Blasts heard in Beirut as clashes continue on Lebanon-Israel border

ITV News International Editor Emma Murphy reports from Beirut after blasts were heard across the city

• A series of blasts have been heard by ITV News teams in Beirut

• Israel has said at least eight of its soldiers have been killed during clashes at the Lebanon border on Wednesday after Iran launched a barrage of 200 missiles into the country on Tuesday

• Israel's Foreign Minister has banned the UN Secretary-General António Guterres from the country, accusing him of being biased against Israel

• More than 100 rockets were fired from Lebanon at northern Israel on Wednesday, according to local media

A series of blasts have been heard by ITV News teams in Beirut, Lebanon on Wednesday night.

The cause of the explosions is not yet clear but shortly after they were heard, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said in a statement that it “conducted a precise strike in Beirut,” adding that more details would follow.

It comes as Israel began to engage in "close-range fighting" in southern Lebanon - without specifying the location - as it sent more troops to the site.

The IDF said that at least eight of its soldiers have been killed during clashes at the Lebanon border on Wednesday.

In response to the deaths, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "I would like to send my condolences from the bottom of my heart to the families of our heroes who fell today in Lebanon. God avenge their blood. May their memory be blessed.

"We are in the middle of a tough war against Iran's axis of evil, which seeks to destroy us. This will not happen - because we will stand together, and with God's help - we will win together.

"We will return our abductees in the south, we will return our residents in the north, we will guarantee the eternity of Israel."

Meanwhile, Israel's Foreign Minister has banned the UN Secretary-General António Guterres from entering the country, accusing him of bias against Israel.

More than 100 rockets were fired at northern Israel on Wednesday, according to local media reports. It comes after Iran launched at least 180 missiles into Israel on Tuesday, following a series of rapidly escalating attacks between Israel and Iran and its Arab allies.

Israel issued a new warning to residents to evacuate another 24 villages in southern Lebanon on Wednesday. Hundreds of thousands have already fled their homes as the conflict intensifies.

Netanyahu vowed late on Tuesday to retaliate to the missile strikes by Iran, which he said “made a big mistake tonight and it will pay for it”.

Meanwhile, Palestinian medical officials say at least 50 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in southern Gaza.

The European Hospital in Khan Younis said it received the bodies after Israeli airstrikes and ground operations in the city overnight and into Wednesday.

The UN Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting for Wednesday morning to address the escalating situation in the Middle East.

Defence Secretary John Healey is in Cyprus as the Government steps up efforts for a potential evacuation of Lebanon with the Middle East teetering on the brink of wider war.

Healey confirmed British forces “played their part” in efforts to defend Israel from Iran’s ballistic missile barrage as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer warned of the risk of a “miscalculation” after the escalation of violence in the region.

In a statement from Downing Street, Starmer said Iran has “menaced the Middle East for far too long”, adding: “Make no mistake, Britain stands full square against such violence. We support Israel’s reasonable demand for the security of its people.”

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Iran said the barrage was retaliation for IDF strikes against the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has been firing rockets into Israel since the war in Gaza began. Israelis scrambled for bomb shelters as air raid sirens sounded and the orange glow of missiles streaked across the night sky.Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the country’s air defences intercepted many of the incoming Iranian missiles, though some landed in central and southern Israel.

Israel’s national rescue service said two people were lightly wounded by shrapnel. In the West Bank, Palestinian officials said a Palestinian man was killed by a missile that fell near the town of Jericho, though it wasn’t clear where the attack originated.

Moments before Iran launched its missiles, a shooting attack in Tel Aviv left at least seven people dead, police said, adding that the two suspects who had opened fire on a boulevard in the Jaffa neighbourhood had also been killed.

Speaking hours after the missile strike, Netanyahu said: “Iran made a big mistake tonight - and it will pay for it.

"The regime in Iran does not understand our determination to defend ourselves and our determination to retaliate against our enemies,” he said.

While there is still an "incredibly narrow" path to de-escalation, ITV News Global Security Editor Rohit Kachroo tells Good Morning Britain the countries are facing "all-out war"

Hezbollah and Hamas are close allies backed by Iran, and each escalation has raised fears of a wider war in the Middle East that could draw in Iran and the United States, which has rushed military assets to the region in support of Israel.

Earlier, Israel launched what it said is a limited ground incursion in southern Lebanon, announcing it had also carried out dozens of covert ground raids in the country going back nearly a year.

Hezbollah previously denied a ground invasion, but on Wednesday morning, it said its fighters clashed with Israeli troops in the Lebanese border town of Odaisseh, forcing them to retreat.Israel and Iran have fought a shadow war for years, but rarely have they come into direct conflict.

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