Israel carries out 'extensive' strikes across Lebanon after Hezbollah fires ballistic missile at Tel Aviv

25 September 2024, 11:43 | Updated: 25 September 2024, 12:06

A cloud of smoke erupts during an Israeli air strike on the Rihan hills area in Jezzine in southern Lebanon
A cloud of smoke erupts during an Israeli air strike in Jezzine in southern Lebanon. Picture: Getty

By Flaminia Luck

Israel's military says it's carried out further "extensive" strikes in Lebanon after Hezbollah fired towards Tel Aviv.

Listen to this article

Loading audio...

The group says the ballistic missile - which was shot down - was directed at the headquarters of the intelligence agency Mossad.

The escalation has prompted a warning to British people to leave Lebanon immediately, triggering mass evacuations.

So far, ten people have been killed in the attacks, Lebanon's health ministry have said. At least 560 people were killed in strikes on Monday and Tuesday and thousands others forced to take refuge.

700 British troops were due to arrive on Wednesday in Cyprus as the UK prepared for the possible evacuation of its citizens from Lebanon.

Brits have been told to leave Lebanon immediately as troops make their way for a "Dunkirk-style" evacuation mission.

Tensions between Israel and the Lebanese militant group have steadily escalated for under a year.

New Hezbollah Museum Highlights Drones And Captured Military Vehicles
Militant group Hezbollah launched a ballistic missile at Tel Aviv on Wednesday. Picture: Getty

Hezbollah launched a ballistic missile at Tel Aviv early on Wednesday, in a further escalation after Israel carried out strikes on Lebanon that killed hundreds of people.

The Israeli military said it intercepted the surface-to-surface missile, which set off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv and across central Israel, and there were no reports of casualties or damage.

The military said it struck the site in southern Lebanon from which the projectile was launched.

Read more: Lebanon confirms 558 killed and 1,835 injured in deadly strikes amid claims Israel is air dropping 'dangerous' leaflets

Read more: Israel hits 'dozens' of Hezbollah targets overnight after deadly day of strikes leaves 492 people dead

Keir Starmer admits to ‘there are certainly questions to be asked’ about Israel’s tactics in Lebanon

Hezbollah said it fired a Qader 1 ballistic missile targeting the headquarters of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, which it blames for a recent string of targeted killings of its top commanders and for an attack last week in which bombs hidden in pagers and walkie-talkies killed dozens of people and wounded thousands, including many Hezbollah members.

The Israeli military said it was the first time a projectile fired from Lebanon had reached central Israel.

Hezbollah claimed to have targeted an intelligence base near Tel Aviv last month in an aerial attack, but there was no confirmation.

The Palestinian Hamas militant group in Gaza repeatedly targeted Tel Aviv in the opening months of the war.

Displaced people fleeing Sidon, Lebanon
Displaced people fleeing Sidon, Lebanon. Picture: Alamy
Volunteers transport mattresses for people displaced by conflict from southern Lebanon
Volunteers transport mattresses for people displaced by conflict in Lebanon. Picture: Getty

Lt Col Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesperson, said the missile fired on Wednesday had a "heavy warhead" but declined to elaborate or confirm it was the type described by Hezbollah.

He dismissed Hezbollah's claim of targeting the Mossad headquarters, located just north of Tel Aviv, as "psychological warfare".

The Iranian-made Qader is a medium-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile with multiple types and payloads.

It can carry an explosive payload of up to 800kg (1,760 pounds), according to the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

Iranian officials have described the liquid-fuelled missile as having a range of 2,000km (1,240 miles).

The launch ratcheted up tensions as the region appears to be teetering toward another all-out war, even as Israel continues to battle Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Read more: Starmer says UK will 'listen carefully' to Zelensky’s military aid requests, as Ukraine pushes for long-range missileuse

Read more: Wes Streeting calls for 'national debate' on banning smoking outside pubs as PM rules out earlier closing times

A wave of Israeli strikes on Monday and Tuesday killed at least 560 people in Lebanon and forced thousands to seek refuge.

Families have fled southern Lebanon, flocking to Beirut and the coastal city of Sidon, sleeping in schools turned into shelters, as well as in cars, parks and along the beach. Some sought to leave the country, causing a traffic jam at the border with Syria.

Israel said late on Tuesday that fighter jets carried out "extensive strikes" on Hezbollah weapons and rocket launchers across southern Lebanon and in the Bekaa region to the north.

On Wednesday it responded with its own new strikes on Hezbollah. In Lebanon, at least three people were killed and nine wounded in a strike near Byblos, according to the country's health ministry.

The coastal town is north of Beirut and far from Hezbollah's main strongholds.

The military has said it has no immediate plans for a ground invasion but has declined to give a timetable for the air campaign.

Tensions between Israel and the Lebanese militant group have steadily escalated over the last 11 months.

Hezbollah has been firing rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and its ally Hamas, a fellow Iran-backed militant group.

Israel has responded with increasingly heavy airstrikes and the targeted killing of Hezbollah commanders while threatening a wider operation.

The UN Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting on Lebanon for Wednesday at the request of France.

Nearly a year of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel had already displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border before this week's escalation.

The Israeli military confirmed it killed a senior Hezbollah commander in an airstrike on the southern suburbs of Beirut
The Israeli military confirmed it killed a senior Hezbollah commander in an airstrike on the southern suburbs of Beirut. Picture: Alamy

Israel has vowed to do whatever it takes to ensure its citizens can return to their homes in the north, while Hezbollah has said it will keep up its rocket attacks until there is a ceasefire in Gaza, something which appears increasingly remote.

Israel has moved thousands of troops who had been serving in Gaza to the northern border.

