Tensions have increased following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, a top Hamas leader, and Fuad Shukr, a senior military commander from Hezbollah

Royal Navy ships and RAF helicopters were on standby in the Middle East on Sunday night over fears of a regional war.

The HMS Duncan, a Type-45 destroyer, and RFA Cardigan Bay, a transport ship, were in the eastern Mediterranean, the Ministry of Defence said.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said military personnel had been deployed to embassies, while families of staff at the embassy in Beirut were withdrawn for their safety.

David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, reiterated his advice to all British nationals in Lebanon to “leave now” while they can.

In the first major foreign policy test for Labour, John Healey, the Defence Secretary, said: “Our Armed Forces will always step up to support British citizens around the world and reinforce regional stability with their professionalism and bravery.”

Saudi Arabia joined France, Canada and Jordan in calling on their citizens to leave Lebanon.

“In a highly volatile security context” French nationals were “urgently asked” to avoid travelling to Lebanon, and those already in the country should leave “as soon as possible”, the foreign ministry in Paris said.

France also urged its nationals living in Iran to “temporarily leave”.

Israel is bracing for a major attack in retaliation for a double assassination in Beirut and Tehran over the past week.

World leaders have been urging both sides to step back or risk triggering a full-scale regional war.

But Israel warned it would go on the attack if struck by Iran or its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister, said: “We are ready to move quickly to attack or to respond. We will exact a price, as we have been doing in recent days from the enemy. If it dares to attack us, it will pay a heavy price.”

He was backed by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, who told his security cabinet: “I reiterate and tell our enemies, We will respond and we will exact a heavy price for any act of aggression against us, from whatever quarter’.”

The US said it was sending an aircraft carrier and warplanes to the region for “every possibility”. The FCDO said the UK had sent “additional consular officials, Border Force and UK military personnel to the region”, but did not provide further details.

Tensions have increased following the assassination on Wednesday of Ismail Haniyeh, a top Hamas leader in Tehran, one day after an Israeli strike in the Lebanese capital Beirut killed Fuad Shukr, a senior military commander from Lebanese terror group Hezbollah. Both groups are backed by Iran.

Israel and the US are braced for an attack similar to that seen in April when Iran launched its first direct assault on Israel, with hundreds of drones, missiles and rockets. Israel retaliated at the time with a single missile strike on an air defence unit in Iran and the tit-for-tat exchanges ended after that.

Observers have questioned whether both sides are prepared to de-escalate this time around.

On Saturday night more than 30 projectiles were fired at Israel by Hezbollah without penetrating the Iron Dome air defence umbrella. Meanwhile, five rockets were launched by Hamas in Gaza on Sunday to southern Israel with one falling into Hof Ashkelon.

Two people were killed and another two seriously injured when a man from the West Bank went on a stabbing rampage in the city of Holon, central Israel, on Sunday, heightening tensions further.

“We are doing everything possible to make sure that this situation does not boil over,” Jon Finer, the White House deputy national security adviser, said on Sunday.

Emmanuel Macron, the French president, met the Jordanian king on Sunday. In a statement they called on “all the parties to end the cycle of reprisals, exercise the utmost restraint and responsibility to guarantee the security of the populations”.

At least 100,000 Israeli citizens are also believed to be stranded abroad, leading Israel’s ministry of transport to launch emergency maritime fleets to bring them home.

More than 18 airlines have cancelled flights, including British Airways.

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UK and US issue urgent plea for citizens to leave Lebanon amid fears of escalation

The UK and the US issued urgent pleas for citizens to “leave Lebanon now”, amid rising concerns of a wider Middle East war, as they deployed military personnel, fighter jet squadrons and consular experts to help in the embattled region.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on Saturday said Britons should use any commercial options still working, acknowledging potential exit routes were already limited or closed.

It added that the Border Force, consular officials and military personnel had been deployed to support embassy staff there. Foreign secretary David Lammy warned that “tensions are high and the situation could deteriorate rapidly”.

The US embassy in Beirut urged its nationals to “book any ticket available” out of Lebanon, noting that several flights had already been cancelled and that military evacuations were rare.

