Ceasefire hopes fade, 64 killed as Israel pounds Gaza, Lebanon

Prospects of a ceasefire between Israel and its foes Hamas and Hezbollah ran aground on Friday as Israeli airstrikes killed at least 64 people in the Gaza Strip, according to medics in the Palestinian enclave, and battered Beirut's southern suburbs.

US envoys had been working to secure ceasefires on both fronts ahead of the presidential election next Tuesday.

But Hamas did not favour a temporary truce, its Al-Aqsa Hamas television reported on Friday. The ceasefire proposals failed to meet its conditions that any deal must end the year-long war in Gaza and include a withdrawal of Israeli forces from there, it said.

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his priority was to enforce security “despite any pressure or constraints.”

Medics in Gaza said about 64 people were killed and dozens more injured overnight and into Friday morning in Israeli strikes in the central and southern area of Gaza.

Fourteen people were also killed at the gate of a school sheltering displaced Palestinians, according to medics at a camp. Another 10 were killed in the south of Gaza, medics said.

The Israeli military said its troops had killed what it called armed terrorists in central Gaza and the northern Jabalia area. Israel also pummelled Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday morning with at least 10 strikes, Reuters journalists said.