President warns Israel not to hit Iran’s oil sites

Joe Biden has urged Israel against striking Iran’s oil facilities, a day after he said the United States was discussing the possibility of such strikes with its ally.
“If I were in their shoes, I’d be thinking about other alternatives than striking oil fields,” Mr Biden said on Friday, adding that Israel had yet to decide on its promised response to Tehran’s ballistic missile attack on Tuesday.
“That’s under discussion,” he told reporters, but warned Israel had to be “very much more careful” in its retaliation in regards to civilian casualties.
It is an apparent reversal of his remark on Thursday that he was considering an Israeli strike on Iran’s oil production – a comment that triggered a spike in crude oil prices.
Mr Biden said earlier this week that a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities would be disproportionate. His decision drew a sharp rebuke from Donald Trump who told Fox News: “That’s the craziest thing I have ever heard” as he warned that Iran was “soon” going to have nuclear weapons.
The former president, speaking later at a campaign event in North Carolina, referred to the question posed to Mr Biden about the possibility of Israel targeting Iran’s nuclear programme.
“When they asked him that question, the answer should have been: ‘Hit the nuclear first, and worry about the rest later’,” Trump said.
Earlier on Friday, Iran threatened to retaliate to any direct attacks by Israel by striking the country’s energy and gas infrastructure.
“If the occupiers make such a mistake, we will target all their energy sources, installations and all refineries and gas fields,” said Ali Fadavi, deputy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, on Friday.
The threat came shortly after Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made a rare sermon, describing its missile attack a “legitimate” act in response to Israel’s killing of Nasrallah and the July assassination of Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Earlier on Friday, two Israeli soldiers were killed in a drone attack launched by Iran-backed militants from Iraq.
The Israel Defense Forces said two explosive-laden drones had been launched: one was shot down by air defences and another hit an army base in the northern Golan Heights.
An umbrella group of Iran-backed Shia armed factions called Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed responsibility, in what is thought to be its first deadly attack on Israel.
The network of Iraqi militia pledged to carry out attacks in solidarity with the Palestinians after Hamas launched its Oct 7 attack on Israel last year, triggering the war in Gaza.
It has now dramatically stepped its attacks on Israel in the past month as Israel’s war with Hezbollah has escalated.
The group has claimed responsibility for nearly 170 attacks on Israeli targets this past year, with more than 70 per cent happening in September 2024 alone.
Most of the attacks have been ineffective, been intercepted by Israel’s air defences, or failed to cause damage.
In recent days, Iraqi militias have launched explosive drones at northern Israel and at the city of Eilat.
The same groups have also launched large numbers of attacks on US troops in the Middle East, and earlier this year killed three US soldiers in a drone attack on an outpost in Jordan.
The two dead Israeli soldiers from the attack on Thursday morning were both aged 19 and named as Sgt Daniel Aviv Haim Sofer from Ashkelon and Cpl Tal Dro from Jerusalem.
Two more soldiers were seriously hurt and another 22 more lightly wounded.
Israel’s army radio said: “One unmanned aerial vehicle was intercepted by the air force, while the second exploded at a military camp north of the Golan Heights,” it said. “As a result of the explosion two soldiers were killed.”
Meanwhile, US strikes hit a dozen Houthi targets in Yemen on Friday, attacking weapons systems and bases belonging to the Iranian-backed group, US officials said.
Military aircraft and warships bombed Houthi strongholds at roughly five locations, the officials said, while Houthi media reported strikes in Hodeida, a major port city; Sanaa, the capital; and Katheib area, which has a Houthi-controlled military base.
Israel on Friday said it had killed 250 Hezbollah fighters during the first four days of its ground offensive into southern Lebanon.
Israeli jets also struck a tunnel between Lebanon and Syria and areas around a crossing point used by refugees fleeing Israel’s offensive.
Strikes around the Masnaa border crossing effectively cut the main highway linking Lebanon with Syria – a route used by tens of thousands fleeing fighting over the past two weeks.
Israel said the strikes had blown up a two-mile-long tunnel used by Hezbollah to smuggle weapons from Iran and other proxies into the country.
The Lebanese terror group is believed to receive most of its weapons from Iran via Syria.
More than 250 British nationals have left Lebanon on flights chartered by Government, the Foreign Office said, as David Lammy urged any remaining UK citizens who want to leave to register immediately.
The Government has chartered a flight to leave Beirut on Sunday amid ongoing tensions in the region.
