Lebanese state media reports that at least 17 people from the same family have been killed in Zboud after Israeli air strikes in the Bekka Valley.

According to Lebanon's National News Agency, four people were also killed and several wounded after strikes on Halbata in Bekaa, with reports saying the strikes hit two homes in the village, as well as a tent for displaced Syrians.

These updates come after earlier reports by local media of at least 15 people killed in strikes across southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley.

Image source, EPA

While we've been reporting this afternoon on military news, new figures show more than 36,000 Syrians and 41,300 Lebanese crossed the border into Syria territory between 23 September and today.

The NNA, Lebanon’s state-run news agency, says the numbers were given by Lebanese Minister Nasser Yassin in a report.

Meanwhile, the number of those displaced who have registered with shelters is over 116,000.

The UNCHR have been posting on X throughout the day about the "thousands of families" fleeing Lebanon for Syria.

There are now 777 shelters in public facilities in Lebanon, according to the government's report, including those in schools and agricultural centres.

Further to the deaths on Friday we just covered, Hezbollah has just confirmed that one of its senior members was killed by Israeli air strikes on Saturday.

Nabil Qaouk - head of Hezbollah's preventive security council and a key member of its central council - was killed by Israeli fighter jets yesterday, the IDF said earlier.

Israel says it killed 20 other Hezbollah leaders of varying ranks when they killed Hassan Nasrallah at the group's headquarters on Friday.

As we've reported, the names include Ali Karaki, leader of its southern front.

The IDF also says it killed Ibrahim Hussein Jazini, head of Nasrallah's security unit, and Samir Tawfiq Dib, who the IDF describes as "Nasrallah's long-time confidant and adviser".

The military adds that Hezbollah's headquarters were embedded beneath several civilian buildings.

As our correspondent in Beirut, Hugo Bachega, just reported, Hezbollah attacks on Israel have not stopped.

In the past hour, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says 10 rockets were fired into Israel from Lebanon and sirens have sounded in the western Galilee region.

Some of those rockets were intercepted by Israel's missile defence system, the statement adds.

Some more now on the latest Israeli air strike on Dahieh.

A witness tells the AFP agency that a rocket hit a building, which "instantly collapsed".

Meanwhile, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reports that ambulances rushed to the area after the "violent raid".

Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent, reporting from Dahieh

Dahieh was once the beating heart of Hezbollah in Beirut. Now, it looks like a ghost town.

We drove through parts of the district, in the city’s southern suburbs, and saw empty streets and closed shops. Thousands have already left and more were still trying to flee, some apparently on foot.

We visited a location hit by an Israeli air strike yesterday. There was still smoke coming out of the rubble, with the smell of the explosives hanging in the air. Every few minutes, people arrived, to see the damage by themselves.

And across Beirut this morning, there was the frequent sound of drones flying overhead.

Israel has warned people across the country to stay away from sites linked to Hezbollah, as it vows to push ahead with its campaign against the group, even after killing its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

And about an hour after we left, the Israeli military said it had carried out another strike on Dahieh, and images showed a large plume of the smoke.

There is still the question about how Hezbollah will respond. The group still has a formidable arsenal of weapons, with long-range missiles capable of hitting deep inside Israel.

Hezbollah has been weakened, but not defeated. The intensity of its attacks on northern Israel has diminished, but they have not stopped.

Image source, Getty Images

Israel has launched a new strike on Hezbollah's southern Beirut stronghold, Dahieh, its military says.

The AFP news agency says its correspondents heard a loud explosion and saw smoke billowing from the area.

Image source, Reuters

In a new update, the Israeli military says it it has struck several Hezbollah targets in Lebanon during the past few hours.

The military says the strikes aimed to destroy Hezbollah rocket launchers and weapons warehouses.

Hezbollah has just confirmed the death of Ali Karaki - the commander of the group's southern front.

It follows the IDF saying yesterday that he had been killed in the same "targeted strike" that killed Nasrallah.

The Iran-backed group has now confirmed Karaki's death via Telegram.

Image source, EPA

The Reuters news agency reports that Hassan Nasrallah's body has been recovered from the site of an air strike in Beirut's southern suburbs.

Citing a medical source and a security source, Reuters say the body had no "direct wounds". Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah's death yesterday.

Orla Guerin
Senior international correspondent, reporting from Beirut

Some in Lebanon are fleeing across borders looking for safety – including Syrians returning to their war-torn homeland.

We passed a group of about 50 Syrians sitting by the side of the road, beside a broken-down bus. They were waiting for an engine part to arrive so they could continue their journey to the Syrian region of Aleppo.

There were young men, women and many children, including a baby boy of 4 months old. No-one wanted to be identified.

One young man told us that when the Israeli warnings were issued on Friday night (to get out of the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahieh), they left immediately with just the clothes on their back.

They spent two nights sleeping on the street.

