have been evacuated to a hospital for medical treatment.

The Kerem Shalom Crossing and the other entry routes for humanitarian aid are operating, according to the IDF.

Lebanon aims to prevent Hezbollah response to avoid wider war, says foreign minister

Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said the country is working to ensure that Hezbollah’s response to Israel does not trigger a total war, saying, “It would not benefit any of the countries involved.”

“Only those who want to incite conflict would gain from such a situation. We, as officials, do not want any war. Therefore, if a response is necessary, it should not be collective or so severe that it escalates into a broader conflict,” Bou Habib said.

At least 8 Palestinians killed during Israeli military raids in occupied West Bank

At least eight Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces during military raids in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, Palestinian health authorities said.

Five were killed in the city of Jenin, two in the nearby village of Khafer Dan and one in the city of Bethlehem, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the West Bank.

Earlier, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said at least 15 people were injured during the raid in Jenin on Tuesday. A spokesperson for PRCS told ABC News that the organization’s medical teams were stopped by Israeli troops from reaching the wounded.

ABC News has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.

-ABC News’ Nasser Atta and Camilla Alcini

Palestinians in West Bank being blocked from medical care: New report

Palestinians in the West Bank are being restricted access to medical care, including for physical injuries and mental trauma, according to a new report from Doctors Without Borders.

“Access to medical care for Palestinians in Hebron is rapidly deteriorating because of restrictions imposed by Israeli forces and violence perpetrated by Israeli soldiers and settlers,” Doctors Without Borders said.

Ministry of Health clinics across Hebron, in the West Bank, have been forced to close, pharmacies have run short of medications and ambulances transporting the sick and wounded have been obstructed and attacked. Faced with restrictions on their movements and the threat of violence, many sick people delay seeing a doctor or have no choice but to stop medical treatments altogether, according to data collected by Doctors Without Borders between June 2023 and April 2024.

“The movement restrictions, and harassment and violence by Israeli forces and settlers, is inflicting immense and unnecessary suffering on Palestinians in Hebron,” said Frederieke van Dongen, the group’s humanitarian affairs manager.

Israeli prisons are ‘network of torture’ for Palestinians: Human rights group

B’tselem, a major Israeli human rights group, published a report alleging that the Israeli prison system has become a “network of torture camps” for Palestinians arrested since Oct. 7.

The group reported abuse including “frequent acts of severe, arbitrary violence; sexual assault; humiliation; deliberate starvation and sleep deprivation.”

The number of Palestinians in Israeli jails and detention centers stands at 9,623, the rights group said, including, 4,781 held without charge. An estimated 60 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody.

The Israeli army and government have denied allegations of systematic abuse, and the prisons service said it is are not aware of the claims in the report.

But, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right minister for national security who is in charge of the prisons service, has long championed the deteriorating conditions in prisons for Palestinian prisoners, who he said are “terrorists,” as a matter of policy.

“Since I assumed the position of Minister of National Security, one of the highest goals I have set for myself is to worsen the conditions of the terrorists in the prisons, and to reduce their rights to the minimum required by law,” he said in July. “Everything published about the abominable conditions of these vile murderers in prison was true.”

In response to claims of overcrowding, Ben-Gvir has advocated the death penalty as a response.

Israel, Hezbollah exchange fire, killing at least five in Lebanon and injuring two in Israel

Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets and drones toward northern Israel on Tuesday morning and afternoon, injuring at least two people, after an earlier Israeli airstrike killed at least five people in southern Lebanon, according to authorities on both sides.

The Lebanese militant group said in separate statements that Tuesday’s attacks against Israel — at least four so far — were carried out both in support of the Palestinian people in the war-torn Gaza Strip and in response to recent Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon.

One of those drones was intercepted by Israeli air defense and the falling shrapnel injured “several civilians” south of Nahariya, the northernmost coastal city of Israel, according to the IDF.

Israel’s Magen David Adam rescue service said its first responders were deployed to the scene and treated a 30-year-old man in serious condition and a 30-year-old woman in mild-to-moderate condition with shrapnel injuries to the lower limbs. Both patients were transported to the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya.

“We saw the male unconscious in the car with a severe head injury from shrapnel. A female who was fully conscious with shrapnel injuries to her lower limbs was in a parking lot nearby,” paramedic Roi Vishna and senior EMT Noam Levi said in a joint statement released by MDA.” We treated the male including ventilating him and providing medications, and evacuated him by MICU in very serious condition to hospital. The female casualty was evacuated in mild to moderate condition.”

Hezbollah launched the counterattacks after an Israeli airstrike on the town of Mifdoun in southern Lebanon killed at least five people on Tuesday morning, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. It was not immediately clear whether civilians were among the casualties.

Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily strikes for the past 10 months amid the ongoing war in Gaza. But regional tensions have soared following last week’s assassinations of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran’s capital and Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur in Lebanon’s capital.

Israel kills another Hezbollah commander

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed on Monday they had killed another Hezbollah commander in a strike on Lebanon. Ali Jamal Aldin Jawad, a commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force, was killed in the strike.

The death was also confirmed by Hezbollah.

“His elimination significantly degrades the capabilities of the Hezbollah terrorist organization to promote and carry out terror activities from southern Lebanon against northern Israel,” the IDF said.