It says Hezbollah has some 150,000 rockets and missiles, including some capable of striking anywhere in Israel, and that the group has fired some 9,000 rockets and drones since last October.

Cross-border exchanges began ramping up on Sunday in the wake of the pager and walkie-talkie bombings, which killed 39 people and wounded nearly 3,000, many of them civilians.

Lebanon blamed Israel, but Israel did not confirm or deny responsibility.

On Sunday, Hezbollah launched around 150 rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel.

The next day, Israel said its warplanes struck 1,600 Hezbollah targets, destroying cruise missiles, long and short-range rockets and attack drones, including weapons concealed in private homes.

The strikes racked up the highest one-day death toll in Lebanon since Israel and Hezbollah fought a bruising monthlong war in 2006.

An Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Tuesday killed Ibrahim Kobeisi, who Israel described as a top Hezbollah commander with the group's rocket and missile unit.

Military officials said Kobeisi was responsible for launches towards Israel and planned a 2000 attack in which three Israeli soldiers were kidnapped and killed. Hezbollah later confirmed his death.

It was the latest in a string of assassinations and other setbacks for Hezbollah, which is Lebanon's strongest political and military actor and is widely considered the top paramilitary force in the Arab world.

Lebanon's Health Ministry said six people were killed and 15 were wounded in the strike in a southern Beirut suburb, an area where Hezbollah has a strong presence. The country's National News Agency said the attack destroyed three floors of a six-story apartment building.

The UN's High Commissioner for Refugees in Lebanon said one of its staffers and her young son were among those killed on Monday in the Bekaa region, while a cleaner under contract was killed in a strike in the south.

Hezbollah fired 300 rockets on Tuesday, injuring six Israeli soldiers and civilians, most of them lightly, according to the Israeli military.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said at least 564 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since Monday, including 50 children and 94 women, and that more than 1,800 have been wounded.

A man is seen in front of a building targeted by an Israeli warplane in Beirut, Lebanon
A man is seen in front of a destroyed building in Beirut, Lebanon. Picture: Alamy

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to the United Nations this week with no end in sight to the war in Gaza, the conflict with Hezbollah intensifying and his and Israel's international legitimacy at a low.

Mr Netanyahu will head to New York burdened also by what could be an imminent warrant for his arrest by the International Criminal Court.

Meanwhile, 700 British troops were due to arrive on Wednesday on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus as the UK prepared for the possible evacuation of its citizens from Lebanon.

Egypt, Jordan and Iraq say Israel is pushing the Middle East into an all-out war and are calling on the United Nations Security Council to intervene.

In a joint statement on Wednesday, the three countries' foreign ministers affirmed that averting a regional war requires the cessation of "the Israeli aggression on Gaza".

The ministers also condemned the Israeli aggression on Lebanon, and said that "Israel is pushing the region into an all-out war".

Egypt and Jordan were the first two Arab countries to make peace with Israel.

But relations have been strained since the war began in Gaza, triggered by Hamas's October 7 attack.

Andrew Marr speaks to Lebanon's ambassador to the UK | Watch again

More Latest News

See more More Latest News

Coleen Rooney said her husband Wayne has not been forgiven in the court of public opinion

Coleen Rooney opens up on Wayne's 'difficult' mistakes as she says he hasn't been forgiven in court of public opinion

Many of the victims were staying at the Nana Backpacker Hostel

Laos hostel owner arrested after Brit lawyer becomes fifth tourist to die in 'poisoning'

Holly Bowles, 19, from Melbourne, has died in the ‘methanol mass poisoning’

Sixth person dies in Laos ‘methanol mass poisoning’ as hostel owner detained by police

Exclusive
Feargal Sharkey tests the River Test with LBC

'We're destroying what should be the finest river on Earth': Feargal Sharkey tests the River Test with LBC

Household energy bills will rise again from January

Household energy bills to rise by £21 a year from January in further blow for Brits this winter

Putin issued a chilling threat to the West as he confirmed Russia launched a ballistic missile against Ukraine

'The world must respond': Zelenskyy warns that Putin is 'testing' the West after confirmed use of new ballistic missile

Matt Gaetz withdraws as Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general amid sexual misconduct allegations

Donald Trump nominates Pam Bondi for attorney general hours after Matt Gaetz withdraws

Starmer has backed the International Criminal Court over its arrest warrant for Netanyahu

Netanyahu faces arrest if he travels to Britain as Starmer vows to enforce International Criminal Court warrant

Yvette Cooper has branded the Rwanda scheme a "complete con."

Yvette Cooper to crack down on anti-social behaviour with new 'respect orders' as repeat offenders face jail time

King Charles III And Queen Camilla on Coronation Day

King Charles' coronation cost taxpayer £72 million, report reveals

Pep Guardiola, Manager of Manchester City

Pep Guardiola signs two-year contract extension with Manchester City

Captain Tom's Daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore

Behaviour at Captain Tom charity left ex-boss 'gobsmacked'

Armed robbers attempted to break into the star's Sunderland home.

Masked machete-wielding robbers break into Charlotte Crosby's home while she is upstairs with two-year-old daughter

Police have released new CCTV of Harshita Brella and her husband

Chilling CCTV released of Harshita Brella and prime murder suspect husband on night she was killed

First photos of Gavin and Stacey Christmas Special as James Corden and Ruth Jones mark triumphant finale

First photos of Gavin and Stacey Christmas Special as James Corden and Ruth Jones mark show's triumphant finale

King Charles performs a Hongi, a traditional Maori greeting, with Mere Takoko

King Charles shares traditional Maori nose rub greeting with activist as he launches environmental charity