Summary

  • 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

Live Reporting

Edited by Aoife Walsh, with Hugo Bachega & Nafiseh Kohnavard reporting from Beirut

  1. In pictures: Thousands flee as Israel intensifies Lebanon attacks

    Israeli bombardments are continuing in southern Lebanon, including around the coastal city of Tyre. Thousands of residents are reportedly fleeing the region towards Beirut.

    Here are the latest pictures coming into the newsroom:

    Dozens of cars in a traffic jam on a motorwayEPA

    Lebanese people seen fleeing in cars from southern Lebanon towards Sidon and Beirut

    People looking out the back of a truckReuters

    People in heavy traffic driving north from Lebanon's southern coastal city Sidon

    People watching plumes of smoke rising above buildings in Tyre, LebanonReuters

    People watching plumes of smoke rising above buildings in Tyre, southern Lebanon

    Smokes rise, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Tyre, southern Lebanon September 23, 2024.Reuters

    More smoke rising this afternoon in Tyre after air strikes

  2. Your Questions Answered

    Your Questions Answered coming up shortly

    Not long to go until our correspondents begin answering your questions on the latest developments in the Lebanon-Israel conflict.

    You'll be able to watch live above from 15:30 BST by clicking the play button at the top of this page.

    The BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner, chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet, as well as our correspondents Lina Sinjab in Beirut and Daniel De Simone in Jerusalem, will be live on air.

  3. IDF says it has attacked 800 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon

    Daniel De Simone
    Reporting from Jerusalem

    The IDF has attacked about 800 targets of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa region of Lebanon today, its spokesman says.

  4. Israel facing complicated days ahead, says Netanyahu

    Benjamin Netanyahu during a press conference for the international media at the Government Press office in Jerusalem, 04 September 2024EPA

    Netanyahu, pictured earlier this month, says he "promised" he would change the security balance in the north

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has just been speaking and is warning that "complicated days" lie ahead for the country.

    His remarks came after a meeting at the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv where he stressed that Israel does not wait for threats but instead "pre-empts" them - referring to his country's recent strikes on southern Lebanon.

    "I promised that we would change the security balance, the balance of power in the north - that is exactly what we are doing," he says.

  5. Analysis

    IDF will not consider sending ground troops into Lebanon lightly

    Frank Gardner
    Security correspondent

    The Israeli Air Force is currently trying to destroy much of Hezbollah’s arsenal now. But even it succeeds in the short-term, without a comprehensive ceasefire deal it will never be entirely safe for Israeli citizens to return to their evacuated homes in the north.

    Sending in Israeli ground troops is not something the IDF will contemplate lightly. It spent 18 unhappy years in Lebanon, from 1982-2000, and eventually withdrew when its casualties became intolerable.

    Even its brief incursion in 2006 caused painful losses. Hezbollah knows this, which is partly why it is now vowing defiance and resilience.

  6. Analysis

    Will air power alone work for Israel?

    Frank Gardner
    Security correspondent

    Will the combination of Israeli air power and its formidable intelligence apparatus be enough for Israel to achieve its aims in this conflict?

    Despite the robust language coming from the PM’s office, that Hezbollah’s leadership would “soon get the message”, military success is not a foregone conclusion here.

    In the last full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah, in 2006, the commander of the Israeli Air Force confidently predicted that his warplanes could inflict enough damage on the Iran-backed militia that a ground incursion would not be necessary.

    That turned out not to be the case. In the end the IDF had to send in tanks and infantry into southern Lebanon and some tough fighting ensued. The war ended inconclusively.

    Some things have changed since then. Hezbollah has spent the ensuing 18 years rearming, building up a massive arsenal of between 100 and 150,000 missiles, rockets and drones, some of which are precision-guided and powerful enough to hit targets all over Israel.

    Map showing locations of Israeli air strikes on Lebanon

  7. 'It's a metre from life to death' - Israeli man whose home was hit by rocket

    Paul Adams
    Diplomatic correspondent, reporting from northern Israel

    A man with a white shirt staring ahead

    David Yitzhak's house in Givat Avni was damaged in a strike

    David Yitzhak was on the phone outside his house in northern Israel just before 13:00 local time (11:00 BST) when the siren sounded.

    He says he gathered his wife and six-year-old daughter and took them upstairs to the safe room inside their home in Givat Avni.

    Seconds later, an explosion rocked the house as a rocket tore through the roof, sending masonry flying and wrecking the bathroom. Behind the solid door of the nearby safe room, the family was safe.

    “It’s a metre from life to death,” Yitzhak tells me.

    He says he feels no animosity towards the people of Lebanon. But Hezbollah started the war, he says, for no reason.

    “So now we are giving back. And it will be ok.”

