Lebanon has seen the deadliest day in nearly a year of cross-border clashes between Hezbollah and Israel.
As of 4pm local time, Israeli strikes had killed more than 180 people in southern Lebanon and injured more than 400, with the death toll including women, children and emergency workers.
In the biggest exodus since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, thousands of Lebanese fled the south, and the main highway out of the southern port city of Sidon was jammed with cars heading toward Beirut.
AP
The Palestinian militant group Hamas on Monday condemned Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon.
"We, in the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, affirm that this wide-scale barbaric aggression is a war crime," Hamas said in a statement, adding that the group reaffirmed "our solidarity… with our brothers in Hezbollah and the brotherly Lebanese people".
AFP
Iran's foreign ministry warned Israel on Monday of "dangerous consequences" following deadly strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon.
Foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani called the Israeli strikes "insane", and warned of "the dangerous consequences of the Zionists' new adventure".
AFP
The United Nations voiced alarm at the escalating violence between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, warning that actions and rhetoric was catapulting the Middle East conflict "to another level".
"We are extremely concerned, deeply worried about the escalation in Lebanon," Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the UN rights office, told AFP.
"The attacks that we saw on the communication devices, the pagers, followed by rocket attacks and rocket fire being exchanged on both sides … marks a real escalation," she said.
"What we've been warning about all along, the regional spillover of the conflict, it appears that both the actions and the rhetoric of the parties to the conflict is taking the conflict to another level."
AFP
The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon has launched rockets at Israel's Northern Brigade's reserve headquarters and the reserve base of the Galilee Division, according to state media NNA.
The group has reportedly targeted logistical storage facilities at the Ami'ad base and military industrial complexes of Rafael in the Zofolon area, north of Haifa.
According to NNA, the Islamic Resistance released a statement confirming it had launched rockets on Monday in support of Palestine and in response to strikes in Lebanon.
At least 182 people were killed and 727 were wounded, including women, children and medics, in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon on Monday, the country's health ministry said in a statement.
"Israeli enemy strikes on southern towns and villages since this morning" have killed "182 people and wounded 727 others", the health ministry said, with casualties including "children, women and paramedics".
There has been a 30 to 40 per cent decline in flights to Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut today as 14 international airlines cancelled flights to Lebanon over security fears, according to Lebanon's state media.
Airlines who have suspended services include:
Lebanon's interior ministry has opened several schools as shelters, state media NNA reports.
Schools in Beirut, Tripoli, Tyre, Baalbek-Hermel, Zahle and Bekaa have all been opened as shelters while other official institutions and schools in Mount Lebanon have begun accepting displaced individuals.
Citizens in the Bekka Valley area of Lebanon are being urged to evacuate by the Israeli military.
The IDF said it is "preparing for a large-scale and targeted strike" in the area and that residents there should evacuate.
Israeli army spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said houses in Bekka contained missiles and drones and the IDF would attack "before they pose a threat to the residents of Israel".
"Hezbollah stores its strategic weaponry in civilian buildings and uses the population as human shields," he said.
Reuters/AFP
An Israeli military spokesperson said every house attacked by the IDF in southern Lebanon "contained Hezbollah weapons", Reuters reports.
"The sights now from south Lebanon are of secondary explosions of Hezbollah weapons, which are exploding inside houses. In every house we are attacking there are weapons," Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a televised statement.
"Rockets, missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles that were meant for and aimed at killing Israeli civilians."