Tel Aviv — Israel said a barrage of hundreds of rockets was fired at the north of the country Sunday by Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in neighboring Lebanon. The assault came after days of devastating strikes by the Israel Defense Forces, which said it was targeting Hezbollah sites around the Lebanese capital Beirut.

Israeli officials said there were some injuries caused by the Hezbollah rocket fire, but many of the weapons were intercepted by Israel’s advanced missile defense systems.

The IDF’s intense assault on Hezbollah saw it send missiles slamming into buildings in longtime Hezbollah strongholds around Beirut over the weekend, killing dozens of people, according to Lebanese health officials.

Hezbollah started launching rockets at Israel in support of its Gaza-based Hamas allies the day after they sparked the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory with their Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack.

Israel’s exchange of fire with Iran’s most powerful so-called proxy group has been escalating in recent days despite yet another U.S. diplomatic push for a cease-fire.

American and Israeli officials said over the weekend, even as the death toll mounted in Lebanon, that a truce agreement between Hezbollah and Israel could be imminent.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Mike Herzog told Israel’s Army Radio on Monday that a cease-fire deal could be reached “within days.”

The deal in the works “is supposed to distance Hezbollah, to allow the residents of the north [of Israel] to return to their homes,” he said, referring to the Israeli government’s long-stated objective of enabling tens of thousands of residents to come back to homes abandoned close to the Lebanese border amid the Hezbollah rocket fire.

He said that if a deal was reached, Israel would maintain the right to respond to “disturbances” going forward. He said some, unspecified points still needed to be finalized in the negotiations, but added: “We are close to a deal,” and “it can happen within days.”

In lieu of any agreement thus far, tension remained high across Lebanon on Monday, where the health ministry said Israeli’s offensive against Hezbollah had killed more than 3,750 people as of Sunday, left some 15,630 more wounded and displaced about 1.4 million people from their homes. Many of the casualties have been women and children, according to the ministry.

All school and university classes in Beirut were cancelled by the nation’s education ministry until January, citing safety concerns in the wake of Israel’s devastating strikes over the past week.

That includes one of the deadliest strikes on central Beirut to date. Carried out over the weekend, the IDF attack killed more than 80 people, according to the Lebanese health ministry.  

The IDF said it was targeting Hezbollah weapons and fighters embedded within the civilian population and infrastructure around Beirut.

Beirut resident Abeer Darwich disputed that, claiming Israel had “attacked peaceful people in their homes.”

contributed to this report.

Debora Patta

Debora Patta is a CBS News foreign correspondent based in Johannesburg. Since joining CBS News in 2013, she has reported on major stories across Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Edward R. Murrow and Scripps Howard awards are among the many accolades Patta has received for her work.

More than 30 pilot whales that stranded themselves on a beach in New Zealand were safely returned to the ocean after conservation workers and residents helped to refloat them by lifting them on sheets. Four of the pilot whales died, New Zealand’s conservation agency said.

New Zealand is a whale stranding hotspot and pilot whales are especially prolific stranders.

A team was monitoring Ruakākā Beach near the city of Whangārei in New Zealand’s north on Monday to ensure there were no signs of the whales saved Sunday stranding again, the Department of Conservation told The Associated Press. The agency praised as “incredible” the efforts made by hundreds of people to help save the foundering pod.

“It’s amazing to witness the genuine care and compassion people have shown toward these magnificent animals,” Joel Lauterbach, a Department of Conservation spokesperson, said in a statement. “This response demonstrates the deep connection we all share with our marine environment.”

The agency released images of the rescue effort on social media.

A Māori cultural ceremony for the three adult whales and one calf that died in the stranding took place on Monday. New Zealand’s Indigenous people consider whales a taonga – a sacred treasure – of cultural significance.

New Zealand has recorded more than 5,000 whale strandings since 1840. The largest pilot whale stranding was of an estimated 1,000 whales at the Chatham Islands in 1918, according to the Department of Conservation.

It’s often not clear why strandings happen but the island nation’s geography is believed to be a factor. Both the North and South Islands feature stretches of protruding coastline with shallow, sloping beaches that can confuse species such as pilot whales – which rely on echolocation to navigate.

Mass strandings of pilot whales have happened elsewhere in recent months.

In July,  77 long-finned pilot whales were found washed ashore off the northeast coast of Scotland, 65 of them already dead. The 12 whales that initially survived the mass stranding had to be euthanized.

In April, a mass stranding of long-finned pilot whales in southwestern Australia led to the deaths of 29 of the beached creatures, but about 100 of the whales were rescued and redirected out to sea.

Last year, nearly 100 pilot whales became stranded on a beach in Western Australia, but after a rescue attempt, they all died. 

Pilot whales are a large species of dolphin, with individuals usually measuring between 19 and 25 feet in length and weighing between 2,900 and 5,000 pounds, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. A pilot whale’s typical lifespan is anywhere from 35 to 60 years, although their survival is threatened by several factors including chemical contaminants, disease, entanglement in fishing gear and ocean noise. They tend to travel in dense pods, and much of what is known about the species and their behaviors has come out of other mass strandings. 

contributed to this report.

A Buddhist monastery in Thailand is under investigation after authorities discovered more than 40 bodies on site which were allegedly used for meditation practices, police said Sunday.

Forty-one cadavers were found at Pa Nakhon Chaibovorn monastery in Thailand’s Phichit province on Saturday, a senior police officer told AFP.

“The bodies were accompanied with death and body donation certificates,” he said, adding that so far no charges have been filed.

He said police were reaching out to relatives of the deceased to confirm that the bodies were donated willingly.

“We are trying to make sure that none of the dead bodies were stolen,” said the officer who requested anonymity.

The search came days after police discovered 12 bodies at another monastery in neighboring Kamphaeng Phet province on Wednesday, according to Thai local media.

The head of the Phichit province monastery, Phra Ajarn Saifon Phandito, told Thai PBS television channel that the use of corpses was part of a “meditation technique” he developed.

“Many of the people who come to learn are abbots and all these monks… pass on the knowledge,” he said. “I don’t know how many have adopted my technique.”

He also told another local TV station that “practitioners meditate in pavilions that hold coffins with the human remains.”

Kom Pattarakulprasert, director of the Phichit Office of Buddhism, told the Bangkok Post that the inclusion of bodies in meditation was unusual.

“I asked Phra Ajarn Saifon Phandito if there were any cadavers and was told that there were none,” Kom told the outlet. “But when journalists discovered the 41 bodies, I was taken aback by the conflicting stories. I will discuss whether this practice is appropriate with the local head of the clergy.”

Phichit police said they are working with authorities in other provinces to investigate how widespread this practice is.