The UK has chartered a flight to leave Beirut on Sunday 6 October. Any remaining British nationals who want to leave Lebanon are urged to register their presence immediately to receive details on how to request a seat. https://t.co/hA1MsdUn6f pic.twitter.com/OuyyNF6hyB
There are no more scheduled flights “due to a decrease in demand” although this will be kept under “constant” review, the Foreign Office said in a statement on Friday.
The Government said it had added the extra capacity “due to high demand for places on commercial flights” and had “enabled more than 250 additional people to leave in the last week”.
Thank you for following our live coverage. The key updates from the day were:
A “significant” policing operation will be in place across London in response to planned protest and memorial events marking the anniversary of the October 7 attacks in Israel, the Metropolitan Police said.
On Saturday, there will be a demonstration organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and other groups, with protesters gathering at Russell Square and marching to Whitehall where there will be speeches. A counter-protest, organised by Stop The Hate, will also take place.
On Sunday afternoon, a memorial event will be held in Hyde Park, organised by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Jewish Leadership Council and other groups.
Commander Lou Puddefoot, who is leading the operation, said: “We recognise that as we go into this weekend, so close to the anniversary of October 7th, emotions will be heightened and fears about safety and security understandably increased.
“Officers have been in regular contact with event organisers. We have detailed plans in place to ensure the safety of those attending and to be able to respond to any incidents or offences.”
US air strikes hit a dozen Houthi targets in Yemen on Friday, attacking weapons systems and bases belonging to the Iranian-backed group, US officials confirmed.
Military aircraft and warships bombed Houthi strongholds at roughly five locations, according to the officials, while Houthi media said seven strikes hit the airport in Hodeida, a major port city, and the Katheib area, which has a Houthi-controlled military base.
Four more strikes hit the Seiyana area in Sanaa, the capital, and two strikes hit the Dhamar province.
The strikes come after the Houthis launched an explosive-laden drone boat into a British oil tanker in the Red Sea on Tuesday, triggering a huge explosion that caused serious damage to its port side.
Earlier this week, the Houthis threatened “escalating military operations” targeting Israel after claiming to have shot down a US military drone flying over Yemen. 
Last week, the militia also claimed responsibility for an attack targeting American warships.
The Houthis have maintained that they target ships linked to Israel to force an end to its campaign against Hamas in Gaza, despite many of the 80 vessels targeted having little or no link to the conflict.
A senior adviser to vice president Kamala Harris met American Muslim and Arab leaders on Wednesday as Harris’ presidential campaign seeks to win back voters angry at US support for Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
Ms Harris’ national security adviser, Phil Gordon, told the community leaders in the virtual meeting that the administration supports a ceasefire in Gaza, diplomacy in Lebanon and stability in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the vice president’s office said.
Ali Dagher, a Lebanese-American attorney and community leader, said the outreach from Ms Harris’ office was not enough. “It’s too little, too late,” said Dagher, who did not participate in the meeting.
Three hospitals in Lebanon have announced the suspension of work amid ongoing Israeli bombardment, while Hezbollah-affiliated rescuers said 11 personnel were killed in Israeli raids in south Lebanon.
Sainte Therese Hospital, on the edge of Beirut’s southern suburbs, reported “huge damage” and said “Israeli warplanes’ targeting… the vicinity” of the facility on Thursday “led to the halt of hospital services”, in a statement carried by the official National News Agency.
South Lebanon’s Mais al-Jabal hospital, on the border with Israel, announced “the halt to work of all departments”, citing factors including “enemy targeting of the hospital” since last October and problems for supply lines and staff access.
The director of south Lebanon’s Marjayoun governmental hospital, Mouenes Kalakesh, told AFP that “an Israeli air strike targeted ambulances at the main entrance to the hospital”, killing paramedics who were bringing wounded to the facility.
The Islamic Health Committee emergency service, which is affiliated with Hezbollah, said seven emergency personnel died in “direct Zionist aggression on emergency teams” at the Marjayoun hospital, with four others killed in two attacks elsewhere in south Lebanon.
France’s foreign minister will head to Saudi Arabia this evening, beginning a four-day trip that will end in Israel and the West Bank as Paris seeks to revive stalled diplomatic efforts in the region.
Jean-Noel Barrot will be in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan over the weekend before arriving in Israel ahead of Oct. 7 when Israel will mark a year since Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked the country, a French diplomatic source said.
He is also due to travel to the West Bank.
The toll on civilians in Lebanon from Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah is “totally unacceptable,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Friday.
“All parties must do whatever they can at all times to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure and ensure that civilians are never put in harm’s way,” Mr Dujarric told reporters.
