of sites in lebanon, in what it called a "pre—emptive strike". hezbollah — which is backed by iran — fired more than 300 missiles in retaliation for the assassination of one of its top commanders in lebanon last month. jon donnison has the latest from jerusalem. 4:30 in the morning, and israel's biggest attack on hezbollah telegram founder pavel durov is expected in a french court today after being arrested on saturday when his private jet landed in paris. hello, i'm nicky schiller. we start with a major development in the middle east. there's been an intense exchange of fire between israel and hezbollah militants. israel launched a wave of air strikes against hezbollah positions in lebanon, saying it was pre—empting plans for a large—scale attack. israel's prime minister has promised to do everything to protect the country. these are the latest pictures coming

from northern israel. hezbollah said it fired hundreds of rockets towards israel in its first response to israel's assassination of a senior commander in beirut last month. it denied israel's assertion that it had thwarted the attack. the israeli military said it struck and destroyed thousands of hezbollah rocket launchers in southern lebanon aimed at northern israel. the israel defence forces released these pictures which it says are those strikes on lebanon. officials say around 100 fighter jets took part in the operation. lebanon's ministry of health says three people have been killed in areas in the south of the country. these pictures are from the village of zibqin, where you can see a huge cloud of smoke rising following an israeli airstrike. lebanon's caretaker prime minister has held an emergency meeting with ministers to discuss the situation. hezbollah said it launched more than 300 rockets and drones at israel and targeted 11 military

sites in response to the killing of its top commander in beirut last month. the group said this was an initial response and that todays planned attack on israel had been "completed and accomplished". tensions between israel and the iranian—backed group escalated sharply after the assassination stoking fears of a wider middle east conflict. hezbollah's leader is due to give a speech at 18:00 local time. a state of emergency is in force in israel and the security cabinet�*s been meeting. prime minister benjamin netanyhu promised he would �*do everything' to restore security at its northern border and continue to uphold what he called a simple rule: "whoever hurts us — "we hurt them". these are live pictures from the israel—lebanon border. flights to and from tel aviv�*s ben gurion airport were temporarily suspended earlier but have since been reinstated. although air france has cancelled its flights

and beirut until monday at least. a short time ago i spoke idf international spokesperson, lieutenant colonel nadav shoshani, and asked him why israel carried out these strikes. it's called active defence. it goes along with our defence aerial systems. and together, we were able to thwart this attack by hezbollah that they were threatening for a wider escalation, they were threatening to hit civilians and military bases and we were able to thwart it with active defence against those rocket launchers pointed at israeli communities with rockets in them and prevent those that were fired eventually. how many targets do you claim that you have hit? we are still in this ongoing operation and ongoing tension. we've hit thousands of rocket launcher barrels and we've thwarted hundreds of rockets and uavs in the air on their way to israeli communities

in northern and central israel. we've had some international reaction to events. presidentjoe biden is directing us officials to maintain close communication with israel. a national security spokesman said, "president biden is closely monitoring events in israel and lebanon. he has been engaged with his national security team throughout the evening. at his direction, senior us officials have been communicating continuously with their israeli counterparts. we will keep supporting israel's right to defend itself, and we will keep working for regional stability." pictures are coming in all the time from both israel and lebanon. i wanted to show you these still images from the epa newsagency. we're told the photos show the moment an israeli fighterjet intercepted a hezbollah unmanned aerial vehicle. you can see the explosion and debris. it was crossing from lebanon over

an area near the border with israel. 0ur senior international co—respondent 0rla guerin is in southern lebanon. and our correspondent jon donnison who's injerusalem, gave us the latest updates, starting with 0rla and what hezbollah was saying. as far as they are concerned that they are making it clear that this phase of what they say will be a larger operation is now finished and we have had a statement this morning saying that the operation took place, the statement denied that israel had managed to thwart that. it said these were empty claims from the israelis and there will be contradiction coming later in an address by the leader of hezbollah, sheikh hassan nasrallah. it is important to say, we do not actually know how effective the hezbollah operation was. they say they fired 320 rockets towards israel and also sent drones. we do not know how many of those

were intercepted on the way, how many shot down, whether any actually landed in israel and caused damage. we have had no reports so farfrom inside israel of civilian casualties. one report from lebanese authorities that one man has been killed in a drone strike on a car. he has been identified as a fighter. within the last few hours, we have been seeing and hearing continuing israeli strikes taking place in the hills in the distance close to the border. we saw the aftermath of at least two explosions and very dense black smoke filling the sky after a particularly large blast. israel has been continuing to target locations here in the south. what is unclear is whether the israelis will want to take things a step further or if we will go back to the tit—for—tat that has been the case here for the last ten months.

