Israeli forces kill five in West Bank clashes

Israeli forces killed five armed Palestinian fighters in the occupied West Bank, Israeli police said.

The Palestinian health ministry confirmed the deaths of only four men.

Israeli special forces had opened fire on a vehicle that the men were traveling in, in the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank.

Violence has surged across the West Bank since the start of the Hamas-Israel war in Gaza.

Hundreds of Palestinians - including armed fighters, stone-throwing youths and civilian bystanders - have been killed in clashes with Israeli security forces.

Dozens of Israelis have been killed in Palestinian street attacks over the past year.

At least six people were wounded, two of them seriously, in a stabbing attack in the Israeli city of Hadera, Israeli authorities said.

Blasts were seen across southern Beirut's skyline, as Hezbollah said its fighters had pushed back advancing Israeli forces in clashes along the length of the Lebanon border.

Hezbollah has been launching rockets against Israel for a year in parallel with the Gaza war and is now fighting it in ground clashes that are spreading along Lebanon's mountainous frontier with Israel.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi arrived in Riyadh, the first destination of his regional trip, and met Saudi Arabia Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.

Araqchi said the purpose of his visit was to discuss regional issues, particularly Lebanon and Gaza, and “the crimes that the Zionist regime is committing.”

The Middle East has been on edge awaiting Israel's response to an Iranian missile strike last week, which Tehran carried out in retaliation for Israel's escalation against Hezbollah in Lebanon, in a conflict running in parallel to the Gaza war.

The escalation in Lebanon, after a year of war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, has raised fears of a wider Middle East conflict that could draw in Iran and Israel's superpower ally the United States.