Israel, Iran exchange threats after Tehran fires 200 missiles

Israel has threatened to retaliate after Iran launched some 200 missiles at its territory on Tuesday to avenge the deaths of the leaders of Lebanon's Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas, with Tehran saying it would strike “all Israeli infrastructure” if it was attacked.

“Iran made a grave mistake tonight and will pay the price,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday. “We will stick to what we have set: whoever attacks us, we attack.”

Iran's massive attack on Israel, the second in nearly six months, is “over,” Tehran has said, saying “90% of the missiles” have hit their targets. Iran's chief of staff, General Mohammad Bagheri, has promised that Iran will strike “with greater intensity” and target “all the country's infrastructure” if Israel carries out its threat of retaliation.

For the first time, Iran used hypersonic missiles in the operation, dubbed “Honest Promise 2,” according to Iranian media.

According to Israel, most of the missiles were intercepted by the “Iron Dome” defense system. The Pentagon said that American ships also fired about a dozen interceptor missiles in support of Israel.

The attack left two people lightly injured in Israel, according to emergency services, and a Palestinian was killed by shrapnel from the missile in Jericho, in the occupied West Bank, according to a Palestinian official.

Sirens sounded across the country and Israeli airspace was closed.

AFP journalists saw explosions in the sky and heard dozens of detonations. Hundreds of people at West Jerusalem's central bus station took shelter in an underground parking lot. Some prayed, others checked their phones. About an hour after the attack, the army called on people to come out of their shelters.

– Mossad targeted –

The Revolutionary Guards, Iran's ideological army, claimed to have “targeted the heart” of Israel, to avenge the deaths of pro-Iranian Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Palestinian Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and one of their commanders, Abbas Nilforoushan, who was killed at the same time as Nasrallah on Friday in Lebanon.

Protesters celebrate Iranian missile strikes on Israel, October 1, 2024, outside the British embassy in Tehran © AFP – ATTA KENARE

Iran's chief of staff said the missiles targeted “the three main military air bases of the Zionist regime, the Mossad (the Israeli secret service, editor's note), the center of terror, the Nevatim air base for F-35 planes and the Hatzerim air base, which was used to assassinate the martyr Nasrallah.”

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has complied with the necessary standards and has targeted only military bases,” General Bagheri stressed in a statement on Iranian state television.

“If the Zionist regime, which has gone mad, is not controlled by its American and European backers and wants to continue these crimes or act against our sovereignty and territorial integrity, the operation like tonight's will be repeated with greater intensity and all the regime's infrastructure will be targeted,” General Bagheri warned.

Iran has exercised its “right to self-defense,” Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi wrote on X. “We did this after exercising immense restraint for nearly two months, in order to make way for a ceasefire in Gaza,” he continued.

– “Action over” –

“Our action is over unless the Israeli regime decides to invite further retaliation,” he warned.

On April 13, in response to a deadly strike attributed to Israel on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Iran fired some 350 explosive drones and missiles toward Israel, the first direct attack of its kind, dubbed “Honest Promise.” Most of the missiles were intercepted by Israel with the help of foreign countries, especially the United States.

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The “Iron Dome”, Israeli air defense system © AFP – Source AFP

“The United States fully, fully, fully supports Israel,” US President Joe Biden said Tuesday, adding that discussions were “ongoing” with Israel on the response to be provided.

The Iranian attack was denounced by the European Union, France, the United Kingdom, Japan and Spain.

The UN Security Council is due to meet urgently on Wednesday to discuss the escalation of hostilities in the Middle East.

Israel has been at war with Hamas in Gaza since an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on its territory on October 7, 2023.

Israel is also fighting Lebanese Hezbollah, which opened a front against Israel in support of Hamas, its ally, the day after the war began.

Palestinian youths inspect debris from a missile that fell in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, on October 1, 2024 © AFP – Zain JAAFAR

On Friday, Hezbollah's powerful leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in a devastating Israeli raid on the southern suburbs of Beirut.

On July 31, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in an attack while he was in Tehran. Iran and Hamas have blamed Israel.

Just before Tuesday's Iranian attack, six civilians were killed in a stabbing and machine gun attack in Tel Aviv, carried out by two gunmen who were “neutralized,” according to police.

After the heavy blows dealt to Hezbollah, several of whose military leaders were killed by Israel, and after a week of strikes in Lebanon, Israel warned that the war was not over.

– Strikes in Lebanon and Gaza –

Early Wednesday, the Israeli army announced that it had struck “Hezbollah terrorist targets” in the southern suburbs of Beirut, after ordering residents of the neighborhood to evacuate.

After an Israeli strike in the Laylaki neighborhood, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, on October 1, 2024 © AFP – ANWAR AMRO

A source from the Lebanese security services confirmed this strike. Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV channel reported 11 Israeli raids south of Beirut in two hours.

The Lebanese Health Ministry announced Tuesday evening that 55 people had been killed and 156 wounded by “Israeli enemy strikes” in the country in 24 hours.

The Disaster Management Unit had announced before the daily toll that 1,873 people had been killed in Lebanon in the past year.

On Tuesday, the Israeli army announced ground raids against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and called on residents of 27 localities to evacuate.

Palestinians put out a fire caused by an Israeli strike on October 1 in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip © AFP – BASHAR TALEB

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon, deployed on the border with Israel, has nevertheless assured that it has not detected an Israeli incursion, as have the Lebanese army and the Hezbollah.

According to an Israeli official, these were “localized raids of a very limited scale,” intended to “remove threats against civilian communities in northern Israel,” targets of Hezbollah fire.

On Wednesday at dawn, the Israeli army also announced that it had attacked two schools in the northern Gaza Strip and a third in the center, which it said Hamas used as command centers.

According to the Gaza Civil Defense, five people were killed by an Israeli missile in western Gaza City, and eight others in an attack on a house in eastern Gaza City.

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