The civil defence agency in Hamas-run Gaza said a second Israeli strike in two days on a school sheltering displaced families martyred at least four people, as the UN condemned the targeting of its shelters.
Israel's military said it hit "the area of the school" in Gaza City, adding the school complex was used as a freedom fighters hideout and housed "a Hamas weapons manufacturing facility.
The civil defence agency in Hamas-ruled Gaza said Ihab al-Ghusain, the group's deputy labour minister, was among those killed in the strike Sunday on the Holy Family School.
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which owns the school, said hundreds of civilians had taken shelter there since the start of the war.
"The Latin Patriarchate condemns in the strongest terms the targeting of civilians or any belligerent actions that fall short of ensuring that civilians remain outside the combat scene," the church body said in a statement.
Gaza authorities said at least 16 people were killed and 75 injured in an Israeli strike on a UN-run school Saturday. Israel said that was also aimed at freedom fighters hiding among displaced at the Al-Jawni school.
The Israeli army accuses Hamas and other freedom fighters of hiding in schools, hospitals and other civilian infrastructure, a charge the group denies.
- 'Another school hit' -
Tens of thousands of Gaza residents have sought shelter in UN-run schools across the territory and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has expressed outrage at the repeat attacks on its facilities.
"Another day. Another month. Another school hit," Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, posted on social media platform X on Sunday.
UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma told AFP that more than half, or 190, of UNRWA's facilities have been hit -- "some more than once" -- in the military response to the October 7 Hamas attacks.
At least 196 UNRWA workers have been killed, including two on Saturday.
"When the war started we closed the schools and they became shelters," Touma said.
There have been 450 "incidents" involving UNRWA buildings during the war and Touma called damage to UN-protected facilities in the Gaza conflict "unprecedented in the history of the UN."
"Any hits on UN facilities are shocking and there has been a blatant disregard for international humanitarian law in regard to this conflict," said the spokesperson.
Hamas called the attack on Al-Jawni school in central Gaza, an "odious massacre".
The Israel military said it targeted "a hideout and operational infrastructure from which attacks" on its troops were carried out.
The October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza including 42 the military says are dead.
Israel's military offensive has killed at least 38,153 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run health ministry there.
Hezbollah targets Israeli mountain base in 'largest' air attack
Lebanon's Hezbollah movement said on Sunday it launched its "largest" air operation, sending explosive drones at a mountaintop Israeli military intelligence base in the annexed Golan Heights.
It is the latest incident among escalating cross-border exchanges of fire that have triggered global alarm.
Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Hamas ally, has traded almost daily fire with Israeli forces since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack on Israel triggered war in the Gaza Strip.
Announcing "the largest operation" carried out by its aerial forces, Hezbollah said in a statement that its fighters sent "multiple, successive squadrons of drones to target the reconnaissance centre" on Mount Hermon.
The Israeli military said an explosive drone "fell in an open area in the Mount Hermon area" but there were "no injuries".
Attacks as well as rhetoric have escalated in recent weeks, spurring fears of an all-out conflict between Israel and Hezbollah which last went to war in 2006.
The Lebanese movement said the drone attack was part of its "response" to the killing of an operative in a strike Saturday deep into east Lebanon around 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the border.
The Mount Hermon attack targeted intelligence systems, "destroying them and starting a major fire", Hezbollah said.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant visited troops on Mount Hermon earlier on Sunday, his office said.
In two additional statements, the military said its air defences "successfully intercepted" several "aerial targets" that crossed from Lebanon after sirens sounded in the Golan Heights area.
Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and later annexed it in a move largely unrecognised by the international community.
The Israeli strike on Saturday killed "a key operative in Hezbollah's Aerial Defence Unit", the military has said.
Throughout Sunday, Hezbollah announced four more attacks on Israeli military sites across the border with barrages of rockets as well as some guided missiles. Israeli authorities reported four wounded.
Gallant, in a video from Mount Hermon, said that "even if there is a ceasefire" in Gaza, "we will continue fighting and doing everything necessary to bring about the desired result" in the campaign against Hezbollah.
The cross-border violence has killed at least 497 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but also including 95 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, at least 16 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed, according to the authorities.
Tens of thousands of residents have been displaced from the border areas in both southern Lebanon and northern Israel.
