WASHINGTON/BEIRUT/JERUSALEM: US President Joe Biden said he did not believe there is going to be an “all-out war” in the Middle East, as Israel weighs options for retaliation after Tehran’s largest ever assault on its arch-enemy.
However, Biden said more needed to be done to avoid a Middle East war, as Israel’s military hit Beirut with new air strikes in its battle against Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
Asked by reporters in Washington on Thursday how confident he was that such a war could be averted, Biden said, “How confident are you it’s not going to rain? Look, I don’t believe there is going to be an all-out war. I think we can avoid it.
“But there is a lot to do yet, a lot to do yet.”
While the United States, the European Union, and other allies have called for an immediate 21-day ceasefire in the Israel-Lebanon conflict, Biden said the US was discussing with Israel its options for responding to Tehran’s assault, which included Israel striking Iran’s oil facilities.
“We’re discussing that,” Biden told reporters.
His comments contributed to a surge in global oil prices, and rising Middle East tension has made traders worry about potential supply disruptions.
However, Biden added: “There is nothing going to happen today.” Asked later if he was urging Israel not to attack Iran’s oil installations, Biden said he would not negotiate in public.
On Wednesday, the president said he would not support any Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear sites.
On Thursday, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, told CNN his country had “a lot of options” for retaliation and would show Tehran its strength “soon.”
A US official said Washington did not believe Israel had decided yet how to respond to Iran.
Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiye, a stronghold of the Iran-backed Hezbollah, came under renewed strikes near midnight on Thursday after Israel ordered people to leave their homes in some areas, residents and security sources said.
The air raids targeted Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, rumored successor to its assassinated leader Hassan Nasrallah, in an underground bunker, Axios reporter Barak Ravid said on X, citing three Israeli officials.
Safieddine’s fate was not clear, he said.
Israel’s military declined comment.
Israel said Hezbollah launched about 230 rockets from Lebanon toward Israel on Thursday.
Hezbollah said it targeted what it called Israel’s “Sakhnin base” for military industries in Haifa Bay on the Mediterranean coast of northern Israel with a salvo of rockets.
Late on Thursday, Hezbollah said it also targeted Israel’s “Nesher base” in Haifa with a salvo of Fadi 2 rockets.
US President Biden does not believe there will be ‘all-out-war’ in Middle East
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US President Biden does not believe there will be ‘all-out-war’ in Middle East
- But US president says more needed to be done to avoid a Middle East war
- Nations call for an immediate 21-day ceasefire in the Israel-Lebanon conflict
Israeli strike closes off road used to flee Lebanon to Syria, Lebanese transport minister says
- Hamieh had said at a press conference on Thursday that the crossing was subject to the authority of the Lebanese state
Hamieh said the strike hit inside Lebanese territory near the border crossing, creating a four-meter (12 feet) wide crater.
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) military spokesman had accused Lebanese armed group Hezbollah on Thursday of using the crossing to transport military equipment into Lebanon.
“The IDF will not allow the smuggling of these weapons and will not hesitate to act if forced to do so, as it has done throughout this war,” IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X.
Hamieh had said at a press conference on Thursday that the crossing was subject to the authority of the Lebanese state.
According to Lebanese government statistics, more than 300,000 people — a vast majority of them Syrian — had crossed from Lebanon into Syria over the last 10 days to escape escalating Israeli bombardment.
Israel deadliest West Bank strike in decades
- The Israeli military said its strike in the northern West Bank killed Hamas leader Zahi Yaser Abd Al-Razeq Oufi
BEIRUT: A source within the Palestinian security services told AFP that an air raid on the refugee camp of Tulkarm, killing 18 people, was the deadliest in the occupied West Bank since 2000.
The Israeli military said its strike in the northern West Bank killed Hamas leader Zahi Yaser Abd Al-Razeq Oufi, who it accused of participating in numerous attacks.
Alaa Sroji, a social activist from the area, said an Israeli warplane had “hit a cafeteria in a four-story building.”
Israel, at war in Gaza since Hamas’s October 7 attack, has expanded its military campaign to secure its northern border and ensure the safe return of more than 60,000 people displaced by Hezbollah attacks over the past year.
On the Gaza front, the military said a strike three months ago killed three senior Hamas leaders, including Rawhi Mushtaha, the head of the militant movement’s government in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
Hezbollah began strikes on Israeli troops a day after Hamas staged its October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 41,788 people, the majority of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations has described the figures as reliable.
The ministry toll Thursday included 99 fatalities over the past 24 hours.
Iran’s Khamenei to give rare Friday sermon after attack on Israel
- The prayer will follow “a commemoration ceremony” for Hassan Nasrallah
- Khamenei had declared public mourning in Iran for Nasrallah and on Wednesday said that the Hezbollah chief’s death was “not a small matter.”
