BEIRUT (Dispatches) -- 
Hezbollah said Sunday it targeted the Ashdod naval base in southern Israeli occupied territories “for the first time”, adding that it conducted an operation against a “military target” in Tel Aviv using advanced missiles and strike drones.
The Israeli military earlier reported air raid sirens in central and northern areas, including the Tel Aviv suburbs. It said around 160 projectiles had been fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon into northern and central territories. 
Medical agencies reported that at least 11 settlers had been injured, including a man in a “moderate to serious” condition.
Images from Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv, showed several damaged and burned-out cars, and a building pockmarked by shrapnel. In nearby Rinatya, several buildings were damaged.
They came a day after Israeli strikes across Lebanon killed 84 people, including led at least 29 people in central Beirut. At least 66 others were wounded in the capital, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health.
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned it as an assault on ceasefire efforts, calling it a “direct, bloody message rejecting all efforts and ongoing contacts” to end the war.
The occupying regime is “again writhing in Lebanese blood a brazen rejection of the solution that is being discussed,” a statement from his office read. 
Hezbollah said it had “launched, for the first time, an aerial attack using a swarm of strike drones on the Ashdod naval base”, one its deepest targets so far.
Hezbollah also said its fighters had launched a volley of missiles at the Glilot military intelligence base on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, a facility it has announced previous attacks against. 
Its fighters destroyed six Israeli Merkava tanks in Lebanon’s south on Sunday afternoon, five of them in the strategic coastal area of Bayada.
They “destroyed” five Israeli tanks “on the eastern outskirts of the town of Bayada” including one that had “attempted to advance to withdraw one of the destroyed tanks”, also knocking out a sixth Merkava tank in the Deir Mimas area close to the Lebanese border, the group said in separate statements.
Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell called for an immediate ceasefire in the war while on a visit to Lebanon on Sunday.
In the Lebanese capital, Borrell held talks with parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, who has led mediation efforts on behalf of ally Hezbollah.
“We see only one possible way ahead: an immediate ceasefire and the full implementation of United Nations Security Council 
Resolution 1701,” Borrell said. “Lebanon is on the brink of collapse”, he warned.
Under Resolution 1701, which ended the last Hezbollah-Israel war of 2006, Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only armed forces present in the southern border area. The resolution also called for Israel to withdraw troops from Lebanon, 
The Lebanese army maintains a presence across the country’s territory. While the army is not engaged in the war, it has suffered multiple fatalities, the latest coming on Sunday. 
The army said an Israeli strike on a military post killed one soldier and wounded 18 others. 
The official National News Agency said “Israeli warplanes launched two violent strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs”. Footage showed grey smoke billowing over the area, with the news agency reporting “massive destruction”.
War between Israel and Hezbollah escalated in late September, nearly a year after cross-border exchange of fire. 
The Israeli attacks have martyred at least 3,754 people in Lebanon since October 2023, according to the health ministry, most of them since September. Israeli strikes have targeted Beirut on a near-daily basis for the past two weeks. 
On the Israeli side, authorities say at least 82 soldiers and 47 settlers have been killed, while the true figure is thought to be higher.