Image source, Reuters

We just brought you comments from Hezbollah's deputy chief, Naim Qassem. But what is Hezbollah?

It's a Shia Muslim political party and armed group that receives strong financial and military backing from Iran.

The Lebanon-based group has a significant presence in the Lebanese parliament and government, and controls the most powerful armed force in the country.

Hezbollah rose to prominence in the 1980s in opposition to Israel, whose forces had occupied southern Lebanon during the country's 1975-1990 civil war.

When Israeli troops withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, Hezbollah took credit for pushing them out and continues to oppose Israel's presence in disputed border areas.

In 2006, a full-blown war broke out between Hezbollah and Israel, triggered by a deadly cross-border raid by Hezbollah.

Israeli troops invaded southern Lebanon to try to eliminate the threat from Hezbollah. About 1,000 civilians were killed during the conflict but Hezbollah claimed victory and has since increased its number of fighters and upgraded its weapons.

• What is Hezbollah and why is it attacking Israel?

Hezbollah's message is clear from its deputy's speechpublished at 10:57 British Summer Time

10:57 BST

Nafiseh Kohnavard
BBC Persian Middle East correspondent, Beirut

Naim Qassem's speech was announced by Hezbollah’s press office only about an hour before it was broadcast.

This was the first speech by a high-rank Hezbollah official since they lost their leader Hassan Nasrallah.

It was clear he wanted to send the message that, despite the unprecedented blow Hezbollah has faced, the group will be standing, reorganising and continuing its fight against Israel.

On who is going to replace Hassan Nasrallah, he said their council will decide soon. But he said all those commanders and top-rank officials had deputies who can step in.

He also said that Hezbollah knows that the battle "may be long", and the options are "open to them".

"We are ready for a ground invasion, and we will emerge victorious," he said.

And he thanked all the Lebanese people, and the government.

It was clear that his speech was dedicated to the group’s supporters and fighters and the main message was that no matter who dies, "the resistance" will replace them and stay powerful.

Qassem now says Hezbollah is ready for an Israeli ground offensive, and will keep up the fight against Israel.

The deputy chief says the group is continuing its operations - describing its attacks so far as the "minimum" - while adding that the battle could be long, Reuters reports.

He closes his speech by calling for "patience".

Image source, Reuters

As we previewed earlier, we can now bring you an address from Hezbollah's deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem.

Israel killed Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in a strike on Friday, and Qassem says the group will choose his replacement at the earliest opportunity.

We'll have more lines from his speech in the next few minutes.

Carine Torbey
BBC Arabic correspondent, reporting from Kola in Beirut

The attack on Kola is a major development, as the building targeted is at the heart of Beirut in an area that has so far been spared Israeli assault.

It hit a Sunni area near the district's intersection, a popular reference point in the city, where taxis and buses gather to pick up passengers.

It has sent shockwaves all across the country - even in areas deemed safe so far.

A man sitting under the bridge facing the targeted building tells us he heard a very loud sound at 01:00 local time. Dust was everywhere.

He says he saw shards of glass flying all around him. Papers from a nearby printing house can be seen scattered on the ground.

Next to the man is a big spill of blood. The area is cordoned off. The army is deployed around the place.

As we reported earlier, the strike killed four people, including three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

The Israeli military reports that 35 rockets have been fired from Lebanon into northern Israel this morning.

Some were intercepted while others fell in open areas, the IDF says.

Hezbollah is yet to comment - but it has continued firing rockets at Israel in recent days, even as Israel attacks its launch sites and infrastructure.

We're getting images now showing the aftermath of Israeli air strikes in southern Lebanon.

These pictures were taken in Ain al-Delb, where the Lebanese health ministry says at least 32 people were killed on Sunday.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani says Iran will not leave any Israeli "criminal acts" unanswered.

Speaking during a weekly news conference – his first since a senior general in Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps was killed by an Israeli strike on Friday – Kanaani says Iran does not seek war but is not afraid of it, Reuters reports.

His comments echo those of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who said over the weekend that Israel's actions would not go "unavenged".

Hezbollah – which Israel is targeting in Lebanon – is one of a number of militias in the region backed and funded by Iran.

Image source, EPA

At least 100,000 people have crossed from Lebanon into Syria to escape recent Israeli air strikes, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi says, external.

