Iran launches missile attack on Israel, Israeli military says

Shafaq News/ Iran launched missiles toward Israel on Tuesday, just four days after Israeli strikes in Beirut killed the leader of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, Hassan Nasrallah. 

The Israeli military posted on X at 7:35 p.m. local time urging "all Israeli civilians [to go to] bomb shelters as rockets from Iran are fired at Israel." This is the second time that Iran launched an attack against Israel in less than six months. 

Sirens were sounding across Israel, including in the Tel Aviv area and other cities, as 102 missiles were fired from Iran. Kan, Israel's public broadcaster reported that at least one missile fell in Tel Aviv, but no further details are available at the moment. Israel's Ben Gurion Airport has been shut down.

The United States warned earlier on Tuesday that it had indications that Iran plans to launch an imminent ballistic missile attack.

"We are actively supporting defensive preparations to defend Israel against this attack," a senior White House official said. "A direct military attack from Iran against Israel will carry severe consequences for Iran," the senior official warned. 

Israel has been bracing for possible retaliation from Iran over the killings of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and an Iranian Revolutionary Guards deputy commander, Abbas Nilforoushan, in Beirut last week, whose deaths Tehran promised “would not go unanswered.” A wave of Israeli-blamed pager and walkie-talkie explosions last month also killed members of the militant group and wounded Iran's envoy to Lebanon. 

In a Sunday statement, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi vowed that Nilforoushan's killing “will not go unanswered.”

On July 31, Hamas' political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated in an explosion in Tehran. Hamas released a statement saying that he had been killed by a "Zionist" airstrike, yet later reports emerged claiming a remotely detonated explosive had killed the longtime Hamas leader while he was staying in an Iranian government guest house. 

The attack comes amid escalating regional tensions and just a day after Israel launched an invasion into southern Lebanon in what the Israel military said was a "limited" operation to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure.

More than 1,000 people have been killed and over 6,000 injured by Israeli strikes in Lebanon since Sept. 16, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. Within Lebanon, 200,000 people are displaced, while over 100,000 people have fled to Syria.