This is the terrifying moment a BBC reporter was forced to run for cover as Hezbollah attacked the Israeli border with rockets.
The BBC News crew had been filming on the Israeli side of the border, near where clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces were reported, before the shooting began.
After hearing some small arms and grenade bursts from the Israeli army from across the border, the team of at least four could be seen moving away from the area as they headed towards safety.
Lucy Williamson, wearing a crash helmet and safety vest, was filmed reporting from an empty road as sirens began to wail.
“And now you can hear the sirens sounding, telling us to get out of the area,” she said as she and her crew ran for urgent cover.
BBC correspondent Lucy Williamson and her film crew ran for cover after gunshots and sirens were heard across the border between Israel and Lebanon.
Williamson could be seen delivering her report from the ground while surrounded by bushes as explosions went off in the distance.
The crew rushed back to their vehicle after assessing their surroundings and deeming it safe to travel.
Loud bangs and screams could be heard in the tense footage as the team scrambled up a rocky path and threw themselves to the ground as chaos unfolded around them.
A series of explosions erupted as the team remained on the ground.
“We just heard a series of very loud explosions, what appear to be rockets falling nearby, some small arms fire across the border,” Williamson said as he poked his head out of some bushes.
“It seems that the Israeli army is advancing towards a place, and this was the response.”
After assessing the area, the team decided they were “ready to go” and left their cover locations before returning to their vehicle parked on the side of the road.
The air raid sirens that sounded in southern Israel were the first in about two months, the IDF said.
“Almost a year after October 7, Hamas continues to threaten our civilians with its terrorism and we will continue to operate against them,” he said.
It comes as Israel has stepped up its attacks on Lebanon, with the latest Israeli strikes bringing down buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs overnight.
Israel launched its most intense airstrikes on Beirut yet, and dozens of people were reportedly killed across Lebanon the day before.
An Israeli military spokesman said Israeli forces have killed about 250 Hezbollah fighters, including several battalion and company commanders, since the start of a ground operation in Lebanon.
A huge explosion erupted last night in Beirut’s southern suburbs, just north of the airport, in what is suspected to have been an Israeli attack on Hezbollah’s heir apparent.
A man runs for cover as smoke rises in the background after an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, October 4, 2024.
Civil defense members rescue injured people from the rubble of a building after Israeli strikes hit the Jaber family home in Deir Al Balah, Gaza, October 4, 2024.
Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said the military was still assessing damage caused by airstrikes in southern Beirut on Thursday night, which he said targeted Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in Dahiyeh.
The overnight attacks in Beirut also reportedly targeted Hashem Safieddine, an attempt to eliminate Hezbollah’s heir apparent after former chief Hassan Nasrallah was killed a week ago.
It is unclear whether Saffieddine was present at the scene of the attack.
The intense shelling came after the IDF issued another evacuation order for communities across southern Lebanon.
Lebanese citizens were told to leave Nabatieh, a provincial capital, and other communities north of the Litani River, which formed the northern edge of the border zone established by the UN Security Council after the 2006 war in a resolution that both parties accuse the other of violating.
Israel also carried out overnight one of its deadliest attacks in the West Bank in decades, with at least 18 people said to have been killed in the Tulkarm refugee camp, Palestinian health authorities say.
The IDF reported that its strike killed Hamas leader Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi, whom it accused of participating in numerous attacks.
Israel announced this week that its troops had begun “ground incursions” into parts of southern Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold, after days of intense shelling in areas across the country where the group exerts influence.
At least nine Israeli soldiers have been killed in clashes with militants over the past three days as IDF units swept through villages in southern Lebanon to close tunnels and eradicate Hezbollah positions.
Hezbollah Executive Council leader Hashim Safieddine is expected to become head of the organization following Nasrallah’s death, but Israel is targeting him with attacks.
Flames arise from Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon
Flames and smoke rise after Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon
Smoke rises over Beirut’s southern suburbs and surrounding areas, amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Sin El Fil, Lebanon, on October 4, 2024.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah claims it fought Israeli troops on the border, detonated two explosive devices against advancing soldiers and ambushed a united Israeli army near the village of Adaisseh.
The militant group also said it continued to launch rockets across the border, with sirens warning of incoming fire blaring across northern Israel early this morning.
The IDF ground operation has been supported by almost round-the-clock airstrikes in southern and eastern Lebanon, Syria and Beirut, which sustained constant bombardment through the night.
Israel’s escalation of attacks comes as it weighs retaliation for Iran’s wave of ballistic missiles fired at the country on Tuesday, and the United States says Israel is on the table to strike Iranian oil facilities.
The United States has called for a reduction in tensions and said this week it was also weighing the options on the table for a response.
And Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Beirut today, where he will discuss with Lebanese officials the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Israel has said it would respond to Iran’s attacks but is not seeking an all-out war.
Israel’s bombings in Lebanon have killed more than 1,000 people, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
Hundreds of thousands more have been forced to flee their homes in a nation already mired in economic and political crisis.
The Lebanese Red Cross said an Israeli strike also wounded four of its paramedics and killed a Lebanese army soldier as they evacuated the wounded from the south.
He said the convoy near the village of Taybeh, which was accompanied by Lebanese troops, was attacked on Thursday despite coordinating its movements with UN peacekeepers.
