Hezbollah says it has hit Ashdod naval base and Tel Aviv; three injured | Israel attacks Lebanon News

Hezbollah says it has attacked the Ashdod naval base in southern Israel “for the first time,” adding that it carried out an operation against a “military target” in Tel Aviv using advanced missiles and drones.

The Israeli ambulance service announced on Sunday that three people were injured in Petah Tikva, east of Tel Aviv, as a result of rockets launched from Lebanon.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on these claims, but previously reported air raid sirens in central and northern areas, including the outskirts of Tel Aviv. The army said it had intercepted some of about 55 projectiles fired into northern Israel.

The attacks come a day after Israel killed at least 20 people in an attack in central Beirut. At least 66 others were injured, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned it as an attack on US-led ceasefire efforts, calling it a “direct, bloody message rejecting all efforts and continued contacts” to end the war.

“(Israel writes) again in Lebanese blood a blatant rejection of the solution under discussion,” said a statement from his office.

Meanwhile, the European Union’s top diplomat called for more pressure on both Israel and Hezbollah to reach a deal, saying a final agreement from the Israeli government was “pending.”

“We see only one possible path forward: an immediate ceasefire and the full implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701,” Borrell said after meeting Mikati and Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah who mediated with the group.

Borrell said the EU is ready to provide 200 million euros ($208 million) to help the Lebanese army, which would deploy additional troops in the south.

The impending deal would pave the way for the withdrawal of Hezbollah fighters and Israeli forces from southern Lebanon, below the Litani River, in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution (1701) that ended the war of 2006. Lebanese troops are said to be patrolling the area, in the presence of UN peacekeepers.

The Biden administration has tried for months to broker a ceasefire, and US envoy Amos Hochstein was back in the region last week.

The attacks on Lebanon continue

In southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army said an Israeli attack on a post killed a soldier.

“One soldier was tortured and 18 others were injured, including some with serious injuries, as a result of an Israeli attack on a Lebanese army center in al-Arriyeh,” the army said in a statement.

It was the latest in a series of Israeli attacks that have killed more than 40 Lebanese troops, even as the army remained largely on the sidelines in Israel’s war against Hezbollah.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which said previous attacks on Lebanese forces were accidental and that they are not targeted in their campaign against Hezbollah.

After nearly a year of limited cross-border firefights, with Lebanese Hezbollah saying it was acting in support of Hamas in Gaza, Israel escalated airstrikes on Lebanon on September 23 and sent ground troops to southern Lebanon a week later. Hezbollah said it would halt its attacks if Israel stopped shooting in Gaza, which has been turned into a wasteland after 13 months of non-stop Israeli bombing.

Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed more than 3,500 people, the ministry said. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population.

On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians were killed in bombings in northern Israel and in the fighting following the Israeli ground invasion in early October. About 60,000 Israelis have been expelled from the north of the country since October 7, 2023.