Israel launches ground invasion of southern Lebanon

 

• Israeli troops have invaded Lebanon, in what the Israeli military calls a "limited, localised and targeted" ground operation against Hezbollah

• On Tuesday morning, an Israeli security official tells the BBC there have been "no clashes" yet - but a military spokesman later tells people in around 25 Lebanese villages to evacuate

• The Lebanese prime minister says his country is facing "one of its most dangerous phases", and says one million people are displaced 

  
  
  
  Israeli air strikes are continuing - the IDF says it hit Beirut, while officials in Lebanon say a building in a Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon was hit

• In Lebanon, officials say more than 1,000 people have been killed in the past two weeks, while up to a million may now be displaced.

• UN peacekeepers were told of Israeli invasion plans yesterdaypublished at 11:27 British Summer Time

  11:27 BST

  The existing UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon is urging "all actors" to step back from escalation.

  "The price of continuing the current course of action is too high," the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) says. 

  
  
  

  UNIFIL says the IDF told it yesterday of the intention to undertake "limited ground incursions into Lebanon".

  "Any crossing into Lebanon is in violation of Lebanese sovereignty and territorial integrity, and a violation of resolution 1701," UNFIL says.

  The 2006 UN Security Council resolution 1701 called for a full Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon. It also established that the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers could be the only armed forces south of the Litani River.

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