Iran launched a barrage of more than 400 ballistic missiles toward Israel on Tuesday, less than 24 hours after Israeli soldiers initiated a limited incursion into southern Lebanon to target Hezbollah assets.
The Israel Defense Forces announced that the missiles were launched a “short while ago” and said all Israeli civilians were waiting out the attack in bomb shelters. Sirens sounded across much of central Israel as the Iran-led attack began. No casualties were immediately reported.
Fire could be seen over the night skies of Israel as missiles exploded overhead, per on-the-ground reporters. The IDF 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.
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.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met with national-security officials to review U.S. plans that would help Israel defend itself against the attack and protect Americans in the Middle East, 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.
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. It is believed the latest attack will inflict more damage, considering there are more ballistic missiles and they travel faster. The ballistic missiles from Iran are 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,” IDF spokesman Daniel 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.”
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Author: Sara Carter Staff
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