One million Israelis hide in bomb shelters from Hezbollah rockets

One million Israelis were ordered to hide in bomb shelters on Tuesday as Hezbollah launched 300 rockets across the Lebanon border.

Most of the rockets fired by the Iran-backed terror group were intercepted or fell in open areas in the north, though at least two people received minor injuries from shrapnel, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

The barrage of rockets were fired in a second day of intense fighting between Israel and Hezbollah after the IDF launched “Operation Northern Arrows” across Lebanon on Monday morning.

At least 569 people are said to have been killed in the operation so far, according to the Lebanese health authorities.

That includes Ibrahim Qubaisi, a senior Hezbollah commander, who was killed in a strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Tuesday.

Qubaisi, head of Hezbollah’s missile unit, was among the six killed in the “targeted” strike on a known Hezbollah stronghold, the Israeli military said.

He was the mastermind behind a kidnapping plot by Hezbollah in 2000, the IDF said, which led to the deaths of three soldiers.

The IDF has repeatedly insisted it is only targeted areas with homes that are used to store Hezbollah rocket launchers and other weapons.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, repeated his calls for Lebanese civilians to evacuate areas where Hezbollah is storing its weapons. “Nasrallah is leading you to the brink of the abyss,” the Israeli prime minister said.

“I told you yesterday to evacuate the houses where he put a missile in the living room and a rocket in the garage. He who has a missile in his living room and a rocket in his garage will not have a home,” he added.

The military also said it struck around 400 medium-range rocket launchers, 70 weapons depots, and around 80 drones and cruise missiles since launching widespread air strikes in Lebanon on Monday morning.

They are among more than 1,500 Hezbollah targets hit by Israel across 200 different areas of Lebanon in the last two days, the military said.

The second day of intense fighting between Israel and Hezbollah came as world leaders met at the United Nations General Assembly, where they urged Israel to show restraint.

Joe Biden, the US president, said the conflict could still be resolved diplomatically. “We’ve also been determined to prevent a wider war that engulfs the entire region,” the president said in his last UN speech as president.

“A diplomatic solution is still possible. In fact, it remains the only path to lasting security...full-scale war is not in anyone’s interest.”

Meanwhile, the UK Government is ramping up preparations for a mass evacuation of UK nationals from Lebanon. British troops are already stationed at an RAF base in Cyprus but more are set to join them ahead of the anticipated evacuation.

A small number of troops are also already in Lebanon to lead the evacuation if the conflict escalates further.

Officials fear around up to 15,000 UK nationals could still be in Lebanon, despite warnings from David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, to evacuate the war-ravaged country.

06:38 PM BST

That’s all for today

Thanks for following our coverage of the conflict in the Middle East.

We’ll be back with more updates and analysis from the conflict soon.

Here’s the headlines from today:

• Hezbollah fires ‘Fadi 2’ rockets overnight at Israeli explosives factory

• UN: ‘Tens of thousands’ have fled strikes in Lebanon

• Iran’s president says Hezbollah ‘cannot stand alone’

• At least 558 killed in Israeli strikes in last two days

• IDF says it dropped 2,000 bombs on Hezbollah targets in past day

• IDF confirms death of senior Hezbollah commander

• IDF hits 400 rocket launchers and 70 weapons depots

05:46 PM BST

10,000 Brits feared still in Lebanon

Some 10,000 UK nationals may still be in Lebanon, Government officials fear, despite warnings by the Foreign Secretary to flee the country.

Ministers have been ramping up preparations for a mass evacuation of Lebanon as fighting between Israel and Hezbollah intensifies.

The Government is hoping to avoid repeating the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, which officials were not prepare for.

05:18 PM BST

IDF: 270 rockets fired at Israel

Some 270 rockets were fired from Lebanon at northern Israel on Tuesday, the IDF has said.

Hezbollah rockets targeted the Lower Galilee, Haifa Bay, Jezreel Valley, Golan Heights, Safed and the Western Galilee between 2pm and 5.30pm.

Most of the rockets were intercepted or fell in open areas, though at least two people received minor injuries from shrapnel.

05:10 PM BST

Erdogan compares Netanyahu to Hitler

Turkey’s president has compared Benjamin Netanyahu to Hitler as he address the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.

“Just as Hitler was stopped by an alliance of humanity seventy years ago, Netanyahu and his murder network must be stopped by an alliance of humanity,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

Mr Erdogan claimed the values of the UN and the Western world are “dying in Gaza” as he called for more action to stop the war.

