Israel has pushed since the collapse of a short-lived truce in the war with Hamas to seize territory in Gaza in what it has called a strategy to force the militants to free hostages still in captivity.

Simultaneously, it has escalated attacks on Lebanon and Syria, with a strike in the south Lebanese city of Sidon killing a Hamas commander along with his adult son and daughter, according to the military.

In Gaza City, the Israeli military said ground troops had begun conducting operations in the Shejaiya area "in order to expand the security zone".

Defence Minister Israel Katz had said on Wednesday that Israel would bolster its military presence inside the Gaza Strip to "destroy and clear the area of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure".

The operation would "seize large areas that will be incorporated into Israeli security zones", he said, without specifying how much territory.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the army was dividing Gaza and "seizing territory" to force Hamas to free the remaining Israeli hostages seized in the militant group's October 2023 attack on Israel which sparked the Gaza war.

On Thursday, Gaza's civil defence agency said at least 31 people, including children, were killed in an Israeli strike on a school serving as a shelter for displaced Palestinians.

Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that women and children were among the dead, while six people were still unaccounted for in the strike on Dar al-Arqam School in the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood, northeast of Gaza City.

"One of the missing was a pregnant woman who was expecting twins," he said.

The Israeli military said it had struck a "Hamas command and control centre in the area of Gaza City".

It was unclear whether it was the same attack that hit the school.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Thursday that 1,163 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since Israel resumed large-scale strikes on March 18, bringing the overall death toll since the war began to 50,523.
Lebanon strike
In Lebanon, Israel said it killed a Hamas commander in a strike on the port city of Sidon that also killed his adult son and daughter.

"Overnight, the (army and the domestic security agency Shin Bet) conducted a targeted strike in the Sidon area, eliminating the terrorist Hassan Farhat, commander of Hamas's western arena in Lebanon," the Israeli military said in a statement.

It alleged that Farhat had orchestrated multiple attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians during the hostilities that followed the outbreak of war in Gaza in October 2023.

They included rocket fire on the Israeli town of Safed on February 14, 2024 that killed an Israeli soldier, the military added.

An AFP correspondent saw the fourth-floor flat still on fire after the strike, which caused heavy damage to the apartment block and neighbouring buildings and sparked panic in the densely populated neighbourhood.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned the strike as a "flagrant attack on Lebanese sovereignty" and a breach of the November 27 ceasefire in the war between militant group Hezbollah and Israel.

Hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah spiralled into all-out conflict last September, and the group remains a target of Israeli air strikes despite the ceasefire.

Under the truce, Hezbollah is supposed to redeploy its forces north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli border, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.

Israel is supposed to withdraw its forces across the UN-demarcated Blue Line, the de facto border, but has missed two deadlines to do so and continues to hold five positions it deems "strategic".

In Syria, it has conducted strikes on military targets across the country this week, defying a United Nations warning that such attacks "undermine efforts to build a new Syria" following president Bashar al-Assad's ouster in December.

A pub landlady has been granted a lifelong retraining order against a man who turned her life into ‘a living hell’ in a row that started over smoking.

Jacqueline McCaig spent more than £20,000 taking Paul Richardson through the civil courts, after his ‘threatening and intimidating behaviour’ over several years left her in fear for her safety.

She runs the Old Swan pub in Paisley in Scotland and Richardson previously lived in a flat above.

Ms McCaig, 45, said it all started when Richardson complained to bar staff about a customer smoking a cigarette in the doorway of his close.

This lead to an altercation in which Richardson shouted, swore and made threats of violence.

The kayak instructor was arrested and charged for the part he played in the furore, which he later pleaded guilty to.

Before entering the plea, Jacqueline claims he approached her in an effort to get the charges dropped.

She told the Glasgow Times: ‘He seemed to think that because I ran the pub, I could get the charges against him dropped, something that I had no control over whatsoever.

‘He started out quite reasonable, but this changed, and he became more intimidating.

‘He’d be waiting for me to open up in the morning or standing outside as I locked up at night.

‘His actions put me on edge and made me feel very uncomfortable.

‘On one occasion he stood across the street in the pouring rain taking pictures for five and half hours.’

She said he also come into the pub to order a drink ‘despite knowing he had been banned’.

‘I felt as though he was targeting me, my female staff and my business,’ MsMcCaig added.

‘I genuinely thought I was going to be seriously harmed by him at some point. That’s how scared I felt.

‘My life became a living hell – I was constantly wondering when or where he’d show up next. I was so worried that I was unable to sleep at night.’

Despite making several complaints to police, Ms McCaig was told by there was nothing they could do as no crime had been committed.

She was eventually advised by officers to apply through the courts for a interdict, which can act as a restraining order in Scotland.

She said: ‘It felt like it was the only way forward. Taking him to court was the only solution to get him to leave me alone.’

The court was told Richardson’s behaviour had intensified from April to August 2021, culminating in an interim interdict being granted, before a lifelong restraining order was finally given on March 21 this year.

In his judgement, Sheriff Bruce Erroch KC said that Richardson had displayed abusive and vulgar sexual language towards Jacqueline that constituted a legal wrong.

On various occasions the hearing found he stared and stood outside the close entrance next to the pub, smirking and laughing at Jacqueline when she was arriving for work.

His manner was described as ‘angry and intimidating’.

The sheriff also found that Richardson’s threats of violence, harassment and threatening conduct had caused her to suffer fear, alarm and distress.

During cross examination, Ms McCaig told the court how she felt in serious fear for her life and that Richardson had acted in a way as to terrorise her.

Witnesses also told the court that Richardson made threats of ‘knowing gangsters’, while Ms McCaig claimed he was deliberately confrontational, sought her out and targeted her.

Sheriff Erroch KC described her as ‘an impressive witness’ who gave her evidence in a moderate and straightforward manner. Meanwhile, he found Richardson’s evidence not wholly reliable.

During his evidence, Richardson said he did not recall being barred from the pub and that his issues had arisen due to cars parking in the loading bay in Smithhills Street, preventing him from loading his van.

He said he had raised the issue with Renfrewshire Council and claimed he had never gone into the pub while barred, used foul language or made any vulgar comments towards Ms McCaig.

He disagreed that he had a vendetta against her and said that ‘he was not a man of violence or dishonesty’.

He also said police confirmed complaints made against him were never considered to be of a criminal nature and denied ever waging a campaign to upset Ms McCaig.

Despite his position, the order was granted by the sheriff, meaning that he can no longer approach or contact the pub licensee or face criminal proceedings.

Ms McCaig added: ‘It has been years of absolute hell just to get this man stop.

‘Now if he breaches the lifelong interdict, it immediately becomes a criminal matter and the police must act. I just want to move forward with my life and never see him again.

‘The trauma and strain of the past near-five years turned my day-to-day life into a nightmare. I’m so relived the judge ruled in my favour.’

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