Iran unleashes salvo of missiles at Israel

Fires 180 hypersonic missiles towards Tel Aviv Calls it a response to Lebanon, Gaza aggression Gunmen kill at le

JERUSALEM:

Iran fired a salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday in retaliation for Israel's campaign against Tehran's Hezbollah allies in Lebanon, drawing vows of a sharp response from both Israel and the United States.

Alarms sounded across Israel and explosions could be heard in Jerusalem and the Jordan River valley. Israelis piled into bomb shelters and reporters on state television lay flat on the ground during live broadcasts.

Israel said more than 180 missiles were launched into Israel from Iran and Israeli air defences were activated to intercept them. US Navy warships fired about a dozen interceptors against Iranian missiles headed toward Israel, the Pentagon said.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps said the assault was in retaliation for recent Israeli killings of leaders and aggression in Lebanon and Gaza. Its forces used hypersonic Fattah missiles for the first time, and 90% of its missiles successfully hit their targets in Israel, the Revolutionary Guards said.

No injuries were reported in Israel, but one man was killed in the occupied West Bank, authorities there said. Israeli officials promised consequences for the onslaught.

Israeli Major General Herzi Halevi said in a statement: "We will choose when to collect the price, and prove our precise and surprising attack capabilities, in accordance with the guidance of the political leadership."

Washington backed up its longtime ally. "We have made clear that there will be consequences, severe consequences, for this attack, and we will work with Israel to make that the case," spokesman Jake Sullivan said at a White House briefing.

Sullivan did not specify what those consequences might be, but he stopped short of urging restraint by Israel as the US did in April when Iran carried out a drone and missile attack on Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a few other ministers were meeting in a bunker near Jerusalem, where the security cabinet was due to convene shortly, two Israeli officials said.

Iran said if Israel retaliated Tehran's response would be "more crushing and ruinous". Tehran targeted three Israeli military bases in its attack, Iran's state news agency said. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a social media post: "This is just part of our capability. Do not get into a confrontation with Iran."

A senior Iranian official told Reuters the order to launch missiles at Israel had been made by the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Khamenei remains in a secure location, the senior official added.

Oil prices shot up 5% on the news of the Iranian missile strikes, which raise the prospect of a wider war between the two arch enemies. The previous round of Iranian missiles fired at Israel in April - the first ever - were shot down with the help of the US military and other allies.

Israel responded at the time with airstrikes in Iran, but wider escalation was averted. The Pentagon said the scope of Tuesday's airstrikes was about twice the size of April's assault.

 

ESCALATION IN LEBANON

 

Iran had vowed to retaliate following Israeli strikes that killed the top leadership of its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, including the group's leader Hassan Nasrallah, a towering figure in Iran's network of fighters across the region.

In Washington, US President Joe Biden said the United States was prepared to help Israel defend itself from Iranian missile attacks, and Sullivan said the president was tracking developments "minute by minute."

Israel said overnight that its troops had launched ground raids into Lebanon, though it described the forays as limited. In Beirut, Israeli strikes killed the commander of the Imam Hussein division, Israel's military said, referring to a Hezbollah-linked group based in Syria.

Nearly 1,900 people have been killed and more than 9,000 wounded in Lebanon in nearly a year of cross-border fighting, most in the past two weeks, according to Lebanese government statistics on Tuesday. But a ground campaign into Lebanon for the first time in 18 years pitting Israeli soldiers against Hezbollah, Iran's best-armed proxy force in the Middle East, would be a major regional escalation.

Iran's foreign ministry called on the United Nations Security Council to take "meaningful action" to prevent threats against regional peace and security. "Our defensive operation is in line with international law and the right to self defence ... we only targeted military and security facilities," the foreign ministry said in its statement regarding the missile attack on Israel.

In an earlier post on X, Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran's action was "in defence of Iranian interests and citizens", adding that his country was not looking for war but would "firmly stand against any threat".

Meanwhile, at least six people were killed and nine wounded on Tuesday when two gunmen got off a tram in Tel Aviv and opened fire on passers-by, before themselves being shot dead by security forces and an armed civilian, Israeli police said. Police labelled the incident a terrorist attack but there was no immediate claim of responsibility from armed Palestinian factions or other militant groups. Shortly after the attacks, air raid sirens sounded as Iran launched missiles toward Israel.

Footage broadcast by Israeli television channels showed the two gunmen getting off the train and opening fire on people on the platform. As well as the six dead, at least nine people were wounded with varying degrees of injuries, police said.

Medics and paramedics provided on-site treatment to a number of wounded people with varying degrees of injuries, including some who were unconscious, the MDA ambulance service said.