Israeli strike hits Beirut area, Gaza aid trucks looted

An Israeli air strike has killed five people in central Beirut, Lebanon's health ministry says, the second day in a row Israel has hit a target within the capital as it presses its campaign against Hezbollah militants.

Smoke was seen rising from the location of the strike in the Zuqaq al-Blat area, a short distance from the central Beirut district where the Lebanese government is headquartered.

Another 24 people were wounded, the ministry said.

Israel has intensified its bombardment in and around the Lebanese capital over the last week, an escalation that has coincided with signs of movement in US-led diplomacy aimed at reaching a ceasefire.

US envoy Amos Hochstein was expected in Beirut soon as negotiations continue, a US source told Reuters.

A Lebanese official and local media reported that Beirut had submitted a written response to a US truce proposal delivered last week to parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri, who is endorsed to negotiate by Hezbollah.

Israel has dealt big blows to Hezbollah since late September, killing its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, pounding wide areas of Lebanon with air strikes and sending troops into southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah has kept up rocket fire into northern Israel.

Rocket sirens sounded across Tel Aviv and much of central Israel on Monday evening.

Rescue workers reported on damage in a Tel Aviv suburb caused either by a rocket or shrapnel from an interceptor.

Earlier a woman was killed when a rocket struck a building in Shfaram, in the north, Israel's ambulance service said.

The Israeli military said about five projectiles had been fired from Lebanon.

Since Israel went on the offensive in September, the bulk of its air strikes in the Beirut area have targeted the Hezbollah's strongholds in the southern suburbs.

But on Sunday, Israel hit targets in the Beirut city limits for the first time in more than five weeks, killing 10 people in two separate strikes, including Hezbollah's top media official.

Israel launched its offensive after almost a year of cross-border hostilities with Hezbollah.

Its declared goal is to dismantle Hezbollah's capabilities to secure the return of tens of thousands of Israelis who fled the north due to rockets fired by Hezbollah in solidarity with its ally Hamas as the Gaza Strip war began more than a year ago.

Israel's campaign has uprooted more than a million people in Lebanon in the last eight weeks.

Nearly 100 trucks carrying food for Palestinians were violently looted on November 16 after entering the Gaza Strip, two United Nations agencies told Reuters on Monday.

The convoy transporting food provided by UN agencies UNRWA and the World Food Programme was instructed by Israel to depart at short notice via an unfamiliar route from Kerem Shalom border crossing, UNRWA senior emergency officer Louise Wateridge said.

Ninety-eight trucks of the 109-truck convoy were raided and some of the transporters were injured during the incident, she said, without detailing who carried out the ambush.

"This ... highlights the severity of access challenges of bringing aid into southern and central Gaza," she told Reuters.

"?The urgency of the crisis cannot be overstated; without immediate intervention, severe food shortages are set to worsen, further endangering the lives of over two million people who depend on humanitarian aid to survive."

A WFP spokesperson confirmed the looting and said that many routes in Gaza were currently unpassable due to security issues.

An Israeli official said Israel had been working to address the humanitarian situation since the start of the war, adding that the main problem with aid deliveries was UN distribution challenges.