In the early hours of this morning we heard reports of explosions in Tehran. Moments after that, the IDF confirmed it was conducting "precise strikes on military targets in Iran".

Iran's army said four soldiers were killed as a result of the attack.

There's been much debate throughout the day as to how Iran will respond after the country said it is "entitled and obliged to defend itself against foreign acts of aggression".

Multiple countries, including US allies Jordan and Saudi Arabia, expressed concern at what they said was an escalation, while the US and Britain urged Iran not to strike back.

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This page was edited by Matt Spivey and Jack Burgess. Our writers have been Ben Hatton, Lana Lam, Cachella Smith and Emma Rossiter.

You can read more about the Israel-Gaza war here.

Lyse Doucet
Chief international correspondent

The big question now is “what does Tehran do next?"

In the war of words, some of Iran’s statements suggest a pause. Iranian state media are hailing their success in repelling Israel’s attacks, which they say caused only “limited damage.”

The foreign ministry said Tehran recognised its "responsibilities towards regional peace and security".

Foreign Minister Syed Abbas Araghchi recently notched up some diplomatic wins that included stops in Arab capitals which used to nervously keep Tehran at arm’s length.

Iranian diplomats, however, don’t call the shots in the Islamic Republic. Those who do, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, may want to push for a muscular response.

But Israel’s latest attacks may have damaged their air defences in ways which open new vulnerabilities.

And retaliating in the run-up to an unpredictable US election may heighten the risk that the US could be drawn into this confrontation - an escalation Tehran wants to avoid.

President Biden said last week he saw an opportunity to “deal with Israel and Iran in a way that ends the conflict for a while.”

But even if Iran, and Israel, decide to draw a line under this one, for now, it’s clear this dangerous new chapter isn’t over.

Iranian people have reacted to the overnight attacks by contacting BBC Persian's social media accounts.

However, the BBC is not naming them following warnings by the Revolutionary Guards against speaking to "enemy media" about Israel's attack.

One man said he believed that Israel was hoping for Iran to "respond with more attacks", as this would "eventually position Iran against the US" and suspected that was why Israel's media coverage was "bigger than the attack itself".

"Israel’s agents within Iran’s system are pushing for Iran to retaliate," he said.

Another man however wrote: "Neither side wanted to engage with each other." He ultimately echoed US President Biden's words: "I hope this is the end of the war."

Image source, Reuters

Military operations "around and within" health facilities in Gaza as well as a "critical shortage" of medical supplies are preventing life-saving care, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) says.

In a statement, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus points to events at the Kamal Adwan hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Local health officials "informed us that the siege at Kamal Adwan Hospital has ended, but it came at a heavy cost", he writes.

"Following the detention of 44 male staff members, only female staff, the hospital director, and one male doctor are left to care for nearly 200 patients in desperate need of medical attention."

Dr Tedros had previously said the WHO had lost contact with the hospital amid an Israeli offensive in nearby Jabalia.

He adds now that reports of damage to facilities and supplies within the hospital are "deplorable".

US President Joe Biden has just spoken briefly about Israel's attacks on Iran, saying it appeared only military targets were struck, and also that he hopes that the attacks will mark "the end".

As we've been reporting, four Iranian soldiers were killed in the overnight strikes, which Israel's military said was in response to "months of continuous attacks" from Iran.

Amid questions over whether Iran will respond further, in the last hour Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has also said that there are "no limits when it comes to defending it's [Iran's] interests, its territorial integrity and its people".

Raffi Berg
Digital Middle East editor

Iran is much bigger than Israel geographically and has a population of nearly 90 million, nearly ten times as big as Israel's - but this does not translate into greater military power.

Iran has invested heavily in missiles and drones. It has a vast arsenal of its own, but has also been supplying significant amounts to its proxies - the Houthis in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

It has significantly upgraded its air defence systems and fighter jets. Russia is believed to be co-operating with Iran to improve those in return for the military support Tehran has given Moscow in its war on Ukraine. It has provided Iran with Su-35 fighter planes and the advanced S-300 air defence missile system.

Israel though has one of the most advanced air forces in the world. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) military balance report, Israel has at least 14 squadrons of jets - including F-15s, F-16s and the latest F-35 stealth jet.

Israel also has experience of conducting strikes deep inside hostile territory. The shortest distance between Iran and Israel is about 1,000km (620 miles). Tel Aviv to Tehran is about 1,600km - further than the operational capability of any of Israel's fleet without refuelling.