The Turkish president, who followed Joe Biden’s speech, also criticised the approach countries are taking to the situation in the Middle East.

“Those who are supposedly working for a ceasefire from this stage continue to send arms and ammunition to Israel so it can continue its massacres,” he said.

04:59 PM BST

IDF hits 400 rocket launchers and 70 weapons depots

The IDF said it has struck around 400 medium-range rocket launchers, 70 weapons depots, and around 80 drones and cruise missiles since launching widespread air strikes in Lebanon on Monday morning.

They are among more than 1,500 Hezbollah targets hit by Israel across 200 different areas of Lebanon, the military said.

Most of the strikes have targeted homes where Hezbollah had stored weapons, according to the IDF.

It comes after Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would continue to strike Hezbollah targets across Lebanon.

04:46 PM BST

Watch: Dashcam footage shows rocket falling on Israeli highway

This is the moment a Hezbollah rocket explodes on an Israeli highway.

A man can be seen running out the car after the rocket explodes and crouching for cover as smoke billows through the air.

04:20 PM BST

IDF launches new wave of strikes

The IDF has launched a new wave of “widespread” air strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

It is the fourth wave of strikes by the IDF in Lebanon today.

04:05 PM BST

IDF confirms death of Hezbollah commander

The IDF confirmed that it targeted and killed Ibrahim Muhammad Qabisi, commander of Hezbollah’s missiles and rockets force.

Mr Qabisi was struck alongside “additional” commanders in the unit. The army said he was responsible for launching missiles toward Israeli civilians in addition to being a “significant source of knowledge in the field of missiles.”

The Hezbollah commander previously served as a senior officer in Hezbollah’s Operations Unit in southern Lebanon and commanded the Badr Unit on Hezbollah’s Southern Front, according to the army.

“In these roles, he was responsible for planning and executing numerous terror attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers,” the IDF said.

03:58 PM BST

Biden: conflict can still be resolved diplomatically

Joe Biden has said the conflict between Israel and Lebanon can still be resolved diplomatically.

Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the US president also said he was committed to ending the war in Gaza.

“We’ve also been determined to prevent a wider war that engulfs the entire region,” the president said, speaking of the escalation between Lebanon and Israel.

“A diplomatic solution is still possible. In fact, it remains the only path to lasting security...full-scale war is not in anyone’s interest.”

03:46 PM BST

Nasrallah is leading you to the brink, Netanyahu warns Lebanese civilians

Benjamin Netanyahu has repeated his calls for Lebanese civilians to evacuate areas where Hezbollah is storing its weapons.

“Nasrallah is leading you to the brink of the abyss,” the Israeli prime minister said.

“I told you yesterday to evacuate the houses where he put a missile in the living room and a rocket in the garage. He who has a missile in his living room and a rocket in his garage will not have a home,” he added.

03:38 PM BST

Gaza authorities say 22 killed in air strikes

Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 22 Palestinians on Tuesday, medics in the Hamas-run Strip during fierce battles in Rafah, near the border with Egypt.

As Israel fights on two fronts, its tanks advanced in the northern and western areas of Rafah, according to witnesses.

Residents said the Israeli army blew up several homes in eastern and central areas of the city.

03:31 PM BST

Lebanon extends closure of schools, nurseries

Lebanese authorities have extended the closure of schools, universities and nurseries until the end of the week amid Israel’s bombardment.

03:21 PM BST

Israeli air force strikes on Lebanon ‘most extensive’ in its history

A senior Israeli air force officer said the air strikes carried out over the past day against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon are the most extensive the IAF has ever carried out.

Israel’s military siad more than 1,600 Hezbollah sites werre struck in southern Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley in the east within 24 hours.

The IAF officer told The Times of Israel that the large-scale air strikes are “changing the operational situation in the north, changing the reality.”

03:02 PM BST

Downing Street calls emergency Cobra meeting

Downing Street has called an emergency Cobra meeting amid fears thousands of Britons will need evacuating from war-torn Lebanon.

Security chiefs are set to meet in Whitehall this afternoon to discuss the Government’s plans should the situation escalate into a full-scale war.

John Healey, the Defence Secretary, is understood to have left Labour’s party conference in Liverpool early to chair the gathering.

Their conversations come after plans were drawn up for how to evacuate thousands of British citizens in such a scenario.

02:56 PM BST

Hezbollah unveils ‘Fadi 3’ rocket in attack on army base

Hezbollah used a new rocket, ‘Fadi 3’, in an attack on an Israeli army base, the group announced in a message posted on Telegram on Tuesday.

