Two children and a 50-year-old woman were crushed to death Friday as a crowd of Palestinians pushed to get bread at a bakery in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah, medical officials said.

The flow of food allowed into Gaza by Israel has fallen to nearly its lowest level of the almost 14-month-old war for the past two months, according to Israeli official figures. U.N. and aid officials say hunger and desperation are growing among Gaza’s population, almost all of which relies on humanitarian aid to survive.

Hamas claimed responsibility for a shooting attack on an Israeli bus in the occupied West Bank on Friday that wounded eight people, including four soldiers.

It was the latest violence to scar the territory as tensions run high 14 months into the Israel-Hamas war.

In eastern Lebanon's city of Baalbek, the Jawhari family gathered around a gaping crater where their home once stood, tears streaming as they tried to make sense of the destruction.

"It is heart-breaking. A heartache that there is no way we will ever recover from," said Lina Jawhari, her voice breaking as she hugged relatives who came to support the family. "Our world turned upside down in a second."

A truce between Israel and Hezbollah, brokered by the United States and France, called for an initial two-month ceasefire in which the militants are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border.

For many Lebanese, the pause in fighting brought relief — but also heartache. Displaced families returned home to sift through the bombed-out ruins of their shops and apartments.

The Israeli army carried out several attacks in southern Lebanon on Friday, on the third day of a ceasefire that ended more than 13 months of war in Lebanon.

Artillery bombardment struck the villages of Markaba, Tallousa and Khiyam while four Israeli tanks moved into the western part of Khiyam and the town square of Markaba.

Insurgents breached Syria's second-largest city Aleppo after blowing up two car bombs on Friday and were clashing with government forces on the city's western edge, according to a Syria war monitor and fighters.

It was the first time the city has been attacked by opposition forces since 2016, when they were ousted from Aleppo's eastern neighborhoods following a grueling military campaign in which Syrian government forces were backed by Russia, Iran and its allied groups.

Thousands of people made the crossing back into Lebanon from Syria on the second and third days of a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, after nearly 14 months of fighting.

At the Jousieh border crossing in the Qusair area of Syria's Homs province, on Lebanon's northeastern border, bumper-to-bumper cars lined up on Thursday waiting to be cleared for crossing. All four lanes were taken up by cars making their way into Lebanon, while those waiting to cross into Syria had to use an offroad.

Hours after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire to end Israel's war on Lebanon went into effect, Lebanon woke up to the sound of celebratory gunfire instead of Israeli airstrikes and drones buzzing overhead.

It was a rare moment of respite for Lebanon, as bombs stopped falling after a year of war. Thousands of displaced people joyfully drove back to their towns and villages in southern and eastern Lebanon.

Jihadists and their allies cut a major highway linking the main cities of Damascus and Aleppo on Thursday after launching an offensive against government forces in Syria's northwest, a war monitor said.

"Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions cut off the Damascus-Aleppo international M5 highway... in addition to controlling the junction between the M4 and M5 highways," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Lebanon's parliament Thursday renewed the term of army chief Joseph Aoun, who is seen as a potential presidential candidate in next year's vote.

The parliament has seldom met since war began 14 months ago, and has not convened to try to elect a president since June 2023, leaving the country in a political gridlock.