Israel steps up its airstrikes on Beirut as the conflict in the Middle East escalates

• Israel is intensifying strikes on Lebanon in an attempt to dismantle Hezbollah's command.
• Israel may have targeted Hashem Safieddine, the rumored successor of Hezbollah's assassinated leader.
• Israel also blocked a major road near Lebanon's Masnaa border crossing with Syria, a report said.

Israel carried out air strikes in the Lebanese capital of Beirut on Friday as it stepped up its efforts to dismantle Hezbollah's leadership.

According to The New York Times , citing Israeli officials, Israel targeted Hashem Safieddine, the rumored successor of Hezbollah's assassinated leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

Safieddine is Nasrallah's cousin and reportedly one of Hezbollah's earliest members. It is not known whether he has been killed.

Israeli forces also said they had killed Mohammad Rashid Sakafi, Hezbollah 's communications chief, in Beirut.

Meanwhile, Israel blocked a major road near Lebanon's Masnaa border crossing with Syria that has been used by hundreds of thousands of people to escape Israeli air attacks, according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency.

Israel Defence Forces (IDF) believed the route was being used to transport weapons into Lebanon.

"The IDF will not allow the smuggling of these weapons and will not hesitate to act if forced to do so, as it has done throughout this war," Avichay Adraee, IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee, said on X.

It came after Israeli warplanes bombed a medical site linked with Hezbollah in central Beirut on Thursday, killing at least nine people, Lebanese officials said.

Several airstrikes were also heard in Beirut's suburbs on Thursday, with one of them believed to have hit Hezbollah's media department, The Guardian reported.

More than 1,500 people have died in Israeli air strikes in Lebanon in recent weeks, according to Lebanese officials.

There are now growing fears that the conflict could transform into a full-blown war in the Middle East.

In a statement , G7 leaders called for restraint from all sides.

"A dangerous cycle of attacks and retaliation risks fueling uncontrollable escalation in the Middle East, which is in no one's interest," they said.

"We also reiterate our call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the unconditional release of all hostages, a significant and sustained increase in the flow of humanitarian assistance, and an end to the conflict," they added.

Oil prices rose for a fourth day on Friday, fueled by speculation that the growing conflict could limit production.

Brent crude futures were up 55 cents, or 0.7%, at $78.17 a barrel as of 4:31 ET. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up 50 cents at $74.21 a barrel, according to Reuters.

President Joe Biden on Thursday said he was discussing whether the US would support an Israeli strike on Iran's oil facilities in retaliation for a missile attack by Tehran on Israel this week.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, described the attack as the "minimum punishment" for what he said were Israel's "astonishing crimes."

Any strike from Israel on Iran's oil facilities, however, would have major implications for the rest of the world.

In the US, there are fears that the industrial recession the economy is experiencing could snowball into a full-fledged downturn.

"Oil prices spiking, energy prices spiking in the past, have been enough to tip the economy from a slowing into a recession," Jake Oubina, a Piper Sandler economist, said Tuesday in an interview with Fox Business .