Israel-Lebanon latest: Israel denies being behind pager attack as over 300 rockets fired over border

The Israeli military’s attacks on Hezbollah over the past week were “blows it could not have imagined”, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Israel killed more than a dozen senior Hezbollah commanders in an air strike on the Shi’ite militia’s stronghold of southern Beirut on Friday.

Top commander Ibrahim Aqil was slain alongside 15 other operatives after multiple missiles tore into the side of the apartment block he was in.

“If Hezbollah has not understood the message, I promise you, it will understand the message,” Mr Netanyahu warned.

Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant has said that strikes on Lebanon will continue until it is safe for evacuated people in the north of Israel to return to their homes.

“Hezbollah has begun to feel some of the capabilities of the Israel Defence Forces, and there is already a very strong feeling of being persecuted, and we are seeing the results,” he said during a tour of Israeli Air Force facilities.

“These moves will continue until we reach a situation where we safely return the residents of the north to their homes - this is the goal, this is the mission, and we will do everything necessary to meet it,” he added.

At least seven people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Gaza school, the Hamas-run health ministry said.

The strike hit Kafr Qasem School in Gaza City at around 11am (8am GMT) local time on Sunday as it was being used to shelter displaced people, the ministry added.

The Israeli military said the strike targeted Hamas fighters and it had used aerial surveillance to limit the risk to civilians.

David Lammy has said he was “deeply, deeply concerned” by events in the West Bank and left the door open for possible sanctions for those engaging in “escalatory behaviour”.

“I’m not announcing further sanctions today but that is kept under close review,” the UK foreign secretary told a Labour Party conference fringe event hosted by Labour Together.

“As you would expect, I’m deeply, deeply concerned by what I’ve seen at this point in time.” Asked whether he was referring to events in the West Bank, he said: “Yes.”

The Foreign Secretary was asked by an audience member at a fringe event at Labour conference when the Government would take the step of introducing a full arms embargo.

“We have suspended those licences that could be used to breach international humanitarian law in Gaza,” he said.

“I don’t think it would be quite right to suspend licences, for example, that the Israelis could use in relation to the Houthis, that Israel may need to use in relation to the challenges it has with other proxies in the area. I think that would be a mistake.

“It would lead to a wider war and an escalation that we here in the UK are committed to stopping, so I’m afraid I disagree with that position.”

Israel said it struck around 290 targets inside Lebanon after Hezbollah launched just over 100 rockets at northern Israel in the most intense skirmish since the war in Gaza began almost a year ago.

Israel closed schools and in many northern areas of the country and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights early on Sunday, with reports of rockets hitting Haifa, a port city around 17 miles from the Lebanon border.

In this video from Haifa, northern Israel, a number of vehicles can be seen ablaze on a residential street on Sunday.

Israel has in recent days hit Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon in ways it could not imagine, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

“If Hezbollah has not understood the message, I promise you, it will understand the message,” Netanyahu said, according to a statement from his office.