his kids and his wife. they have been searching all morning but found nothing. there were fresh rockets from hezbollah into northern israel this morning. the group has been weakened but is still powerful. it has not yet deployed its most sophisticated missiles, a calculation that could change. hassan nasrallah may have been killed, and this is the potential to spark a regional war. we are running a special programme, coverage of the news hezbollah has now confirmed that its leader hassan nasrallah has been killed in an israeli air strike in lebanon. he had been its leaderfor more than 30 years. israel says the militia group's command centre in the lebanese capital beirut was targeted. israel's military

said nasrallah had been one of the country's biggest enemies throughout history and his killing had made the world a better place. in their statement, hezbollah vowed that they would continue to confront their enemies, support gaza and palestine, and defend the people of lebanon. we can see plumes of smoke evident over several locations in tahir on saturday morning, following those strikes overnight. they have continued into today, with israel continuing to bombard parts of the city. the israeli military also attacking targets in the bekaa valley, they say, after detecting a rocket that had been fired from lebanon.

so, let's remind ourselves just exactly who was hassan nasrallah? he was the leader of lebanon's militant shia islamist hezbollah movement, with close links to iran. he was one of the best known and most influential figures in the middle east. born in 1960, hassan nasrallah grew up in beirut�*s eastern bourj hammoud neighbourhood. it's he became leader of hezbollah in 1992 at the age of 32, after his predecessor abbas al—musawi was assassinated in an israeli helicopter strike. he played a key role in turning hezbollah into a powerful political and military force. under his leadership he helped hezbollah train hundreds of fighters from the palestinian militant group hamas. and he also obtained missiles and rockets from iran for use against israel. in his most recent speech, nasrallah blamed israel for detonating thousands of pagers and radio handsets used by hezbollah members, which killed 39 people and wounded thousands more, and said it had "crossed all red lines". he also acknowledged the group had suffered an "unprecedented blow".

a week after that speech, israel say he's dead. we can show you pictures by out colleagues from bbc arabic�*s team in beirut recorded in ain al mraiseh, a neighborhood in beirut. you can see people on the streets, wandering around in distress, taking whatever possessions they can carry with them, trying to find somewhere safe having been displaced from their homes in the southern suburbs of the city. this is hezbollah�*s main stronghold. 0n hearing the news of the group confirming the death of hassan nasrallah, people are very distressed. some saying they would rather they had died and nasrallah had survived. we have been covering quite a lot of the reaction from international leaders, and the russian foreign ministry now saying they are calling on israel to immediately cease hostilities.

a lot of foreign leaders of course currently at the united nations general assembly in the united states. russia strongly condemns israel's killing of the hezbollah leader, says the russian foreign ministry. we have also had reaction from the president of iran, saying that he believes the united states must be complicit in the strikes that took place overnight. the us saying they knew nothing about what israel was going to be planning. let's speak to yezid sayigh, who is a senior fellow at the carnegie middle east center in beirut. he is also an expert in palestinian history. thank you forjoining us on bbc news. what is your view on the impact the death of hassan nasrallah will have on hezbollah and the conflict we are seeing unfold?—

are seeing unfold? well, clearly. _ are seeing unfold? well, clearly, nasrallah's - are seeing unfold? well, | clearly, nasrallah's death are seeing unfold? well, - clearly, nasrallah's death will have a massive impact. but had he been killed outside the context of the ongoing war, things would have been different and hezbollah would have mourned him. but then gone through a selection process for his successor. but his death follows something like a ten day period in which, as your report mentioned, hezbollah first suffered hundreds, possibly thousands of injuries among its rank and file from the pager attack and the walkie—talkie attack, and has had pretty much all of its military command taken out by various israeli assassination raids. and so his death comes at well, the tail end, i don't want to say the end, for sure, i think israel will continue with many more attacks, obviously planned... but

