Hezbollah fires ballistic missile at Mossad HQ in Tel Aviv in retaliation for pager attacks

Hezbollah has launched a ballistic missile towards the capital of Israel in the first strike of its kind to reach the Tel Aviv area.

The Lebanon-based terrorist organisation said it launched the missile attack at 6.30am local time in support of the “valiant and honourable resistance” of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and “in defence of Lebanon and its people”.

In a statement a spokesperson said they had targeted the headquarters of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, claiming it is “responsible for assassinating leaders and blowing up pagers and wireless devices”.

In confirming the close call after the missile was intercepted, the Israel Defence Forces said the IAF had returned fire and struck the launcher from which the missile was fired in the area of Nafakhiyeh, Lebanon.

It says it also struck a series of other Hezbollah targets and claimed to have hit infrastructure, weapons storage facilities and rocket launchers.

It is the first time Hezbollah has claimed a ballistic missile strike since its nearly year-long battle with Israel began after its Palestinian ally Hamas carried out its October 7 attack.

In south Lebanon, a stronghold of Hezbollah, Israeli warplanes bombed villages for a third day on Wednesday, after air raids earlier this week killed at least 558 people in the deadliest day of violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.

Lebanon’s National News Agency said the overnight raids caused more casualties, with officials saying hundreds of thousands of civilians have fled their homes to escape the sharp escalation in violence between Hezbollah and Israel.

The United Nations Security Council said it will hold an emergency meeting on the crisis in New York on Wednesday, while UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the situation was critical.

Nour Hamad, a 22-year-old student in the Lebanese city of Baalbek, described living “in a state of terror” all week.

“We spent four or five days without sleep, not knowing if we will wake up in the morning,” she said.

“The sound of the bombardment is very frightening, everyone’s afraid. The children are afraid, and the grown-ups are afraid too,” she said.

Longtime foes Hezbollah and Israel have been locked in near-daily exchanges of fire since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.

The attack sparked a war in Gaza that has drawn in ally Hezbollah and other Iran-backed armed groups from across the Middle East, including Yemen and Iraq.

Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said the “vast majority, if not all” of the 558 people killed in Israel’s aerial bombardment on Monday were unarmed civilians in their homes.

- with AFP