Imogen Foulkes
Reporting from Geneva

UN aid agencies say they are extremely concerned for the second round of polio vaccinations, planned to start in Gaza on Monday.

Although 400 World Health Organization (WHO), UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), and Palestinian Red Crescent teams are ready to go, the increased fighting in northern Gaza poses huge challenges.

Parts of northern Gaza are currently subject to evacuation orders from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), but Unicef said today it was "essential" that people were not forced to move during the vaccination campaign.

The WHO said humanitarian pauses must be agreed, and that everyone must adhere to them. But in the last week the WHO has tried three times to evacuate non-walking patients from hospitals in northern Gaza (which are running out of fuel and water), and has each time been unable to reach them.

The convoys of ambulances were repeatedly stopped at checkpoints for nine hours at a time, and finally had to turn back. UN aid agencies hope to give 591,000children in Gaza a second dose of the polio vaccine, after the virus was discovered there this year for the first time in 25 years.

The first vaccination round, in September, was a success, but aid workers fear this round will be much more difficult.

We've been reporting this morning on Israeli air strikes that took place overnight in Beirut.

The strikes killed 22 people and injured over 100 others.

Here are some of the images that have come through to us from the Lebanese capital in the last few hours as residents asses the damages.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Image source, Reuters

Carine Torbey
BBC Arabic correspondent, in Beirut

The Lebanese government has tasked the ministry of foreign affairs to call on the UN Security Council to vote on a resolution asking for an immediate and full ceasefire.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Miqati says the government is committed to the full implementation of UN resolution 1701, which put an end to the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.

He says the government is ready to deploy the Lebanese army in the border areas in southern Lebanon.

When asked on Hezbollah’s position in this respect, Migati said that they are part of the government and they have agreed on the implementation of the 1701 resoultion.

Although Miqati spoke of diplomatic solutions, on the ground the feeling is that Israel is not letting up on its attacks on the country, the latest of which were yesterday in the heart of the capital, and which killed 22 people and injured more than 100 – all of whom are civilians.

We're now seeing reports that an observation post belonging to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in south Lebanon has been fired at by Israeli forces, according to local media and a UN source speaking to Reuters.

Two peacekeepers have reportedly been injured. The Israeli military has not commented on the reports and the BBC has contacted the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) for more information.

The incident would mark the fourth time in recent days that Israeli troops have fired at Unifil bases.

Yesterday two Indonesian peacekeepers were injured after an Israeli tank fired at a watchtower at the force's headquarters in Ras al-Naqoura.

Jeremy Bowen
International editor

Image source, EPA

I was in Beirut throughout the 2006 war and do not remember Israel targeting the centre of the city.

They levelled areas of the southern suburbs, but in the centre we felt quite safe. So this is different.

The question we need to ask is: What is their strategy and what are they trying to achieve?

Israel says it is trying to return its citizens to their homes on the northern border with Lebanon, but the scale of what they are doing suggests more than that.

Israel’s tactical successes against Hezbollah have encouraged some to think that there is a chance to reshape the region by severely damaging or destroying all Israel’s enemies.

This is an enhanced military operation – one that is likely to lead to a longer war and possibly even an occupation of southern Lebanon – and it is not clear how this is in the interests of Israeli civilians trying to get back to their homes.

The Israelis will argue very strongly that they are trying to defend themselves, but what their escalation has done is inflame the whole region.

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

As Jewish Israelis prepare to mark Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar - which starts at sunset - they are being urged to take steps to prepare for potential attacks.

The two chief rabbis have approved taking mobile phones to synagogues - something that observant Jews would not normally do. This will enable worshippers to receive alerts warning them of incoming rocket fire.

Dedicated radio channels will also operate, broadcasting silence unless there are emergency messages, so that users will not have to take any action to receive these.

Speaking to the media, a spokesperson for Israel’s Home Front Command encouraged parents to ensure that children - who often ride their bicycles on the empty roads during Yom Kippur - know how to seek shelter and react in case of an alarm.

Synagogues in major cities across Israel and in sensitive areas will be under armed guard during Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. Extra police are also being deployed and there will be additional checkpoints in Jerusalem’s Old City around the Western Wall, the holiest place where Jews can pray.

