Israel strikes more targets in Lebanon as sirens sound in Tel Aviv

Israel's military once again attacked facilities of the Iranian-backed Shiite Hezbollah militia in Lebanon from the air overnight, it said on Wednesday morning.

Among the targets bombed were Hezbollah weapons depots, missile launchpads and fighters, the army said on the online platform X. Subsequent explosions indicated large quantities of stored weapons, it added.

Warning sirens rang out across Tel Aviv in the early hours of Wednesday for the first time since May as air defence intercepted a missile fired from Lebanon, the Israeli military said.

The surface-to-surface rocket was fired from a launchpad in the south of the neighbouring country, and the launchpad was subsequently destroyed by the Israeli Air Force, it said.

There were no reports of damage or casualties, the military added.

It is the first time Hezbollah has targeted Tel Aviv, in central Israel, since the war in the Gaza Strip began on October 7 last year.

Hezbollah subsequently declared that the rocket attack was aimed at the headquarters of Israel's foreign intelligence service Mossad in a suburb of Tel Aviv.

Mossad, it said, was responsible for the assassination of several of the militia's leaders and for the evidently coordinated mass explosions of communication devices used by Hezbollah in Lebanon last week.

Since October 7 there have been almost daily military confrontations between the Israeli army and Hezbollah in the border area between the two countries.

As the war in Gaza approaches its first anniversary, Israeli attacks have marked a dramatic escalation of the conflict with Hezbollah to the north.

Israel said on Tuesday it was intensifying its bombing campaign in Lebanon as two days of airstrikes targeting Hezbollah sent the death toll above 550 and forced tens of thousands of people from their homes.