Hezbollah rocket hits Israel’s main airport amid missile barrage

A Hezbollah rocket landed in Israel ‘s main airport today as the group launched waves of projectiles across the Lebanese border. Ben Gurion airport was struck during a blistering assault this morning as the IDF battled to intercept the initial salvo of projectiles, the military reported. Flights were delayed and disrupted as a result of the attack, as Hezbollah claimed it was targeting the IDF’s Tzrifin base, south of the airport.

Debris from an intercepted rocket also hit an empty car parked in Ra’anana, some 13 miles from the airport in Tel Aviv . Sirens rang out again east of the city this afternoon after a single rocket was flagged and intercepted, according to the IDF. The military claimed 120 projectiles were launched from Lebanon today altogether. The IDF reported ten were fired in the morning, claiming to have intercepted ‘most’.

The Israel Airports Authority announced later that the airport was ‘open and working normally for arrivals and departures’ again, following the initial attack. Images from Ra’anana showed the aftermath of a separate attack, in which debris ostensibly from a Hezbollah rocket landed in a parked car, destroying it. Footage showed the roof of the car caved in and the windshield cracked, with glass around the vehicle as bystanders took photos

Hezbollah later said it had launched attack drones at a base south of Tel Aviv, adding it was targeting this military position for the first time. Fighters launched a ‘squadron of attack drones at the Bilu base (belonging to the reserve paratroopers brigade…) south of Tel Aviv, for the first time,’ Hezbollah said in a statement. The group also said it had targeted a naval base near the Israeli city of Haifa with drones and missiles, the fourth attack on the base in as many weeks.

Hezbollah fighters ‘targeted the Stella Maris naval base northwest of Haifa with a salvo of high-quality missiles and a squadron of attack drones,’ the group said in a statement. The barrage comes after months of exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy group based in Lebanon. Hezbollah has launched rockets into Israel since the onset of Israel’s campaign in Gaza in solidarity with its ally in Hamas.

With focus shifting to the north, Israel has intensified strikes into Lebanon in a bid to push back Hezbollah and allow tens of thousands of displaced Israelis to return to their homes and jobs in northern Israel. This has not been without controversy, as both sides are bound to maintain a demilitarised zone, with only the Lebanese military and UNIFIL peacekeepers allowed to station troops south of Lebanon’s Litani River under UN Resolution 1701. Hezbollah and other armed groups in southern Lebanon have not withdrawn, per the agreement, prompting a sharp reaction from Israel after months of conflict.

More than a year of clashes that escalated into war in September have killed at least 3,050 people in Lebanon, according to health ministry figures. Israeli strikes continued to pound south Beirut today, as the military targeted what it said was Hezbollah infrastructure set up in the capital. The strikes came about an hour after Israel issued evacuation warnings for three areas of the Hezbollah bastion.

‘Enemy warplanes launched nine strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs,’ the official National News Agency said, listing at least six districts that were hit. One of the strikes triggered a loud explosion which was heard across much of the capital, witnesses said. Israel’s army said it hit ‘Hezbollah targets’ in the area including ‘command centres, weapons storage facilities, and terrorist infrastructure’.

Earlier Wednesday, Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported Israeli air strikes on the Bekaa Valley in the east and in the southern city of Nabatiyeh. Israel’s army had issued evacuation warnings for Nabatiyeh but not for the Bekaa Valley. The Israeli army said Hezbollah had fired about 120 projectiles across the border. The Israeli military separately announced today it had intercepted a projectile fired from central Gaza towards southern Israel.

‘A short while ago, the IAF (air force) intercepted a projectile that crossed from the central Gaza Strip into the area of Kissufim in southern Israel. Sirens sounded in accordance with protocol,’ the military said in a statement. The UN reported today, meanwhile, that its Gaza child polio vaccination drive was now complete, with more than half a million children vaccinated despite the war. The World Health Organization and the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF launched a second round of vaccinations in northern Gaza on Saturday after Israeli bombing halted an earlier attempt to do so.

‘The second round of the polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip was completed yesterday, with an overall 556,774 children under the age of 10 being vaccinated with a second dose,’ said a joint statement. It ‘is a remarkable achievement given the extremely difficult circumstances the campaign was executed under’. Israel’s military has pounded northern Gaza for weeks in a major offensive it says is aimed at stopping Hamas militants from regrouping. An estimated 7,000 to 10,000 children are stuck in ‘inaccessible areas’ in the north and ‘remain unvaccinated and vulnerable to the poliovirus’, the UN organisations said.

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