The United States is pressing Israel to avoid a major war against Lebanon's Hezbollah, with top American officials urging a diplomatic solution in order to prevent another Middle East crisis.
Israeli forces and Iran-backed Hezbollah are exchanging fire on a near-daily basis, and the Israeli army said last week that plans for an offensive in Lebanon were "approved and validated."
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant at the Pentagon on Tuesday, warning that a conflict between Israel and Hezbollah could spark a regional war and urging a diplomatic solution.
More than eight months of war in Gaza has heightened tensions across the region, with Israeli forces and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah exchanging fire on a near-daily basis.
Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for "high participation" in Friday's presidential election to replace Ebrahim Raisi, who died last month in a helicopter crash.
"We emphasise the importance of high participation (in the election) because it is the pride of the Islamic republic," Khamenei declared in a televised speech three days ahead of the vote.
"In every election where the turnout was low, the enemies of the Islamic republic have denounced us," he added.
Israel's top court ruled unanimously on Tuesday that the state must draft ultra-Orthodox Jewish men into military service, potentially destabilising Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling coalition.
The High Court of Justice's decision on the politically charged issue comes as calls grow for ultra-Orthodox men, historically exempt from mandatory service, to enlist as Israel wages war on Hamas in Gaza and prepares for potential fighting in Lebanon.
Palestinian militant group Hamas said an Israeli air strike early Tuesday killed 10 family members of its Qatar-based chief Ismail Haniyeh, who vowed to continue the "resistance" movement against Israel.
Israel's military, which is on a campaign to destroy Hamas over the October 7 attack, told AFP that it "was aware of the reports but we cannot confirm" them.
The strike hit the Haniyeh family home in Al-Shati refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, Hamas and Gaza's civil defence agency said.
The United States warned Israel Tuesday that a conflict with Hezbollah could spark a regional war, as UN agencies said 10 children a day are losing one or both legs and half a million Palestinians suffer "catastrophic" hunger in Gaza.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin met his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant at the Pentagon, saying diplomacy is the best option as fears of a major war against Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon have grown after months of cross-border fire.
A collaborative investigation by international media outlets on Tuesday shed light on the circumstances behind more than 100 Palestinian journalists and media workers being killed in the Gaza war, some while wearing a press vest.
A consortium led by investigative outlet Forbidden Stories and involving around 50 journalists from 13 organisations including AFP, The Guardian and the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism group (ARIJ) took part in the four-month probe.
A collaborative investigation by AFP and international media outlets published Tuesday points to Israeli tank fire likely being the cause of blasts that damaged the global news agency's Gaza bureau on November 2.
A consortium led by investigative outlet Forbidden Stories and involving around 50 journalists from 13 outlets carried out a four-month probe into several strikes involving journalists and media infrastructure since the war in Gaza erupted on October 7.
On a Tel Aviv overpass, former spy Gonen Ben Itzhak addresses a small gathering of flag-waving protesters worried about the future of Israel under longest-serving premier Benjamin Netanyahu.
Motorists honk enthusiastically to the group from the road as they drive past, and a man on a scooter passing underneath shouts "Traitor!"
A former Shin Bet intelligence agent, Ben Itzhak once handled the son of a Hamas co-founder as an informant, to prevent attacks in the occupied West Bank.
Now he protests on the streets against Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition government.
Families of those killed in Hamas's October 7 attack inside Israel sued the United Nations agency supporting Palestinian refugees on Monday, alleging UNRWA facilitated the unprecedented bloodshed, according to court documents.
UNRWA, which coordinates nearly all aid to Gaza, has been in crisis since January, when Israel accused about a dozen of its 13,000 Gaza employees of involvement in the attacks that sparked the war.
