Israel expands strikes on Lebanon as Hezbollah targets Tel Aviv with missile

Sir Keir Starmer says he believes the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is on the brink of all-out war after urging any Britons still in Lebanon to leave immediately

Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes in the southern village of Kfar Rouman, seen from Marjayoun, south Lebanon (AP)

Israel has widened its airstrikes across Lebanon, while Hezbollah fired a missile at Tel Aviv for the first time in nearly a year of cross-border fire – intensifying the conflict between the two.

Hezbollah claimed to have targeted the headquarters of the Mossad spy agency in Tel Aviv, Israel’s economic capital, with what it described as a ballistic missile.

It cames as British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer urged Britons still in Lebanon to “leave immediately” and ordered hundreds of British troops to relocate to Cyprus in anticipation of a possible evacuation should a second all-out war break out in the region alongside Israel’s war in Gaza against Hamas.

The Israeli military said a single surface-to-surface missile was intercepted by air defence systems heading for Tel Aviv after it was detected crossing from Lebanon on Wednesday morning.

Warning sirens sounded in Tel Aviv, but there were no reports of damage or casualties. However, locals spoke of nervousness at the prospect of Hezbollah expanding its bombing campaign deeper into Israel.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah said in a statement it had fired a missile targeting the Mossad spy agency headquarters in a Tel Aviv suburb "in support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip ... and in defence of Lebanon and its people".

It blames Mossad for the recent assassination of senior commanders in the southern suburbs of Beirut, the Lebanese capital, as well as the explosion of electronic pagers and walkie-talkies last week.

Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese have fled their homes and hospitals have filled with the wounded since a sharp intensification of bombing on Monday, when more than 550 people were killed in Lebanon’s deadliest day since the end of a 1975-1990 civil war.

Israeli emergency responders arrive at the site of a rocket strike, fired from Lebanon, in the northern Israeli city of Safed (AFP via Getty Images)

Hours after Hezbollah fired at Tel Aviv on Wednesday, Israel announced it was carrying out another series of “extensive strikes” across southern Lebanon and the Bekaa valley running along the border with Syria.

The Lebanese health ministry, which is a separate authority in the country, reported that at least 23 people were killed and around 50 injured as a result of the latest Israeli strikes. Those casualties were recorded at at least five different locations, according to a Reuters compilation of Lebanese health ministry statements.

Israel has expanded the zones it has been striking since Tuesday night, with attacks for the first time on the beach resort town of Jiyyeh just south of Beirut and Maaysrah.

The strikes also took place in Bint Jbeil, Tebnin and Ain Qana in the south, the village of Joun in the Chouf district near the southern city of Sidon, and Maaysrah in northern Keserwan district.

In Beirut, thousands of displaced people who fled from southern Lebanon were sheltering in schools and other buildings.

More than 60 people were evacuated by the Lebanese Army early on Wednesday from the Christian town of Alma Chaab, along the border with Israel, following intense strikes overnight.

“At least two houses were completely destroyed but thankfully they were empty and we had no deaths,” said Milad Eid, a resident of the town.

Israeli authorities said the Galilee region of northern Israel was hit by heavy Hezbollah barrages on Wednesday morning.

In one salvo about 40 rockets were fired. Some were intercepted in mid-air, others struck open areas or penetrated air defences into populated areas, they said.

Sir Keir, Britain’s foreign secretary David Lammy and defence minister John Healey have all urged Britons to get out of Lebanon as the prospect of a wider war grows by the day.

Asked on Wednesday morning whether he thinks the Middle East is on the brink of all out war, Sir Keir told the BBC: “I am deeply concerned about it and I have myself put it in those terms, that we are essentially at a brink point and we have to come back from the brink.”

Palestinians mourn loved ones killed in Israeli strikes, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip (REUTERS)

Hezbollah began to fire across Israel’s northern border on 8 October last year, a day after fellow Iran-backed Hamas launched a deadly attack from the Gaza Strip into Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage, around half of which remain in Gaza.

The subsequent Israeli aerial and ground assult in Gaza has killed at least more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to the latest update from the local health ministry in the Hamas-run strip[, and forced more than 90 per cent of the enclave’s population to flee their homes, many on multiple occasions.

Local officials in Gaza say the extent of Israel’s attacks on the enclave have lessened in recent days as Israel shifts its focus to the Israeli-lebanon border and Hezbollah, at least temporarily.

But Palestinians are still being killed. At least a dozen died on Monday, while 24 were killed on Sunday and 40 a day earlier, according to a civil defence spokesperson.

Images published on Wednesday also showed Palestinian families mourning loved ones recently killed in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

Hezbollah says it will not stop firing rockets at Israel until they halt their war on Gaza. As world leaders head to the United Nations headquarters in New York for the annual general assembly, however, the prospect of a ceasefire appears dim. Previous US, Egyptian and Qatari efforts to broker a deal have proved unsuccessful as both Israel and Hamas continue to reject various conditions of a possible truce.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is heading to New York for a speech on Friday.

Pope Francis has called the Israeli strikes a “terrible escalation” of the Middle East conflict, while the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, was also among global dignitaries who said the escalation in fighting was pushing the region towards the brink.

Reuters contributed to this report