    Damaged timber and rocket debris next to a house

    The outside of a house hit by a rocket in Givat Avni

  8. Classrooms stacked with mattresses for displaced families

    Carine Torbey
    BBC Arabic correspondent, in Beirut

    A classroom in a public school in west Beirut is being prepared to shelter people fleeing their homes and towns in the Bekaa Valley and the south of Lebanon. Many schools - like this one in Bir Hasan - across the country are also preparing to receive families.

    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 tomorrow.

    There are expectations that this building could become full by the end of the day.

    An empty classroom in Lebanon

    A classroom in Bir Hasan, the west part of Beirut, has been emptied to make room for citizens seeking shelter

    Mattresses in school classroom in Lebanon

    Instead of desks and students, it's now filling up with mattresses ahead of the arrival of displaced families from the south

  9. Schools in Lebanon to be used as shelters

    Lebanon's government has announced that schools across parts of the country will be opened as shelters for civilians who have evacuated from the south.

    Lebanese media report that buildings in Beirut, Tripoli, eastern and southern Lebanon are being opened for displaced people, according to a statement from Lebanon's Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi.

    Following an emergency government meeting today, Environment Minister Nasser Yassin said schools in Mount Lebanon, Sidon and Tyre were among those which had been opened, and all government departments were coordinating to help those affected.

  10. Analysis

    Israel focusing on air campaign rather than ground invasion in Lebanon

    Paul Adams
    Diplomatic correspondent, reporting from Jerusalem

    A general view of the skyline with mountains in the background and smoke billowing from rockets being fired over buildings in the foregroundReuters

    Smoke billows over buildings, as seen from Tyre in southern Lebanon

    Israel’s defence minister says his military’s strikes on Lebanon are "deepening".

    Less than a week after Hezbollah pagers started exploding all over Lebanon, it's clear that Israel is determined to accelerate the momentum of its campaign, keeping Hezbollah on the back foot in the hope of realising the government’s aim of returning civilians to homes evacuated along the northern border.

    First the pagers and the walkie talkies (actions Israel has yet to take credit for). Then, the assassination of a senior Hezbollah commander, coupled with air strikes on rocket launchers across southern Lebanon.

    Now, in a move reminiscent of the warnings given to civilians in Gaza to move out of harm's way, Israel is telling Lebanese villagers to leave places where they believe Hezbollah is concealing its bigger weapons.

    We were shown video of an air strike in which Israel says it destroyed a modified Russian cruise missile, hidden inside a house.

    But military officials insist that, unlike Gaza, the warnings do not represent the threat of an imminent ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

    "We are currently focusing on Israel’s aerial campaign only," a senior official has said.

    It seems that for now, Israel will see what it can achieve from the air.

  11. Lebanese PM accuses Israel of carrying out 'war of extermination'

    A man in a blue shirt sits in an armchair and gestures with his hands, with a bookcase behind himEPA

    Lebanon's prime minister has called Israel's strikes on his country a "destructive plan that aims to destroy Lebanese villages and towns".

    Speaking at a briefing with Lebanon's cabinet earlier this morning, Najib Mikati said Israel's actions marked "a war of extermination in every sense of the word".

    Mikati cancelled his trip to the annual UN General Assembly in New York but urged the meeting to take action to "deter aggression".

    Israel says it is "broadening" its strikes against Hezbollah. Earlier, IDF spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said its military is preparing to strike "terrorist targets" in the Bekaa Valley region, an area in north-eastern Lebanon, and that every house it strikes "contains weapons".

  12. Analysis

    How deadly will Israeli air strikes in Lebanon become?

    Daniel De Simone
    Reporting from Jerusalem

    Before today, the UN had said 90,000 people had been displaced in southern Lebanon due to the current conflict.

    Israel’s leadership has repeatedly stated they will achieve their war goal of returning home 60,000 people displaced in northern Israel due to Hezbollah rocket fire. That goal has not been met, as Hezbollah is still firing rockets.

    According to the IDF, the goal requires degrading Hezbollah’s ability to fire rockets, pushing its fighters back from the border and destroying infrastructure built by Hezbollah.

    People are now asking how more extensive and deadly will these air strikes become, and will they be followed by a ground offensive into southern Lebanon by Israeli forces?

  13. Analysis

    Deadliest day in Lebanon in almost year-long conflict

    Daniel De Simone
    Reporting from Jerusalem

    It is mid-afternoon here, but it is already the deadliest day in Lebanon during the almost year-long conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

    Israeli warplanes have been carrying out extensive air strikes in southern Lebanon, where the ministry of health says 182 people have been killed by air raids on towns and villages. The Israel Defense Forces are warning of significant strikes in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon’s north-east, which are reportedly now under way.