Israel’s killing of a Hezbollah official in Beirut, Fuad Shukr, and a Hamas official in Iran, Ismail Haniyeh, has pushed the Middle East to the brink of further war.

Remains of about 80 deceased Palestinians returned after being taken by IDF

The deceased remains of an estimated 80 Palestinians — which Israeli forces took from Gazan cemeteries to identify whether hostages had been buried there — were returned by the Israel Defense Forces.

The bodies were decomposed beyond recognition, with Gazan officials saying between three and four bodies were in each bag. They will be reburied in a mass grave in Khan Younis.

A Gazan civil defense official on the ground said there is no data as to who these individuals were.

“I wished I could find him, to be at peace,” Suwa Abu Rajilah, a mother who traveled to the site to see if her son, killed in the war, was there. “To say I buried him, but I couldn’t find him.”

-ABC News’ Dia Ostaz

9 UN employees fired after investigation into ties to Oct. 7 attack

The U.N. has fired nine employees following a lengthy investigation into ties to the Oct. 7 attacks, the organization said.

The U.N.’s Office of Internal Oversight Services investigated 19 staff members with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East as part of the probe.

For nine of the staffers, evidence was found that they “may have been involved in the armed attacks,” the U.N. said.

“The employment of these individuals will be terminated in the interests of the Agency,” the organization said in a statement.

There was no evidence or insufficient evidence that the other investigated staffers had been involved, they added.

At least 7 Hezbollah attacks Monday

In another active day on the northern Israeli border, Hezbollah launched at least seven attacks on Monday.

The IDF said they “successfully intercepted” the projectiles, and no injuries were reported.

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying in a statement they had launched them “in support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in support of their valiant and honorable resistance.”

The IDF also said Monday that they had “identified a terrorist cell operating a drone in the area of Meiss El Jabal in southern Lebanon.”

“Shortly following the identification, the IAF struck and eliminated the terrorists,” they said.

Israeli officer and soldier injured in aerial attack from Lebanon: IDF

An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officer and a soldier were injured after an aerial attack in northern Israel’s upper Galilee region near Ayelet HaShahar early Monday morning local time, the IDF said in a statement.

The aerial targets crossed from Lebanon, the IDF said.

“Israel Fire Services are currently operating to extinguish a fire that was ignited in the area as a result of the attack,” the IDF said.

Netanyahu says Israel will strike wherever necessary

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel is prepared to stand against attacks from Iran and its proxies.

“Iran and its detractors seek to surround us with a choke ring of terrorism on seven fronts. Their open aggression is insatiable,” Netanyahu said during a state memorial service commemorating the death of Revisionist Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky in 1940.

Netanyahu added, “We are determined to stand against them on every front, in every arena, far and near. “

Netanyahu’s comments came just days after the assassination in Iran of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. He was killed in an explosion on Wednesday at a guest house in Tehran that he was staying in while attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian. Israel has not claimed responsibility for Haniyeh’s death.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called for “revenge” against Israel.

Haniyeh’s assassination followed the death of Mohammed Deif, commander of Hamas’ military wing, in a “precise, targeted strike” in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis on July 13. Deif was allegedly one of the masterminds of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

IDF officials also announced that they killed top Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in a precision missile strike Tuesday in Beirut, Lebanon. Officials claim he had been orchestrating drone and rocket attacks on northern Israel, including one on July 27 in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights that killed 12 children and teenagers playing soccer.

“Anyone who murders our citizens, anyone who harms our country, will not be cleared of responsibility,” Netanyahu said Sunday. “He will pay a very heavy price. Our long hand strikes in the Gaza Strip, in Yemen, in Beirut, wherever necessary.”

Netanyahu said Israel’s goals are to “secure our future” and the ensure that hostages taken by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 attack in Israel are returned home.

“We will continue to press the pedal,” Netanyahu said. “We did not let up from the pressure in all combat areas. We will take an offensive, creative, persistent initiative — until victory comes.”

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(LONDON) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged for the first time that his country’s military is conducting a cross-border offensive inside Russia.

The Ukrainian military was progressing in its campaign “to push the war out into the aggressor’s territory,” Zelenskyy said late Saturday in his nightly address.

“Ukraine is proving that it really knows how to restore justice and guarantees exactly the kind of pressure that is needed — pressure on the aggressor,” he added.

Ukraine’s attack began last week and appeared to be a large-scale offensive operation, involving at least two Ukrainian brigades.

Ukrainian troops in the first days appeared to have captured a number of settlements in the Kursk border area while advancing, reaching perhaps as far as about 9 miles inside Russia by Wednesday. A blog closely linked to Russia’s defense ministry reported Thursday that Ukrainian armored units were seen about 18.5 miles inside Russia’s border.

Zelenskyy on Saturday thanked “every unit of our Defense Forces that makes this happen.”

The Russian Defence Ministry has in statements claimed Ukrainian forces were taking heavy casualties.

The Ukrainian military lost more thank 1,100 service members and more than 100 armoured vehicles, including 22 tanks, since the incursion began, Russia claimed. Ten of those tanks had been destroyed in just 24 hours of fighting, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

More Russian conscripts were moved into the region in the recent days, including some who had been redeployed from frontline positions elsewhere, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a nonprofit think tank in Washington.

