Israel attacks again in southern Beirut. Donald Trump advocates a strike against Iran. All developments in the news blog.
1.50 a.m.: Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump has spoken out in favor of an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. When US President Joe Biden was asked about the possibility of an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, “the answer should have been: hit the nuclear first and worry about the rest later,” Trump said at a campaign rally in the US -State of North Carolina.
Joe Biden has previously rejected this. US President Joe Biden also advises Israel against attacks on the infrastructure of the Iranian oil industry. “If I were you, I would think about other alternatives than attacking oil fields,” Biden said in a surprise appearance at the regular White House press briefing usually held by his spokeswoman. He did not elaborate on what goals he meant.
0.55 a.m.: The United States will provide nearly $157 million in humanitarian assistance to the conflict-affected population in Lebanon. The US State Department announced this in a statement on Friday (local time). “These funds will address new and existing needs of internally displaced people and refugees in Lebanon and in the communities that host them. The assistance will also support those fleeing into neighboring Syria,” the State Department said.
12:15 a.m.: The Israeli military called on residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs to leave immediately in the early hours of Saturday morning. As an eyewitness confirmed to the Reuters news agency, an explosion was heard a short time later in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
9:12 p.m.: Israel put further pressure on Lebanon’s pro-Iranian Hezbollah terror group on Friday with new airstrikes on southern Beirut. Reports suggest the attacks on suburbs of the capital may have targeted slain Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s expected successor. According to their own statements, militia fighters fired at Israeli soldiers in the border area with Israel. In view of the ongoing fighting, the federal government flew more Germans out of Lebanon.
As the US news portal “Axios” and the Israeli portal “Ynet” reported, citing Israeli government officials, the attacks in the south of Beirut a week after Nasrallah’s death were directed against his expected successor Hashem Safieddin. The Israeli army did not confirm the reports when contacted by the AFP news agency.
It was also unclear whether there were any deaths in the attacks in the south of Beirut. The Lebanese Ministry of Health said in a general assessment that 37 people had been killed in Israeli attacks within 24 hours.
8:36 p.m.: In view of the escalation in the Middle East conflict, the Bundeswehr has flown a further 219 particularly vulnerable German citizens from the Lebanese capital Beirut to Germany. The Foreign Office in Berlin said that a total of 460 people were flown out of Lebanon as part of the so-called diplomatic pickup. Depending on needs and the situation, further flights would be prepared. The Airbus A330 of the multinational air transport unit MMU landed in Cologne in the evening.
The Bundeswehr recently flew 130 German nationals out of Lebanon on Wednesday. Unlike evacuation flights, flights as part of a diplomatic pick-up are not accompanied by armed Bundeswehr soldiers.