Hamas signals shift on key Gaza truce demand
A Hamas official said Sunday the Palestinian Islamist group was ready to discuss a hostage release deal with Israel even without a "complete" ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
The apparent easing of Hamas's position comes as long-stalled diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage release have gathered pace with a new proposal and meetings hosted by Qatari and Egyptian mediators.
"Hamas had previously required that Israel agree to a complete and permanent ceasefire," the top official told AFP as the war entered its 10th month.
But mediators have offered assurances "that as long as the... negotiations continued, the ceasefire would continue", said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Israel, which vowed to destroy Hamas in response to the group's October 7 attack that sparked the war, has repeatedly rejected demands for a permanent ceasefire.
US President Joe Biden announced a plan in late May that included an initial six-week truce and the exchange of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners detained in Israel.
Talks quickly stalled but a US official said Thursday that a new response from Hamas "moves the process forward and may provide the basis for closing the deal".
Egypt's state-linked Al-Qahera News said late Saturday that Cairo was "hosting Israeli and American delegations" and mediators were in contact with Hamas amid "intensive Egyptian meetings this week with all parties".
In Israel, anti-government protesters demanding a hostage release deal blocked traffic in the commercial hub of Tel Aviv on a nationwide "disruption day" from 6:29 am, the time Hamas launched their attack on October 7.
Data scientist Yoni Peleg, 34, said protesters were crying "out for help... to end the war" and pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to secure the release of the remaining hostages.
Israel has said it would send a delegation to continue talks with Qatari mediators, though a government spokesman said Friday there were still "gaps" with Hamas.
An official with knowledge of the mediation said US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director William Burns would also go to Qatar this week.
A statement Sunday from Netanyahu's office said that "any deal will allow Israel to return and fight until all the goals of the war are achieved".
- Schools hit -
Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
The militants seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza, including 42 the military says are dead.
Israel has carried out a military offensive that has killed at least 38,153 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Witnesses reported strikes and shelling in the central Bureij refugee camp, the far-southern Rafah city and elsewhere in Gaza.
Medics and rescuers said at least nine people were killed in three strikes in central Gaza and Gaza City, in the north of the coastal territory.
An AFP correspondent said Israeli drones were firing in Gaza City's Shujaiya district, which has seen intense battles for nearly two weeks.
The Israeli military said that in Shujaiya, its troops killed "several" militants and dismantled militant infrastructure.
The military issued on Sunday an evacuation order for a nearby area of Gaza City. Similar orders in the past have preceded military incursions.
Israeli forces were also "conducting operations" in Rafah and around the municipality building in neighbouring Khan Yunis, which according to the military was being used by Hamas fighters.
The latest Gaza health ministry toll includes 16 people killed Saturday in a strike on a UN-run school turned shelter in central Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp.
Another strike Sunday on a church-run school in Gaza City, also sheltering displaced Palestinians, killed at least four people, said the civil defence agency.
Israel's military said militants had operated in the area of both schools.
The army announced a soldier was killed in southern Gaza, adding to a military toll of more than 320 since ground operations began in late October.
- Plea for 'caution' -
Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, a Hamas ally, said it carried out its "largest" aerial operation of the war, sending drone "squadrons" against Israel's Mount Hermon intelligence base in the annexed Golan Heights.
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant had earlier visited the area.
Israel's military reported no injuries after it said an explosive drone came down "in an open area" in the Mount Hermon region.
Since the Gaza war began, Israeli forces and Hezbollah have exchanged almost daily cross-border fire, with attacks and rhetoric escalating in recent weeks, raising fears of all-out war.
Israel on Saturday struck deep inside eastern Lebanon, killing a Hezbollah operative. The Lebanese group said the Mount Hermon strike was in response to that killing, as was an earlier strike against an Israeli army base west of Tiberias.
Israeli officials reported four people wounded by shrapnel, including a 31-year-old man who was "in serious and stable condition", according to the Galilee Medical Center.
Britain's new Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in his first telephone conversation with Netanyahu on Sunday, said the border clashes were "concerning" and urged all sides to exercise "caution".
Starmer also "set out the clear and urgent need for a ceasefire" in Gaza, a spokesperson said.
In the Golan Heights Gallant said "we will continue fighting" Hezbollah even if a deal with Hamas is reached, according to his office.