Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israel Defence Force have kept Iran and other countries in the Middle East in suspense on its reprisal to the Tuesday’s missile rain on Tel Aviv and other parts of the country.
There have been many speculations on what facilities that Israel would target in the Arab country.
Various reports said the Netanyahu has refused to assure the United States of America, its biggest ally, that it would not attack oil installations or nuclear sites in the country.
President Joe Biden told White House reporters on Friday that the Israel PM must remember his administration’s support to the Jewish state in the last four years.
Political analysts believe that the statement is a plea to Israel to exercise restraints to avoid actions that would jeopardise his last days in office, or affect the Democratic Party’s chance in next months election.
President Joe Biden said earlier this week the US would not support Israel targeting Iran’s nuclear program, while also maintaining that his country could only ‘advise’ and not ‘tell Israel what to do’.
“If I were in their shoes, I’d be thinking about other alternatives than striking oil fields,” Biden said at a press briefing Friday.
The U.S. presidential election is just weeks away, and there are concerns that Israel’s attack on Iran’s oil facilities would spike the price of crude oil, which would lead to higher gasoline prices across the country and worsen inflation.
Israel Intensifies Lebanon Raids
Israel has intensified its airstrikes on Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy in Lebanon, with the country’s capital, Beirut now being described as a war zone due to intense fighting on all fronts.
A United Nations official says over 200,000 Lebanese have fled to neighbouring Syria.
Israel struck a tunnel passage to Syrian border on Friday, claiming that it was being used as a gateway for arms supplies to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
BBC and other news channels report that countries are frantically evacuating their citizens from Lebanon, with flights taking off from Beirut airport even amid near-daily Israeli strikes on parts of the city.
The report said the United Kingdom has flown out three charter flights, with another scheduled to leave on Sunday.
The UK is among over 20 countries that are evacuating their nationals from the country, raising the spectre of a more larger and wider war in the Gulf region.
Leading Hamas figure was ‘killed alongside wife and children’ – BBC
Hamas-affiliated newspaper Filastin reports Saeed Atallah, a leader of Hamas armed wing, was killed in a strike on the Beddawi Palestinian refugee camp in Tripoli, northern Lebanon, along with three members of his family.
An-Nahar, a Lebanese daily newspaper, says his wife and two children were among the dead.
It also says the air strike – which An-Nahar attributed to an Israeli drone – completely destroyed the apartment Atallah and his family were staying in.
While Hamas has yet to confirm the death, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), an allied militant group, also says Atallah, his wife and two daughters were killed.
