The Israeli military said Tuesday that Iran has fired missiles at Israel, and air raid sirens sounded across the country, as residents were ordered to remain close to bomb shelters.
Israel and the United States have warned of severe consequences if Iran were to attack. Orders to shelter in place were sent to Israelis’ mobile phones and announced on national television. TV stations reported sirens in parts of Jerusalem as well as central Israel.
The alerts were sounded after a day of rocket and missile attacks from Lebanon, and as Israel said it had begun limited ground operations in southern Lebanon.
Israeli air defence systems are fully prepared for any attack from Iran, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said at an earlier televised briefing, minutes after multiple reports from U.S. media outlets warned that an attack could be imminent, citing sources in the White House.
In April, Iran launched its missiles and drones at Israel in response to an apparent Israeli strike on an Iranian consulate in Syria. According to reports, a number of other countries helped Israel largely repel the Iranian onslaught.
Anticipating more rocket attacks from Iran-backed Hezbollah, the Israeli army announced new restrictions on public gatherings and closed beaches in northern and central parts of the country, including in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The military also said it was calling up thousands more reserve soldiers to serve on the northern border.
Hezbollah said earlier Tuesday that it fired salvos of a new kind of medium-range missile, called the Fadi 4, at the headquarters of two Israeli intelligence agencies near Tel Aviv. Hezbollah spokesperson Mohammed Afif said the missile attack “is only the beginning.”
Meanwhile, Israeli authorities said at least four people have been critically wounded in a shooting attack in Tel Aviv. It was not immediately clear if the incident had any connection to the recent escalation in violence been Israel and Hezbollah.
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Fears of a regional war
The Israeli military also warned people to evacuate nearly two dozen Lebanese border communities hours after announcing the start of ground operations against Hezbollah.
There was no immediate word on casualties as fighting intensified and concerns of a wider regional war grew.
In its first statement since Israel announced the start of ground operations, Hezbollah spokesperson Afif dismissed what he said were “false claims” of an Israeli incursion.
There was no word on how long the latest operation would last, but the Israeli army said soldiers had been training and preparing for the mission in recent months.
The UN peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL, which patrols southern Lebanon, said such a cross-border operation would be a “dangerous development” and a violation of Lebanese sovereignty.
The last time Israel and Hezbollah engaged in ground combat was a month-long war in 2006.
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 their next showdown.
Dozens of Lebanese communities told to leave
Israel advised people to evacuate to the north of the Awali River, some 60 kilometres from the border and much farther than the Litani River, which marks the northern edge of a UN-declared zone intended to serve as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah after their 2006 war.
“You must immediately head north of the Awali River to save yourselves, and leave your houses immediately,” said the statement posted by the Israeli military’s Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, on X.
As tensions grow along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, a top Israeli military official says troops are preparing for a potential ground invasion targeting Hezbollah military outposts. Andrew Chang explains what a full-scale invasion would look like and why many world leaders are fearing the worst. Images supplied by Getty Images and Reuters.
Hagari, the Israeli military’s top spokesperson, claimed troops were conducting “localized ground raids” on Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon to ensure Israeli citizens could return to their homes in the north. He did not provide any evidence.
The border region has largely emptied out over the past year as the two sides have traded fire. But the scope of the evacuation warning raised questions about how deep Israel plans to send its forces into Lebanon as it presses ahead with a rapidly escalating campaign against Hezbollah. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that returning thousands of Israelis to their northern border communities as soon as possible is a top priority.
Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel shortly after the Hamas-led attack on Israel nearly a year ago ignited the war in Gaza. Israel has launched retaliatory airstrikes, and the conflict has steadily escalated.
In recent weeks, Israel has unleashed a punishing wave of airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon, killing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and several of his top commanders, as well as many civilians.
Recent airstrikes wiping out most of Hezbollah’s top leadership and the explosions of hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah indicate that Israel has infiltrated deep inside the group’s upper echelons.
Even after its recent losses, Hezbollah vowed Monday to keep fighting. The group’s acting leader, Naim Kassem, said in a televised statement Monday that Hezbollah commanders killed in recent weeks have already been replaced.
More than 1,000 people have been killed in Lebanon in Israeli strikes over the past two weeks, nearly a quarter of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes.