Israel Says It Shot Down Missile Over Tel Aviv

The missile fired from Lebanon was the first time Hezbollah had launched an attack aimed at Israel’s second-most populous city, the military said.

The Israeli military said it had intercepted a missile that Hezbollah fired at Tel Aviv from Lebanon on Wednesday, in one of the militant group’s most far-reaching attacks into Israeli territory in decades of conflict.

The surface-to-surface missile, which set off alerts in Tel Aviv and the coastal resort of Netanya, was shot down by Israel’s air defense, the military said. Air-raid sirens sent residents fleeing into shelters in the early morning hours. Magen David Adom, Israel’s main emergency medical organization, said it had not received reports of injuries.

Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group, said in a statement that it had launched a ballistic missile targeting the headquarters of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service, in the suburbs of Tel Aviv. The group said the attack was in retaliation for the assassination of its leaders and the explosion of pagers and radios that incapacitated many of its members.

A spokesman for the Israeli military, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, said the attack marked the first time the group had taken aim at Tel Aviv, Israel’s second-most populous city. The missile had been headed toward civilian areas, rather than the Mossad headquarters, before it was intercepted, he told reporters in a news briefing.

“They’re trying to shoot more and farther in,” he said. “This morning, they were able to shoot farther in, the first time in history to Tel Aviv.”

Those attacks last week targeting Hezbollah leaders were followed by a barrage of Israeli airstrikes against the group in Lebanon since Monday that has killed more than 500 people, according to Lebanese authorities. The attacks have brought the two sides closer to all-out war than at any time since the start of the war in Gaza last October.

The Israeli military said its air force had struck the launcher from which the missile was fired, in the town of Nafakhiyeh in southern Lebanon.

After the Hamas-led attacks last October sparked the war in Gaza, Hezbollah began firing on Israel in solidarity with its Palestinian ally. In the year since, Israel and Hezbollah have been trading attacks, driving over 160,000 people from their homes near the border in both countries.

But Tel Aviv in central Israel has been largely sheltered from the conflict. As recently as Saturday, families were flocking to beaches and businesses were bustling in the city, 70 miles from the border with Lebanon.

Since Sunday, Hezbollah has launched more than 500 missiles, rockets and drones into Israel, most of which were intercepted. The group has appeared undeterred by the string of attacks by Israel last week.

Hezbollah, which many analysts consider the most powerful of the Iranian proxy groups and the biggest military threat to Israel, has spent years building military capacity since its war with Israel in 2006. The group was estimated to possess between 120,000 and 200,000 rockets and missiles before Israel’s strikes this week.

Our Coverage of the Middle East Crisis

• Biden Works Against the Clock: President Biden is beginning to acknowledge that he is simply running out of time to help forge a cease-fire and hostage deal with Hamas, his aides say.
• Israeli Strikes in Lebanon: In the deadliest attacks in Lebanon since 2006, Israeli warplanes bombed Hezbollah targets in the country, killing hundreds and wounding more than a thousand others. As Lebanon reels from the attacks, the future is murky for a wounded Hezbollah.
• Feeling Forgotten: With all eyes on Israel’s escalating battle with Hezbollah in Lebanon, the families of Israeli hostages and Gazans fear that their plight will be shoved aside.
• Why Israel Is Escalating: Israel’s intensifying strikes in Lebanon show how determined it is to stop Hezbollah’s cross-border attacks — and how far it is from achieving that goal.
• Diplomacy Takes a Back Seat: After years of failed Mideast peace deals and tit-for-tat violence, neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians believe their adversaries will ever negotiate in good faith.