Lebanese armed group Hezbollah fired a ballistic missile toward Tel Aviv, Israel, on the 24th (local time). Analysts say concerns over a full-scale war between the two sides have intensified.
Hezbollah issued a statement on Telegram on the same day, saying, "To protect Lebanon and its people, we launched a Kader-1 ballistic missile targeting the Mossad (Israel's foreign intelligence agency) headquarters on the outskirts of Tel Aviv at 6:30 a.m." This is the first time Hezbollah has targeted Tel Aviv since the Gaza Strip war broke out following the surprise attack by Palestinian armed group Hamas on Israel on October 7 last year.
Hezbollah claimed that the Mossad base targeted is "the headquarters responsible for assassinations of (Hezbollah) leaders and the explosions of pagers and radios." This suggests that the missile launch was in retaliation for the explosion of thousands of Hezbollah's communication devices such as pagers and radios across Lebanon on the 17th and 18th, which resulted in dozens of deaths.
The Israeli military sounded air raid sirens around 6:30 a.m. in Tel Aviv and central Israel, instructing residents to take shelter in bomb shelters. The Israeli military stated, "One surface-to-surface missile launched from Lebanon was detected and intercepted by the air defense system," and that it identified the launch point and conducted retaliatory airstrikes. Initially scheduled to fly to New York, USA, that evening to attend the United Nations General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu postponed his departure by a day to discuss the security situation, including the Lebanese airstrikes, according to the Prime Minister's Office.
Israel, which has been at war for over 11 months since the surprise attack by Palestinian armed group Hamas last year, recently judged that the situation in the Gaza Strip had stabilized and shifted its focus to the northern front where Hezbollah is located, launching large-scale airstrikes since the day before. In the two days of airstrikes, about 560 people have died, and the Israeli military is also conducting assassination operations targeting Hezbollah's leadership. On this day, the Israeli military announced that it killed Ibrahim Muhammad Qubaysi, commander of the missile rocket unit, in a targeted airstrike in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. These leadership assassinations are interpreted as attempts to sow confusion by destroying command structures and to weaken forces in preparation for the possibility of a full-scale war.
As tensions between Israel and Hezbollah escalate toward a full-scale war, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) decided to hold an emergency meeting on the 25th. Slovenia, the UNSC president for September, urgently convened a formal meeting at 6 p.m. the next day to discuss the Lebanon issue. United Nations Secretary-General Ant?nio Guterres expressed concern over the escalating conflict in his opening speech at the UN General Assembly's general debate held at the UN headquarters in New York, saying, "Lebanon is now standing on the edge of a cliff," and "The people of Lebanon, the people of Israel, and the people of the world cannot bear for Lebanon to become another Gaza."
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