Israeli strikes hit southern Beirut, kill 68 in Gaza, as ceasefire hopes fade [Video]

Prospects of a ceasefire between Israel and its foes Hamas and Hezbollah ran aground on Friday as Israeli air strikes killed at least 68 people in the Gaza Strip, according to medics in the Palestinian enclave, and bombed Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The Israeli military said it killed senior Hamas official Izz al-Din Kassab in an air strike in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis and described him as one of the last surviving high-ranking members of Hamas responsible for co-ordinating with other groups in Gaza.

U.S. envoys had been working to secure ceasefires on both fronts ahead of the U.S. presidential election next Tuesday.

But Hamas does not favour a temporary truce, its Al-Aqsa Hamas television reported on Friday. The ceasefire proposals failed to meet its conditions that any deal must end the year-long war in Gaza and include a withdrawal of Israeli forces from the devastated Palestinian enclave, …