By Irina Slav – Sep 30, 2024, 3:23 AM CDT
Israel has carried out air strikes on targets in Yemen and has also killed the leader of Hamas in Lebanon in the latest escalation in the Middle East war. According to official Israeli statements, the strikes in Yemen targeted the port city of Hodeidah in response to the recent Houthi attacks on Israeli targets. Meanwhile, Hamas says Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin, the group’s leader in Lebanon, was killed in a strike “on his home in the Al-Bass camp in south Lebanon”.
In Yemen, the city of Ras Isa was also a target, the BBC reported, noting the Israeli strikes targeted power plants in the country. The Yemeni health ministry said four people had died in the Israeli strikes and 29 were wounded.
Israel continues to pound Lebanon with airstrikes, after it killed the leader of Hezbollah last week, along with other senior officials in the organization, it has now killed the leader of Hamas in the country. These attacks have been seen as a possible catalyst for more direct Iranian involvement in the war, potentially leading to an oil supply disruption.
On Sunday, Israel also hit an apartment building in the middle of Beirut, killing three leaders of The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Lebanese authorities say at least 105 people were killed and 359 people were injured from Israel’s attacks on Sunday.
This latest escalation will not be the last, Israel’s defense minister signaled this weekend, when he said the IDF would actually expand its offensive in the north where Israel borders Lebanon. “Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant is currently conducting an operational situation assessment regarding the expansion of IDF (Israel Defence Forces) activities in the northern arena,” Gallant’s office said, as quoted by Reuters.
“We need to keep hitting Hezbollah hard,” Israel’s military chief of staff said, meanwhile, suggesting there was no prospect of a speedy end to the hostilities. This means the risk of a supply disruption in oil flows remains, although it will probably also remain as muted as it has been since the end of 2023.
Back then, after three months of fighting between Hamas and the IDF, oil flows remained uninterrupted, calming traders down. The calm continued this year as well as Iran chose to remain restrained despite inflamed rhetoric following Israeli strikes on Iranian territory, the most notable of them resulting in the assassination of the leader of Hamas in Tehran.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
Irina Slav
Irina is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing on the oil and gas industry.