Evacuation orders as Israel 'deepens' attacks on Lebanon

Israeli strike kills four children in Gaza

There has been a lot of focus this morning on Israel's bombardment of Lebanon as it seeks to wipe out Hezbollah targets - although civilians have also been warned they could also be in danger.

But in Gaza the deadly war trudges on, where two strikes by Israeli forces this morning have killed at least 10 Palestinians, according to Reuters.

Medics told the agency a woman and four children died in one attack on a house in the city of Deir Al-Balah.

There was no immediate Israeli army comment on the incident. 

Displaced Gazans living in tents are also now having to contend with flooding - on top of the lack of food and medicine - as the first rains of the cool season have arrived.

Major development as evacuation messages spread fear through capital

People across Lebanon have been receiving messages telling them to evacuate areas near buildings that could be storing Hezbollah weapons.

Our international correspondent John Sparks, who is in Beirut, said: "We understand that those calls are now being received all over Beirut: different districts, different parts of the city, north of Beirut as well.

"What's this about? Well, it's certainly a warning from the Israelis. It will also spread fear in this city," he said.

The city is deeper into Lebanese territory than the targets of most Israeli airstrikes today.

Although no attacks in Beirut have been reported yet, "clearly this is a major development", added Sparks.

He said similar Israeli warnings in Gaza have typically been followed by airstrikes and "sometimes they can happen very quickly".

Evacuation messages part of 'psychological war'

Phone calls and messages sent to people in Lebanon today telling them to evacuate certain areas (see 08.40 post) are a tactic of "psychological war", the country's information minister has said.

Ziad Makary said his office in Beirut had received a recorded message telling people to leave the building.

"This comes in the framework of the psychological war implemented by the enemy," Mr Makary said.

He urged the public "not to give the matter more attention than it deserves".

It has not been confirmed who sent the messages, although they chime with other warnings issued by the Israeli military that can be watched in the video below.

Israel has greater incentive to escalate conflict, says expert

There are several routes of escalation in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, says former national security adviser Sir Mark Lyall Grant.

He tells Sky News that Israel "probably has the greater incentive to escalate this conflict than the other side".

It could target Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah; Lebanese civilian infrastructure, as it has done in the past; or launch a ground incursion, he says.

Hezbollah, for its part, could target Israeli civilian infrastructure if it wanted to escalate, he said.

"What we've seen in the last three days is a definite escalation."

He continues: "Certainly the UN system believes that Israel has gone beyond the sort of normal tit-for-tat exchanges that we've been used to over the last 12 months."

Israel's new war aim of returning displaced residents to its northern border is not achievable while Hezbollah has the capacity to launch rockets into Israel, said Sir Mark.

"So I think Israel probably has the greater incentive to escalate this conflict than the other side."

Israel 'deepening' attacks

Israel's defence minister has asked its public to remain calm in the coming days as it begins "deepening" its attacks on Lebanon.

"These are days in which the Israeli public will have to show composure," Yoav Gallant said.

"We are deepening our attacks in Lebanon, the sequence of operations continues and will continue until we achieve our goals - to return the residents of the north safely to their homes."

Fire has already intensified this morning, with Israel launching extensive strikes across southern Lebanon.

In a message to civilians across the border, Mr Gallant told them to evacuate homes and other buildings where Hezbollah stores weapons. 

Lebanese residents receive calls ordering evacuation

A Lebanese number has been calling residents in southern Lebanon telling them to evacuate any area within 0.6 miles of posts used by Hezbollah, Reuters reports.

One of its reporters in the region received the call.

Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari issued a similar warning earlier this morning and said it was being "distributed in Arabic on all networks and platforms in Lebanon".

Meanwhile, Israeli strikes have continued. 

A rocket was fired deep into Lebanese territory, hitting an uninhabited mountainside east of the Lebanese port city of Byblos, Lebanon's state media and a resident there said. 

It is an area not previously hit by airstrikes, and sits between Christian and Shi'ite villages, a resident said.

Real fear for millions in Lebanon as border clashes escalate

Friday's Israeli airstrikes in the Hezbollah heartland of Beirut killed Ibrahim Aqil - one of its most senior military commanders and founder of the elite Radwan Force.

He was a man who had been on the US most-wanted list for decades and whom Israeli forces said "had the blood of many people on his hands".

But women sobbed and the Hezbollah fighters acting as funeral bearers cried as they mourned the loss of a man many loyalists see as a hero.

They chanted for revenge and marched towards the burial ground known as the "Martyrs' graveyard", professing loyalty to the group which is a proscribed terror organisation in the US and UK.

At the same time further south in Lebanon, there were several funerals for civilians - mothers, children, whole families who were killed in the same airstrikes.

They were in one of two residential apartments hit by the strikes.

Israeli forces say the attack was targeted at the commander and a group of his elite forces meeting deep underneath one of the high-rise blocks. But multiple civilians including children were also killed alongside 16 Hezbollah fighters.

The death toll at the time of writing is more than 40.

The airstrikes in a densely populated part of Beirut followed two days of booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members exploding around the country.

The three attacks in a week seem to have drawn the country together in grief and defiance - but there is also a real sense of fear among millions of people across Lebanon.

However, even as global leaders called for restraint and politicians in the UK and America urged their citizens to leave the country while they still could, both Israel and Lebanon intensified their exchanges along the border.

Israel warns Lebanese civilians to evacuate

The Israeli military has called on people in Lebanon to immediately evacuate homes and other buildings where Hezbollah stores weapons. 

Israel has been carrying out dozens of airstrikes early this morning on southern Lebanon.

A huge plume of smoke can be seen rising over the Lebanese-Israeli border in the video below.

An Israeli strike on a Beirut suburb on Friday killed at least 45 people, while fire was exchanged across the border over the weekend.

Meanwhile, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant says he has spoken with US secretary of defence Lloyd Austin about the military's latest strikes against Hezbollah.

"We also discussed the wider regional situation and the threats posed by Iran and its proxies," he said.

-SKY NEWS