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Israel says it is carrying out a fresh wave of strikes in Iran, after the country earlier said it had carried out new attacks on Iran's "leadership compound" on Tuesday - BBC Verify assesses videos of the aftermath
Meanwhile President Trump Donald told reporters at the White House "everything's been knocked out in Iran"
He also criticised Prime Minister Starmer and the UK's initial response to US-Israeli strikes on Iran, saying "this is not Winston Churchill we're dealing with"
The US says it has hit more than 2,000 targets in Iran since it began its military operations on Saturday. Tehran has retaliated with a wave of attacks across the region - here's why the US and Israel attacked Iran
The number of people killed in Iran so far has reached 787, the Red Crescent says, while Tehran residents tell BBC Persian they are worried about the availability of groceries
The UK will send helicopters with counter-drone capabilities and air defence destroyer HMS Dragon to Cyprus, after attacks on a British base there. France is planning to send a frigate and further air defences to the island too
Hegseth goes on to say that the US "set the terms of this war, from start to finish", and adds, "we hope the Iranian people take advantage of this incredible opportunity".
He also urges the Iranian security forces to "choose wisely".
"We fight to win and we don't waste time or lives," he emphasises.
Pete Hegseth now says that peaceful nuclear ambitions "do not need to be buried underneath mountains".
He references last year's Operation Midnight Hammer, which he says saw the US obliterate Iran's nuclear sites.
The US defense secretary then accuses Tehran of refusing to negotiate a "peaceful and sensible" deal with the US.
"They were stalling, buying time to reload their missile stockpiles and restart their nuclear ambitions," he continues.
"President Trump doesn't play those games."
The US defense secretary continues by saying that Iran has a "conventional gun to our head as they tried to lie their way to a nuclear bomb", and "it almost worked" under Obama and his "terrible deal".
He says the Iran regime was "gifted death from America and death from Israel".
It's "not a so-called regime change war", but the regime "surely changed and the world is better off for it".
Hegseth also says that the operation against Iran will not lead to an "endless war". Instead, he says, the US's aim is to destroy Tehran's missiles and other security infrastructure.
Hegseth says that Donald Trump has drawn the line "after 47 years of Iranian belligerence".
He warns that anyone who kills or threatens Americans will be hunted down by the US "without apology and without hesitation".
Hegseth says it is common sense that regimes like Iran must not have nuclear weapons, and Trump has the "guts" needed to enforce this.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is now speaking.
He starts by saying that the operation on Iran, under direct orders of Donald Trump, is the most lethal, most complex and most precise aerial operation in history.
"We didn't start the war, but under President Trump, we are finishing it," he says.
We're expecting to hear from US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in the next few minutes.
He'll be joined by US Chief of Staff Dan Caine, and you'll be able to watch live at the top of the page as the pair provide an update on US operations against Iran.
We'll be listening in and will bring you all the key news lines here.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has just released a statement saying a Hezbollah leader was killed in a strike in Beirut on Sunday.
"The IDF now confirms that in a precise strike in Beirut last night (Sunday), the terrorist Hussein Makled, who served as the head of Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters, has been eliminated," the statement reads.
Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent in Tel Aviv
Image source, EPA/ShutterstockHezbollah supporters gathered in solidarity of the Iranian regime on Sunday
The US-Israel attack on Iran has turned into a wider conflict, a fear that regional powers had shared as President Trump deployed what he described as an “armada” to the Middle East.
Iran has responded by attacking Israel and other countries. Now, Lebanon is being dragged into it too, after Hezbollah launched rockets and drones at Israel to avenge the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
For opponents, Hezbollah’s actions will be seen as reckless. And it is possible that even some supporters will be critical, fearing further domestic isolation and destruction.
Israel said it had launched an “offensive” campaign against the group, warning Israelis to “prepare for many prolonged days of combat”.
For months, there has been speculation that Israel could expand its attacks amid claims Hezbollah was attempting to rebuild its capabilities. It appears that time may have come.
Khamenei led a repressive regime for almost four decades and many are happy to see him dead. But neither Trump nor Netanyahu have laid out a clear justification for the attacks, as there was no known imminent threat from Iran, or explained what they are trying to achieve.
A fourth US service member who was wounded during Iran's initial attacks has "succumbed to their injuries", the US Central Command says.
Apparent Iranian strikes have been reported across the region. The US does not say where the attack in which this service member was injured took place.
Theo Leggett
International business correspondent
Gas prices have risen sharply on international markets in response to the tensions in the Middle East.
In the UK just after midday, natural gas for delivery in April was trading up 42%, at just over 112p per therm.
Qatar is a major exporter of liquefied natural gas, accounting for about a fifth of global supplies – and most of this is transported by sea through the Strait of Hormuz.
While Qatar’s main customers are in South and East Asia, any interruption to the trade is likely to lead to price increases on global markets, because it increases competition for shipments coming from elsewhere.
The situation has been exacerbated by the closure of some gas-producing facilities in Israel as a security precaution.
Analysts say this could represent a serious problem for Europe, as although winter is coming to an end and consumption is slowing down, the region’s gas stocks are running low and will need to be refilled over the summer.
Qatar's state-owned energy company, QatarEnergy, says it has halted the production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) after Iranian attacks on some of its facilities.
It says the attacked facilities were Ras Laffan - an onshore gas processing base - and Mesaieed - another key site for Qatar's natural gas production.
The Gulf state is one of the world's top liquefied natural gas producers, alongside the US, Australia and Russia.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has issued an "urgent" evacuation warning for buildings in the south of Beirut, Lebanon.
Arabic spokesperson Avichai Adraee says the military will soon strike infrastructure which is says belongs to the Hezbollah-linked group Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association (AQAH).