It comes after we reported that Hezbollah was using its Fadi 1 and 2 models - which it began using for the first time on Sunday - to attack Israeli military targets, including an explosives factory and airfield, earlier on Tuesday.

02:29 PM BST

Israeli strike on Beirut kills at least six

An Israeli air strike that targeted a Hezbollah commander, reportedly the head of their missile unit, in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Tuesday, killed at least six people, Lebanese authorities said.

02:26 PM BST

Pictured: Israel’s Iron Dome intercepts Hezbollah rockets

01:51 PM BST

IDF says it dropped 2,000 bombs on Hezbollah targets in past day

Israeli jets dropped some 2,000 munitions on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon over the past day, the IDF said.

The Israeli air force struck some 1,600 Hezbollah targets, it added. Drones hit hundreds more.

01:28 PM BST

Israeli jets target Beirut

Israeli jets conducted a targeted strike in Beirut, the Israeli military said on Tuesday, giving no details.

01:08 PM BST

In pictures: Iran parades missiles on streets of Tehran

01:00 PM BST

Dispatch: Exhausted families pour into Beirut

Exhausted families are continuing to pour into Beirut after 14 or more hours stuck on the traffic-clogged roads leading into the Lebanese capital.

One family of four told us that 14 people had been killed by Israeli shelling in the village of Chaqra near the town of Bint Jbeil, a predominantly Shia border town that was the scene of some of the heaviest fighting during Israel’s war with Hezbollah in 2006.

Jaffar, who fled with his wife, 13-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter, said two shells struck the village, home to roughly 6,000 people, yesterday morning. One almost destroyed an empty mosque but the second flattened a house in the village, killing nine members of the same family, he said.

Another five people were killed in strikes on the outskirts to the village, which is famed for its ruined crusader castle, he added.

Despite the attacks, he initially wanted to remain at home despite the dangers, but gradually he became aware that almost everyone in the village was leaving and that it would be foolhardy to stay.

“We had to drive across country because the rubble from the house that was destroyed had spilled across the main road in the village making it impassable,” he said. “As we left there five ambulances entered the village to try to help the wounded.”

The family have just arrived in Beirut and as yet have no idea where they will stay.

Another family of six fleeing Jarjouh, a village to the north of Chaqra that is home to both Shia Muslims and Christians, told us they also decided to leave after shells struck the area for the first time.

Like Jaffar’s family, they insisted that Hezbollah was not present in the village. Older members of the family recalled what it was like to live in southern Lebanon when it was under Israeli occupation before 2000 and suggested that territorial expansionism was the real reason for the offensive.

“This is not about Hezbollah,” one woman said. “Israel wants to conquer our land for its settlers.”

12:22 PM BST

Israel’s military chief: ‘We must not give Hezbollah a break’

Israel will not stop bombing Lebanon, its military chief has vowed, after hundreds have been killed in two days of attacks on Hezbollah strongholds.

“Hezbollah must not be given a break. [We must] keep working with all our might,” Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, the IDF’s chief of staff, said on Tuesday. “We will accelerate the offensive operations today and bolster all the arrays. The situation requires continued, intense action in all arenas.”

12:19 PM BST

Hezbollah says Israel dropping leaflets with ‘dangerous barcodes’

Hezbollah’s media office said on Tuesday that Israel was dropping leaflets with a “very dangerous” barcode on them onto Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley.

It warning that scanning the code by phone would “withdraw all information” from any device.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

11:59 AM BST

Lebanese hospitals ‘overwhelmed’ by wounded

A World Health Organisation (WHO) official in Lebanon has said some hospitals are “overwhelmed” by the thousands of wounded arriving.

Abdinasir Abubakar added: “We have some evidence, and we have some documentation that shows that at least there were some attacks on health facilities, even the ambulances as well.” Four healthcare workers had been killed on Monday, he added.

Israel has denied that it is targeting civilians and said it had taken measures to protect them.

At least 1,835 people have been wounded so far, Lebanon’s health ministry said, adding that they were receiving treatment across 54 hospitals.

11:41 AM BST

Lebanon: At least 558 killed in Israeli strikes

In their latest update, the Lebanese health ministry said 558 people, including 50 children, have been killed since Monday in Israeli strikes across the country’s south and east.

It added that 1,500 had been injured.

11:37 AM BST

Telegraph readers react to Israel/Hezbollah conflict...

