Hezbollah to continue supporting Gaza, no progress yet on truce deal

Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Sunday that his group will continue supporting Gaza from Lebanon.

"Any hopes of silencing the support fronts, especially the Lebanese front, will fail. We will continue to support Gaza, regardless of the sacrifices involved," Nasrallah said in a televised speech addressing the latest developments on Lebanon's border with Israel.

Earlier in the day, Hezbollah announced it had launched hundreds of rockets into Israel in retaliation to the killing of its commander, Fouad Shokor, in an Israeli airstrike on Dahieh in Beirut's southern suburbs last month. Meanwhile, Israel announced that it had conducted preemptive airstrikes targeting Hezbollah's rocket launchers in southern Lebanon.

The armed group "will consider the response process complete" if it finds the result of Sunday's attacks satisfactory, but "will reserve the right to respond later" if it is not, Nasrallah said.

On the same day, Hamas said in a statement that Hezbollah's counterattack is a slap in the face of the Israeli government. It sent a message to Israel "that crimes against the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples will not pass without a response," it added.

U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said the U.S. will keep supporting Israel's right to defend itself and continue to work for regional stability.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was "deeply concerned" by the escalation between Israel and Hezbollah and called on both parties to immediately return to a cessation of hostilities, his spokesperson said on Sunday. Egypt and Jordan also warned against escalation.

Both Nasrallah and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed their determination to tit-for-tat fighting, but two diplomats told Reuters that the two sides have exchanged messages that neither wants to escalate further, with the main gist being that the exchange was "done."

Meanwhile in Gaza, the Israeli offensive continued, with air strikes killing at least five Palestinians in Gaza City early on Monday, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa. Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip also fired a rocket at central Israel on Sunday night.

There was no agreement in the Gaza ceasefire talks that took place in Cairo, with neither Hamas nor Israel agreeing to several compromises presented by mediators, although a senior U.S. official described the talks as "constructive" and said the process would continue in the coming days.

Months of on-off talks have failed to produce an agreement to end Israel's devastating military operation in Gaza or free the remaining hostages seized by Hamas in the militant group's October 7 attack on Israel.

Hamas said on Sunday that its delegation demanded Israel be bound by what was agreed upon on July 2, based on what was stated in U.S. President Joe Biden's speech and the UN Security Council resolution.

The Hamas negotiating delegation left Cairo on Sunday evening after meeting with mediators from Egypt and Qatar and hearing from them the results of the latest round of the Gaza ceasefire negotiations, Ezzat Al-Rashq, a member of the Hamas Political Bureau, said in a statement.

A Palestinian source close to Hamas told Xinhua on Sunday that Hamas is unlikely to reach a ceasefire deal with Israel soon, contrary to optimistic statements from the United States.

(With input from agencies)