If you’re just joining us, here are the main developments from the last few hours:

• Israel continued its attacks on southern Lebanon on Tuesday, amid calls for restraint from world leaders at the UN General Assembly in New York

• Lebanon's health ministry reported that six more people were killed overnight. That's pushed the total death toll to more than 560, including 50 children, since Israeli strikes began on Monday
• Israel and Hezbollah have confirmed that Ibrahim Qubaisi - a commander who oversaw Hezbollah’s missile and rocket systems - was killed in attacks earlier on Tuesday
• Tens of thousands of displaced people are fleeing their homes across Lebanon, with many taking shelter in public schools and makeshift centres
• The UN Human Rights Office has expressed alarm at the number of casualties in the strikes, saying they could have violated international humanitarian law
• Israel argues it is being forced to target densely populated areas like Beirut because Hezbollah is using civilians as shields and embedding weapons amid the population
• Meanwhile Tel Aviv and parts of central Israel woke up to the sound of air sirens early on Wednesday after Israeli defence systems intercepted a missile detected crossing from Lebanon, according to the Israeli military

Stay with us as we bring you more.

Israeli air strikes have been continuing for another day in Lebanon, with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing that the military would press on with its operation against Hezbollah. Here's some of the main developments from today:

• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hezbollah was leading Lebanon “to the edge of the abyss”. Addressing Lebanese citizens in a video message, he said: "Our war is not with you, our war is with Hezbollah"

• More than 550 people, including 50 children, have been killed by Israeli strikes since Monday, the Lebanese health ministry said
• In an interview with the BBC, Lebanon's health minister described what's happening there as “carnage"
• Israel's military said the head of Hezbollah’s missile and rocket unit, Ibrahim Qubaisi, was killed in an air strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah

• US President Joe Biden told the UN General Assembly in New York that a full-scale conflict was “not in anyone's interest” and insisted that a “diplomatic solution is still possible"
• UN Secretary General António Guterres warned that the world “cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza”

• Meanwhile, large numbers continued to flee southern Lebanon, with images emerging of long queues on highways heading north

We're pausing our coverage shortly, but you can continue reading more here.

Lebanon's foreign minister said US President Joe Biden's remarks to the UN earlier about the conflict with Israel were "not promising", but that he's still hoping Washington would intervene.

Biden addressed the UN general assembly earlier today, where he warned against escalation in the Middle East and said a diplomatic solution was still possible.

"It was not strong," Abdallah Bou Habib says, according to Reuters.

"I (am) still hoping. The United States is the only country that can really make a difference in the Middle East and with regard to Lebanon."

Wider border war would further polarise arguments over Israel's methodspublished at 21:47 British Summer Time 24 September

21:47 BST 24 September

Jeremy Bowen
International editor

The last week in Lebanon brings back echoes of the last year of war in Gaza. Israel issued warnings to civilians, as it did in Gaza, to move out of areas about to be attacked. It blames Hezbollah, as it blames Hamas, for using civilians as human shields.

Some critics as well as enemies of Israel said the warnings were too vague and did not give enough time for families to evacuate. The laws of war demand that civilians be protected, and forbid indiscriminate, disproportionate use of force.

Some of Hezbollah's attacks on Israel have hit civilian areas, breaking laws designed to protect civilians. They have also targeted the Israeli military. Israel and key Western allies, including the US and UK, classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation.

Israel insists it has a moral army that respects the rules. But much of the world has condemned its conduct in Gaza. The ignition of a wider border war will deepen the gap at the centre of a highly polarised argument.

Read Jeremy Bowen's full analysis.

Image source, Reuters

Hezbollah is an influential Shia Muslim political party and armed group.

It has a significant presence in both the Lebanese parliament and government, and controls the most powerful armed force in the country.

Hezbollah rose to prominence in the 1980s in opposition to Israel, and has received strong backing from Iran, both financially and militarily, for many years.

Hezbollah's armed wing has carried out deadly attacks on Israeli and US forces in Lebanon.

When Israeli troops withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, Hezbollah took credit for pushing them out and continues to oppose Israel's presence in disputed border areas.

In 2006, a full-blown war broke out between Hezbollah and Israel, triggered by a deadly Hezbollah cross-border raid.

Israeli troops invaded southern Lebanon to try to eliminate the threat from Hezbollah. About 1,000 civilians were killed during the conflict but Hezbollah claimed victory and has since increased its number of fighters and upgraded its weapons.

The group is designated as a terrorist organisation by Western states, Israel and Gulf Arab states.

