Gaza death toll jumps to 39,897 as Israel continues the assault

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Monday that at least 39,897 people have been killed in the war between Israel and Hamas, now in its 11th month.

The toll includes 107 deaths in the previous 48 hours, according to ministry figures, which also list 92,152 people as having been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.

Meanwhile, Lebanon's Hezbollah movement said an Israeli air strike on Sunday killed two fighters from the group, with the health ministry reporting another death from an attack days ago.

Hezbollah has traded near-daily fire with Israel in support of its ally Hamas since the Palestinian group's October 7 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza.

A strike on Beirut's southern suburbs late last month killed Hezbollah's top commander, Fuad Shukr, just hours before the assassination, blamed on Israel, of Hamas's political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

The Lebanese health ministry said Sunday an "Israeli strike that targeted the village of Taybeh today left two dead."

Hezbollah confirmed they were group fighters, killed in Taybeh near the border with Israel.

The Israeli military said it had "struck throughout the day several Hezbollah military structures in the area of Adaisseh", which is next to Taybeh.

According to the health ministry, at least one Lebanese and 11 Syrians were wounded, two seriously, in an Israeli strike on Maaroub, near Derdghaiya.

Separately, the health ministry specified that a Lebanese man who had succumbed to injuries sustained in an Israeli strike "several days ago" on the southern village of Beit Lif was a Hezbollah fighter, not a civilian as earlier reported.