(Bloomberg) -- Israel said it bombed more than a dozen Hezbollah targets in Beirut on Thursday as Group of Seven nations warned against an uncontrolled cycle of escalation in the Middle East.
The air strikes targeted weapons depots, command centers and intelligence operatives, according to the Israeli Defense Forces. Nine people died in the center of the Lebanese capital after an Israeli strike on a medical site affiliated with Hezbollah, local authorities said.
Israeli is intensifying its campaign against the Iran-backed militant group after a series of devastating attacks in Lebanon over the past month that wiped out much of Hezbollah’s top ranks, including its leader Hassan Nasrallah. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also weighing retaliation against Iran after Tehran launched about 200 ballistic missiles at the country on Tuesday, partly in response to Nasrallah’s killing.
President Joe Biden fueled uncertainty about what would come next on Thursday when he was asked if the US would support Israeli attacks on Iranian oil facilities.
“We’re discussing that,” Biden told reporters outside the White House. “I think that would be a little - anyways.”
Oil surged on Biden’s comments, which suggested that targeting energy infrastructure is on the table. That contrasted to earlier — and more strident — comments about a possible Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear program, which the president said he wouldn’t support. Biden also said he didn’t expect Israeli retaliation to come within the next day.
The National Security Council didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment to clarify Biden’s remarks. Later in the day, Pentagon deputy spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said the US is discussing with Israel “what a response to Iran would look like,” but “it’s more about trying to understand what their response might be.”
The US and its allies have been working to shape Israel’s reaction to the Tuesday attack with the goal of striking back at Iran while also avoiding further tit-for-tat escalation that could pull the US and other nations into an all-out regional war.
The US-led Group of Seven nations issued a statement later Thursday calling on regional countries “to act responsibly and with restraint.”
“A dangerous cycle of attacks and retaliation risks fueling uncontrollable escalation in the Middle East, which is in no one’s interest,” the G-7 statement said. It urged an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, where Israel’s campaign to root out Hamas — another Iran-supported militia — has killed some 41,000 people according to the Hamas-run health ministry. It was triggered by the group’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7 last year that left about 1,200 people dead.
The G-7 said it was “deeply concerned” about the situation in Lebanon and cited the need “for a cessation of hostilities as soon as possible,” though unlike in the case of Gaza it didn’t demand an immediate cease-fire. The US and some of its G-7 and Arab allies unsuccessfully sought to broker a truce in the Lebanon conflict just before Israel killed Nasrallah.
Iran and Israel exchanged relatively limited rounds of missile fire in April. Israel’s response “is going to be a little bit different this time,” said Joseph Votel, a former commander of the US Central Command and now a distinguished senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, who pointed to the larger number of missiles Iran fired this week.
Israel’s goal will be “punishment and making them pay a cost,” Votel said. “They will likely choose something that is of some value to the Iranian regime.”
Iran said its salvo against Israel was a reprisal for the assassination of Nasrallah, and also of a senior Hamas official in Tehran in July. Both Hamas and Hezbollah are considered terrorist organizations by the US.
Israel sent troops into southern Lebanon on Monday in a bid to uproot Hezbollah militants along the border. Hundreds of Lebanese civilians have died in Israeli air strikes in the past two weeks and 1 million people have fled their homes in the south and other parts of the country, Lebanon’s government says. Israel has also bombed targets in Yemen in recent days and is suspected of doing so in Syria.
On Thursday, the Lebanese army said an Israeli strike against one of its posts in the south of the country killed a soldier. Israel said Wednesday eight of its troops were killed in battles against Hezbollah, its first casualties since starting a ground incursion earlier this week.
Netanyahu has broad support domestically for the ground and air offensive in Lebanon, which is also an effort to ensure tens of thousands of displaced Israelis can return to their homes in the north.
Netanyahu is under pressure from Israelis to respond far more forcefully to Iran’s salvo than he did in April. Israel hit an Iranian military facility in a limited strike that month, after Tehran fired 300 missiles and drones that were largely intercepted and did little damage.
--With assistance from Kateryna Kalashnikova "Kate", Omar Tamo, Dana Khraiche and Natalia Drozdiak.
(Updates throughout with Group of Seven statement.)
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