Read more: What is Hezbollah and why is Israel attacking Lebanon?

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has said his country will continue hitting Hezbollah targets in Lebanon until the goal of ensuring "the safe return of Israel’s northern residents to their homes" is achieved.

"Hezbollah today is not the same Hezbollah we knew a week ago," he said.

"(It) has suffered a sequence of blows to its command and control, its fighters, and the means to fight. These are all severe blows," he added.

Israel wants its operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon to be as short as possible, but is prepared for it to take time, an Israeli military spokesperson says.

Speaking at a briefing, Rear Adm Daniel Hagari says: "We strive that the operation is as short as possible, that is why we are striking with huge power, thus we have to be prepared for it to take time.

"Our mission in the end is to achieve the war goals and bring the residents of the north back to their homes, and we have to stand by our mission."

Nafiseh Kohnavard
BBC Persian Middle East correspondent, in Beirut

"When you have a massive displacement, you need to race against the clock and think how you are going to serve 100 centres at the same time," says Edouard Beigbeder, representative of the UN children's agency Unicef in Lebanon.

"Today, we could reach 10 centres and we hope we can continue tomorrow.”

Beigbeder is visiting one of the schools in Lebanon's capital, Beirut, that have already received more than 1,000 displaced people from the south of the country since Monday.

Beigbeder says the stories he's heard from women and children visiting these shelters have struck him.

"Most of them have left in a few minutes without taking anything, just getting their cars and leaving the house.

"Some of them have seen their house being destroyed, and some have witnessed their family members, siblings killed or injured. So those who reached Beirut are heavily traumatised," he tells me.

I ask him whether he thinks these families will be stranded here for a longer period, and whether Lebanon and aid organisations are able to handle this.

“It's not going to be a short-term crisis," he answers, saying that those families would need to be supported until they are able to return to their homes.

Jonathan Beale
Defence correspondent

Britain’s military has been preparing for months for the possibility of having to carry out an emergency evacuation in Lebanon.

Now those plans are once again being ramped up – with the government expected to confirm that it's sending additional military personnel to Cyprus. RAF Akrotiri is a major UK hub in the region.

It’s not the first time this has happened.

Earlier this summer additional forces were sent to prepare for what the military calls a non-combatant emergency operation. But they returned to the UK when fears of a full-scale conflict briefly diminished.

Now the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has intensified.

There are an estimated 10,000 UK nationals still living in Lebanon. Some commercial flights have been cancelled. But at the moment the main international airport in Beirut remains open.

Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent, in Beirut

As hospitals across Lebanon struggle to cope with the sheer number of casualties from yesterday’s widespread Israeli air strikes, the Lebanese health minister has said what happened in his country was “carnage”.

Dr Firas Abiad told me it was “clear” that many victims of the attacks were civilians, including children and women, who were in their homes doing “normal things”.

“They are not the combatants the Israelis claim they are,” he said in an interview in Beirut, just as the city came under Israeli attack again this afternoon. “We know [it] because our ambulances transferred them to hospitals.”

Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah sites, accusing the Iranian-backed group of hiding weapons and rockets in residential homes and of using civilians as human shields.

“Unlike Gaza, our southern regions are open to the media. The media can go out and go check all this information,” Dr Abiad said, referring to a ban imposed by the Israeli authorities on the entry of foreign journalists into Gaza, where Israel has been fighting a war against Hamas, following the Hamas attacks on southern Israel last October.

“They could check whether indeed those areas that were targeted were residentials, were communities, were civilians or were other things that Israel is claiming.”

Israel's ambassador to the UN says his country is open to ideas to de-escalate the conflict in Lebanon, the Reuters news agency reports.

"We are not eager to start any ground invasion anywhere," Danny Danon tells reporters.

"We prefer a diplomatic solution," he adds.

Image source, Reuters

Overnight and today, cross-border strikes between Israel and Hezbollah have continued, with the Lebanese health ministry reporting six more people have been killed in Beirut and the Israeli military claiming to have killed a senior Hezbollah commander.

Here's what you need to know from the last few hours:

• The IDF said earlier it had killed Hezbollah commander Muhammad al-Qubaisi, who headed missile and rocket systems
• It came hours after Israel said it had launched a "targeted" strike on Lebanon's capital Beirut, which killed six people and injured 15 others
• More than 560 people in Lebanon, including 50 children, have been killed in Israeli strikes since Monday, the ministry said
• Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes across Lebanon, and some are being housed in temporary displacement centres - including schools that have been closed amid the conflict
• People in Israel have also left their homes, with some heading to bomb shelters as air-raid sirens sound - with their Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying earlier that strikes against Hezbollah wouldn't stop
• And US President Biden, speaking at the UN General Assembly, said a "full-scale war" is not in "anyone's interest" - he added a diplomatic solution is still possible

Who runs Lebanon and how does Hezbollah fit inside the country?published at 18:10 British Summer Time 24 September

18:10 BST 24 September

Rami Ruhayem
BBC Arabic

No ‘one’ runs Lebanon.