“Russian forces appear to be more adequately defending against Ukrainian assaults following the arrival of additional conscripts and more combat effective personnel from frontline areas in Ukraine,” the think tank said Saturday.

ABC News’ Patrick Reevell and Kevin Shalvey contributed to this report.

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(CASCAVEL, Brazil) — All passengers are believed to be dead after a Voepass plane carrying 62 people crashed in Brazil on Friday, according to authorities.

The passenger plane was traveling from Cascavel, Brazil, and was bound for Guarulhos Airport, near Sao Paulo, the airline said.

The plane had 58 passengers and four crew members on board, the airline said. Military police confirmed to ABC News that they believe all passengers died.

There is no confirmation of how the accident occurred, the airline said.

The crash was reported to military police at 1:28 p.m. local time.

The two-engine ATR 72 model aircraft fell close to a residential building in Vinhedo outside the city of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo federal police said.

One resident was injured, police said.

Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, at an event Friday asked the crowd to observe one minute of silence for the victims of the crash.

Footage of the incident captured the plane falling in a spiral out of the sky followed by a large fireball.

The governor of Sao Paulo is heading back from Vitoria to manage the situation, officials said.

Brazil’s civil aviation agency said in a statement they will be investigating.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(CASCAVEL, Brazil) — There are no survivors after a Voepass flight carrying 62 people crashed in Brazil on Friday, according to authorities.

The passenger plane was traveling from Cascavel, Brazil, and was bound for Guarulhos Airport, near Sao Paulo, the airline said.

The plane had 58 passengers and four crew members on board, the airline said. All died in the crash, State of Sao Paulo firefighters confirmed to ABC News.

There is no confirmation of how the accident occurred, the airline said.

Flight 2283 took off without any operational restrictions, with all systems capable of carrying out the flight, Voepass said.

The crash was reported to military police at 1:28 p.m. local time.

The 14-year-old two-engine ATR 72 model aircraft was flying at 17,000 feet when it began its rapid descent, according to FlightRadar24.

The plane fell close to a residential building in Vinhedo outside the city of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo federal police said.

One resident was injured, police said.

Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, at an event Friday asked the crowd to observe one minute of silence for the victims of the crash.

Footage of the incident captured the plane falling in a spiral out of the sky followed by a large fireball.

The governor of Sao Paulo is heading back from Vitoria to manage the situation, officials said.

Brazil’s civil aviation agency said in a statement they will be investigating.

ATR, the aircraft manufacturer, said its specialists are “fully engaged to support both the investigation and the customer.”

“Our first thoughts are with all the individuals affected by this event,” the company said in a statement.

ABC News’ Sam Sweeney contributed to this report.

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(LONDON) — A third teenager has been arrested in connection with the foiled attack on now-canceled Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna, according to an announcement by Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner on Friday.

Karner, who made the announcement at an unrelated press conference, said the 18-year-old Iraqi citizen was taken into custody in Austria’s capital on Thursday evening after allegedly being in contact with the main suspect — a 19-year-old Austrian citizen who was arrested early Wednesday. A 17-year-old suspected accomplice — another Austrian citizen — was also arrested later Wednesday.

Karner noted that “intensive investigations” continue.

A 15-year-old Turkish citizen was earlier detained and interrogated by authorities but is not considered a suspect.

Taylor Swift’s three concerts in Vienna were canceled after the first two suspects were arrested for allegedly plotting a terror attack, authorities said.

“We have no choice but to cancel the three scheduled shows for everyone’s safety,” a message from Barracuda Music said. “All tickets will be automatically refunded.”

The suspects allegedly radicalized themselves online, Franz Ruf, director-general for public safety in the Ministry of the Interior, said at a press conference. The 19-year-old suspect allegedly pledged allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State at the beginning of July, Ruf said.

Investigators are not convinced that the alleged plot would have worked and they do not know if a functioning bomb was produced. However, Viennese investigators did find explosive precursor chemicals which showed a degree of motivation and planning, sources told ABC News.

Investigators in Austria are looking at surveillance footage to determine whether one or more of the suspects had previously visited the concert site for reconnaissance or if they had visited other potential targets.

As ABC News has previously reported, law enforcement officials have been concerned about mass gathering attacks since the deadly Moscow concert hall assault earlier this year for which ISIS-K claimed credit.

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(LONDON) — A Russian chess player has been suspended from participating in all competitions after being accused of trying to poison her opponent’s pieces, officials have announced.

Amina Abakarova is now under investigation by the Russian Chess Federation regarding her alleged plot against a rival during the Dagestan Republic Championship in Makhachkala; the capital of Russia’s Dagestan republic.

Andrey Filatov, the president of the Russian Chess Federation, said the organization is temporarily suspending Abakarova — who is from Dagestan — from all of its competitions until law enforcement agencies conclude their probe. Punishment could include a lifetime disqualification, Filatov said. Abakarova may even face criminal charges.

Dagestan Sports Minister Sazhid Sazhidov said in a statement that Abakarova had “treated the table at which she was sitting with an unknown substance, which later turned out to be mercury compounds.” Her opponent was fellow Dagestani Umaiganat Osmanov, Sazhidov said.

Sazhidov added that he was “perplexed by what happened, and the motives that guided such an experienced athlete as Amina Abakarova are also incomprehensible to me.”