11:29 AM BST

Iran’s president says Hezbollah ‘cannot stand alone’

Iran’s president said that Hezbollah “cannot stand alone” against Israel as the Tehran-backed terror group fired rockets at northern Israel and the IDF continued its air strikes in Lebanon.

“Hezbollah cannot stand alone against a country that is being defended and supported and supplied by Western countries, by European countries and the United States,” Masoud Pezeshkian said in an interview with CNN during his trip to New York for the UN General Assembly,

“We must not allow Lebanon to become another Gaza at the hands of Israel,” he said.

11:17 AM BST

Hezbollah fires 100 rockets in single morning

Israel’s military said over 100 rockets were fired by Hezbollah on Tuesday morning, many of which hit empty areas or were downed.

11:02 AM BST

Watch: Israel strikes Hezbollah rocket launchers

The Israel Defence Forces on Tuesday morning said it struck a Hezbollah cell responsible for launching rockets at the Jezreel Valley and the Afula area in northern Israel overnight.

The launchers used in the barrage were also hit, the military said in a statement.

10:38 AM BST

Kremlin: Israel-Hezbollah strikes risk ‘complete destabilisation of region’

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that the escalation of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah risks a “complete destabilisation” of the Middle East.

“It is, of course, an event that is potentially very dangerous” that threatens an expansion of the zone of the conflict and “complete destabilisation of the region,” Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesman, told journalists.

10:19 AM BST

UN: ‘Tens of thousands’ have fled strikes in Lebanon

The United Nations said Tuesday that tens of thousands of people had fled their homes in Lebanon since Monday, amid Israeli strikes.

“Tens of thousands of people were forced from their homes yesterday and overnight, and the numbers continue to grow,” UN refugee agency spokesman Matthew Saltmarsh told reporters in Geneva, adding that “the toll on civilians is unacceptable”.

09:53 AM BST

In pictures: Fresh Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon

09:29 AM BST

Pat McFadden says UK is ‘behind Israel’

Pat McFadden, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said the the British government is “behind Israel being able to get its citizens back home” following the deadly cross-border attacks between Israel and Lebanon.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said ensuring Israel’s northern border is “what this is all about. For almost a year, there have been 60,000 Israelis who have not been able to live in Israel.”

“We also want people to be able to live at peace in Lebanon without this two-way threat of shells,” he added.

The MP for Wolverhampton South East called the events a “major escalation” in the conflict in the Middle East and repeated calls for all British citizens to leave Lebanon while commercial flights are still available.

“You cannot guarantee that this remains in the sort of semi-controlled way that it is right now,” he added.

09:11 AM BST

BA cancels flights to Tel Aviv

British Airways has cancelled flights to Tel Aviv up to and including Wednesday.

“Safety is always our top priority, and we’re contacting customers to advise them of their travel options,” BA said in a statement.

Wizz Air and Azerbaijan Airlines earlier cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv.

Many carriers have also cancelled flights to and from Beirut in the wake of the sharp escalation in violence between Israel and Lebanon.

09:03 AM BST

IDF releases footage of ‘missiles stored in attic of Lebanese house’

08:55 AM BST

‘Operation Northern Arrows’

IDF is now referring to its attacks against Hezbollah as “Operation Northern Arrows”, presumably a metaphor for the defence of Israel’s northern border.

Israel traditionally names both smaller and larger operations against its enemies. The naming of the operation against Hezbollah marks yet a new development in what can now be referred to be as a war.

08:43 AM BST

Watch: Moment Hezbollah rocket hits highway in northern Israel

Dashcam footage shows the moment a Hezbollah rocket hit a highway between Tamra and Kabul in northern Israel on Tuesday morning.

There are currently no reported injuries from the strike.

08:32 AM BST

Border towns in northern Israel come under heavy rocket fire

The Israeli military said more than 50 rockets were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel on Tuesday morning after it pounded Hezbollah targets with new strikes.

“The majority of the projectiles were intercepted,” it said in a statement.

A number of rockets targeted the town of Kiryat Shmona and hit a munitions warehouse,  while sirens rang out across other border towns, acording to Israeli media reports. Afula, Nazareth and surrounding communities were also attacked this morning.

There are no current reports of injuries.

08:22 AM BST

Watch: Thousands flee southern Lebanon in search of safety

08:04 AM BST

‘We fled in 2006 and we are refugees again’

Having lived through the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah which laid waste to swathes of southern Lebanon, many civilians did not have to be told to flee twice.

