Hezbollah unleashes 100 rockets into Israel as IDF calls up extra troops for invasion and orders more Lebanese villages to evacuate hours after Iranian missile barrage - as world holds its breath amid growing WW3 fears

Hezbollah has launched more than 100 rockets into Israel, with the group claiming it has targeted soldiers massing on the border as the Israeli Defence Forces ordered more troops and armoured units to join its ground invasion of Lebanon.

Hezbollah said this morning that it had confronted Israeli forces who were infiltrating the southern village of Adaisseh and forced them to retreat, claims Israel has not commented on.

The Iran-backed group also said that its fighters had targeted 'a large infantry force' in Misgav Am across the border with 'rockets and artillery', as well as troop gatherings in three other locations, one with Burkan short-range ballistic missiles..

It comes as the IDF presses on with its brutal bombardment of Hezbollah positions across Lebanon, with at least five powerful explosions rocking southern Beirut this morning.

Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians are fleeing north while Britons and other foreign nationals are rushing to escape the country after the IDF warned those living in the south to evacuate their homes.

Meanwhile, Israel's military is preparing a 'significant retaliation' to yesterday's shocking attack by Iran that saw nearly 200 ballistic missiles streak across the Middle East and rain down on Israel last night. 

The region is edging closer to all-out war that is already drawing in allies on both sides - with British jets used to counter Iran's strikes, which were fired in retaliation to attacks on the Islamic Republic's Hezbollah allies in Lebanon in recent days.

Reports suggest Israel, which has vowed to strike 'powerfully' in response to Iran, could go after the country's oil facilities.

Iran is the third biggest producer of crude oil in the OPEC group of oil-producing countries and is heavily reliant on its oil and gas exports to prop up its ailing economy amid years of sanctions.

Meanwhile, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett this morning called for a decisive strike to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities.

'We must act now to destroy Iran's nuclear program, its central energy facilities, and to fatally cripple this terrorist regime,' Bennett wrote on X just hours after the attack on Israel on Tuesday.

'We have the justification. We have the tools. Now that Hezbollah and Hamas are paralysed, Iran stands exposed.

In a statement this morning, the IDF said 'additional forces' are joining 'the limited, localized, targeted raids on Hezbollah targets' in southern Lebanon.

It added that they would be drawn from a range of forces including the 36th Division, who were withdrawn from Gaza earlier this year, and would be joining the 98th division which is already in Lebanon.

As it steps up its campaign, Israel has warned people in southern Lebanon to leave their homes in southern Lebanon and evacuate to the north of the Awali River, some 36 miles from the border.

It is much further than the Litani River, which marks the northern edge of a UN-declared zone intended to serve as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah after their 2006 war.

The border region has largely emptied out of the hundreds of thousands of people who live on both sides amid sustained cross-border fire over the past year.

Israeli strikes have killed over 1,000 people in Lebanon over the past two weeks, nearly a quarter of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry. Hundreds of thousands have fled their homes.

And Israeli strikes killed at least 32 people in southern Gaza overnight as the military launched ground operations in the hard-hit city of Khan Younis.

Israel has continued to strike what it says are militant targets across Gaza nearly a year after Hamas' October 7 attack ignited the war, even as attention has shifted to Lebanon and growing tensions with Iran.

Israel has said it will continue to strike Hezbollah until it is safe for tens of thousands of its citizens displaced from homes near the Lebanon border to return. 

Hezbollah has vowed to keep firing rockets into Israel until there is a cease-fire in Gaza with Hamas. 

Late into the night, residents in Beirut were told to evacuate by the IDF, which said that their homes were within 500 metres of Hezbollah facilities that would be struck imminently.

Lebanese politician Michel Helou told the BBC that the situation is 'tense' in the country's capital.

'Last night none of us slept much because it was the fifth night in a row that the southern suburb is struck.

'Every hour the Israeli army sends a Twitter post warning people to evacuate, but how and where and how could it be possible for them to evacuate in half an hour before a strike hits.

'It's very traumatising obviously psychologically, on top of the human toll of those strikes.'

People across the region remain on edge as the situation appears to be spiralling out of control, with fears that an all-out war appears increasingly inevitable.

There is panic across the region after Israel vowed to retaliate following Tehran's missile bombardment last night.

Some 180 missiles began raining down on Israel on Tuesday night, with rockets dramatically exploding into bright orange flames near Tel Aviv as air raid sirens sounded. 

The White House said Iran's missile volley was 'defeated and ineffective', with just one reported death - a Palestinian man who was killed by shrapnel in the West Bank.

Still, the aerial assault forced civilians across Israel to seek shelter as huge chunks of molten metal crashed to the ground, and was 'twice the scope' of Tehran's bombardment in April, which saw more than 170 explosive drones and 120 ballistic missiles launched.

In the wake of the attack, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran considers the matter 'concluded... unless Israeli regime decides to invite further retaliation. In that scenario, our response will be stronger and more powerful.'

He also labelled the attack as 'self-defence' and noted that Iran had 'exercised tremendous restraint' after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.  

But Israeli sources told Axios all options were on the table for retaliation despite Iran's threats - including targeting oil and even nuclear facilities.

Despite Iran claiming a new type of hypersonic missile was also used for the first time, IDF Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said there were no Israeli casualties and just a few hits in the centre of the country and in the south.

'We are on high alert both defensively and offensively,' Hagari said in a TV broadcast. 

'We will defend the citizens of the State of Israel. This attack will have consequences. We have plans, and we will operate at the place and time we decide.'