Tom Bateman
State Department correspondent, in Washington DC

I’ve just come from the US Department of State press briefing, where I tried to pin down a few more basic facts from the spokesman, Matthew Miller.

It follows anonymous briefings from US officials we reported on yesterday suggesting Israel did in fact tip off Washington ahead of Tuesday’s attacks that it was about to do “something” in Lebanon, but gave no details of the operation.

On Tuesday, Miller said the US “was not aware of this incident in advance”. I just asked him if that was still correct and he said: “The statement I made on Tuesday was 100% accurate”. The US says it's still “gathering information”.

I pressed Miller on whether Washington sees the attacks as consistent with international humanitarian law which prohibits uses of booby-traps in the form of “harmless portable objects”.

Miller said: “We take into account all the relevant provisions of international humanitarian law when we assess incidents of this type… I don’t pronounce judgement on those from this podium”.

The US remains in a holding pattern – stalling on saying anything beyond the most basic comments (it is not even publicly attributing the attacks to Israel) – while it decides on its next moves to help shield its ally from the potential repercussions.

Nafiseh Kohnavard
BBC Persian Middle East correspondent, in Beirut

In downtown Beirut, near one of the hospitals that patients of pager devices explosions are being treated, Lebanese soldiers have been suddenly asking people to move back.

They have blocked the road with their army trucks. “Soon there will be an explosion” one soldier shouts. “Stay away.”

In one area, we found out that there would be controlled detonation of a “suspicious” pager that was identified in the area. The soldiers didn’t give us more details of where the device was found.

An army detonation specialist in full protective gear used a remote-controlled bomb disposal robot. People were anxiously watching while some tried to take cover.

“Explosion, explosion, explosion” an officer shouted in Arabic. A few seconds later, we heard a loud noise. “It was definitely lauded with explosive” another officer told me.

Some began to run away fearfully from where the sound came, while others tried to calm the frightened people down.

“That’s over. Don’t be scared,” a woman told one girl that was screaming. I found out that the woman’s husband was injured on Tuesday when the pagers being used by Hezbollah started to explode.

“Just imagine if this happens inside your house” she told me.

Nick Thorpe
Central Europe correspondent, in Budapest

Bulgaria's state security service DANS has issued a statement in response to claims that a Bulgarian registered company, Norta Global Ltd, was involved in the sale of pagers to Lebanon, which exploded on Tuesday.

"No customs operations with communication devices (pagers) that were detonated on the territory of Lebanon and Syria have been carried out through the territory of Bulgaria," the statement reads.

In other words, it's saying the pagers were neither manufactured nor exported from Bulgaria.

DANS is also carrying out "joint inspections with the National Revenue Agency and the Ministry of the Interior," the statement continued.

Norta Global appears to be a letter box address with just one named director, a Norwegian lawyer. The company was set up in 2022.

A Hungarian company, BAC Consulting, was named on Wednesday by Gold Apollo, the Taiwanese company whose logo was found on some of the devices which exploded, as the subcontractor for the devices, but the Hungarian prime minister said the company in question had "no manufacturing or operational capacity" in Hungary, and is just a "trading intermediary".

Image source, Reuters

Hezbollah is a politically-influential Shia Muslim organisation which controls the most powerful armed force in Lebanon.

It was established in the early 1980s by the region's most dominant Shia power, Iran, to oppose Israel. At the time, Israel's forces had occupied southern Lebanon during the country's civil war.

Hezbollah has participated in national elections since 1992 and has become a major political presence.

Its armed wing has carried out deadly attacks on Israeli and US forces in Lebanon. When Israeli troops withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, Hezbollah took credit for pushing them out.

Since then, Hezbollah has maintained thousands of fighters and a huge missile arsenal in southern Lebanon. It continues to oppose Israel's presence in disputed border areas.

The group is designated a terrorist organisation by Western states, Israel, Gulf Arab countries and the Arab League.

Read more about Hezbollah here.

Image source, PA Media

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy has again asked for British nationals in Lebanon to leave now "while commercial options remain".

"Tensions are high and the situation could deteriorate rapidly," the foreign secretary says in a post on social media. A similar plea he made on 30 July, saying at the time that tensions in the country could escalate with "little warning".

Lammy says he has spoken to the Lebanese prime minister following the deadly blasts in the country to express "deep concern over rising tensions and civilian casualties".

Image source, Reuters

We can now bring you some reaction from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is in Paris for talks on the situation in the Middle East with his European counterparts.

"France and the United States are united in calling for restraint and urging de-escalation when it comes to the Middle East in general and when it comes to Lebanon in particular," he says.

The top American diplomat says Washington and Paris "continue to work to get a ceasefire for Gaza over the finish line".

"We believe that remains possible and necessary. But meanwhile we don't want to see any escalatory actions by any party that makes that even more difficult," Blinken adds.

• 'Red lines' crossed: In a televised address, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah blamed Israel for this week's walkie-talkie and pager detonations. He said the blasts - which killed at least 37 - crossed all "red lines". He vowed Hezbollah would respond. Israel has not directly commented on the attacks
• Israel strikes: As Nasrallah started speaking, BBC Middle East correspondent Hugo Bachega reported hearing huge sonic booms as jets flew over the Lebanese capital, Beirut. Soon after, Israel announced it had launched fresh strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon
• War in 'new phase': Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told a briefing with Israeli military officials that action against Hezbollah "would continue", but with "significant risks"
• Healthcare disrupted: Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation chief said the mass explosions "seriously disrupted" Lebanon's "fragile health sector"

Stay with us for more.

Image source, Reuters

Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has said Israeli military action against Hezbollah "will continue".

"In the new phase of the war there are significant opportunities but also significant risks. Hezbollah feels persecuted. The sequence of our military actions will continue," Gallant said during a briefing with Israel Defense Forces officials.

