A commercial plane has been seen leaving Beirut airport in Lebanon, as smoke from the city rises into the sky.

Beirut, and parts of southern Lebanon, have been hit by Israeli strikes - in response, Israel says, to attacks from the Lebanon-based militant group, Hezbollah.

Thousands of flights in the Middle East have been cancelled since the beginning of the conflict on Saturday, with airspace closed above many countries in the area.

Videos show blast in central Iran, with weapons company possibly targetedpublished at 13:03 GMT 3 March

13:03 GMT 3 March

Image source, Telegram/VahidOnline

By Emma Pengelly

Videos posted online today show the aftermath of an apparent strike on the city of Isfahan in central Iran, BBC Verify has confirmed.

The clips show a large smoke plume rising into the sky in the northern part of the city. In one video a person filming says they heard two "seriously very loud" explosions and the "optics centre" had been targeted.

BBC Verify has been able to locate the smoke plume to an area near Kaveh Boulevard.

That street is listed as the address for Isfahan Optics, a company linked to the manufacturing of Iranian weapons systems, which is sanctioned by several countries including the UK and the US.

Ghoncheh Habibiazad
Senior reporter, BBC Persian

Iranian outlets report that "in line with the government decision to prioritise the provision of essentials", the export of all food and agriculture products has been banned "until further notice".

Meanwhile, I’ve heard from some inside Tehran that they’ve stock up on goods and essentials in the fear that the war might continue for longer.

From what I’ve heard, some have also left the capital in fear.

The Iranian capital Tehran is again being hit by air strikes.

Strikes in the area have been confirmed by the Israeli military, which announced it was targeting what it described as a senior regime commander in the city.

We'll bring you more on this when we have it.

US President Donald Trump has just posted on social media.

"Their air defense, Air Force, Navy, and Leadership is gone," he writes, seemingly about Iranian officials, alongside a link to an opinion piece in the Washington Post about "the birth of the Trump Doctrine".

"They want to talk. I said 'Too Late!'"

Image source, Reuters

The UK foreign secretary has shared further details about the government charter flight due to fly from Muscat in the coming days (see our last post).

She says the UK will prioritise vulnerable nationals, and is also working with airlines on increasing capacity out of Muscat for British nationals.

Cooper also says British citizens in Oman "must wait to be contacted by the Foreign Office regarding these options".

Yvette Cooper tells the House of Commons that a government charter flight will leave Muscat, Oman "in the coming days".

She also says 130,000 British nationals have signed up to the "Register Your Presence programme" in the Middle East as of Tuesday morning.

Image source, PA Media

Fire and damage at UAE oil terminal, video and satellite images showpublished at 12:29 GMT 3 March

12:29 GMT 3 March

By Daniele Palumbo and Paul Brown

Two videos checked by BBC Verify show a fire has broken out at the Fujairah Oil Terminal on the Gulf of Oman coast of the United Arab Emirates.

The first video of the blaze is filmed by someone driving on a main road next to an oil storage area in the facility, while the second is taken from a nearby residential area and shows an enormous black column of smoke.

Satellite imagery captured by Planet Labs PBC this morning shows damage to at least one tank and burn marks can be seen nearby. Nasa satellites also detected a heat signature at the same spot just after 09:00 local time (05:00 GMT) on Tuesday.

The Fujairah Oil Terminal can hold up to 1.2 million cubic meters of oil and is one of the few sites in the region that is directly on the Gulf of Oman.

This means tankers don’t have to pass through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, which Iran says it has closed. An Iranian official yesterday threatened to "set fire" to any ship trying to pass through and the Iranian military has reportedly fired on several vessels in the area.

Faisal Islam
Economics editor

The natural gas price for UK delivery in April is absolutely spiralling now. It just hit 170p a therm - levels not seen since late 2022, in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a dash for gas across Europe.