hezbollah says it is because of the killing of their commander in beirut almost a month ago. give me your assessment of how concerned we should be by today's events. every day, there is cause for concern because since last october, hezbollah has been firing into israel, if i have the first shots in this round of violence, saying they are acting in solidarity with the palestinian people and supporting their allies hamas who are also backed by iran. there has been a pattern to all of this where the attacks have mainly been on military targets on each side, and mainly within the border zones of each country. that has done a lot of damage — more than 100,000 people have had to flee here, about 60,000 had to flee in israel

and are still out of their homes, and there have been fatalities — hezbollah has lost more than 400 fighters and more than 100 civilians have been killed in israeli attacks, according to the lebanese authorities. 0n the other side, the death toll is a lot lower, more than a0 people, but at least two dozen civilians in that number. things have been contained to this pretty familiar tit—for—tat pattern. the fear on the part of the international community is that every day this continues, either israel or hezbollah could reach a tipping point into all—out war. in the past few days, the tempo of the attacks has increased, things have been happening faster and we have had this major operation by hezbollah which israel said it acted pre—emptively to try to stop. we are certainly at an inflection point, the question is what israel does now. hezbollah is making it clear that, for its part, that is it for the moment,

although there is every reason to believe the normal level of violence, if we can call it that, that will continue and that in itself is risky. on that question, john, what do you think israel might do next? as 0rla was saying, they are continuing operations in southern lebanon in the last few hours, with a number of strikes on what they say are hezbollah targets. we had thought prior to that it had quietened down but israel is saying it is prepared to go to war, full—scale war, with lebanon. these strikes overnight were the biggest on the hezbollah side since 2006. both sides are saying they do not want a full—scale war but israel saying it is prepared to go

there if it has to. what will the impact be on the ceasefire talks which are today happening in cairo? those talks, which are continuing but are not really going anywhere at the moment — hamas is not even taking part — the americans have said securing a ceasefire and hostage release deal in gaza is crucial to de—escalating tensions on the northern border. they are not going anywhere, as i say. i do not think anyone is expecting an imminent ceasefire to be announced. despite very intensive diplomacy and pressure from the us and egypt and qatar, who have been mediating these talks, there is no real sign of a deal, so if we do not get that, there is every reason to think we could see a return to some sort of normality and tit—for—tat

on the border up in the north, but there is always the risk if there is heavy exchanges of fire that _ you will get civilians killed and then you could see things gaining momentum of their own. how much pressure do you think, if this does escalate, that will put on the international community to get that ceasefire deal and the hostages out, and particularly thinking of america, but also egypt and qatar? it will add to the pressure but i do not think they can really be doing any more than they have been for the past few weeks. we had the american secretary of state antony blinken in the region last week. he was pushing the israelis to sign up to the deal, he said they had accepted and supported what he called the bridging proposal. we have not had a similar statement from benjamin netanyahu.

there is no doubt qatar and egypt are also pushing hard for a deal. everyone is, but the key players, and that as benjamin netanyahu and the hamas leader in gaza, yahya sinwar, they do not seem to have the urgency and are not working to the same timetable as everyone else. back to 0rla, and ijust wondered what the public mood in lebanon is, the everyday people trying to go about their work and life in lebanon? there are different strands to this. people are weary and certainly anxious about the idea of another all—out war. there are very fresh memories of the level of damage done in 2006 — the last time a lot of lebanese infrastructure was destroyed and more than 1,000 people were killed. let's not forget, this is a country

