Israel-Gaza-Lebanon live updates: Hezbollah confirms media chief’s death

(LONDON) — The Israel Defense Forces continued its intense airstrike and ground campaigns in Gaza — particularly in the north of the strip — and in Lebanon, with Israeli attacks on targets nationwide including in the capital Beirut. The strikes form the backdrop for a fresh diplomatic push by the White House ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the Oval Office in January.

Tensions also remain high between Israel and Iran after the former launched what it called “precise strikes on military targets” in several locations in Iran following Tehran’s Oct. 1 missile barrage.

Hamas denies that leaders relocated from Qatar to Turkey

Hamas denied reports in Israeli media that its leadership has relocated from Qatar to Turkey amid a breakdown in Doha-supported cease-fire talks earlier this month.

Hamas dismissed the news reports as “rumors” spread by Israeli authorities in a statement posted to its official website.

Qatar told Israel and Hamas earlier this month it could not continue to mediate cease-fire and hostage release talks “as long as there is a refusal to negotiate a deal in good faith.”

Doha is under U.S. pressure to expel Hamas leaders. A senior administration official told ABC News earlier this month that the group’s “continued presence in Doha is no longer viable or acceptable.”

-ABC News’ Diaa Ostaz, Shannon K. Kingston and Somayeh Malekian

Gaza death toll nears 44,000, health officials say

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Monday that 43,922 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since Oct. 7, 2023, with nearly 104,000 more injured.

Israeli airstrikes killed at least 96 people and wounded at least 60 in Gaza through the weekend, officials said. The dead included 72 people in north Gaza and more than 20 from other areas of the strip.

Most of those killed were displaced women and children sheltering in residential buildings in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, officials said.

Beit Lahiya is at the heart of the Israel Defense Forces’ recent northern offensive, which has been accompanied with sweeping evacuation orders and spiking civilian casualties.

-ABC News’ Samy Zyara and Joe Simonetti

Hezbollah positive on US cease-fire proposal, reports say

Hezbollah responded positively to the U.S.-proposed cease-fire deal between Israel and Lebanon, Israeli and Lebanese media reported Monday.

U.S. special envoy for Lebanon Amos Hochstein is expected to arrive in Beirut on Tuesday to discuss the proposal before heading to Israel to speak with leaders there.

The proposal is reportedly based on the United Nations Security Council’s resolution 1701 that sought to end the last major cross-border conflict in 2006.

That deal ordered Hezbollah to withdraw all military units and weapons north of the Litani River, which is around 18 miles north of the Israeli border. The resolution also prohibited Israeli ground and air forces from crossing into Lebanese territory.

Israeli leaders have demanded open-ended freedom to act against threats in Lebanon, a stipulation reportedly opposed by Hezbollah and Lebanese leaders.

-ABC News’ Jordana Miller and Joe Simonetti

Khamenei meets with ambassador injured in pager attacks

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met with the country’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, as the latter continues his recovery from injuries sustained during Israel’s detonation of Hezbollah communication devices in September.

Khamenei’s official X account posted a short video of their interaction on Monday, in which Amani told the Iranian leader he lost around half of the vision in his right eye in the attack.

-ABC News’ Jordana Miller

Hezbollah media relations chief killed in Israeli strike

Mohammed Afif, Hezbollah’s media relations chief, was killed in an Israeli strike Sunday, Hezbollah confirmed.

The strike on central Beirut partially collapsed a building and injured three others, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

The Israel Defense Forces also confirmed Afif’s death. In a statement, the IDF said he joined Hezbollah in the 1980s and went on to become a “central and veteran figure in the organization who greatly influenced Hezbollah’s military activity.”

Citing one particular incident, the statement claimed that he had played a key role in the drone attack on Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea in October.

-ABC News’ Will Gretsky

Pope calls for investigation to determine whether Israeli attacks on Gaza are ‘genocide’

Pope Francis, in an upcoming book to be released ahead of his 2025 jubilee, called for an investigation to determine whether Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide, according to the Vatican.

“In the Middle East, where the open doors of nations like Jordan or Lebanon continue to be a salvation for millions of people fleeing conflicts in the region: I am thinking above all of those who leave Gaza in the midst of the famine that has struck their Palestinian brothers and sisters given the difficulty of getting food and aid into their territory,” he wrote in a passage released by the Vatican.

“According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,” the pope wrote. “It should be carefully investigated to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies.”

-ABC News’ Victoria Beaulé