Iran launched a missile assault on Israel on Tuesday, according to Iranian state media and the Israeli military. This was the most recent escalation following Israeli raids in Lebanon against militants supported by Iran.
The military released a statement saying, “A short while ago, missiles were launched from Iran towards the State of Israel.” Israel was rocked by sirens, and AFP reporters claimed to have heard explosions over Jerusalem.
Israel’s commercial center, Tel Aviv, was the target of “a missile attack,” according to Iran’s official news agency, IRNA.
According to its Revolutionary Guards Corps, Israel killed Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, last week, and Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, was killed in a blast in Tehran that was mostly attributed to Israel. These events prompted the attack.
Israeli airspace was closed with all flights diverted, a spokesman for the airport authority said.
Iraq and Jordan, while lie between between Iran and Israel, closed their airspace too.
As the missiles made their way to Israel from the east, blasts were heard over the Jordanian capital Amman, as Israel’s allies moved to intercept them, an AFP correspondent said.
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant had earlier discussed the Iran threat with Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin, a statement from his office said.
Tehran had mostly abstained from direct attacks on its regional adversary, even though Iran-backed forces around the region had already been dragged into the Gaza conflict, which was started by the Palestinian organization Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7.
Early on Tuesday, the Israeli military announced that forces had crossed Israel’s northern border and were conducting “targeted ground raids” in south Lebanon. However, few specifics regarding the scope or duration of the operation have been revealed by the officials.
The Israeli ground offensive came despite growing calls for de-escalation after a week of air strikes that killed hundreds in Lebanon, including Hassan Nasrallah, the powerful leader of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
Iran has said Nasrallah’s killing would bring about Israel’s “destruction”, though the foreign ministry said Monday that Tehran would not deploy any troops to confront Israel.
The Pentagon said the United States was boosting its forces in the Middle East by a “few thousand” troops.
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