Khamenei’s rare Friday sermon — a first in almost five years — comes three days before the one-year anniversary of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, triggered by the Iran-backed Palestinian group’s October 7 attack.
The supreme leader, who wields the highest authority in Iran, will lead Muslims in prayer at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla mosque in central Tehran, his official website said.
The prayer will follow “a commemoration ceremony” at 10:30 am (0700 GMT) for Hassan Nasrallah, the slain leader of Tehran-backed Lebanese armed movement Hezbollah.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, who answer to Khamenei, said Tuesday’s barrages of some 200 missiles were in retaliation for Israel’s killing of Nasrallah alongside Guards commander Abbas Nilforoushan in a late September strike on Beirut, and of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.
Khamenei last led Friday prayers in January 2020 after Iran fired missiles at a US army base in Iraq, in response to a strike that killed revered Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani.
In Tehran on Thursday, crowds waving Hezbollah and Iran flags gathered outside the former US embassy building in Tehran to denounce Israeli “crimes” in the Gaza Strip and in Lebanon, Iranian media reported.
Khamenei had declared public mourning in Iran for Nasrallah and on Wednesday said that the Hezbollah chief’s death was “not a small matter.”
Hamas, Hezbollah and other armed groups in the Middle East are part of the Iran-aligned “axis of resistance” opposed to Israel and its ally the United States.
Analysts said Iran’s missile attack — its second-ever directly targeting Israel — was meant to counter a string of setbacks suffered by Tehran and its regional allies.
Iran has said this week’s attack was carried out in “self-defense” and warned of “crushing attacks” on Israel if it retaliated.
The Islamic republic has also warned the US — Israel’s top arms provider — against intervening, threatening “a harsh response” if it did.
Washington has said Iran must suffer “consequences,” which may be coordinated with Israeli officials, for the ballistic missile fire.
US President Joe Biden said Thursday he was discussing possible Israeli strikes on Iranian oil sites.
In April Tehran had sent missiles and drones against Israel in retaliation for a deadly Israeli strike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus.
In both attacks, nearly all missiles were intercepted by Israel or its allies, according to Israeli authorities.
37 killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon in past 24 hours, health ministry says
- Among the dead were nine residents of an apartment in the Lebanese capital, according to authorities
- There was no warning before the strike late Wednesday, which hit the building close to UN headquarters
BEIRUT: Thirty seven people were killed and 151 wounded in Israeli strikes on Lebanon in the past 24 hours, the Lebanese health ministry said in a statement early on Friday
Among the dead were nine residents of an apartment in the Lebanese capital, according to ministry.
Israel has been pounding areas of the country where the Hezbollah militant group has a strong presence since late September, but has rarely struck in the heart of Beirut.
There was no warning before the strike late Wednesday, which hit the building close to the United Nations headquarters, the prime minister’s office and parliament. Hezbollah’s civil defense unit said seven of its members were killed.
Israel is also conducting a ground incursion into Lebanon against Hezbollah, while also conducting strikes in Gaza that killed dozens, including children. The Israeli military said nine soldiers have died in the conflict in southern Lebanon.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the Lebanon border almost daily since the day after Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 others hostage.
Israel declared war on the militant group in the Gaza Strip in response. More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory, and just over half the dead have been women and children, according to local health officials.
Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
World Bank redirects funds toward Lebanon emergency aid
- The multilateral institution currently has $1.5 billion in funding for programs in Lebanon. Part of the amount will be redirected
WASHINGTON: The World Bank announced on Thursday that it was redirecting funds originally earmarked for development programs in Lebanon toward emergency aid for people displaced by Israeli bombardment of the country.
“The World Bank is activating emergency response plans to be able to repurpose resources in the portfolio to respond to the urgent needs of people in Lebanon,” said a statement from the US-based multilateral institution.
The multilateral institution currently has $1.5 billion in funding for programs in Lebanon. Part of this amount will be redirected.
Since September 23, more than 1,000 people have been killed in an Israeli air-and-ground campaign on Lebanon that has targeted armed group Hezbollah in the south and east of the country, with strikes expanding to include the capital Beirut.
The fighting has driven nearly 1.2 million people from their homes in Lebanon, the country’s crisis unit said Thursday.
Thousands have been displaced since the bombing began, and the funds would be used to provide aid to those populations, the World Bank said.
“This would include emergency support to displaced people that could be deployed through a digital platform the World Bank helped put in place during the Covid epidemic,” the statement said.
Hezbollah has engaged in cross-border exchanges of fire with Israel since October last year, when its Palestinian ally Hamas launched an unprecedented attack that sparked Israel’s war in Gaza.
Lebanon, already facing difficult economic conditions and sky-high inflation before the latest hostilities, has lost more than 40 percent of its GDP since 2018, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said in a report last week.
