WATCH LIVE: Israeli military says Iran fires missiles after Israeli attack on Hezbollah

JERUSALEM (AP) – The Israeli military said Tuesday that Iran had fired missiles at Israel and air raid sirens blared across the country as residents were ordered to stay near bomb shelters.

Israel and the United States warn that an attack by Iran will have serious consequences.

Shelter-in-place orders were sent to Israelis’ cell phones and announced on national television. Television stations reported sirens blaring in parts of Jerusalem as well as in central Israel. The alerts came after a day of rocket and rocket attacks from Lebanon and, Israel said, it began limited ground operations in southern Lebanon.

Israeli airstrikes and artillery fire hit villages in southern Lebanon, where people were ordered to evacuate, and Hezbollah fighters responded by firing a series of rockets at Israel. There was no immediate word on casualties as fighting intensified and fears of a wider regional war grew.

A senior White House official warned of “serious consequences” if Iran fired a ballistic missile against Israel. American ships and planes are deployed to the region to assist Israel in the event of an attack by Iran. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the intelligence.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari also warned of consequences if Iran fires missiles at Israel. He urged residents to stay near sheltered areas.

“The Iran strike could be widespread. Following the guidelines of the Home Front Command can save lives,” he said.

Iranian officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Iran launched an unprecedented 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. Although Hezbollah denied that Israeli troops had entered Lebanon, the Israeli army announced that it had also carried out dozens of airstrikes in southern Lebanon for almost a year. Israel released video footage purporting to show its soldiers operating in homes and tunnels where Hezbollah stored weapons.

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

On Tuesday morning, Israel warned people 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 U.N.-recognized zone that is intended to serve as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah after the war in 2006.

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. An Israeli airstrike hit an apartment building near Beirut on Tuesday, causing damage but no immediate reports of casualties. The impact appears to have hit an apartment about 100 meters from the Iranian embassy.

Expecting further 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 troops to serve on the northern border.

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. Neither the Lebanese army nor UN peacekeepers patrolling southern Lebanon have confirmed the entry of Israeli forces. The UN force said the cross-border operation would constitute a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty.

Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif rejected what he described as “false claims” of an Israeli attack. He said Hezbollah was ready for “direct confrontation with enemy forces that dare to enter Lebanon or attempt to enter the country.”

Hagari claimed that soldiers carried out “local raids” on Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon to ensure that Israeli citizens could return to their homes in the north.

“We are not going to Beirut,” he said.

Israel has said it will continue to strike Hezbollah until its citizens can return safely. Hezbollah has vowed to continue firing rockets at Israel until there is a ceasefire in Gaza. He 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.

An Israeli military official said the soldiers involved in the latest assault were close to the border, focusing on villages hundreds of meters (yards) away from Israel. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations, said there were no clashes with Hezbollah fighters.

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

An Israeli military official said Hezbollah fired rockets into central Israel, setting off 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.

An Israeli military official said Hezbollah also fired missiles at Israeli communities near the border, targeting soldiers without injuring anyone.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel shortly after Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7 sparked the war in Gaza. Israel has carried out retaliatory airstrikes and the conflict continues to escalate. In recent weeks, Israel has unleashed a punishing wave of airstrikes on large parts of Lebanon.

Hagari said that a U.N. Security Council resolution ending the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah had not been implemented and that southern Lebanon was “rife with terrorists and Hezbollah weapons.”

The resolution called on Hezbollah to withdraw from the area between the border and the Litani River and for the Lebanese army and UN peacekeeping forces to patrol the region. Israel says these and other laws have never been enforced. Lebanon has long accused Israel of violating the remaining terms of the resolution.

Israeli official says he has no plans to march on Beirut

Military statements indicated that Israel could 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 in a televised statement 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.