Israel, Iran escalate attacks as Middle East conflict spreads

By Goli Innocent

Israel launched airstrikes across southern Lebanon early Thursday, targeting Hezbollah positions while intercepting missiles fired by Iran, as tensions from the ongoing war involving the United States and Israel spread into Iraq and the Gulf.

A pre-dawn strike hit a Beirut suburb, a Hezbollah stronghold, in retaliation for the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during the conflict’s initial days.

Israel warned civilians to evacuate, emphasising efforts to intercept a new barrage of missiles from Iran despite US claims of crippling Tehran’s military capabilities.

Iran has vowed severe retaliation and claimed to have closed the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a vital passage for global oil shipments, while warning that the war could collapse the region’s military and economic infrastructure.

Oil tanker traffic through the strait reportedly fell by 90 per cent, and a large explosion near Kuwait caused significant oil spillage into the Gulf.

In northern Iraq, Iranian strikes killed a member of an exiled Iranian Kurdish group, amid reports that the US is arming Kurdish guerrillas to infiltrate Iran. Two pro-Iran fighters were also killed in a separate strike on their base in Iraq. Turkey intercepted a misfired Iranian missile, originally targeting a British base in Cyprus, prompting diplomatic warnings from Ankara and NATO.

The United States reported sinking an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka, marking its first torpedoing of a vessel since World War II. The attack on the IRIS Dena frigate killed at least 87 personnel, with dozens still missing, and follows claims of over 1,000 Iranian military and civilian casualties since the war began.

Lebanon has been heavily affected, with Israeli strikes killing 75 people and displacing more than 83,000. The army urged civilians to evacuate areas south of the Litani River, while airstrikes hit previously untouched districts near Beirut, reviving memories of past Israeli occupations.

The conflict has disrupted life across the Gulf, with missile interceptions in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, civilian casualties in Kuwait, and mass evacuations of foreign nationals, including Americans, from the region as tensions continue to escalate.