Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi says the latest strikes on Lebanon are to prepare for the "possible entry" of troops
More than 90,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon since Monday, the UN says, as Israel's military says it is carrying out a new wave of "extensive" strikes in southern Lebanon and the Beqaa area
Fifty-one people have been killed in Israeli air strikes on Wednesday, Lebanon's health ministry says
Earlier, Israel said it had intercepted a ballistic missile fired by Hezbollah towards Tel Aviv - the first such rocket to target the city
Iran-backed Hezbollah says it is resisting Israeli "aggression" and acting in solidarity with Palestinians. Israel says it aims to remove the threat from Hezbollah
Since 8 October, there has been near-daily cross border fire between Israel and Hezbollah and around 70,000 people are displaced from northern Israel
In their latest update, the Lebanese health ministry says 558 people have been killed since Monday after Israeli strikes in the country.
Lebanese health minister Firass Abiad says of those killed, 50 were children.
As a reminder, Monday was the deadliest day in Lebanon since the end of the civil war in 1990.
Jeremy Bowen
International editor, reporting from Jerusalem
Hezbollah is far more powerful, by multiple factors, than Hamas: far better armed; far better trained; they fought for years in Syria for President Assad so they have plenty of experience.
And in the soft terrain of Gaza, Hamas have tunnels that are basically carved out of sand. In south Lebanon, where it is rocky and mountainous, there are undoubtedly Hezbollah networks of tunnels, but carved out of rock.
Israel are patting themselves on the back about this surprise attack as they would see it, but they are calculating that they will force Hezbollah into a position where they will not risk pushing any further or harder.
Will this mean Israel can achieve their stated ends to allow the more than 60,000 Israelis who are evacuated from their homes to go back to the north; to push Hezbollah back from the border and destroy their military infrastructure in that area?
So I think there are massive questions about Israel’s capacity to achieve all this, if Hezbollah continues to fire over the border into Israel.
Jeremy Bowen
International editor, reporting from Jerusalem
Israel has decided – as Prime Minister Netanyahu said last night – that they want to change the balance of power on their northern border and they are jubilant about what they have done.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant called these raids, which have killed so many people, a "masterpiece". But this is a gamble for Israel. They are calculating that they can coerce Hezbollah into not firing into Israel, by demonstrating that the price of continuing is extremely painful.
If they don’t succeed with that gamble – and in my judgement it would be unlikely – they will have to escalate further, perhaps up to and including sending troops and tanks over the border into Lebanon.
There have been plenty of complaints from Israeli reservists, who form the majority of the army, that they are getting exhausted. There has been a big uptick in violence in the West Bank, and a war in Gaza that continues after virtually a year.
So, could they go into something much bigger in Lebanon? I am certain their troops are well motivated, and they are certainly well equipped, but I think Israel’s technological and intelligence advantages won’t be nearly as marked in a ground war on Hezbollah’s own territory.
Paul Adams
Diplomatic correspondent, reporting from northern Israel
As Israel continues to mount its most aggressive campaign against Hezbollah since the war in 2006, the group’s response remains strangely muted.
Around 250 rockets were reportedly fired into northern Israel yesterday, a tiny fraction of what Hezbollah is capable of.
The group has so far refrained from using its larger and longer-range weapons.
It’s hardly the "open ended battle of reckoning" threatened on Sunday by Hezbollah’s deputy leader, Naim Qassem.
All of which begs the question of whether Hezbollah is unwilling or simply unable to unleash its larger arsenal.
An unnamed security official is quoted in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper saying that Israel has taken "a giant step forwards towards a different Middle East, one in which Hezbollah looks completely different".
Israel certainly feels it has dealt Hezbollah a series of spectacular blows over the last week. The group’s leadership has been assassinated and its command and control capabilities severely compromised.
It may just lack the ability to mount an effective response.
Or, quite possibly, Hezbollah and its Iranian backers have decided to conserve its firepower in the hope of riding out the current crisis.
As we've been reporting, thousands of people have had to flee their homes in southern Lebanon following the latest wave of Israeli strikes on Monday.
We can now bring you some pictures that show people travelling last night and arriving into the capital Beirut this morning.
Image source, EPAA road near the town of Ghazieh was seen gridlocked late on Monday as people made their way towards the cities of Sidon and Beirut
Image source, EPAA family unpacks their belongings after arriving at a makeshift shelter in an educational centre in Beirut
Image source, ReutersIn the city of Tyre, southern Lebanon, smoke could be seen rising in the aftermath of a strike on Tuesday morning
Orla Guerin
BBC News, reporting from Lebanon
Image source, Getty ImagesTraffic on the road into Beirut is very heavy – bumper-to-bumper on the approach to the city, and stretching some distance back along the motorway.
Many people are still fleeing the south, where Israeli bombardment has continued overnight.
