Middle East crisis live: At least 35 children killed in Israeli airstrikes as thousands flee their homes amid fresh attack on Lebanon

Israel’s army radio and Lebanon’s National News Agency both reported a fresh wave of Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon on Tuesday morning as thousands continued to take to the roads to flee the south of the country.

An official from Unicef said that at least 35 children had been killed so far in the airstrikes, which have killed nearly 500 people and wounded thousands of others. Reuters, citing an official from the World Health Organization, reports that some hospitals have been overwhelmed by the number of dead and injured, which come on top of last week’s pager and walkie-talkie detonations that killed dozens and wounded thousands of others. That attack was widely attributed to an Israeli attempt to target Hezbollah operatives, although nobody has claimed responsibility for the mass sabotage of the electronic devices.

Options for leaving the country are becoming limited, with over 30 flights cancelled at Beirut’s international airport, with destinations in Europe and the Middle East affected. Qatar Airways, Turkish Airways and various airlines from the United Arab Emirates are among those who have withdrawn services.

Before this week’s escalation, tens of thousands of people had already been displaced from the southern area of Lebanon because of months of exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah and other anti-Israeli forces. About 60,000 people have also had to evacuate their homes in northern Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has set as an explicit war goal for them to be able to return.

Michael Adams, the Lebanon country director for Care International UK, said “All the roads leading to Beirut from the south and the Beqaa Valley are now flooded with people attempting to flee the bombardment, leaving everything behind. Civilians are paying the highest price”. The Israeli air force claimed it struck about 1,600 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley.

Earlier a barrage of about 50 rockets from the direction of Lebanon were fired at Israel, with some debris falling into open ground and starting fires. Israel’s military reported that emergency services were attending, but there were no casualties. Hezbollah claimed it targeted several Israeli military targets overnight, and also the Megiddo airfield near the northern Israeli town of Afula.

Israeli firefighters work to extinguish a fire after a rocket, fired from Lebanon, hit a local municipality storage in Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel. Photograph: Léo Corrêa/AP

Haaretz in Israel reports that a political source has told it that part of the aim of Israel’s airstrike assault on Lebanon was to act as a deterrent against Iran.

The source told the Israeli media outlet:

The operation in the north has two goals: ensuring the safe return of northern residents and signaling to the Iranian axis that Israel is unafraid to act decisively to prevent further escalation. Israel has additional potential targets in Lebanon and will not hesitate to strike if Hezbollah does not grasp the message.

Iran’s president, meanwhile, has told CNN in the US that Israel’s actions could cause an escalation. Masoud Pezeshkian told the news network:

The danger does exist that the fire of events that are taking place will expand to the entire region. We must not allow for Lebanon to become another Gaza at the hands of Israel. Hezbollah cannot do that alone. Hezbollah cannot stand alone against a country that is being defended and supported and supplied by western countries, European countries, and the United States of America. We must prevent the ongoing criminal acts being committed by Israel.

Pezeshkian told interviewer Fareed Zakaria that Israel is “armed to the teeth and has access to weapons systems that are far superior to anything else.”

In April this year, under Pezeshkian’s predecessor Ebrahim Raisi, Tehran launched more than 300 drones and missiles towards Israel in its first ever direct attack on the state. Tehran said it was responding to a strike on an Iranian diplomatic building in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on 1 April that killed a senior figure in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards and eight other officers. It blamed the strike on Israel…