Israel-Lebanon latest: Intense Israeli strikes on Hezbollah leave 100 dead – including children – Lebanon says

The Israeli military says it is widening an aerial offensive against what it says are Hezbollah weapons sites in southern and eastern Lebanon.

The military said Monday that it was expanding its airstrikes to include areas of the Bekaa Valley, along Lebanon's eastern border, after targeting more than 300 sites in southern Lebanon.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said residents of the Bekaa Valley must immediately evacuate areas where Hezbollah is storing weapons.

Heavy rains overnight piled more problems onto Gaza’s displaced as downpours flooded tents, washed some of them away, and forced families out of their sleep.

Some placed water buckets on the ground to protect mats from leaks and dug trenches to drain water away from their tents. The price of new tents and plastic sheeting to prevent leaks shot up.

Ahmed Al-Burai, 30, said people made their tents of used sacks of flour, worn-out clothes, and nylon bags. As soon as it rained the water and wind blew many tents away and flooded others.

“Everything is drowned, the blankets, the food, and the people in just a few hours of rain,” Mr Burai told news agency Reuters over the phone from Al-Mawasi, a humanitarian-designated area in the southern Gaza Strip.

“Most of the displaced can’t afford the new prices of tents and plastic sheeting. Just two days ago the price of plastic sheeting stood at 100 to 200 shekels ($27 to $54) and today it has risen to 700 and 800 shekels ($189 to $216) because of the greed of merchants,” Mr Burai said.

More shelters and supplies to help people cope with the coming winter were needed, the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said.

“As autumn begins, plastic and fabric are not enough to protect people against the rain and the cold,” the relief agency posted on X.

Strikes by Israeli forces killed at least 10 Palestinians, including four children, in the central Gaza Strip, medics have said, as heavy rains flooded displaced residents’ tent encampments.

The assault on Gaza, now nearly a year long, carried on even as international attention turned to the conflict in Lebanon and northern Israel between Hezbollah militants and Israel.

Palestinian health officials said at least five Palestinians were killed at a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Nuseirat, one of Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee camps. The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas command center embedded inside a compound that previously served as a school.

Later on Monday, an Israeli airstrike on a house in the city of Deir Al-Balah, where a million people have taken shelter, killed a woman and four children, medics said. There was no immediate Israeli army comment on the incident.

Hamas’ armed wing said its fighters managed to lure a convoy of Israeli vehicles into “a well-prepared ambush” on the supply line of the Israeli forces east of Rafah city, and attacked them with anti-tank rockets and already-planted explosive devices. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 50 people were killed and more than 300 wounded, including children, women and medics, in Israeli strikes on Monday that targeted southern Lebanon. 

Hezbollah has said it has launched dozens of rockets at several Israeli military post after attacks on Southern Lebanon, according to a statement by the group.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military said it has struck 300 targets in Lebanon as it increases the pressure on Hezbollah.

Concerns over a wider conflict in the Middle East have prompted international airlines to suspend flights to the region or to avoid affected air space.

Below are some of the airlines that have adjusted services to and from the region:

• AIR ALGERIE
• AIRBALTIC
• AIR FRANCE-KLM 
• KLM
• AIR INDIA
• CATHAY PACIFIC
• DELTA AIR LINES
• EASYJET
• IAG
• RYANAIR
• UNITED AIRLINES 

Read the full report from my colleague John Bowden in Washington DC:

Below we have some more footage from southern Lebanon, where Israel has been carrying out extensive airstrikes this morning.

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV correspondent Ali Shoeib can be heard saying in the video that “everywhere you look there has been an airstrike”.