Nafiseh Kohnavard
BBC Persian Middle East correspondent, in Beirut

Image source, Nafiseh Kohnavard BBC

Thick smoke rises from several locations Dahieh southern suburb of Beirut this morning.

I can see from my window overlooking towards the area that some places are still burning. Israel’s air strikes continued until almost sunrise.

All last night I heard loud explosions. The blasts were heavy. My Lebanese army contact says in most of air strikes, Israel has used bunker buster bombs.

“It is clear that they wanted to pretreat possible tunnels underneath," they said.

Search and rescue operations in several attack sites continue. Many displaced people from the area had to sleep in the streets last night.

There are still conflicting reports regarding the fate of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

The group’s media office has not denied or confirmed rumours about that he might have been killed, although some Iranian Revolutionary Guards-linked media have claimed that they have confirmation that he is “alive and in a safe place”.

But some other people close to Hezbollah have posted on X asking supporters to “pray for their leader’s safety.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it detected 10 rockets launched from Lebanon early on Saturday, after sirens had been triggered in Israel's Upper Galilee region.

Some of the rockets were intercepted, the statement said, without mentioning any damage or injuries.

"The IDF continues to attack, damage and degrade Hezbollah's military capabilities and infrastructure in Lebanon," it said in a statement.

Aoife Walsh
Live page editor

Image source, Reuters

Israel targeted Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a series of huge air strikes on Beirut on Friday, a US official told the BBC's partner CBS News. However, an Israeli official said it was too early to say if Nasrallah had been hit.

The US official also said Washington had "no indication" of Nasrallah's fate.

The air strike hit several buildings in Dahieh, Hezbollah’s stronghold in the south of the city. An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman said a "very accurate" strike had been carried out on Hezbollah headquarters.

In its latest update, Lebanon's health ministry said at least six people had been killed in Friday's strikes and 91 injured.

The air strikes came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a speech at the UN general assembly in New York, where he vowed to continue attacking Hezbollah, despite international calls for a temporary ceasefire. His office on Friday said he was cutting his visit to New York short and returning to Israel.

In the early hours of this morning, Israel's military said its forces were attacking Hezbollah targets in Beirut, not long after the IDF urged residents in several southern suburbs to evacuate immediately.

Images overnight showed plumes of smoke stretching across Beirut's skyline, as displaced people sought shelter in the capital's Martyrs' Square.

We'll continue to bring you the latest developments and analysis here.

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, whose forces had occupied southern Lebanon during the country's 1975-1990 civil war.

It has received strong backing from Iran, both financially and militarily, for many years. It is also a strong ally of the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

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 cross-border raid by Hezbollah.

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?

The Israeli military has said that it killed the commander of Hezbollah’s missile unit in southern Lebanon, named as Muhammad Ali Ismail, and his deputy, Hussein Ahmad Ismail, in an air strike.

Ali Ismail was behind "numerous" attacks on Israel, it said, "including the firing of rockets toward Israeli territory and the launch of a surface-to-surface missile toward central Israel on Wednesday".

No further details of the strike were given.

Some more pictures are coming in now of massive explosions in Beirut, as Israeli air strikes continue. Displaced people from Dahieh and southern Lebanon are now on the city centre's streets:

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

The EU foreign affairs chief says no power, including the US, can "stop" Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.

Josep Borrell told reporters in New York that "what we do is to put all diplomatic pressure to a ceasefire, but nobody seems to be able to stop Netanyahu, neither in Gaza nor in the West Bank".

Borrell said Netanyahu had made clear that the Israelis "don't stop until Hezbollah is destroyed".

"If the interpretation of being destroyed is the same as with Hamas, then we are going to go for a long war," he said, quoted by AFP news agency. He backed a US-French call for a 21-day ceasefire.

Nafiseh Kohnavard
BBC Persian Middle East correspondent, in Beirut

Image source, Nafiseh Kohnavard

I can see several columns of smoke and fire rising from Dahieh. Every few minutes a new air strike can be heard.

Many families had to immediately leave and most of them have no refuge right now. Streets of downtown Beirut and the city’s popular seaside street are full of displaced families from Dahieh.

This is while many people who had fled heavy Israeli air strikes on southern Lebanon in the past few days, and had relatives in Dahieh, had taken refuge in their houses. But it seems now both hosts and guests share the same fate.

The Israeli army spokesperson keeps issuing warnings on X announcing new locations in that neighbourhood, asking civilians near those areas to “immediately” leave their houses for their “own safety”.

As air strikes continue, one of my neighbours has texted me saying: “Beirut is becoming new Gaza.”

Constant Israeli drone buzzing can be heard over Beirut, as well as ambulance sirens that are rushing towards the bombed areas.

The US has "no indication" of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's status after he was reportedly targeted in Israeli strikes on Beirut, an official has told the BBC's US partner, CBS News.

The official also could not confirm Lebanese media reports claiming other senior Hezbollah leaders were killed.

The US was concerned about the possibility of either side escalating the conflict further, the official said, adding that Washington had no advanced notice of the strike.

Huge Beirut strike leaves West powerless as Israel chases victorypublished at 02:07 British Summer Time 28 September

02:07 BST 28 September

Jeremy Bowen
International Editor, in Jerusalem

The Americans have very few levers to use against any side.

