Morning update

Good morning, Middle East Eye readers.

Here are the latest updates:

• Israeli forces launched air strikes across southern Lebanon at dawn, in one of the biggest attacks carried out by the military since October.

• The Israeli military claimed the attacks were "preemptive" and intended to "thwart" the Hezbollah "threat".

• It added that its fighter jets had destroyed "thousands" of Hezbollah rocket launcher barrels that they said were aimed for immediate fire toward northern and central Israel.

• Most of the strikes were reportedly concentrated on Lebanon's border area, which is now a military zone and evacuated of citizens.

• In response, Lebanon's Hezbollah announced it had fired 320 Katyusha rockets at 11 Israeli military bases and barracks, including the Meron base and four sites in the occupied Golan Heights.

• The group said the retaliatory strikes were the "first phase" of its response to the Israeli assassination of its top commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut in July.

• Lebanese media is reporting that one person was killed in an Israeli strike on a car in the town of Khiam, while a Lebanese man suffered minor injuries and a Syrian man sustained moderate injuries in the attacks.

• Israeli media is reporting that one woman was lightly injured by shrapnel.

• Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has declared a 48-hour "emergency situation" in the country, with Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv briefly suspending flights after the attack.

• The US said in response to the strikes that it would keep supporting Israel's "right to defend itself".