Hezbollah attacks Tel Aviv with ballistic missile

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Israel intercepted a Hezbollah rocket aimed at the Tel Aviv area on Wednesday morning, setting off air raid sirens in the coastal city. It was the militant Lebanese group's first ballistic missile attack on the country.

Hezbollah said the Qader 1 ballistic missile, fired after Israel's intensive bombardment of Lebanon earlier this week, targeted the headquarters of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday that it not only intercepted the ballistic missile but also claimed to have hit the launch pad in the Nafakhiyeh region of Lebanon from which it was launched.

Israel is preparing to intensify its Hezbollah fire after launching heavy attacks on the militant group's strongholds in Lebanon on Monday, destroying their weapons caches and killing senior commanders. Israeli warplanes have hit more than 3,000 Hezbollah targets since then, the Israeli army said on Tuesday.

Lebanese authorities put the death toll in the bombing at 564. The attack also included an attack on a Hezbollah-controlled area in southern Beirut, in which the head of Hezbollah's missile division, Ibrahim Qobeissi, was killed.

Israel has pledged to continue military action until 60,000 citizens displaced from the northern areas by months of cross-border attacks can return home. Hezbollah has fired barrages of rockets into northern Israel in support of Hamas in Gaza since shortly after October 7.

In response, Hezbollah has increased its rocket attacks to 100 to 200 rockets a day and has penetrated deeper into Israel than before. Most of its missiles have so far been intercepted by Israeli air defenses, but the group is believed to have large stockpiles that have not yet been used.

The group said it used the ballistic missile against the Israeli intelligence command center because it was “responsible for assassinating leaders and exploding pagers and walkie-talkies.” It also said it used “Fadi” missiles in its attacks this week.

Last week, more than 3,000 people were injured and 37 killed across Lebanon when Hezbollah's communications equipment suddenly exploded en masse. The group blamed Israel for the attack. Israel has neither directly confirmed nor denied the explosions.