that since then has come through a series of crises, including an economic collapse, ongoing political paralysis and the disastrous explosion in beirut port four years ago. lebanon cannot afford another war, does not want another war, but when you speak to people here, they make it clear they will not be the decision—makers, they understand perfectly well it will not be the lebanese government or army that decides on whether or not there is war — it will be the iranian—backed group hezbollah and israel. to some extent there is a degree of resignation but there's also anxiety. plenty of people have left the area and gone abroad, and some to more secure mountain areas. people have been waiting since last month when israel carried out an assassination in iran on the leader of hamas at that time, ismael haniyeh. it is widely blamed for that assassination, it has not accepted responsibility. it has accepted responsibility

for the assassination in lebanon of a senior hezbollah commander. since then, the clock has been ticking. we have had now round one as far as hezbollah is concerned of the retaliation and we wait to see the israelis will take things further or if we relapse back to the standard level of violence which goes on here day—to—day, tit—for—tat attack and counterattack. reaction to today's intense exchange of fire between israel and hezbollah militants is coming in all the time. in the last few minutes hamas described the hezbollah strikes as a �*slap in the face�* for israel. we have a live page up and running with the very latest analysis from our correspondents around the region — you can find that on the bbc news website and app. now it's time for a look at today's

sport with mark edwards. hello from the bbc sport centre. we're into the business end of the women's open. the final round is under way at st andrews in scotland. 0vernight leaderjiyai shin teeing off in an hour. the south korean starting the day one shot clear of defending champion lilia vu, with world number—one nelly korda a further stroke behind on 5—under. jane dougall is at the old course for us. jane, an intriguing set up for the day. an intriguing set up for the day, jane? an intriguing set up for the day, jane? , a ~ an intriguing set up for the day, jane? , ~ ,, an intriguing set up for the day, jane? , ~ , jane? yes, mark, because as we saw esterda , jane? yes, mark, because as we saw yesterday. things _ jane? yes, mark, because as we saw yesterday, things can _ jane? yes, mark, because as we saw yesterday, things can change - jane? yes, mark, because as we saw yesterday, things can change very i yesterday, things can change very quickly at the old course. as you mention, the world number one, nelly corder, started yesterday with a three shot cushion over the rest of the field, and then even she fell foul of this notoriously difficult golf links course. she had five bogeys and then a double bogey at the 16th, so a really tough round for her, dropping from eight under

at the beginning of yesterday to five under. now, she tees off at 2pm, and she will be hoping not to repeat yesterday's round, but thorough repetition of her flawless round on friday when she shot four bodies. she is in contention, two shots off the lead. as you mentioned, lilia vu has had a solid few days of golf, just one shot off the lead. she has played consistency which, in these conditions, has paid off. the surprise of the tournament so far has been south koreanjiyai shin, who came out of nowhere yesterday to shoot six birdies in her front yesterday to shoot six birdies in herfront nine, meaning she yesterday to shoot six birdies in her front nine, meaning she finished the day on seven under, and the overnight leader. so she could, if you keep that momentum going, she could be the surprise winner of the tournament. england's charley hull has just teed off. tournament. england's charley hull hasjust teed off. she tournament. england's charley hull has just teed off. she was the overnight leader after the first

day, but since then, it has been rather erratic for her. she has had a difficult couple of rounds, particularly yesterday. she started on five under unfinished two under. she kind of came to grief on the fifth hole, double bogey there. and she has struggled with her putting. we watched her practising for quite a while behind us a little earlier before she went out on the course. she knows she has a lot of ground to catch up, being on two under. and the conditions are probably not helping the golfers, as you can probably tell. it is pretty windy and it is definitely raining, and it is also pretty cold, too.- is also pretty cold, too. sorry to hear that! _ is also pretty cold, too. sorry to hear that! jane _ is also pretty cold, too. sorry to hear that! jane dougal - is also pretty cold, too. sorry to hear that! jane dougal in - hear that! jane dougal in saint andrews. three premier league matches on sunday and, after wins for last season's top two, manchester city and arsenal, the team that finished third, liverpool, return to action later. brentford will be the visitors at anfield for what will be arne slot�*s first premier league home game in charge, and the new liverpool boss says he's

looking forward to the occasion. no, i'm not nervous at all, certainly not at this moment because i'm in the middle of preparation, prepared the team for sunday and so, no, nerves are not there. if you've got nerves then you probably don't trust what you did before, you don't trust your team, and i trust what we as a staff do during the whole week to prepare the team in the best possible way and i trust the team a lot as well again on sunday. before that match, newcastle will hope to make it two wins from two when they go to bournemouth while chelsea travel to wolves with both sides looking for their first points of the season. after barcelona maintained their 100% start to the season in la liga with a 2—1 win over athletic bilbao, real madrid will hope to get their first three—point haul of the season when they take on newly promoted valladolid.

