Areas north of Beirut hit and Tel Aviv targeted for first time, as death toll in Lebanon reaches 560
Israel bombed the mountains north of Beirut and Hezbollah targeted Tel Aviv for the first time on Wednesday, in a further expansion of the range and scope of the aerial conflict across the Lebanese border.
Hundreds of thousands of people have fled southern Lebanon to escape Israeli attacks on Hezbollah, but the strike on Maaysra, about 60 miles (100km) north of the border, fuelled fears that the intense assault on southern Lebanon could spread to other parts of the country.
Thousands of people crossed into Syria to escape the aerial assault, aid agencies said. Israel hit more than 100 sites inside Lebanon on Wednesday, extending a three-day bombing campaign that has killed 560 people and injured thousands. Half a million people are displaced, Lebanese authorities say.
Hezbollah attempted to hit Tel Aviv for the first time on Wednesday but Israel intercepted the surface-to-surface missile with air defences, and no damage was reported.
The Lebanese group said it was targeting intelligence headquarters, in an apparent signal that it can still pose a serious threat, even after days of intensive Israeli attacks which have killed many top commanders and destroyed much of its arsenal.
An Israeli military spokesperson said the unguided missile was heading towards civilian areas along the coast. “The Mossad headquarters is not in that area, it is a bit east and north of that area,” Lt Col Nadav Shoshani of the Israel Defense Forces told a briefing. “Hezbollah is definitely trying to escalate the situation.”
Israel estimated that Hezbollah had 150,000 rockets and missiles at the start of the conflict and has not said how many have been destroyed. Senior commanders killed include the head of the elite Radwan force, Ibrahim Aqil, last week, and on Tuesday the head of the missile and rocket force Ibrahim Qubaisi.
