Israel launches an air strike on Beirut that it says targeted a senior commander in the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah
Footage from the scene in the southern suburb of Dahiyeh shows damage to a block of flats, with crowds gathered outside
It is not yet clear what casualties resulted from the attack
News agencies are quoting sources as saying Fuad Shukr was the target, but that he survived; Israel's Defense Forces say it killed Shukr in the strike
Israel's army says the commander was behind a rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday that killed 12 children and young people. Hezbollah denied involvement in that attack
Thank you for staying with us. We are now going to pause our live coverage.
Thomas Mackintosh
Live reporter
Image source, Getty ImagesWe are shortly going to be pausing our live coverage - but before we go let's just quickly recap the key things to know:
Mark Lowen
Reporting from Jerusalem
An Israeli retaliation for last weekend’s deadly attack on the Golan Heights was a matter of time - and now Israel has scored a big win, confirming that the strike in Beirut killed the senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr.
The Israeli Defence Forces say he has directed Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel and was the right-hand man of the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
The question now is whether this targeted strike will be a one-off hit, or if it marks the beginning of something much bigger and more dangerous. That will largely depend on how Hezbollah chooses to respond.
The IDF said there would be no new instructions for Israelis on taking shelter, suggesting they did not anticipate an immediate or significant Hezbollah reaction. Both sides are aware of the cost of all-out war, which could bring in Iran in support of its Lebanese proxy.
A serious escalation with Hezbollah could also thwart any hopes of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
As this region enters an even more perilous moment, many people here, and far beyond, will be desperately hoping that the forceful diplomatic calls for restraint are heeded.
Nafiseh Kohnavard
Middle East correspondent in Beirut
The atmosphere is completely different in Dahiyeh compared to any other neighbourhood in this city, including mine.
To get into Dahiyeh you need to go through Hezbollah security checkpoints.
Normally you wouldn’t be stopped, but you can feel that you are entering a part of Beirut that it is not similar to any other.
And once you are there, especially as a foreign journalist, you can feel that you are being watched closely.
In fact, for filming there, you need special permission from Hezbollah, an indication of how vital security is to them.
The mood is also different.
While in many other neighbourhoods of Beirut there are nightclubs packed with people drinking and dancing, Dahiyeh is full of pictures of Hezbollah fighters killed in Israeli attacks over the past nine months.
It has witnessed many funerals for them, who are mostly young men aged between 18 and 25.
The area that was attacked is very close to a famous Shia mosque and a hospital run by Hezbollah, which are always manned - visibly and invisibly - by young Hezbollah fighters all in civilian clothes.
Nafiseh Kohnavard
Middle East correspondent in Beirut
The area attacked earlier today, Haret Hreik, is part of the suburb of Dahiyeh - Hezbollah’s stronghold in southern Beirut.
It is a densely populated neighbourhood and strongly fortified.
Haret Hreik is not far from the Christian neighbourhood, where I live. I could easily see the explosion and thick white smoke from my balcony.
The explosion was so powerful it shook the 10-story building that I live in hard.
UN Special Coordinator Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert says she is "deeply concerned" by today's strike in the "densely populated southern suburb of Beirut which resulted in multiple civilian causalities".
She did not specify exactly how many people were killed but previously suggested one woman was killed and others were injured.
"There is no such thing as a military solution", she says, calling on both Israel and Lebanon to avail of all diplomatic avenues to pursue a return to the cessation of hostilities, and recommit to United Nations resolution 1701.
Resolution 1701 calls for a "full cessation of hostilities" between Hezbollah and Israel and was previously agreed to in 2006. It has yet to be fully implemented.
There's been some back-and-forth all day over whether or not Israel killed Fuad Shukr - one of Hezbollah's most senior military commanders - in its earlier attack in Beirut.
Now, the IDF is claiming it did kill Shukr in a "target, intelligence-based elimination" by Israeli fighter jets in the Beirut area.
Israel says Shukr was the commander responsible for the strike on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday which killed some 12 children and young adults.
Earlier, Reuters and AFP news agencies quoted sources saying Shukr survived today's attack.
An Israeli official has confirmed to CBS News, the BBC's US partner, that Israel gave the US a heads up before its Beirut strike.
During a US State Department briefing earlier, deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters the State Department was in "continuous discussions" with Israeli and Lebanese counterparts since the weekend.
