00:00And what you're seeing there is live pictures of the Beirut skyline, smoke rising, as you can see there, from
00:07a residential neighbourhood.
00:11A little earlier, I spoke with our senior reporter, Catherine Norris-Trent, who is in the Lebanese capital.
00:17There have been strikes, Israeli strikes, here in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
00:22You can perhaps see some of the smoke still smouldering from those areas of the capital in pre-dawn strikes
00:32this morning.
00:33But also there have been hits around the country, around Lebanon, especially in the south of the country.
00:40There's been quite a spate of Israeli strikes on areas there, they say, targeting Hezbollah targets.
00:48We've also had, though, Israeli strikes for the first time reported in the north of Lebanon, near the city of
00:55Tripoli,
00:56and also on a car travelling in the Beqa Valley in the east of the country.
01:02So this scope seems to be widening out somewhat.
01:05On the ground, meanwhile, in the south of Lebanon, there is a ground offensive going on with Israeli troops present
01:11there in areas of the south of Lebanon.
01:14The Israeli army said on Tuesday it wants to create a buffer zone in the south to protect its inhabitants
01:20from Hezbollah fire.
01:23So clearly that is stepping up as well, with reported direct clashes on the ground there between Hezbollah fighters and
01:30Israeli troops.
01:32And Catherine, what about Hezbollah?
01:33Just how determined is the group to show up for its regional paymasters, Iran?
01:42We heard for the first time from the leader of Hezbollah, Neymar Qasem, on Wednesday night.
01:49He spoke out for the first time since this latest conflict broke out,
01:54saying that not only were his fighters prepared to continue, but in fact they would step up their actions.
02:01So saying that they wouldn't give up arms despite the incoming fire.
02:05And Hezbollah reported overnight that they had launched missile salvos at Israel.
02:11So that their fighters, even though under the terms of a November 2024 ceasefire,
02:17are not supposed to be carrying arms, are not supposed to be present south of the Litani River.
02:21Well, they clearly are so, and the Israeli army has said that they are extremely worried about that,
02:28and that's why they're taking this military action in the south.
02:32So as things stand, very much an intense situation, I don't know if you can perhaps hear overhead,
02:39there's again the sound of a drone circling in the skies above Beirut.
02:42That's become something of a very familiar sound to people in the Lebanese capital over these last few days,
02:47and a very tense.
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