Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon over the last day have killed at least 40 people including several children, Lebanese authorities said on Saturday, after heavy Israeli bombardment pounded the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut overnight.

At least seven people were killed in the coastal city of Tyre late on Friday, Lebanon’s health ministry said. The Israeli military has previously ordered swathes of the city to evacuate but there were no orders published by the Israeli military spokesperson on social media platform X before Friday’s strikes.

The ministry said two children were among the dead. Rescue operations were ongoing and other body parts retrieved in the aftermath of the attack would undergo DNA testing to identify them, the ministry added.

Strikes in nearby towns on Saturday killed 13 people, including seven medics from rescue groups affiliated to Hezbollah and its ally Amal, the health ministry said.

At least 20 more people were killed in Israeli strikes on Saturday across the eastern plains around the historic city of Baalbek, the health ministry said.

The Israeli military said it had struck Hezbollah infrastructure sites in the areas of Tyre and Baalbek, including fighters, “operational apartments,” and weapons stores.

The Lebanese health ministry said Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,136 people and wounded 13,979 in Lebanon over the last year. The toll includes 619 women and 194 children.

Israel has been locked in fighting with Lebanese armed group Hezbollah since October 2023, but fighting has escalated dramatically since late September of this year. Israel has intensified and expanded its bombing campaign, and Hezbollah has ramped up daily rocket and drone attacks against Israel

The Iran-backed group announced more than 20 operations on Saturday, as well as one that it said fighters carried out the previous day against a military factory south of Tel Aviv.

More than a dozen Israeli strikes also hit the southern suburbs of Beirut overnight, once a bustling collection of neighbourhoods and a key stronghold of Hezbollah.

Now, many buildings have been almost entirely flattened, with Hezbollah’s yellow flags jutting out from the ruins, according to Reuters reporters who were taken on a tour of the area by Hezbollah.

Some buildings were partially damaged by the strikes, leading some floors to collapse and sending furniture and other personal belongings spilling onto parked cars below.

Men and women were picking through the rubble for their belongings, shoving blankets and mats under their arms or into black plastic bags.

“We are trying to gather as many (of our possessions) as we can, so we can manage to live off them, nothing more,” said Hassan Hannawi, one of the men looking for his belongings. Reuters

_{Qatar stalls its Gaza ceasefire mediation}

By Andrew Mills and Nidal Al-Mughrabi Reuters

Qatar has told Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel it will stall its efforts to mediate a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal until they show “willingness and seriousness” to resume talks, its foreign ministry said on Saturday.

The Gulf country has been working alongside the United States and Egypt for months on fruitless talks between the warring sides in Gaza and any disengagement from that process could further complicate efforts to reach a deal.

The Qatari ministry also said press reports on the future of the Hamas political office in Doha were inaccurate without specifying how. Reuters had on Friday quoted a U.S. official saying Washington had asked Qatar to expel the group and that Doha had passed this message on to Hamas.

An official briefed on the matter also said on Saturday that Qatar had concluded that with its mediation efforts paused, Hamas’ political office there “no longer serves its purpose.”

But three Hamas officials speaking off the record said the group had not been informed by Qatar that its leaders were no longer welcome in the country.

Qatar has hosted Hamas political leaders since 2012 as part of a deal with the U.S., and the group’s presence there has facilitated the progress of talks.

The war erupted when Hamas gunmen attacked Israeli communities on Oct. 7 2023, killing around 1,200 people and seizing another 253 as hostages. Israel’s military campaign has levelled much of Gaza and killed around 43,500 Palestinians.

“Qatar notified the parties 10 days ago during the last attempts to reach an agreement that it would stall its efforts to mediate between Hamas and Israel if an agreement was not reached in the round,” Qatar’s foreign ministry said.

“Qatar will resume those efforts with its partners when the parties show their willingness and seriousness to end the brutal war.”

There was no official response from Hamas or Israel.

The latest round of talks in mid-October failed to produce a deal, with Hamas rejecting a short-term ceasefire proposal. Israel has previously rejected some proposals for longer truces. Disagreements have centred on the long-term future of Hamas and Israel’s presence in Gaza.

HAMAS IN QATAR

Washington had told Qatar that Hamas‘ presence in Doha was no longer acceptable in the weeks since the group rejected the October proposal, a U.S. official said on Friday.

Qatar has not set a deadline for Hamas’ political office to close or for Hamas leaders to leave Qatar, the official briefed on the matter said.

Qatar’s foreign ministry said the Hamas office had been a channel of communication between the parties in Gaza and said it had contributed to a brief ceasefire and exchange of some hostages a year ago.

The official briefed on the matter pointed to a previous episode in April when Qatar had reconsidered Hamas’ presence in the country, leading some Hamas officials to leave for Turkey.

“After two weeks, the Biden administration and the Israeli government asked Qatar to request their return,” the official said, adding that Washington has said negotiations were ineffective when the Hamas leaders were in Turkey.

Qatar, designated as a major non-NATO ally by Washington, has long sought a role as a link between Western powers and their adversaries in the region.

The country hosts the largest U.S. airbase in the Middle East but also allows Hamas and Afghanistan’s Taliban to operate offices in Doha. It also helped negotiate a prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Iran last year.

It is unclear how many Hamas officials live in Doha, but they include several possible replacements for leader Yahya Sinwar, whom Israeli forces killed in Gaza last month.

They include Sinwar’s deputy Khalil al-Hayya, who has led ceasefire negotiations for the group, and Khaled Meshaal, widely seen as Hamas’ diplomatic face.

The group’s previous leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Iran in July almost certainly by Israel, was also based in Doha. His body was flown to Qatar for burial in early August.