The airstrike in Tulkarem killed a Hamas commander who was planning a major terror attack on the first anniversary of the October 7 onslaught, military sources have said, reported by the Times of Israel.
The IDF said that Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi was planning an imminent terror attack and described him as a “ticking time bomb”. 
At least 18 Palestinians were reported killed in the strike.
Iran has threatened to respond to any direct attacks by Israel by striking the country’s energy and gas infrastructure.
“If the occupiers make such a mistake, we will target all their energy sources, installations and all refineries and gas fields,” said Ali Fadavi, deputy commander of the Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), on Friday.
His comments came soon after Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made a rare sermon on Friday, describing Iran’s missile attack on Israel on Tuesday a “legitimate” act.
He vowed that Iran and its terror proxies would “not back down” after it “settled scores” with Israel over its killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and its suspected assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.
Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, also pledged on Friday to retaliate to “any step or measure” taken by Israel with a response “stronger” than the 180 missiles fired on Tuesday, most of which were intercepted by Israel.
Irish deputy premier Micheal Martin has confirmed that 24 Irish citizens and dependents have been evacuated from Lebanon on Friday.
Mr Martin thanked the governments of Netherlands and Canada who assisted with the departure.
“The citizens departed on flights operated by Ireland’s international partners and they are expected to arrive in Ireland over the weekend,” Mr Martin said in a statement.
“Many Irish citizens in Lebanon are deeply rooted in the country, with family, work and other links,” he added. “While we have been able to assist almost all Irish citizens who have expressed a wish to leave, understandably many have decided to remain.”
Strikes were reported on Yemen’s Sanaa and Hodeidah, Al Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by Houthi movement, and residents said on Friday.
There were no more details provided about the source of these strikes.
Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 29 Palestinians on Friday, medics in the Hamas-run strip said, while sirens blared in southern Israel in response to renewed rocket fire from Hamas in the Palestinian enclave.
The new rocket salvoes indicated that Hamas-led factions in Gaza are still able to fire projectiles into Israel despite a year-long Israeli aerial and ground offensive that has turned wide areas of the enclave into wasteland.
On Friday, the Israeli military said sirens sounded in southern Israel for the first time in around two months.
“Almost a year after Oct 7, Hamas is still threatening our civilians with their terrorism and we will continue operating against them,” it added, referring to the anniversary of Hamas’ cross-border attack that touched off the Gaza war.
The Israeli army said its forces had hit more than 2,000 sites during its four-day incursion into southern Lebanon targeting Hezbollah positions.
“Over 2,000 military targets have been struck,” including militants, military buildings, weapons and more, the Israeli military said in a statement.
Two Israeli soldiers have been killed in a drone attack launched from Iraq, its military has said.
The Israel Defence Forces said two explosive-laden drones had been launched, one was shot down by air defences and another hit an army base in the northern Golan Heights on Thursday morning.
The killed soldiers, both aged 19, have been named as Sgt. Daniel Aviv Haim Sofer from Ashkelon and Cpl. Tal Dro from Jerusalem.  Another 24 troops were wounded, two severely, in the strike.
The Iran-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of Shi’ite armed factions opposed to US and Israeli presence in the region, claimed responsibility for three dawn attacks, targeting sites in the Golan Heights and Tiberias.
A delivery of medical supplies from the United Nations reached Lebanon on Friday, a first since last week’s escalation between Israel and Hezbollah, said a UN agency and a Lebanese minister.
“An airlift… landed in Beirut earlier this morning with 30 metric tonnes of trauma and surgical supplies, enough to treat tens of thousands people,” the World Health Organization’s regional director Hanan Balkhy said.
“More flights are arriving later today and tomorrow, carrying trauma supplies, cholera supplies and mental health supplies,” she added.
The Israeli military on Friday said its forces had killed 250 Hezbollah fighters during the past four days after launching ground operations in southern Lebanon.
In a statement, the military said “250 Hezbollah terrorists were eliminated, of which 21 were commanders during four days of precise operation in southern Lebanon.”
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said that Israel “will not last long” as he vowed that Tehran and its allies will not back down in their confrontation with the Jewish state.
With a rifle at his side, Khamenei led Friday prayers at the Mosalla Grand mosque in central Tehran and said Israel “cannot seriously harm” Hezbollah and Hamas, two poles of Iran’s ‘Axis of Resistance’.