“The actions she committed could have led to the saddest outcome; they threatened the lives of everyone who was in the chess house, including herself. Now she will have to answer for what she did before the law,” he said.

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(NEW YORK) — An American teenager has lost a leg in a shark attack while vacationing in Central America, according to officials.

Fifteen-year-old Sofia Carlson was on a diving excursion with the Belize Dive Pro company near Halfmoon Caye in the Gulf of Honduras when the attack occurred, ABC News has learned.

The Belize Coast Guard told ABC News the incident happened on Tuesday morning during an expedition to the Lighthouse Reef, some 50 miles southeast of Belize City.

“It was her right leg that received a bite from the shark,” Adm. Elton Bennett of the Belize Coast Guard said. “So, she lost her right leg.”

Tour operators pulled Carlson from the water and took her to a Coast Guard base, where officers helped stabilize her, according to Adm. Bennett. He said Carlson was then airlifted to a local hospital.

“She’s stable and she’s recovering at this time,” Adm. Bennett told ABC News on Thursday.

Local officials said shark attacks in Belize’s waters are unusual.

“I want to highlight that this is something that is very rare,” Belize’s Minister of the Blue Economy Andre Perez told reporters on Wednesday.

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(TEL AVIV, Israel) — The Israeli military is working in close coordination with the Pentagon to prepare for a “series of scenarios” in which either Iran or one of its proxies, namely Hezbollah, could launch an attack or series of attacks against Israel, an Israeli defense official told ABC News.

Both Iran and its Lebanese proxy group, Hezbollah, have vowed to take revenge against Israel for two assassinations carried out in Beirut and Tehran last week, which killed Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah commander, and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, respectively. Israel has not claimed responsibility for Haniyeh’s death.

The Israeli official, who spoke with ABC News on condition of anonymity, suggested one red line for Israel, which could ratchet up tensions, would be an attack that harms or targets Israeli civilians.

“We don’t have an interest in a war or escalation,” the Israeli defense official said. “But we won’t tolerate attacks on our citizens.”

The defensive preparations being made by Israel in conjunction with the United States were “very critical,” the official said.

“What we are seeing is the U.S. taking a very clear position in their actions and their messaging, and it matters,” the Israeli defense official told ABC News.

In the wake of the assassinations, the Pentagon has announced it is moving two additional naval destroyers and a squadron of F-22 Raptor fighter jets into the Eastern Mediterranean as part of efforts to bolster defenses in and around Israel.

In an unusual step, U.S. officials also said a squadron of F-18 fighter jets from the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt were being redeployed to an undisclosed airbase in the Middle East.

The Israeli defense official said these redeployments of American military assets, which were aimed at defending Israel, appeared to be “unprecedented” in scale and scope.

‘Steeper hurdle’ with regional allies

The Biden administration has also been talking to regional allies about efforts to defend Israel from a potential Iranian attack.

However, U.S. diplomats told ABC News earlier this week they were “facing a steeper hurdle” convincing partners in the region to rejoin the defensive coalition, which rallied to protect Israel from attacks by more than 300 Iranian drones and missiles back in April.

Many international partners see “some of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s actions – particularly the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran – as unnecessarily provocative,” two U.S. officials familiar with the matter told ABC News earlier this week.

Although Israel has not claimed responsibility for Haniyeh’s death, neither has it denied that it carried out the assassination in the Iranian capital. Israel did claim responsibility for the strike on Beirut that killed Fuad Shukr.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said in a statement released on Saturday that Israel would face “severe punishment” for the assassination, which they said would come at an appropriate time and place.

‘A fine balance’

Two former Israeli generals told ABC News they believed that if Iran attacks, that attack would likely be of a different type than the missile and drone barrage in April, which proved largely ineffective. Iran gave Israel and its allies hours of warning that the April attack was imminent. Analysts agree that there is not likely to be the same degree of warning ahead of any future attack.

“This time they must do something different … something that will cause a much more painful price,” former Israeli Gen. Yossi Kupperwasser, who was in charge of the Research Division at the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) Intelligence Corps, told ABC News.

Kupperwasser said the delayed response from Iran was partly because the Iranians wanted “to be sure that they are going to be successful.” However, he noted, Iran also had to consider Israel’s potential response to any attack.

“[The Iranian government] knows they are vulnerable. If Israel decides to retaliate then it can cause very painful damage. The Iranians have to take this into account,” the former general told ABC News.

According to Meir Javedanfar, a lecturer and senior research fellow at Israel’s Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy, the Iranian leadership faces a very delicate balancing act. Though Tehran has vowed it will act and will want to be seen to do something to deter Israel from future hostile acts, Iran cannot afford to hit Israel too hard and provoke a more potent response, he said.

“They know they need to get this right,” Javedanfar told ABC news. “It is a fine balance.”

Retired Israeli Major Gen. Amos Yadlin, who is now president and founder of the nonprofit national security consultancy MIND Israel, echoed that sentiment, telling ABC News that in a sense, Israel, Iran, and Iran’s proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah, all face the same dilemma: calibrating their attacks so that they are effective, while trying to ensure they are not too effective, in a way that could lead to a broader conflict.

“They all want to achieve the goal of retaliation and deterrence [with their attacks]. However, none of them want to reach a full-scale war,” Yadlin said.

