Hezbollah fires rocket at spy base, Israeli warplanes hit Lebanon again

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM: Hezbollah said its fighters had fired a rocket targeting the Mossad spy agency headquarters near Tel Aviv on Wednesday and Israel unleashed more airstrikes on southern Lebanon in the heaviest bout of warfare between the arch-foes in a year.

The Israeli military said a single surface-to-surface missile was intercepted by air defence systems after it was detected crossing from Lebanon.

Warning sirens sounded in Tel Aviv, Israel’s economic capital, but there were no reports of damage or casualties.

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Israeli military spokesman Nadav Shoshani said he could not confirm what Hezbollah’s target was when it fired the missile from a village in Lebanon.

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

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

The Israeli military has been carrying out its heaviest airstrikes in a year of conflict this week, targeting leaders of the Iran-backed Hezbollah and hitting hundreds of sites deep inside Lebanon.

The hostilities started after war broke out last October between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Israel’s southern border, with Hezbollah saying it was acting in solidarity with its ally Hamas.

Israel’s focus has now turned to its northern frontier and southern Lebanon, already the scene of near-daily exchanges of fire for months.

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There was no let up on Wednesday. Israel said its warplanes were currently carrying out extensive strikes in south Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. Hezbollah has fired hundreds of missiles and rockets at Israel in recent days.

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Hezbollah has blamed Mossad for the recent assassination of its leaders.

It has also accused the spy agency of carrying out an extraordinary operation last week in which the communications devices of its members were booby-trapped and exploded, killing 39 people and wounding nearly 3,000 in the worst security breach in its history.

Since Monday morning, the Israeli offensive has killed 569 people, including 50 children, and wounded 1,835 in Lebanon, Health Minister Firass Abiad told Al Jazeera Mubasher TV.

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Half a million people are estimated to have been displaced in Lebanon, Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said. In Beirut, thousands of people who fled from southern Lebanon were sheltering in schools and other buildings.

Also on Wednesday, the Israeli military said a drone crossing into Israeli territory from Syria was intercepted by fighter jets south of the Sea of Galilee.