Image source, Reuters

We just brought you pictures from Beirut - now we can bring you quotes from some of the people there.

Mohamed Gradi, 57, says there is no part of Lebanon where people feel safe.

"You see displacement, people not finding places to stay," he tells Reuters.

"[People] got displaced from the south, from Dahieh [Beirut’s southern suburbs], from Bekaa, and even from areas of our fellow Christians, they as well got displaced."

Meanwhile, displaced Mostafa Saleh, 48, says Israel's air strikes could increase support for Hezbollah.

"If they think that they can scare the supporting environment [of Hezbollah] this way - on the contrary...look at us... we are living not like human beings, we are homeless."

More than 1.2 million people have been displaced in Lebanon since Israel stepped up its air strikes last month, according to the Lebanese government.

Many have fled southern towns and villages and moved north to the nation's capital.

These images from this morning show displaced people who have been sleeping on rolled-out rugs or in makeshift shelters on the streets of central Beirut.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

An Israeli minister has this morning strongly defended his country’s record on aid and policy in Gaza.

"This policy of the Biden administration to apply massive pressure on the humanitarian issue is misguided, and in the end, will force us to prolong the fighting," Amichai Chikli, diaspora affairs minister and a member of the prime minister’s Likud party, tells Israeli public radio.

"Humanitarian aid, in many cases, falls into the wrong hands. Additionally, the practice of a blockade that allows civilians to move to safe areas does comply with international law.

"Unfortunately, it seems that there are also internal American considerations at play."

Israel accuses Hamas of diverting aid from those who need it in Gaza. Many commentators are pointing out that the US letter was leaked in the run-up to presidential elections, amid Democratic voter pressure over the war.

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

Since a strongly worded letter was sent by the US to Israel on Sunday - calling for Israel to boost aid access to Gaza, or risk having some US military assistance cut - the first aid in two weeks has entered northern Gaza.

Some 28 lorry-loads of flour for bakeries and one of fuel entered through the main northern crossing on Monday, a UN official tells me.

Yesterday, 30 lorries were sent to the crossing, but only 12 were loaded with aid and crossed back into Gaza due to delays on the route and processing, he tells me.

It is hoped that more aid will enter through the northern crossing today and from Jordan - with Washington demanding guarantees from Israel that this route to Gaza be made fully operational.

Image source, EPA

As Israel strikes Lebanon and Gaza, the region still waits to see how - or when - it will attack Iran.

On 1 October, Iran launched almost 200 missiles towards Israel, with most intercepted. At the time, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, said Iran would "pay for it" - but there has been no military response yet.

Iran's foreign minister spoke last night to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres - and said that Iran was ready to respond if Israel attacks.

"Iran, while making all-out efforts to protect the peace and security of the region, is fully prepared for a decisive and regretful response to any adventures" by Israel, Abbas Araghchi told Guterres, according to the Iranian foreign ministry.

• How could Israel respond, and what might Iran do then?

Nafiseh Kohnavard
Middle East correspondent, BBC World Service, in Beirut

The air strikes on Beirut this morning came less than 24 hours after Lebanese prime minister Najib Mikati told Al Jazeera that the US had given "some kind of a guarantee" that Israel would de-escalate in Beirut and its suburbs.

But in the same hour the interview was being broadcast, here in Beirut, Israeli surveillance drones were flying low across the city, and Israeli jets caused sonic booms that sounded like actual explosions.

There had been days of anonymous quotes from US, Israeli and Lebanese officials regarding "a guarantee to stop attacks on Beirut and its southern suburbs".

Even Israeli media reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the pause after talking to US President Joe Biden. Although this was denied by Netanyahu himself, some Israeli channels quoted unknown officials that such agreement was in place.

As we reported earlier, Israel says its air force targeted an underground Hezbollah weapons site.

Whatever the target was, the strikes sent a message that there is no guarantee that Beirut and its southern suburb will be excluded from Israeli attacks.

People in Beirut are back to square one - with PM Mikati’s words vanishing in the air.

Image source, Reuters

While attacking Lebanon from the air and the ground, Israel's war in Gaza, further south, continues.

In an update this morning, the Israeli military says it killed a Hamas drone unit commander in an airstrike on the northern Gaza Strip.

It says the commander, who it names as Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, had directed drone attacks towards Israeli territory. Hamas is yet to comment.

Israel also says its military killed more than 50 "terrorists" in the Jabalia area of Gaza in "close-quarters encounters and aerial strikes".

On Tuesday, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said Israel had killed 42,344 people in Gaza since October 7.

Yesterday, the US gave Israel 30 days to boost humanitarian aid access in Gaza or risk having some US military assistance cut off.