"The outflow continues," he says, adding that UN personnel are providing assistance at four border crossings.

That is an update on figures we brought you yesterday, which reported close to 80,000 had fled to Syria in the past seven days.

Of those, 36,000 were Syrian and 41,300 were Lebanese, according to Lebanese Minister Nasser Yassin.

We're expecting to hear from Hezbollah's deputy chief at around 10:00 BST.

It will be the first such speech from Sheikh Naim Qassem since the militant group's leader - Hassan Nasrallah - was killed by an Israeli strike on Friday.

We'll bring you live updates and analysis, and you can follow along by pressing watch live above.

David Gritten
Middle East reporter

As we just reported, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine says three of its leaders were killed in a strike on Beirut's Kola district.

The PFLP is a left-wing Palestinian armed group, and the second largest faction in the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

The PFLP was formed as a resistance movement after Israel’s occupation of the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war. Combining Arab nationalism with Marxist-Leninist ideology, it saw the destruction of Israel as integral to its struggle to remove Western capitalism from the Middle East.

The group pioneered aircraft hijackings as a high-profile means of drawing attention to their movement. In 1976, the PFLP captured an Air France plane and forced it to fly to Entebbe in Uganda. After a stand-off, Israel launched a dramatic commando raid to rescue nearly 100 hostages.

The PFLP’s armed wing, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, was also behind several suicide attacks during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in the early 2000s.

The group lost ground to Islamist groups like Hamas in recent decades. But it has still continued to carry out attacks in Israel and the West Bank and been involved in firing rockets into Israel from Gaza.

Human Rights Watch says there is strong evidence that PFLP gunmen from Gaza participated in the Hamas-led cross-border attack on southern Israel on 7 October, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

PFLP fighters have also battled Israeli forces during the ensuing war in Gaza, in which more than 41,500 people in the territory have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

The PFLP is designated as a terrorist organisation by Israel and the US. Its leader, Ahmed Saadat, is imprisoned in Israel after being convicted of ordering the 2001 murder of Israel's tourism minister.

Image source, Reuter

We have an update now on the strike on Beirut's Kola district that we told you about earlier.

Four people were killed and a further four were injured, Lebanon's health ministry says.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) – a Palestinian militant group – said earlier that three of its leaders were among those killed.

It would appear to be the first Israeli attack in Beirut beyond Hezbollah’s base in the southern suburbs of Dahieh. Israel has not yet commented on the incident.

The big question is what Iran might dopublished at 08:59 British Summer Time

08:59 BST

Jeremy Bowen
International Editor

The Middle East region feels as if it is on the edge and the big question is what Iran might do.

Israel almost seems to be taunting it to hit back, in the knowledge that their retaliation would be far stronger, and backed by the Americans.

If you look at it from the Iranian point of view, there’s the US Navy reinforcing Israel in the Mediterranean, Israel in a mood to do damage to its enemies, and thinking it may be in a position to reshape the Middle East.

It is time for tough decisions for all the participants in this. What does Iran do, what does Israel do, and Hezbollah, who have sustained massive losses including their leader and are reeling from this – what do they do?

One thing Iran watchers and some Israelis are warning about is that if the so-called ring of fire – Iran’s build-up of allies and proxies formed over many years – is now shown to be flawed and ineffective, it leaves the question of whether they could decide to develop a nuclear weapon.

It’s possible – they are close to the technical knowledge. If so, and the Americans discovered it, then it could lead to a US bombing campaign against Iran. That’s the kind of wider scenario that people are worried this turbulence could lead to.

What seemed to be the rules of the game have gone. Nobody knows where things are going, and for Israel’s allies, who continue to call for a ceasefire and a diplomatic solution, that level of unpredictability and insecurity is full of dangers and possible mistakes.

Israel’s actions proving enormously popular at homepublished at 08:59 British Summer Time

08:59 BST

Jeremy Bowen
International Editor

Israel’s actions are proving enormously popular at home - on news programmes and TV there have been people having celebratory toasts, politicians have been handing out sweets and chocolate to celebrate to say this is a great day, there have been singalongs on TV.

So there is this feeling in Israel that they have scored a mighty victory and they now have the opportunity to reshape things.

