The Lebanese health ministry says 51 people were killed across the country on Sunday by Israeli air strikes. Another 174 were injured, the ministry adds.

Twenty-two of those killed were in the Mount Lebanon region, in the north of the country, while 10 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the southern Nabatieh region.

Five others were killed and one wounded in a raid on the village of Maifadoun, west of Beaufort Castle.

Image source, EPA

The Israeli military says sirens warning of incoming rockets have sounded around the Haifa area this morning, with at least one "projectile" falling in an open area.

Hezbollah has repeatedly targeted Haifa, a port city home to a quarter of a million people. Last week, rockets struck the city, the first such incident since the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war.

Last night, four Israeli soldiers were killed in a drone strike on a military base in Binyamina, a town 20 miles (33km) south of Haifa.

An Israeli attack on a school being used as a shelter in central Gaza has killed at least 22 people, including 15 children, according to officials in the territory.

The Hamas-run Civil Defence Agency says another 80 people were injured by the strike on the Nuseirat camp on Sunday.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not commented but has previously said Hamas uses civilian shelters as military bases.

Meanwhile, medical staff say a separate strike on al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza killed four people, leaving 40 others wounded.

Israel says the hospital was being used as a command centre by Hamas militants, which the group denies.

Image source, Reuters

Wyre Davies
Reporting from Jerusalem

Throughout Sunday evening, television bulletins, social media posts and online reports showed footage of emergency vehicles, including helicopters, taking casualties hospitals across northern Israel.

Israeli censorship rules initially prevented media outlets saying exactly where or what was hit. But eventually, an army spokesman said the target was an army base in Binyamina.

The spokesman said that four soldiers were killed, in what is one of the biggest attacks against an Israeli position since the start of the war more than a year ago.

A low-level drone, or UAV, launched from Lebanon is thought to have been used in the attack - a relatively unsophisticated weapon that appears not to have activated early warning alarms.

Some details are still scarce but many of the injured were said to have been in a communal canteen at the time and were caught completely by surprise.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, REX/Shutterstock

The UN is accusing Israel of forcing its way into a peacekeeping base in southern Lebanon – the latest in a growing number of encounters between the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) and Israeli forces.

According to Unifil, two Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tanks destroyed the base’s main gate on Sunday and later fired rounds nearby – causing smoke to enter the camp that left 15 peacekeepers with skin irritations and gastrointestinal reactions.

The IDF says it encroached on a Unifil position in order to evacuate injured soldiers.

Israel has repeatedly urged the peacekeeping force to withdraw from areas of southern Lebanon - where fighting was taking place. Unifil has so far refused these requests.

Nearly 10,000 UN peacekeepers from 50 countries are stationed in Lebanon, alongside around 800 civilian staff.

Since 1978, they have patrolled the area between the Litani River and the UN-recognised boundary between Lebanon and Israel known as the "Blue Line".

Image source, Getty Images

Four soldiers were killed and dozens more wounded by a drone strike on a military base in northern Israel on Sunday night, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says.

The attack hit a base near Binyamina, a town around 20 miles (33km) south of Haifa. More than 50 soldiers were injured.

Hezbollah, the Iran-backed armed group, said it carried out the attack, saying it was targeting a training camp of the IDF's Golani Brigade in the area, which is based between Haifa and Tel Aviv.

The attack, the armed group says, was in response to deadly strikes by Israel in southern Lebanon and the capital Beirut.

Good morning. If you're just waking up, here's the latest from Israel, Lebanon, Gaza, and beyond.

• On Sunday night, four Israeli soldiers were killed by a Hezbollah drone strike on a military base in Binyamina, south of Haifa. More than 50 other soldiers were injured

• Israel has continued its offensive in Gaza, with at least 15 people killed in an attack on a school sheltering hundreds of displaced Palestinians on Sunday. The Israel Defense Forces have not commented - but have previously accused Hamas of using civilian shelters as military bases
• At the Israel-Lebanon border, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) says Israeli tanks forced their way into a main gate of one of their positions. The organisation says rounds were later fired toward the camp, causing minor injuries to 15 peacekeepers. The IDF has offered a different version of events - and says it approached the Unfil camp to evacuate two "seriously injured" soldiers.

Stay with us for news, analysis, and on-the-ground reporting from around the region.

