Iran fired a barrage of ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday evening, hours after Israeli forces launched a ground offensive against Hizbullah in southern Lebanon as the region slid closer towards all-out war.
The Israeli military said that approximately 180 missiles had been fired into Israel from Iran since the beginning of the attack at about 7.30pm local time, forcing millions of people to tak refuge in shelters.
Sirens sounded across the country amid the boom of interceptor missiles being fired at Iranian projectiles.
“This attack will have consequences,” said Rear Adm Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesperson. “We have plans, and we will operate at the place and time we decide.”
“We have carried out a large number of interceptions,” Mr Hagari added. “There were a few hits in the centre and other areas in the south of the country,” he said, adding that the military was not aware of any casualties.
The Iranian attack, which came with little warning, marked a significant escalation in tensions between Iran and Israel, which has stepped up attacks on Tehran’s proxies, notably Hizbullah in Lebanon.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it had launched tens of ballistic missiles into Israeli airspace in retaliation for the assassinations last week of Hizbullah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah and a senior guards commander in Beirut.
The Guards said the assault was also in response to a suspected Israeli attack that killed Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.
“The Aerospace Forces of the Guards have targeted the heart of the occupied territories,” it said, noting that the decision to launch the missile attack had been approved by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, chaired by president Masoud Pezeshkian.
“This comes after a period of restraint ... following the escalation of the Zionist regime’s aggressive actions,” it said, warning that any Israeli response would result in “devastating” attacks on targets in the country.
Iran later announced that all flights to and from Tehran’s international airport had been cancelled.
In Washington, US president Joe Biden convened an emergency meeting with vice-president Kamala Harris and their national security team to discuss the attack.
Mr Biden has directed the US military “to aid Israel’s defence against Iranian attacks [and] shoot down missiles targeting Israel”, the White House said.
Hours before, a US official had warned that Iran was “preparing to imminently launch a ballistic missile attack against Israel”.
Following the first reports of the missile warning, Brent crude, the international benchmark oil price, rose 5.2 per cent to $75.39 a barrel on Tuesday, after having previously traded down on the day. Gold prices also rose.
The Iranian attack, which is likely to trigger a robust Israeli response, came with much less notice than a previous barrage in April.
On that occasion, Tehran launched more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel in a telegraphed assault that caused limited damage. The US and its allies helped defend Israel, intercepting most of the projectiles. Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government retaliated with a calibrated missile attack on a base near the Iranian city, Isfahan.
But Mr Netanyahu has stepped up his rhetoric against Tehran in recent weeks. On Monday, he warned Iran “there is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach”.
Tuesday’s Iranian assault came hours after Israel launched a ground offensive in Lebanon, intensifying its campaign against Iranian-backed Hizbullah after launching waves of devastating air strikes against the militant group.
In the past two weeks, Israel has assassinated Mr Nasrallah, carried out a bombing campaign that has killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon, and moved troops across the border.
Israel characterised its incursion into Lebanon as “limited, localised, and targeted ground raids” against Hizbullah in the south of the country.
It says it is seeking to make northern Israel safe for the return of about 60,000 people displaced by Hizbullah’s rocket fire.
The regional escalation has been accompanied by a ratcheting up of Israel’s rhetoric, with officials talking about “defeating” Hizbullah, and Mr Netanyahu pledging last week to “change the balance of power in the region for years”.
As Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza continues – air strikes killed at least 37 people in the Strip yesterday according to Palestinian health officials – Israeli forces have stepped up strikes on Iranian proxies in the region.
Iranian leaders have repeatedly said they do not want to be drawn into a broader Middle East war, adding that the Islamic republic would not fall into what they have described as Israel’s “trap”.
But after the Islamic republic appeared weak at home and in the region as Hizbullah, its most important proxy, took devastating blows from Israel, the regime decided to risk a direct attack on the Jewish state.
The US has been deploying additional forces to the region since Israel assassinated Mr Nasrallah on Friday and increased its bombing campaign on Lebanon. It has about 40,000 troops in the region.
At least eight people were killed near a Jaffa light-rail station, and several injured in a shooting attack on Tuesday that Israeli police blamed on “terrorists”.
The attackers were “neutralised”, the police said.
– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2024
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