Image source, Israel Defense Forces

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari says that at this time Israel has not identified any aerial threat being launched from Iran.

It comes after a White House official told the BBC's US partner CBS that the US had indications that Iran was preparing to launch a ballistic missile attack "imminently".

Hagari adds that the IDF is on a high state of alert and that an Iranian attack on Israel would have repercussions.

A senior White House official now tells the BBC's US partner CBS that the US has indications that Iran is preparing to "imminently launch a ballistic missile attack against Israel".

"A direct military attack from Iran against Israel will carry severe consequences for Iran," the official warns, adding that the US is supporting "defensive preparations to defend Israel against this attack".

Some more breaking news now.

The Israel Defense Forces says it is targeting Beirut in a post on X, without providing further detail.

We'll bring you more as we have it.

The US has indications that Iran is preparing to "imminently" launch a missile attack on Israel, according to several news agencies.

AFP cites a US official as its source, and Reuters and Axios cite separately a senior White House official.

The US official reportedly tells AFP an attack on Israel would carry "severe consequences for Iran".

At least 600 people are seeking refuge from Israeli air strikes in a monastery, local residents tell Reuters news agency.

Residents left the Christian village of Ain Ebel, in southern Lebanon, after the Israeli military warned them to flee.

They fled to a monastery in the town of Rmeish, which did not receive an evacuation warning, and are awaiting an army convoy to escort them to Beirut, Reuters reports.

This morning, an Israeli military spokesperson warned residents of Ain Ebel and more than 20 other towns to evacuate their homes immediately. He said the military will target homes in these towns that, according to the Israel Defense Forces, are being used by Hezbollah.

As we just reported, the IDF's Daniel Hagari earlier called Israel's incursion into Lebanon an "extended raid".

And US officials, quoted by NBC News, say the ground operation against Hezbollah is expected to last for days, not weeks.

That would be in line with what a US National Security Council spokesperson yesterday called a "limited" operation.

As a reminder, when announcing the ground operation overnight, Israel called them "limited, localised, and targeted ground raids".

A Lebanese friend texts me: 'The country is lost'published at 14:05 British Summer Time

14:05 BST

Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent, in Beirut

Image source, Reuters

Powerful and influential, Hezbollah, which means Party of God, is described as a state within the state in Lebanon. It has significant support here, but also opposition.

For almost a year, as Hezbollah carried out near-daily cross-border on attacks on Israel, many outside its base feared that Lebanon, already struggling to recover from years of successive crises, was being dragged into a conflict that it has not chosen to fight.

The economy has essentially collapsed, and political impasse has meant the country has been without a president for almost two years.

Here, there are still memories of the last war between Israel and Hezbollah, in 2006, when parts of southern Lebanon and Dahieh, the group’s base in Beirut’s southern suburbs, were flattened.

"The country is lost," a Lebanese friend texts me. Another writes: "If you ask me what’s coming, my answer is it will be that very long and hard days are coming." And a third says: "We just need to hope for the best."

Surely, Hezbollah’s rivals will not be disappointed to see a weakened group who, many say, is interested in defending its own interests - and those of its main supporter, Iran.

But there is still uncertainty about what happens next. It remains unclear whether Hezbollah still can organise any significant and co-ordinated response. It continues to fire rockets at Israel, but not with the same intensity.

Meanwhile, this is a country under pressure, struggling with the sheer number of casualties from Israeli airstrikes and one million people who have already been displaced.

Image source, IDF

Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari is now taking questions from the media about Israel's ground invasion.

"We're not now currently fighting face to face [with Hezbollah] but we're taking it seriously," Hagari says.

He adds that Israel's forces are "ready to fight" Hezbollah forces, but he also says Israel is not going to Beirut, or any southern Lebanese cities.

Hagari is then asked about what will happen during the "incursion" in the coming days.

"You say incursions and I say raid," he says.

"This is a raid, an extended raid," adding that "we will do it as fast as we can, we will take down the threat".

"We will push Hezbollah back [from the] border."

More now from IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari, who says IDF special forces entered Hezbollah compounds in Lebanon at "dozens of locations" in recent months.

He says forces dismantled weapons, including "advanced Iranian-made weapons".

Talking over graphics of underground tunnels inside Lebanon, Hagari adds the IDF has exposed and dismantled over 700 Hezbollah "terror assets".

We are now hearing from Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari, who is addressing the media in Hebrew, and then later English.

He says Israeli forces have operated inside Lebanon dozens of times over the past months, destroying tunnels.

As a reminder, Israel announced a "limited" ground operation in Lebanon only in the early hours of Tuesday.

We'll have more lines from Hagari's statement soon.

A quick operation? Or an open-ended occupation?published at 13:14 British Summer Time

13:14 BST

Frank Gardner
Security correspondent

It’s hard to predict, at this early stage, whether Israel’s insertion of ground troops into southern Lebanon will be the quick, efficient operation they would like it to be - or whether, as many predict, Israel will end up getting bogged down in Lebanon, as it did for 18 years from 1982 to 2000.

Clearing southern Lebanon of all the hundreds of kilometres of tunnels and caves and labyrinths, which it has spent so many years digging below ground to store its massive arsenal of weapons, is not going to be a quick or easy process.

Hezbollah - which although badly wounded by recent blows from Israel - still retains thousands of fighters.

They are well trained, in many cases battle-hardened by their recent experiences fighting in Syria, and burning with a desire to avenge the deaths amongst their ranks.

They are a far more formidable foe for the IDF than Hamas has been in Gaza.

Among their weaponry are powerful Russian anti-tank guided missiles that can take on Israeli armour, just as they did in the 2006 war where the two sides fought each other to a standstill, ending inconclusively after 34 days.

