Israeli warplanes broke the sound barrier three times flying low over Beirut in less than 30 minutes amid fears of an imminent escalation of war in the Middle East.
Loud booms from the aircraft flying at such speed over the Lebanese capital on Tuesday sent people in the city running for cover.
Witnesses said the planes could be clearly see with the naked eye.
The provocative flights came just hours before Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was set to begin an address at around 5pm (2pm GMT) to mark one week since the killing of the Lebanese terror group’s top military commander Fuad Shukr in an Israeli strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Hezbollah has promised to respond to the killing, which came just hours before the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in an operation blamed on Israel but which Israel has not confirmed or denied undertaking.
The twin killings have pushed the region to the brink of war, with Iran also vowing a painful response.
America has deployed more warships to the region.
Britain and other countries are urging their citizens to leave Lebanon as quickly as possible.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy told the Cabinet on Tuesday that the Government stands “ready and prepared” should tensions further escalate in the Middle East.
Around 3,000 British nationals are estimated to have filled in a form to tell the UK Government about their presence in Lebanon, among a total of around 16,000 UK nationals in the country.
Military personnel and consular experts have been deployed to the Middle East to help them.
Evacuating UK nationals to Cyprus via a seabridge in an Operation Highbrow-style mission is thought to be among the solutions, if war begins.
Operation Highbrow saw 4,500 British nationals evacuated from Lebanon using warships during the 2006 Lebanon War.
Some airlines have suspended flights to Beirut and to Tel Aviv.
While some commercial flights from the Lebanese capital have sold out some places are still available.
As the Israeli planes flew low over Beirut, people at a cafe in the Badaro district scattered as the sound reverberated through the city.
Earlier, Hezbollah launched a series of drone and rocket attacks into northern Israel on Tuesday but warned that its much-anticipated retaliation for Israel’s killing of the top commander last week was yet to come.
The group, proscribed as a terror organisation by Britain and other countries, said it launched a swarm of attack drones at two military sites near Acre in northern Israel, and also attacked an Israeli military vehicle in another location.
The Israeli military said a number of hostile drones were identified crossing from Lebanon and one was intercepted.
Israeli medical officials said seven people were evacuated to hospital, to the south of the coastal city of Nahariya, one in critical condition.
The Israeli military said an initial investigation indicated the injuries were caused by an interceptor that “missed the target and hit the ground, injuring several civilians.” It said the incident was still under review.
Fears are rising that the Middle East could be tipped into full-blown war following the vows by Hezbollah to avenge Shukr’s killing, and by Iran to respond to the assassination in Tehran last week of Haniyeh.
Earlier on Tuesday, four people were killed in a strike on a home in the Lebanese town of Mayfadoun, nearly 19 miles north of the border, medics and a security source said.
Two additional security sources said those killed were Hezbollah fighters, but the group had not yet posted its usual death notices.
Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been trading fire for the last 10 months in parallel with the Gaza war, with the tit-for-tat strikes mostly limited to the border area.