It has more than doubled since markets reopened yesterday, after events in the Middle East, especially the shutdown in production of liquefied shipped gas from world’s largest producer, Qatar.

For those awaiting the UK government's Spring Statement and the new OBR forecasts, for reference, gas prices have been assumed by that organisation at 78p a therm.

Domestic energy users will be protected for now and will get the already announced cut to bills on 1 April.

But if this is sustained for several weeks, the new energy price cap in July would be very painful and problematic. These are levels that did require, for example, government intervention through the multi-billion energy price guarantee.

In the next few minutes, Zoe Jackson's flight home from Dubai is due to land at Manchester Airport. But the operation to get out of the UAE was all "hush hush", she tells us from the plane, while flying over Greece.

Having been stranded when Dubai's airports closed over the weekend, Zoe got a call to her hotel room at 1am, to say they had to leave "now".

They were quickly moved into Emirates cars, rushed through an empty airport and the airline's VIP area - "no idea why," says Zoe - until they made it onto the flight.

Their flight was escorted out by fighter jets. "It has been a crazy few days," she says.

"I am so appreciative of the UAE, Emirates and all the staff on the ground and on the plane. All the crew have been so brave."

In Oman, the state news agency reports that two drones have been intercepted in the south-western region of Dhofar.

A third drone reportedly crashed near the Port of Salalah - the largest port in Oman which is also in the country's south-west.

Oman News Agency says there have been no casualties.

We'll bring you more on this if we hear anything.

Ben King
Business reporter

Oil and gas prices rose, stocks fell, and the dollar rose against other currencies as markets digested the likely impact of the US/Israel war in Iran.

Fears that the conflict would put a halt to seaborne exports of oil and liquefied natural gas from the Persian gulf sent prices skyrocketing.

The Brent benchmark oil price hit $85 a barrel for the first time since July 2024. The benchmark UK gas price was above 160p per therm, the highest level since early 2023, and more than double the level it closed at on Friday afternoon.

European shares were down, with Germany's DAX index 3.76% down shortly after 11am, the FTSE 100 down 2.57%. Asian shares also saw sharp falls, with a 7.24% drop in the Korean KOSPI index and Japan's Nikkei down 3.06%.

UK bond yields - the effective interest rate the government pays to borrow money - were also up as investors reduced their estimates of the likelihood of more interest rate cuts from the Bank of England. The benchmark 10-year yield was up more than 0.14%.

The US dollar rose as investors seeking a safe haven in times of turmoil switched to American assets. Against a trade-weighed basket of other currencies, it was up nearly 1% on the day.

This conflict could get a whole lot worse - here's howpublished at 11:56 GMT 3 March

11:56 GMT 3 March

Frank Gardner
Security correspondent

It's already escalated faster than most people had predicted, pulling in Lebanon and Cyprus, choking off maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz and hitting non-military targets in the Arab Gulf states.

But this conflict could still get a whole lot worse - here’s how.

The US is promising that ‘the big one’ is still to come, implying they are going to hit Iran even harder. This will almost inevitably entail more civilian casualties.

Iran could deliberately target desalination plants in countries on the Arabian side of the Gulf. These are vital in providing drinking water to the populations in a part of the world where the daytime temperature in Abu Dhabi is already over 30C.

Iran could also go after Gulf oil and gas facilities, in a repeat of the massed drone attack of 2019 on Saudi Aramco’s petrochemical facilities that temporarily halved Saudi oil exports.

Another possibility is that Iran could launch a wave of cyber attacks, not just on its neighbours but on the UK. A UK government warning has already gone out to companies to be extra vigilant at this time.

Jonathan Beale
Defence correspondent

The UK government is considering sending HMS Duncan to the Mediterranean - but defence sources say a final decision has not yet been made.

HMS Duncan is being prepared for a possible deployment.

The type 45 destroyer is primarily used to provide air defence. It could be used to increase security around RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, which has already been targeted by Iranian drones

We're now in the fourth day of the US-Israeli war with Iran.

