Israel-Lebanon latest: Israeli tanks gather at border as US official warns ground offensive may be imminent

Huge consecutive blasts were heard across the Lebanese capital just after midnight on Tuesday, Reuters witnesses said, as the Israeli military carried out strikes on the city's southern suburbs.

A massive smoke cloud could be seen in a Reuters live broadcast.

Hezbollah has targeted Israeli troop movements across from Lebanese border towns, the group has said in a statement issued early on Tuesday.

At least two Israeli strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs late on Monday, a security source said, with Reuters reporters seeing two flashes of light and hearing loud blasts coming from the neighbourhood.

The Israeli military had warned an hour earlier that it would strike specific buildings in the typically densely populated southern suburbs, saying armed group Hezbollah was using them as facilities and telling residents to leave.

Many residents had fled the area in recent days after a spike in Israeli strikes, but ended up sleeping in the streets of the city as shelters were full.

Families had told Reuters they had struggled to find taxis to get them out of the district fast enough.

Fears of a ground invasion have spiked on Monday, with Lebanese troops pulling back from the border with Israel and a U.S. official saying Israeli soldiers looked set to enter Lebanon.

Israel’s military issued an urgent warning late on Monday for residents in Beirut’s southern suburbs to evacuate due to planned strikes on Hezbollah targets.

Hezbollah has not asked for any help from Iran as “they are at our side”, the Lebanese group’s lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah told local broadcaster Al Jadeed on Monday.

The US State Department has reiterated calls for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in order for a “diplomatic resolution” to be reached.

John Kirby, spokesman for the US State Department, also said on Monday that Israel “has a right to defend itself”.

He said: “I think sometimes people either misinterpret or have their own version of what a ceasefire is. A ceasefire is not one side in a conflict unilaterally putting down its arms and stopping the conflict. It is an agreement for both sides to stop the conflict.

“And in this case, what we have proposed is a 21-day ceasefire where both sides would stop attacking the other and we would reach a diplomatic resolution. We are going to continue to engage with our Israeli counterparts, with Lebanese counterparts, with other countries around the world to reach that objective.”

He added: “If you look at what the acting leader of Hezbollah said just today, it's that their attacks on Israel will continue. So Israel has a right to defend itself against those attacks, so that includes in targeting terrorist infrastructure inside Lebanon.”

These pictures show the meeting of tanks and armoured vehicles at Upper Galilee, on the Lebanese border, this evening. It comes amid fears from Western officials that an invsaion is imminent.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said it is vital to avoid any further military interventions in Lebanon.

“Any further military intervention would dramatically aggravate the situation and it has to be avoided,” Borrell told reporters on Monday, speaking from Mexico after an emergency video conference of EU foreign ministers.

Israel warned Iran on Monday that nowhere in the Middle East was beyond its reach and hinted at a land invasion of Lebanon after assassinating the leader of the Tehran-backed Hezbollah group, one of its biggest adversaries, in a Beirut suburb last week.

The Israeli military declared the areas around the communities of Metula, Misgav Am, and Kfar Giladi in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon as a closed military zone and said entry to the areas was prohibited.

It said the decision, announced as speculation has grown of an imminent ground incursion into southern Lebanon, was taken following a situational assessment.