Said Amori
April 06, 2026•Update: April 06, 2026
Lebanon’s Hezbollah group struck a warship in the eastern Mediterranean with a cruise missile, Israel’s Channel 14 said Sunday, claiming the vessel was British rather than Israeli.
The privately owned channel said Hezbollah recently fired a surface-to-sea missile at a maritime target off the Lebanese coast, believing it was an Israeli warship.
The missile struck the vessel and caused damage, but the ship continued its mission, it said.
The channel did not specify when the strike took place.
Earlier Sunday, Hezbollah said in a statement that it targeted “an Israeli military warship at midnight between Saturday and Sunday” about 68 nautical miles off the Lebanese coast as it was preparing to carry out attacks on Lebanese territory.
The group said it used a naval cruise missile after monitoring the target for several hours, adding that it scored a direct hit.
Channel 14 claimed the vessel struck was British, not Israeli.
There was no immediate comment from Israeli authorities on Hezbollah’s statement, while no British comment had been issued on the Israeli channel’s claim.
Israel has carried out airstrikes and a ground offensive in southern Lebanon since a cross-border attack by the Lebanese group on March 2, despite a ceasefire that took effect in November 2024.
Hezbollah has fired barrages of rockets into Israel since early March, saying the attacks are in response to continued Israeli strikes on Lebanon as well as the killing of Iran’s then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a joint US-Israeli airstrike on Feb. 28.
*Writing by Tarek Chouiref
