Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel on Tuesday in retaliation for the recent killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and an Iranian commander in Lebanon.
The attack followed Israel's deployment of ground troops in southern Lebanon, intensifying its offensive against the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah.
Most of the nearly 200 rockets were intercepted by Israeli and U.S. defenses and there aren’t any known deaths in Israel from the attack.
“In response to the martyrdom of Martyr Haniyeh, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah and Martyr Nilforoushan, we targeted the heart of the occupied territories,” Iran said Revolutionary Guard said in a press release after rockets began appearing within the skies over Israel.
“Should the Zionist regime respond to Iran’s operation, it will face devastating attacks,” said the group, Iran’s paramilitary organization.
Abbas Nilforoushan was a deputy commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard who was killed together with Nasrallah in an Israeli bombing in Beirut last Friday.
Ismail Haniyeh was the political commander of the Hamas terror group who was killed in an Israeli attack on Tehran, the capital of Iran, in July. Israel has been waging a brutal war against Hamas for the reason that group launched a terrorist attack on Israel from Gaza on October 7.
According to an Israeli security official, the Israel Defense Forces reported some hits from the rockets and their damage was being assessed.
According to the Israeli authorities, only two people were barely injured by shrapnel within the rocket attack within the Tel Aviv area. There were also some minor injuries reported across Israel, with people heading to protected spaces.
A death of a Palestinian civilian was reported within the West Bank city of Jericho.
U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan, talking to reporters on the White House, said: “The U.S. military has coordinated closely with the Israel Defense Forces to help defend Israel against this attack.”
“Navy destroyers fired interceptors alongside Israeli air defense units to shoot down incoming missiles,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan also said: “Obviously this is a significant escalation by Iran.”
“We will now consider what next steps are appropriate to protect American interests first and foremost and then promote stability to the greatest extent possible as we move forward,” he said.
The IDF announced that residents were allowed to go away protected areas across the country shortly after 1:30 p.m. ET.
President Joe Biden met with Vice President Kamala Harris and national security officials on Tuesday afternoon to debate the attack, the White House said.
“The President has directed the U.S. military to support Israel's defense against Iranian attacks and to fire missiles aimed at Israel,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a post on the social media site X.
“They also reviewed preparations to protect U.S. personnel in the region.”
The US Embassy in Jerusalem Before the attack, all U.S. government employees and their families in Israel were ordered to “shelter in place until further notice.”
The embassy said in the identical statement it “reminds U.S. citizens of the continued need for caution and heightened personal security awareness as security incidents, including mortar and rocket fire and unmanned aircraft system UAS intrusions, often occur without warning.”
“The security environment remains complex and can change rapidly depending on the political situation and recent events,” the statement said.
The Iranian attack got here a day after Israeli ground forces entered southern Lebanon as a part of an attack on Hezbollah.
The variety of Israeli troops which have entered Lebanon is “in the hundreds,” an Israeli official told NBC News.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said the killing of Nasrallah and a senior Revolutionary Guard commander in that attack “will not go unanswered.”
Araghchi also said the United States was “complicated in this crime.”
In April, Iran launched an attack on Israel involving greater than 300 drones and ballistic missiles after two top Iranian commanders were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Syria.
Most of the missiles and drones were shot down by the Israeli and US military.
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