Image source, EPA

United Nations Secretary General António Guterres is "deeply alarmed by the continued escalation" in the Middle East following Israeli strikes on Iran, his spokesperson says.

"The secretary general urgently reiterates his appeal to all parties to cease all military actions, including in Gaza and Lebanon, exert maximum efforts to prevent an all-out regional war and return to the path of diplomacy," UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric says in a statement.

The Iranian military has announced the death of two further soldiers following last night’s strikes - bringing the total death toll to four.

In a post on messaging app Telegram, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said Sajjad Mansouri and Mehdi Naghavi, both members of Iran's army, were killed in addition to the two soldiers we wrote about earlier.

Why are Israel and Iran enemies?published at 15:48 British Summer Time 26 October

15:48 BST 26 October

Raffi Berg
Digital Middle East editor

Image source, EPA

Let's take a step back for a moment and look at the history behind the current aggression between Israel and Iran.

Prior to Iran's direct attack on Israel on 1 April, Iran and Israel had been engaged in a years-long shadow war - attacking each other's assets without admitting responsibility.

Those attacks have ratcheted up considerably during the war in Gaza sparked by the Palestinian group Hamas's assault on nearby Israeli communities last October.

The two countries were allies until the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, which brought in a regime that has used opposing Israel as a key part of its ideology.

Iran does not recognise Israel's right to exist and seeks its eradication. The country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has called Israel a "cancerous tumour" that "will undoubtedly be uprooted and destroyed".

Israel believes that Iran poses an existential threat as evidenced by Tehran's rhetoric, its build-up of proxy forces in the region including the Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah that are sworn to Israel's destruction, and its funding and arming of Palestinian groups including Hamas.

It also accuses Iran of secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons, though Iran denies seeking to build a nuclear bomb.

Parham Ghobadi
BBC Persian senior reporter

As we reported earlier, two Iranian officers were killed in Israeli attacks on Iran overnight; both were members of the Iranian army, not the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).

Unlike the IRGC, the Iranian army - known as Artesh - is generally not feared or loathed by many Iranians, as its focus remains on defending Iran’s borders.

The Revolutionary Guards, however, play a substantial role in Iran’s political and economic landscape, extending far beyond traditional military functions.

They are actively involved in extraterritorial operations stretching from Yemen to the Levant, bordering Israel, and have led harsh crackdowns on nationwide protests in recent years.

Image source, Hamshahri Newspaper

The IRGC hold significant power within Iran, with members occupying influential roles across both hardline and reformist governments.

They are deeply embedded in large-scale economic ventures, from oil and gas projects to road construction, which has fuelled public grievances against them due to perceived corruption and monopolisation of resources.

Image source, Hamshahri Newspaper

Video shows destruction at industrial site south of Tehranpublished at 15:25 British Summer Time 26 October

15:25 BST 26 October

By Daniele Palumbo

The first daylight videos have been emerging from the Iranian capital of Tehran after Israel's airstrikes.

Two videos have been verified that show destruction in an industrial area south of Tehran called Shamsabad. Both show premises belonging to a company named Taksaz Industrial Innovators (Tieco).

The company website suggests it works with the oil and gas industry as well as in connection with agriculture and construction.

We were able to establish the location of the videos using satellite images and matching the colour of the roofs and the perimeter boundaries.

BBC Verify is continuing to monitor online platforms and verifying and investigating new videos.

The UN's acting humanitarian chief Joyce Msuya has accused the Israeli forces of showing "disregard for basic humanity" in their recent operations in northern Gaza.

"What Israeli forces are doing in besieged North Gaza cannot be allowed to continue," she says in a statement on social media, external, saying hospitals have been hit, health workers detained, shelters burned down, and first responders prevented from rescuing people.

Men and boys are "being taken away by the truckload", she alleges, adding "hundreds of Palestinians" have reportedly been killed and tens of thousands forced to flee.

She also says "the entire population of northern Gaza is at risk of dying".

Israel began a renewed offensive in northern Gaza earlier this month, saying it wanted to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping – it says its troops have killed “hundreds of terrorists” and evacuated 45,000 civilians in Jabalia since going back into the area on 6 October.

It has long accused the UN of bias and says it adheres to international law.