"You must evacuate immediately," he warns.
Israel says AQAH finances Hezbollah’s military activities - something the group denies. AQAH says it only provides small, interest-free loans to ordinary Lebanese.
Alice Cuddy
Reporting from Beirut
Image source, EPAA damaged building after an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon
I’ve just heard from a 38-year-old business owner who fled from his home in southern Lebanon today.
“I woke up to a phone call from my friend shouting ‘get up, get up - pack your bags. Rockets were fired from Lebanon,'” he says.
“Soon after, we heard the [Israeli] strikes hitting… we could hear the bombardment around us.”
The man, who asked not to be named because of fears for his safety, said he tried to return to sleep but got calls through the night from friends telling him to leave.
“I decided I would leave in the morning - in daylight, not at night. I didn’t want to drive in the chaos, in the traffic, in the dark.”
He says he “packed as many essential things as I could, put them in a car and left - my mother, my sister and me".
The Lebanese health ministry says Israeli attacks in Beirut and southern Lebanon have killed at least 31 people, with 149 injured.
Raffi Berg
Middle East digital editor
Image source, AFP via Getty ImagesExplosions in Lebanon, as seen from Israel, after Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel exchanged fire
The entry of Hezbollah in the conflict threatens to reopen a devastating year-long war between Israel and the Lebanese group which ended in a ceasefire 15 months ago.
Hezbollah – a Shia Islamist organisation – is one of the most powerful of the armed groups across the region which are loyal to Iran. The Islamic republic has spent billions of dollars funding, training and equipping it to oppose Israel for decades.
Hezbollah and Israel have repeatedly attacked one another since the group was formed in the 1980s. They fought a deadly war in 2006, and again in 2023-24, triggered by Hezbollah rocketing Israeli positions in support of Palestinians a day after Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on 7 October and the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
During the last war with Hezbollah, Israeli attacks killed about 4,000 people in Lebanon and left more than 1.2 million displaced, Lebanon said. Israeli authorities said more than 80 of its soldiers and 47 of its civilians were killed.
Hezbollah was significantly weakened in the war and its firepower degraded. As part of the November 2024 ceasefire agreement, it agreed to withdraw extensively from southern Lebanon, although Israel has continued to attack Hezbollah targets which it says pose a threat.
The group’s rocket and drone attack on Monday and the Israeli response puts the ceasefire in jeopardy, leaving the populations of Lebanon and northern Israel anxiously wondering if the renewed hostilities will be limited or spiral once again into all-out war.
Samantha Granville
Reporting from Beirut
The Lebanese government has banned Hezbollah’s armed activities throughout the country, the prime minister said.
The decision marks one of the clearest challenges yet to the movement’s long-standing parallel authority.
The move follows Hezbollah’s rocket launches toward Israel on Monday, carried out without state consultation, which directly undercut the government’s declared policy of avoiding regional escalation.
Both President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam framed the action as a violation of Lebanese sovereignty, warning it risked dragging the country into a broader war and providing Israel justification for retaliation.
How this plays out practically is still unclear as Hezbollah remains armed despite recent conflict with Israel.
Ghoncheh Habibiazad
Senior reporter, BBC Persian
Image source, ReutersAccess to those in Iran is difficult in the best of times. International news organisations are often refused visas, which severely limits their ability to gather information there.
From afar, what I'm hearing today about the current situation on the ground from two sources is that there is a heavy security presence on the streets during the night in Tehran and a nearby city, Karaj.
One person tells me prices have increased since the start of escalations and streets are mostly empty.
People are also angry about the current internet outage - which according to internet monitoring group NetBlocks has been ongoing for more than 48 hours.
Although streets are quiet, bakeries and petrol stations are busy.
Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces says it has received reports that a hospital in Tehran has sustained "minor collateral damage" following an attack on Sunday on nearby military infrastructure.
It says the hospital was not the target of the attack.
Image source, ReutersNew images show damage to Tehran's Gandhi Hotel Hospital after what Israeli said was an attack on military infrastructure
As we just reported, sirens have sounded at the UK base in southern Cyprus.
Now, a Cypriot government spokesperson says two drones heading towards RAF Akrotiri have been intercepted.
This comes after an Iranian drone crashed into the UK military base last night, "causing minor material damage".
Nikos Papanikolaou
BBC News
Image source, ReutersAircraft seen leaving the British RAF base in Cyprus on Monday
Sirens are sounding again in Akrotiri, according to local reports, and British fighter jets have taken off.
A message sent to employees warned of an "ongoing security threat" and urged people to return home and remain indoors until further notice.
"Stay away from windows and take shelter behind or under sturdy, solid furniture. Please await further instructions," the alert said.
According to information received, the Cypriot interior minister has instructed the mayor of Kourion, near the UK base, to proceed with a mandatory evacuation.
Meanwhile, Cypriot media reports that an alarm was raised at Paphos Airport after a suspected drone was detected in its airspace.
Earlier, the Kuwaiti military said "several" US fighter planes had crashed in Kuwait - and that the circumstances of the incident were under investigation.
US Central Command has just now said three of its F-15 jets "flying in support of Operation Epic Fury" - the US operation against Iran - "went down over Kuwait due to an apparent friendly fire incident".
All six crew ejected safely and have been recovered, it says.
Footage verified by the BBC earlier shows the apparent moment a fighter jet was downed near Kuwait City - watch it below:
Video appears to show F-15 fighter jet crashing in Kuwait
In a new update, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it has "begun an additional broad strike" on the Iranian capital, Tehran.
This is targeting what it describes as "Iranian terror regime targets".