Two long-range rockets intercepted as terror group says it targeted Glilot base near Tel Aviv; IDF strikes weapons caches in Beirut area, ground troops destroy tunnels near border
The Israel Defense Forces appeared to expand its strikes on Hezbollah to the Lebanese city of Tyre on Wednesday, Lebanon’s state media reported, as the Iran-backed terror group filed multiple volleys of rockets targeting central and northern Israel.
“Four strikes targeted the city of Tyre after the enemy threatened to bomb it,” the National News Agency said, following earlier reporting that “an enemy drone targeted” a “street in Tyre.”
Earlier in the day, Israel issued an urgent evacuation warning to residents of the city, ahead of airstrikes against Hezbollah sites.
The warning, which covered a large portion of the city, was the first broad evacuation call issued for Tyre since the start of the war, compared to previous orders that were directed at specific buildings.
Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, posted a map of the targeted areas on X, warning civilians: “Hezbollah’s activity forces the IDF to act in the area you are in.
“The IDF does not want to harm you. You must immediately move away from the area marked in red and head north to the Awali River. Anyone who is near Hezbollah personnel, facilities and weapons of Hezbollah is putting their life in danger!” Adraee wrote.
The warning came after Israel struck several Hezbollah weapons manufacturing and storage sites the night before in Dahiyeh, the terror group’s stronghold in the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut.
The targeted sites were embedded in civilian buildings, and the IDF warned civilians who were near the buildings beforehand to evacuate.
Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed three Hezbollah regional unit commanders in the past two days, the IDF said Wednesday, saying fighter jets took out the commanders of Hezbollah’s Jibchit, Jouaiyya and Qana areas.
The commanders were responsible for rocket and missile fire on Israeli towns from their respective areas, the IDF said.
The military also said that Khalil Muhammad Amhaz, a member of Hezbollah’s aerial forces, known as Unit 127 and responsible for drone attacks on Israel, was killed in a Monday airstrike in northern Lebanon.
The IDF described Amhaz as a “central source of knowledge” in the drone unit.
Meanwhile, some 70 Hezbollah operatives were killed in airstrikes and ground operations in southern Lebanon between Tuesday and Wednesday, the military said, adding that troops also located and destroyed tunnels and caches of weapons.
In southern Lebanon, reservist IDF ground troops of the Iron Fist Armored Brigade uncovered a weapons cache in a mosque, discovering ammunition and a recoilless rifle outside the mosque, as well as RPGs, sniper rifles, anti-tank missiles, and other weapons inside it.
Hezbollah rockets trigger sirens in center, north
Two long-range rockets were launched at Israel from Lebanon on Wednesday morning, both of which were successfully intercepted by air defenses.
There were no reports of injuries in the attack, which triggered sirens in Tel Aviv and nearby towns, as well as in the Nazareth area in the north.
Police did note, however, that falling shrapnel following a rocket interception over central Israel damaged a car in the Herzliya area.
Hezbollah claimed it had targeted the Glilot military intelligence base in the area, which houses the 8200 signals intelligence unit. The base has been targeted several times in recent days.
The terror group said the rocket fire was “in response to attacks and massacres committed by the Zionist enemy.”
A few hours later, a barrage of some 25 rockets was fired from Lebanon at the Haifa area.
Sirens were activated in the Krayot and other nearby towns, northeast of Haifa.
According to the IDF, most of the rockets were intercepted by air defenses, and some impacts were identified.
There were no reports of injuries, but one rocket reportedly impacted in the Sha’ar Na’aman area, south of Acre. Footage from the scene showed damage to a building.
A drone launched from Lebanon was also shot down by air defenses over the Ramot Naftali area, hours after three other drones, launched by an Iran-backed militia in Iraq, were also intercepted. Another drone from Lebanon was intercepted outside of Israeli airspace later in the day.
Yet another rocket barrage of 30 projectiles targeted the Krayot and Kiryat Shmona several hours later. The IDF said some of the rockets were intercepted, and impacts were also identified.
Meanwhile, the IDF located the remains of a Hezbollah drone launched at Israel Tuesday night, which had triggered repeated sirens and sent around a million Israelis to bomb shelters for an hour.
The Israeli Air Force had been tracking the drone from Rosh Hanikra on the Lebanon border but lost contact with it in the Yokne’am area amid attempts to intercept it.
An initial probe by the military indicated the drone was successfully downed near Yokne’am, and crashed in an open area.
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.
Some 60,000 residents were evacuated from northern towns on the Lebanon border shortly after Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, amid fears Hezbollah would carry out a similar attack, and increasing rocket fire by the terror group.
The attacks on northern Israel since October 2023 have resulted in the deaths of 29 civilians. In addition, 45 IDF soldiers and reservists have died in cross-border skirmishes and in the ensuing ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September.
Two soldiers have been killed in a drone attack from Iraq, and there have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
The IDF estimates that more than 1,500 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in the conflict. Around 100 members of other terror groups, along with hundreds of civilians, have also been reported killed in Lebanon.
Hezbollah has named 516 members who have been killed by Israel amid the fighting, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. These numbers have not been consistently updated since Israel began a new offensive against Hezbollah in September.
As reported by The Times of Israel