Hezbollah fires a missile at Tel Aviv in deepest strike yet after Israeli bombardment of Lebanon

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Hezbollah hurled dozens of projectiles into Israel early Wednesday, including a missile aimed at Tel Aviv that was the militant group's deepest strike yet and marked a further escalation after Israeli strikes on Lebanon 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. There were no reports of casualties or damage. The military said it struck the site in southern Lebanon where the missile was launched.

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 explosives 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.

The launch ratcheted up tensions as the region appeared to be teetering toward another all-out war, even as Israel continues to battle Hamas in the Gaza Strip. A wave of Israeli strikes on Monday and Tuesday killed at least 560 people in Lebanon and forced thousands to seek refuge.

Fleeing families have flocked 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.

Hezbollah's latest strikes included dozens of rockets fired Wednesday into northern Israel, with one hitting an empty home and sparking a fire in the city of Safed. The Israeli military said that at one point the militants fired 40 projectiles simultaneously.

Israel responded with its own new strikes on Hezbollah. In Lebanon, at least three people were killed and nine wounded in an Israeli 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 Israeli military has said there are no immediate plans for a ground invasion, but it 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 U.N. 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. 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 cease-fire in Gaza, something that appears increasingly remote.

The rocket fire over the past week has disrupted life for more than 1 million people across northern Israel, with schools closed and restrictions on public gatherings. Many restaurants and other businesses are shut in the coastal city of Haifa, and there are fewer people on the streets. Some who fled south from communities near the border are coming under rocket fire again.

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.

Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesperson, said the missile fired 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 800 kilograms (1,760 pounds), according to the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. Iranian officials have described the liquid-fueled missile as having a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles).

Cross-border fire began ramping up 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, whom Israel described as a top Hezbollah commander with the group’s rocket and missile unit. Military officials said Kobeisi was responsible for launches toward 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 U.N.’s High Commissioner for Refugees in Lebanon said one of its staffers and her young son were among those killed 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 staggering toll for a country still reeling from the deadly pager and walkie-talkie bombings last week.

Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Israelis stay in a residential building bomb shelter to stay safe from rockets fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Haim, northern Israel, on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Israelis rest in a residential building bomb shelter to stay safe from rockets fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Haim, northern Israel, on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Israelis rest in a residential building bomb shelter to stay safe from rockets fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Haim, northern Israel, on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Israelis sit next to a public bomb shelter to stay safe from rockets fired from Lebanon, in Haifa, northern Israel, on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

A Turkish Air Force airplane brings medical aid boxes at Beirut International airport, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Workers unload Turkish medical aid boxes arriving at Beirut International airport, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A Turkish Air Force personnel unloads medical aid boxes at Beirut airport, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A Lebanese police intelligence stands near a crater at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit a hangar in the southern town of Jiyeh, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

People gather near a damaged car at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit a hangar in the southern town of Jiyeh, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

People gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit a hangar in the southern town of Jiyeh, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

People gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit a hangar in the southern town of Jiyeh, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

People gather near the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit a hangar in the southern town of Jiyeh, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Residents cry as they walk past a building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

An Israeli surveillance aircraft seen from Hadera flies over the Mediterranean sea towards northern Israel, on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Residents check the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A forklift removes a damaged car as Lebanese army and emergency workers gather at the scene of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A wounded man reacts at the scene of the building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A man uses his mobile phone to document a damaged car at the scene of the building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Journalists gather at the scene of a building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Residents and rescuers check a building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A forklift removes a damaged car as Lebanese army and emergency workers gather at the scene of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Residents check a partially destroyed building at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Smoke rises behind a destroyed house following an Israeli airstrike on Khiam village, as seen from Marjayoun town, south Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A destroyed house by an Israeli airstrike on Khiam village, as seen from Marjayoun town, south Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept rockets that were launched from Lebanon, in northern Israel, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Hezbollah launched dozens of rockets into Israel, including a longer-range projectile that set off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv and across central Israel. It was the group’s farthest strike yet in nearly a year of exchanges. Israel said it intercepted the projectile, and there were no reports of casualties or damage.

Hezbollah said it had fired a ballistic missile at the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, which it said was responsible for the targeted killing of its senior leaders. Israel later said it struck the site the missile was launched from in southern Lebanon.

Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander Tuesday as part of a two-day bombing campaign that left more than 560 people dead and prompted thousands in southern Lebanon to seek refuge from the widening conflict. Hezbollah has launched hundreds of projectiles towards Israel, causing some damage to buildings and homes and lightly injuring a number of people.

Israel and Hezbollah have been trading fire since the Israel-Hamas war began. Israel’s military says it will do “whatever is necessary” to push Hezbollah away from Lebanon’s border with Israel.

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

Here’s the latest:

An Israeli airstrike in central Gaza has killed a pregnant woman and her four children, Palestinian medical officials say.

The strike on Wednesday hit a house in the urban Bureij refugee camp, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah.

An Associated Press journalist saw the bodies. Hospital records showed that the 35-year-old woman was 6 months pregnant. Her four children were aged between 8 and 18.

Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and accuses Hamas of putting them in danger by operating in crowded residential areas. The military rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children.

CAIRO — The bodies of 28 people killed in Israeli airstrikes were brought to local hospitals over the past day and another 85 people were wounded, the Gaza Health Ministry said Wednesday.

A total of 41,495 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the Israel-Hamas war nearly a year ago, according to the ministry, which says another 96,006 have been wounded.

The ministry does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count. It says women and children make up slightly more than half of those killed.

The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

The war began with Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 hostages. Around 100 captives are still being held in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Pope Francis called for a stop to escalating tensions in Lebanon, calling it “unacceptable.”

“I am saddened by the news coming from Lebanon, where intense bombing in recent days has caused much death and destruction," the pope said Wednesday during a regular audience at the Vatican. “I hope that the international community will make every effort to stop this terrible escalation. It is unacceptable. I express my closeness to the Lebanese people, who have already suffered too much in the recent past."

JERUSALEM — Hezbollah has launched dozens of rockets into northern Israel following days of heavy Israeli airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon.

The Israeli military said that at one point on Wednesday, more than 40 projectiles were launched simultaneously, though most were intercepted.

The municipality in the northern city of Safed said a projectile hit a home, causing a fire. There were no injuries as the residents were not there, it said. Safed has been a frequent target for Hezbollah due to military infrastructure in the area.

Earlier on Wednesday, Hezbollah fired a missile at Tel Aviv, triggering air raid sirens. The military said it intercepted the projectile, and there were no casualties or damage.

The military said it was launching “extensive strikes” across southern and eastern Lebanon.

An Israeli airstrike on Beirut killed a top Hezbollah commander Tuesday, part of a two-day bombing campaign that has killed hundreds of people and prompted thousands in southern Lebanon to seek refuge from the widening conflict.

BEIRUT — Israeli strikes Wednesday hit a town near the northern coastal town of Byblos, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.

There were no immediate reported casualties, as Israeli warplanes pound southern and eastern Lebanon for a third day in a new phase of their ongoing conflict with the Hezbollah militant group.

A photo circulated by the NNA and local media shows large plumes of smoke between the houses and green fields of the town of Maisara, a stone’s throw away from the Mediterranean Sea.

The renewed strikes come hours after Hezbollah announced it launched a missile toward Tel Aviv, targeting the headquarters of the Mossad intelligence agency that it blames for a string of assassinations of its top commanders and for the explosion of hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to members of the group and its civilian institutions that wounded thousands and killed dozens of people.

As thousands of Lebanese flee the airstrikes from the country’s southern and eastern provinces, NNA said Israel launched three strikes airstrikes over the northeastern city of Hermel, the town of Labweh, and a handful of towns and villages across the country’s southern province.

The Israeli army says it will continue its strikes until it can return the tens of thousands of residents who were displaced from Israel's north, near its border with Lebanon. Israel maintains that Hezbollah is launching rocket attacks in and near civilian areas.

While Lebanon’s north has mostly been spared from the strikes, Israel has launched rare strikes near the northern town of Mayrooba and in the outskirts of Qartaba.

The days of strikes have killed over 560 people, in some of Lebanon’s deadliest days since Israel’s war with Hezbollah in 2006.

CAIRO — 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 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’ Oct. 7 attack.

Iraq has close ties to Iran, which supports both Hamas and the Lebanese militant group. Hezbollah has traded heavy fire with Israel in recent days.

