Lebanon, clash between Hezbollah and Israel, rocket and drone attacks. Gallant declares state of emergency for 48 hours

Security measures were triggered, in view of a further escalation in the conflict: the Tel Aviv municipality declared that it had opened 240 shelters throughout the city due to the danger of missiles and rockets, adding that car parks could also be used if necessary. Recreational activities were cancelled, beaches and cultural institutions closed, according to the guidelines of the Home Front Command.

"We continue to monitor the situation closely and have been very clear that the United States stands ready to support Israel's defence," a Pentagon spokesman said in a note.

Despite the escalation with Lebanon, the Israeli delegation is in Cairo to participate in the negotiations on Gaza. The Israeli negotiating team, consisting of Mossad director, Shin Bet chief and IDF general Nitzan Alon, meets with CIA director Bill Burns, the Qatari prime minister and the Egyptian intelligence chief.

The Americans are exerting significant pressure on Israel to conclude an agreement, the official says, to prevent a bigger war from breaking out across the region. The source says Israel and Egypt agree that Israeli troops will withdraw from positions near populated areas, but will not have to leave the border area completely.

An 'Israeli drone strike against a car in the village of Khiam' killed one person, the Lebanese Health Ministry said in a statement released by the National news agency (NNA). The Amal movement, allied with Hezbollah, later announced that a fighter from Khiam had been killed. The ministry also reported that two people, including a Syrian man, were injured in "a series of Israeli raids" in the south, according to NNA.

The Lebanese media, quoted by the Times of Israel, instead report two casualties in the Tyre region in the southern part of the country after the Israeli raid at first light. Earlier, a member of the Amal Movement, an ally of Hezbollah, was killed in an IDF attack in Khiam, bringing the total number of victims to three.

Lebanese press sources have reported that Prime Minister Najib Mikati, convened the Emergency Ministerial Committee for a meeting at his residence in Beirut, and informed his government ministers that he was engaged "in a series of contacts with the friends of Lebanon to stop the escalation". Mikati is reported to have emphasised that "first of all, it is necessary to stop the Israeli aggression and implement resolution 1701" approved by the UN in August 2006.

As for the Italian soldiers in Lebanon operating within the framework of the UN Unifil mission, they have been in the bunkers and are all well. The situation, explained Unifil mission in Lebanon spokesperson Andrea Tenenti, "remains worrying at the moment, but the Italian blue helmets and those of all other contingents are fine and safe. We continue our contacts to urge de-escalation and a return to a cessation of hostilities. Unifil peacekeepers from 49 countries continue operations and remain ready to provide support on the ground'.

Unifil and the office of the UN Special Coordinator in Lebanon (Unscol) issued a joint statement, calling on "all parties to cease fire and prevent any escalation. The cessation of hostilities, followed by the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, is the only path to sustainable progress in the situation. We continue our contacts with the aim of pushing the parties to reduce tensions,' reads the text in which the situation along the Blue Line between Lebanon and Israel is described as 'worrying'.

The director of the prime minister's office Benyamin Netanyahu , Yossi Shelley, convened the forum of ministry leaders to discuss preparations in case of escalation. The meeting will be attended by the heads of the Health, Transport and Energy ministries to report on their plans.

Lebanese media report that Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah will make a public speech later today following the worsening situation with Israel.

An Israeli security source told Ynet that the army foiled an attack in the Gilot area, near Tel Aviv, where the Mossad headquarters and the base of the 8200 unit, an elite intelligence corps, are located. The IDF estimates that Hezbollah is currently assessing the situation and examining the results of the attack and the consequences, the alert is high as the launching of rockets and drones against Israel could be only the first part of the operation decided by the Shiite militias.

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Commenting on the latest developments, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that his country does not intend to fight an all-out war with Hezbollah, but will move according to events on the ground.

Immediately after the announcement of the Israeli pre-emptive strike, flights to and from Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv were suspended. The airport was later reopened.

Closely, the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen praised the Lebanese Hezbollah for their attack on Israel and again threatened a response to the Israeli attacks carried out last month against the Yemeni port of Hodeida. "We congratulate Hezbollah and its secretary general for the great and courageous attack launched this morning by the resistance against the Israeli enemy," they said in a statement, adding that the response to the 20 July Israeli attacks on their controlled port of Hodeida "is certainly coming."

The military escalation on the Israeli-Lebanese border comes at a very delicate moment in the ongoing negotiations in Cairo where Israel and Hamas, through American, Egyptian and Qatari diplomats, are trying - unsuccessfully - to reach a ceasefire agreement.

In recent weeks, rumours of a possible extension of the conflict in the Middle East , with the opening of a new front on the border with Lebanon, have become more insistent, so much so that the Israeli Ministry of Defence was persuaded to move troops to the border with Lebanon, in anticipation of possible fighting with Hezbollah.

The first incident that raised tensions was a rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied territories in the Golan Heights in which 12 boys who were playing a football match lost their lives. A few days later the Israeli Armed Forces responded by killing Fuad Shukr, a Hezbollah leader close to the head of the Shia militia Hassan Nasrallah . The attack destroyed the Haret Hreik building - in the Dahieh suburb of Dahieh, Hezbollah's stronghold in southern Beirut - where Shukr was located, triggering an angry reaction from the Beirut government.

The Saudi daily al Hadath reported that Egypt has asked Israel to relinquish control of the Rafah border crossing during the first days of a possible ceasefire. Egyptian mediators meanwhile, ahead of today's summit, attempted to narrow the gap between Israel and Hamas and pressure Israel to phase out its troop presence along the Philadelphia route, the buffer zone between Gaza and Egypt's Sinai. Cairo officials reportedly told Hamas that they agreed with its position of rejecting any permanent Israeli presence along the border corridor.

China is committed 'to promoting peace and upholding justice on the Middle East issue, protecting all parties in safeguarding their legitimate rights and interests' and, in particular, Palestine in restoring its legitimate national rights. "The immediate priority," the Foreign Ministry reported in state media accounts, "is for all parties to the conflict to implement the UN Security Council resolutions and create the conditions for a complete and permanent ceasefire in Gaza as soon as possible. The hope is that the US will also 'adopt a responsible approach'.