Matt Murphy
Live editor

We're now pausing our live coverage. Here are the main stories from the Middle East today.

• The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) has said the main gate of one of its positions has been "destroyed" by two Israeli tanks
• 15 peacekeepers have reportedly been injured by smoke from rounds fired by Israeli tanks following the incident, the statement said, which took place in the early hours of Sunday morning
• The clash follows the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's latest demand that the UN withdraw its peacekeeping force from southern Lebanon, where several members of the multinational force have been injured in recent days
• In a speech posted to social media, Netanyahu said Unifil must to withdraw from the area, claiming its forces were being used as "hostages" by Hezbollah
• Meanwhile, the US says it will send fresh air defence batteries to Israel to shield it from what the Pentagon called "unprecedented attacks"
• Elsewhere, in Gaza, images this morning showed displaced Palestinians fleeing the north with evacuation orders issued for the area over the last week. In a statement this morning, the IDF said it attacked 40 targets in the Gaza Strip in the preceding 24 hours
• According to the daily update from the Hamas-run health ministry, at least 42,227 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 7 last year.

We'll be pausing our coverage shortly but you can read further analysis of the situation in northern Gaza and more on Unifil's statement in our news story.

The Biden administration will temporarily send a ground-based interceptor to Israel which will help shoot down ballistic missiles, a US official confirms to the BBC's US partner CBS News.

This anti-missile system is described as a way to “strengthen Israel’s defences against ballistic missiles” and any “future ballistic missile attack from Iran”.

The US previously sent a Thaad defence system to the Middle-East after the Hamas-led October 7 attacks. It also sent the system to Israel in 2019 for military exercises.

Riam El Dalati
BBC News, in Lebanon

Israeli airstrikes in Tamnine, near the Lebanese capital Beirut, forced the temporary closure of its 45-bed hospital following damage it sustained last night.

General Manager Hassan Suleiman told the BBC that the hospital would temporarily shut its operations for 48 hours, enough time for repair crews bring essential services back online following Israeli airstrikes.

"The airstrikes began around 8 or 9 in the evening. The bombing had been ongoing for the past 2 weeks, but they were particularly violent last night," he told the BBC.

Suleiman said three airstrikes landed extremely close to hospital's perimeter, the last of which did the most damage. "It struck an abandoned, decrepit farm just short of 100 meters from the hospital. The damage sustained took the entire hospital offline," Suleiman said.

"Previously, Israeli had used the pretext of bombing Hezbollah targets. What's left of those now? There's nothing left. This is just plain barbarism," he added. Lebanon's Ministry of Public Health said four people were injured in the hospital following the airstrikes.

Iraq's Foreign Minister says Baghdad is against a regional war spreading to Iran.

"The continuation of the war and its expansion towards the Islamic Republic of Iran and (Israel's) exploitation of Iraqi airspace as a corridor is completely unacceptable and rejected," Fuad Hussein says.

He made the comments at a joint news conference with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, at the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the capital.

Image source, EPA

At least 42,227 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 7 2023, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Meanwhile, the statement adds that 98,464 others have been injured.

Hospitals in Gaza have reported 52 deaths and 128 injuries over the past 24 hours, according to a daily briefing given by the health ministry.

In a statement published this afternoon, the ministry has referred to "many" dead and wounded in the streets and under rubble where ambulance crews cannot get to them.

It adds that the Kamal Adwan Hospital has received "small quantities" of fuel following "several attempts" to bring some in.

Meanwhile, the Baptist Hospital is appealing for blood donations.

It comes amid another Israeli offensive on northern Gaza.

The statement further says that the start of the second round of polio vaccinations will begin tomorrow. As a reminder, this forms part of a wider rollout which was initiated following a confirmed case earlier this year - the first confirmed case for 25 years in Gaza.

In the last few moments we've been reporting on a Unifil statement that Israeli tanks have destroyed the main gate of a peacekeeping compound in southern Lebanon.

The statement further says that Israeli troops stopped a "critical Unifil logistical movement" yesterday near Meiss el Jebel, south of Beirut.

The organisation said that it seeks to "remind" the IDF of obligations regarding the safety of UN personnel and property. Around 10,000 UN peacekeepers are serving in Lebanon.