Hezbollah under ‘more pressure’ than Iran to act

On Tuesday, the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, said his group would respond to the Israeli airstrike in Beirut on July 30, which killed Fuad Shukr.

The same Israeli defense official who told ABC News of the joint U.S.-Israeli preparations for a potential Iranian or Hezbollah attack further said that Israel’s July 30 attack in southern Beirut was “a direct response” to a rocket attack on July 27 in Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, which killed 12 children and teenagers — an attack for which Israel blames Hezbollah.

“Hezbollah crossed a red line,” the defense official said.

Yadlin, who for five years was in charge of Israeli military intelligence, said Hezbollah “is under more pressure than Iran to act.”

Hezbollah “lost the top military leader and they are trying to bring a clear red line that an attack on Beirut is unacceptable,” he added.

Yadlin predicted Iran might wait longer to respond to the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in an explosion the early hours of July 31 in Tehran. Three Middle Eastern sources have previously told ABC News that Haniyeh was killed by a bomb, planted in his room in the Revolutionary Guard guesthouse, where he was staying for the inauguration of Iran’s new president.

Yadlin told ABC News that the fact that it was a Palestinian leader killed in Tehran, and that he was not killed by a missile fired from outside of the country, gave Tehran some wriggle-room in its response.

“I see them waiting,” Yadlin said.

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(NEW YORK) — As the Israel-Hamas war continues, tensions are escalating after the assassinations of two Hamas and Hezbollah leaders this week.

Here’s how the news is developing:

Palestinian death toll climbs to 39,755

At least 39,755 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

On Oct. 7, about 1,200 Israelis were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage.

IDF soldiers accused of abusing Palestinian prisoners denied release

Five Israel Defense Forces soldiers who are in custody under suspicion of aggravated abuse of a Palestinian prisoner have been denied release by a military court on Thursday, according to the IDF.

The Military Court of Appeals approved the detention of the suspects until Sunday, stating that from the evidence presented, there is “reasonable suspicion of the commission of the acts attributed to them. The military court also determined that there was a clear cause of danger from the attributed acts,” the IDF said.

United Nations experts have called the reported widespread torture of Palestinian detainees a “preventable crime against humanity.”

“Reports of alleged torture and sexual violence in Israel’s Sde Teiman prison are grossly illegal and revolting, but they only represent the tip of the iceberg, independent human rights experts warned,” U.N. experts said on Tuesday.

Around 9,500 Palestinians, including hundreds of children and women, are currently imprisoned — about one-third of them without charge or trial, according to the U.N.

27 killed in Gaza, IDF says Hamas weapons workshop found in Khan Younis

At least 27 people were killed in different parts of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. Of those killed, 18 Palestinians were killed in eastern and central Khan Yunis.

The Israeli Defense Forces said they found a Hamas weapons manufacturing workshop in a tunnel below Khan Yunis in a statement Wednesday.

-ABC News’ Diaa Ostaz and Jordana Miller

Egypt advises airlines to avoid Iranian airspace

Egypt has issued a notice to all Egyptian airlines to not fly over Iranian airspace at times when Iran is conducting military exercises on Wednesday and Thursday.

59.3% buildings in Gaza Strip damaged or destroyed, CUNY analysis shows

A new map based on open-access satellite data shows the damage across the Gaza Strip through July 27, where an estimated 59.3% of buildings have been damaged or destroyed since Oct. 5, 2023.

According to the analysis, most of the destruction in July was in Rafah, where 750 additional buildings were damaged or destroyed last month, bringing the total infrastructural damage in the southernmost city of Gaza to 45.4%.

The damage analysis of the Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite data was done by Corey Scher of CUNY Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University.

-ABC News’ Camilla Alcini

2 killed, 6 injured in Israeli strike on southern Lebanon

At least two people were killed and six others were injured in an Israeli drone raid on the town of Joya in southern Lebanon Wednesday.

The attack comes as Israel awaits a military response from Hezbollah or Iran after it assassinated leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas.

Hezbollah said it carried out three retaliatory strikes on northern Israel on Wednesday — attacking the Al-Raheb site with artillery shells, the Jal Al-Alam site with artillery shells and the Al-Malikiyah site with rockets.

IDF calls Sinwar terrorist following appointment, remains committed to killing him

Shortly after Hamas announced it appointed Yahya Sinwar as a the head of its political bureau after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, a spokesperson for the IDF said Israel remains committed to killing him.

“Yahya Sinwar is a terrorist, who is responsible for the most brutal terrorist attack in history – October 7th. There is only one place for Yahya Sinwar, and it is beside Mohammed Deif and the rest of the October 7th terrorists. That is the only place we’re preparing and intending for him,” Daniel Hagari said in an interview with Al-Arabia.

Last Israeli designated missing after Oct. 7 attack confirmed dead

Bilha Yinon, the last hostage who was unaccounted for by the Israeli government, has now been confirmed dead.

Yinon was killed on Oct. 7, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Yahya Sinwar will replace Haniyeh as head of Hamas political bureau

Hamas has announced that Yahya Sinwar will replace Ismail Haniyeh as the head of the group’s political bureau after Israel’s assassination of Haniyeh. Sinwar was the head of Hamas in Gaza.

