UN peacekeepers in Lebanon warned yesterday against a “catastrophic” regional conflict as Israeli forces battled Hezbollah and Hamas militants on two fronts, on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

Israeli military strikes on Gaza overnight killed at least 19 Palestinians, medics said yesterday, while forces continued to push deeper into the Jabalia area, where international relief agencies say thousands of people are trapped.

Iran has sent two locally made satellites to Russia to be put into orbit by a Russian space vehicle, the semi-official news agency Tasnim reported yesterday, in the latest space cooperation between the two U.S.-sanctioned countries.

Israeli forces fired at a watchtower used by UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon yesterday, injuring two, a UN source said, the third day in a row peacekeepers have reported Israeli fire at their positions as Israel wages war on Hezbollah.

Dozens of Palestinians have been wounded by Israeli quadcopter fire at a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee Camp, the Civil Defence said yesterday.

Gulf states are lobbying Washington to stop Israel from attacking Iran’s oil sites because they are concerned their own oil facilities could come under fire from Tehran’s proxies if the conflict escalates, three Gulf sources told Reuters.

Hezbollah said yesterday its fighters had pushed back advancing Israeli troops in clashes along the length of the border, a day after Israel said it had killed two successors to the Lebanese movement’s slain leader.

The deputy leader of Hezbollah said yesterday the Iran-backed group had moved beyond “painful blows” inflicted by Israel as Israeli forces began ground operations in the southwest of Lebanon, expanding its incursions into a new zone.

Human Rights Watch yesterday said Israeli strikes near the main Lebanon-Syria border crossing were putting civilians at “grave risk” as they prevented them from fleeing and hampered humanitarian operations.

Flights have been operational again since 11:00 pm (1930 GMT) Sunday and were being "carried out in accordance with the flight schedule"

Intensified Israeli airstrikes on Gaza yesterday killed dozens on the eve of the first anniversary of its offensive in the besieged territory that has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians and left the enclave in ruins.

Israeli air attacks battered Beirut’s southern suburbs overnight and early yesterday in the most intense bombardment of the Lebanese capital since Israel sharply escalated its campaign against Iran-backed group Hezbollah last month.

Iran has prepared a plan to respond to a possible Israeli attack following the Islamic republic’s retaliatory missile strike against it last week, local media reported yesterday.

In the ruins of his two-storey home, 11-year-old Mohammed gathers chunks of the fallen roof into a broken pail and pounds them into gravel which his father will use to make gravestones for victims of the Gaza offensive.

The potential successor to slain Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has been out of contact since Friday, a Lebanese security source said on Saturday, after an Israeli airstrike reported to have targeted him

Gazan mother Rana Salah cradles her one-month-old daughter Milana in her arms in a sweltering tent for the displaced, and speaks of the guilt she feels for bringing her child into a world of war and suffering.

Israel was preparing a military response to Iran’s missile attack this week that heightened fears of a wider regional war, an Israeli official said yesterday, as fighting raged in Lebanon and Gaza.

Iran’s supreme leader yesterday vowed in a rare address that his allies around the region would keep fighting Israel, as he defended his country’s missile strike on its arch-foe.

Israel has sworn it will retaliate for Iran’s missile barrage on Tuesday, which involved more than 180 ballistic missiles and was largely thwarted by Israel’s air defense systems. Below are some ways Israel, backed by the United States, could strike back.

Palestinians fear the crisis in Lebanon is diverting the world’s attention from Gaza, where Israeli strikes killed dozens more people this week, and diminishing already dim prospects for a ceasefire a year into an offensive that has shattered the enclave.