Yom Kippur will not stop Israeli soldiers from taking part in military operations. In response to questions from ultra-Orthodox Jewish troops currently based in Beit Hanoun in Gaza, the Chief Sephardic Rabbi David Yosef reaffirmed existing protocols for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that prohibit them from taking part in the usual 25-hour fast during the holy day.

Jonah Fisher
Reporting from northern Israel

Israel’s ambulance service Magen David Adom (MDA) says a 27-year-old Thai national has been killed after an anti-tank missile was fired at a kibbutz on the border between northern Israel and southern Lebanon.

Local media is reporting that a second individual was seriously injured at Kibbutz Yi’ron and has been airlifted to hospital.

Regular rocket attacks from Iranian backed militants Hezbollah has led to tens of thousands of people being displaced from areas near the border with southern Lebanon.

But some have stayed behind to look after livestock and crops, while others travel in to work.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has in recent days been active in the part of southern Lebanon that borders Kibbutz Yi’ron.

This sort of attack is what the IDF say their incursions are aimed at preventing.

A little earlier, our colleagues at Radio 4's Today programme heard from Unicef's deputy representative in Lebanon, Ettie Higgins, who is currently in Beirut.

She describes the bombing last night as taking place "less than 1km" from the Unicef office, adding that the "intensification" would have "major humanitarian consequences".

She adds that children died last night although they are trying to verify how many.

Higgins further warns of "new waves of displacement" and homelessness on top of an existing displacement crisis in recent weeks.

That's in addition to the already "extremely concerning humanitarian situation" in a country that has been hosting Syrian refugees and has faced an economic collapse over the last five years.

Jon Donnison
Reporting from Jerusalem

Israel says it’s determined to significantly weaken Hezbollah and it’s not letting up.

At the same time, Hezbollah is firing back. The Israeli military says some 190 rockets were fired from southern Lebanon into Israel yesterday.

Many of them were shot down by Israel’s missile defence system but some got through.

There’s so much going on in the region at the moment, it’s difficult to know where to start.

The big thing that everyone is waiting for here in Israel, in the region and round the world is what will Israel’s response be to that unprecedented Iranian ballistic missile attack just last week.

The response is going to come.

We don't know on what scale and we don’t know with what force but the scale of that attack - when it comes - could determine the direction that this escalating conflict takes in the coming weeks and days.

Image source, Reuters

Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent, in Beirut

More than 12 hours after the Israeli air strike, there is still smoke rising from the rubble of the building that collapsed in Basta, a densely populated area of central Beirut.

A search operation is continuing for five people reported missing, although it is not clear whether they are under the rubble or not.

A massive clean-up effort is also under way with heavy machinery, as residents assess the destruction in nearby buildings.

Some may have been damaged beyond repair.

The attack happened at around 20:00 local time, with no warning. These streets and flats would have been packed with people.

Israel has not commented on last night’s strikes. Reports in Lebanon suggest Wafiq Safa, a senior Hezbollah member described as being the head of the group’s liaison and co-ordination unit, was the target.

He apparently survived the attack.

This could mark a new chapter in Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah. After killing most of its leaders and many military commanders, it could be shifting its focus to other key figures.

It was the first time this area of Beirut, away from the southern suburbs where Hezbollah has a strong presence, came under attack.

There’s growing anxiety in Beirut as many believe nowhere is really safe, with the fear that air strikes could hit at any moment, no matter the place.

Image source, EPA

More than 10,000 UN peacekeepers will remain in southern Lebanon amid growing concerns for their safety as the cross-border conflict between Israel and Hezbollah continues.

At a UN Security Council meeting last night, UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said 300 Unifil personnel were relocated to larger bases due to safety concerns.

His comments come after two Unifil peacekeepers were injured yesterday after an Israeli tank fired at a watchtower at the force's headquarters in Ras al-Naqoura.

Neither were seriously injured but the UN said the attack, along with other attacks on UN positions in the last 24 hours, were "a grave violation of international law".

The IDF said its troops had fired from the area around the base after ordering members of the base to remain in "protected places".

