Dubai | Iran says it has launched dozens of ballistic missiles at Israel.
The claim came in a statement read aloud on state television Tuesday as air raid sirens sounded and explosions were heard in Tel Aviv and near Jerusalem.
The statement warned that “if Israel responds militarily to this operation, it will face a harsher response.”
Iran referenced Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, both killed in an Israeli airstrike last week in Beirut. The statement also mentioned Ismail Haniyeh, a top leader in Hamas who was assassinated in Tehran in a suspected Israeli attack in July.
It warned this attack represented only a “first wave,” without elaborating.
Jerusalem | The Israeli military said Tuesday that Iran has fired missiles and it ordered residents to remain close to bomb shelters as air raid sirens sounded across the country.
A series of window-shaking explosions were heard in Tel Aviv and near Jerusalem, though it was not immediately clear whether the sounds were from missiles landing or being intercepted by Israeli defenses, or both.
Israel and the United States have warned there would be severe consequences in the event of an attack on Israel from Iran, which backs the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israeli army spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the country's air defense system was fully operational, detecting and intercepting threats. “However, the defense is not hermetic,” he said.
Orders to shelter in place were sent to Israelis' mobile phones and announced on national television.
Iranian media began posting videos that appeared to show missile launches at several sites across the country. However, the Iranian government did not immediately acknowledge what was happening.
The air raid alerts in Israel came a day after Israel said it had begun limited ground operations against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Israeli airstrikes and artillery fire pounded southern Lebanese villages where people were ordered to evacuate, and Hezbollah militants responded by firing a barrage of rockets into Israel. There was no immediate word on casualties as fighting intensified and concerns of a wider regional war grew.
A senior White House official warned of “severe consequences” should Iran launch a ballistic missile against Israel. U.S. ships and aircraft are positioned in the region to assist Israel in the event of an attack from Iran. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence.
Hagari also warned of consequences if Iran fired missiles into Israel.
He urged the public to stay close to sheltered areas. “The Iranian strike could be widespread,” he said.
Iranian officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
Iran launched an unprecedented direct attack on Israel in April, but few of its projectiles reached their targets. Many were shot down by a U.S.-led coalition, while others apparently failed at launch or crashed in flight.
While Hezbollah denied Israeli troops had entered Lebanon, the Israeli army announced it had also carried out dozens of ground raids into southern Lebanon going back nearly a year. Israel released video footage purporting to show its soldiers operating in homes and tunnels where Hezbollah kept weapons.
If true, it would be another humiliating blow for Iran-backed Hezbollah, the most powerful armed group in the Middle East. Hezbollah has been reeling from weeks of targeted strikes that killed its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and several of his top commanders.
On Tuesday morning, Israel warned people to evacuate to the north of the Awali River, some 60 kilometers (36 miles) from the border and much farther than the Litani River, which marks the northern edge of a U.N.-declared zone intended to serve as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah after their 2006 war.
The border region has largely emptied out over the past year as the two sides have traded fire. But the scope of the evacuation warning raised questions as to how deep Israel plans to send its forces into Lebanon.
An Israeli airstrike hit a residential building near Beirut Tuesday, causing damage but with no immediate reports of casualties. The strike appeared to hit an apartment about 100 meters from the Iranian Embassy.
Anticipating more rocket attacks from Hezbollah, the Israeli army announced new restrictions on public gatherings and closed beaches in northern and central Israel. The military also said it was calling up thousands more reserve soldiers to serve on the northern border.
Questions raised over whether Israeli forces entered
An Associated Press reporter saw Israeli troops operating near the border in armored trucks, with helicopters circling overhead, but could not confirm ground forces had crossed into Lebanon.
Ahead of the Israeli announcement of an incursion, U.S. officials on Monday said Israel had described launching small ground raids inside Lebanon as it prepared for a wider operation.
Neither the Lebanese army nor a U.N. peacekeeping force that patrols southern Lebanon have confirmed that Israeli forces entered. The U.N. force said a cross-border operation would be a violation of Lebanese sovereignty.
Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif dismissed what he said were “false claims” of an Israeli incursion. He said Hezbollah is ready for “direct confrontation with enemy forces that dare to or try to enter Lebanon.”
Hagari claimed troops were conducting “localized ground raids” on Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon to ensure Israeli citizens could return to their homes in the north.
“We're not going to Beirut,” he said.
Israel has said it will continue to strike Hezbollah until it is safe for citizens to return. Hezbollah has promised to keep firing rockets into Israel until there is a cease-fire in Gaza.
He said Israel had carried out dozens of small raids inside Lebanon since Oct. 8, when Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel after the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
Hagari said Israeli forces had crossed the border to collect information and destroy Hezbollah infrastructure, including tunnels and weapons. Israel has said Hezbollah was preparing its own Oct. 7-style attack into Israel. It was not immediately possible to confirm those claims.
