Lebanon’s Hezbollah says it fired rockets at Mossad base near Tel Aviv

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Lebanon’s Hezbollah said its fighters fired a rocket at the Mossad spy agency headquarters near Tel Aviv on Wednesday, an escalation in fighting with Israel that brought the two enemies closer to a full-fledged war.

The Israeli military said a single surface-to-surface missile was intercepted by its air defences after it was detected passing over Lebanon. Warning sirens sounded in Israel’s economic capital, Tel Aviv.

There were no reports of damage or casualties, and the military said there had been no change in civil defence instructions for central Israel.

Israeli military spokesman Nadav Shoshani said that Hezbollah could not confirm what the target was when it launched a missile from a village in Lebanon.

“The result was a heavy missile heading toward Tel Aviv, toward civilian areas in Tel Aviv. Mossad headquarters is not in that area,” he said.

Warning sirens also sounded in other parts of central Israel, including the city of Netanya.

The Israeli army this week launched its heaviest airstrikes of the conflict, targeting Hezbollah leaders and hitting hundreds of targets deep inside Lebanon.

Hezbollah blames Mossad for the recent killing of its leaders and the blowing up of communications equipment used by its members.

Health Minister Firass Abiad told Al Jazeera Mubasher TV that 569 people, including 50 children, have died and 1,835 people have been injured in Israel’s attacks on Lebanon since Monday morning.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib said half a million people in Lebanon were estimated to be displaced. In Beirut, thousands of people who fled southern Lebanon were taking shelter in schools and other buildings.

Iran-backed Hezbollah has fired hundreds of missiles and rockets at Israel in recent days, in an escalation of months of fighting along the southern Lebanese border.

The Israeli military also reported that a drone flying from Syria towards Israeli territory was intercepted by warplanes south of the Sea of ​​Galilee on Wednesday.

Armed groups of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq reported that they attacked a target in the occupied Golan Heights with a drone.

CHANGE OF FOCUS

After nearly a year of fighting along the southern border of the Gaza Strip against the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Israel is shifting its focus to its northern border. Hezbollah has been firing rockets into Israel in support of Hamas, which is also backed by Iran.

Israeli military leaders have said they are prepared to consider a range of options in the fight against Hezbollah, a more sophisticated, disciplined and experienced enemy than Hamas.

Israeli soldiers have been training for months for a possible ground operation in Lebanon to secure the country’s northern border and to help thousands of Israelis who fled Lebanon for safety return to their communities, a top war priority of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Israel’s close ally, the United States, stands by Israel despite concerns about civilian casualties. Arab states have condemned Israel’s military campaigns but have failed to take strong steps to force it to rein in the Middle East’s most powerful army.

On Tuesday, a senior Hezbollah commander who led the group’s missile and rocket force, Ebrahim Kubaisi, was killed in an attack in Beirut, one of several prominent figures to have been assassinated since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah began nearly a year ago in parallel with the Gaza war.

‘LEBANON BELOW THE THRESHOLD’

The new attack on Hezbollah has fuelled fears that the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is deepening and could destabilise the Middle East.

The UN Security Council announced it would meet on Wednesday to discuss the conflict.

“Lebanon is on the edge of a cliff. The people of Lebanon, the people of Israel and the people of the world cannot afford for Lebanon to become another Gaza,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The Israeli military said its air force carried out “extensive strikes” on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, including weapons storage facilities and dozens of launchers targeting Israeli territory.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the attacks were weakening Hezbollah and would continue.

Hezbollah “has suffered a series of blows to its command and control, its fighters and its means of fighting. These are all heavy blows,” he told Israeli soldiers.

(Reporting by Jana Choukeir and Clauda Tanios; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)