BEIRUT — Thousands of Lebanese and Syrians have fled from Lebanon across the border to Syria following heavy Israeli bombardment, a United Nations refugee agency official said Wednesday.

Rula Amin, Middle East and North Africa spokesperson for the agency known as UNHCR, said that families were “arriving in buses and cars, but also travelling by foot.”

“Crowds of people — many of whom are women, young children and even infants — continue to await processing for entry,” she said. “Many will have to spend the night outdoors waiting their turn.”

Amin said that UNHCR teams, along with the Syrian Red Crescent, were providing water, mattresses, blankets and food. She noted that the team has “also seen people, including children, bearing injuries suffered from the recent attacks on Lebanon.”

Some 775,000 Syrians are registered with the U.N. Refugee Agency in Lebanon, and hundreds of thousands more are believed to be unregistered in the country.

A wave of Israeli strikes on Monday and Tuesday killed more than 560 people in Lebanon, including around 150 women and children. It was the highest death toll in nearly a year of clashes between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, and the deadliest Lebanon has seen since a bruising monthlong war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — A hospital in the central Gaza Strip said Wednesday it received the bodies of three people who were killed in an Israeli strike the previous day.

The Awda hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp said the strike late Tuesday hit a civilian vehicle northeast of the camp, and three bodies were recovered Wednesday morning.

The death toll from Tuesday’s strike on a house in the Nuseirat camp reached 11 after the body of a woman arrived at the hospital early Wednesday, the facility said. The dead included at least four children, according to the hospital records. The house strikes also wounded 11 people, the hospital said.

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military intercepted a missile launched from Lebanon into central Israel on Wednesday morning in the latest escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.

Israel Rescue Services said there were no injuries or damage reported from the missile, which triggered sirens in Tel Aviv and Netanya, two large cities in central Israel. It was Hezbollah's farthest strike yet in nearly a year of exchanges.

Hezbollah said it had fired a ballistic missile at the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, which it said was responsible for the targeted killing of its senior leaders. Israel said it struck the site the missile was launched from in southern Lebanon.

Tensions between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have steadily escalated over the past 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 killed a top Hezbollah commander Tuesday as part of a two-day bombing campaign that left more than 560 people dead and prompted thousands in southern Lebanon to seek refuge from the widening conflict. Hezbollah has launched hundreds of projectiles towards Israel, causing some damage to buildings and homes and lightly injuring a number of people.

LONDON — Britain will send 700 troops to the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus as it prepares for the possible evacuation of its citizens from Lebanon.

Cyprus is located across a strip of water from Lebanon, and Beirut harbor has been used before to evacuate foreign nationals by sea from Lebanon. During the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, tens of thousands of foreigners were evacuated by sea to Cyprus in a fleet of commercial and military vessels, many supplied by American, British, European and other naval forces.

The British troops and members of the Border Force were to arrive Wednesday, even as the government made repeated appeals for its nationals to immediately evacuate Lebanon. Britain retains sovereign military base areas in Cyprus, which are considered its territory.

“We continue to urge all sides to step back from conflict to prevent further tragic loss of life. Our government is ensuring all preparations are in place to support British Nationals should the situation deteriorate,” said British Defense Secretary John Healey.

“The Royal Air Force also have aircraft and transport helicopters on standby to provide support if necessary,” Healy said.

A Lebanese police intelligence stands near a crater at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit a hangar in the southern town of Jiyeh, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

A protester waves a Lebanese flag as demonstrators gather to protest against the war on Gaza and Israeli military strikes on Lebanon in front of the Los Angeles Federal Building on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)

People gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit a hangar in the southern town of Jiyeh, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Relatives mourn over the coffins of Hezbollah members who were killed in an Israeli airstrikes, during their funeral procession in the southern village of Saksakieh, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Residents and rescuers check a building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Lebanese fleeing the Israeli bombardment, arrive in a taxi at the Syrian-Lebanese border crossing in Jdaidet Yabous, Syria, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

Smoke rises behind a destroyed house following an Israeli airstrike on Khiam village, as seen from Marjayoun town, south Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A Lebanese fleeing the Israeli bombardment, arrives at the Syrian-Lebanese border crossing in Jdaidet Yabous, Syria, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)