Sinwar has a $400,000 bounty on his head following the group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Sinwar was chosen unanimously in negotiations managed by leadership, according to a top Hamas official.

-ABC News’ Nasser Atta and Ghazi Balkiz

‘Hezbollah is obligated to respond’ to Israel, Nasrallah says

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has vowed to respond to the Israeli assassination of senior official Fouad Shukr, and predicted a response from Iran after Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran last week.

“After the assassination of Commander Sayyed Fouad Shukr, Hezbollah is obligated to respond, and the enemy is waiting, anticipating, and calculating that every shout at him is a response. This Israeli weeklong waiting in anticipation — for a Hezb response — is part of the punishment, part of the response,” Nasrallah said in a speech Tuesday.

Multiple IDF troops injured in Rafah, humanitarian road closed

Several Israeli troops were injured and a humanitarian road was shut down after anti-tank missiles were fired toward them during operations in Rafah.

Injured troops have been evacuated to a hospital for medical treatment.

The Kerem Shalom Crossing and the other entry routes for humanitarian aid are operating, according to the IDF.

Lebanon aims to prevent Hezbollah response to avoid wider war, says foreign minister

Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said the country is working to ensure that Hezbollah’s response to Israel does not trigger a total war, saying, “It would not benefit any of the countries involved.”

“Only those who want to incite conflict would gain from such a situation. We, as officials, do not want any war. Therefore, if a response is necessary, it should not be collective or so severe that it escalates into a broader conflict,” Bou Habib said.

At least 8 Palestinians killed during Israeli military raids in occupied West Bank

At least eight Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces during military raids in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, Palestinian health authorities said.

Five were killed in the city of Jenin, two in the nearby village of Khafer Dan and one in the city of Bethlehem, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the West Bank.

Earlier, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said at least 15 people were injured during the raid in Jenin on Tuesday. A spokesperson for PRCS told ABC News that the organization’s medical teams were stopped by Israeli troops from reaching the wounded.

ABC News has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.

-ABC News’ Nasser Atta and Camilla Alcini

Palestinians in West Bank being blocked from medical care: New report

Palestinians in the West Bank are being restricted access to medical care, including for physical injuries and mental trauma, according to a new report from Doctors Without Borders.

“Access to medical care for Palestinians in Hebron is rapidly deteriorating because of restrictions imposed by Israeli forces and violence perpetrated by Israeli soldiers and settlers,” Doctors Without Borders said.

Ministry of Health clinics across Hebron, in the West Bank, have been forced to close, pharmacies have run short of medications and ambulances transporting the sick and wounded have been obstructed and attacked. Faced with restrictions on their movements and the threat of violence, many sick people delay seeing a doctor or have no choice but to stop medical treatments altogether, according to data collected by Doctors Without Borders between June 2023 and April 2024.

“The movement restrictions, and harassment and violence by Israeli forces and settlers, is inflicting immense and unnecessary suffering on Palestinians in Hebron,” said Frederieke van Dongen, the group’s humanitarian affairs manager.

Israeli prisons are ‘network of torture’ for Palestinians: Human rights group

B’tselem, a major Israeli human rights group, published a report alleging that the Israeli prison system has become a “network of torture camps” for Palestinians arrested since Oct. 7.

The group reported abuse including “frequent acts of severe, arbitrary violence; sexual assault; humiliation; deliberate starvation and sleep deprivation.”

The number of Palestinians in Israeli jails and detention centers stands at 9,623, the rights group said, including, 4,781 held without charge. An estimated 60 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody.

The Israeli army and government have denied allegations of systematic abuse, and the prisons service said it is are not aware of the claims in the report.

But, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right minister for national security who is in charge of the prisons service, has long championed the deteriorating conditions in prisons for Palestinian prisoners, who he said are “terrorists,” as a matter of policy.

“Since I assumed the position of Minister of National Security, one of the highest goals I have set for myself is to worsen the conditions of the terrorists in the prisons, and to reduce their rights to the minimum required by law,” he said in July. “Everything published about the abominable conditions of these vile murderers in prison was true.”

In response to claims of overcrowding, Ben-Gvir has advocated the death penalty as a response.

Israel, Hezbollah exchange fire, killing at least five in Lebanon and injuring two in Israel

Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets and drones toward northern Israel on Tuesday morning and afternoon, injuring at least two people, after an earlier Israeli airstrike killed at least five people in southern Lebanon, according to authorities on both sides.

The Lebanese militant group said in separate statements that Tuesday’s attacks against Israel — at least four so far — were carried out both in support of the Palestinian people in the war-torn Gaza Strip and in response to recent Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon.

One of those drones was intercepted by Israeli air defense and the falling shrapnel injured “several civilians” south of Nahariya, the northernmost coastal city of Israel, according to the IDF.

Israel’s Magen David Adam rescue service said its first responders were deployed to the scene and treated a 30-year-old man in serious condition and a 30-year-old woman in mild-to-moderate condition with shrapnel injuries to the lower limbs. Both patients were transported to the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya.

“We saw the male unconscious in the car with a severe head injury from shrapnel. A female who was fully conscious with shrapnel injuries to her lower limbs was in a parking lot nearby,” paramedic Roi Vishna and senior EMT Noam Levi said in a joint statement released by MDA.” We treated the male including ventilating him and providing medications, and evacuated him by MICU in very serious condition to hospital. The female casualty was evacuated in mild to moderate condition.”

