At least 10 people were killed after a fire broke out in a retirement home in the northern Spanish town of Villafranca de Ebro early Friday, authorities said.

The blaze started in one of the rooms, Fernando Beltran, the national government’s top official in Aragon region, told reporters.

SPAIN SEARCHES FOR BODIES AFTER UNPRECEDENTED FLOODING CLAIMS AT LEAST 158 LIVES

All the victims were elderly people living in the Jardines de Villafranca residence, a care home for people with mental health issues, Aragon regional president Jorge Azcon told reporters.

One person was in a critical condition and another was in a serious condition, Azcon said.

The fire started at around 5 a.m. local time, and it took about two hours for firefighters to extinguish it, a spokesperson for the regional government said.

Firefighter chief Eduardo Sanchez told reporters the fire was contained to the room where it started and that the fatalities were caused by smoke inhalation.

“The doors were closed, they prevented the fire from spreading. The tragedy could have been worse,” Azcon said after visiting the building.

Several residents were treated, mainly for smoke inhalation, mayor Volga Ramirez said.

Authorities have opened an investigation into the cause of the fire.

Azcon said the priority now was to transfer the residents who were not injured in the blaze to another care home in nearby Huesca.

The Israeli military has carried out air raids in the suburbs of Beirut for the fourth consecutive day as Lebanese officials studied a US plan for a ceasefire.

Israeli air strikes flattened five buildings in the Lebanese capital’s southern suburbs on Friday. One of them was located near one of Beirut’s busiest traffic junctions, Tayouneh.

The Israeli military said its fighter jets attacked munitions warehouses, a headquarters and other infrastructure used by the Lebanese group Hezbollah.

Reporting from Beirut, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said the Israeli military had issued two forced evacuation orders before the attacks.

“[Residents] are forced to leave their homes only to watch the strikes come in and wonder whether or not they have a home to return to. There are no casualties because many people left the area and because of these evacuation orders,” she said.

“Human rights groups have criticised these forced evacuation orders, saying most of the time they don’t give people enough time to leave,” Khodr added.

Meanwhile, Iran-aligned Hezbollah said it fired rockets at a group of Israeli soldiers in Misgav Am and the Yiftah barracks in northern Israel.

The Lebanese armed group said in a statement on Telegram it also attacked another group of Israeli soldiers with rockets on the eastern outskirts of the Lebanese town of Markaba.

Hezbollah also said it attacked Israeli soldiers in northern Israel’s Sasa and Dishon.

Israel’s military escalated its attacks on Lebanon in late September after almost a year of cross-border hostilities with the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah in parallel with the Gaza war. It says it aims to secure the return home of tens of thousands of Israelis, forced to evacuate from northern Israel under Hezbollah fire.

Israel’s attacks on Lebanon have forced more than one million Lebanese to flee their homes, igniting a humanitarian crisis.

It has dealt Hezbollah serious blows, killing its leader Hassan Nasrallah and other commanders. Hezbollah has kept up rocket attacks into Israel and its fighters have been battling Israeli troops in the south.

Ceasefire talks

Diplomacy attempting to reach a ceasefire has shown tentative signs of progress this week.

The Reuters news agency reported on Thursday that the US ambassador to Lebanon had presented a draft ceasefire proposal to Lebanon’s parliament speaker Nabih Berri, citing two senior political sources. Berri is endorsed by Hezbollah to negotiate and met the senior Iranian official Ali Larijani on Friday. The AFP news agency reported that senior Lebanese officials are reviewing the US proposal.

A senior Iranian official said on Friday that Iran would back any decision made by Lebanon in truce talks, signalling Tehran wants to see an end to the conflict.

Asked at a news conference whether he had come to Beirut to undermine the US truce plan, Larijani said, “We are not looking to sabotage anything. We are after a solution to the problems.”

“We support in all circumstances the Lebanese government. Those who are disrupting are Netanyahu and his people,” Larijani added, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

World powers have said a Lebanon ceasefire must be based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a previous 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel. Its terms require Hezbollah to move weapons and fighters north of the Litani River, which runs some 20km (30 miles) north of the border.

Israel has demanded the freedom to attack, should Hezbollah violate any agreement – a demand that Lebanon has rejected.

In a meeting with Larijani, Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati urged support for Lebanon’s position on implementing 1701 and called this a priority, along with halting the “Israeli aggression”, a statement from his office said.

Larijani stressed “that Iran supports any decision taken by the government, especially resolution 1701”, the statement said.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Eli Cohen, Israel’s energy minister and a member of its security cabinet, told Reuters that prospects for a ceasefire were the most promising since the conflict began.

At least 3,386 people have been killed and 14,417 wounded in Israeli attacks on Lebanon since October 2023.

Jake Paul and Mike Tyson aren’t the only ones who have high stakes when they meet in the boxing ring on Friday night.

For Netflix, it is their biggest live sports event to date, and an opportunity to make sure it can handle audience demand with the NFL and WWE on the horizon.

The bout between the YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul, and Tyson, 58-year-old former heavyweight champion, from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, will stream globally and be available to Netflix’s 280 million subscribers at no additional cost.

Netflix will broadcast the bout in English, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French and German. It was originally scheduled for July 20, but was delayed by Tyson having a medical episode on a plane and needing time to recover from a stomach ulcer.

Netflix declined multiple requests by The Associated Press to make a company executive available to discuss expectations about the fight.

JP Morgan Chase analyst Doug Anmuth has not wavered in his prediction that it will be the most-watched fight ever. That might be an unrealistic bar to climb since four of Muhammad Ali’s bouts had estimated worldwide audiences of one billion.

The modern-day U.S. mark of 4.6 million from the 2015 bout between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao could be attainable though.

“We believe the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight could be the most watched boxing match ever given ease of access and NFLX’s (Netflix’s) large global subscriber base, and it should attract Ad Tier subs, viewers, and dollars,” Anmuth said in his analyst note according to CNBC Pro. “Netflix is increasingly focused on sports entertainment, events, and shoulder content, and we expect a bigger push into live sports over time, particularly as negotiating leverage shifts in NFLX’s direction.”

Netflix has used live sports as support programming for documentaries and series it airs. “Countdown: Paul vs. Tyson”, a three-part documentary series previewing the fight card, was ranked second Thursday night among Netflix’s most-viewed shows.

Last November’s Netflix Cup, where Formula 1 drivers were paired with PGA golfers in a match-play format, brought together famous figures from “Drive to Survive” and “Full Swing,” The March 3 Netflix Slam exhibition match between Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz tied in with “Point Break” and a documentary series about Alcaraz that will air next year.

The NFL elected to partner with Netflix for a Christmas Day doubleheader of games because two series — “Quarterback” and “Receiver” — were among Netflix’s top 10 series globally.

Most Valuable Promotions is handling the production of Friday’s bout while CBS will produce the two NFL games for Netflix. When “Raw” begins airing on Netflix on Jan. 5, World Wrestling Entertainment handles the production of all its events.

Netflix will carry “Raw” in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom and Latin America beginning in January, with additional countries to be added as contracts expire. The bigger component, though, is that Netflix becomes the carrier of all WWE shows and specials outside the U.S. and the company’s premium live events, including WrestleMania and SummerSlam.

“Technically, it is a great dry run by putting on live events. The biggest problem they might have is you just end up in a situation where you’ve got so much volume and viewing a way that you haven’t had in the past,” said Patrick Crakes, a media consultant and former Fox Sports executive. “It could end up being more than who watches the NFL games for a period of time. Others are handling the production, what they have to worry about is the operational flow. They know what they are doing.”

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports