Middle East crisis live: dozens reported killed in suspected Israeli airstrike on Hezbollah in Syria | Israel-Gaza war

Israeli strikes on the northern Syrian city of Aleppo early on Friday killed dozens of people, including five members of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, two security sources have told Reuters news agency.

The Israeli attack targeted an area “near rockets depots belonging to Lebanese group Hezbollah”, said the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has an extensive network of sources in Syria.

“At least 36 soldiers were killed and dozens wounded,” it said, according to Agence France-Presse.

Reuters is reporting a total death toll of 38.

The Syrian defence ministry said earlier on Friday that a number of civilians and military personnel were killed after Israel and militant groups launched attacks against Aleppo.

The Israeli airstrikes targeted several areas in Aleppo’s countryside at about 1:45am local time (2245 GMT), the ministry said a statement.

The airstrikes coincided with drone attacks carried out from Idlib and western rural Aleppo that the ministry described as having been conducted by “terrorist organisations” targeting civilians in Aleppo and its surroundings.

However, the ministry did not mention a specific death toll or clarify whether the casualties were caused by the Israeli airstrikes or the attacks by militant groups, Reuters reports.

The Israeli military declined to comment.

Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes on targets in Syria since the civil war began there in 2011, as it seeks to cut off Hezbollah supply routes to Lebanon. The frequency of these strikes has increased since Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza began on 7 October. Israel has exchanged near-daily, cross-border fire with Hamas ally Hezbollah since the Gaza war began, sparking fears of a wider regional conflict.

It’s 11am in Gaza and Tel Aviv and welcome to our latest live blog on the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis. I’m Mabel Banfield-Nwachi and I’ll be with you for the next while.

There are reports that Israeli strikes on the northern Syrian city of Aleppo early on Friday has killed dozens of people.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is saying at least 36 soldiers were killed in the strikes, whereas the Reuters news agency is reporting a total death toll of 38, including five members of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, citing security sources.

The Syrian defence ministry said earlier on Friday that a number of civilians and military personnel were killed after Israel and militant groups launched attacks against Aleppo.

Contacted by Agence France-Presse from Jerusalem, the Israeli military said it would “not comment on reports in the foreign media”.

More on that in a moment but first, here’s a summary of the latest developments:

• Heavy fighting took place around two key hospitals in Gaza on Thursday, while a third was reportedly under Israeli siege, amid mounting international concern for the safety of patients, civilians and remaining medical staff in the facilities. The most intense fighting once again appeared to be focused on the al-Shifa complex, Gaza City’s main hospital before the war, where the Israeli army said it continued to operate around the site after storming it more than a week ago.

• Israel and the US revived talks on an official, high-level visit to Washington to discuss the planned offensive on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, after they had been cancelled when Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted angrily to the US decision to abstain in a UN security council vote on a ceasefire.

• A gunman in military uniform opened fire on vehicles in the occupied West Bank, wounding at least three people, including a 13-year-old boy, emergency services said.

• Japan is preparing to resume funding to the UN’s crisis-hit Palestinian refugee agency (Unrwa), which coordinates nearly all aid to Gaza, the government said according to Agence France-Presse. Once the sixth-largest contributor to the agency, Japan joined more than a dozen countries in pausing funding after Israel claimed that 12 of the agency’s 13,000 Gaza employees were involved in the deadly 7 October Hamas attack. Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa met UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini in Tokyo on Thursday to discuss measures taken by the agency to strengthen governance and transparency. A foreign ministry statement said: “Japan and the UNRWA confirmed that they will advance final coordination about necessary efforts to resume Japan’s contribution.”

• Australian officials scrambled to “understand what the allegations are” against Unrwa staff and complained of “precious nothing in the public domain” hours before the government suspended funding to the “vital” aid agency.

• France will provide over 30 million euros to United Nations Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA this year to support its operations amid the devastating war in Gaza, said the foreign ministry in Paris.

• Bayan Abusultan, a Gaza city-based journalist, has not been heard from since 19 March when she tweeted that her only brother had been killed by Israeli forces “in front of [her] eyes”. There has been no activity on her social media accounts since, sparking concerns about her safety.

• The Palestinian Authority announced the formation of a new Cabinet as it faces international pressure to reform.

• Israel’s supreme court has ordered an end to government subsidies for many ultra-Orthodox men who do not serve in the army – a blockbuster ruling that could have far-reaching consequences for the government and the tens of thousands of religious men who refuse to take part in mandatory military service, according to Associated Press.

• Thousands of Jordanians rallied near the Israeli embassy on Thursday in a fifth day of large protests against Israel, calling for an end to Jordan’s unpopular peace treaty with its neighbour to the west, Reuters reports.