Hezbollah launched the counterattacks after an Israeli airstrike on the town of Mifdoun in southern Lebanon killed at least five people on Tuesday morning, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. It was not immediately clear whether civilians were among the casualties.

Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily strikes for the past 10 months amid the ongoing war in Gaza. But regional tensions have soared following last week’s assassinations of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran’s capital and Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur in Lebanon’s capital.

Israel kills another Hezbollah commander

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed on Monday they had killed another Hezbollah commander in a strike on Lebanon. Ali Jamal Aldin Jawad, a commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force, was killed in the strike.

The death was also confirmed by Hezbollah.

“His elimination significantly degrades the capabilities of the Hezbollah terrorist organization to promote and carry out terror activities from southern Lebanon against northern Israel,” the IDF said.

Israel’s killing of a Hezbollah official in Beirut, Fuad Shukr, and a Hamas official in Iran, Ismail Haniyeh, has pushed the Middle East to the brink of further war.

Remains of about 80 deceased Palestinians returned after being taken by IDF

The deceased remains of an estimated 80 Palestinians — which Israeli forces took from Gazan cemeteries to identify whether hostages had been buried there — were returned by the Israel Defense Forces.

The bodies were decomposed beyond recognition, with Gazan officials saying between three and four bodies were in each bag. They will be reburied in a mass grave in Khan Younis.

A Gazan civil defense official on the ground said there is no data as to who these individuals were.

“I wished I could find him, to be at peace,” Suwa Abu Rajilah, a mother who traveled to the site to see if her son, killed in the war, was there. “To say I buried him, but I couldn’t find him.”

-ABC News’ Dia Ostaz

9 UN employees fired after investigation into ties to Oct. 7 attack

The U.N. has fired nine employees following a lengthy investigation into ties to the Oct. 7 attacks, the organization said.

The U.N.’s Office of Internal Oversight Services investigated 19 staff members with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East as part of the probe.

For nine of the staffers, evidence was found that they “may have been involved in the armed attacks,” the U.N. said.

“The employment of these individuals will be terminated in the interests of the Agency,” the organization said in a statement.

There was no evidence or insufficient evidence that the other investigated staffers had been involved, they added.

At least 7 Hezbollah attacks Monday

In another active day on the northern Israeli border, Hezbollah launched at least seven attacks on Monday.

The IDF said they “successfully intercepted” the projectiles, and no injuries were reported.

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying in a statement they had launched them “in support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in support of their valiant and honorable resistance.”

The IDF also said Monday that they had “identified a terrorist cell operating a drone in the area of Meiss El Jabal in southern Lebanon.”

“Shortly following the identification, the IAF struck and eliminated the terrorists,” they said.

Israeli officer and soldier injured in aerial attack from Lebanon: IDF

An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officer and a soldier were injured after an aerial attack in northern Israel’s upper Galilee region near Ayelet HaShahar early Monday morning local time, the IDF said in a statement.

The aerial targets crossed from Lebanon, the IDF said.

“Israel Fire Services are currently operating to extinguish a fire that was ignited in the area as a result of the attack,” the IDF said.

Netanyahu says Israel will strike wherever necessary

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel is prepared to stand against attacks from Iran and its proxies.

“Iran and its detractors seek to surround us with a choke ring of terrorism on seven fronts. Their open aggression is insatiable,” Netanyahu said during a state memorial service commemorating the death of Revisionist Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky in 1940.

Netanyahu added, “We are determined to stand against them on every front, in every arena, far and near. “

Netanyahu’s comments came just days after the assassination in Iran of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. He was killed in an explosion on Wednesday at a guest house in Tehran that he was staying in while attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian. Israel has not claimed responsibility for Haniyeh’s death.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called for “revenge” against Israel.

Haniyeh’s assassination followed the death of Mohammed Deif, commander of Hamas’ military wing, in a “precise, targeted strike” in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis on July 13. Deif was allegedly one of the masterminds of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

IDF officials also announced that they killed top Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in a precision missile strike Tuesday in Beirut, Lebanon. Officials claim he had been orchestrating drone and rocket attacks on northern Israel, including one on July 27 in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights that killed 12 children and teenagers playing soccer.

“Anyone who murders our citizens, anyone who harms our country, will not be cleared of responsibility,” Netanyahu said Sunday. “He will pay a very heavy price. Our long hand strikes in the Gaza Strip, in Yemen, in Beirut, wherever necessary.”

Netanyahu said Israel’s goals are to “secure our future” and the ensure that hostages taken by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 attack in Israel are returned home.

“We will continue to press the pedal,” Netanyahu said. “We did not let up from the pressure in all combat areas. We will take an offensive, creative, persistent initiative — until victory comes.”

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LONDON — Ukrainian forces are continuing to advance deeper into Russia’s Kursk region, expanding their area of control on the third day of their major incursion, with the situation worsening for Russian forces, according to a key pro-Kremlin Russian military blogger.

Rybar, a blog closely linked to Russia’s defense ministry, reported Thursday that Ukrainian armored units have reached the village of Bolshoe Soldatskoe, roughly 18.5 miles inside Russia’s border.

