Iran-Israel live updates: Latest news from the Middle East as conflict continues to escalate with bombs falling on Beirut and a drone attack on Tel Aviv

US President Joe Biden has implored Israel to forego strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities in retribution for Tehran’s missile attack on the Jewish state earlier this week amid fears of all-out war in the Middle East.

Speaking after a conference call between G7 leaders yesterday evening, Biden said the US supported Israel’s right to defend itself from Iranian aggression but declared ‘the answer is no’ when it came to the prospect of targeting Iran’s nuclear programme.

He said all G7 countries – the United States, Canada, Britain, Italy, France, Germany and Japan – agreed that Israel ‘has a right to respond… but they should respond proportionally’, adding the US would impose more sanctions to further target Iran’s ailing economy.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they have carried out a drone attack on Tel Aviv today.

In a statement, the Iranian-backed group said they ‘carried out a military operation targeting a vital target in the Jaffa (Tel Aviv) area in occupied Palestine with a number of Jaffa drones’.

The operation achieved its goals successfully as the drones reached their targets without the enemy being able to confront or shoot them down.

The Israeli authorities have not directly confirmed the attack but the military said it intercepted ‘a suspicious aerial target’ off central Israel overnight, without giving further details.

On Wednesday, the Houthis claimed to have fired cruise missiles at Israel, following Iran’s mass bombardment of the country the night before.

Last week, the rebels said they fired a missile at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, prompting Israeli air strikes on Yemen including the vital port of Hodeida.

The Houthis, who have controlled large swathes of war-torn Yemen for a decade, are part of Iran’s ‘Axis of Resistance’ against Israel and the United States.

Israel bombed Beirut early on Thursday, killing at least six people, after its forces suffered their deadliest day on the Lebanese front in a year of clashes with Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Israel said it had conducted a precise air strike on the Lebanese capital. Witnesses reported hearing a massive blast, and a security source said it targeted a building in the district of Bachoura near parliament, the closest an Israeli strike has come to the central downtown district of Beirut.

At least six people were killed and seven wounded, Lebanese health officials said. Photographs show a heavily damaged building with its first floor on fire.

‘Another sleepless night in Beirut. Counting the blasts shaking the city. No warning sirens. Not knowing what’s next. Only that uncertainty lies ahead. Anxiety and fear are omnipresent,’ U. special co-ordinator in Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, said on X on Thursday.

Three missiles also hit the southern suburb of Dahiyeh, where Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed last week, and loud blasts were heard, Lebanese security officials said.

Hello and welcome to MailOnline’s live coverage of the conflict in the Middle East as Israel continues its offensive in Lebanon against Hezbollah and the Iranian-backed Houthis launch a drone attack in Tel Aviv.

At least six people have been killed after a building was bombed in central Beirut – the first Israeli airstrike in the heart of the Lebanese capital.

Meanwhile, Yemen’s Houthis have entered the conflict as members released a statement indicating a drone attack had been carried out on targets in Tel Aviv.

We will bring you the latest on the unfolding situation in the Middle East with the most up to date news and analysis from the region.