Iran fired a salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday in retaliation for Israel’s campaign against Tehran’s Hezbollah allies in Lebanon.
Israel’s military later sounded the all-clear and said Israelis were free to leave their shelters. Military spokesman Daniel Hagari said the military was not aware of any injuries resulting from the Iranian missile attacks.
He described the attack as serious and said it would have consequences.
In a seperate incident, four people were killed and seven wounded in a shooting attack in the Jaffa neighbourhood of Tel Aviv on Tuesday, Israeli police said in a statement.
They said the two shooters had been “neutralised” and the situation was “under control”. The families of the victims had been notified.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they launched tens of missiles toward Israel and warned that if Israel retaliated Tehran’s response would be “more crushing and ruinous”, Iranian state TV reported. Videos of missiles flying above the Iranian capital were shared by the Iranian Student News Agency.
Alarms sounded across Israel and explosions could be heard in Jerusalem and the Jordan River valley after Israelis piled into bomb shelters. Reporters on state television lay flat on the ground during live broadcasts.
A senior Iranian official later told Reuters that the order to launch missiles at Israel was given by the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Khamenei remains in a secure location, the senior official added.
The Israeli army said Israel’s airspace was closed following the Iranian attack.
𝐍𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐚 𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐞.
This is Israel right now.
RT this so the entire world knows. pic.twitter.com/ok8CxCXxnP
— Israel ישראל (@Israel) October 1, 2024
Reuters journalists saw missiles intercepted in the airspace of neighbouring Jordan. Israeli media reports said as many as 200 missiles had been launched.
Earlier, the military had announced that any ballistic missile strike from Iran was expected to be widespread and told the public to shelter in safe rooms in the event of an attack.
Iran has vowed to retaliate following attacks that killed the top leadership of its Hezbollah allies in Lebanon.
The firing of missiles came after Israel said its troops had launched ground raids into Lebanon, though it described the forays as limited. The Israeli campaign in Lebanon is the
biggest escalation of regional warfare since fighting erupted in Gaza a year ago.
In Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden said the United States was prepared to help Israel defend itself from Iranian missile attacks.
“We discussed how the United States is prepared to help Israel defend against these attacks, and protect American personnel in the region,” Biden said on X about a meeting held with Vice President Kamala Harris and the White House national security team earlier in the day.
The Iranian missile launches came after Israeli ground troops launched raids into Lebanon and its warplanes bombed from the skies.
RAPID ESCALATION
Israel destroying Hezbollah’s tunnels near the border. They planned to use them to invade Israel and commit massacres.
The explosions you see are billions of Iranian money, spent on building Hezbollah tunnels.
pic.twitter.com/HwED73kwzP— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) October 1, 2024
Though so far characterised by Israel as limited, the first ground campaign into Lebanon for 18 years would pit Israeli soldiers against Hezbollah, Iran’s best-armed proxy force in the
Middle East.
It marks the biggest escalation of regional warfare since fighting erupted in Gaza a year ago, and follows weeks of intense airstrikes that have decapitated Iran-sponsored Hezbollah by killing most of its top leaders. More than a thousand Lebanese have been killed and a million have fled their homes.
Iran, which sponsors Hezbollah, has vowed to retaliate against Israel, raising fears that war could spill across borders throughout the region, despite efforts by the U.S., Israel’s closest and most powerful ally, to contain it.
In the latest announced killing of a senior Hezbollah figure, Israel said it had assassinated Muhammad Jaafar Qasir, describing him as a commander in charge of weapons transfers from Iran and its affiliates.
The rapid escalation that has engulfed Lebanon into war has killed hundreds. Near the city of Sidon along the Mediterranean south of Beirut, mourners wept over coffins containing black-shrouded bodies of people killed in Israeli strikes.
Many Lebanese said they were ready to resist Israeli forces.
(REUTERS)
