Israel resumes Beirut bombing as Lebanon death toll passes 2,000

Srinagar, Oct 5: Israel's aggression continued overnight in the capital of Lebanon with the death toll in the defending country crossing the 2,000 mark, its health ministry said.

Israel said that it had targeted the intelligence headquarters of Hizbullah in Beirut. While the United Nations said the civilian death toll is totally unacceptable, the United States said it is 'alarmed' by the death of an American citizen by Israeli bombing on Beirut on Thursday. 

Lebanon’s Health Ministry says more than 2,000 people have been killed so far in Israel’s attacks across the country, including 127 children and 261 women, reported Al Jazeera.

Israel has been weighing options in its response to Iran's ballistic missile attack on Tuesday, which Iran had carried out in response to Israel's military action in Lebanon, Reuters reported.

Iran said it has sent a message to the U.S. that it won't back down and strike Israel with another attack if it doesn't stop with its genocide in Gaza and its invasion in Lebanon.

"We don't want regional war," Iran said.

The escalating battles in the West Asia-the oil producing area on the planet- have given way to fears of paucity of oil from the markets as the prices have risen on the possibility of an attack on Iran's oil facilities as Israel pursues its goals which it says is 'pushing back Hizbullah militants in Lebanon and obliterating the Hamas in Gaza.

The air attack on Beirut, part of a wider assault that has driven more than 1.2 million Lebanese from their homes, was reported to have targeted the potential successor to the leader of Iran-backed Hizbullah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, killed by Israel a week ago.

Hashem Safieddine's fate was unclear and neither Israel nor Hizbullah have offered any comment.

A blast was heard and smoke was seen over Beirut’s southern suburbs early on Saturday, Reuters witnesses said, as the Israeli military issued three alerts for residents of the area to immediately evacuate.

The first alert warned residents in a building in the Burj al-Barajneh neighbourhood and the second in a building in Choueifat district. The third alert mentioned buildings in Haret Hreik as well as Burj al-Barajneh.

Hizbullah said the Israeli army was trying to infiltrate the Lebanese southern town of Odaisseh and that clashes there were ongoing.

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Friday he would think about alternatives to striking Iranian oil fields if he were in Israel's shoes, adding that he thinks Israel has not yet concluded how to respond to Iran.

Biden was asked at a White House press briefing if he thought that by not engaging in diplomacy, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was trying to influence the Nov. 5 U.S. election in which Republican former President Donald Trump faces Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

"Whether he is trying to influence the election, I don't know but I am not counting on that," Biden said in response. "No administration has done more to help Israel than I have."

U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric called the toll on civilians “totally unacceptable.”

The Lebanese government has accused Israel of targeting civilians, pointing to dozens of women and children killed. It has not broken down the overall figure between civilians and Hezbollah fighters.

The U.S. State Department said that an American was killed in Lebanon this week and Washington was working to understand the circumstances of the incident.

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

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the department was "alarmed" by the reports, and added: "it is a moral and strategic imperative that Israel take all feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm."

The latest bloodletting in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict stems from an attack by Palestinian Hamas militants' Oct. 7, 2023, that killed 1,200 and in which about 250 were taken as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's subsequent assault on Gaza has killed over 41,000 Palestinians, and displaced nearly Gaza's entire population, caused a hunger crisis and a genocide. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is wanted by the International Court of Justice for the war crimes in Gaza.