Gaza's civil defense agency said Saturday that Israeli forces had killed at least 36 Palestinians, six of them in a shooting near a US-backed aid distribution center.

Health Minister Rakan Nassereldine said several people were wounded by flying glass during Israel’s latest bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs.

AFP photographers on Friday saw huge destruction as residents, some wearing masks, inspected the debris and damage to their homes.

Israel's military has announced the deaths of four soldiers in Gaza, saying it needed thousands more troops to press its offensive, just as the premier's coalition faces the prospect of collapse over ultra-Orthodox conscription.

News of the soldiers' deaths came as Gaza's civil defense agency reported 38 killed Friday in Israeli attacks across the territory, where Palestinians observed the Eid al-Adha holiday under the shadow of war for a second consecutive year.

Israeli forces have retrieved from the Gaza Strip the body of Natthapong Pinta, a Thai taken hostage during Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack, officials said Saturday.

An aid ship with 12 activists on board, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, has reached the Egyptian coast and is nearing the besieged Palestinian territory, organizers said on Saturday.

The Madleen, part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, left Sicily last week with a cargo of relief supplies "to break Israel's blockade on Gaza".

Kyiv said on Friday that it had launched "successful" strikes on two military airfields inside Russia that Kyiv said were used to stage aerial attacks on Ukraine.

The issue of conscripting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the Israeli army has become a thorn in the side of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, sparking threats to derail his coalition and trigger early elections if he ends a long-standing exemption.

Iran condemned Israeli "aggression" against Lebanon on Friday after its arch foe carried out air strikes against alleged targets of Tehran-backed Hezbollah in Beirut's southern suburbs.

Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei described the Thursday evening strikes "as a blatant act of aggression against Lebanon's territorial integrity and sovereignty."

Israel warned Friday that it will keep striking Lebanon until Hezbollah has been disarmed, hours after it hit Beirut's southern subrubs in what Lebanese leaders called a major violation of the November ceasefire.

An Israeli military evacuation call issued ahead of Thursday's strikes sent huge numbers of residents of the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, long a bastion of Iran-backed Hezbollah, fleeing for their lives.

Hamas' lead negotiator said Thursday the militant movement was ready for a new round of negotiations with a view to achieving a permanent ceasefire with Israel in the Gaza Strip.

"We reaffirm that we are ready for a new, serious round of negotiations aimed at reaching a permanent ceasefire agreement," lead Hamas negotiator Khalil al-Hayya said in a televised speech marking the start of the Muslim Eid al-Adha festivities.