Image source, Reuters

Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent, in Beirut

It is the first time in nearly a week that Israel has attacked Beirut. Images on TV showed plumes of smoke from two locations over Dahieh, where traditionally Hezbollah has a strong presence.

The attack happened at around 07:00 local time (05:00 BST), about an hour after Israel issued an evacuation order which mentioned only one building.

The Israeli military said it had targeted an underground weapons warehouse used by the group.

This is an area of the city that has been heavily bombarded by Israel in recent weeks. But there was a days-long pause in the strikes on Beirut, reportedly following a request by the Biden administration.

The lull allowed residents to return to Dahieh to inspect their homes, while shopkeepers collected goods from their shops.

The last strike on Beirut was on 10 October, when two strikes in a densely populated area near the city centre killed 22 people. An entire building collapsed. The attack came without warning, and there has been no comment by the Israeli military.

Image source, EPA

Before the raids on Beirut, Israeli air strikes were reported across the country on Tuesday.

The Lebanese public health ministry says five people were killed in Riyaq, in the Bekaa Valley in east Lebanon.

In the south, a further five were killed in Srebbine and three in Touline, the ministry adds.

In Qana, near Tyre in the south, there has been a series of strikes, killing one and wounding 30, according to the health ministry. The state run news agency says the death toll could be as high as 10.

Elsewhere in the south, four people were killed in Mazra'at Meshref, the civil defence authority says.

Image source, Reuters

Early this morning, Beirut was awoken by Israeli air strikes in the southern suburbs.

These came after Israel issued its first Dahieh evacuation order in nearly a week, ordering residents to leave one location in Harek Hreik.

After bombarding the city with daily strikes and issuing dozens of evacuation orders, Israel paused strikes on Beirut last week - though its ground operation in southern Lebanon, and air strikes on the rest of the country, continued.

The last Israeli strike on Beirut - on 10 October - killed at least 22 people and injured 117 more, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

The Israeli military says its strikes this morning targeted Hezbollah weapons stored in an underground warehouse.

Good morning from London, where we are restarting our live coverage of the conflict in the Middle East.

Overnight, Israel carried our air strikes on the southern suburbs of Lebanon's capital, Beirut. It's the first time the capital has been targeted in nearly a week.

Israel said it hit an underground warehouse used by Hezbollah to store weapons. Meanwhile, it says 50 rockets were launched towards the northern Israeli town of Safed overnight.

The strikes in Beirut came after Lebanese authorities reported that Israeli air strikes killed people across the east and south of the country - we'll have more on that soon.

Further south, Israel's war in Gaza continues - on Tuesday, the US wrote to Israel, giving it 30 days to boost humanitarian aid access in Gaza or risk having some US military assistance cut off.

Stay with us as we bring you the latest news and analysis from our teams across the region.

We're pausing our live coverage for today, but before we go here are the latest headlines from across the Middle East:

• The US has warned Israel it has 30 days to increase access for humanitarian aid into Gaza or risk a reduction in some military aid
• It comes as food aid was delivered into northern Gaza for the first time in two weeks, with the UN describing the situation as "desperate"

• The US has also said that components for an advance anti-missile system have begun arriving in Israel, with the Pentagon saying the system is intended to help Israel defend itself and will be operational in the "near future"
• An Israeli police officer was killed when a gunman opened fire - four other people were injured
• In Lebanon, the country's health ministry and local media report an Israeli strike in Riyaq, in the Bekaa Valley region in eastern Lebanon, killed five people, including three children

As a reminder, within days of Israel launching its war in Gaza last October, two Palestinians began filming their daily lives for the BBC - Aya and Khalid's stories are featured in a new BBC World Service and Storyville documentary, Life and Death in Gaza, which you can watch on BBC iPlayer.

We're now pausing our live coverage until the morning, the news desk will continue to cover the latest on the conflict.

Image source, EPA

Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited the northern cities of Haifa and Kiryat Bialik today and warned Lebanon that it is "paying the price" for the actions of Hezbollah.

Both areas have been hit by Hezbollah rockets and drones in recent weeks. Four Israeli soldiers were killed and 58 injured in a drone strike targeting an army base near Haifa on Sunday.

A statement from the president's office said Herzog visited a medical centre in Haifa where he met soldiers injured during the fighting in Lebanon.

"Hezbollah has been threatening Haifa and this vicinity all throughout and yet, the people of Haifa are strong, resilient," Herzog said, according to the statement.

"The world should understand that we've offered, time and again to reach an amicable solution on the border with Lebanon. Unfortunately, Hezbollah refused time and again."

"Let me tell the people of Lebanon: you are paying the price for a vicious regime of terror headed by Hezbollah," he continued.

"Instead of a good, decent life for a country that was once the pride of the Middle East, Lebanon, now you're paying the price, and the price is getting heavier and heavier."

