Iran fires dozens of missiles towards Israel, causing a rapid escalation of the regional conflict

JERUSALEM – Iran fired at least 180 missiles at Israel on Tuesday, the latest in a series of escalating attacks in a years-long conflict between Israel and Iran and its Arab allies that threatens to push the Middle East closer to a region-wide war.

The orange glow of rockets streaked across Israel’s night sky as air raid sirens blared and residents scrambled into bomb shelters. Israel announced retaliation for the shelling of Iran, which it said only injured a few people.

Before Iran’s attack, Israel had dealt a series of devastating blows to Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon in recent weeks. It then increased pressure on the Iran-backed militant group – which has been firing rockets at Israel since the beginning of the Gaza war – with what it described as a limited ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

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

Israeli army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the country’s air defenses intercepted many incoming Iranian missiles, although some landed in central and southern Israel. Israel’s National Rescue Service reported that two people were slightly injured by shrapnel. In the West Bank, Palestinian officials said a Palestinian was killed by a rocket that landed near the city of Jericho, although it was unclear where the attack came from.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced late Tuesday retaliation against Iran, which, in his opinion, “made a big mistake tonight and will pay for it.”

Israel and Iran have been engaged in a shadow war for years, but they 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 Israel’s accusations that it is developing nuclear weapons.

Moments before Iran fired rockets, at least six people were killed in Tel Aviv, police said, adding that two suspects who opened fire on a boulevard in the Jaffa district were also killed.

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

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

Iran launched another direct attack on Israel in April, but few of its missiles reached their targets. Many of them were shot down by the US-led coalition, while others apparently failed to take off or crashed in flight.

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

On Tuesday, Israel said it had launched limited ground operations against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Israeli airstrikes and artillery fire hit villages in southern Lebanon, and Hezbollah responded with a barrage of rockets towards Israel. There was no immediate information about any casualties.

Although Hezbollah denied that Israeli troops had entered Lebanon, the Israeli army announced that it had also carried out dozens of secret airstrikes in southern Lebanon for almost a year.

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

On Tuesday morning, Israel warned people in southern Lebanon to evacuate north of the Awali River, about 60 kilometers (36 miles) from the border and much further than the Litani River, which marks the northern end of a zone recognized by the UN intended to serve as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah after the 2006 war.

The border region has been largely deserted over the past year amid exchanges of fire between the two sides. However, the scope of the evacuation warning has raised questions about how deep Israel plans to send its forces into Lebanon.

Questions have been raised about the entry of Israeli forces

An Associated Press reporter saw Israeli soldiers operating near the border in armored trucks with helicopters circling overhead, but could not confirm that ground forces had entered Lebanon.

On Monday, before Israel announced the incursion, U.S. officials said Israel had described conducting small ground raids in Lebanon in preparation for a broader operation.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday that U.N. peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon have seen sporadic incursions by Israeli forces but “have not witnessed a full-scale invasion.”

Israeli army spokesman Hagari said Israel had carried out dozens of small airstrikes on Lebanese territory since Oct. 8, when Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel after the Gaza war broke out.

Hagari said Israeli forces crossed the border to gather information and destroy Hezbollah’s infrastructure, including tunnels and weapons. Israel declared that Hezbollah was preparing its own October 7-style attack on Israel. It was not immediately possible to confirm these claims.

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

The Israeli military was accused of lying to the media in 2021 when it issued a statement suggesting that ground troops had entered Gaza. The military dismissed the incident as a misunderstanding, but well-resourced military commentators in Israel said it was part of a ruse to lure Hamas into battle.

Israel hits more targets and Hezbollah fires rockets

The Israeli military said Hezbollah fired rockets into central Israel on Tuesday, triggering sirens and injuring a man. Hezbollah said it fired salvos of a new type of medium-range missile at the headquarters of two Israeli intelligence agencies near Tel Aviv. Hezbollah also fired missiles into Israeli communities near the border, targeting soldiers but not injuring anyone.

Israel’s statements indicated it may concentrate its ground operations on a narrow strip along the border, rather than launching a larger invasion to destroy Hezbollah, as it tried in Gaza against Hamas.

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

According to the Ministry of Health, Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed more than 1,000 people in the past two weeks, almost a quarter of them women and children. Hundreds of thousands 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 another showdown.

Recent airstrikes that killed most of Hezbollah’s top leadership and the explosions of hundreds of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies indicate that Israel has penetrated deep into the group’s upper echelons.

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

As fighting intensified, European countries began to withdraw their diplomats and citizens from Lebanon.

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