US President Donald Trump has said the aim of the operation is to "ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon", and has urged the Iranian people to overthrow the clerical regime.

The strikes on Saturday, which killed Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, followed weeks of threats from Trump that he would order military action if Iran did not agree to a new deal over its nuclear programme - which Iran insists is entirely peaceful.

Iran responded by launching missiles and drones across the region while the Lebanon-based and Iran-backed Shia Muslim militia group Hezbollah joined the fighting, launching rockets into Israel from its bases. Israel in turn hit Hezbollah targets and announced earlier that ground troops would "advance and seize additional strategic areas in Lebanon".

Netanyahu has said the "campaign will continue as long as it is needed", but US Defense Secretary Pate Hegseth said on Monday the war with Iran would not be "endless".

• To keep reading about how we got here, and what impact the war is having on the region and the wider repercussions on the world, read our explainer

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

Israel says it has reopened its main crossing point with the Gaza Strip - a crucial route for humanitarian aid to enter the war-torn territory - for the first time since it carried out air strikes on Iran.

The UN and aid agencies had warned that the closure of crossings meant Gaza was rapidly running out of stocks of food and fuel. Panic buying sent prices soaring on local markets.

The Israeli defence body Cogat, which controls the crossings, said that the closure of Kerem Shalom was due to “the missile threat” endangering both Israeli and Palestinian workers. It previously insisted that existing supplies would “suffice for a while”.

Local sources tell the BBC that Palestinian aid trucks were sent to Kerem Shalom this morning but are yet to return with any goods.

At this stage, the Rafah border crossing with Egypt - the main exit for medical evacuations - remains closed. Cogat said this “will reopen as soon as the security situation allows”.

Image source, Getty Images

Earlier, the Israeli military said Iran had launched fresh missile strikes at Israel.

It said its defensive systems were operating to "intercept the threat", and advised that residents enter shelters and remain there "until further notice".

Warning sirens were reported to have been heard across the nation, including in Tel Aviv.

In a post on X, the Israeli military's Arab media spokesperson Avichay Adraee gives a long list of towns and cities where Lebanese residents have been warned to leave. "And we ask you not to return to them", Adraee says.

The advice says residents should evacuate their homes and travel at least 1,000 metres away from any of the named places.

Adraee also warns that anyone near Iran-backed Hezbollah "elements [and] facilities" exposes their life to danger".

There are more than 80 towns and villages on the evacuation list, including Al Bayada and Al Mansouri in Tyre and Yatar in the Bint Jbeil district.

It follows several other warnings since the Middle East conflict intensified over the weekend.

Satellite images show Iranian nuclear complex damagedpublished at 10:53 GMT 3 March

10:53 GMT 3 March

By Paul Brown

BBC Verify has reviewed satellite imagery of new damage to Iran’s nuclear complex at Natanz.

The images, published by intelligence company Vantor on Monday, show three buildings within the complex in central Iran have been hit.

Vantor’s analysis states they were linked to "personnel and vehicle entrances to the underground fuel enrichment complex".

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has made a similar assessment, adding that "no radiological consequence [is] expected".

The latest imagery also shows existing damage from a US air strike last year when several Iranian nuclear sites were targeted in a US operation called Midnight Hammer.

Ghoncheh Habibiazad
Senior reporter, BBC Persian

People I'm speaking to in Tehran are saying that, in terms of attacks, parts of the Iranian capital seemed to be calmer on Tuesday morning compared to Monday.

Some people, though, are worried about groceries and price increase as the war continues.

"We need to stock up because we don’t know for how long it’s going to continue. We’re worried that we might run out of essentials if we don’t", one resident tells me.

Another says: "The prices have increased for essentials, including potatoes."

It’s very difficult to get a clear picture of what’s going on inside the country due to internet outages. People I'm speaking to manage to get connection, but only momentarily.