Investing.com — Oil prices rose on Tuesday, after Iran fired missiles at Israel, raising fresh concerns about disruptions to oil supplies in the oil-rich Middle East region.

At 2:30 p.m. ET (1830 GMT), futures were up 2.4 percent at $69.83 a barrel and the contract was up 2.6 percent at $73.52 a barrel.

Iran launched attacks against Israel.

Iran fired dozens of ballistic missiles at Israel, hitting the latter’s military assets, raising fresh fears of a wider Middle East conflict, many of which could affect oil supplies in the region. Tehran said the attack against Israel was in retaliation for Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, although it signaled it did not want to escalate tensions.

Tel Aviv said it would respond to Iran’s latest attack at a time and place of its own choosing. Tensions have been rising in the Middle East in recent days after Israeli troops invaded Lebanon, in what Tel Aviv described as a “limited” ground operation.

A serious escalation of the conflict could affect global supplies given the importance of the oil-rich region, but “the market has become increasingly numb to tensions in the region, as nearly a year of conflict has Later, there has been no impact on oil production,” ING analysts said in a note.

China’s economic woes weigh heavily.

Crude markets struggled in September on fears of economic weakness in China, the world’s largest oil importer.

Data released on Monday indicated that sugar contracted sharply in September, a private sector survey showed on Monday.

Chinese officials last week announced a series of stimulus measures in an effort to bring China’s 2024 growth rate closer to the 5 percent target, but a survey of the private sector suggests more needs to be done.

Brent ended September down 9%, its third straight month of declines and the biggest monthly drop since November 2022. It also dropped 17% in the third quarter for its biggest quarterly loss in a year. WTI fell 7% last month and is down 16% for the quarter.

OPEC+ is set to meet this week.

Members of OPEC and allies, a group widely known as OPEC+, will hold a meeting of their joint ministerial oversight committee on Wednesday.

The group will increase output by 180,000 barrels per day each month starting in December, and so little change is expected at the meeting.

Currently, OPEC+ is cutting production by 5.86 million bpd, or about 5.7 percent of global demand.

The industry group is set to release its weekly estimate of U.S. crude oil and fuel stockpiles in the week starting Sept. 27.

(Peter Nurse contributed to this story)