The 85-year-old supreme leader of Iran switched from speaking Farsi to Arabic when giving remarks about Tehran’s Arabic-speaking allies in Lebanon and Gaza. Khamenei also said that the October 7 Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel were a “legitimate” act.He claimed the attacks were justified because they were “logical and legal” and done in self-defence against an oppressor, adding that this principle was recognised under international law.Khamenei went on to justify Tuesday’s Iranian attack on Israel, in which Tehran bombarded the country with around 180 ballistic missiles. “The move taken by our armed forces was the least punishment in the face of the crimes of the Zionist regime,” he said.
His comments come the day after Israel targeted Hashem Safieddine, the presumed successor to slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, in a major air strike on southern Beirut. It is not yet clear if Safieddine was killed in the strike. 
A third Government chartered flight for British evacuees has left Lebanon, David Lammy has said.
Writing on X, formerly Twitter, the Foreign Secretary said: “A third UK Government charter flight has left Lebanon to help British nationals leave.
“The situation is volatile. Flights are limited but seats are available.
“British nationals who want to leave should register their presence now to receive details on how to request a seat.”
Germany’s domestic intelligence chief warned Friday that the anniversary of the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel could be a “trigger event” for unrest.
Next Monday marks one year since the attack by the Palestinian Islamist militant group that sparked Israel’s invasion of Gaza and conflict with Hamas allies in Lebanon, Iran and elsewhere.
Middle East turmoil tends to spark reactions in Germany, warned Thomas Haldenwang, chief of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
Anti-Semitism and hostility towards Israel are a “connecting element” between Islamists, pro-Palestinian extremists and other radical groups on the far right and far left, he said.
“The anniversary could be a trigger event for large parts of the protest spectrum,” he said, warning of a “great potential for emotionalisation, polarisation and radicalisation”.
Israel’s military said it killed Hezbollah communications commander, Muhammad Rashid Skafi, in strikes on Beirut, the Lebanese capital, on Thursday. 
The military said in a statement that Skafi was “a senior Hezbollah terrorist who was responsible for the communications unit since 2000” and was “closely affiliated” with high-up Hezbollah officials.
Hezbollah are yet to confirm the Israel Defense Force’s claim.
Tehran backs efforts for a ceasefire in Lebanon on the condition it would be backed by Hezbollah and simultaneous with a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said in Beirut on Friday.
“We support efforts for a ceasefire on the condition that it would be acceptable to the Lebanese people, acceptable to the resistance, and thirdly, it would be synchronized with a ceasefire in Gaza,” he said.
Iran’s most senior diplomat also said his presence in Beirut “in these difficult circumstances” was the best evidence that Iran stood by Lebanon and supported the Shi’ites.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has vowed support for Tehran’s “friends” in Lebanon, on his first visit to Beirut since fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah intensified last month.
“Be sure that the Islamic Republic of Iran is and will be firmly standing by the friends in Lebanon,” Mr Araghchi told reporters, adding that Tehran supports Lebanon, its Shiite Muslim community and Hezbollah, “and it was necessary to say this in person”.
Most of Lebanon’s nearly 900 shelters are full, the UN has said, with people fleeing Israeli military strikes now increasingly sleeping out in the open on the street or in public parks.
“Most of the nearly 900 government-established collective shelters in Lebanon have no more capacity,” the UN refugee agency’s Rula Amin told a Geneva press briefing.
She said that they were working with local authorities to find more sites and that in the meantime some hotels and even Beirut nightclubs were opening their doors.
Lebanese authorities say over 1.2 million Lebanese have been displaced and nearly 2,000 people killed since the resurgence of Israel’s conflict with Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group over the last year, most of them within the past two weeks.
“Roads are jammed with traffic, people are sleeping in public parks, on the street, the beach,” said Mathieu Luciano, the International Organization for Migration’s office head in Lebanon.
The Israeli military said on Friday that for the first time in nearly two months, there were sirens sounding in southern Israel, near the Gaza strip.
“Almost a year after Oct 7, Hamas is still threatening our civilians with their terrorism and we will continue operating against them,” the army said in a post on social media.
An Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese town of Marjayoun on Friday hit around five metres from the entrance of its main hospital and medical staff have decided to temporarily evacuate, the hospital director Mounes Klakesh told Reuters.
“No one was wounded from the medical staff but we have decided to evacuate temporarily until the security situation becomes clearer,” Mr Klakesh said.
More than 41,802 Palestinians have been killed and 96,844 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since Oct 7, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
The Israeli army said Friday its fighter jets struck Hezbollah targets near a key Lebanese-Syrian border crossing overnight, the latest in a series of heavy strikes against the Iran-backed group.
