Hezbollah thought to have targeted Mossad HQ near Tel Aviv in ‘mostly’ foiled barrage
Army now says only hundreds of rocket launchers were set to be used in morning attack, though it hit thousands to remove ‘larger future threat’; drones aimed at Tel Aviv area
A preemptive Israeli sortie took out thousands of Hezbollah rocket launcher barrels Sunday morning, including some believed to be aimed at the Mossad headquarters in central Israel, the military said, though officials now believe only a portion of the launchers were set to be used in an early-morning surprise attack from Lebanon.
Home Front Command officials lifted restrictions covering Tel Aviv and areas to the north in the early afternoon, though they were left in place along the border and in the Golan Heights, after Israeli jets pounded southern Lebanon throughout Sunday morning in what the IDF called a preventative measure to “remove the threat” of rocket and drone attacks.
The Israel Defense Forces initially said it had destroyed hundreds of rocket launchers, each with dozens of launch barrels, ready to attack the north and the Tel Aviv area after identifying overnight preparations for a major and immediate attack. However, military officials later said that while Israel did destroy thousands of launcher barrels, only several hundred of them were believed to have been intended to have been used in the attack.
In a video statement, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Hezbollah intended to launch hundreds of rockets at the north and several drones at central Israel in its attack, which he said was mostly thwarted by the military.
“We removed a larger threat, likely a future threat in some areas, with an emphasis on the rockets at northern Israel,” he said, adding that the Israeli strikes took place in around 40 areas of southern Lebanon.
“We foiled most of Hezbollah’s planned attack, and we intercepted many of the threats launched at Israel,” Hagari added.
Hezbollah managed to launch 230 rockets and some 20 drones from Lebanon at northern and central Israel in the early hours of Sunday, according to the IDF. Some of the projectiles were intercepted, while others impacted, causing damage to homes and lightly injuring at least one person.
An Israeli Navy sailor was killed by an interceptor missile amid the attack.
Many rockets also struck open areas, with some sparking small brushfires.
No IDF bases were damaged in the attack, and none of the Hezbollah drones impacted targets in central Israel, according to the military.
According to unofficial Israeli assessments leaked to the press and cleared for publication by the military censor, Hezbollah planned to launch missiles at the Glilot base near Herzliya, home to Mossad headquarters and several IDF intelligence units, including its high-profile signals intelligence group Unit 8200.
While the overwhelming majority of Hezbollah’s arsenal is thought to consist of rockets, which follow a parabolic path determined by gravity, it is also thought to possess a small number of missiles, which can be guided.
The army does not believe the attack intended to target the Kirya compound in central Tel Aviv, where the IDF and Defense Ministry are based, or Ben Gurion Airport to the east of Tel Aviv.
Officials shut the airport for about an hour Sunday morning, and dozens of flights to both Tel Aviv and Beirut were diverted, postponed or canceled. Officials in Israel placed restrictions on gatherings and educational activities in areas from Tel Aviv northward for much of Sunday morning, but lifted those at about 1 p.m. as life slowly began to resume normalcy following the latest foiled barrage.
Hezbollah said Sunday morning it had launched more than 320 rockets and drones at northern Israel to avenge the killing of its military leader Fuad Shukr, claiming that its drones reached their targets, which included 11 military bases in the north. It later announced that it had “completed military operations for the day,” but indicated more attacks could follow.
According to Hezbollah, the operation targeted “a qualitative Israeli military target that will be announced later” as well as “enemy sites and barracks and Iron Dome platforms.”
It later released a short propaganda video detailing the military sites it said it targeted, all of them in northern Israel.
The Iran-backed group rejected Israel’s claim that its operation had been disrupted, saying it “contradicts the facts on the ground and would be refuted” by the terror group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah later Sunday.
It did however announce that two of its operatives were killed in fighting Sunday, bringing the terror groups’ death toll in the current conflict with Israel to 430. Separately, the Amal group, which is allied with Hezbollah, said a fighter was killed in a strike on a car.
The heavy exchange of fire came following weeks of intense diplomatic activity aimed at keeping Hezbollah’s promised response to Shukr’s killing from sparking a wider conflict, after 10 months of low-level cross border fire that has brought the sides to the brink of war.
Hezbollah began shooting rockets at Israel on October 8 in support of Hamas following the Gazan terror group’s October 7 massacre, which sparked an Israeli military campaign in the Palestinian enclave. Other Iranian proxy groups have also attacked Israel in support of Hamas.
The international community has also been scrambling to ward off an Iranian response to the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, blamed on Israel, fearing it too could snowball into a regional war.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who held security consultations at the Kirya early Sunday afternoon after huddling with defense brass for an emergency meeting there hours earlier, said Israel would do whatever was needed to protect its citizens.
We “continue to follow a simple rule: whoever harms us — we harm them,” Netanyahu said at the start of his weekly cabinet meeting.
At the same time, an unnamed government official was quoted telling Channel 12 that Israel was uninterested widening the conflict.
“This is not an attack aimed at starting a war, but rather removing a serious threat to millions of Israeli citizens,” the network quoted the anonymous source as saying. “The continuation of the escalation depends on Hezbollah’s actions.”
Members of the political opposition largely expressed support for the IDF’s preemptive strike, with Opposition Leader Yair Lapid tweeting that “any attempt to attack Israel will meet with a heavy hand and the capabilities of the IDF and the security system.”
“We are all one fist against Hezbollah — the government and the IDF have full, broad and absolute backing,” former war cabinet member Benny Gantz declared.
However, some on the right, including Netanyahu’s allies, accused the government of not doing enough to degrade the terror group’s capabilities.
“The choice to thwart the attack only after 10.5 months of Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel is the continuation of the policy of containment,” said Gideon Sa’ar of the opposition New Hope party. “This opportunity should have led to a decision on an overall preemptive attack to change the reality in the north.”
Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu of the coalition’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party compared Israel’s action to “letting a robber empty the house and reacting only when he approaches the safe,” joining others accusing the nation’s leadership of only acting when Tel Aviv or Jerusalem come under threat.
In a joint missive, the heads of three northern regions announced they would cease contact with the government until it delivers a full plan to return northern residents safely to their communities and rehabilitate the region.
“We haven’t interested you for 10.5 months, and from now on, you don’t interest us. Don’t call, don’t come, don’t send messages. We have managed alone until now, we will manage,” read the statement from Mateh Asher Regional Council head Moshe Davidovich, Metula Mayor David Azoulay and Upper Galilee Reginal Council Giora Zaltz.
In Lebanon, which would likely be devastated in a direct war between Israel and Hezbollah, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Beirut was holding contacts with its partners to stop the violence from escalating, the country’s official news agency NNA reported.
“What is required is first to stop the Israeli aggression, and then to implement Resolution 1701,” he said at an emergency cabinet meeting, referencing the UN decision which ended the Second Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 and stipulated the creation of a demilitarized zone between Israel’s northern border and the Litani River in Lebanon.
Lebanese opposition leader Samy Gemayel also called for Hezbollah to be disarmed, citing Resolution 1559, a UN decision from 2004 urging the Lebanese government to establish its sovereignty over the entirety of its territory, and disarm militias like Hezbollah.
“After the response and the response to the response and the response to the response to the response, it has become clear that neither side intends to expand the war,” Gemayel wrote on X, “so it is necessary to immediately stop military operations on both sides and move towards a ceasefire… in order to avoid further senseless destruction and death.”
Sam Sokol, Michael Horovitz, Lazar Berman and agencies contributed to this report.
