CAIRO (Reuters) - Hamas decided not to respond or engage with Israel's counter-proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, an official told Reuters on Wednesday, affirming it is committed to the mediators' plan instead.

The Hamas militant group said Saturday it has accepted a new Gaza ceasefire proposal from mediators Egypt and Qatar, but Israel said it has made a counter-proposal in "full coordination" with the third mediator, the United States.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip is expanding to seize “large areas,” the defense minister said, while officials at hospitals inside the Palestinian territory said that Israeli strikes overnight and into Wednesday had killed more than 40 people, nearly a dozen of them children.

Israel announced a major expansion of military operations in Gaza on Wednesday, saying large areas of the enclave would be seized and added to its security zones.

France and Lebanon say Israel violated its ceasefire with Hezbollah with a strike in Beirut, as deaths mount in Gaza after Israel abandoned its ceasefire with Hamas.

The Israeli military struck southern Beirut on Friday for the first time since November, after Israel said that two projectiles had been fired from Lebanon.

Israel’s military struck Beirut for the first time since a ceasefire between the country and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant group started in November.