BEIRUT: Hezbollah said it targeted Israel’s Sde Dov air base near Tel Aviv on Tuesday in retaliation for Israeli attacks on civilians in Lebanon, in the second operation Tuesday it dedicated to its slain leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Hezbollah said its fighters launched “a salvo of Fadi-4 rockets at the Sde Dov air base in Tel Aviv”, adding the attack came in defence of Lebanon and “in response to the targeting of Lebanese civilians and the massacres that the enemy carried out”.
This operation was dedicated to Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs last week.
Meanwhile, air raid sirens were activated across central Israel, signaling a heightened state of alert. The Israeli military confirmed the sirens but did not provide specifics regarding the locations affected.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese state-run National News Agency reported Israeli air strikes on two sites in southern Beirut.
A senior US official warned that Iran appears to be preparing for an imminent ballistic missile strike against Israel, a claim that escalates the already tense situation. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, stated, “We are actively supporting defensive preparations to defend Israel against this attack.” The US has indicated that any military aggression from Iran would lead to severe consequences.
Despite the warnings, Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that no aerial threats from Iran had been detected at that time. He assured that Israel’s air defense systems were fully operational and that combat aircraft were actively patrolling the skies.
The United States and other western allies stepped in to defend Israel against a combined Iranian missile and drone attack in April, which Tehran launched in retaliation for an Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.
Iran has said that Nasrallah’s killing would bring about Israel’s “destruction,” though the foreign ministry said Monday that Tehran would not deploy soldiers to confront Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that no place in the Middle East is beyond Israel’s reach.