the champions will be withoutjude bellingham, who picked up a calf injury in training. the england midfielder expected to be sidelined until the end of september. atletico madrid play girona later. julian alvarez and conor gallagher could make their debuts for the club. and over in germany, bayern munich play their first bundesliga match of the season later. they're away at wolfsburg, whilst newly promoted st pauli face heidenheim. and that's all the sport for now. back to you, nikki. the uk prime minister is warning that things in britain will get worse before they get better. sir keir starmer will say this week that there are no quick fixes to the problems left by the conservatives. the tories are accusing labour of "fabricating" a financial black hole to justify planned tax rises. here's our political correspondent leila nathoo. from poetic optimism on the morning of the election result... the

sunlight _ of the election result... the sunlight of _ of the election result... the sunlight of hope, _ of the election result... the sunlight of hope, pale - of the election result... tue: sunlight of hope, pale at of the election result... tte: sunlight of hope, pale at first, but getting stronger through the day, shining once again on a country... to a stark warning less than two months later. keir starmer will make her speech next week saying things will get worse before they get better. having become prime minister on the promise of change, he will stress again that that change will take time, pointed to what labour colour black hole in public finances, created, they say, by the last conservative government. and he will say that people taking to the streets in recent rights were exploiting cracks... we streets in recent rights were exploiting cracks... we have had inherited us _ exploiting cracks... we have had inherited us a _ exploiting cracks... we have had inherited us a society _ exploiting cracks... we have had inherited us a society problem i exploiting cracks... we have had inherited us a society problem isj inherited us a society problem is that there is a lot of work to do, but the speech will also say that progress will be made. the prime minister will _ progress will be made. the prime minister will say _ progress will be made. the prime minister will say he _ progress will be made. the prime minister will say he won't - progress will be made. the prime minister will say he won't shy - progress will be made. the prime l minister will say he won't shy away from unpopular decisions if it benefits the country in the long term. rachel reeves has already made one — to means test the winter fuel payment. the tories claim pensioners are being left in the cold and point to public sector workers being given

above inflation pay rises. they say the economy is doing far better than labour are making out, and accused the treasury of trying to provide coverfor the treasury of trying to provide cover for future tax rises. the treasury of trying to provide coverforfuture tax rises. the economy is now growing again, but government borrowing was higher—than—expected last month, inflation is back close to target, but food prices are still high. the economic narrative will keep ramping up economic narrative will keep ramping up as we approach the october budget. laila nathoo reporting there. anti— terrorist prosecutors have taken over the investigation into friday's mass stabbing in the town of zoh—lingen into friday's mass stabbing in the town of solingen in western germany. a suspect who turned himself in is said to have confessed to carrying out the attack. the authorities say the man — a twenty— six— year— old syrian — damien mcguinness told us what we know about the suspect. quite a lot of details have been emerging overnight. i talked to police earlier and they told me that they confirmed

he is indeed a 26—year—old syrian national. they would not confirm any other reports of whether he had come to germany as an asylum seeker, which is being reported in some german media, but in a television interview this morning the interior minister of the region said the suspect had been living in refugee accommodation which has since been raided by police, so there seems to be a connection with the shelter. there have been other arrests, which has led to confusion about who police think is the suspect. they have been saying all along they thinkjust one person was responsible for the attack. there was a 15—year—old boy arrested yesterday. he is thought to have known about the attack in advance. he was heard to be talking about it before it happened.

