Middle East crisis LIVE: Biden warns Israel against Iran oil strikes as war fears mount

The Israeli army on Friday (October 4, 2024) said its forces had hit more than 2,000 ‘military targets’ during its four-day incursion into southern Lebanon targeting Hezbollah positions.

Meanwhile, Lebanon Health Ministry has announced more than 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon since the pager explosion and the barrage of airstrikes on Lebanon including the ground operation.

Iran’s supreme leader vowed in a rare address on Friday (October 4, 2024) that his allies around the region would keep fighting Israel, as he defended his country’s missile strike on its foe.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s address in Tehran followed Iran’s second-ever direct attack on Israel. It was also the first since exchanges of fire between Tehran-backed Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops escalated into full-blown war in Lebanon.

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An American killed in Lebanon this week was a U.S. citizen, a State Department spokesperson said on Friday (October 4, 2024), adding that Washington was working to understand the circumstances of the incident.

Kamel Ahmad Jawad, from Dearborn, Michigan, was killed in Lebanon in an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday, according to his daughter, a friend and the U.S. congresswoman representing his district.

“We are aware and alarmed of reports of the death of Kamel Jawad, who we have confirmed is a U.S. citizen,” the spokesperson said.- Reuters

A South Korean military transport aircraft is evacuating 97 citizens and family members from Lebanon amid escalating tension and will return to South Korea on Saturday afternoon, the country’s foreign ministry said.

A KC-330 aircraft landed in Beirut on Friday morning and departed in the afternoon with the evacuees, who include Lebanese family members, and will arrive at a military airfield on the south of the capital, Seoul, it said.- Reuters

The former president, speaking at a campaign event in North Carolina, referred to a question posed to Democratic President Joe Biden this week about the possibility of Israel targeting Iran’s nuclear program.

“They asked him, what do you think about Iran, would you hit Iran? And he goes, ‘As long as they don’t hit the nuclear stuff.’ That’s the thing you want to hit, right?” Mr. Trump told a town hall style event in Fayetteville, near a major U.S. military base.

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U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday advised Israel against striking Iran’s oil facilities, saying he was trying to rally the world to avoid the escalating prospect of all-out war in the Middle East.

But his predecessor Donald Trump, currently campaigning for another term in power, went so far as to suggest Israel should “hit” the Islamic republic’s nuclear sites.

Making a surprise first appearance in the White House briefing room, Mr. Biden said that Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu “should remember” U.S. support for Israel when deciding on next steps. 

“If I were in their shoes, I’d be thinking about other alternatives than striking oil fields,” Biden told reporters, when asked about his comments a day earlier that Washington was discussing the possibility of such strikes with its ally.

– AFP