Big decisions require consensus, and when that fails, the country is plagued by political paralysis. Currently, due to a lack of consensus, the presidency is vacant.

Hezbollah has a large paramilitary force but also participates in elections and government. It is among the largest and most popular parties in the country, but that is not reflected in the size of its parliamentary block.

Hezbollah and its Shia ally Amal have effective veto power over big decisions in Lebanon.

However, veto power over decision-making has long been a feature of the Lebanese system and is not an exclusive privilege held by Hezbollah/Amal.

Big coalitions that can claim a monopoly over representation of a major sect (Sunni, Shia, or Christian) often gain such power. Different parties can block major decisions, but no one party or coalition can force such decisions through.

Thousands of people have been fleeing southern Lebanon after intense Israeli strikes.

Israel has warned Lebanese civilians to evacuate areas where Hezbollah is storing weapons.

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

Also travelling to the UN General Assembly today is British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Speaking at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool earlier this afternoon, he called for "restraint and de-escalation" at the Lebanon-Israel border.

He urged both parties to "pull back from the brink" and reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, a return of the Israeli hostages held there, and a recommitment to the two-state solution.

"That's the message I will take to the UN General Assembly when I travel there later today," he said.

Nada Tawfik
Reporting from New York

Image source, EPA

President Joe Biden’s speech – his final one to this high-level gathering as President – was closely scrutinised for what he might say on how to prevent a wider war that engulfs the Middle East.

As he tried to cement his legacy at the United Nations, hanging over today was his administration’s inability to secure a ceasefire hostage deal in Gaza nearly a year on.

"I've met with the families of those hostages. I've grieved with them. They're going through hell. Innocent civilians in Gaza are also going through hell," Biden told the General Assembly.

"End this war," he added.

But for those looking for specifics or new ideas amidst the latest escalation in Lebanon, his remarks mainly reiterated the US’s long-standing positions.

Instead, the elder statesmen tried to strike a note of optimism that a diplomatic solution was still possible there and in other conflicts.

Because of all he’s seen and done during his decades long career, he said he knew there was a way forward even through the horrors of war, adding it always seems impossible until it’s done.

But whether it will get done under a lame duck presidency is still a major question mark, especially with an election looming.

Image source, Reuters

Let's turn our attention again to some international reaction to the escalating conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.

As we've been reporting, US President Joe Biden used his speech at the UN to warn that "a full-scale war is not in anyone’s interest."

Other leaders have also made their positions clear.

Turkish President Erdogan accused Israel of dragging the region into war and also took aim at the UN, saying "not only children but also the UN system is dying in Gaza".

Jordan's King Abdullah II warned that any forced displacement by Israel would be a "war crime".

And United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told world leaders that Lebanon was "on the brink", and that "the people of the world cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza."

Carine Torbey
BBC Arabic correspondent, in Beirut

Image source, Reuters

Lebanese minister Naser Yasine, head of the government's "emergency plan", tells me there are 28,000 displaced people currently taking shelter in public schools across the country.

He says a large number of people who have fled southern Lebanon are also staying in rented houses, at friends' homes or with relatives.

There are also several civil society initiatives to accommodate displaced people in empty properties, he says.

Lebanon's government has announced the closure of nurseries across the country until the end of the week.

Schools and universities will also be closed for the same period.

In recent days, schools have been turned into makeshift shelters for people fleeing conflict areas.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR says an employee and a contractor have been killed during Israeli strikes in Lebanon.

In a statement, the UNHCR says Dina Darwiche had been working at the agency for 12 years in eastern Lebanon and the building she and her family were living in was hit by an Israeli missile on Monday.

"Her husband and one of her children were rescued and are being treated in hospital for their serious injuries. Dina and her youngest son’s bodies were tragically recovered today," the statement says.

Ali Basma has been named as the contractor, who the agency says was buried earlier today after being confirmed dead on Monday. He had been working at the agency's office in Tyre for seven years.

"UNHCR is outraged by the killing of our colleagues, and we extend our deepest sympathies to their families and loved ones," the statement says.