Speech in around 90 minutes time from behind a bullet proof glass. Ill have a full bulletin of news for you at nine oclock. Now on bbc news, newscast. Newscast, from the bbc. Its laura in the studio. And its paddy in the studio. So, we are recording just after 2 00 on Saturday Afternoon and, paddy, it has been another week of mounting, mounting, mounting tensions and more and more worrying conflict going on in the Middle East. Last saturday we were talking about, is a wider war now inevitable . And somebody, a former official, said to me yesterday. Actually, sorry, a former Foreign Minister said to me yesterday on the phone, lets get real. This is a war now. We shouldnt be talking about escalation. Yes, because on friday, thats last week, the Hezbollah Leader, hassan nasrallah, was killed by an israeli Air Strike on beirut. Thats just before our last weekends edition. And three days later, on monday, israel invaded lebanon. And the next day, tuesday, iran launched nearly 200 ballistic
Earlier, the idf had warned that it was going to target three particular buildings in this area, dahieh, known as a Hezbollah Stronghold. They said they were going to target them because of the hezbollah facilities and interests located there. The idf had posted saying these buildings would be targeted in the near future and told people that were living within 500 metres of them to move urgently. Just to give you a sense of the geography of where this is, i have been talking about how this is in a southern suburb of beirut but it is also in an area that is very close to the International Airport. These Evacuation Orders came before the strikes. Hezbollah has a strong presence in the Southern Suburbs. I think we can show you some of the pictures are one of the big explosions that has happened in the last half an hour. So we can see these pictures that are live and you can see the illumination. I want to show you some of these recorded pictures. There you can see that massive explosion t
A difficult information vacuum. On the hezbollah side, they dont let journalists on the hezbollah side, they dont letjournalists into those areas freely. You need permission to go in, you need permission to go in, you need permission to go in, you need permission to move around. Its not permission to go in, you need permission to move around. Its not somewhere permission to go in, you need permission to move around. Its not somewhere where permission to go in, you need permission to move around. Its not somewhere where you permission to go in, you need permission to move around. Its not somewhere where you can permission to go in, you need permission to move around. Its not somewhere where you can no not somewhere where you can go in and independently verify that there was nothing there. Equally, when the idf say that it is a hezbollah Command Centre or weapon storage site, they dont always provide information to cooperate that, either. So you are left in a position where the two sides
And as First Minister of scotland when his party faced the latest in a series of crises. John swinney, welcome to political thinking. Lovely to be with you, thank you. It has been something of a rollercoaster six months, havent it . You retire from Front Line politics, then the First Minister of scotland is forced from office and you decide to come back into Front Line politics, come to your partys rescue. Then Rishi Sunak calls a surprise early election in the summer, then you have a bit of a kick in the general election, the westminster election. Has it all been very stomach churning . Its been absolutely a whirlwind. A whirlwind, i think is the best way to describe it, because i quite literally, in the days before Humza Yousaf resigned as First Minister, was making further plans about what would be my gentle scaling down of political activity. And i was actually on the day that he resigned, giving a reflective speech about 25 years of devolution in scotland down here in london. And
These are the latest pictures we can bring you showing a large explosion following one of those strikes. Earlier on saturday, the Israeli Military had issued orders to residents of specific buildings in Southern Beirut to evacuate. We dont yet know what was hit in the strikes, but israeli forces have bombed areas reported to be Hezbollah Strongholds. They have also clashed with hezbollah fighters in lebanons southern border region. The Israeli Military says it has killed 440 hezbollah fighters since the start of the ground invasion. Meanwhile, hezbollah has fired rockets into northern israel, with reports that residential buildings were hit. Also on saturday, israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, addressed iran s missile on his country earlier this week, saying israel has the duty and the right to defend itself and respond to these attacks and we will do so. We can go live to our correspondent In Beirut, Anna Foster now. Anna, what is the latest you can tell us . Just after 1am he