Hezbollah is under attack in Beirut. The Supreme Leader delivers a speech as Tehran mourns Nasrallah

An Israeli strike this morning in eastern Lebanon, near the border with Syria, cut off a road used by thousands of people fleeing the country, Lebanese Transport Minister Ali Hamieh told Reuters.

The impact created a 12-foot-wide crater, Hamieh was quoted as saying. The Israeli military had previously accused Hezbollah of using the border crossing to bring military equipment into Lebanon.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayotallah Ali Khamenei, will deliver a rare sermon this morning in Tehran, where slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah will also be honored in a ceremony.

The sermon comes as the world awaits an Israeli response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack.

A massive barrage of Israeli attacks rocked an area near Beirut’s main airport in Lebanon, a Reuters video showed. Huge explosions lit up the sky and sent shock waves across the Lebanese capital this morning.

Israel has regularly targeted the city’s nearby southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, and previously issued evacuation warnings for the area.

The target of the attacks, which some observers compared to the attack that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, was not immediately clear.

Oil prices were little changed early this morning but remained on track for strong weekly gains as investors weighed the prospect of a major Middle East conflict that would disrupt crude flows against an abundant global market.

Brent crude futures fell 8 cents, or 0.1%, to $77.54 a barrel at 12:15 a.m. ET. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 6 cents, or 0.08%, to $73.65 a barrel.

Both benchmarks were heading for weekly gains of about 8%.

President Joe Biden said yesterday that the US is discussing attacks on Iranian oil facilities in retaliation for Tehran’s missile attack on Israel. The comments contributed to a 5% rise in oil prices.

Israel Defense Forces said the majority of the 20 rockets fired at Haifa from Lebanon this morning were intercepted, while the rest hit open areas. Sirens sounded around 7 a.m. local time (12 p.m. ET).

About 20 minutes later, sirens sounded in the Upper Galilee area, where the IDF said some of the rockets fired from Lebanon were intercepted and the rest fell in open areas.

The IDF said it also intercepted an “enemy aircraft” that entered Israeli territory from the east.