Strikes hit Hezbollah at supreme leader’s headquarters in Beirut to speak as Tehran mourns Nasrallah

An Israeli strike in eastern Lebanon, near the border with Syria, has cut off a road used by thousands of people fleeing the country, Lebanese Transport Minister Ali Hamieh told Reuters.

Hamieh allegedly said that the impact created a crater 3 meters wide. The Israeli military has previously accused Hezbollah of using the border crossing to import military equipment into Lebanon.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayotallah Ali Khamenei will deliver a rare sermon this morning in Tehran, where the ceremony will also honor assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

The sermon comes as the world awaits Israel’s response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack.

A massive barrage of Israeli attacks hit the area near Beirut’s main airport in Lebanon, with huge explosions lighting up the sky and sending shockwaves through the Lebanese capital this morning, Reuters video showed.

Israel regularly attacks the city’s nearby southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, and has previously issued evacuation warnings for the area.

The purpose of the attacks, which some observers have compared to the attack that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, was not immediately clear.

Oil prices were little changed early in the day but remained on track for significant weekly gains as investors weighed the prospect of a wider conflict in the Middle East, disrupting oil flows compared to a well-supplied global market.

Brent crude futures fell 8 cents, or 0.1%, to $77.54 a barrel as of 12:15 p.m. ET. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 6 cents, or 0.08%, to $73.65 a barrel.

Both benchmarks were heading towards weekly gains of around 8%.

President Joe Biden said yesterday that the United States was discussing attacks on Iranian oil facilities as retaliation for Tehran’s missile attack on Israel. The statements contributed to a 5% increase in oil prices.

The Israel Defense Forces said most of the 20 rockets fired from Lebanon towards Haifa this morning were intercepted, while the rest fell in open areas. The sirens sounded around 7:00 a.m. local time (12:00 p.m. ET).

Sirens sounded about 20 minutes later in the Upper Galilee region, where the IDF said some of the rockets fired from Lebanon were intercepted and the rest fell in the open.

The IDF said it also intercepted an “enemy aircraft” that entered Israeli territory from the east.