GAZA: Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has said that “time is running out” to reach a diplomatic solution in south Lebanon, as tensions flare between the two countries, with daily cross-border fire.

“Israel will act militarily to return the evacuated citizens” to its northern border area if no diplomatic solution is reached to end the violence, Katz told his visiting French counterpart Stephane Sejourne, according to a statement issued by the Israeli foreign ministry.

The World Health Organisation says that 1,243 medical cases have been evacuated from Gaza to Egypt through the Rafah border crossing, Al Jazeera reports.

At least 1,025 other Palestinians accompanied the patients as medical chaperones.

The WHO chief has previously pointed to reports from the organisation’s employees in the Gaza Strip that indicate that the risk of famine is increasing every day in Gaza’s hospitals.