LIVE: Intense Blasts Rattle Doha in Latest Iranian Attacks

 Israeli strikes killed eight people in Lebanon on Thursday as Israel renewed its evacuation call for vast areas of the country's south, long a stronghold of Hezbollah.

The Iran-backed militant group, which dragged Lebanon into the regional war on Monday when it launched an attack on Israel, said it had launched missiles at positions in the Galilee area.

 Multiple rounds of explosions echoed over the Qatari capital Doha on Thursday just hours after officials said they were evacuating residents living near the US embassy.

Gulf countries have been targeted by repeated waves of Iranian drone and missile attacks in retaliation for the massive US-Israeli air campaign.

AFP journalists on the ground in Doha described Thursday's blasts as some of the most intense since Iran began targeting the Gulf state on Saturday. A column of black smoke was seen on the Doha horizon.

Turkey’s joint border with Iran remains calm and there is no extraordinary movement or mass build-up of migrants despite the ongoing conflict, Turkey’s defense ministry said.

It added that “intensive security measures” were being implemented at the frontier.

Israel’s military said Thursday morning that it had completed a wave of strikes begun overnight targeting sites crucial to Iranian ballistic missile storage and deployment.

The military also said that it struck Iranian operatives who were readying a missile launcher to be used against Israeli aircraft, preventing the launch.

Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said the ban, which took effect at 6 p.m. Thursday, prohibits South Koreans from visiting or remaining anywhere in Iran without special permission.

South Korean officials have so far evacuated 24 citizens from Iran to Turkmenistan and 62 from Israel to Egypt by bus. Before the evacuations, officials said about 60 South Koreans were in Iran and about 600 in Israel.

China will send its special envoy on Middle Eastern issues to the region to help de-escalate tensions, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Thursday.

Zhai Jun will travel to the Middle East “in the near future and make active efforts to help de-escalate tensions,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said during a regular briefing in Beijing.

Since the start of the Iran war, China has conducted “intensive mediation efforts,” Mao said.

Two people were injured due to the attacks, the foreign ministry said. It said that Azerbaijan had summoned the Iranian ambassador and that the country reserves the right to retaliate.

Video footage shared by a source close to the government showed black smoke rising near the terminal of Nakhchivan International Airport, which is about 10 km (6 miles) from the border with Iran.

Italy is planning to send air defence aid to Gulf countries in the face of Iranian air strikes, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Thursday.

"Like the United Kingdom, France and Germany, Italy intends to send assistance to Gulf countries, specifically in the field of defence and in particular air defence," Meloni told radio station RTL 102.5.

A source close to Azerbaijan's government said missiles and drones flying from the direction of Iran fell on the territory of the airport in the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan on Thursday.

Nakhchivan International Airport is located roughly 10 km (6 miles) from the border with Iran.

Sri Lanka on Thursday said it is deliberating appropriate action after a second Iranian ship has sought entry to its territorial waters, a day after a frigate belonging to the Islamic country was attacked near the island nation.Sri Lanka on Wednesday said it had recovered over 80 bodies of Iranian sailors killed after a US submarine attack sank the Iranian frigate - IRIS Dena - off Galle, the island's southern coastal town.

Government spokesman and minister Nalinda Jayathissa was on Thursday responding to a query by the main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa in parliament about the second Iranian ship.