More now from the Unifil statement, which has accused Israeli forces of destroying the gates of one of its compounds in southern Lebanon.

The statement says the incident occurred early this morning at a UN position in Ramiya. At approximately 04:30 local time, while peacekeepers were in shelters, two Israeli Merkava tanks "destroyed the position’s main gate and forcibly entered" the facility. Israeli troops then "requested multiple times that the base turn out its lights".

The statement says the tanks left around 45 minutes later after Unifil "protested through our liaison mechanism, saying that IDF presence was putting peacekeepers in danger".

At approximately 06:40 local time, Unifil says, peacekeepers at the same position reported the firing of several rounds 100 meters north, which emitted smoke.

"Fifteen peacekeepers suffered effects, including skin irritation and gastrointestinal reactions, after the smoke entered the camp."

"The peacekeepers are receiving treatment," the statement adds.

Image source, Getty Images

Two Israeli tanks "destroyed" the main gate of a United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) position in the south of the country this morning, the force says in a statement.

Israeli troops then "forcibly entered the position," the statement on Telegram adds.

Israel has yet to comment on the allegations, but it comes just hours after PM Benjamin Netanyahu again urged UN forces to withdraw from the border area.

We will bring you more developments from this shortly.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call to remove UN peacekeepers from the border.

Netanyahu made the demands earlier on Sunday, adding that it should be done "immediately".

Mikati described the call as a “new chapter in the enemy’s approach of not complying with international norms”.

Clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces have intensified in recent days with a number of UN peacekeepers injured. Some 40 countries have strongly condemned the attacks on peacekeepers in Lebanon.

Image source, Reuters

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says his country is ready for a “war situation”.

Speaking while on a visit to Baghdad, he said: “We are fully prepared for a war situation. We are not afraid of war, but we do not want war, we want peace.”

He added that Iran would “work for a just peace in Gaza and Lebanon”.

The foreign minister is in Iraq to discuss efforts to stop the wars in Lebanon and Gaza.

Nafiseh Kohnavard
Reporting from Beirut

The face of the Beirut has completely changed.

Streets are packed with cars, some parked in the middle of boulevards.

Hundreds fleeing Israeli operations in the south of the country have fled to the capital’s suburbs, sheltering in schools in “safer” neighbourhoods. Many have found themselves sleeping on the streets.

On the motorway towards the airport and the south, billboards show Hassan Nasrallah’s face. Both pro- and anti-Hezbollah people tell me these feel surreal.

In other areas, posters that previously read “Lebanon doesn’t want war” now say “Pray for Lebanon”.

The city’s iconic Martyrs’ Square - usually host to protests and huge Christmas celebrations - has turned into a tent city.

Makeshift homes stretch from the square all the way down to the sea.

Most of the families here are Syrian refugees, who’ve found themselves displaced again and barred from shelters which are limited to Lebanese nationals. Many Lebanese families have found themselves homeless too.

Just over a kilometre away, 26-year-old Nadine is trying to take her mind off everything for a few hours. She’s one of very few customers at Aaliya’s Books, a bookshop-bar in Beirut’s Gemmayze neighbourhood.

“I don’t feel safe any more,” she tells me. “We keep hearing explosions all night.

• BBC Persian's Middle East correspondent Nafiseh Kohnavard's full report from Beirut is here.

Wyre Davies
Reporting from Jerusalem

Several reports in Israeli media today suggest the United States is considering transferring an advanced missile defence system, known as THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defence), to Israel.

The system, specifically designed to intercept high altitude ballistic missiles, would add to Israel’s already sophisticated multi-layered missile defence capability. That has been repeatedly deployed with a high level of success against rockets, projectiles and missiles fired from Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.

It is the prospect of conflict with Iran escalating into a wider regional war that has prompted more talk of THAAD being deployed.

Israel is soon expected to respond to Iran’s unprecedented launch of 180 missiles against Israel earlier this month. Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has promised a strike against Iran will be "lethal, precise and surprising".

If president Biden were to approve sending the mobile THAAD system to Israel, from one of the US military bases in the region, it would reportedly require numerous American military personnel to operate the system.

Although the US is already deeply involved in this conflict, supplying much of Israel’s heavy and sophisticated weaponry, the prospect of American military “boots on the ground” would underline just how reliant Israel has become on US military support.