nasrallah's attack comes at a time when, clearly, hezbollah's ability to communicate internally has been jeopardised by the hard choice between exploding pagers or going on to conventional means such as cell phones which are more easily tracked by the israelis. how do they deal with this kind of situation? how do they deal with the obvious security loopholes they have been exposed to? how do they root out morals within their ranks? how do they replenish their stocks? —— root out moles. hundreds or thousands of its fighters killed or injured, but also mid—level and top—level command. in that sense, nasrallah's death marked definitively, in my view, the moment in which hezbollah is

experiencing what to me is the equivalent of the arab—israeli war of 1967, when the israelis launched a surprise attack on three arab armies and demolished their air forces on the ground and overran massive amounts of territory within six days. it's that combination of an operational and intelligence success on the israeli part that won the day in 1967. we are looking at something along those lines now with hezbollah. after 1967, the egyptian president rebuilt his armed forces, waged what he called a war of attrition with israel along the suez canal, and eventually this allowed egypt to regain territory in 1973, in another war. so i would say hezbollah, not trying to inflate its ability to rebuild and replenish, buti inflate its ability to rebuild and replenish, but i think, however hard it has been hit, this is simply not the end of the fight for it. much

diminished, but clearly it will go on, partly i think because it can't afford at this point not to continue the fight, because its domestic standing within lebanese politics will start to be very seriously undermined if it is seen to be unable to defend itself or to pick itself out and go back and fight again. pick itself out and go back and fight again-— fight again. hezbollah still has the capacity _ fight again. hezbollah still has the capacity to - fight again. hezbollah still has the capacity to fire - has the capacity to fire rockets into israel as well. amongst the other casualties of the strikes last night, iran has confirmed one of its quds force commanders was killed. how far do you believe iran will be compelled to go, in terms of retaliation and a response? terms of retaliation and a re5ponse?_ terms of retaliation and a response? this clearly is a massive — response? this clearly is a massive provocation - response? this clearly is a massive provocation that l response? this clearly is a - massive provocation that goes beyond all previous ones such as the assassination of hamas leader ismail haniyeh in the iranian capital tehran two or three months ago. nonetheless, i think iran's strategic

position is to take the blows, absorb the losses, and to avoid being pushed into war that it does not seek at this time for a number of different reasons. i don't think they are ready to take on israel in a bigger war. and i think they are going to have to absorb this loss, in one way or the other. crucially, i think there will not be a significant military response against israel. what they will probably be doing, i would have thought, is thinking about how to help hezbollah get back on its feet, deal with its security challenges and informers in its ranks, and other technological loopholes and vulnerabilities, and how to potentially learn the lessons of this conflict. i think hezbollah made the mistake in the past decade or so of preparing to fight the 2006 war all over again against israel in south lebanon. i don't think

they were well prepared for what had happened. the next time around, if hezbollah do rebuild, they will rebuild integrating different kinds of tactics and technologies into how they operate. they might not even operate as a very large group which can bring 100,000 people into a rally with social welfare and so on. it might change in a number of ways we are yet to see. i just don't think they are ready to give up the fight. it would be very, very hard for them to pick themselves up from this. the feeling that iran would not defend them, we understand this is because iran sees them as serving its strategic deterrence, not the other way around. but i think that for a lot of hezbollah's communities, society within the sheer community, within its own ranks, that will shake them to the core. —— the shia community. the core. -- the shia community.- the core. -- the shia communi . ~ . ,, . ., the core. -- the shia communi .~ community. we appreciate you talkinu community. we appreciate you talkin: to community. we appreciate you talking to us. _

let's speak now to nafiseh kohnavard, our middle east correspondent. she's in a part of beirut where many displaced people spent their night in a small park. lebanese officials saying six people were killed and others injured overnight. underlining again the humanitarian impact of israel's actions.— of israel's actions. yes, exactly- _ of israel's actions. yes, exactly. this _ of israel's actions. yes, exactly. this many - of israel's actions. yes, . exactly. this many people, of israel's actions. yes, - exactly. this many people, you just see a few of them, but along the way that we were coming to downtown beirut, from the morning, we see tens of familiesjust sleeping in the morning, we see tens of families just sleeping in the street. they spend the night here. they say that they don't have a home. many of them told us they don't have a house to go back to, because they are destroyed. the roads in tahir close, so they think any soon they cannot go back to their