However, if you consider that their strategic goal with Hezbollah is to get the more than 60,000 people in northern Israel back to the towns they have been forced to leave, killing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah does not bring them any closer to that.

Hezbollah are still firing rockets and although they are not causing huge amounts of damage to Israeli targets, people cannot return to their homes while that continues.

So the question is what does Israel do next – one possibility is a ground invasion into southern Lebanon and I would say that is quite likely.

Image source, EPA

• Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a strike on Friday that, Israel said, also killed 20 other key figures in the group - the Iran-backed group confirmed the leader's death the next day
• A senior general in Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps, Abbas Nilforoushan, was also killed in the strike, Iran state media said
• US President Joe Biden described the strike as a "measure of justice" for victims of Nasrallah, but Iran’s supreme leader has said his death "will not go unavenged"
• Iran's leader, Ali Khamenei, was also reportedly moved to a secure location
• Cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon was reported throughout the weekend, with Israel saying it killed additional senior figures from the militant group
• Lebanese officials said more than 100 people were killed on Sunday, bringing the death toll from the past two weeks to more than 1,000
• Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Israeli air strikes may have displaced as many as one million people, describing it as possibly the largest displacement in its history
• Israel also targeted another Iranian-backed group, the Houthis, in Yemen, claiming they were responding to attacks the group had carried out against it

You can read more about how the conflict is affecting people in Lebanon in this piece from our senior international correspondent Orla Guerin which was also published over the weekend.

Image source, Reuters

We've just received reports of a suspected Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs.

Eyewitnesses are reporting seeing smoke rising over buildings, according to the Reuters news agency.

In the above picture - taken from a Reuters live stream of Beirut's southern suburbs - you can see faint plumes of smoke in the upper-left corner.

The Israeli military has not yet commented on the apparent strike.

We're trying to gather more details on this. Stick with us.

Palestinian militant group Hamas says Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin, the group's leader in Lebanon, has been killed along with some family members in an Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon.

Hamas says he was killed in a strike "on his home in the Al-Bass camp in south Lebanon". The state-run Lebanese National News Agency reported an air strike on the camp near the southern city of Tyre.

Although Hamas is based in Gaza - where Israel has been fighting it since the 7 October attacks - it also has a presence in Lebanon.

Both Hamas and Hezbollah are backed and funded by Iran.

We're seeing images now from Kola, where an attack on an apartment left the building with a gaping hole.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) – a Palestinian militant group – says three of its leaders were killed in the strike overnight.

Israel has not commented on it.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Israel's military says it carried out air strikes in the Bekaa region, east Lebanon, overnight.

The strikes targeted dozens of rocket launchers and buildings used by Hezbollah to store weapons, the Israel Defense Forces says.

The IDF says it also targeted military buildings used by Hezbollah in various parts of southern Lebanon.

In an earlier update, the military said that it had successfully intercepted a "suspicious aerial target" that had crossed the border from Lebanon.

Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent, in Beirut

Israel seems to be expanding its campaign against Iranian-backed groups in Lebanon, and in the Middle East, which is likely to renew fears of a wider regional conflict.

As its campaign against the Shia movement Hezbollah continues, an apartment building was hit in Beirut’s Kola area - a mainly Sunni Muslim part of the city - overnight.

This appears to be the first Israeli attack in Beirut beyond Hezbollah’s base in the southern suburbs of Dahieh.

This is a busy neighbourhood, on the road that connects the airport to central Beirut, the Hamra and Ashrafieh districts. It could signal that Israel will target not only Hezbollah leaders, which it has done with great success, but other enemies too, no matter where they are.

The militant group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine says three of its leaders were killed. Hours later, Hamas said its leader in Lebanon, Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin, was killed along with family members in an Israeli strike in the south of the country.

And, perhaps in attempt to prevent further attacks from the Houthis in Yemen, who have been firing missiles at Israel, Israeli air strikes hit their infrastructure in the city of Hudaydah last night.

Meanwhile, there are growing signs that an Israeli ground invasion of southern Lebanon could be imminent, which will probably worsen an already critical situation.

Across the country, hospitals are struggling to cope with the sheer number of casualties from Israeli air strikes, and shelters are under pressure amid a growing number of displaced residents.

The prime minister, Najib Mikati, said as many as one million people might have already fled their homes, calling it the largest displacement in Lebanon’s history.