Hezbollah ‘targets’ Mossad headquarters as Israeli forces step up attack on Lebanon

Israel on Wednesday widened its airstrikes in Lebanon and shot down a missile that armed group Hezbollah said it had fired at the Mossad spy service near Tel Aviv.

Hezbollah claimed to have targeted the Mossad headquarters with what it described as a ballistic missile.

The Iran-backed group, in a statement, said it had fired a missile targeting the Mossad “in support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip...and in defence of Lebanon and its people”.

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

World leaders, meanwhile, expressed concern that the conflict — running in parallel to Israel’s war in Gaza against Hamas — was rapidly intensifying as the death toll in Lebanon rose and thousands of people fled their homes.

The Hezbollah strike Wednesday morning was the first time since the start of the war that one of its missiles had been sighted above Tel Aviv — Israel’s economic capital and seen as a target with the potential to trigger an escalation in Israeli action.

The Israeli military’s head of the northern command said his country had entered a new phase of its campaign and must be prepared for “manoeuvring and action,” according to a military statement.

It did not specify if major general Ori Gordin’s remarks, made during a visit on Tuesday to a brigade on Israel’s northern border, were a reference to a possible ground incursion into southern Lebanon.

Israel said its warplanes were carrying out extensive strikes in south Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, a Hezbollah stronghold further north.

Israeli officials said the missile fired at Tel Aviv was shot down with a David’s Sling missile, a surface-to-air missile designed to destroy tactical ballistic missiles at low altitude.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said the United States was deeply concerned by the reports of a rocket attack aimed at Mossad, but it still believed a diplomatic solution could be found to ease the violence.

At least 51 people were killed and 223 wounded in Israeli strikes on Lebanon on Wednesday, Lebanese health minister Firass Abiad sai.

Israel has expanded the zones it has been striking since Tuesday night, with attacks for the first time on the beach resort town of Jiyyeh just south of Beirut and Maaysrah.

As many as half a million people may have been displaced in Lebanon, its foreign minister said. Israeli authorities said the Galilee region of northern Israel was hit by heavy Hezbollah barrages on Wednesday morning.

According to the UN, more than 90,000 people in Lebanon have been displaced over five days of Israeli airstrikes.