house. at the same time, there was three other aerial strikes today, targeting tahir right after the confirmation about the killing of hassan nasrallah, the leader of hezbollah came. but let me explain the mood here. we have strange mood. just minutes ago, suddenly we had celebration. and some of the hezbollah supporters that only a few minutes ago, they were crying, suddenly they started to dance and celebrate. we ask them, what happened? apparently somehow they thought their leader is still alive, while hezbollah medial office in a statement —— media office in a statement, they confirmed that he is killed in these air strikes. but this is the mood. this is the mood, suddenly they

got so jolly, they started to celebrate, they started to dance, they started to shout. saying, he is alive, he is alive. 0n the other hand, we see angry people, angry because they are displaced, angry because they lost their leaders. many of these people spend the night here, they came from tahir, of course, and many of them are hezbollah supporters. i of them are hezbollah supporters-_ supporters. i suppose understandable - supporters. i suppose - understandable confusion and some will hope that the news was wrong. what are the authority is doing to try to get people to safety, as these air strikes continue notjust where you have been describing but also in the bekaa valley? to be honest, this morning, we haven't seen any action by the government to take these people to safety. i asked them, have you tried the schools? they said, yes, they have, but the schools are already fully

packed with people that fled from the south. they have been in the past few days, we have been reporting from one of the schools that was very close to the area hit yesterday. that school had taken more than 1000 people fled from the south. they told us they couldn't find any accommodation. they don't know if there is any accommodation. now we hear that some churches have started to accommodate these people. there are efforts to open other schools. but soon, schools also it sells will start in lebanon, so there is a question how the government is going to manage all these displaced people, not only from the south and southern lebanon and bekaa valley, but also now, hundreds of people from tahir itself,

the southern suburb of beirut. for the moment, thank you very much. some comments coming from the united states defence secretary, lloyd austin. he said he had spoken twice with the israeli defence minister yoav gallant, on friday, about events in lebanon. this is the pentagon quoting the defence secretary, mr austin. they go on to say, lloyd austin expressed full support for israel's right to defend itself against iranian backed terrorist groups. he stressed as well that the united states, though, is determined to prevent iran and iran backed partners and proxies from exploiting the situation or expanding the conflict. he said the united states remains postured to protect us forces and facilities in the region, and facilities in the region, and committed to the defence of

israel. the right, then, for israel. the right, then, for israel to defend itself. but for some who take a counter view, the death of the hezbollah leader hassan nasrallah, a group which is back very strongly by iran, is a provocation, we are told. we have been reporting that israeli military have been attacking targets in the bekaa valley, detecting a rocket fired from lebanon. we don't know quite where these missiles might be coming from, if there are any, but air raid sirens have been sounding in tel aviv and central israel as well. they may have been coming from yemen, according to israeli military. that's the reason for those sirens in the centre of israel. russia, for its part, urging israel to immediately cease military operations in lebanon. a great many of the world leaders and their foreign ministers of course in new york

at the moment for the general assembly of the united nations. that is where the prime minister of israel, benjamin netanyahu, was when these strikes against the hezbollah leader took place last night. israel's defence minister has issued this statement about the killing of hassan nasrallah. the state of israel has eliminated hassan nasrallah, the leader of hezbollah. he was the leader of hezbollah. he was the murder of thousands of israelis and foreign citizens. he was an immediate threat to the life of thousands of israelis and other citizens. to our enemies, i say, israelis and other citizens. to our enemies, isay, we are strong and determined. to our partners, i would say, our war is your war. and to the people of lebanon, i say, our war is not with you, it's time to change. not with you, it's time to change-— not with you, it's time to chance. . ,. �*, change. yoav gallant, israel's defence minister. _

anna foster spoke to ettie higgins, deputy representative of unicef lebanon. she told her what the situation is like on the ground in lebanon at the moment, after the israeli strikes in the country. indeed we are finding an increasing number of unaccompanied and separated children, one particular child the unicef team identified yesterday has lost 15 members of one family, and we are desperately looking for relatives that can take care of her, why we have put her in an emergency alternative care. but today, people need absolutely everything from drinking water, to mattresses, bank kits, we are mobilizing teams to provide psychosocial first aid. 500 centres, sorry, 700 shelters across lebanon and beirut, with more opening every hours. thousands of people seeking safety in these shelters.