“Infrastructure sites adjacent to the Masnaa border crossing between Syria and Lebanon were struck last night,” the military said in a statement.
It said the air raids were aimed at preventing the flow of weapons into Lebanon from neighbouring Syria and included targeting an alleged underground tunnel used to move arms across the border.
Fighter jets “struck an underground tunnel crossing from the Lebanese border into Syria. The 3.5 kilometre (two mile) long tunnel enables the transfer and storage of large quantities of weapons underground,” the military said.
Earlier, Lebanon said the Israeli strikes cut off the main international road to Syria.
The strikes come after 310,000 people, mostly Syrian refugees, crossed into Syria in recent days fleeing the war in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said that the October 7 Hamas-led attacks on southern were a “legitimate” act.
The Iranian supreme leader claimed they were justified because they were done in self-defence against an oppressor, adding that this principle was recognised under international law.
Khamenei went on to justify Tuesday’s Iranian attack on Israel, in which Tehran bombarded the country with around 180 ballistic missiles.
“The move taken by our armed forces was the least punishment in the face of the crimes of the Zionist regime,” Khamenei said.
With a rifle at his side, he referred to Israel as “bloodthirsty” and as a “rabid dog” as he led Friday prayers at the Grand Mosalla mosque in Tehran.
Khamenei last led Friday prayers in January 2020 after Iran fired missiles at a US military base in Iraq in response to a strike that killed Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad. 
Israel struck Lebanon’s Masnaa civilian border crossing with Syria on Friday morning, after accusing Hezbollah of using it to transport military equipment into Lebanon.
The strike hit inside Lebanese territory near the border crossing, creating a 12ft wide crater, according to Lebanon’s transport minister. 
Thousands of civilians had been using the crossing to flee from Lebanon into Syria. 
The late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has been temporarily buried in a secret location due to fears a funeral would present a tempting target to Israel, a source close to the group has said. 
“Hassan Nasrallah has been temporarily buried until the circumstances allow for a public funeral,” the source was quoted as saying. 
Nasrallah was killed on September 27 when Israeli jets struck a Hezbollah command centre in southern Beirut. He had been Hezbollah’s leader since 1992.  
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) says it has killed around 100 Hezbollah fighters during its operations in southern Lebanon. 
The fighters were killed in both airstrikes and in ground combat, the IDF added. 
Khamenei has appeared to justify Iran’s missile bombardment of Israel on Tuesday, saying “the move taken by our armed forces was the least punishment in the face of the crimes of the Zionist regime”.
He went on to refer to Israel as “bloodthirsty”, and as a “rabid dog”.
Khamenei has reaffirmed the Palestinian “right” to stand up to Israel, although he has not referred to Israel directly.
“The Palestinian nation has the right, in the face of the enemy that has usurped its soil, they have the right to stand up against that.”
“Their defence is legitimate, and helping them is legitimate as well”
Ayatollah Khamenei has said that Iran’s enemy is the enemy of the entire Muslim world. 
“The enemy of Iran is the enemy of the Palestinian nation, the Lebanese nation, the Syrian nation, the Iraqi nation … the enemy is the same.”
“Muslim nations have to strap the belt of defence, from Afghanistan to Yemen, from Iran to Gaza and Lebanon.”
The supreme leader of Iran has begun his rare Friday sermon by reciting verses of the Koran and calling for unity between Muslims. 
Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, is about to give a rare sermon during Friday prayers the Mosalla Grand mosque in Tehran. 
Khamenei last led Friday prayers in January 2020 after Iran fired missiles at a US military base in Iraq in response to a strike that killed Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad. 
The sermon could shed light on Iran’s plans amid spiralling tensions between Tehran and Israel. 
Israel’s heavy overnight bombardment of southern Beirut targeted Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters, Israel’s military said. 
The military did not disclose who was at the site during the strike, but US reports said the attack was aimed at Hashem Safieddine, the presumed successor to Hassan Nasrallah. 
Israel hit Dahieh, Beirut’s Hezbollah-dominated southern suburb, in a major overnight air strike. The area is located a short distance from the Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport. 
The Israeli military has expanded its evacuation orders, calling on civilians in 37 towns and villages in southern Lebanon to flee and head north of the Awali River. 
“The IDF does not intend to harm you, so for your own safety you must evacuate your homes immediately and head north of the Awali River. Save your lives,” Avichay Adraee, the Israel Defence Forces’ Arabic language spokesman, warned. 
