As chaos, with ambulances rushing to the scene through roads packed with people trying to flee. Our Correspondent Hugo Bachega has the latest from beirut. Explosions scenes of war in beirut. Hezbollah s conflict with israel returning to its stronghold of dahieh, with a series of massive explosions and an escalation with unpredictable consequences. Explosion. An attack so powerful that it was seen and heard across the city. Lebanon now on the brink of another war. Chaos on the streets and here is what they are running from. Dahieh, in southern beirut, now looking like gaza. But amid so much destruction, jubilation. Two children rescued from the rubble alive. Hezbollah s backers, iran, say this strike marks a dangerous Game Changing Escalation in the conflict. For israel, its a strike targeting the heart of hezbollah s operations. Moments ago, the Israel Defense forces carried out a precise strike on the Central Headquarter of the Hezbollah Terror Organisation that serves as the epicentr
Characters on film, television and on stage. Herfamily have issued a statement, saying that she died peacefully in hospital. They said that she passed away this morning. An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at The End. She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their wonderful mother and grandmother, and they thank the wonderful staff at the hospital. They thanked everyone for their messages of support at this time. Dame maggie smith, who won so many awards for her work, including enemies for her work, including enemies for downtown abbey, where she starred in recent years on emmys. We will bring you more on her life and her career in the coming moments. Much more on the website also. She won the oscarfor her on the website also. She won the oscar for her character in the prime of missjean brodie. A very important half an hour because we will be bringing you live coverage of the israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahus
Answering force with force. A rocket launched by Israels Iron Dome Defence System over haifa bay. Intercepting hezbollah s latest missiles fired from lebanon and across the border. Smoke rises after fighterjets strike what israel says are hezbollah targets. Hundreds have been killed and many more wounded, including children. Is truly terrifying, says doctor mohammed dawood. Hospital staff are overwhelmed. At the Un General Assembly, the uk isjoining the us Led Push for a three week truce. I call on Israel And Hezbollah to stop the violence, step back from the brink. We need to see an immediate ceasefire to provide space for a diplomatic settlement, and we are working with all partners to that end. But so far, israel has rejected the calls from its allies. Its military has been told to continue fighting with full strength. At the moment, that means an aerial campaign, but plans just as it has with the gaza ceasefire effort. And In Gaza, war continues to take its toll. Displaced families
This is bbc news. Lets go straight back to that breaking news of the last few minutes. We will you knew the live scenes In Beirut. A massive explosion in the last little while from beirut. There you see the seconds after the explosion. We are hearing that there have been multiple explosions. That is coming to us from our correspondents on the ground in terms of the pictures you can see. Hugo bachegais pictures you can see. Hugo bachega is In Beirut for us, telling us this explosion is in one of the strongholds in the south of beirut. The Israeli Military also updating in the last few minutes, saying that they are currently striking Terror Targets, that is how they describe it, currently striking Terror Targets belong to hezbollah in the southern lebanon. This happened about five or seven minutes ago. You can see just the skyline, beirut, and the size of that explosion. Of course that fits entirely with what we have seen in terms of tactics from israel since monday, the sort of strikes.
Killings of senior members, a very senior member of hamas, and every time people wait what we are potentially looking at here is something slightly different. We could be looking at a senior hezbollah commander. We are also, no doubt, i think looking at a large number of civilian deaths and casualties. When you look at those pictures of the buildings and curing the words craters used, six, eight, ten buildings and perhaps raised to the ground. The question is what kind of response might that provoke if youre looking at a large number of civilian casualties and hezbollah stronghold area. And think that will create new levels of nervousness. I and think that will create new levels of nervousness. Levels of nervousness. I want to net levels of nervousness. I want to get in levels of nervousness. I want to get in because levels of nervousness. I want to get in because anna, levels of nervousness. I want to get in because anna, I Levels of nervousness. I want. To get in because anna, i want