Image source, STR/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon says it's "deeply concerned" by any potential escalation in tensions following a strike in Beirut that killed a top Hamas leader.

Unifil, (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) is responsible for monitoring the Blue Line, the unofficial frontier between Lebanon and Israel.

Spokesperson Kandice Ardiel says: "We continue to implore all parties to cease their fire, and any interlocutors with influence to urge restraint."

Israel and Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, have been firing at each other on a regular basis since the Gaza war began in October.

You can read more about the Blue Line here.

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

While Israel has not taken responsibility for the operation that killed the deputy head of Hamas, Saleh al-Arouri, he is widely seen as having been near the top of an Israeli hit list.

By many in the Israeli media, his killing is celebrated. It is described as “a game changing event” and “the end of an era for Hamas” by Seth Frantzman in the Jerusalem Post.

However, the possible negative repercussions are also picked over. Israeli defence analysts note that the head of the powerful Lebanese armed group, Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, has previously said he would consider an assassination of any target in Beirut as crossing a red line.

The question now, is whether he will stick to that.

“Since the war began, Hezbollah has paid its dues to the Palestinians through daily attacks on Israel. But it has been careful to limit them to a strip of land near the border,” notes Amos Harel in Haaretz.

“An escalation in the level of its response from Lebanon would reduce its room to manoeuvre and increase the chances of a mutual miscalculation.”

Al-Arouri is seen as having been key to indirect talks mediated by Qatar and Egypt on Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

“Of all the possible acts of Hamas retaliation, the most worrisome concerns the hostages,” comments Nahum Barnea in Yedioth Ahronoth.

“The assassination is far more likely to delay and possibly to derail further negotiations.”

Let's get some more analysis now on the death of Saleh al-Arouri, the senior Hamas official who was killed in a strike on Lebanon's capital Beirut yesterday.

A retired colonel from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tells the BBC that al-Arouri was "living in the heart of the Dahiya, in the heart of the Hezbollah area of Beirut" and he was the "direct connection between Hamas and Hezbollah".

"As such, it is a very important event that has taken place inside the Middle East," Miri Eisin explains.

On whether the strike - which Israel has so far not claimed responsibility for - risked a full-blown conflict with Lebanon, Eisin says she feels "very bad for the Lebanese [people]" but that "we're talking about terror operatives" when discussing Hezbollah.

"Hamas have been firing from Lebanon into Israel," she says, adding:

A young journalist in Gaza, who's been been displaced twice over the last three months and lost 60 members of her family, says the international community has failed them.

Aseel Mousa, 26, tells the BBC's Today programme that she is now living in cramped conditions in Rafah after her home further north in Gaza was destroyed.

She says her family is surviving on canned food and disease is spreading.

"To be honest, I was waiting for the world to stand for its responsibility and I was waiting for the international community to intervene to help Gaza and to stop this genocide... actually the whole world has failed.

"Gaza and the children of Gaza, while the whole world was celebrating New Year, we were targeted and being killed by Israel."

Attacks continued from both sides over New Year's Eve. Israel closed the year with new strikes on central Gaza, in what Defence Minister Yoav Gallant called an "essential stage" of its mission to destroy Hamas.

And from Gaza, at the stroke of midnight, several rockets were fired towards Israel, where they were intercepted.

A former US senior national security adviser has told the BBC that she expects Israel will be going after Hamas's top leaders for years to come.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programe, Mara Rudman says the strike in Beirut which killed Saleh al-Arouri, was part of a wider plan to eliminate those responsible for the 7 October massacre in Israel.

She compares it to the tracking down of those who carried out the Munich Olympics terror attacks in 1972 saying: "It's not about location, but about individuals."

Rudman said she didn't believe "the strike alone would be a source of escalation," as there have been ongoing tensions between Hezbollah and Israel for some time.

Image source, Reuters

Away from Lebanon, let's take a look at the situation on the ground in Gaza.

Yesterday, the Palestinian Red Crescent reported that five people had been killed, and three injured, after the Israeli military bombed its headquarters in Khan Younis, a city in the south of the Gaza Strip.