He did not answer reporters' questions on whether the US was given a warning ahead of Israel's attack.
Asked by a reporter if he thought the Israeli strike could escalate tensions, Patel reiterated that the US' support for Israel is "ironclad and unwavering".
Image source, reuUS Vice-President Kamala Harris says she wants to be "very clear" that "Israel has a right to defend itself", speaking to reporters about Israel's targeted strike in Beirut.
As a reminder, Israel's army says it targeted the Hezbollah commander it believes was responsible for the attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday which killed 12 children and teenagers - Hezbollah denies involvement.
Harris says: "I unequivocally support Israel's right to remain secure and to defend the security of Israel. It has a right to defend itself against a terrorist organisation, which is exactly what Hezbollah is."
She adds that "we still must work on a diplomatic solution to end these attacks”.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is holding a "security assessment" with senior military officials and politicians, his office says, following Israel's strike on Beirut targeting a Hezbollah commander.
Among those present is the head of the Israeli military Herzi Halevi, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and the chiefs of its internal and external security services.
Netanyahu is speaking to them via conference call from the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv.
Image source, Haim Zach (GPO)
Raffi Berg
Digital Middle East editor
Hostilities between Israel and the militant Islamist group Hezbollah long precede the deadly incident on Saturday night. They go back much further even than October 2023, when a Hezbollah attack began the past nine months of exchanges of fire.
The two sides have been sworn enemies in fact since 1982, when a group of Lebanese Shia Muslim clerics founded Hezbollah to force Israel out of Lebanon, which it had invaded that year. The movement aligned with Iran, the dominant Shia power in the region, and which is sworn to Israel’s destruction.
Israel and Hezbollah have fought bitterly down the years - Hezbollah’s first attack, a suicide bombing in 1982, killed 75 Israeli soldiers and personnel in Lebanon. Hezbollah rocket fire followed in the 1990s, triggering two major Israeli offensives against it.
The two sides went to war in 2006 after Hezbollah raided Israel, killing eight soldiers and capturing two. It ended in a ceasefire after 34 days.
Skirmishes have continued ever since, and Israel has repeatedly struck Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon and Syria.
Although Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, Hezbollah claims it is still occupying Lebanese territory - namely Shebaa Farms and the village of Ghajar - denied by Israel. Tensions were already taut when Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, with the current fighting between Israel and Hezbollah breaking out the next day.
Image source, EPAA building destroyed by an Israeli strike in the southern suburb of Beirut
By Shayan Sardarizadeh and Richard Irvine-Brown
The buildings damaged by the blast this evening are near the centre of a block in the Haret Hreik area, part of the Dahiyeh suburbs in Beirut.
In the south-centre of the Lebanese capital, 3km (2 miles) from the airport, Haret Hreik has been cited as a stronghold of Hezbollah.
The worst of the damage appears to have been done to a brown-terracotta coloured high-rise building at the centre of this satellite image:
Image source, GoogleVideo filmed from the building to the immediate east of it, a hotel, shows the damage to the street and cars.
The building 20m (66ft) to the north-west is the Bahman Hospital, while St Joseph Church is 140m south.
The image (seen below), taken at street level to the west of the building, shows the extent of the damage to its southern end.
Other videos on social media show large plumes of smoke in the air, and rubble lying across the streets, although we are yet to see any imagery of the moment of the blast.
Image source, ReutersNajib Mikati has criticised, what he calls, Israel's "blatant Israeli aggression" against Beirut.
Lebanon's prime minister described the strike as a "criminal act" in a "series of aggressive operations killing civilians in clear and explicit violation of international law".
Earlier, the country's Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said his government planned to complain to the United Nations.
Bou Habib also told Reuters news agency he hoped any response by Hezbollah would not trigger an escalation.
Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent, in Beirut
For days, Lebanon waited for an Israeli attack. It came tonight, at around 19:30 (16:30 GMT) local time, and it hit Dahiya, the densely populated Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs, which could be seen as a provocation by the heavily armed group.
The target was a senior commander, who has been identified by media reports as Fuad Shukr, said to be close to Hassan Nasrallah, the powerful Hezbollah leader. Shukrhas reportedly survived. It was the second time Israel targeted Beirut: in January, an attack killed the senior Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri.
