UPDATE - 5 Israelis injured, fires break out in Tel Aviv area after rockets launched from Lebanon

UPDATES WITH STATEMENT FROM ISRAELI POLICE OFFICIAL

By Zein Khalil

JERUSALEM (AA) — At least five Israelis were injured Monday after a rocket launched from Lebanon hit the greater Tel Aviv area, causing a fire to break out, according to Israeli media.

The Israeli military reported that it had intercepted a rocket aimed at the greater Tel Aviv region. However, broadcaster Channel 12 reported five injured as rockets launched from Lebanon struck the area.

The daily Israel Hayom noted that a rocket hit near a shopping center in the city of Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv, resulting in a fire at the site.

For its part, Channel 12 said fire erupted as shrapnel from an interceptor missile hit a power line in Ramat Gan.

The outlet had reported earlier that sirens sounded in dozens of towns in the greater Tel Aviv area following the detection of rocket launches.

Meanwhile, Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported that a rocket hit an Israeli bus in the city of Bnei Brak, also east of Tel Aviv, with takeoffs and landings halted at Ben Gurion Airport to the southeast.

Israeli police later contradicted the military's claimed interception. Tel Aviv police chief Haim Sargerof confirmed that the incident involved a direct hit from a heavy rocket, not an intercepted missile, as the military had claimed.

Sargerof provided details on the damage, saying that parts of the rocket’s engine had caused significant destruction to a building, igniting a nearby electricity pole and starting a fire, according to Yedioth Ahronoth.

Israel has been engaged in cross-border warfare with Lebanon over Tel Aviv's ongoing war on the Gaza Strip, launching an air campaign in its northern neighbor against what it claims are targets of the Hezbollah group in late September.

More than 3,500 people have been killed by Israeli attacks in Lebanon, with nearly 15,000 injured and more than a million displaced since last October, according to Lebanese health authorities.

Tel Aviv expanded the conflict by launching a ground assault into southern Lebanon on Oct. 1 this year.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio