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Report: Biden to Speak to Netanyahu about Iran Retaliation on Wednesday

US President Joe Biden speaks to guests during a visit to the Department of Public Works field headquarters on October 08, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Getty Images/AFP)
US President Joe Biden speaks to guests during a visit to the Department of Public Works field headquarters on October 08, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Report: Biden to Speak to Netanyahu about Iran Retaliation on Wednesday

US President Joe Biden speaks to guests during a visit to the Department of Public Works field headquarters on October 08, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Getty Images/AFP)
US President Joe Biden speaks to guests during a visit to the Department of Public Works field headquarters on October 08, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Getty Images/AFP)

US President Joe Biden is expected to hold a phone call on Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about any plans to strike Iran, Axios reported late on Tuesday, citing three US officials.

"We want to use the call to try and shape the limitations of the Israeli retaliation," a US official was quoted as saying by Axios.

Axios cited the US official as saying that Washington wants to make sure Israel attacks targets in Iran that are significant without being disproportionate.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

The Middle East has been on edge awaiting Israel's response to a missile attack from Iran last week that Tehran carried out in retaliation for Israel's military escalation in Lebanon. The Iranian attack ultimately killed no one in Israel and Washington called it ineffective.

Netanyahu has promised that arch foe Iran would pay for its missile attack, while Tehran has said any retaliation would be met with "vast destruction", raising fears of a wider war in the oil-producing region which could draw in the United States.

Biden said last Friday that he would think about alternatives to striking Iranian oil fields if he were in Israel's shoes, adding he thought Israel had not concluded how to respond to Iran.

Israel has faced calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon by the United States and other allies, but has said it will continue its military operations until Israelis are safe.

Israel says it is defending itself after Hamas fighters attack southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 and taking 250 hostages according to Israeli tallies, and other fighters like Hezbollah who support Hamas.

The United States has said it supports Israel going after Iran-backed extremist targets like Hezbollah and Hamas.

But Israel and Netanyahu in particular have faced widespread condemnation over the nearly 42,000 killings in the Gaza war, according to the local Palestinian health ministry, and the deaths of over 2,000 people in Lebanon.

About three million people in Gaza and Lebanon have been displaced by Israel's military campaigns, according to Palestinian and Lebanese officials, and Gaza is also facing a humanitarian crisis with a lack of food and fresh water.

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Hezbollah Fires about 250 Rockets, Other Projectiles into Israel in Heaviest Barrage in Weeks

Members of the Israeli forces inspect a site following a rocket fired from Lebanon hit an area in Rinatya, outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)
Members of the Israeli forces inspect a site following a rocket fired from Lebanon hit an area in Rinatya, outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)
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Hezbollah Fires about 250 Rockets, Other Projectiles into Israel in Heaviest Barrage in Weeks

Members of the Israeli forces inspect a site following a rocket fired from Lebanon hit an area in Rinatya, outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)
Members of the Israeli forces inspect a site following a rocket fired from Lebanon hit an area in Rinatya, outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)

Hezbollah fired about 250 rockets and other projectiles into Israel on Sunday, wounding seven people in one of the group's heaviest barrages in months, in response to deadly Israeli strikes in Beirut while negotiators pressed on with ceasefire efforts to halt the all-out war.

Some of the rockets reached the Tel Aviv area in the heart of Israel.

Meanwhile, an Israeli strike on an army center killed a Lebanese soldier and wounded 18 others in the southwest between Tyre and Naqoura, Lebanon's military said.  

The Israeli military expressed regret, saying that the strike occurred in an area of combat against Hezbollah and that the military's operations are directed solely against the fighters.

Israeli strikes have killed over 40 Lebanese troops since the start of the war between Israel and Hezbollah, even as Lebanon's military has largely kept to the sidelines.

Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned the latest strike as an assault on US-led ceasefire efforts, calling it a “direct, bloody message rejecting all efforts and ongoing contacts” to end the war.

Hezbollah fires rockets after strikes on Beirut  

Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip ignited the war there. Hezbollah has portrayed the attacks as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians and Hamas. Iran supports both armed groups.

Israel launched retaliatory airstrikes at Hezbollah, and in September the low-level conflict erupted into all-out war as Israel launched waves of airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon and killed Hezbollah's top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and several top commanders.

The Israeli military said about 250 projectiles were fired Sunday, with some intercepted.

Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said it treated seven people, including a 60-year old man in severe condition from rocket fire on northern Israel, a 23-year-old man who was lightly wounded by a blast in the central city of Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv, and a 70-year-old woman who suffered smoke inhalation from a car that caught fire there.  

In Haifa, a rocket hit a residential building that police said was in danger of collapsing.

The Palestine Red Crescent reported 13 injuries it said were caused by an interceptor missile that struck several homes in Tulkarem in the West Bank. It was unclear whether the injuries and damage elsewhere were caused by rockets or interceptors.

Sirens wailed again in central and northern Israel hours later.

Israeli airstrikes without warning on Saturday pounded central Beirut, killing at least 29 people and wounding 67, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry.

Smoke billowed above Beirut again Sunday with new strikes. Israel's military said it targeted Hezbollah command centers in the southern suburbs, known as Dahiyeh, where the group has a strong presence.

Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,700 people in Lebanon, according to the Health Ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population.

On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by bombardment in northern Israel and in battle following Israel's ground invasion in early October. Around 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from the country's north.

EU envoy calls for pressure to reach a truce  

The Biden administration has spent months trying to broker a ceasefire, and US envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region last week.

The European Union’s top diplomat called Sunday for more pressure on Israel and Hezbollah to reach a deal, saying one was "pending with a final agreement from the Israeli government.”

Josep Borrell spoke after meeting with Mikati and Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally who has been mediating with the group.

Borrell said the EU is ready to allocate 200 million euros ($208 million) to assist the Lebanese military, which would deploy additional forces to the south.

The emerging agreement would pave the way for the withdrawal of Hezbollah and Israeli troops from southern Lebanon below the Litani River in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution that ended the monthlong 2006 war. Lebanese troops would patrol with the presence of UN peacekeepers.