The Israeli military cleared the public to exit their bomb shelters and announced that very few injuries were reported after Iran launched a barrage of some 180 ballistic missiles toward the country on Tuesday.
Fire could be seen over the night skies of Israel as missiles exploded overhead. The Israel Defense Forces said the explosions were either successful interceptions or missiles that evaded Israel’s air-defense system and hit open land. Israel, Iraq, and Jordan shut down their respective airspaces as a result; Israel’s airspace reopened a short while later.
Two U.S. Navy destroyers fired about a dozen interceptor missiles to help defend Israel, Pentagon press secretary Patrick Ryder told reporters. He noted those details may change as the situation develops.
Israel vowed to respond to the attack, which came less than 24 hours after the IDF initiated a limited incursion into southern Lebanon to target Iranian-backed Hezbollah assets.
“We are on heightened alert on defense and offensive, we will protect the citizens of Israel. This [missile] fire will have consequences,” IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said after the initial wave of ballistic missiles. “We have plans, and we will act in the time and place that we choose.”
Around the time of the attack, reports broke about an apparent mass shooting in the neighborhood of Jaffa in southern Tel Aviv. At least six people died and another nine were injured, according to the Times of Israel. Some initial death tolls amounted to seven or eight, but the Israeli police later revised it to six.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad took responsibility for the shooting, which involved a gunman who fired a semiautomatic rifle and another terrorist who carried a knife.
The White House said Tuesday morning that it expected an imminent missile attack from Iran, warning that a direct assault on Israel “will carry severe consequences for Iran.” The suspected targets are military and government sites, not civilian.
U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan said Iran’s attack on Israel appeared to have been defeated, though he noted that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are actively monitoring the “fluid” situation. Biden ordered the U.S. military “to aid Israel’s defense against Iranian attacks and shoot down missiles that are targeting Israel,” according to the White House.
The U.S. has been anticipating Iran’s retaliatory response to Israel’s targeted airstrike on Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut on Friday. Nasrallah joined the Iranian-backed terror proxy amid Israel’s second invasion of southern Lebanon in 1982. He became the group’s chief leader ten years later, serving in that position until his death.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps confirmed the assassinations of Nasrallah and other terrorist leaders was the reason for Tuesday’s attack. The Revolutionary Guard also said it would launch more missiles if Iran was attacked.
Despite Iran’s reprisal, U.S. officials believe Tehran still does not want a wider regional war amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. In Tehran, witnesses reported that chants of “God is great” could be heard from rooftops as supporters of the Iranian regime cheered on the attack.
Iran previously led a retaliatory strike in April, with more than 300 missiles and drones headed for Israel. Most of the projectiles, some of which were ballistic missiles, were intercepted by Israel, the U.S., the U.K., and Jordan. The Pentagon confirmed that the latest attack was “twice the scope” of April’s attack, considering ballistic missiles can inflict more damage and travel faster. The ballistic missiles from Iran were capable of reaching Israel within twelve minutes.
The Israeli military said on Monday its forces are conducting “limited, localized and targeted” ground raids in southern Lebanon, escalating tensions between the IDF and Hezbollah. The IDF assured reporters that targeting Beirut and other Lebanese cities is not the intended goal of its limited operation.
“We’re not going to Beirut, we’re not going to the cities in southern Lebanon,” Hagari said Tuesday. “We are focusing in the area of those villages and the area next to our borders, and we will do in this area what is necessary to dismantle and demolish Hezbollah’s infrastructure.”
At the time of the invasion, it was initially reported that the Lebanese army withdrew several miles from its southern border with Israel. Lebanon denied those reports.
“The Army Command would like to clarify that the military units deployed in the south are repositioning some forward observation posts within their assigned sectors of responsibility,” the Lebanese army said Tuesday morning.
The newly launched ground offensive marks the first time in 18 years that Israeli troops entered Lebanese territory. In 2006, Israel and Hezbollah engaged in a monthlong war that killed more than 1,000 Lebanese and 150 Israelis. That conflict ended with the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which mandated an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon and a joint U.N.-Lebanese force to replace Hezbollah south of the Litani River.
Israel has claimed that Hezbollah routinely violates the 2006 agreement by operating in the area between the border and the Litani River. An Israeli official told reporters on Tuesday that Hezbollah’s strongholds near the Lebanon-Israel border “pose a clear and direct threat to Israel’s civilians.”