"Our goal is to ensure the safe return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes. As time goes by, Hezbollah will pay an increasing price," he added.

The mass explosions of communication devices in Lebanon this week "seriously disrupted" its "fragile health sector", the World Health Organization (WHO) chief says.

Speaking at a news conference, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says that the global body distributed blood supplies and trauma kits in the country.

WHO emergencies chief Mike Ryan adds that the health system "came under immense pressure very, very quickly".

The Israeli military says two of its soldiers have been killed near Israel's northern border with Lebanon.

The two men, aged 43 and 20, "fell in combat", it says in a statement, adding that they were killed near the Lebanon border.

Hezbollah leader puts on brave facepublished at 16:39 British Summer Time 19 September

16:39 BST 19 September

Paul Adams
Diplomatic correspondent, reporting from Jerusalem

Hassan Nasrallah put the bravest possible face on what has undoubtedly been one of the darkest moments in Hezbollah’s history.

He claimed, perhaps improbably, that the group’s communications networks had survived unscathed, and he mocked this week’s reports that the head of Israel’s Northern Command, Maj Gen Ori Gordin, is pushing for the creation of an Israeli-controlled buffer zone in southern Lebanon.

Nasrallah called Gordin a “fool”. Israel’s threat, he said, would turn into Hezbollah’s opportunity, which would have “dire consequences” for Israel.

Key takeaways from Nasrallah's speechpublished at 16:17 British Summer Time 19 September

16:17 BST 19 September

Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent, in Beirut

Image source, EPA

Hassan Nasrallah’s much anticipated speech, his first public reaction since the wave of attacks in Lebanon in the last couple of days, had, as expected, some strong words against Israel.

Referring to the country, he said “the enemy” had exceeded “all limits, rules, and red lines” with the explosions that killed at least 37 people and injured more than 3,000 others.

He described the attacks as a massacre, and acknowledged that this was an unprecedented blow for the group but that its ability to command and communicate remained intact.

An investigation into how it happened has been launched, he added.

“It can be called war crimes or a declaration of war - whatever you choose to name it, it is deserving and fits the description. This was the enemy's intention,” he said.

He vowed a just punishment but, unsurprisingly, there was no indication of how this response is going to be. The cross-border attacks on Israel will continue unless there is a ceasefire in Gaza, he added, saying that the residents in northern Israel who have been displaced because of the violence will not be allowed to return.

The tone, again, indicated that the group will measure its reaction in order to not spark a major war with Israel, which would be destructive not only for the group but also for Lebanon, a country struggling to recover from multiple crises in recent years.

Nasrallah now says the attacks will be met with a response "in a way that they might expect and that they might not expect".

"I won’t talk about place, time, location, details," he adds.

"You will find out when it happens. This reckoning will happen. The details, we won’t reveal now, because we are now in a very sensitive stage of the battle."

Nasrallah then finishes his speech. We'll be wrapping up the key lines here, so stay with us.

Nasrallah turns to Israel's vow to return people displaced by Hezbollah attacks to the north of the country.

About 60,000 people have been evacuated from northern Israel because of near-daily attacks by Hezbollah in neighbouring Lebanon.

"We call them settlers and occupiers in occupied Palestine," the Hezbollah leader says.

"You’ve challenged us, and we again rise to the challenge. I say to Netanyahu and Gallant: you will not achieve this goal. You won’t be able to return these people to the north. The only way you can do this is by stopping the aggression on Gaza and the West Bank. This is the only way."

Nasrallah turns to how Hezbollah intends to respond.

"In the name of all those who’ve lost martyrs, who were injured, in the name of all those who’ve fought in the name of Gaza, we tell Netanyahu and Gallant, to the enemy, that the Lebanese front will not stop before the aggression in Gaza stops," he says.

"The resistance in Lebanon will not stop supporting the people of Gaza and the West Bank."

Some more details now from Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's speech.

He says over the last two days, Israel tried to kill 5,000 in two minutes, and that the blasts were unprecedented in the history of both Lebanon and the world.

There is no doubt "we've been breached", he says.

Israel has not yet directly commented on the attacks.

Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent, in Beirut

As Hassan Nasrallah continues his speech, Israeli fighter jets are breaking the sound barrier over Beirut, meaning there are huge sonic booms.

More now from Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's speech.

He blames Israel for the pager and walkie-talkie attacks, which he said paid no heed to innocent life and the lives of children. About 4,000 pagers were targeted, he adds.

Some of those killed have not yet been included in official figures, he says.

Nasrallah accuses Israel of trying to kill 4,000 people at the same time, and says Wednesday's attack was also intended to kill around a thousand more.

"This is sheer terrorism. We'll call them Tuesday's massacre and Wednesday's massacre. These are war crimes or at least declaration of war," he says.

"God is merciful and prevented more deaths and injuries. A number of pagers were out of service or switched off. Some were not allocated and still in storage."

Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent, in Beirut

As Nasrallah gave his speech, jets were heard flying at low altitude in Beirut, causing a massive noise.

We can now bring you more now on Israel's latest strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces says it's working to “degrade” Hezbollah’s "terrorist capabilities and infrastructure".

“For decades, Hezbollah has weaponized civilian homes, dug tunnels beneath them, and used civilians as human shields — having turned southern Lebanon into a war zone,” the statement reads.

Its goal, the statement says, is to "bring security to northern Israel in order to enable the return of residents to their homes and achieve war goals".

Footage circulating on social media shows airstrikes under way in Lebanon.

As a reminder, Hezbollah is a politically-influential Shia Muslim organisation which controls the most powerful armed force in Lebanon.

It is designated a terrorist organisation by Western states, Israel, Gulf Arab countries and the Arab League. You can read more about the group in our earlier post.