Israel strikes dozens more sites in southern Lebanon as thousands flee homes

Lebanon Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, says he is heading to New York later “in light of current developments” to make further contacts.

The UN General Assembly is currently meeting in New York and Mikati had been due to attend the meeting. But on Saturday he cancelled the trip because of intensifying strikes in his country, including strikes hitting the Lebanese capital Beirut on Friday as Israel said it targeted and killed a senior Hezbollah commander.

Mikati’s New York trip means he is also cancelling the government cabinet meeting scheduled for today, a statement adds.
Dozens more rockets fired into northern Israel published at 08:59 British Summer Time 08:59 BST
As our correspondent in northern Israel reported earlier, people there have been receiving alerts warning of rocket fire. The Israeli military has just shared more details, external of what’s been happening.

It says dozens of rockets were fired into northern Israel between 09:30 and 09:45 local time.

First, five launches were detected and “some of them were intercepted and the rest fell in open areas,” the Israel Defense Forces says.

Then, about 50 launches were detected in the Upper Galilee area, the IDF says. Most were intercepted but there has been some damage to buildings and firefighters are working to extinguish fires, it adds.

In a statement, Hezbollah says it bombed the Qiryat Shmona settlement “with a barrage of rockets”.

Qiryat Shmona is in the Upper Galilee area in the far north of Israel.