Hezbollah launched its deepest strike on Israel yet — targeting Tel Aviv
Anadolu/Getty Images
- Israel intercepted a missile strike from Hezbollah and struck a launcher in Lebanon.
- Hezbollah targeted Tel Aviv and said the strike was in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
- It follows days of fighting, with more than 500 deaths and thousands evacuated in Lebanon.
Hezbollah fired a missile at Tel Aviv on Wednesday morning in what is believed to be its deepest strike yet into Israel.
The Israeli military said that it had intercepted the ballistic missile after it was detected crossing from Lebanon, and struck the launcher in the Nafakhiyeh area in Lebanon.
No deaths or injuries were reported, and residents took shelter before the attack was foiled, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The Iran-backed militant group took responsibility for the attempted strike with a Qader-1 missile, saying it had targeted the headquarters for Mossad, Israel's intelligence service, "in support of our steadfast Palestinian people in Gaza" and in "defense of Lebanon and its people."
It comes after days of increasing clashes between Israel and the Lebanon-based militant group, with fears growing that the conflict could escalate into a full-blown war.
More than 500 people and 1,800 people were injured after Israel carried out strikes targeting the militant group on Monday and Tuesday, Lebanese authorities said.
According to the Israeli military, that included Ibrahim Mohammed Kobeissi, the commander of Hezbollah's missile and rocket network.
It marked the highest number of deaths and injuries since Israel and Hezbollah's monthlong conflict in 2006, The Journal reported.
Last week, handheld radios and pagers used by Hezbollah exploded across Lebanon – an attack widely thought to be coordinated by Israel — killing 37 people and wounding about 3,000, officials said.
Meanwhile, thousands were evacuated from their homes in Lebanon's south to avoid further strikes.
"I say to the people of Lebanon: Our war is not with you. Our war is with Hezbollah," Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a speech.
"I told you yesterday to evacuate homes in which there is a missile in the living room and a rocket in the garage. Whoever [does not] will no longer have a home," he added.
The conflict was initiated when Hezbollah fired rockets in response to Hamas' terrorist attacks on southern Israel in October 2023.
"Whatever Israel intends by this string of attacks on Hezbollah, this is not what de-escalation looks like," Eugene Rogan, a professor of modern Middle Eastern history at the University of Oxford, previously told Business Insider.