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) is a peacekeeping mission created in 1978 that monitors hostilities and helps to ensure humanitarian access to civilians in southern Lebanon.

Carine Torbey
BBC Arabic correspondent, in Beirut

On the site of one of the Israeli air strikes in the heart of Beirut, in Basta, there is total shock.

Every single person I spoke to told me they have never imagined their popular, residential neighbourhood could be targeted.

As tractors remove the rubble, bystanders look at the targeted building in disbelief.

One teenager told me she came to check on her grandfather’s house, the other told me about the residents of the building, by name. “We have been neighbours for decades, ” she says.

A lady looking at the fruit and vegetable stalls, now all covered in dust, told me she thought this neighbourhood was very safe. “People displaced from their homes came here to seek refuge. How could they have done this?” she asks.

A family of five who fled the air strikes in Tyre in southern Lebanon were among the people killed in the attack.

Nweiri is a mixed neighbourhood with Sunni and Shia residents. It is in the heart of Beirut.

Israeli media says the army targeted a senior political official in Hezbollah in the attack that killed 22 and injured more than 100.

But Hezbollah says the official wasn’t even in the attacked location.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it has killed Muhammad Abdullah in the occupied West Bank.

It says that Abdullah is the head of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad in the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarm.

In a post on X, the IDF says the attack was a joint operation with the Israeli security agency Shin Bet and that weapons and vehicles were confiscated.

The IDF says it has shot down an "unmanned aircraft that crossed into the territory of the country" in a post on X.

The drone was shot down west of Lachish.

Separately, there are reports of rocket sirens in the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, as well as in areas close to the Lebanon border.

Hezbollah's media relations office has postponed a planned public appearance by its chief, which had been scheduled for today, following Israel's attacks on the Lebanese capital.

Hajj Mohamad Afif was scheduled to hold talks with the minister of information, the minister of culture and the speaker of the National Media Council.

A news conference scheduled for after the talks has also been postponed to a date "to be later determined", the office said in a statement.

Image source, EPA

Let's quickly recap the key lines this morning following Israel's latest strikes on Beirut.

• Lebanese officials say 22 people have been killed and 117 others injured in Israeli air strikes on central Beirut yesterday evening
• There was no warning issued before the strikes which hit residential buildings in two densely packed neighbourhoods in Bachoura
• This is the third time Israel has launched air strikes on the city outside of the suburb of Dahieh, where it has struck repeatedly

• BBC reporters heard the missiles and explosions - it follows two days of relative calm in Lebanon's capital
• Media outlets, quoting security sources, suggest the apparent target, Wafiq Safa, survived. Safa is a high-ranking Hezbollah official and close ally of Hezbollah's former long-term leader Hassan Nasrallah. Neither the Israeli military nor Hezbollah's media office have commented

Jonathan Head
Reporting from Beirut

Two thuds, shaking the doors and windows of our hotel, followed by two large columns of smoke rising into the night sky, announced a shift in Israeli targets away from the southern suburbs, where they have concentrated nearly all their attacks in the capital against Hezbollah.

At least one building appeared to have completely collapsed, with rescuers pulling away rubble in search of survivors through the night, and ambulances carrying dozens of injured people to hospital.

This was the deadliest air strike in central Beirut since the escalation of the Israeli campaign against Hezbollah last month, hitting a densely-built residential neighbourhood.

No warning was issued by the Israeli Defence Force, as it often has before other attacks.

Image source, Reuters

Israel has carried out its deadliest attack on central Beirut since its war against Hezbollah intensified last month, with the Lebanese health ministry saying at least 22 people have been killed in air strikes on residential neighbourhoods.

A further 117 others have been injured and rescuers have been digging through rubble in Bachoura, a small Shia area in the capital, where the strikes hit.

Media outlets are quoting security sources as saying that Wafiq Safa - a close ally of assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and the apparent intended target of the latest strikes - survived. Neither Israel's military nor Hezbollah have commented.

There was no warning before the strikes, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not commented.

We'll be updating you throughout the day from our newsroom in London, along with our reporters in Beirut and Jerusalem, so stay with us.