Image source, EPA

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is opposed to agreeing to a "unilateral ceasefire" in Lebanon, a statement from his office says.

The statement says he told French President Emmanuel Macron during a call earlier that a unilateral ceasefire would not change the "security situation" and only "return it to the way it was".

It says he told Macron that Israel would not agree to any arrangement that does not stop Hezbollah from rearming and regrouping.

The remarks come as Macron pressures Israel to abide by UN resolutions that include ending its occupation of Palestinian territories, telling his cabinet that "Mr Netanyahu must not forget that his country was created by a decision of the UN", a participant in the meeting told the AFP news agency.

Five people, including three children, were killed in an Israeli attack on Riyaq, in the Bekaa Valley region in east Lebanon, earlier today, according to the Lebanese health ministry and local media.

Sixteen people were also reported to be injured.

Israel has not yet commented.

Warning: This post contains details which some may find upsetting

Image source, Reuters

The BBC has heard harrowing recounts from witnesses to an Israeli air strike and resulting fire at a tent camp in a Gaza hospital compound in Deir al-Balah in the early hours of Monday.

One mother called it “one of the worst scenes we’ve witnessed”, while an injured girl said she heard screaming as people tore down their tent to get them out.

A man said he had "broken down" as he was "unable to do anything" to help those who burned to death.

The strike killed four people and injured dozens of others.

The BBC has verified the location of a video that shows what appears to be a person on fire.

Other footage captures people rushing to extinguish the flames amid screams and explosions sending fireballs into the night sky.

The Israeli military said it had targeted Hamas fighters operating inside a command centre in the car park.

It said a fire broke out "likely due to secondary explosions", and that the incident was under review.

• Read more here

As we've been reporting, the UN has condemned the "large number of civilian casualties" in Gaza in recent days.

Israel says it is targeting Hamas.

The images below show the situation on the ground in the aftermath of recent Israeli strikes.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

The Israeli military says it had arrested three members of the Lebanese Hezbollah's elite Radwan forces, adding that they had been moved to Israel for investigation.

"An underground shaft was located inside a building used by Hezbollah. The forces surrounded the building, where three terrorists of the Radwan Force were entrenched," the military said in a statement, external, referring to the group's elite units.

"They were found alongside many weapons and equipment needed for a long stay."

Wyre Davies
reporting from Jerusalem

A rather oddly choreographed game of “carrot and stick” is currently being played out in what, for weeks, has been an increasingly frosty relationship between the US government and Israel.

The rapid deployment of the American THAAD high-altitude anti-missile defence system to Israel complete with around 100 US personnel to operate it demonstrates Washington’s continued military commitment to Israel.

The system would form part of Israel’s defensive shield, should the conflict with Iran escalate into something much bigger. But it is also a reminder of how reliant Israel is on US military support, even though Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly says Israel will make its own military decisions how and when it sees appropriate.

What clearly isn’t appropriate, according to the unprecedentedly strong language in a joint letter from the US Secretaries of State and Defence to their Israeli counterparts, is how Israel is prosecuting the war in Gaza.

For just over a week, the IDF has been attacking parts of northern Gaza hard. The area, which incorporates the Jabaliya refugee camp, may be hiding the remaining Hamas units that Israel is keen to neutralise, but it is also home to around 300,000 people – many of whom have already had to flee their homes during this war.

The humanitarian consequences of Israel’s attacks – in which at least 300 people have been killed – are appalling, say aid agencies.

Thousands of people are trapped with barely any food or medical aid getting in and, in reality, there are no safe spaces to escape to. And that has brought a co-ordinated chorus of condemnation, not just from a collective group of aid agencies but international governments as well.

The Americans have now made the continued supply of weaponry and arms to Israel conditional on a change in the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

That is an almost unprecedented warning from Washington – at least in the context of this war. Whether it causes Israel to rethink what some had described as a “scorched earth” offensive in northern Gaza remains to be seen.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says one of its divisions has "eliminated dozens of terrorists" and "confiscated numerous weapons" hidden inside a medical clinic run by UNRWA - the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees - in Jabalia, north Gaza.

In a statement on X, the IDF says the clinic was "turned into a weapons storage facility" and hideout. "Terrorists" who had barricaded themselves inside shot at Israeli soldiers from the 162nd Division but have been "eliminated", it adds.

"Following the elimination of the terrorists, numerous secondary explosions were observed, indicating a hidden weapons stockpile."

Following the 7 October attacks last year, Israel alleged that more than 450 UNRWA staff were members of terrorists groups. The UN agency, which employs more than 13,000 people in Gaza, later fired nine employees after an investigation found they may have been involved in the Hamas-led incursion.

Image source, IDF