“We have lived through this before,” said one woman, who identified herself only as Najat, after she fled the southern city of Tyre with her family.

“We fled in 2006 and we are refugees again — but this time the situation was worse. Tyre was hit more times today than in the whole of that war.”

Until now both Israel and Hezbollah have sought to avoid being drawn into a repeat of the 34-day war of 2006 in which the two sides fought each other to a bloody and inconclusive standstill in the mountains of southern Lebanon.

So far, although a full air offensive seems to be underway, Israel has not yet shown any appetite for a ground invasion of southern Lebanon. Such a move would be risky for an exhausted army stretched thin by continuing war in Gaza and operations in the occupied West Bank.

Read more here.

07:49 AM BST

Hezbollah fires ‘Fadi 2’ rockets overnight at Israeli explosives factory

Hezbollah early on Tuesday morning said it had launched several attacks on Israeli military targets, including an explosives factory 37 miles into Israel, with the “Fadi” series of rockets.

It said it attacked the explosives factory around 4am local time (2am BST) and the Megiddo airfield three separate times overnight.

The Iran-backed armed group began using Fadi1 and Fadi-2 long-range artillery rockets on Sunday.

07:38 AM BST

Watch: Israel strikes Beirut as Netanyahu tells civilians to ‘get out the way’

07:24 AM BST

Israel hits further Hezbollah targets overnight

The Israeli military said Tuesday it hit dozens of Hezbollah targets in several areas of southern Lebanon overnight.

“Overnight ...the IAF (air force) struck dozens of Hezbollah targets in numerous areas in southern Lebanon,” the military said in a statement, adding that its artillery and tanks struck additional “terrorist targets” in the area of Ayta al-Shab and Ramyeh.

06:30 AM BST

US opposes Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon

The US does not support the escalation between Israel and Hezbollah across the border of Lebanon, nor would it support a ground invasion, a senior State Department official said.

The official added that Washington was going to discuss “concrete ideas” with allies and partners to prevent the war from broadening.

“We obviously do not believe that a ground invasion of Lebanon is going to contribute to reducing tensions in the region,” the spokesman said.

06:20 AM BST

Lammy calls for ‘immediate ceasefire’ between Israel and Hezbollah

On Monday night, Foreign Secretary David Lammy called for an immediate ceasefire ahead of a meeting of G7 ministers.

Mr Lammy posted on X: “Deeply alarmed by rockets and air strikes in Lebanon and Israel and resulting civilian casualties. Further escalation risks even more devastating consequences.

“I repeat my call for an immediate ceasefire on both sides, which I will emphasise when I meet G7 ministers tonight.”

06:08 AM BST

‘No country stands to gain’ from Middle East escalation

G7 nations have warned that “no country stands to gain from a further escalation in the Middle East”, as world leaders gathered in New York for the annual UN General Assembly on Monday.

“Actions and counter-reactions risk magnifying this dangerous spiral of violence and dragging the entire Middle East into a broader regional conflict with unimaginable consequences,” a statement from the G7 foreign ministers said, calling for “a stop to the current destructive cycle”.

05:58 AM BST

Thousands flee southern Lebanon

Thousands of Lebanese are heeding Benjamin Netanyahu’s warning and fleeing the south of Lebanon.

The main highway out of the southern port city of Sidon was jammed with cars heading towards Beirut on Monday night, in the biggest exodus since 2006.

05:40 AM BST

Hamas field commander killed in Israeli strike

Hamas field commander Mahmoud al Nader has been killed in an Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon, Hamas’ armed wing said.

Israel said it killed a “large number” of Hezbollah militants when it hit about 1,600 sites in southern and eastern Lebanon on Monday, including a “targeted strike” in Beirut in what the Israeli military called “Operation Northern Arrows”.

Hezbollah said Ali Karake, its third-in-command, was alive and had moved to safety after a source said the strike on the capital targeted him.

The group also launched “volleys” of missiles at Israeli military sites early on Tuesday.

05:35 AM BST

Israeli strikes on Lebanon kill 492 people - Lebanon

The death toll from Israel’s strikes on Lebanon has risen to 492 people, including 35 children and 58 women, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

The staggering figure marks the strikes as the deadliest since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. It is not clear if it includes Hezbollah fighters in the figure.

Some 1,645 people were wounded in Monday’s strikes.

05:27 AM BST

Welcome to our live coverage

We will be bringing you the latest on the conflict in the Middle East today following the sharp escalation in violence between Hezbollah and Israel.