Live: Israel ramps up strikes on Gaza after Iran attack

Sources on the ground told Al-Mayadeen TV, which is close to Hezbollah, that there has been no confirmation of Israeli ground advances into Lebanon as of Tuesday morning.

The Lebanese boundary has not yet been breached, according to the report. 

The Israeli military said overnight it began a "targeted and limited" incursion into southern Lebanon. 

Middle East Eye could not independently verify either claim. 

Israeli fighter jets bombed the Syrian capital Damascus before dawn on Tuesday, killing at least three civilians and wounding nine others, according to Sana state news agency. 

Journalist Safa Ahmed was among those killed, the General Authority for Radio and Television said. 

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said on Tuesday it received a report of an incident 64 nautical miles northwest of Yemen's Hodeidah, adding that the authorities are investigating.

UKMTO said the vessel reported four splashes in close proximity, and that all crew are safe and the vessel is proceeding to its next port of call.

Reporting by Reuters 

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates from the Israeli wars on Gaza and Lebanon: 

• The Israeli military began an invasion of Lebanon overnight, with the military claiming the operation would be "targeted and limited" to southern villages along the boundary with Israel. 

• As tanks and troops moved on the ground, fighter jets continued to pound various areas across Lebanon, including air strikes on an ambulance centre in the Beqaa Governorate that killed eight people and another raid on the Ain al-Hilweh camp for Palestinian refugees that killed five people. 

• Over in Gaza, air strikes also did not stop. A bombing of a school used to shelter displaced families in Gaza City left at least seven people killed and dozens wounded, in the latest massacre against Palestinian civilians, according to local authorities. 

Hello Middle East Eye readers.

On Monday evening Israeli troops and tanks continued to mass at the Lebanese border and US officials said an Israeli ground-invasion appeared "imminent". Here's what else you need to know about today's developments:

• The US said Israel was already operating on the ground in Lebanon with media reports saying commando raids have been ongoing for days
• Lebanon’s army pulled back at least 5 kilometres, or roughly three miles, from the Israel-Lebanon border, according to Reuters
• Israel declared the areas around Metula, Misgav Am, and Kfar Giladi in northern Israel  a “closed military zone”
• Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed at least 95 people Lebanon’s health ministry said
• Hezbollah, still in disarray from the killing of its leader Hassan Nasrallah, launched missiles at Israeli troops and towns in northern Lebanon
• Heavy Israeli artillery shelling and air strikes have been reported in several towns and villages near the border of Israel
• The US said it was sending “a few thousand” more troops to the Middle East

Israel hit southern Beirut with at least six strikes after midnight on Tuesday.

“Six or seven Israeli strikes hit the southern Beirut suburbs,” a Lebanese official told AFP, requesting anonymity.

The densely populated southern suburbs of Beirut are Hezbollah's heartland. 

Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed at least 95 people Lebanon’s health ministry said.

The strikes come amid what US officials say is likely an“imminent” ground invasion of Lebanon.

At least 11 Palestinians were killed, including women and children, in an Israeli strike in Gaza, according to Reuters.

The strike hit a house in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza Strip.

Hezbollah said its fighters attacked Israeli soldiers near the border of Israel-Lebanon.

The soldiers were targeted “in the orchards opposite the [Lebanese] towns of Adaisseh and Kfar Kila”.

Heavy Israeli artillery shelling and air strikes have been reported in several towns and villages near the border of Israel, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) says.

Air raids have been reported in the outskirts of Kawkaba, Rachaya Al Foukhar, Kfarkela and Khiam, the NNA said.
Marjayoun and Wazzani have been targeted with artillery shelling.

Two people were killed and at least eight others have been wounded in a strike on a residential building in central Gaza City, Gaza’s civil defence said.

Israel has continued to strike Gaza even as it shifts its military to the north for a looming invasion of Lebanon. 

United Nations peacekeepers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, Unifil, are no longer able to move in southern Lebanon as a result of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, the UN said. 

“Our UNIFIL Blue Helmets remain in position in the mission’s area of responsibility, while the intensity of fighting is preventing their movements and ability to undertake their mandated tasks,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told a media briefing.

“Given the intensity of the rockets going back and forth, they are not able to do patrolling". 

United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres said he is opposed to any ground invasion of Lebanon by Israel.

“We do not want to see any sort of ground invasion,” Guterres’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, told journalists.

Lebanon’s army has pulled back at least 5 kilometres, or roughly three miles, from the Israel-Lebanon border, according to Reuters.

A Lebanese military official told AFP that the military is repositioning troops stationed on its southern border amid the threat of an Israeli invasion.

The US State Department has confirmed reports that Israel is "currently conducting" limited operations against Hezbollah inside Lebanon.

The remarks follow several media reports that Israel has been conducting commando raids in Lebanon.

Several media reports suggest the US believes a full-scale invasion of Lebanon is imminent, as Middle East Eye has reported.