Heavy fighting is now also reported only 9 miles from the town of Lgov, which straddles a crucial highway.

“Despite the attempts of the Russian joint forces group to stop the advance of Ukrainian mobile groups, the scale of the crisis is widening,” Rybar wrote on Telegram.

Rybar and other pro-Kremlin military bloggers are contradicting the claims of Russia’s defense ministry that the Ukrainian advance has been stopped.

Ukraine’s attack appeared to be a large-scale offensive operation, involving at least two Ukrainian brigades, rather than a less significant cross-border raid. As the scale of the attack was becoming clearer on Thursday, it appeared to be one of the most significant military developments in the war in months.

At least 66 people have been injured as a result of shelling in the Kursk region since Tuesday, the Russian Ministry of Health reported Thursday.

The railway stations in three settlements in the Kursk region — Sudzha, Korenevo and Psel — are closed amid the invasion, the press service of the Moscow Railway reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for “courage” in the region.

“This requires you, and the current situation requires a certain amount of courage and concentration on ways to solve these complex, difficult, extraordinary tasks that are now facing all branches and all levels of government,” Putin said at a meeting with the acting governor of the region, Alexei Smirnov, on Thursday.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian adviser to the head of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, commented Thursday for the first time on the operation, saying one goal was to alter the Russian perception of the war, a shift that could potentially affect any eventual negotiations.

“This increases the cost of the war for Russia quantitatively. More armored vehicles have been destroyed, the Russian Federation has lost territories, and there have been more casualties. Will this affect how they perceive this war? Undoubtedly,” Podolyak said in a live discussion on Ukrainian TV.

Zelenskyy praised the Ukrainian army on Thursday for its ability “to surprise” and achieve results, though made no direct reference to the situation in Kursk.

“Everyone can see that the Ukrainian army knows how to surprise. And knows how to achieve results,” Zelenskyy said at an event in Kyiv. “This is demonstrated by the battlefield, where our soldiers not only withstood the overwhelming force of the occupiers, but also are destroying it in the way necessary to protect Ukraine — our state and independence.”

The Ukrainian incursion began on Tuesday when a Ukrainian force numbering in at least the hundreds crossed over the border near the village of Sudzha, with tanks and heavy weapons, according to official and unofficial Russian public sources. Catching Russia off-guard, Ukrainian soldiers quickly seized a handful of villages, advancing up to 6 to 9 miles, according to the pro-Kremlin Russian military bloggers.

Since then, Ukraine has moved in significant reinforcements and its forces were continuing to try to press forward but were being held on Thursday at the village of Korenovo, according to multiple pro-Kremlin bloggers, who are close to Russia’s military. Heavy fighting was also focused on Sudzha, which Ukrainian troops were reported to have largely surrounded.

Russia’s defense ministry on Thursday claimed to have halted the Ukrainian advance and to have inflicted hundreds of casualties on Ukrainian troops. But reports from the Russian military bloggers suggested a far more chaotic situation, with unconfirmed reports that Ukrainian forces had continued to reach deeper in some places into the Kursk region.

One of the best-known pro-Kremlin military bloggers, Two Majors, reported that six or seven Ukrainian tanks were fighting in the village of Ivnitsa, roughly 18.5 miles from the border.

He also reported gunfire, likely from Ukrainian reconnaissance special forces units, in the village of Anastasevka, more than 18.5 miles from the border and about 28 miles from the Kursk nuclear power station.

Multiple military bloggers also reported gunfire, likely from Ukrainian reconnaissance special forces units, in the village of Anastasevka.

They also reported Ukraine engineering equipment to try and dig in and hold ground.

Ukrainian officials have been almost entirely silent on the operation, with speculation swirling around its possible goals. Ukraine may be seeking to pull Russian forces from elsewhere in Ukraine, as Ukrainian troops are under intense pressure in the Donbas region near the key city of Pokrovsk, although most analysts believe Russia likely has sufficient forces to continue its operations there unchanged.

Russian analysts have also suggested that Ukraine could be seeking to seize the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, which is located roughly 50 miles from the border, but most analysts were deeply skeptical that the Ukrainian force is large enough to reach it.

Podolyak’s comments on Thursday appeared to perhaps support another theory that Ukraine could be seeking to capture Russian territory with the goal of trading it for Ukrainian-occupied land in potential future peace negotiations. Podolyak said he expects the Kursk attack to impact Russian society, bringing clear signals of the ineffectiveness of Putin’s strategy closer to home, at the same time as potentially strengthening Ukraine’s position in negotiations.

“Do they respond to anything other than fear?” he told Ukrainian television. “No, we need to finally realize this. Any compromise is perceived by Russia as your weakness and readiness to kneel before them. When can they sit at the negotiating table, and can something be achieved? Only if they understand that the war is not going according to their plan.”

Some Ukrainian and independent military analysts have expressed doubts about the wisdom of such a risky operation when Ukraine is suffering from severe manpower shortages in Donbas, where Russia in recent weeks has been making rapid advances towards Pokrovsk, prompting fears Ukrainian lines near there are in danger of cracking. Russian forces overnight reportedly again made advances in that area, capturing another small village, according to Ukrainian military analysts.

ABC News’ Natalia Popova contributed to this report.

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