They cannot, by law, talk to Hezbollah and Hamas as they are classified as foreign terrorist organisations. With the US elections only weeks away, they are even less likely to put pressure on Israel than they have been in the last year.

Powerful voices in the Israeli government and military wanted to attack Hezbollah in the days after the Hamas attacks last October.

They argued that they could deal their enemies in Lebanon a decisive blow. The Americans persuaded them not to do it, arguing that the trouble it might set off across the region offset any potential security benefit for Israel.

But in the course of the last year Netanyahu has made a habit of defying President Joe Biden’s wishes about the way Israel is fighting. Despite providing Israel with the aircraft and bombs used in the raid on Beirut, President Biden and team were spectators.

Western diplomats, among them Israel’s staunchest allies, were hoping to calm matters, urging Israel to accept a diplomatic solution. They will now be looking at events with dismay and also a sense of powerlessness.

Read Jeremy Bowen's full analysis

• Fresh attacks: Israel targeted Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in air strikes on Beirut on Friday, a US official told the BBC's partner CBS. However, an Israeli official said it was too early to say if Nasrallah was hit
• The strikes hit several buildings in Dahieh, Hezbollah’s stronghold in the south of the city. Israel Defense Forces spokesman Rr Adm Daniel Hagari said a "very accurate" strike had been carried out on Hezbollah headquarters
• At least six people have been killed in Friday's strikes, Lebanon's health ministry said, adding that at least 91 were injured
• Netanyahu vows to 'defeat Hezbollah': The attack came as shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “defeat Hezbollah” in a speech at the UN General Assembly in New York
• Netanyahu said Israel would continue attacking Hezbollah to achieve its goal of returning about 70,000 displaced Israelis to their homes in northern Israel. His office said he was cutting his trip to New York short and returning to Israel

• 'No warning': The US had no advance warning of Israel's attack on Dahieh, the Pentagon said. Meanwhile, Joe Biden ordered the Pentagon to "asses and adjust" US forces in the Middle East as necessary, according to the White House
• Biden also ordered US embassies in the region to "take all protective measures as appropriate"

David Gritten
BBC News

Image source, Reuters

Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon's militant Shia Islamist Hezbollah movement, is one of the best known and most influential figures in the Middle East.

Nasrallah - who was reportedly the target of Friday's air strike on Beirut - has not been seen in public for years because of fears of being assassinated by Israel.

A shadowy figure with close personal links to Iran, he played a key role in turning Hezbollah into the political and military force it is today - and remains revered by the group's supporters.

Under Nasrallah's leadership, Hezbollah has helped train fighters from the Palestinian armed group Hamas, as well as militias in Iraq and Yemen, and obtained missiles and rockets from Iran for use against Israel.

• Read our full profile on Hassan Nasrallah here

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was the target of Israel's strikes on Friday evening, according to a US official who has spoken to the BBC's US partner CBS.

Earlier Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Rr Adm Daniel Hagari said the military carried out a "very accurate" strike on Hezbollah headquarters.

He added the IDF was checking to see what the results of the strike were, but he did not mention Nasrallah and the Israeli military has not confirmed he was the target.

There has also been no confirmation that Nasrallah was in the buildings that were hit.

Hezbollah has just released a statement, where it denies that any weapons or arms depots are located in buildings hit in an Israeli strike in Beirut.

Nafiseh Kohnavard
BBC Persian Middle East correspondent, Beirut

From my balcony in Beirut I can see a thick smoke over Dahieh. I've heard at least seven strong explosions already.

Our neighbourhood is considered safe but even here I can see my neighbours are still up and awake.

With every blast rumbling they are coming to their balconies to look towards Dahieh. Beirut, and I think all of Lebanon, is sleepless.

I have received many messages from family and friends in Iran, my home country, and Turkey and Iraq, countries that I was based in previously, asking me if there will be a bigger regional war now.

I don’t have a definitive answer for it yet. It is getting difficult to predict and analyse what is coming next.

But what is obvious is that this is going to be a long night for Lebanon and the region.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has accused the US of "complicity" in Israeli strikes in Gaza and Lebanon.

"One cannot disregard the US complicity in the crime," Araghchi told the UN Security Council.

It comes as Israel says it's carrying out strikes on buildings in Beirut which it claims store weapons belonging to Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran.

US President Joe Biden earlier confirmed that "the United States had no knowledge of or participation in the (Israeli) action" in Lebanon today, which was reiterated by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Joe Biden has ordered the Pentagon to "asses and adjust" US forces in the Middle East as necessary, the White House said.

It comes after Israel launched another wave of strikes on Hezbollah targets in the south of Lebanon's capital Beirut.

The US president "directed the Pentagon to assess and adjust as necessary US force posture in the region to enhance deterrence, ensure force protection, and support the full range of US objectives," the White House said in a statement.

Biden also ordered US embassies in the region to "take all protective measures as appropriate", it added.

We're now seeing some images coming in from southern Beirut in Lebanon, where Israel's military is carrying out fresh strikes tonight:

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

At least six people have been killed following the earlier Israeli strikes on southern Beirut, according to updated figures from Lebanon's health ministry.

At least 91 were wounded, it adds.

Rescuers are continuing to search through a large amount of rubble at the site of the blast in Dahieh, a Hezbollah stronghold in the capital.