We are on the road from the capital to the southern city of Tyre, a journey that would normally take an hour to an hour and a half.
We've just hit a traffic jam at the edge of the city of Sidon. The hold up is due to a Lebanese army checkpoint.
We saw one family of four on a motorbike, heading to the capital. They constructed a makeshift frame over their heads, to hold some of their belongings, which were covered in a pink blanket.
One man who reached Beirut this morning told us his journey from the south took 17 hours. He said that Israel had been bombing in places along the main road, forcing those fleeing to use smaller roads.
Meanwhile, inside Beirut there is less traffic than normal. Some businesses have opened but others have remained closed, while schools are being used as reception centres for those fleeing the bombing.
Image source, EPAMikati was Lebanon's richest man when he became prime minister again in 2021
Lebanon's Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, says he is heading to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly "in light of current developments" and to make further contacts.
Mikati had been due to attend the meeting, but on Saturday he cancelled the trip because of intensifying strikes in his country. This included strikes hitting the Lebanese capital Beirut on Friday as Israel said it targeted and killed a senior Hezbollah commander.
Mikati's New York trip means he is also cancelling the government cabinet meeting scheduled for today, a statement adds.
As our correspondent in northern Israel reported earlier, people there have been receiving alerts warning of rocket fire. The Israeli military has just shared more details, external of what's been happening.
It says dozens of rockets were fired into northern Israel between 09:30 and 09:45 local time.
First, five launches were detected and "some of them were intercepted and the rest fell in open areas," the Israel Defense Forces says.
Then, about 50 launches were detected in the Upper Galilee area, the IDF says. Most were intercepted but there has been some damage to buildings and firefighters are working to extinguish fires, it adds.
In a statement, Hezbollah says it bombed Qiryat Shmona "with a barrage of rockets".
Qiryat Shmona is in the Upper Galilee area in the far north of Israel.
Image source, EPAEarlier we reported that some flights to Beirut were being cancelled because of fears over passenger safety.
It now looks like some flights to Israel are also affected. British Airways says it has cancelled its flights to and from Tel Aviv up to and including Wednesday.
"Safety is always our top priority, and we're contacting customers to advise them of their travel options," BA says in a statement.
The Flight Radar flight tracking website shows, external that other airlines' flights to Tel Aviv - including Wizz Air and Azerbaijan Airlines - have also been cancelled.
In its most recent update on yesterday's air strikes, the Israeli military has said that throughout the day on Monday it hit around 1,600 sites across Lebanon.
The strikes were mostly concentrated in the south, but some reached up into the east and northeast of the country.
One hit a site only just south of the town of Hermel, around 130km (81 miles) north of the Israeli border.
The Lebanese health ministry says 492 people were killed, including 35 children, making Monday the deadliest day of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict since 2006.
Israel says it hit Hezbollah targets, but Lebanon says most of the sites were residential.
Image source, ReutersAn information board shows some cancelled flights at Beirut's airport on Tuesday morning
Qatar Airways says it has temporarily suspended flights to and from Beirut until tomorrow.
"The safety of our passengers remains our highest priority," it says, according to AFP news agency.
This morning, Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport's arrivals board shows several cancellations, including on Turkish Airlines routes from Istanbul, Air France from Paris and Royal Jordanian from Amman.
Germany's Lufthansa, Air France and Delta Air Lines have also suspended flights to Beirut in recent days with some carriers' services to Israel and Iran also affected, AFP reported.
Last week, Qatar Airways as well as Iran's national airline Homa banned passengers from taking pagers and walkie-talkies on flights to Beirut after the wave of device explosions.
Paul Adams
Diplomatic correspondent, reporting from northern Israel
Here in northern Israel, several alerts have been issued since the early morning.
From our vantage point, west of the Sea of Galilee, we can hear distant booms. It’s hard to tell whether these are incoming rockets being intercepted or the sound of Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon.
The Lebanese border is about twenty miles north of here.
In the last few minutes, the app on my phone tells me that rocket fire has been detected in Qiryat Shmona, in the far north.
Earlier, there were reports of rockets near Nahariya, over on the Mediterranean coast.
But in this area, last night was mostly quiet, the silence broken occasionally by the eerie sound of prowling jackals.
Image source, ReutersA man picks up students after some schools closed early, in Beirut, Lebanon, on Monday
More schools in northern Israel are closing today, the Times of Israel is reporting., external
Earlier this week, schools in the Haifa area and northwards closed, but more are now closing in other towns where rocket fire has been reported along the northern border, it said.
Meanwhile, Lebanon's education ministry said all schools would stay shut.
As we reported yesterday, public schools have not started for the school year yet, while private ones in many areas of the country have been asked to suspend classes starting today.
