The IDF announced that no drones had entered Israeli airspace on Wednesday evening, after Israelis throughout the north of the country were ordered to shelter in place after a large-scale drone alert was issued along the northern border earlier in the evening. Residents of Metula were instructed to remain in shelters after a mortar fell in the town amid the alert.
IDF Spokesperson Daniel Hagari stated later on Wednesday evening that there was no security incident in the north and that the alerts had been activated by mistake. It is as of yet unclear what caused the mistake and the IDF is investigating the incident.
Rocket alerts were issued in Haifa on Wednesday as well, with Gaza's al-Qassam Brigades saying it fired one rocket toward Haifa.
Terrorist infiltration alerts were issued in Maalot Tarshicha and Maayan Baruch in northern Israel earlier in the evening, with both towns receiving the all clear later.
Rambam Medical Center entered emergency mode after the alerts began, with the departments of the hospital transferring patients to underground facilities.
US says it's watching developments on Lebanon-Israel border
The United States is watching developments on the Lebanon-Israel border closely and does not want to see the conflict widened or expanded, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Wednesday.
"We have seen rocket fire coming from southern Lebanon ... into northern Israel. We obviously are watching this with great concern. We don't want to see this conflict widened or expanded," Kirby said in an interview with MSNBC.
He said he does not believe it is in Israel's interest to have a second front to fight and defend.
The IDF launched retaliatory strikes on a Hezbollah observation post in southern Lebanon on Wednesday after anti-tank missiles were fired from Lebanese territory at an Israeli military position on the border, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit said. Hezbollah took responsibility for the anti-tank missile fire shortly after the incident.
The attack took place near the Israeli town of Arab al-Aramshe, opposite the Lebanese village of Dhayra. The IDF did not immediately provide details on casualties.
A Lebanese security source said the powerful armed group Hezbollah fired two precision missiles into Israel, which the group considers its sworn enemy.
Where did the IDF strike in Lebanon?
IDF retaliatory strikes hit a Hezbollah observation post near the border, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit said.
Residents of the southern Lebanese town of Rmeish said Israeli shelling was hitting around their town, and a security source told Reuters that Israeli artillery shells were hitting the rocket launch point around Dhayra.
Local Lebanese television station al-Jadeed broadcast images of plumes of white smoke billowing out of a wooded region near some homes and farmland in Dhayra.
Hezbollah says it sees US as 'full partner' with Israel in war
The Hezbollah terrorist movement warned on Wednesday that it considers the US a "full partner" with Israel in the ongoing war launched by Hamas this week, saying it was "not frightened" by the entry of a US aircraft carrier to the area.
"We consider the United States a full partner in the Zionist aggression and hold it fully responsible for the killing, criminality, siege, destruction of homes, and horrific massacres against defenseless civilians, including children, women, and the elderly," said Hezbollah.
"We call on the masses of our Arab and Islamic nation, which knows the ugly truth of America and its aggression against the peoples of our nation in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan, to condemn the American intervention and its international and regional partners and to expose this intervention at all political, popular, media, and legal levels and in various regional and international forums and gatherings."
This is a developing story.