Hezbollah fired a rocket into the Tel Aviv area for the first time – but it was intercepted. A rocket alarm was sounded in central Israel. The military responded with counterattacks.
According to the Israeli army, a rocket fired from Lebanon by the terrorist organization Hezbollah reached the Tel Aviv area for the first time before being intercepted by Israeli air defenses. “It is the first time ever that a Hezbollah rocket has reached the Tel Aviv area,” an army spokesman said.
Air alert in many regions
The firing of a surface-to-surface missile on Tel Aviv was an escalation on the part of Hezbollah, said military spokesman Nadaw Shoschani in another briefing. “Hezbollah is clearly trying to escalate the situation. This is part of it,” he said. Hezbollah is trying to “terrorize more and more people.” There is a trend that Hezbollah is currently trying to attack more and deeper into Israel, the military spokesman continued.
After the rocket was fired, there were air alerts in numerous regions of central Israel. The last rocket alarm was triggered in Tel Aviv at the end of May, due to an attack by the Islamist Hamas.
Israel attacks Hezbollah positions
The army said it attacked the rocket launcher that fired the ballistic missile in the Nafachiyeh area of southern Lebanon. A spokesman said he was standing in a village in a civilian area.
Warplanes also carried out a series of attacks on Hezbollah facilities in Lebanese territory during the night. Weapons depots, rocket launch pads and fighters from the Iran-backed militia were bombed, among other things, as the army announced on the online platform X. Subsequent explosions suggested large quantities of weapons were stored there, it was said.
Hezbollah claims to have targeted Mossad
Hezbollah previously said it had fired a ballistic missile toward the headquarters of Israel's foreign intelligence agency Mossad near the city of Tel Aviv. The Iran-backed Shiite militia said the firing of the Kader 1 rocket, “which targeted the Mossad headquarters on the outskirts of Tel Aviv,” took place early in the morning. There is no evidence of this.
Israel's army also did not confirm the target of the attack. “I can't say anything about their intentions,” said a military spokesman. The result was that a rocket flew towards civilian areas in Tel Aviv. The Mossad headquarters is not in this area.
Hezbollah is classified as a terrorist organization by Germany and the USA, among others.
