Hizbollah targets Tel Aviv with ballistic missile

Hizbollah targets Tel Aviv with ballistic missile


Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Israel intercepted the first Hizbollah missile aimed at the Tel Aviv area and bombarded new parts of Lebanon on Wednesday as days of conflict between the pair escalated.

Hizbollah said the Qader 1 ballistic missile, which was launched after Israel’s intense bombardment of Lebanon killed nearly 600 people this week, targeted the headquarters of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

It marked the Lebanese militant group’s first ballistic missile attack on the country, and the first time one of its weapons was intercepted over Tel Aviv, setting off air raid sirens over the coastal city.

The Israeli military said it had downed the ballistic missile, which is heavier, more destructive and longer-range than the rockets Hizbollah has so far fired at the country. There were no reports of damage or injuries.

Israeli air strikes pummelled Lebanon with renewed ferocity on Wednesday, expanding the campaign to new regions of Lebanon outside Hizbollah strongholds. Many villages were targeted for the first time, such as in Mount Lebanon to the north of Beirut.

Israel also claimed to have struck the launcher from which Hizbollah’s ballistic missile was fired, in the Nafakhiyeh area in southern Lebanon.

Israel is bracing for a step up in Hizbollah fire after it launched heavy raids on the militant group’s strongholds across Lebanon on Monday and Tuesday, pounding its weapons stores and killing senior commanders. Israeli warplanes had hit more than 3,000 Hizbollah targets so far this week, the Israel Defense Forces said.

Hizbollah said on Wednesday it had fired dozens more missiles at northern Israel.

The escalating cross-border violence has sparked alarm that Israel and Hizbollah are heading for all-out war, triggering an exodus of residents from southern Lebanon in anticipation of further violence.

Lebanese authorities have put the death toll at 579 from the bombardment so far. This included a strike on a Hizbollah-controlled area of southern Beirut that killed the group’s missiles division chief Ibrahim Qobeissi on Tuesday, as well as attacks across the south and Bekaa in the east. 

The Bekaa has been the target of heavy strikes since Monday, with bombardment raining down on villages and the outskirts of the region’s major cities including Baalbek and Hermel. 

Israel has pledged to continue the military action until 60,000 citizens displaced from northern areas by months of cross-border fire can return home. Hizbollah has been directing volleys of rockets at northern Israel since shortly after October 7 in support of Hamas in Gaza.

Hizbollah’s barrages have increased to 300 rockets a day in response and the group has fired deeper into Israel than before. Most of its projectiles have been intercepted by Israel’s air defences, but the group is thought to have large stockpiles that it has not used. One projectile hit an assisted living facility in the northern town of Tsafed on Wednesday, the IDF said, but no injuries were reported.

The Qader 1 is described by the Center for Strategic and International Studies as a medium-range ballistic missile developed in Iran and first tested in 2015. Analysts believe it can carry a 750kg warhead and hit targets 1,600km away.

More than 3,000 people were injured and 37 killed across Lebanon last week when Hizbollah’s communications devices suddenly detonated en masse. The group blamed Israel for the assault. Israel has not directly confirmed or denied the blasts.

Hizbollah said the command centre of the Israeli intelligence agency targeted by the ballistic missile was “responsible for the assassination of leaders and exploding the pagers and walkie-talkies”.

Hizbollah also revealed it had used “Fadi” rockets in its attacks this week for the first time. The rockets — named after a Hizbollah commander killed in 1987 whose brother was also killed by Israel in January this year — have a longer range, at 70km to 100km, than rockets used so far by the group in the fighting since October.

The Fadi-1 and Fadi-2 have an explosive payload of 83kg and 170kg respectively, according to Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies. It described them as medium-range “inaccurate ballistic missiles, launched from mobile platforms” that Israel’s Iron Dome is able to intercept.

The militant group claimed to have also used the more powerful Fadi-3 rocket for the first time on Tuesday.



Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *