Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib on Wednesday put a number on the number of people fleeing in a hurry (in cars, on motorbikes, on foot…) from the massive bombings that Israel began on Wednesday in the country and that have killed nearly 600 people and injured more than 1,800, an unprecedented figure in the country in such a short time since the end of the civil war in 1990. “We had 110,000 displaced people and now this figure is approaching half a million,” said the minister at an event organized by the think tank Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. A mass exodus is heading to the homes of relatives (or strangers), schools converted into shelters or hotels. Hundreds of Syrian refugees are also returning to their country.
Also unprecedented on Wednesday was the launching by Hezbollah of a ballistic missile against the Tel Aviv area, the first to be acknowledged by both sides in almost a year of fighting. The militia has specified that the missile was aimed at the headquarters of the Mossad, on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, the economic heart of the country where anti-aircraft sirens sounded, warning the population of the danger. Hours later, the Israeli army announced its third massive attack against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The Shiite group has indicated that the launch of the missile towards the headquarters of the Mossad is revenge for the attack with the almost simultaneous detonation at a distance of thousands of search and rescue vehicles. walkie-talkies that the party-militia had distributed among its own. Israel has not explicitly acknowledged this operation, but has hinted, in statements by several leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that it is the work of its foreign secret services, the Mossad.
On Wednesday morning alone, the militia launched some 40 rockets towards different regions of Israel. The ground-to-ground rocket aimed at Tel Aviv was intercepted by the anti-missile defense system, according to the army, which has not changed its instructions to the civilian population in the central area, nor cancelled school classes. No personal or material damage has been reported.
It is the first time in almost a year of fighting that Hezbollah has hit such a target with one of its rockets, the Israeli military said. The militia claimed a similar attack last month, in retaliation for the assassination of its deputy, Fuad Shukr, but the government of Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed it as propaganda. Shortly afterwards, the Israeli army announced “extensive bombings” in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, as it had done in the previous two days. For the first time, it attacked Maaysrah, in the predominantly Christian Keserwan region.
The day has provided further evidence of the risks of the conflict spreading to the region. Pro-Iranian militias in Iraq have announced the launch of a drone against the Golan Heights, a Syrian territory occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War in 1967. When the sirens sounded there, Israeli fighter planes shot down the drone south of the Sea of Galilee, the army said. In the area around Haifa, which is home to the country’s main port in the northwest, just thirty kilometers from the border with Lebanon, fighter planes are constantly flying over it, as in recent days.
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Triple anti-aircraft shield
In this time, Hezbollah has been expanding the radius of its missile launches, coinciding with the most intense bombardments of its positions by the Israeli air force. The Jewish state bases its defence mainly on a triple anti-aircraft shield, which on Wednesday thwarted the plans of the Lebanese Shiite militia to strike at the heart of one of the best protected institutions. Israeli military sources say that its effectiveness is around 90% and it has strong support from its main ally, the United States.
The lower layer, closest to the ground, is the Iron Dome, which has been in operation since 2011 to intercept short-range rockets and artillery, such as those frequently fired by Hamas and Islamic Jihad from Gaza, or Hezbollah, now from southern Lebanon. At the intermediate level is the so-called David’s Sling system, which has been in operation since 2017 and is designed to stop ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as medium- and long-range rockets. This is the level at which the Israeli defense system is believed to have acted in the attack by the Shiite militia on Wednesday. Finally, at the top layer, the Arrow system has also been in operation since 2017 to intercept missiles that fly outside the atmosphere.
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