Lebanon's Hezbollah said on Wednesday it fired a rocket targeting Mossad spy agency headquarters near Tel Aviv, which it blamed for the assassination of its leaders and for blowing up communications devices used by its members, in a new escalation that moved the arch-foes closer to full-fledged war.

Warning sirens sounded in Israel's economic capital Tel Aviv as a single surface-to-surface missile was intercepted by air defence systems after it was detected crossing from Lebanon, the Israeli military said.

There were no reports of damage or casualties and the military said there was no change to civil defence instructions for central Israel, Reuters reported.

Warning sirens also sounded in other areas of central Israel, including the city of Netanya.

The Israeli military said a drone crossing into Israeli territory from Syria was intercepted by fighter jets south of the Sea of Galilee.

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement in Lebanon fired hundreds of missiles and rockets at Israel in recent days as months of conflict across the border with southern Lebanon has intensified sharply.

The Israeli military has been conducting its heaviest air strikes of the war this week, targeting Hezbollah leaders and hitting hundreds of targets deep inside Lebanon.

On Tuesday, a strike in Beirut killed senior Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Qubaisi, who headed the group's missile and rocket force.

He is one of several key figures who have been assassinated since fighting broke out between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah nearly a year ago in parallel with the Gaza war.

Lebanon ‘at the brink’

Israel's offensive since Monday morning has killed 569 people, including 50 children, and wounded 1,835 in Lebanon, Health Minister Firass Abiad told Al Jazeera Mubasher TV.

A new offensive against Hezbollah has stoked fears that conflict between Israel and the militant Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza is widening and could destabilize the Middle East.

The U.N. Security Council said it would meet on Wednesday to discuss the conflict.

"Lebanon is at the brink. The people of Lebanon – the people of Israel – and the people of the world - cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza," U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said.

Half a million people are estimated to have been displaced in Lebanon, said Lebanon's Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib. He said Lebanon's prime minister hoped to meet with U.S. officials over the next two days.

In Beirut, thousands of displaced people who fled from southern Lebanon were sheltering in schools and other buildings.

Israel's military said its airforce conducted "extensive strikes" on Tuesday on Hezbollah targets across southern Lebanon, including weapons storage facilities and dozens of launchers that were aimed at Israeli territory, Reuters reported.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the attacks had weakened Hezbollah and would continue. Hezbollah "has suffered a sequence of blows to its command and control, its fighters, and the means to fight. These are all severe blows," he told Israeli troops.

President Joe Biden recognized the United Arab Emirates as a major defense partner of the United States on Monday after talks with its president on topics that included the war in Gaza and growing Middle East instability, Reuters reported.

The U.S. designation - India is the only other country to have been designated as such - allows for close military cooperation through joint training, exercises and other collaborative efforts.

Biden and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan called for "urgent, unhindered" humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza and shared their commitment to a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in a statement after their meeting.

At the start of the meeting, Biden said he had been briefed on the latest developments between Israel and Lebanon, where Lebanese officials said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 492 people on Monday.

"My team is in constant contact with their counterparts, and we're working to de-escalate in a way that allows people to return to their home safely," he said.

Their joint statement touched on the Gulf state's involvement in the Sudan conflict, with both stressing that there was no military solution to the war, which has triggered the world's largest displacement crisis.

They also underscored plans to deepen cooperation on space exploration, clean energy and artificial intelligence, where the UAE has launched ambitious plans drawing interest from U.S. geopolitical rival China.

Vice President Kamala Harris met separately with the UAE leader, but the talks were closed to press, read the report.

"The vice president raised her deep concerns about the conflict in Sudan," the White House said. "She expressed alarm at the millions of individuals who have been displaced by the war and the atrocities committed by the belligerents against the civilian population."

Israeli forces raided the bureau of media network Al Jazeera in the West Bank city of Ramallah early on Sunday morning, issuing it with a military order to shut down operations, the network and the Israeli military said on Sunday.

The Qatar-headquartered channel aired live footage of Israeli troops entering the office with their weapons drawn and handing a military court order to Ramallah bureau chief Walid al-Omari forcing the bureau to close for 45 days, Reuters reported.

The Israeli military said, in response to a Reuters query, that the channel's offices had been sealed and its equipment confiscated.

The military added that the order was signed after an intelligence assessment determined that the offices were being used "to incite terror, to support terrorist activities."

"The channel's broadcasts endanger the security and public order in both the area and the State of Israel as a whole," the statement said.

Al Jazeera called the raid "a criminal act" and held the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responsible for the safety of its journalists, it said in a statement.

The network added that it would take legal action to protect it rights and promised to continue its coverage, read the report.

"Al Jazeera rejects the draconian actions, and the unfounded allegations presented by Israeli authorities to justify these illegal raids," it said.

Al-Omari said the order he received accused Al Jazeera of "incitement to and support of terrorism" and he said the soldiers confiscated the bureau's cameras before leaving, Al Jazeera reported.

Israeli communications minister Shlomo Karhi confirmed the closure in a statement that called Al Jazeera "the mouthpiece" of Gaza's Hamas and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah. "We will continue to fight in the enemy channels and ensure the safety of our heroic fighters" he said.

The Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate condemned Israel's move, saying "this arbitrary military decision is considered a new violation against journalistic and media works, which has been exposing the occupation's crimes against the Palestinian people."

The Israeli government in May banned Al Jazeera from operating inside Israel, in a move authorised by an Israeli court, and raided a Jerusalem hotel the network used as its office, saying its broadcasts threatened national security, Reuters reported.

The network, which says it has no affiliation with militant groups, has provided on-the-ground coverage of Israel's nearly year-long military offensive in Gaza and of a parallel surge in violence in the West Bank.

Unrest has mounted there since the start of the Gaza war, with regular sweeps by Israeli forces that have involved thousands of arrests, regular gun battles between security forces and Palestinian fighters, Palestinian street attacks and attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinian communities.

Al Jazeera, which is funded in part by the Qatari government, has previously rejected accusations that it harmed Israel's security as a "dangerous and ridiculous lie" that puts its journalists at risk.

It has accused Israeli authorities of deliberately targeting and killing several of its journalists, including Samer Abu Daqqa and Hamza AlDahdooh, both killed in Gaza during the conflict. Israel has said it does not target journalists.

Qatar established Al Jazeera in 1996 and views the network as a way to bolster its global profile, read the report.

Qatar, along with Egypt and the United States has mediated ceasefire negotiations under which Israel recovered some of those taken hostage on Oct. 7 in a Hamas-led attack on Israel.

The internationally-recognised Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank under Israeli occupation.