Hezbollah has fired a ballistic missile targeting Mossad’s headquarters near Tel Aviv, the Lebanon-based group said.

Warning sirens sounded in Tel Aviv on Wednesday as a surface-to-surface missile was intercepted by Israeli air defence systems after it was detected crossing from Lebanon, the Israeli military said.

Hezbollah said that the building targeted was where the Israeli intelligence agency planned the recent attacks using pagers and other wireless devices. The launch came amid Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon, which has killed at least 500 people and forced tens of thousands to flee.

It is the first time that the Iran-backed armed group has claimed a ballistic missile strike since October when hostilities with Israel were triggered by the war on Gaza.

“The Islamic Resistance launched a ‘Qader 1’ ballistic missile at 6:30am (03:30 GMT) on Wednesday, 25-9-2024, targeting the Mossad headquarters in the outskirts of Tel Aviv,” Hezbollah said in a statement. “This headquarters is responsible for the assassination of leaders and the explosion of pagers and wireless devices.”

The group added that the strike was carried out in support of the people of Gaza and “in defence of Lebanon and its people”.

The Israeli military said it was the first time a projectile fired from Lebanon had reached central Israel.

Hezbollah claimed to have targeted an intelligence base near Tel Aviv last month in an aerial attack, but there was no confirmation from the Israeli side.

There were no reports of damage or casualties in Israel and the military said there was no change to civil defence instructions for central Israel.

The Israeli Air Force said in a post on X that its planes had struck the launcher from which the missile was fired in the area of Nafakhiyeh in Lebanon.

Sending a message

The Israeli army reported on Wednesday that Hezbollah had also launched attacks on the occupied Syrian region of Golan Heights and near Mount Carmel in northern Israel.

It added that the defence systems intercepted rocket and unmanned air vehicle attacks in the morning.

Reporting from Marjayoun in Lebanon, Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan said that it appears that Hezbollah has ramped up its firing of rockets at Israel.

He suggested that the missile fired at Tel Aviv was meant as a “message”.

“It’s only one missile, so it’s more than likely to be a message from Hezbollah that they still have ballistic missile capability,” Khan reported.

“The Israeli army says that their missile defence system intercepted it. The fear for the Israelis is that the missile defence system simply gets overwhelmed.”

Meanwhile, Israel continued overnight and into Wednesday to pound Lebanon.

The Israeli military said it conducted a series of air strikes in four waves, one of the largest campaigns in its history, with 250 fighter jets dropping 2,000 munitions.

Israel’s war on Gaza has drawn in Hezbollah and other Iran-backed groups from across the Middle East.

The shift of Israel’s focus from Gaza to Lebanon in recent days has revived fears that a full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah could erupt, or even a conflagration stretching across the region.

The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said Israeli strikes killed at least 558 people on Monday and wounded hundreds – the deadliest day of violence in the country since its 1975-90 civil war.