Beirut airport teemed with people trying to leave Lebanon on Monday (August 5) as fears grew of a full-scale conflict following the killing of Hamas' leader in Tehran last week...

...and an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs that killed a top commander in Lebanon's armed group Hezbollah.

Hezbollah and its backer Iran have vowed to retaliate against Israel for the killings.

And the United States, France, Britain and Italy are among countries urging their citizens in Lebanon to leave while flights are available.

Airlines including Air France are avoiding Iranian and Lebanese airspace and canceling flights to Israel and Lebanon.

Mia Warde is Lebanese, and lives in Paris with her partner Jordin.

"...so we’re leaving now instead of leaving end of August. And because we also have a baby, so it’s a huge responsibility, so we didn’t want to stay and take any risk.”

JORDIN: “We tried to leave as soon as possible and picking among the flights, the available flights.”

The United Nations has asked the families of its staff to leave Lebanon and the Swedish embassy has temporarily relocated its staff to Cyprus.

Emergency medical supplies arrived on Monday to equip Lebanon's hospitals for possible war injuries.

The World Health Organization delivered 32 tons of medical supplies, including at least 1,000 trauma kits.

Hospitals in southern Lebanon are worn down by years of economic meltdown as well as tit-for-tat exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah.

Over the last 10 months, since war broke out in Gaza, they've struggled to cope with wounded patients.

But others in Lebanon seemed more relaxed.

On the coast near Tyre, about 12 miles from the border with Israel, people splashed about in the sea as black smoke from Israeli shelling rose nearby.

Resident Ghalib Badawy said he wasn't going anywhere.

“We are heroes of the resistance, we are steadfast people, we are the people of this land, we will not run away and we are not afraid, neither of Israel nor anyone else."

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IDF prepares for ‘infiltration’ ground assault on Israel

Israeli troops operate on the ground in the Gaza Strip

Israel sent troops to bolster its borders with the West Bank to prepare for a possible ground assault orchestrated by Hamas and Iran.

Additional forces were deployed to cities to foil any infiltration attempt, following a deadly knife attack on Sunday that left two people killed in the city of Holon in central Israel, Israel’s Army Radio, run by the armed forces, reported.

It came as Israel was braced for a major attack likely by air from Iran following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader, in Tehran on Wednesday.

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, told G7 allies that an attack, likey with missiles and drones, could begin as early as Monday, sources told US media.

The G7 countries issued a joint statement, urging all involved parties “once again to refrain from perpetuating the current destructive cycle of retaliatory violence, to lower tensions and engage constructively toward de-escalation”.

Iran dismisses attempts to de-escalate

Iran on Monday issued public flight operations notices advising aircrafts to change their routes in a sign that missile and drone launches were imminent. Lufthansa, the German airline giant, said that its flights would avoid Iraqi and Iranian airspace until at least Aug 7.

Tehran has dismissed attempts by Arab nations and the US to de-escalate the situation, saying it will attack Israel even if it means sparking a war, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Nasser Kanaani, the Iranian foreign ministry’s spokesman, reiterated on Monday that an attack is being prepared, saying “we believe Iran is entitled to punish the aggressor within the framework of international law”.

Iran will “definitely and decisively take serious and deterrent measures”, he added.

Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister, was on Monday coordinating Israel’s response with his Italian and American counterparts, discussing a series of “scenarios and corresponding defensive and offensive capabilities”.

Israel’s Kan Public Broadcaster reported that “intensive work” was being done to make sure a coalition of Arab and Western nations will help defend Israel against an Iranian attack.

“Everyone has an interest in the incident not evolving into a regional war,” Kan reported, citing anonymous Western diplomats.

When Iran, Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels in Yemen attacked Israel in April with 360 drones and missiles, the UK, US, France, Qatar, Egypt, UAE, Bahrain, Jordan and Saudi Arabia all helped foil the attack

On Monday Israel continued attacking both Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The IDF said its airstrikes killed Abed Al-Zeriei, Hamas’s minister of economy in Gaza, saying he played a “significant role in directing Hamas’s efforts” to seize control of humanitarian aid entering Gaza.

Israeli airstrikes also killed two Hezbollah members in southern Lebanon, following a drone attack in northern Israel that left an Israeli soldier and officer wounded.

Turkey and Japan meanwhile called on its citizens to leave Lebanon in light of the situation.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, repeated his warning to Iran and its proxies on Monday, saying Israel is determined to “stand against them on every front and in every arena – near and far. Whoever seeks to harm us will pay a very heavy price”.

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Iran rejects calls for compromise and vows to punish Israel

Palestinian Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh (L) greets Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has threatened "severe punishment" for Israel in retaliation for the assassination of Haniyeh in Tehran. "The criminal Zionist regime [Israel] has murdered our guest in our house," Khamenei was quoted as saying on his website. "There will be a severe punishment." Iranian Supreme Leader's

Iran will not compromise on its planned retaliation against Israel for the deadly attack against the Hamas leader in Tehran.

"As far as the violation of our territorial integrity is concerned, we will not make any compromises," said Foreign Office spokesman Nasser Kanaani on Monday.

Although Iran does not want any escalation in the region, it will definitely punish Israel for the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, despite attempts at mediation, the spokesman said, according to the ISNA news agency. Haniyeh, who lead the Palestinian Islamist Hamas organization, was killed in Tehran last week in a guest house.

Iran and Hamas blame Israel for the attack. Israel has not commented on the accusations.

There was speculation on social media that Jordan's Foreign Minister Aiman al-Safadi had handed over messages from the United States and Arab countries to Iran during his visit to Tehran on Sunday.

In these messages, the US is said to have promised Iran that it would resume nuclear negotiations if it refrained from a military response. These could lead to the lifting of sanctions against Iran.

Arab states such as Jordan and Egypt are said to have promised Tehran that they would immediately normalize bilateral relations if Iran refrained from retaliation.

Both incentives would be very lucrative for Iran, especially in the context of the country's massive economic crisis that has lasted almost six years.

There has been no official confirmation of the offers to Tehran.

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