Beirut, Lebanon - Schools in Beirut were closed on Monday after Israeli strikes on the Lebanese capital killed six people, including Hezbollah's spokesperson.

Israel escalated its bombardment of Lebanon in late September, sparking widespread condemnation amid the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

Sunday's strikes hit densely populated districts of central Beirut. Six people were killed, according to Lebanese health ministry figures, including Hezbollah media relations chief Mohammed Afif, the group and Israel's military said.

The strikes prompted the education ministry to shut schools and higher education institutions in the Beirut area for two days.

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Children and young people around Lebanon have been heavily impacted by the war, which has seen schools around the country turned into shelters for the displaced.

Lebanese authorities say Israel has killed more than 3,480 people since October last year, with most casualties recorded since September.

Israeli strikes have killed senior Hezbollah officials, including its leader Hassan Nasrallah in late September.

The group's spokesperson Afif was part of Nasrallah's inner circle, and one of the group's few officials to engage with the press.

Another strike hit a busy shopping district of Beirut, sparking a huge blaze that engulfed part of a building and several shops nearby.

Lebanon's National News Agency said the fire had largely been extinguished by Monday morning, noting it had caused diesel fuel tanks to explode.

"In a quarter of an hour, our whole life's work was lost," said Shukri Fuad, who owned a shop destroyed in the strike.

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Ayman Darwish worked at an electronics shop that was hit.

"Everyone knows us, everyone knows this area is a civilian area, no one is armed here," he said.

One of those killed in the strike, Darwish said, was the son of the owner of the store where he worked.

"The martyr Mahmud used to come after working hours, in the evenings and even on Sundays, to deal with client requests," he said.

The NNA reported new strikes early Monday on locations around south Lebanon.

Israel's military told AFP it had hit more than 200 targets in Lebanon over 36 hours, including in Beirut's southern suburbs.

On Monday, the army said around 30 projectiles were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel, with the country's air defense system intercepting some of them.

Lebanon last week said it was reviewing a US truce proposal, as Hamas said it was ready for a ceasefire in Gaza. So far, however, there has been no sign of Israeli violence abating.

The Israeli military kept up its assault on Gaza over the weekend, where civil defense rescuers said strikes on Sunday killed dozens of people.

Israel on October 6 began a devastating air and ground operation in Jabalia and then expanded it to Beit Lahia.

On Sunday, Gaza's civil defence agency said 34 people were killed, including children, and dozens were missing after an Israeli air strike hit a five-story residential building in Beit Lahia.

"The chances of rescuing more wounded are decreasing because of the continuous shooting and artillery shelling," civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

The United Nations and others have condemned humanitarian conditions in northern Gaza, with the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees last week calling the situation "catastrophic."

A special UN committee last week said Israel's actions were consistent with the characteristics of genocide, including "using starvation as a method of war and inflicting collective punishment on the Palestinian population."

In southern Gaza, the civil defense agency said four members of a single family were killed and eight others wounded when an Israeli strike hit a tent sheltering displaced people in the Al-Mawasi area.

"The explosion was powerful, setting fires and filling the area with smoke, dust and chaos," said Said al-Burai, a 48-year-old who said he saw the strike.

"Children and women were screaming everywhere," he added.

The health ministry in Gaza on Sunday said the overall death toll over the least 13 months had reached 43,846. The British medical journal Lancet and other experts believe the true number to be far greater, upwards of 186,000 as of July 2024.