Israel says Iran fired missiles

By AAMER MADHANI, JULIA FRANKEL and BASSEM MROUE

JERUSALEM (AP) — Iran launched at least 180 missiles at Israel on Tuesday, the latest in a series of escalating attacks in a years-long conflict between Israel, Iran and its Arab allies that threatens to push the Middle East towards regional war.

The orange glow of missiles streaked across Israel’s night sky as air raid sirens blared and residents rushed to bomb shelters. Israel vowed to retaliate for the Iranian barrage, which it said caused only a few injuries.

Before the Iranian attack, Israel had struck a series of devastating blows against Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon in recent weeks. He then stepped up pressure on the Iran-backed militant group – which has fired rockets at Israel since the start of the Gaza war – by launching what he sees as a limited ground incursion into southern Lebanon.

Israel said it would continue to strike Hezbollah until citizens displaced from their homes near the Lebanese border could return safely. Hezbollah has vowed to continue firing rockets at Israel until there is a ceasefire in Gaza with Hamas, also backed by Iran.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the country’s air defenses intercepted many Iranian missiles, although some landed in central and southern Israel. Israel’s National Rescue Services said two people were lightly injured by shrapnel. In the West Bank, Palestinian officials said a Palestinian was killed by a missile that fell near the city of Jericho, but did not specify where the attack came from.

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A man documents damaged buildings at the site of an Israeli airstrike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Develop

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Tuesday night to retaliate against Iran, which he said “made a big mistake tonight and will pay the price.”

Israel and Iran have been waging a shadow war for years, but they have rarely come into direct conflict.

Israel considers Iran its greatest enemy – citing Iran’s repeated calls for Israel’s destruction, its support for Arab militant groups and its nuclear program. Iran denies Israeli accusations that it is developing a nuclear weapon.

A senior Iranian commander has warned that Iran will hit Israel’s entire infrastructure if the Jewish state takes any action against its territory. The Joint Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, General Mohammad Bagheri, said the Revolutionary Guards were ready, defensively and offensively, to repeat Tuesday’s attack with “multiplied intensity.”

Moments before the Iranian missile launch, a shooting in Tel Aviv left at least six people dead, police said, adding that the two suspects who opened fire on a boulevard in the Jaffa neighborhood were also killed.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan called the Iranian missile attack a “significant escalation,” although he ultimately said it was “defeated and ineffective,” thanks in part to using the US military to shoot down some of the incoming missiles. President Joe Biden said his administration “fully supports” Israel and that he is in “active discussions” with his aides about the appropriate response to Tehran.

The UN Security Council has scheduled an emergency meeting for Wednesday morning to address the escalating situation in the Middle East.

Iran launched another direct attack on Israel in April, but few of its projectiles hit their targets. Many were shot down by a U.S.-led coalition, while others apparently failed to launch or crashed in mid-air.

Iran said it fired missiles Tuesday in retaliation for attacks that killed leaders of Hezbollah, Hamas and the Iranian military. He was referring to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, both killed in an Israeli airstrike last week in Beirut. It also mentions Ismail Haniyeh, a senior Hamas leader who was assassinated in Tehran in a suspected Israeli attack in July.

Earlier Tuesday, Israel announced it had launched limited ground operations against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling pounded villages in southern Lebanon, and Hezbollah responded with a barrage of rockets into Israel. No information was immediately provided on the victims.

While Hezbollah has denied the entry of Israeli troops into Lebanon, the Israeli military announced that it had also carried out dozens of covert ground raids in southern Lebanon almost a year ago.

If true, it would be another humiliating blow for Hezbollah, the most powerful armed group in the Middle East. Hezbollah is reeling from weeks of targeted strikes that killed Nasrallah and several of his top commanders.

On Tuesday morning, Israel warned the population of southern Lebanon to evacuate to the north of the Awali River, about 60 kilometers from the border and much further than the Litani River, which marks the northern limit of an area declared by the UN intended to serve as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah after their 2006 war.

The border region has largely emptied over the past year, with the two sides trading fire. But the scope of the evacuation warning has raised questions about how deeply Israel plans to send its forces into Lebanon.

Questions raised over whether Israeli forces entered

An Associated Press reporter saw Israeli troops operating near the border in armored trucks, with helicopters flying overhead, but could not confirm that ground forces had crossed the border into Lebanon.

Before Israel’s announcement of an incursion, U.S. officials said Monday that Israel had described launching small ground raids inside Lebanon as it prepared for a broader operation.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday that the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon had witnessed sporadic incursions by Israeli military forces, but “they are not had not witnessed a large-scale invasion.

Hagari, the Israeli army spokesman, said Israel had carried out dozens of small raids inside Lebanon since October 8, when Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel after the outbreak of the war in Gaza. He said Israeli forces crossed the border to collect information and destroy Hezbollah infrastructure, including tunnels and weapons. Israel said Hezbollah was planning its own October 7-style attack on Israel. It was not immediately possible to confirm these assertions.

Hagari said Israel’s objectives for its current ground offensive in Lebanon were limited. “We are not going to Beirut,” he said.

The Israeli military was accused of lying to the media in 2021 when it released a statement implying that ground troops had entered Gaza. The army downplayed the incident as a misunderstanding, but informed Israeli military commentators said it was a ruse to lure Hamas into battle.

Israel hits more targets and Hezbollah fires rockets

The Israeli military said Hezbollah launched rockets into central Israel on Tuesday, setting off air raid sirens and injuring one man. Hezbollah said it fired salvos from a new type of medium-range missile at the headquarters of two Israeli intelligence agencies near Tel Aviv. Hezbollah also launched projectiles at Israeli communities near the border, targeting soldiers without harming anyone.

Israel’s statements indicate it may focus its ground operations on the narrow strip along the border, rather than launching a broader invasion aimed at destroying Hezbollah, as it attempted in Gaza against Hamas.

Hezbollah and Hamas are close allies backed by Iran, and each escalation has raised fears of a broader war in the Middle East that could draw in Iran and the United States, which has rushed military assets to the region to support Israel.

Israeli strikes have killed more than 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 that Israel has infiltrated deep into the group’s upper echelons.

The group’s acting leader, Naim Kassem, said Monday that Hezbollah commanders killed in recent weeks had already been replaced.

As fighting intensifies, European countries have begun withdrawing their diplomats and citizens from Lebanon.

Mroue reported from Beirut and Madhani from Washington. Associated Press writers Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut and Zeke Miller and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed.

Originally published: October 1, 2024 at 7:53 a.m.

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Israel says Iran fired missiles

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