The Israeli military, this time round, appears to be more aware of the challenge they are taking on. But there remains the risk that they could be drawing themselves into an open-ended occupation of southern Lebanon with no clear end in sight.

This footage from Israel today shows the aftermath of a rocket attack from Lebanon. It was taken in Kfar Qasim, near Tel Aviv.

As we reported earlier, one person suffered a shrapnel injury after a "projectile" attack in the area earlier today.

Orla Guerin
Senior International Correspondent, reporting from Tyye, southern Lebanon

The southern city of Tyre feels like a city in waiting – for even worse to come.

It has already been hit hard by Israeli strikes in several locations, and now Israel has troops on the ground in the south.

We don’t know how many, or exactly where, but a ground war is now under way. Israel says it is carrying out ground raids that are "limited, localised and targeted".

Some people were leaving the south – we passed a few cars with belongings piled on top, but it wasn’t a big exodus.

It seems that many people who wanted to flee did so last week, after Israel began its massive bombardment from the air.

As we approached Tyre, we saw the aftermath of one recent strike.

Once inside the city, we drove past boarded up shops and businesses. Many windows were broken, with glass carpeting the ground.

As we drove into the only functioning hotel in Tyre, there were two United Nations armoured personnel carriers parked just outside the gates.

The beach hotel is down to three staff. The golden sands outside are deserted.

Jeremy Bowen
International Editor

Nobody can really say where this conflict is currently heading. Previously there were what might have been viewed as "rules of the game" - and now there are none.

A lot will depend on Iran’s response, if there is one. Iran may have decided that, for the time being, it would be unwise to respond militarily.

Israel is feeling very successful, and might hit back, plus the US is sending an extra aircraft carrier with more troops to the region – designed as a deterrent against Iran.

So Iran might wait for an opportunity, which means things might unfold more slowly in the wider region than some people are expecting.

Meanwhile of course, things are unfolding in south Lebanon at a very brisk, military pace. And there are people around the world, particularly in the global south as it’s known, who feel that the west has two sets of rules – one for itself and its allies and one for other people.

So there are very distinct narratives about the way people view these events.

This footage, taken on Tuesday morning, shows damage in the Lebanese capital after the previous night's air strikes:

Overnight, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced they had begun a ground operation in southern Lebanon. Here's what's happened since then:

• An Israeli source says their ground forces have gone only "very close walking distance" into Lebanon, while Hezbollah claims that Israel’s forces have not crossed the border
• Hezbollah also says no direct clashes have occurred between their fighters and Israeli forces, a claim confirmed by a BBC source
• Israel has told residents in around 25 villages in southern Lebanon to evacuate and head north
• The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) says the IDF informed them yesterday about "limited ground incursions into Lebanon"
• Both sides continue to exchange fire. Hezbollah claims to have fired at the Mossad headquarters in Tel Aviv, while Israeli airstrikes have continued

As we've reported, Israel says it's targeting "Hezbollah launchpads and infrastructure" in its ground invasion.

But the rockets from southern Lebanon have not stopped. The Israeli military says that in the past hour about 15 projectiles entered from Lebanon, landing in "open areas" in the Upper Galilee region in northern Israel.

It adds that the Israeli Air Force are using fighter jets and combat helicopters to hit Hezbollah targets.

Sally Nabil
BBC Arabic, reporting from Dahieh, Beirut

As we got into Dahieh in southern Beirut, it felt tense.

Many shops were closed, and huge pictures of senior Hezbollah leaders, recently killed in Israeli airstrikes, could be seen in many streets.

Over the past days Dahieh, a Hezbollah stronghold, has been a target for Israeli air raids. Overnight Israeli shelling was intense, it could be heard in central Beirut.

As we drove by, we could easily spot the damage that befell many areas in this largely Shia neighbourhood. Buildings were partially or totally reduced to rubble and cars were smashed.

Shortly before launching their air strikes, the Israelis usually ask residents in some parts of Dahieh to flee their homes.

"The Israelis issue a warning, then ten minutes later the shelling starts - how on earth can we leave for safety?" one resident in Dahieh asks me.

No one knows how things will unfold after Israel announced the beginning of a ground incursion.

But any escalation will, definitely, come with a high human cost, in a country that has been struggling for years with a failing economy and a stagnant political life.

In the heart of the capital, I meet a Lebanese family which fled Dahieh in recent days. They’ve been living in the street since then.

They say they don’t want to go to a centre for the displaced, because such places are packed.

"I just wish I could have a shower," the mother tells me.

James Kelly
UGC Hub

Hanan Baba travelled to Lebanon to visit her father at the beginning of September.

The 29-year-old life coach from Fulham in London, who describes herself as "half British, half Lebanese", is staying 50 miles north of Beirut, in Lebanon’s second-largest city, Tripoli.

But although she’s some distance from Israeli missile strikes, their repercussions are all too apparent.

"I have seen a huge amount of displaced people from the south who are migrating here. I was driving past a roundabout and there were 50 people just sat there with their mattresses with nowhere to go.

"People are literally living on the streets, it is extremely sad."

Hanan says she feels " trapped", with flights out of the country booked up for weeks, and she is worried about what could happen next.

"I am not in danger now - but things are escalating and you don’t know. I don’t have a way out. It is not a nice feeling."

• Are you trying to leave Lebanon?You can get in touch with the BBC via this web form or email

Image source, Hanan Baba

Israel's claims that its forces entered Lebanon are false, Hezbollah says in a statement.

The group also says that no direct clashes have taken place between their fighters and Israeli forces. but that they are "ready for a direct confrontation".

Earlier today, a senior security official told the BBC that Israeli ground forces had only gone "very close walking distance" into Lebanon.

The source also said there had been "no clashes" yet.

Image source, Reuters