Middle East updates: 10 killed in Israeli strike in Lebanon

Israel's negotiating team is hopeful of advancing the release of hostages from Gaza under a proposed truce deal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement.

"The team expressed cautious optimism to the prime minister regarding the possibility of advancing a deal based on the latest American proposal [which is based on the May 27th framework]," the statement read.

Netanyahu's office added that it hoped heavy pressure on Hamas from the US and international mediators would remove the Palestinian militant group's opposition to the American proposal and allow for a breakthrough.

Hamas, which has been briefed on the talks but not directly taken part, has cast doubt on the prospect of an agreement.

The militant group said the latest proposal diverged significantly from a previous iteration they had accepted in principle.

In Hamas-run Gaza, civil defense rescuers said an Israeli air strike in the early hours of Saturday killed 15 people from a Palestinian family, including nine children.

The strike hit the home of a family in Al-Zawaida neighborhood of central Gaza, civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told the news agency AFP.

"The toll from the Israeli strike on the Ajlah family home and their warehouse in Al-Zawaida is 15 dead," Bassal said, adding nine of those killed were children.

The Israel-Hamas war started when Hamas-led militants stormed across the heavily guarded frontier from Gaza into Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians. 

They also took about 250 hostages, more than 100 of whom were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November. About 110 are thought to still be inside Gaza, but Israeli authorities believe around a third of them are dead.

More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel's devastating retaliatory offensive, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas.

The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but the UN and multiple humanitarian organizations consider the casualty numbers to be broadly reliable.

Hamas is a Palestinian Islamist group that has been designated as a terrorist outfit by the EU, the US, Germany and several other countries.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Israel on Saturday to push forward a Gaza cease-fire deal as the United States tries to bridge the gaps in talks in the region, the State Department said.

Blinken will seek to "conclude the agreement for a cease-fire and release of hostages and detainees through the bridging proposal." 

A US official said there would be working group engagements over the week to talk about a list of hostages being held by Palestinian militants in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners who could be released in exchange. 

That proposal was presented Friday during talks in Doha by the US, with negotiations set to resume in Cairo next week.

In response, Israel issued a vague statement saying it appreciated the mediators' efforts in Doha.

Meanwhile, a statement from Hamas did not sound enthusiastic about the latest proposal. 

The AFP news agency reported that Hamas objected to an Israeli veto on prisoners to be released, and the country having the option to deport some prisoners rather than return them to Gaza.

An Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Saturday killed at least 10 Syrian nationals, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.

The strike on Wadi al-Kfour in Nabatieh province is among the deadliest in Lebanon since the Hezbollah militant group and the Israeli military began trading near-daily fire over their border after war in the Gaza Strip began in October.

Hezbollah has stated it will halt attacks once a cease-fire is agreed.

Hezbollah is an Iran-backed Shiite political party and militant group in Lebanon.

It is considered a terrorist organization by the US, Germany and several other countries. The EU lists its armed wing as a terrorist group.

jsi/wd (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)