File image.
For the first time ever, Lebanon’s Hezbollah announced on September 25 that it had attacked a target in Israel using a ballistic missile.
Hezbollah said in a statement that it had launched a Qadir-1 ballistic missile at the headquarters of Israel’s spy agency, Mossad, in the suburb of the city of Tel Aviv. The attack was carried out in response to recent assassinations in Lebanon and the attack that targeted communication devices across the country a week earlier, the group noted.
The unprecedented set off warning sirens in Tel Aviv and its suburbs. The Israeli Defense Forces later said in a statement that the missile was intercepted by the David’s Sling medium-range air defense system. No injuries were reported by the military.
Later, the IDF announced that it had struck the launcher used to fire the missile in the town of Nafakhiyeh in southern Lebanon, the heartland of Hezbollah.
At least 42 people were killed and more than 3,500 others were wounded on September 17 and 18 in a sabotage attack that saw thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members exploding. Later on September 20, an Israeli strike hit the southern suburb of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, killing Hezbollah top military commander Ibrahim Aqil along with more than 50 other people. Over 68 others were wounded in the strike.
Israel escalated again on September 23, launching an aerial campaign against Hezbollah that has so far claimed the lives of 569 people and left over 1,800 others wounded across Lebanon.
One of the Israeli strikes on September 24 hit Beirut, claiming the life of Ibrahim Kubisi, the commander of Hezbollah missile forces.
Up until the ballistic missile attack on Tel Aviv, Hezbollah had limited its response to rocket attacks on northern and central Israel.
The confrontation between Israel and Lebanon broke out after the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip last October, with Hezbollah and its allies launching near-daily attacks against the IDF in support of the Palestinian enclave.
So far, the confrontation has resulted in 26 civilian deaths in Israel and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights as well as the deaths of at least 22 soldiers and security officers. On the Lebanese side, more than 1,800 people have been killed, including more than 500 fighters of Hezbollah.
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