Middle East latest: UN ponders how to calm the conflict as Israel battles militants on two fronts

The United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting Wednesday to address the spiraling conflict in the Middle East.

Iran’s ambassador to the U.N. said his country launched nearly 200 missiles at Israel on Tuesday as a deterrent to further Israeli violence, while his Israeli counterpart called the barrage an “unprecedented act of aggression.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed late Tuesday to retaliate, and an Iranian commander threatened wider strikes on infrastructure if Israel did so. U.S. President Biden said Wednesday that he would not support an Israeli attack targeting Iran’s nuclear program.

Israel further ruffled feathers Wednesday when its foreign minister declared the U.N. secretary-general “persona non-grata” in the country, doubling down on decades of accusations of antisemitism against the organization.

Israel was meanwhile battling militants on two fronts, pursuing a ground incursion into Lebanon against Hezbollah and conducting strikes in Gaza that killed dozens, including children. The Israeli military said eight soldiers have died in the conflict in southern Lebanon.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the Lebanon border almost daily since the day after Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 others hostage. Israel declared war on the militant group in the Gaza Strip in response. More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory, and just over half the dead have been women and children, according to local health officials.