Israel-Iran latest: Biden says Israeli strikes on Iranian oil being discussed as 9 killed in hit on Beirut

The Israeli military has said it has intercepted a drone in southern Israel.

It added that no injuries have been reported.

US President Joe Biden has said “we are discussing that” when asked whether he would support Israel striking Iran’s oil facilities.

Reporters put the question to Biden as he left the White House on Thursday, with the US president appearing to hesitate at the end of his answer.

The BBC reports Biden’s words caused the price of crude oil to surge 5 per cent to $77 a barrel.

At least 28 on-duty medics have been killed in the past 24 hours in Lebanon, where Israel has launched airstrikes and sent troops to fight Hezbollah in an escalating conflict, the World Health Organization chief said on Thursday.

"Many (other) health workers are not reporting to duty and fled the areas where they work due to bombardments," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told an online press briefing, calling for stronger protections for health workers.

"This is severely limiting the provision of mass trauma management and continuity of health services," he said.

The global health agency will not be able to deliver a large planned shipment of trauma and medical supplies to the country on Friday due to flight restrictions, he added.

WHO's representative in Lebanon Dr Abdinasir Abubakar told the briefing that all of the healthcare workers killed in the past day had been on duty, helping with the wounded.

A total of nearly 2,000 people have been killed, including 127 children, and 9,384 injured since the start of Israeli attacks on Lebanon over the last year, the country's health ministry said.

"Hospitals have been already evacuated. I think what I can say for now is the capacity for mass casualty management exists, but it's just a matter of time until the system actually reaches its limit," said the WHO's Abubakar.

Israel has fired at a Lebanese army post in southern Lebanon, with Lebanese forces reportedly firing back for the first time.

The Israeli fire in the town of Bint Jbeil on Thursday killed a Lebanese soldier, raising to two the number of members of the Lebanese military killed.

The Telegraph reported a military official told AFP this was the Lebanese army’s first response to Israeli fire since last October and came about because the post was “directly” hit.

The Lebanese army said in a statement that troops "open fire at the source of" the attack. It did not elaborate.

A Lebanese security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of regulations, said that the army post was hit by artillery fire.

Escalating retaliatory strikes signify the severity of the situation between Israel and Iran. Tuesday’s strike was more aggressive than the April response by Iran to the Israeli strike on their consulate in Damascus, which killed Mohammed Zahedi, the IRGC commander of the Quds Force.

April’s attack consisted of 300 drones, which were largely neutralised by Israel’s Iron Dome, the joint US-Israeli aerial protection system that shoots down rockets. Tuesday night’s attack consisted of approximately 180 ballistic missiles delivering a more devastating payload, albeit countered in part by the Iron Dome.

Even Iran could not have anticipated the vehemence with which Israel would respond to the 7 October attacks. Israel’s latest switch to focus on the systematic dismantling of Hezbollah’s senior leadership in a single week has left Iran’s quest for regional hegemonic control in tatters. But whilst Hezbollah’s leadership is wounded, the force should not be underestimated.

Read the full analysis from Mike Crofts here:

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said on Thursday it targeted Israel‘s “Sakhnin base” for military industries in Haifa Bay with a salvo of rockets.

The Israeli military has said that it had struck around 200 Hezbollah targets across Lebanon, including weapons storage facilities and observation posts, killing at least 15 Hezbollah fighters.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah said its fighters detonated a roadside bomb when Israeli forces entered the Lebanese border village of Maroun el-Ras, kiling and wounding soldiers. It was not possible to independently confirm the claims made by either side. So far, ground clashes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants have been confined to a narrow strip along the border. But hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes, as Israel has warned people to evacuate from dozens of villages and towns in the south.