Iran launched a barrage of missiles at Israel, asserting that it is in response to the assassinations of senior Hezbollah, Hamas and Iranian officials. It sent Israelis rushing to bomb shelters and raising fears of all-out war in the region, an Al Jazeera report said. Alarms sounded across Israel and explosions could be heard in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv during the attack late on Tuesday.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said the missile attack on Israel was a response to the killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and the IRGC commander Abbas Nilforoushan last week, as well as that of the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh earlier this year, Iran’s Fars news agency reported.
“In response to the martyrdom of Ismail Haniyeh, Hassan Nasrallah and Nilforoushan, we targeted the heart of the occupied territories,” the IRGC said in a statement, as per Al Jazeera report.
It said its missile attack targeted “three military bases” in the Tel Aviv area.
Earlier, the IRGC said it launched tens of missiles at Israel, and that if Israel retaliated, Tehran’s response would be “more crushing and ruinous”.
Iran’s state television said 80 percent of the missiles launched at Israel hit their targets. The Israel military, meanwhile, said a “large number” of missiles had been intercepted.
A senior Iranian official told the Reuters news agency that the order to launch missiles at Israel was made by the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa, citing the civil defence, said a 38-year-old Palestinian man died from shrapnel wounds in Jericho in the eastern occupied West Bank.
“A Palestinian worker in Jericho was killed when pieces of a rocket fell from the sky and hit him,” Jericho governor Hussein Hamayel told the AFP news agency. Other local media outlets identified him as Sameh al-Assali, and said he was originally from the besieged Gaza Strip.
The United States said its forces were ready to provide “additional defensive support” to Israel after helping protect it from the Iranian missile attack.
“Our forces remain postured to provide additional defensive support and to protect US forces operating in the region” after “defending against Iranian-launched missiles targeting Israel”, a US defence official said on condition of anonymity.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the attack was “totally unacceptable” and should be condemned by the entire world.
Iranian-backed Iraqi armed groups meanwhile said US bases in Iraq and the region will be targets if the US joins any response to Iranian strikes on Israel or if Israel uses Iraqi airspace against Tehran.
The firing of missiles came after Israeli troops launched ground raids into Lebanon, in the biggest escalation of regional warfare since fighting erupted in Gaza last October.
