It comes as thousands of Australians desperately rush to escape the fighting, with hundreds landing in Cyprus on evacuation flights.

The defence minister confirmed that almost 500 Australians had been brought to safety this week after the government secured repatriation flights out of the capital.

Overnight, more explosions rocked Beirut, with local media reporting five more Israeli strikes hit the city’s south, four of them “very violent”,... while a separate blast hit the northern city of Tripoli for the first time since the conflict broke out. 

But as Israel plots its retaliation against Iran for a missile strike earlier this week, the region is bracing for more bloodshed.