he has been charged with not reporting a crime to the police. police are hoping he can give more information about the attacker or suspect and his motivation. another man who was taken from the refugee shelter for questioning is being questioned by police now so he might possibly have a connection to the suspect. the next stage is that police are handing over this case to the prosecutor general, which is an indication the authorities are treating this as a terror—related act. we have seen the flowers being left and a church service today — still a lot of shock in the city? that is right, this was supposed to be three days of celebration, today, and instead it is a weekend of mourning and shock. across the region in the last 2a

hours, festivals and festivities that were planned, cancelled, cafes empty and restaurants empty, people avoiding public transport because no one knew what was happening, there was a fear the attacker was on the loose and potentially dangerous. it appears he went straight into hiding, reportedly hiding in a courtyard behind an apartment block near the crime scene, then he gave himself up to police late last night, saying he was the attacker. police have to investigate whether this is true and piecing together the evidence they have to find out whether the suspect is indeed the man behind the stabbing. it's understood the russian founder of the telegram messaging app, pavel durov, is to appear in court in france today. he was arrested when his private jet arrived at an airport near paris. russia says the french authorities are not responding to requests for information about

mr durov�*s detention. back to the live pictures of the israel — lebanon border. this, of course, after israel launched strikes in lebanon and hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets in a major escalation. hezbollah has announced the death of two fighters in southern lebanon, saying they had been martyred on the road to jerusalem. that is a phrase that has been referred till used to refer to fighters killed by israeli fire. stay with us, we will have the latest from the middle east. hello! in southern and eastern parts of the uk, where yesterday was such a soggy affair, today it is a little drier and brighter. compare that with the situation further north and west, where we are bearing the brunt of yet more heavy rain. this shield of cloud on our earlier satellite image,

which has been spinning its way in from the atlantic, continuing to bring heavy rain across a good part of scotland through the afternoon, some of that rain into the far north of england. the rain perhaps easing off a little bit across northern ireland. some drizzly bits and pieces for parts of north wales, the south west at times. further south and east, a little bit of sunshine. quite windy out there, in fact, gusts of more than 40mph across parts of north wales and northern england. temperatures, well, maybe just a little bit higher than they were yesterday — 1a to 20 degrees. now, this evening and tonight, i think we'll see a few showers across southern counties of england. also, the remains of this weather front bringing cloud and some showers across parts of northern ireland, southwest scotland and northern england. 0n the whole, not quite as chilly as it was last night, although in the north east of scotland it will get quite cold, aberdeen all the way down to six degrees celsius. and then we head on into tomorrow, a bank holiday for most of us, of course. still the remains of this weather front here bringing a zone of cloud and some bits and pieces of showery rain. those showers tending to edge northwards through the day.

so scotland having a bit more cloud. some showery rain at times. a few showers, perhaps, for northern ireland, for northern england. further south it should be largely dry, with some spells of sunshine. 0n the whole, a drier day than we've been used to of late, and a slightly warmer one as well. north to south, 1a to 23 degrees. as we head through monday night and into tuesday, here comes another frontal system that will bring some wet and rather windy weather across western parts of the uk. but just ahead of that weather front, we are going to start to tap into something a little bit warmer. so, across many central and eastern parts of england on tuesday we should see some spells of sunshine and some warmth. but for western england, for wales, parts of northern ireland and scotland there will be some outbreaks of rain. even here, temperatures higher than they have been of late, but 25, maybe 26 degrees. for east anglia and the south east it may turn warmer still for the middle parts of the week. always some outbreaks of rain further north and west.

this is bbc news, the headlines... israel says it's destroyed dozens of hezbollah launch sites in lebanon to pre—empt a large—scale missile attack. hesbollah denied the barrage had been stopped, and said more than 300 drones and missiles had been fired at israel,

in retaliation for the killing of one of its commanders. anti—terrorist prosecutors have taken over the investigation into friday's mass stabbing in the town of solingen in western germany. a suspect who turned himself in is said to have confessed to carrying out the attack. the 26—year—old is reported to be a syrian asylum seeker, who's being investigated for links to the islamic state group. the russian founder of the telegram messaging service, pavel durov, is expected to appear in court later on sunday. french media is reporting that the billionaire was arrested on saturday at an airport on the outskirts of paris. we will have a full bulletin of news for you to 2pm. now on bbc news... the travel show. coming up on this week's travel show... you have no idea how much i'm looking forward to eating this fry—up. crowd cheers.