Some schools in Beirut and elsewhere are now instead being used as shelters for people who have fled their homes from the south of Lebanon.
Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent, in Beirut
Image source, EPAVehicles queue to get fuel at a gas station in Beirut
All night, people were still trying to reach Beirut, leaving towns and villages in southern Lebanon. We met families who were carrying only a few bags with some belongings. Many stopped by the main road to Beirut, waiting to be taken to temporary shelters.
The widespread Israeli airstrikes, which hit areas in the south, east and, for the time, the north of the country, resulted in the deadliest day in Lebanon since at least 2006 - the last time Hezbollah and Israel fought a war.
Thousands of people have been displaced, according to the government, a number that is likely to go up as the Israeli strikes continue. Even before this latest escalation, tens of thousands had already been forced to leave their homes along the border, amid intense cross-border attacks.
Hezbollah, the powerful and heavily armed militia and political party supported by Iran has been weakened - but remains a powerful force. It has not yet deployed its more sophisticated weapons, including precision guided missiles that can strike deep inside Israel.
The group has remained defiant, saying that its attacks on Israel are going to continue until there is a ceasefire in Gaza. And Israel has indicated that this is just the beginning of its campaign, which could include a ground invasion of southern Lebanon to push fighters away from the border.
This means that many here now face the real possibility of never being able to return home.
In the last few minutes, the Israel Defense Forces have posted a message online, saying that during the night rockets were fired from Lebanon towards the Afula area and the valleys in northern Israel.
The IDF says they attacked the rocket launchers and said their fighter jets also attacked "dozens" of Hezbollah targets in several areas in southern Lebanon.
Israel says they believe they struck buildings storing weapons, because "secondary explosions were observed".
Overnight, sirens warning of Hezbollah rocket fire sounded across northern Israel.
The Lebanon-based group says it launched rockets at Israeli military sites near the port city of Haifa and two bases in retaliation for yesterday's attacks.
Those attacks, the deadliest day in the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel since 2006, hit 1,300 targets across Lebanon and killed nearly 500 people.
Image source, EPAPeople who fled from southern Lebanon stay in their cars in Beirut
Our live coverage is resuming, after Monday marked the deadliest day of the cross-border conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon since 2006.
Israel's military says it hit around 1,600 Hezbollah targets in an operation to destroy infrastructure, sites and weapons belonging to the armed group.
Lebanon's health ministry says the strikes killed at least 492 people, including 35 children, and wounded more than 1,600. Thousands of people have been fleeing the bombing and heading north.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, fired more than 200 rockets into northern Israel, according to Israel Defense Forces. Two people were injured by shrapnel, paramedics say.
What's happening this morning? Early on Tuesday, the IDF said it had detected 20 launches from Lebanon overnight. It added it had attacked "dozens" of Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
We'll have more details on those overnight developments in our next few posts, and we'll continue to bring you more on the situation this morning when we have it.
At least 492 people have been killed and more than 1,645 injured in Israeli air strikes on Lebanon, the health ministry says, marking the deadliest day of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict since 2006. Here's some of the key developments from today:
We're pausing our coverage shortly, but you can continue reading more here.
Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has significantly escalated over the past 11 months, but the conflict intensified last week, when thousands of communication devices exploded almost simultaneously across southern Lebanon.
Dozens of people were killed and thousands were injured in the blasts. Many of the wounded had serious injuries - one Lebanese eye specialist told the BBC he treated more eye injuries in one night than in his entire career.
Hezbollah has blamed Israel for the attacks. Israel has not responded directly, but on Wednesday Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant announced "a new phase in the war".
Nafiseh Kohnavard
BBC Persian Middle East correspondent, in Beirut
We're in front of one of the schools in Beirut that has been receiving displaced people from the south.
It’s pretty crowded. Cars are arriving one after another, most of them packed with women and children.
“It’s a tough day. This is the first wave of people and we expect more as people are still stuck on the roads,” Dr Rami Najem, a volunteer in charge of accommodating people at this school, tells me.
According to Dr Rami, they have already received about 600 people since this afternoon “but definitely the number will go higher".
Roads from the south towards Beirut are blocked by traffic jamming as thousands left their homes in panic.
Dr Rami says since 8 October - the day that the exchange of fire between Hezbollah and Israeli army started on the Lebanon-Israel border - there were some emergency planes drafted by the government in coordination with rapid response teams, volunteers and other aid organisations.
“But plans and preparations is something. The reality on the ground and executing those plans are something else," he adds.
“We have enough mattresses and blankets for people to sleep but there is no food and not enough water for these people right now".
Only a couple of hours before our interview, Israeli jets hit a building in Dahieh, a Hezbollah’s stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut, not far from this school.
I ask Dr Rami if people can feel safe here. "We don’t know what will happen next if this school itself will be safe," he says.