The humanitarian organisation said Israel's forces had targeted the eighth floor of its HQ. It also said drones had fired in the vicinity of the neighbouring Al-Amal hospital.

We'll bring you more on this as and when we learn it today.

Elsewhere, Israel said its troops had killed "dozens of terrorists" in Jabalia, in northern Gaza, and targeted others in Gaza City. Troops seized weapons and dismantled rocket launchers, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) added.

Fears Hezbollah could respond after Hamas official killedpublished at 07:40 Greenwich Mean Time 3 January

07:40 GMT 3 January

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

This is significant because it triggers fears of a wider escalation in this war.

Saleh al-Arouri, who was killed in Beirut, was the most senior figure from Hamas to have been killed since the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October.

Israel, of course, has neither confirmed nor denied whether it's responsible - but it is widely seen as having carried out the attack.

We've had the Lebanese prime minister accusing Israel of a crime, and of dragging Lebanon into a new phase of confrontations. We've also had Hezbollah warning that this will not go without a response - or a punishment.

It was really in an attempt to calm things down, without claiming responsibility, that an Israeli spokesman called this a "surgical strike" and said that it should not be seen as an attack on the Lebanese state.

But Israel's military says it's now prepared for all scenarios and it's certainly been reinforcing its air defences in the north of the country, with fears that Hezbollah could use some of the longer-range missiles in its arsenal against Israel.

Image source, Reuters

There have been international appeals for restraint after the assassination of a senior member of Hamas in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

As we've been reporting, President Emmanuel Macron of France warned against any escalation in Lebanon during a call to Benny Gantz, a member of Israel's war cabinet.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in the killing of Saleh al-Arouri and six others.

The Lebanese government has accused Israel of seeking to ignite a regional war.

Image source, Reuters

The potential fallout from the killing of a senior Hamas leader in Lebanon is not yet clear.

Saleh al-Arouri died in what Israel has called a "surgical strike against the Hamas leadership" in southern Beirut, along with six others.

The Lebanese Foreign Minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, told BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday evening that his government was talking to Hezbollah to "impress on them that they should not respond themselves" but that: "We don't tell them, we dialogue with them in this regard".

Over the next 24 hours it will become clear "whether they respond or not", he said, adding: "We are very concerned, [the] Lebanese don't want to be dragged, even Hezbollah does not want to be dragged into a regional war."

And he called on the West to "pressure Israel to stop also all its violence and all of its actions, not only on Lebanon, not only on Beirut, but also in Gaza".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously vowed to eliminate Hamas's leaders, wherever they are.

It is a Shia Muslim organisation which is politically influential and in control of the most powerful armed force in Lebanon.

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

Hezbollah 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.

When Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, Hezbollah took credit for pushing them out. Since then, it has maintained thousands of fighters and a huge missile arsenal in southern Lebanon.

In 2006, a full-blown war broke out between Hezbollah and Israel, triggered when Hezbollah carried out a deadly cross-border raid. Israeli troops invaded southern Lebanon to try to eliminate the threat from Hezbollah.

However, it survived and has since increased its number of fighters and obtained new and better weapons. It is funded and equipped by Iran.

• You can read more about the group here

Image source, .

Nadia Ragozhina
Live reporter

Image source, EPA

Hello, we're restarting our live coverage of the war between Israel and Hamas - a day after neighbouring Lebanon accused the Israeli military of dragging it “into a new phase of [the] confrontation”.

The criticism came after Hamas's deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri was killed in a blast in Lebanon's capital Beirut. Hamas condemned the death, while its ally Hezbollah said it was an assault on Lebanese sovereignty.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib told the BBC yesterday that his government was talking to Hezbollah to "impress on them that they should not respond themselves". Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron urged Israel to "avoid any escalatory attitude, particularly in Lebanon".

On the ground in Gaza, intense fighting continues in the south, despite Israel announcing plans to pull back some troops.

Stick with us as we bring you the latest developments from the region.

Jamie Whitehead
Live reporter

We are now pausing our live coverage for today, but there is a lot more coverage of the Israel-Hamas war elsewhere on BBC News.