An Israeli military official said troops participating in the latest incursion were within walking distance of the border, focused on villages hundreds of meters (yards) from Israel. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations, said there had been no clashes with Hezbollah fighters.
The Israeli military was accused of lying to media in 2021 when it released a statement implying ground troops had entered Gaza. The military played down the incident as a misunderstanding, but well-sourced military commentators in Israel said it was part of a ruse to lure Hamas into battle.
Israel strikes more targets and Hezbollah fires rockets
The Israeli military official said Hezbollah had launched rockets at central Israel, setting off air raid sirens and wounding a man. Hezbollah said it fired salvos of a new kind of medium-range missile at the headquarters of two Israeli intelligence agencies near Tel Aviv.
The Israeli military official said Hezbollah had also launched projectiles at Israeli communities near the border, targeting soldiers without wounding anyone.
Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel shortly after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack into Israel ignited the war in Gaza. Israel has launched retaliatory airstrikes and the conflict has steadily escalated. In recent weeks Israel has unleashed a punishing wave of airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon.
Hagari said the U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war had not been enforced and that southern Lebanon was “swarming with Hezbollah terrorists and weapons.”
That resolution called for Hezbollah to withdraw from the area between the border and the Litani River and for the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers to patrol the region. Israel says those and other provisions were never enforced. Lebanon has long accused Israel of violating other terms of the resolution.
Israeli official says no plans to march on Beirut
The military statements indicated Israel might focus its ground operation on the narrow strip along the border, rather than launching a larger invasion aimed at destroying Hezbollah, as it has attempted in Gaza against Hamas.
Hezbollah and Hamas are close allies backed by Iran, and each escalation has raised fears of a wider war in the Middle East that could draw in Iran and the United States, which has rushed military assets to the region in support of Israel.
Israeli strikes have killed over 1,000 people in Lebanon over the past two weeks, nearly a quarter of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry. Hundreds of thousands have fled their homes.
Hezbollah is a well-trained militia, believed to have tens of thousands of fighters and an arsenal of 150,000 rockets and missiles. The last round of fighting in 2006 ended in a stalemate, and both sides have spent the past two decades preparing for their next showdown.
Recent airstrikes wiping out most of Hezbollah's top leadership and the explosions of hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah indicate Israel has infiltrated deep inside the group's upper echelons.
The group's acting leader, Naim Kassem, said in a televised statement Monday that Hezbollah commanders killed in recent weeks have already been replaced.
As the fighting intensifies, European countries have begun pulling their diplomats and citizens out of Lebanon.
Jerusalem | Iran is preparing to “imminently” launch a ballistic missile attack on Israel, according to a senior US administration official, who warned on Tuesday of “severe consequences” should it take place.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the intelligence, said the US is actively supporting Israeli defensive preparations.
This comes after the Israeli military on Tuesday warned people to evacuate nearly two dozen Lebanese border communities hours after announcing what it said were limited ground operations against Hezbollah.
White House officials did not immediately offer any evidence backing its intelligence finding. The official added that the administration was confident in the determination.
Iran's state media has not suggested any attack is imminent. Iranian officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
Iran already launched an unprecedented direct attack on Israel in April, but few of the Iranian projectiles reached their targets. Many were shot down by a US-led coalition, while others apparently failed at launch or crashed while in flight.
Even those that reached Israel appeared to miss their marks, experts and an AP analysis in September showed.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a Tuesday statement that Israel is facing “large challenges” as it fights an Iranian axis. In the videotaped statement, he urges the public to listen to public safety guidelines from the army's Home Front Command. He made no direct mention of a missile threat.
Hezbollah denied Israeli troops had entered Lebanon, but hours later the Israeli army announced it had also carried out dozens of ground raids into southern Lebanon going back nearly a year. Israel released video footage purporting to show its soldiers operating in homes and tunnels where Hezbollah kept weapons.
If true, it would be another humiliating blow for Iran-backed Hezbollah, the most powerful armed group in the Middle East. Hezbollah has been reeling from weeks of targeted strikes that killed its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and several of his top commanders.
US ships and aircraft are already positioned in the region to assist Israel in the event of an attack from Iran. There are three US Navy destroyers in the Mediterranean Sea, an aircraft carrier in the Gulf of Oman and fighter jets arrayed throughout the region. All have the abilities to shoot down incoming missiles.
Israel advised people to evacuate to the north of the Awali River, some 60 kilometers (36 miles) from the border and much farther than the Litani River, which marks the northern edge of a UN-declared zone that was intended to serve as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah after their 2006 war.
“You must immediately head north of the Awali River to save yourselves, and leave your houses immediately,” said the statement posted by the Israeli military on the platform X. The warning applied to communities south of the Litani.
The border region has largely emptied out over the past year as the two sides have traded fire. But the scope of the evacuation warning raised questions as to how deep Israel plans to send its forces into Lebanon as it presses ahead with a rapidly escalating campaign against Hezbollah.