“Anyone who is near Hezbollah elements, installations, and combat equipment is putting his life at risk. Any house used by Hezbollah for its military needs is expected to be targeted,” he added. 
The Awali River is roughly 37 miles from Beirut, the Lebanese capital, and much farther north than the Litani River, an area that was intended to be a buffer zone free of Hezbollah troops and equipment after the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah conflict. 
Israel may wait until it has reordered its air defence before retaliating against Iran for Tuesday’s missile barrage, Israel’s public broadcaster has reported. 
Iran fired some 180 ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday evening and appears to have damaged Nevatim air base (see our posts at 7.47am and 6.21am). 
The headquarters of Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service, also appears to have been targeted in Tuesday’s bombardment. 
Video footage taken showed an explosion about 700 metres south of the headquarters in Tel Aviv, with a missile appearing to land next to the road.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi landed in Beirut early on Friday, according to Lebanese state media. 
An Iranian-flagged plane was filmed landing at Beirut airport just hours after Israeli overnight strikes on the nearby Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs of the city. 
Araqchi is set to meet Najib Mikati, Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, and Nabih Berri, the speaker of parliament who is a close ally of Iran-backed Hezbollah. 
3 people have been wounded in an Israeli drone strike that has just hit Beirut’s southern suburbs, a security source told the Reuters news agency. 
The injured are said to have been Hezbollah-linked rescue workers. 
More to follow. 
Iranian ballistic missiles hit Israel’s Nevatim air base 32 times during Tuesday’s bombardment, a US arms expert has said. 
Dr Jeffrey Lewis, professor at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, arrived at the figure by counting impact craters on satellite images of the base taken after the Iranian attack. 
He said the fact that Iran hit Nevatim 32 times should come as no surprise, as videos posted on social media during the attack showed missiles raining down on the base. 
Nevatim is one of the largest air bases in Israel and houses stealth fighter jets, along with reconnaissance, surveillance and transport aircraft.
See our post at 6.21am for a before and after image of damage to one of the base’s hangars.
Our first count is that 32 missiles struck Nevatim Air Base (pins) — although three impact points are obscured by clouds in the 50 cm Skysat and had to be made with 3 m Dove images (white pins). @DuitsmanMS @sam_lair @dex_eve @JamesMartinCNS pic.twitter.com/AKxE8g41Vm
Some 20 missiles were fired from Lebanon towards northern Israel early this morning, the Israeli military said. 
They were fired towards Haifa, Kiryat and the Galilee, the military said, adding that most were intercepted and that the rest crashed into open ground. 
Kan, an Israeli public broadcasting service, shared footage of what appears to be the missiles being hit by air defence above a populated area. 
צה”ל: כ-20 שיגורים חצו משטח לבנון לחיפה, לקריות ולגליל; הרוב יורטו, היתר נפלו בשטח פתוח@CBeyar pic.twitter.com/3WstGF6Ndb
An Israeli strike on Friday morning near Lebanon’s Masnaa border crossing with Syria has cut off a road used by hundreds of thousands of people to flee Israeli bombardments in recent days, Lebanon’s transport minister Ali Hamieh said.
Mr Hamieh said the strike hit inside Lebanese territory near the border crossing, creating a 12ft (4m) wide crater.
An Israel Defence Forces (IDF) military spokesman had accused 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,” spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X.
According to Lebanese government statistics, more than 300,000 people – a vast majority of them Syrian – have crossed from Lebanon into Syria over the past 10 days to escape Israeli air strikes.
Iranian missiles hit a hangar and caused craters at Israel’s Nevatim air base, according to satellite imagery.
The Planet Labs image, published by the Associated Press, suggests Israel remains vulnerable to aerial attack from Iran, despite its state-of-the-art air defence systems and protection from the US military.
Drag the slider below to compare images from before and after the attack.
Read more: Israeli base struck by Iranian missile
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will this morning lead Friday prayers and deliver a public sermon that could shed light on the Islamic republic’s plans after a massive missile attack on enemy Israel.
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 10.30am local time (8am UK) for Hassan Nasrallah, the former Hezbollah leader.
Joe Biden said on Thursday he does not believe there is going to be an “all-out war” in the Middle East.
The US president said that such a war can be avoided but more needed to be done to ensure that.
Asked how confident he was that such a war can be averted, Mr Biden paused and told reporters: “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.”
He added: “But there is a lot to do yet, a lot to do yet.”
When asked if he would send American troops to help Israel, he responded: “We have already helped Israel. We are going to protect Israel.”