• Click here for our news story on the blast in Beirut which killed Hamas deputy head Saleh al-Arouri
• For more on al-Arouri and who he was, click here
• And South Africa has filed a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, claiming it’s committing “genocidal acts” in Gaza, Israel will fight the claim

Today's coverage was brought to you by our teams in Jerusalem and London, thank you for joining us,.

Image source, EPA

It's just gone 00:30 in Beirut and 22:30 in London, here's a quick recap of today's events:

• Just before 16:30 GMT there were initial reports of an explosion at a Hamas office in Dahiyeh
• Hamas later confirmed its deputy head, Saleh al-Arouri, and two commanders from its armed wing had been killed in the blast, along with three others.

• Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the explosion, accusing Israel of dragging the country “into a new phase of confrontation”
• In a media briefing, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari did not comment on the killing of al-Arouri directly, but did say the Israeli military was on high alert

• Hamas called al-Arouri’s killing a “terrorist act”, while Hezbollah said the attack would not go without response
• Meanwhile the Israeli military says its troops have killed dozens of Palestinian fighters in Jabalia in the north of Gaza and targeted others in Gaza City

Palestinians have been demonstrating in the West Bank following the death of Hamas deputy head Saleh al-Arouri.

Protests have been happening in Ramallah, Jenin, Hebron and Arura.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

More now from the interview our colleagues at Radio 4’s The World Tonight have done with Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib.

He says that the country’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati has spoken to Hezbollah to “impress on them to not respond themselves” – although Bou Habib could not guarantee that they wouldn’t.

“We are hopeful (tensions) won’t expand more if Israel does not do any more damaging things to Lebanon like this,” he says.

Bou Habib says he believes the explosion which killed Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri was from a drone strike, but says he hasn’t yet received a report from the Lebanese security forces.

He also repeated his country’s call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

“We want peace in the region, what is happening is so bad, so damaging to everybody,” he says.

Israel has not taken responsibility for the attack, but an adviser to the Israeli PM described it as a surgical strike against the Hamas leadership.

Image source, EPA

Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib has told The World Tonight on Radio 4 that Israel is responsible for an attack on a senior Hamas leader in Beirut, calling it an Israeli attempt to expand its war against Hamas in Gaza into a “regional war”.

Bou Habib says that Western countries have been asking Lebanon to stop Hezbollah from causing any problems, but added that “the problems are coming from Israel”.

“And that’s what we are afraid of, that Israel, in order to compensate for its failures in Gaza is trying to expand the war,” he says.

When asked to respond to Israel’s failure to confirm responsibility for the attack, Bou Habib said: “Of course they did it, who else would do it?”.

In a media briefing earlier, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari wouldn’t comment directly on the killing of Saleh al-Arouri, but did say the Israeli military was in a state of high alert.

The Israeli security cabinet meeting scheduled for this evening to discuss the "day after" in Gaza has been cancelled.

It is unclear whether the cancellation has anything to do with today's developments in Beirut.

In the last few minutes, Hezbollah has shared its response to the strike that killed the deputy head of Hamas's political bureau and two commanders of its armed wing.

Israel has not taken responsibility for the attack, but an adviser to the Israeli PM described it as a surgical strike against the Hamas leadership.

Hezbollah says the killing was "a serious assault on Lebanon" and "a dangerous development in course of war between the enemy and the axis of the resistance" in a post on Telegram.

It "will not go without a response or punishment," it adds,

Image source, Reuters

The Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has condemned the killing of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri.

Shtayyeh, who is part of the Palestinian Authority which governs the occupied West Bank and is separate to Hamas, calls the killing a "crime perpetrated by known criminals".

He goes on to warn about the "risks and consequences that could follow", according to a statement issued by his office.

Image source, Reuters

The leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, has just issued a statement confirming that two senior commanders from its armed wing have been killed in Beirut alongside Saleh al-Arouri

He names the pair of al-Qassam Brigades commanders as Samir Fendi and Azzam al-Aqra, adding that others were killed too, without giving any more names or numbers of the dead.

A separate Hamas statement also reported the killings of four other men, taking the total death toll from the attack to seven.

In his statement, Haniyeh condemned their "cowardly" killing, as well as accusing Israel of violating Lebanon's sovereignty and escalating the ongoing conflict.