Residents of Safed in upper Galilee in northern Israel look on Wednesday as the country’s Iron Dome air defense system intercepts missiles fired from south Lebanon. The Israeli military identified approximately 40 missiles crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory. EPA-EFE/ATEF SAFADI
Sept. 25 (UPI) — Israeli air defense fighters successfully intercepted a surface-to-surface ballistic missile launched by Hezbollah toward Tel Aviv on Wednesday, the first time the group has targeted the country’s largest city.
The Israeli military said air raid sirens triggered in and around the Tel Aviv suburbs and in central Israel, but the missile was shot down and there were no reports of damage or casualties.
“Following the alerts that were activated in the Gush Dan and Sharon area [in Tel Aviv], one launch of a surface-to-surface missile was detected that crossed from Lebanon and was intercepted by the air defense fighters,” the IDF said in a status update on X.
Israel Defense Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani posted a map on X showing five locations in Tel Aviv where sirens sounded and dozens in and around Netanya, 20 miles north of the city, saying the attack came just before 6:30 a.m.
“Good morning? Not exactly. It’s 6:30 a.m. and Hezbollah just launched a missile toward Israel, sending millions of innocent civilians across central Israel running for shelter,” Shoshani said.
Hezbollah confirmed it had launched a Qader 1 ballistic missile at Tel Aviv saying in a statement that that it was aimed at Mossad HQ in the city in retaliation for the killings of Hezbollah leaders and pager and walkie-talkie boobytrap attacks which it blamed on the Israeli foreign intelligence agency.
The group also said the attack was in solidarity with Palestinians’ “valiant and honorable resistance” in Gaza and “in defense of Lebanon and its people.”
The IDF later posted a video on social media of a strike by Israeli Air Force warplanes it said had obliterated the launcher from which it said the missile was fired in the Nafakhiyeh area of southern Lebanon.
That operation was among a wave of deadly strikes Israel said hit dozens of sites storing Hezbollah weapons overnight that continued into Wednesday with the Lebanese Health Ministry saying 15 people had been killed including four in the central Lebanon town of Joun where seven people were also injured.
Three people were killed in Bint Jbeil and three in Ain Qana in the south, three in Al-Maaysra in the north, and two in Tebnine.
That comes after 558 people were killed and more than 1,800 were injured on Monday and Tuesday.
The IDF confirmed it was engaged in a new round of “extensive” strikes in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley following Hezbollah’s abortive attempt to attack Tel Aviv.
Addressing the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, U.S. President Joe Biden warned a new full-scale war in the region was not in anyone’s best interest and that a diplomatic solution was possible — even as The Pentagon announced the deployment of additional U.S. troops to the Middle East.
Britain nonetheless announced late Tuesday that it was following suit, sending 700 troops along with Royal Air Force aircraft and helicopters to nearby Cyprus in preparation for a possible emergency airlift of an estimated 10,000 British citizens from Lebanon.
The deployment, which got underway overnight, is in addition to 2 British warships already in the eastern Mediterranean.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer urged British citizens to get out of the country immediately, while commercial flight options were still available.
“We are ramping up the contingency plans in light of the escalation. It is important that we be really, really clear: now is the time to leave,” said Starmer.