The Pentagon had already announced that the US would move a fighter jet squadron to the Middle East and maintain an aircraft carrier in the region in preparation for any escalation. Jordan also issued an emergency directive telling its citizens to leave “as soon as possible’“.

The Canadian government followed with a statement saying “now is the time to leave”. France on Sunday invited its citizens to leave Lebanon and advised against travelling to the country due to the risk of military escalation.

Earlier this week, Italy and Germany urged its citizens to depart the Lebanese territory.

It comes amid concerns of a full-blown regional war, after Iran vowed vengeance following the assassinations of Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on Wednesday and Fuad Shukr, a senior commander in the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in Beirut on Tuesday.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has said a short-range projectile was behind the killing of the Hamas political chief and accused the US of supporting the attack.

Israel, which has been blamed for both killings, has vowed to eliminate leaders of the Palestinian militant group Hamas over its 7 October attack that sparked a seige and the heaviest-ever bombardment of Gaza.

Hamas killed over 1,100 people and took more than 250 hostages in the October massacre.

Since then the Hamas-run Palestinian health ministry says Israel’s ferocious bombing of Gaza has killed more than 39,500 people, the majority of them women and children.

Hezbollah fired around 50 rockets from Lebanon toward upper Galilee overnight, prompting Israel to activate its Iron Dome defence system, according to reports.

US president Joe Biden on Saturday expressed hope Iran would stand down despite its threat to avenge the assassination of the Hamas leader.

Asked by reporters whether Iran would stand down, Mr Biden said, “I hope so. I don’t know.”

Mr Biden previously voiced concern that the violence in the Middle East could escalate, adding that the killing of a top Hamas leader, who was also a negotiator in ongoing talks, has “not helped” efforts to negotiate a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.

Mr Biden told reporters he had a “very direct” conversation with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We have the basis for a ceasefire. He should move on it and they should move on it now,” he added, echoing calls for a truce from his secretary of state Antony Blinken.

Israeli media reported that the call on Thursday, which US vice president Kamala Harris also joined, had gone so badly president Biden allegedly told Mr Netanyahu to “stop bulls****ing me” over his claims of progress in a hostage ceasefire deal with Gaza.

This exchange, first reported by Israel’s Channel 12 on Saturday night, was allegedly followed by the US leader telling Mr Netanyahu “don’t take the president for granted”. The US is Israel’s biggest supplier of weapons.

The press reached out to Israel’s prime minister’s office for comment but is yet to receive a reply.

Mr Netanyahu has said Israel is determined to win nothing less than “total victory” against Hamas, and that he is working for a ceasefire he hopes to achieve soon.

On Saturday, an Israeli delegation led by the Mossad chief arrived in Cairo, Egyptian officials said. However, Mr Netanyahu has been accused of putting his personal interests first and deliberately prolonging the war, with Israeli media publishing alleged leaks of a recent heated meeting between the premier and his security and defence chiefs.

The premier reportedly shouted at his team, who accused him of introducing conditions in the truce hostage deal that he knew Hamas would not accept.

Airlines, including US carriers United and Delta, Germany’s Lufthansa and India’s flag-carrier Air India have scrambled to re-route away from the Middle East airspace and cancelled flights to Tel Aviv.

Israeli media reported on Saturday that some internal flights within Israel had been cancelled.

Israel continued its ferocious bombardment of Gaza, with an Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced persons in Gaza city killing at least 15 Palestinians on Saturday.

It came hours after two strikes in the occupied West Bank killed nine militants including a local Hamas commander, Hamas said.

The Israeli military said the first of two West Bank airstrikes hit a vehicle in a town near the city of Tulkarm, targeting a militant cell it said was on its way to carry out an attack.

Following the sirens that sounded in northern Israel overnight, approximately 30 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon, most of which were intercepted by the IDF Aerial Defense Array, it said.

One projectile was identified falling in he area of Beit Hillel, and several fell in open areas. No injuries were reported. Shortly after, the IDF struck the Hezbollah launcher from which the projectiles were launched and additional Hezbollah infrastructure in the area of Marjayoun in southern Lebanon. In addition, IDF artillery fired to remove threats in the area of Odaisseh, the IDF said.

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