resources are running out by the minute. wejust cannot resources are running out by the minute. we just cannot keep up the minute. we just cannot keep up with the level of need. hospitals have been inundated with those who have been injured, and who are themselves very traumatised, the health workers and front line workers. we are flying in emergency medical suppliers. 100 metric tonnes last week, trying to fly in more this week. but it's very difficult to try and find those aircraft to deliver the goods. we are doing what we can with what we have on the ground, but time is of the essence given the magnitude of the crisis and the level of injuries we are dealing with, injuries we are dealing with, in health facilities, trying just to get clean drinking water to people to survive. you mention people are sleeping in their cars, but in fact they are on the side of the streets, on the beach last night. people are taking shelter under bridges. so it's a really, really catastrophic situation

in beirut this morning. we can still see where the bombings has taken place throughout the night and have continued this morning. now it's time for a look at today's sport with marc edwards. seven premier league matches on saturday as defending champions manchester city were held to a second consecutive draw, with their match against newcastle ending 1—1 at st james's park. having dropped their first points of the season at home to arsenal in a 2—2 draw, city once again took the lead with a neat finish from josko gvardiol. before anthony gordon earned his newcastle side a point from the penalty spot, having drawn a foul from city's ederson. newcastle still unbeaten at home since january while for manchester city midfielder mateo kovacic, it's not the result they were looking for. we scored a fantastic goal, in that moment chances especially. they are a team that create chances, but of course we had

it. ten minutes... with the crowd and everything... we know how happy they will celebrate the point, all of them, the crowd. but the last minutes, we were there again. my team, the body language and the way we behaved and the way we played. we are happy, especially after last week. that was a good display, us playing our way, brave. two teams going right at each other for 70 minutes. the last 20, they were stronger than us. we had to defend really well to maintain the point. last season's runners—up arsenal play leicester looking to keep pace with league leaders city. 2—0 up in a one—sided half.

brentford take on west ham, 1—0. chelsea host brighton, 4—2, cole palmer with all four. everton and crystal palace face each other both searching for their first league wins of the season. palace leading. forest take on fulham, while in the evening kick—off wolves host second—placed liverpool. aston villa keeper emiliano martinez will miss argentina's next two matches after being banned by fifa for "offensive behaviour". it follows two separate incidents in world cup qualifiers against chile and colombia earlier this month. against chile, martinez repeated his 2022 world cup celebrations by holding a replica trophy against his crotch and then just days later he hit a camera with his gloves as a cameraman approached him on the pitch after the 2—1 defeat by colombia. the world anti—doping agency is appealing before the court of arbitration for sport against the tribunal verdict that the world number one's low level of a banned anabolic

steroid were through no fault or negligence. the verdict ensured the us open winner, in action in beijing earlier today, escaped a ban. last month, sinner received an anti—doping sanction and was stripped of his money and ranking points from the indian wells tournament in march, due to testing positive for clostebol. he avoided a ban after successfully arguing to the sport's integrity agency that he was inadvertently contaminated with the substance by his physiotherapist. obviously, i'm very disappointed and also surprised with this appeal, to be honest. we had three hearings, all three hearings came out very positively for me. i was not expecting it. i knew it a couple of days ago that they were going to appeal, and today's it's going to go official. but yeah, it's a surprise, but, you know, we always talk about the same

