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Joel Gunter
Reporting from Jerusalem

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late on Monday that Israel would continue strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon “without mercy”, including targeting of the capital Beirut.

His warning came a day after the Iran-backed group killed four Israeli soldiers and wounded dozens in a drone attack on a military base in northern Israel.

Any fresh strikes on Beirut would break a four-day pause in what had become daily Israeli attacks on the capital.

Unconfirmed reports said Netanyahu had suspended attacks on Beirut at the urging of the US government, following , according to the Lebanese government.

Lebanon’s National News Agency on Tuesday reported dozens of Israeli strikes overnight in the Beqaa Valley area in the centre of the country.

Warning: The footage contains some distressing scenes

After 7 October last year, two Palestinians began filming their daily lives for the �鶹Լ��. Aya fled to the south of the territory to find safety, Khalid chose to stay in the north.

Between them, they document explosions, multiple evacuations, deaths and the trauma experienced by children caught up in the conflict.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it is looking into a strike in northern Lebanon yesterday that killed at least 21 people, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

The strike hit a residential building in Aitou, a predominantly Christian village far from the areas where the Israeli military has carried out thousands of strikes targeting the armed Shia Islamist group Hezbollah.

In response to the incident, the IDF says that the target belonged to Hezbollah.

"The claim that Lebanese civilians were killed as a result of the strike is under review. The incident is being examined," IDF adds.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it has hit more than 230 targets in southern Lebanon and Gaza in the past day.

In a statement, the group says it "eliminated dozens of terrorists" in both close-quarters combat and air strikes against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.

The IDF "located vast quantities of weaponry and equipment, including rifles, helmets, communications devices, ammunition, and more", the statement says.

It also says it continued an operation in Jabalia, a northern Gaza refugee camp. In recent days, at least 10 people were reportedly killed there by Israeli artillery fire.

Former Foreign Secretary David Cameron has told �鶹Լ�� Radio 4's Today programme he was working up a plan to sanction two Israeli ministers until the UK election this summer intervened.

Cameron, who served in the last Conservative government, believes that Labour should pursue action against Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir - the minister for national security.

"I think there are other things we can do to put pressure on [Israel's PM] Netanyahu, and say, 'of course we respect your right to self-defence but we do want you to act within the law'," he says.

"Saying to Netanyahu, 'yes we support your right to self-defence, no we're not going to end our sale of arms, but actually when there are ministers in your government who are extremists and act in this way, we're prepared to use the sanctions regime to say this simply isn't good enough and has to stop'."

He says he's "concerned that nothing has happened" since he was foreign secretary and the government "needs to look again at this sanctions issue".

"We all want to see this conflict end, but it's got to end in a way that's sustainable," he adds, saying it's right to back Israel's right to self defence, but it's not "a blank cheque".

It's important that aid gets into Gaza and that UN peacekeepers in Lebanon are respected, he says.

You can listen to the full interview with Lord Cameron on Today at 08:10 BST.

This morning, sirens warning of incoming rocket fire have been sounding across northern Israel, including in Haifa, which has been targeted repeatedly by Hezbollah in recent days.

The alarms have also been activated in communities near Haifa, including Wadi Ara, Karmiel, and Menashe.

The Israeli military says that following the sirens, two projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon and were intercepted by the air force.

Jonathan Head
Reporting from Beirut

Image source, Reuters

The United Nations says its peacekeepers in southern Lebanon will stay in their positions, despite repeated demands by Israel that they should move out of the way of its forces there.

The head of UN peacekeeping operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix told journalists in New York that the decision to keep the Unifil force in place had the full backing of both the UN Security Council and the member states contributing troops to the force.

On Sunday Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bluntly warned the UN to move from its bases in southern Lebanon, which he said were providing a human shield to Hezbollah fighters.

But the UN is standing firm.

Its head of peacekeeping said it was essential that the blue helmets stay in place, to carry out the mandate they were given by the UN Security Council and to assist the civilian population.

Israel argues that the UN has failed to stop Hezbollah from building tunnels and positioning weapons like rockets and missiles near the border, in violation of the agreement which ended the last war there 18 years ago.

The UN says its mission is to support the parties to the conflict, not to enforce the agreement.

It has accused Israel of deliberately targeting its bases, with five peacekeepers injured in the past week, an accusation rejected by Netanyahu.

In another statement last night he said Israel would do its utmost to prevent such incidents, but that UN peacekeepers needed to get out of harm’s way.

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

Image source, Reuters

In the two weeks since Iran fired some 180 ballistic missiles at Israel, the region has been bracing itself for Israel’s threatened response - fearing it could prompt a dangerous, full-scale war between the two countries.

- quoting two officials said to be familiar with the matter - reported that the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had told the Biden administration he was willing to opt for a more limited counterstrike, targeting military infrastructure in Iran.

The Washington Post also suggested that Israeli retaliatory action would be calibrated to avoid the perception of political interference in the US elections in three weeks’ time.

In a brief statement overnight, the Israeli PM's office responded: “We listen to the opinions of the United States, but we will make our final decisions based on our national interest.”

Image source, Getty Images

The UN has condemned the "large number of civilian casualties" caused by Israeli strikes on northern Gaza in recent days.

The comments come as at least 10 people have reportedly been killed by Israeli artillery fire at a food distribution centre at Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, where Israeli tanks and troops are continuing a ground offensive.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said shells hit the centre on Monday as some people were trying to access food handouts.

The Israeli military said it was reviewing the incident, adding that it operates "only against terror targets".

"The secretary general condemns the large number of civilian casualties in the intensifying Israeli campaign in northern Gaza, including its schools, displacing sheltered Palestinian civilians," a spokesman for the UN Secretary General said.

Welcome back to our live coverage of the Israel-Lebanon conflict and Israel's continued bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Here's what you need to know this morning:

• An Israeli air strike in northern Lebanon yesterday killed at least 21 people and injured eight others, local officials said. The strike hit a residential building in the predominantly Christian village in Aitou - far away from where the Israel Defense Forces has been targeted the Shia Islamist group Hezbollah
• The UN has decried the "large number of civilian casualties" in Gaza following recent Israeli strikes. The UN's Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, says 10 people were reportedly killed at a food distribution centre at the Jabalia refugee camp in the enclave's north
• Israeli military said it found an 800m-long underground compound built by Hezbollah in south Lebanon, containing missiles, motorbikes and food supplies
• The US will send a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) battery to Israel in order to bolster the country's air defence, following a missile barrage launched by Iran earlier this month

Stay with us today as we bring you news and analysis from our journalists in London and on the ground.