Photo: Ahmad Gharabli Agence France-Presse Interception missiles were fired Tuesday by the Israeli army over Jerusalem against projectiles coming from the east, visible by their luminous traces.
Benoit Finck – Agence France-Presse and Laure Al Khoury – Agence France-Presse respectively in Jerusalem and Beirut
Published at 10:29 Updated at 18:47
- Middle East
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Israel and its American ally have threatened to retaliate for the attack Tuesday by Iran, which fired about 180 missiles into Israeli territory to avenge the deaths of its allies, the leaders of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas.
This Iranian attack, the second of its kind in nearly six months, “will have consequences. We have plans and we will act where and when we decide,” warned Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari.
The United States, which helped its ally “shoot down” Iranian missiles, said it wanted to “coordinate” with the Israelis on a response to Iran, its sworn enemy.
On Wednesday, the UN Security Council is scheduled to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the escalation of hostilities in the Middle East.
In the midst of the attack, interceptor missiles were fired by the Israeli army over Jerusalem against projectiles, visible by their luminous traces, AFP journalists noted.
Dozens of detonations were heard and explosions were visible in the sky. Air raid sirens sounded across Israeli territory and Israeli airspace was closed during the attack.
A large number of missiles intercepted
There were two minor injuries in Israel, according to emergency services. A Palestinian man was killed in Jericho, in the occupied West Bank, by shrapnel from a missile, according to a Palestinian official.
When the sirens sounded, hundreds of people at West Jerusalem’s central bus station took shelter in an underground parking lot. Some prayed, others checked their phones.
Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg Associated Press Israelis took cover in Shoresh, between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, when the sirens sounded.
About an hour after the attack, the army called on the population to come out of their shelters.
“About 180 missiles were fired towards Israeli territory from Iran,” and many were intercepted by the “Iron Dome” defense system, the army said.
Israel has proven its ability to “prevent the enemy from succeeding,” Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said.
“In response to the assassination of martyrs Ismail Haniyeh, Hassan Nasrallah and Abbas Nilforoushan [a deputy chief of the Guards], we have targeted the heart of the occupied territories,” the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army, said in reference to Israel.
They claimed to have struck “three military bases” located around Tel Aviv and threatened Israel with a “crushing response” if it attacked Iran. Following the attack, Tehran International Airport suspended flights.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000“Decisive responses”
The attack is a “decisive response” to Israel's “aggression,” Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian said.
Israel has been at war with Hamas in Gaza since an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli territory on October 7, 2023. It is also fighting Lebanon's Hezbollah, which opened a front against Israel in support of its ally Hamas the day after the war began.
On Friday, Hassan Nasrallah was killed in a devastating raid on the southern suburbs of Beirut claimed by Israel. Nilforoushan died with him.
On July 31, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in an attack while he was in Tehran. Iran and Hamas have blamed Israel.
Heavy gunfire erupted in Beirut's southern suburbs after Iran attacked Israel, according to Lebanese state media.
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Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said the death of Hassan Nasrallah “will not be in vain,” and Iran's first vice president, Mohammad Reza Aref, has warned that it would lead to the “destruction” of Israel.
On April 13, in response to a deadly strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus attributed to Israel, Iran fired some 350 explosive drones and missiles toward Israel, the first direct attack of its kind, injuring a young Bedouin woman. Most of the missiles were intercepted by Israel with the help of foreign countries, especially the United States.
Hamas hailed “Iran’s heroic missile launches.”
In contrast, the European Union, Spain, and Great Britain condemned the Iranian attack. UN chief Antonio Guterres has “condemned the widening of the conflict” in the Middle East.
Photo: Menahem Kahana Agence France-Presse Members of the Israeli Home Front Command and police forces inspected a crater left by an Iranian projectile in a heavily damaged school building in the southern Israeli town of Gedera on Tuesday.
Deadly attack in Tel Aviv
Just before the Iranian attack, six civilians were killed in an attack with automatic weapons and knives in Tel Aviv, carried out by two shooters who were “neutralized”, according to the police.
After the devastating blow dealt to Hezbollah, several of whose military leaders were killed by Israel, and after a week of Israeli strikes that left hundreds dead in Lebanon, Israel warned that the war against the Lebanese movement was not over.
On Tuesday, the Israeli army announced that it was launching ground raids against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and mobilizing additional forces against the movement. It called on residents of 27 localities in southern Lebanon to evacuate.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, deployed on the border with Israel, nevertheless assured that it had not detected an Israeli incursion. The Lebanese army and Hezbollah have also denied such an incursion.
Ground raids “localized in Lebanon”
According to an Israeli official, these are “localized raids of a very limited scale”, intended to “remove threats against civilian communities in northern Israel”, which borders southern Lebanon and is the target of Hezbollah fire.
The Israeli Air Force has also carried out deadly strikes near Beirut and in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah said it fired rockets at a base near Tel Aviv (center) and at northern Israel.
In mid-September, Israel intensified its strikes against Hezbollah, with the aim of stopping the movement's firing at its territory and allowing tens of thousands of residents to return to the north of the country. More than 1,000 people have been killed since then, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.