“We didn’t care if anyone gave us food or aid,” he said, “we just wanted to be safe with the kids”.

Image source, Reuters

A bit more from Lebanon's prime minister.

Earlier we heard a Lebanese government minster say that ceasefire talks with Israel were "still under way".

And now Lebanese PM Najib Mikati tells reporters that he "welcomes" a ceasefire, adding that if such a development went ahead, it must apply to both Gaza and Lebanon.

He says there is "no option but the diplomatic option" when asked about talks to end the cross-border conflict with Israel.

A ceasefire would mean the United Nations Security resolution 1701 - adopted to end the last Israel-Lebanon war of 2006, but never properly implemented - could be applied, Mikati says, in addition to all Israeli hostages returned.

Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati has just held a press conference and says recent Israeli air strikes may result in the "largest displacement movement" that his country has ever seen.

"The number of displaced people... could reach a million," he tells reporters, shortly after holding an emergency cabinet meeting earlier today.

Mitaki says there's been a "large influx" of people fleeing from Lebanon's south and the Bekaa Valley region in the east, adding that many of the displaced people were not Lebanese.

His comments come as the UN's food agency says it has launched an emergency operation to provide aid for up to one million people.

The Middle East is once again holding its breathpublished at 11:15 British Summer Time 29 September

11:15 BST 29 September

Frank Gardner
Security correspondent

Israel, Hezbollah and Iran have all talked repeatedly about "settling scores" and the phrase is now doing the rounds once again. But behind the rhetoric and the hyperbole lies a complex art of carefully calculated calibration.

Do nothing after your enemy has hit you and you could appear powerless. Retaliate too hard and you risk escalation and an even harder blow in return.

These are the deliberations taking place right now in Tehran and amongst what is left of Hezbollah’s depleted leadership.

Iran already considered it "owed" a retaliation against Israel for the 31 July assassination in Tehran of its ally, the Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Before that, when Israel bombed the Iranian consulate in Damascus in April, killing a key general from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, Iran waited a few days then struck back massively, launching a barrage of missiles and drones at Israel, nearly all of which were shot down.

It then took a monumental diplomatic effort by Israel’s allies to temper its own retaliation for that attack.

Today, the Middle East is once more holding its breath, waiting to see how Iran and Hezbollah will respond to the successive hammer blows that Israel is delivering.

Nobody wants a full-scale regional war, but then nobody in this region wants to look weak.

As we continue our coverage of the latest in the cross-border conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, here are some of the latest pictures coming out of Beirut.

Residents have been surveying the scenes of destruction in the southern suburbs of the capital, following recent Israeli air strikes.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, EPA

Image source, Reuters

Lebanon's information minister has said during a cabinet session with the government that diplomatic efforts for a ceasefire with Israel are still "under way".

That follows on from this week's major escalation, which saw Israel striking Hezbollah in Beirut and killing the group's leader - Hassan Nasrallah - along with other senior commanders.

Israel has ignored previous calls for a ceasefire - including a 21-day proposal put forward by the US, UK and the EU last Wednesday.

Lebanon’s prime minister Najib Mikati also dismissed reports last week that he had signed on to that proposed ceasefire, saying they were “entirely untrue”.

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

The World Food Programme (WFP) has launched an emergency operation in Lebanon to help distribute aid for up to one million people in the region.

"A further acceleration of the conflict this weekend underscored the need for an immediate humanitarian response," the agency says in a statement.

As of yesterday, there were well over 200,000 people who had been displaced inside Lebanon, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The food agency - which has already helped more than 66,000 people in recent days - says it will be distributing ready-to-eat food rations, bread, hot meals and food parcels to displaced people in shelters across the country.

WFP country director Matthew Hollingworth says the agency is preparing to help "up to one million people through a mix of cash and food support".

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it killed a senior Hezbollah official in strikes carried out on Lebanon on Saturday.

Nabil Qaouk - head of Hezbollah's preventive security council and a key member of its central council - was killed by fighter jets yesterday, the IDF says in a statement.

Hezbollah has not provided any comment on Qaouk's fate.

The IDF described Qaouk as being "close to the top" of Hezbollah and went on to say he was "directly engaged in promoting terrorist plots against the State of Israel and its citizens".

Jon Donnison
Reporting from Jerusalem

Image source, Getty Images

Israel is showing no intention of ending the war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clearly feels he has the boot on the throat of the Iranian-backed militia and is continuing to apply the pressure.

The Israeli public is much more united in its support for the campaign against Hezbollah than it is for the war in Gaza, where many Israelis feel the government should be prioritising a ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas.

There is much speculation over whether Israel’s next step will be to launch a ground invasion into southern Lebanon. It has been sending troops to the border.

But a ground offensive would likely cost the lives of Israeli soldiers already exhausted after a year of fighting in Gaza. And previous invasions - most recently in 2006 - have failed to remove the Hezbollah threat.