Anticipating more rocket attacks from Hezbollah, the Israeli army announced new restrictions on public gatherings and closed beaches in northern and central Israel. The military also said it was calling up thousands more reserve soldiers to serve on the northern border.
Questions raised over whether Israeli forces entered
An Associated Press reporter saw Israeli troops operating near the border in armored trucks, with helicopters circling overhead, but could not confirm ground forces had crossed into Lebanon.
Ahead of the Israeli announcement of an incursion, US officials on Monday said Israel had described launching small ground raids inside Lebanon as it prepared for a wider operation.
Neither the Lebanese army nor a UN peacekeeping force that patrols southern Lebanon have confirmed that Israeli forces entered. The UN force said a cross-border operation would be a violation of Lebanese sovereignty.
Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif dismissed what he said were “false claims” of an Israeli incursion. He said Hezbollah is ready for “direct confrontation with enemy forces that dare to or try to enter Lebanon”.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military's top spokesperson, claimed troops were conducting “localised ground raids” on Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon to ensure Israeli citizens could return to their homes in the north.
“We're not going to Beirut,” he said. “We're only going to areas next to our border and will do what is necessary to dismantle and demolish Hezbollah infrastructure.”
He said Israel had carried out dozens of small raids inside Lebanon going back to October 8, when Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel after the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
He said Israeli forces had crossed the border to collect information and destroy Hezbollah infrastructure, including tunnels and weapons. Israel has said Hezbollah was preparing its own October 7-style attack into Israel. It was not immediately possible to confirm those claims.
An Israeli military official said troops taking part in the latest incursion were within walking distance of the border, focused on villages hundreds of metres (yards) from Israel. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations, said there had been no clashes yet with Hezbollah fighters.
The Israeli military was accused of lying to media in 2021 when it released a statement implying that ground troops had entered Gaza. The military played down the incident as a misunderstanding, but well-sourced military commentators in Israel said it was part of a ruse to lure Hamas into battle.
Israel strikes more targets and Hezbollah fires rockets
Israeli artillery units pounded targets in southern Lebanon overnight and the sounds of airstrikes were heard throughout Beirut.
The Israeli military official said Hezbollah had launched rockets at central Israel, setting off air raid sirens and wounding a man in his 50s. Hezbollah said it fired salvos of a new kind of medium-range missile at the headquarters of two Israeli intelligence agencies near Tel Aviv.
Afif, the Hezbollah spokesman, said the missile attack “is only the beginning”.
The Israeli military official said Hezbollah had also launched projectiles at Israeli communities near the border, targeting soldiers without wounding anyone.
Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel shortly after Hamas' October 7 attack into Israel ignited the war in Gaza. Israel has launched retaliatory airstrikes and the conflict has steadily escalated. In recent weeks Israel has unleashed a punishing wave of airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon.
Hagari said the UN Security Council resolution that ended the last Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006 had not been enforced and that southern Lebanon was “swarming with Hezbollah terrorists and weapons”.
That resolution had called for Hezbollah to withdraw from the area between the border and the Litani River and for the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers to patrol the region. Israel says those and other provisions were never enforced. Lebanon has long accused Israel of violating other terms of the resolution.
Israeli official says no plans to march on Beirut
Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Monday his country is willing to deploy the army in support of the resolution if there is a cease-fire. Lebanon's armed forces would not be able to impose an agreement on the far more powerful Hezbollah.
The military statements indicated that Israel might focus its ground operation on the narrow strip along the border, rather than launching a larger invasion aimed at destroying Hezbollah, as it has attempted in Gaza against Hamas.
Hezbollah and Hamas are close allies backed by Iran, and each escalation over the past year has raised fears of a wider war in the Middle East that could draw in Iran and the United States, which has rushed military assets to the region in support of Israel.
Israeli strikes have killed over 1,000 people in Lebanon over the past two weeks, nearly a quarter of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes.
Hezbollah is a well-trained militia, believed to have tens of thousands of fighters and an arsenal of 150,000 rockets and missiles. The last round of fighting in 2006 ended in a stalemate, and both sides have spent the past two decades preparing for their next showdown.
Recent airstrikes wiping out most of Hezbollah's top leadership and the explosions of hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah indicate Israel has infiltrated deep inside the group's upper echelons.
Hezbollah vowed Monday to keep fighting even after its recent losses. The group's acting leader, Naim Kassem, said in a televised statement Monday that Hezbollah commanders killed in recent weeks have already been replaced.
European countries have begun pulling their diplomats and citizens out of Lebanon. A British government-chartered flight was due to leave Beirut on Wednesday to evacuate UK nationals. The UK has also sent 700 troops to a base in the nearby island nation of Cyprus to prepare for a potential evacuation of the estimated 5,000 British citizens in Lebanon.