Hezbollah's chief, Sheikh Naim Qassem, said on Friday that the movement has the right to respond to Israel's assassination of its top military commander in a strike on Beirut's southern suburbs last Sunday. In a televised speech, Qassem condemned the killing of Haitham Ali Tabatabai as "a blatant aggression and a heinous crime," adding that Hezbollah "has the right to respond.

Iranian missile attacks on southern Israel injured at least 11 people near the desert city of Beersheba on Sunday, emergency services said. Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service said the people were wounded by debris propelled by shockwaves from the strikes.

Vital Arctic sea ice shrank to tie its lowest measured level for the winter, the season when ice grows, as a warming Earth shattered records across the continents. Arctic sea ice levels, especially in the summer, are crucial to Earth's climate because without the ice reflecting sunlight, more heat energy goes into the oceans. Wildlife, such as polar bears and seals, also depend on sea ice.