Israel Foils Daring Hezbollah Missile Strike on Mossad HQ: A Narrow Escape

Israeli air defenses intercepted a missile fired from Lebanon as fighting intensified on Israel’s northern border on Wednesday. Reuters reported that Hezbollah said the rocket was aimed at the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad spy agency near Tel Aviv.

Thousands of people have fled southern Lebanon as Israel escalates its offensive against the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah, resulting in 558 deaths, Lebanon’s health minister said, CNN reported.

Amid two days of intense Israeli attacks, panicked civilians continued to flee southern Lebanon, crowding main roads and gas stations en route to the capital. United Nations (UN) and Lebanese officials said on Tuesday that 27,000 displaced people were being held in temporary shelters, while many others were forced to sleep in cars, parks and on beaches.

Key points

1. An Israeli air strike killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut on Tuesday, raising fears of an all-out war in the region as cross-border rocket attacks between the two sides escalated. Israel said Qubaisi led the group’s missile and rocket brigade.

2. Since Monday morning, 569 people, including 50 children, have been killed and 1,835 injured in Israeli airstrikes, Health Minister Firaz Abiad reported to Reuters news agency. The current death toll is greater than the 2020 Beirut port explosion that killed nearly 200 people, injured thousands and destroyed entire neighborhoods in the Lebanese capital.

3. Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib said he was disappointed with US President Joe Biden’s final speech at the United Nations General Assembly. However, he insisted that “the United States is the only country that can make a real difference in the Middle East and in relation to Lebanon.”

Speaking at an event hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in New York City, he emphasized that America is “the key to our salvation.”

In his final speech as president of the United States before the United Nations General Assembly, Joe Biden called for peace in the Middle East, adding that total war is of no interest to anyone.

4. Hezbollah said on Tuesday it had carried out an attack on a naval base on Israel’s northern Mediterranean coast, which is home to Israel’s top naval commando unit.

The Shayetet 13 unit, which operates from the Atlit naval base, “carries out tactical sabotage operations against enemy lines, including damaging vital structures and enemy ports during wartime,” CNN reported, citing the Israeli military.

5. The British government has advised its citizens to leave Lebanon immediately while it moves around 700 troops to Cyprus to strengthen its military presence in the Middle East. According to a statement from the UK government on Tuesday, the troops are expected to arrive “in the next few hours”, CNN reported.