The current hostilities started in October, with Hezbollah launching rockets at Israel in support for Palestinians in Gaza a day after the Hamas attacks. Since then, there has always been the fear that a miscalculation could trigger another major conflict between the group and Israel, although both sides have repeatedly indicated not being interested in an all-out war.
Hezbollah has not yet responded to the strike, which is another example of the extraordinary intelligence the Israeli authorities have about the group. The question now is whether Hezbollah will feel forced to launch a retaliation.
Quentin Sommerville
Middle East Correspondent, in Dahiyeh
In Dahieyh, at the scene of the Israeli strike, ambulances and emergency services are still searching for survivors.
It’s a heavily built up civilian neighbourhood in southern Beirut - and one building was targeted here.
At least one woman has been killed and more injured.
Israel says it was targeting a Hezbollah commander it holds responsible for the Majdal Shams attack on Saturday, which Hezbollah denies involvement in.
Security sources here say the intended target was not in the building.
Chaos and damage in Beirut suburb after explosion
While the details of the strike in Beirut continue to come to light, let's not forget that over the border from Lebanon - in Israel - a war is being fought between the Israeli military and Hamas in Gaza.
Hezbollah supports Hamas, which has been at war with Israel since 7 October, when Hamas gunmen launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others back to Gaza as hostages.
Hezbollah opened up a limited second front in Israel's north the next day and the two sides have been exchanging fire ever since.
Both Hamas and Hezbollah are backed by Iran (although Hamas is a Sunni Muslim group and Hezbollah is Shia). Both are part of what Iran calls an "axis of resistance", a loose alliance of like-minded, Iran-backed groups across the Middle East, acting against Israel and Israel's key ally, the US, in the region.
Hezbollah has not got directly involved in the war in Gaza and has said it will stop firing at Israel if and when there is a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Mark Lowen
Reporting from Jerusalem
Within minutes of the explosion, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed they carried it out, with the spokesman saying it had "targeted" the commander responsible for last weekend’s rocket attack on the Golan Heights.
The question now is will this be a one-off retaliatory strike, or will it be the start of something much bigger and much more dangerous?
The reassuring line in the IDF spokesman’s statement is that there would be no change in the “directives of the Home Front Command” – in other words, Israelis wouldn’t suddenly be instructed to seek shelter. That would suggest Israel does not necessarily expect an immediate and significant Hezbollah response. The ball is in Hezbollah’s court.
Perhaps this will resemble what happened in January, when Israel struck the same suburb of Beirut – Dahiyeh – killing Saleh al-Arouri, a senior Hamas figure. The Lebanese group fired a volley of rockets into Israel in response – but then both sides seemed to move on.
Similarly, when Iran sent missiles and rockets into Israel in April, prompting fears of a cataclysmic regional war, Israel launched a limited series of strikes on Iranian positions – and that was it.
A lot of people in this region, and a lot of leaders around the world, will be desperately hoping that tonight's attack follows that model.
Israel has not yet confirmed the identity of the commander it says it targeted in Beirut - but Reuters and AFP news agencies are both quoting sources who named him as Fuad Shukr and say he survived the attack.
As we wait for more information on what happened, here's what we know about Shukr.
The US says he's a senior advisor on military affairs to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who sits on the Jihad Council, Hezbollah's highest military body.
He has also been involved in the group's campaigns in Syria's civil war, where it has supported the government of Bashar al-Assad.
The US - which has been offering a $5m reward for information on Shukr - also alleges that he played a "central role" in the 1983 bombing of a US Marines barracks in Beirut that killed 241 US military personnel.
Image source, US governmentRaffi Berg
Digital Middle East editor
Israel had warned straight away that it would retaliate for Saturday’s deadly rocket attack - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said then that Hezbollah “will pay a heavy price [for the attack], one that it has not paid so far”.
Hezbollah denied involvement.
It is unclear whether this evening's strike is the “heavy price” it spoke of. This could be just an opening salvo – Israel sending a signal that anyone who harms it is within its reach.
It has deliberately made a public demonstration here – declaring within minutes of the strike that it was responsible, a highly unusual move by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which does not tend to confirm nor deny incidents of this kind.
Earlier today, two unnamed Israeli officials told Reuters news agency that while Israel sought to hurt Hezbollah, it did not want to drag Lebanon into all-out war. The extent of Israel’s response, any miscalculations, or how Hezbollah will react, has the potential to change all that.