Hezbollah showered rockets on Israel, Lebanon resounded with Israel's sonic boom in retaliation

Lebanon's Hezbollah group fired rockets and drones at several Israeli military positions early Thursday in retaliation for the killing of senior commander Mohammad Naameh Nasser. Hezbollah claimed to have fired 200 rockets in a span of one hour. The attack by the Iran-backed terrorist group is one of the biggest in months of conflict on the Lebanon-Israel border. No immediate reports of casualties were received.

Hezbollah has declared it would cease its attacks if a ceasefire could be attained between Hamas and Israel. After the attack by Hezbollah, Israel also attacked targets in various cities in southern Lebanon. The Israeli army said it had attacked its bases in the south of the border towns of Ramayeh and Houla. Meanwhile, the sonic boom of Israeli jets was heard in several areas, Lebanon's official National News Agency said.

An Israeli government source said Thursday that a delegation had been dispatched to discuss a deal with Hamas on the release of hostages. Thursday's decision had been reached one day after Hamas had presented a new response to a US-backed proposal for a phase-by-phase ceasefire.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to convene a meeting of his security cabinet to discuss Hamas' new position on a possible ceasefire agreement in Gaza.

He will also convene a meeting with the negotiation team for the ceasefire. He will also consult with Hamas about a response to the plan, with one having already been received on Wednesday, to a proposal made public by US President Joe Biden at the end of May that would include the release of about 120 hostages detained in Gaza and a Palestinian ceasefire.

Another Palestinian official said Hamas had withdrawn some of its original demands and agreed to a framework deal as long as the Israelis consented to the same. The number of martyrs in Palestine has surged more than 38000 since the outset of the war, while 87445 people have been wounded. A leading anti-settlement monitoring group in Israel says the government has approved plans to build about 5,300 new homes in settlements in the occupied West Bank. It is the government's latest move in a drive to bolster settlements as part of an approach meant to consolidate Israeli control over the West Bank and prevent future Palestinian establishment.