Iran launches wave of missiles at Israel
Iran launched a wave of missiles at Israel on Tuesday, hours after Israeli forces said they had launched a ground offensive in southern Lebanon.
Sounds of explosions were heard in the cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and sirens all over the country have been blaring. During the attack, the Israeli military instructed Israeli citizens to head to protected areas and bomb shelters.
Israel media said around 200 rockets and missiles were fired from Iran towards Israel, with several directly hitting Israeli cities. An Iranian statement said it had sent "tens" of missiles.
Following the attack, Israel's military spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, said the army was not aware of any injuries and added that Israelis could leave their shelters.
The attack comes several days after Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a massive strike on southern Beirut, and comes amid Israeli cross-border raids into Lebanon.
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Israel, Iraq, and Jordan have all closed their airspaces following Iran's strikes, with Israel reopening its airspace hours later.
Pictures and videos show the skies of Tel Aviv being lit up with rocket fire, and videos appear to show some missiles making direct hits, with smoke visible.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said in a statement that Tehran launched tens of missiles towards Israel, adding that the missile attack was in response to Israel's killing of Nasrallah and IRGC commander Abbas Nilforoushan in Beirut, as well as Israel's killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.
A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran alerted the US through diplomatic channels "shortly before" the attack took place.
US says attack 'defeated and ineffective'
Immediately after the attack, US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris attended a national security briefing.
Biden said he directed the US military to aid Israel's defence against the attacks and shoot down missiles targeting Israel, despite several missiles having already directly hit Israeli cities including Tel Aviv.
US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin had spoken with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant earlier on Tuesday before the Iranian attacks, and the two military leaders spoke of "severe consequences" for Iran if it launched a direct attack on Israel.
Israeli army spokesman Hagari told reporters that the Israeli Air Force "continues to operate at full capacity, and tonight will also continue to strike powerfully in the Middle East, as has been the case for the past year."
"We are still investigating [the result of the attack] and do not want to give the enemy all the information," Hagari said.
So far, the attack seems to have caused more damage to Israel than the previous Iranian attack in April, when hundreds of armed drones were launched in retaliation for the Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate building in Damascus.
Most of the drones in that attack were intercepted by Israel, working in tandem with the US, France, and other countries including Jordan.
In this attack, reports said that Iranian missiles have been flying over Jordan, with some of them being intercepted.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan characterised Iran's attack as a "significant" escalation and that the attack was "defeated and ineffective".
Sullivan said the US was not aware of any casualties or damage to infrastructure and military installations during a press briefing on Tuesday. Sullivan reiterated the US position that it was not evacuating its citizens from Lebanon but urged Americans to avail commercial means of leaving the country.
"There will be severe consequences for this attack," Sullivan added without elaborating on what those might be but that they will work with Israel to make them happen.
Pentagon spokesman General Pat Ryder said that two US Navy destroyers, the USS Bulkeley and the USS Cole, fired approximately a dozen interceptor missiles in defence of Israel during Iran’s attack.
Ryder said this attack was “twice the size, in terms of scope” of what we said earlier, in an apparent reference to Iran’s April attack on Israel.
The current Israeli escalation in Lebanon and Iran's response on Tuesday comes a year after Israel began its war on Gaza last October, which has so far killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to the official death toll reported by the Palestinian health ministry.
The war had caused widespread fears of widening into a regional conflict between Israel and the Iran-aligned Axis of Resistance, which is made up of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, the Syrian government, and the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.
After the war on Gaza began, Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement began cross-border rocket attacks, Yemen's Houthis launched a blockade of ships to and from Israel in the Red Sea, and Israel on occasion launched strikes in Syria.
However, it wasn't until the last few weeks that the conflict escalated with Israel launching a cyber attack on Lebanon, triggering the explosions of Hezbollah-linked pagers and walkie-talkies that killed 37 people and injured thousands of others. Days later, Israel began launching massive air strikes throughout Lebanon that culminated in the strike on southern Beirut that killed Nasrallah.
The Israeli strikes on Lebanon have killed more than 700 people in total.
Iran says attacks were 'legal, rational and legitimate'
Over the past few weeks, conservatives and moderates inside Iran grew divided on how to respond to Israel's killing of Haniyeh while the Hamas leader was in Tehran, and the killing of several Hezbollah leaders including Nasrallah.
The Haniyeh killing was seen as a major security failure for Iran, with Tehran not responding to the killing for months.
The Iranian mission to the United Nations defended Iran's Tuesday operation, saying it was a "legal, rational, and legitimate response to the terrorist acts" conducted by Israel.
"Should the Zionist regime dare to respond or commit further acts of malevolence, a subsequent and crushing response will ensue. Regional states and the Zionists' supporters are advised to part ways with the regime," the mission said.
In its statement regarding the missile attack, the IRGC also warned Israel that it would be targeted again if it retaliated. US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said it was "absolutely false" that Iran provided the US with a warning.
"We attacked the heart of occupied lands. If the Zionist regime tries to respond to the Iranian operation, it will face crushing responses," the IRGC said in its statement.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella organisation of Iran-linked Iraqi armed groups, warned the US that its military bases in Iraq and the Middle East would be targeted if Washington were to join in on a possible Israeli response against Iran.
Hagari, the Israeli military spokesperson, said that the Iranian operation would have consequences.
"We are on high alert both defensively and offensively," Hagari said in a television broadcast on Tuesday.
"We will defend the citizens of the state of Israel. This attack will have consequences. We have plans, and we will operate at the place, and time, we decide."
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted a video message directed at the Iranian people, saying that regime change would happen "sooner than people think".
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