    This morning the IDF, through its spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said Hezbollah had “militarised civilian infrastructure” and “turned southern Lebanon into a battlefield”.

    He advised “civilians from Lebanese villages located in and next to buildings and areas used by Hezbollah for military purpose” to immediately move out of harm’s way for their own safety.

    This was an unambiguous statement of how Israel sees swathes of Lebanon but for residents of those areas, there was no clarity about where they should go or whether the particular villages they live in would be targeted.

  14. Lebanon raises death toll to 182
    Breaking

    We've had another update through from Lebanon's ministry of health.

    It says 182 people have been killed and 727 wounded, "including children, women and paramedics" in the strikes in southern Lebanon since this morning.

  15. Israel says it is 'broadening strikes' in Bekaa Valley

    Daniel Hagari giving a briefingIDFSpokesperson/X

    Hagari says Hezbollah is lying to people and putting them in danger

    We've just listened to a briefing from the IDF on the latest air strikes.

    Spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari says the Israeli air force has hit more than 300 targets so far today, adding that "every house that we strike contains weapons".

    And he says the Israeli military is now "systematically broadening our strikes against Hezbollah".

    He says the IDF is preparing to strike "terrorist targets" in the Bekaa Valley region soon, an area in north-eastern Lebanon which has already seen strikes.

    He urges people who are near houses where weapons are being stored to move away, adding: "Hezbollah intends to launch these weapons toward Israel, and we will not allow it! Stay away for your own protection."

  16. Your Questions Answered

    What questions do you want answered?

    Banner for get in touch

    Our correspondents are going to be answering your questions later.

    The BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner and chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet, as well as Lina Sinjab in Beirut and Daniel De Simone in Jerusalem, will be live on air from 15:30 BST - you can watch above.

    If you have questions you’d like to ask about what’s happening in the region, you can get in touch in the following ways:

  17. Risk of conflict tipping into wider Middle East looms large

    Raffi Berg
    Digital Middle East editor

    Houthis in Yemen hold protest over the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh (02/08/24)EPA

    Houthis - a part of Iran's Axis of Resistance in Yemen - hold a protest over the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh

    As fighting between Israel and Hezbollah intensifies, it carries with it the potential to draw in other forces in the Middle East.

    On Sunday, an alliance of pro-Iranian militias, called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI), said it had fired a cruise missile and attack drones at Israel in what it called "a new phase in our support front" with Lebanon. They were intercepted without causing injuries.

    IRI operates in Iraq and Syria and has stepped up its attacks on Israel - and US bases in the region - since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023.

    The group is backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) - Iran's most powerful armed force - and is part of what Iran calls its Axis of Resistance.

    The axis is a kind of pact developed by Iran across the Middle East over decades and includes groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, IRI and other militias in Iraq and Syria, the Houthis in Yemen, and the state of Syria, to confront Israel and oppose the presence in the region of the US - Israel's key ally.

    The more the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah deepens, the greater the risk that axis forces will become involved on Hezbollah's side.

    Should that happen, Israel is likely to strike at those forces wherever they are based.

  18. Where have Israeli air strikes hit in Lebanon?

    Israel has launched one of the most intense waves of attacks on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon since the conflict between the two began intensifying on 8 October 2023.

    The Israeli military said mid-morning that it had hit more than 300 Hezbollah sites, which Lebanon says has killed at least 100 people and wounded hundreds more.

    The map below shows where some of those air strikes have hit, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA).

    Map showing locations on airstrikes in Lebanon

  19. Anxious parents in Beirut rush to pick children up from school

    Issa picking his child up from school in Beirut, LebanonReuters

    Schools in Beirut and parts of southern Lebanon have been closed for today and tomorrow

    More now on those evacuation warnings, which have been reported as far north as Beirut.

    Parents in Lebanon's capital have spent the day rushing to pick up their children from school after receiving voice messages and texts that warn them to leave the area.

    One parent, called Issa, has taken his son out of school and tells Reuters news agency: "[We're here] because of the phone calls.

    "They’re calling everyone and threatening people by phone. So we’re here to take my boy from school. The situation is not reassuring."

  20. Israel made more than 80,000 phone warnings, says Lebanon

    A person holds a phone with a message written in ArabicGetty Images

    A message that warns the receiver that they are near a Hezbollah building and they should stay away from the village is seen in Beirut on Monday

    People in southern Lebanon say they've been receiving text and voice messages warning them to stay away from buildings used by Hezbollah. The country's information minister says his office has also received one of those phone messages.

    According to Lebanon's state-owned telecoms company Ogero, there were more than 80,000 of these call attempts made.

    The head of Ogero tells Reuters news agency that the calls were a form of "psychological warfare to make havoc and chaos" from Israel.