Earlier we reported that Hezbollah had fired about 80 projectiles across the border into Israel this afternoon.

Now, following a series of statements from the Iran-backed group, we are getting reports that it has fired a series of rockets - known as "rocket salvos" - at five residential areas in northern Israel including the outskirts of Krayot near Haifa, according to the AFP news agency.

Image source, EPA

Some more reaction now from the international community about Israel's strikes on Iran overnight.

Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz says that because Israel made "efforts to avoid civilian casualties" in its latest strikes against Iran, and was responding to a previous attack, it "therefore presents an opportunity to avoid further escalation". He warns Iran against escalation.

Russia says it is concerned about the escalation in hostilities in the Middle East and urges "all parties involved to exercise restraint".

Afghanistan's Taliban government says its condemns the attacks by Israel, calling it an attempt to further "intensify" the ongoing violence in the region.

Image source, Reuters

We've just seen an update from Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry, which says at least 42,924 people have been killed in Gaza since the conflict with Israel started more than a year ago.

In its latest update, the health ministry says 100,833 people have been injured as a result of the war in Gaza.

Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack by Hamas on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has reported that approximately 80 projectiles were fired by Hezbollah on Saturday afternoon.

These projectiles crossed from Lebanon into Israel as of 15:00 local time (13:00 BST), according to the IDF.

In its update, which appeared on the messaging app Telegram, the IDF has also said it will "continue to defend the State of Israel and its people against the threat posed by the Hezbollah terrorist organization".

Ghoncheh Habibiazad
BBC Monitoring

Two Iranian army officers were killed in the Israeli airstrike on Iranian military sites, according to a statement by the Iranian army.

The army has now identified the two officers as Major Hamzeh Jahandideh and Chief Warrant Officer Mohammad Mehdi Shahrokhifar.

The statement did not specify the locations where the officers were killed.

Yolande Knell
reporting from Jerusalem

As we've been reporting, video shared on social media in the early hours of this morning appears to capture the sounds over the skies of Iran during several hours of air strikes.

Having heeded warnings from its closest ally, the US, to avoid Iran’s more sensitive oil and nuclear facilities – with fears that doing so could trigger a full-blown regional war – Israel said it targeted Iran’s air defences with dozens of fighter jets and then sites used to manufacture and launch drones and ballistic missiles.

Earlier, the Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told Iran not to retaliate: “If the regime in Iran were to make the mistake of beginning a new round of escalation, we will be obligated to respond.

Tehran said Israel’s attack had been successfully countered but there had been “limited damage” to some locations.

Meanwhile, the semi-official Iranian news agency, Tasnim, said there’d be a “proportional reaction” to the Israeli strikes.

Washington has said it was made aware of Israel’s operation in advance but was not involved in it. It has also reaffirmed that if there’s an Iranian response, it is fully prepared to defend Israel once again.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah says it has launched a drone attack on an Israeli airbase south of Tel Aviv and targeted an "intelligence headquarters" in northern Israel.

In a series of updates, the group says it launched a "squadron of assault drones" on the Tel Nof airbase this morning and "successfully" hit the targets.

The group says it also launched a "rocket barrage" on the Kiryot area north of Haifa and the border village of Aita al-Shaab.

They also say attacks were launched on the Mishar base, which Hezbollah describes as the "main intelligence headquarters for the northern region in Safed", and the al-Mushayrifa area in Ras al-Naqoura.

It comes after Israel's military says it intercepted a number of projectiles and four drones in the Western and Upper Galilee areas this morning.

Image source, Reuters

As our international editor Jeremy Bowen described, the Israeli strikes on Iran have taken place against the backdrop of ongoing operations in Gaza.

The Hamas-run health ministry said yesterday that 38 people were killed in an Israeli strike on southern Gaza – rescue workers said nine children from one family were among those killed.

The Israeli military said its troops had killed numerous Hamas fighters and dismantled their infrastructure, as they questioned the number of casualties reported by the Hamas-run health ministry.

Israeli troops reportedly raided one of the last functioning hospitals in the north of the territory.

The World Health Organization said it had lost contact with medics at Kamal Adwan hospital in the northern town of Beit Lahia, close to the besieged Jabalia area, while the health ministry said Israeli troops had detained staff, patients and displaced people there.

The Israeli military said its forces were operating "in the area” based on intelligence “regarding the presence of terrorists”.