thing. and that's all the sport for now. breaking news, as you would expect, coming in. we are hearing from an israeli official that the prime minister benjamin netanyahu has now arrived back in israel, having been in new york at the united nations. we are told he is going to hold security consultations later in the day, which comes as no surprise given what's been happening over the last 2a hours while he was out of the country. we are also hearing that israel had sounded the air raid sirens in tel aviv and central israel after what appeared to be missiles fired from yemen. they have been intercepted, we are told, by israel. we have been showing you pictures throughout the day of smoke rising from suburbs in the south of beirut. in particular, tahir, the

stronghold of hezbollah in the south of the capital. also comments on the us defence secretary lloyd austin, who said he had spoken twice on friday with the israeli defence minister yoav gallant, about the events in lebanon, and expressed their support for israel to have the right to protect itself and prevent any iranian backed partners or proxies of iran from exploiting the situation, and expanding the situation, and expanding the conflict. this is bbc news. hello there. we're seeing a very much needed drier, sunnier spell of weather across the country this weekend. although it's not going to be the same as we move through sunday. today, by far the best of the drier and brighter weather. sunday it starts dry, but then we'll see wet and windy weather pushing into southern and western areas later on, as a new area of low pressure moves in. so this is the rainfall accumulations as we move through sunday into tuesday. looks like england and wales again bearing

the brunt of the rainfall, which is bad news here. ground is saturated and that's going to exacerbate already existing flooding issues. this area of high pressure, though, is what's brought us the fine and largely dry weather through today. and it's going to continue. probably the best of the sunshine later in the day will be towards the midlands, southern and eastern england. elsewhere, a bit more cloud further north and west with a few showers. most of the rain for northern scotland and it is a chilly day after that cold start — 11 to 1a or 15 degrees. as we head through tonight, it stays dry for most. most of the showers fizzle out and we'll see clear spells, and when we have the clearskies, central, northern and eastern parts with light winds, it's going to turn quite chilly once again, with a bit of mist and fog developing, but temperatures slowly recovering out west. that's because we've got this new area of low pressure working its way in to bring increasing breeze from the south. ourarea of high pressure, short—lived and starts to ebb away into the near continent. it does mean sunday starts off fine. there will be some early sunshine around, but it will fade. probably the best of the sunshine through

the day for the northern half of scotland, where it will be warmest. turning cloudier, windier and wetter the further south and west that you are, as this area of low pressure moves in. we've got a couple of yellow warnings in force for rain and for wind here. temperature—wise, mid—teens again in the south, low to mid—teens further north. sunday night we see the wind and the rain increasing across england and wales, certainly towards the south and the west. some of that rain could be heavy, like i mentioned, could exacerbate flooding issues as that area of low pressure crosses the country into monday, it will become very slow moving. there is a bit of a question mark to the north and south extent of the rain. at the moment it looks like it's east anglia, the north midlands, northern england up into southern scotland, which could see some of the heaviest rainfall. again, that could cause issues across england and wales. sunshine and showers to the south, could be quite mild, 17 or 18 degrees here. the rain eventually clears away gradually on tuesday, and then wednesday onwards, high pressure builds in so it should turn fine and settled.

live from london this is bbc news. hello i'm martine croxall. welcome to our special coverage of the killing of hezbollah leader, hassan nasrallah, whose death — in an israeli air strike in lebanon — has been confirmed in a statement from the militant group. he'd led the organisation's for more than 30 years — a hugely significant figure in middle east politics — and a key enemy of israel. the idf said it targeted him

in a precision strike on a hezbollah command centre in the lebanese capital beirut. it said nasrallah had been "one of the country's biggest enemies throughout history" and said his killing "had made the world a better place". in its statement hezbollah vowed it would continue to "confront its enemies, support gaza and palestine — and defend the people of lebanon". the death of the hezbollah leader hassan nasrallah was first announced by the israeli military and was then confirmed on hezbollah's tv channel in lebanon — al manar — here's the presenter announcing the news. translation: we congratulate his eminence the secretary - general of hezbollah, hassan nasrallah. may god have mercy on him for receiving the highest divine honour.

the honour of imam hussein, peace be upon him.