Massive blasts in Beirut after renewed Israeli air strikes

The news came as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told residents of another two dozen towns and villages in the south, including the regional capital of Nabatieh, to leave immediately for their own safety.

Unlike the communities ordered to evacuate on Tuesday, they are all located north of the Litani river, which lies about 30km (18 miles) from the border.

Before the invasion, Israel had demanded that Hezbollah’s withdraw to the Litani, in accordance with a UN Security Council resolution that ended their last war in 2006.

Speaking to the BBC from Beirut, the World Food Programme’s country director in Lebanon, Matthew Hollingworth, described the situation there as “horrific”.

“There is black smoke billowing over the southern suburbs and we see it each morning when we come to work and we see it all day long. And there’s a striking number of people who are displaced around the city.”

“There are these cars everywhere that are from people that have fled the fighting in the south of the country and the southern suburbs. There’s traffic everywhere, people sleeping outside.”

Juan Gabriel Wells, Lebanon country director with the International Rescue Committee, said nearly half of displaced people surveyed by his organisation in shelters run by the government were children under the age of 15.