Clashes continue to rage outside the US embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, where the army clashed with protesters on Wednesday morning as tensions flared over the war between Israel and Hamas.
The rioters set fire to the embassy last night and continued to throw fireworks at it this morning in an ongoing protest against the US.
All non-essential State Department personnel have been told to leave the region, and a level four travel advisory has been issued for all Americans advising against travel to Lebanon.
Protesters in Beirut were pushed back into the streets around the US embassy on Wednesday morning, where they clashed with the Lebanese army.
Gunshots and explosions could be heard throughout the morning.
As the riot in Beirut escalated on Wednesday morning, President Biden hugged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in neighboring Israel in the latest show of US support in the ongoing conflict with Hamas.
State Department buildings in other Middle Eastern countries are also under siege.
In Adana, Turkey, demonstrators threw fireworks and Molotov cocktails while chanting “Allahu Akbar” on Tuesday evening. The US Consulate in Adana is now closed.
Rioters remain outside the US embassy in Beirut today as tensions flare in the ongoing Hamas-Israel war dispute
A woman speaks as an image of US President Joe Biden is burned during a protest in the Palestinian refugee camp Ain al-Hilweh near the southern Lebanese port city of Sidon on October 18, 2023
Beirut: Protesters threw fireworks at the US embassy in Beirut last night. The riots continued until Wednesday
There were similar outbursts in Baghdad and Amman, and at French and British embassies in Tunisia and Tehran.
The increase in protests was sparked by an attack on Gaza’s Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital, which is now at the center of the fierce debate over the war.
Israel — and President Biden — say the attack came “from the other team,” claiming a group when independent Palestinian fighters misfired a rocket and accidentally hit the hospital where hundreds of civilians were seeking shelter and medical care.
“Based on what I saw, it was done by the other team, not you. But there are many people who are not sure. So we have to overcome a lot of things,” President Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today as the couple met in Tel Aviv.
Since the conflict began on October 7, Biden has been steadfast in his support of Israel.
His trip marks the first wartime visit to Israel by an American president. He and his cabinet have also called on other countries in the region not to worsen the fighting by appealing to Hezbollah, the Islamist militant group in Lebanon.
Israel today released an audio recording in which Hamas fighters reportedly acknowledge that the attack came from their side.
Amman: Protests broke out near the US Embassy in Amman, Jordan
Protesters in Tahrir Square in Baghdad, Iraq, last night
President Joe Biden is greeted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after arriving at Ben Gurion International Airport, Wednesday, October 18, 2023, in Tel Aviv
They said it was fired by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), an independent jihadist group.
“They say (the rocket) belongs to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Is it ours?’ asks an alleged Hamas member in the Israeli military intelligence clip.
‘From U.S? It looks like it,’ you hear the men say.
Palestine insists it was an Israeli attack that decimated the hospital.
The brutal conflict began on October 7 with a Hamas attack on Israeli civilians at a music festival and in kibbutzim along the border.
Since then, Israel has retaliated fiercely, with the US remaining steadfast in its support for its defense.
Protesters burn an Israeli flag during an anti-Israel protest in front of the British Embassy in Tehran, Iran, early Wednesday, October 18, 2023
Tunisia: Protesters clashed with police at the French embassy in Tunis during another protest on Tuesday