Iran launches salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel
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Iran fired a salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday in retaliation for Israel’s campaign against Tehran’s Hezbollah allies in Lebanon.
Alarms sounded across Israel and explosions could be heard in Jerusalem and the Jordan River valley after Israelis piled into bomb shelters. Reporters on state television lay flat on the ground during live broadcasts.
You can see interceptions but many of those are appear to be intact missiles and not debris. Iran must have used an insane amount of missiles pic.twitter.com/yHAZacQI5H
Israeli army radio said nearly 200 missiles had been launched into Israel from Iran. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Iran had launched tens of missiles at Israel, and that if Israel retaliated Tehran’s response would be “more crushing and ruinous”.
Israel’s military later sounded the all-clear and said Israelis were free to leave their shelters. Military spokesman Daniel Hagari said the military was not aware of any injuries resulting from the Iranian missile attacks.
He described the attack as serious and said it would have consequences.
A senior Iranian official told Reuters the order to launch missiles at Israel had been made by the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Khamenei remains in a secure location, the senior official added.
Reuters journalists saw missiles intercepted in the airspace of neighbouring Jordan.
Oil prices shot up five percent on the news of the Iranian missile strikes, which raise the prospect of a wider war between the two arch enemies.
A previous round of Iranian missiles fired at Israel in April – the first ever – were shot down with the help of the U.S. military and other allies. Israel responded at the time with airstrikes in Iran, but wider escalation was averted.
ESCALATION IN LEBANON
Iran has vowed to retaliate following Israeli strikes that killed the top leadership of its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, including that group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, a towering figure in Iran’s network of fighters across the region.
Israel said its troops had launched ground raids into Lebanon, though it described the forays as limited.
RAW FOOTAGE: Watch as Iranian missiles rain over the Old City in Jerusalem, a holy site for Muslims, Christians and Jews.
In Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden said the United States was prepared to help Israel defend itself from Iranian missile attacks.
“We discussed how the United States is prepared to help Israel defend against these attacks, and protect American personnel in the region,” Biden said on X about a meeting held with Vice President Kamala Harris and the White House national security team earlier in the day.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, speaking after Iran fired its salvo of missiles at Israel, condemned what he called “escalation after escalation”, saying: “This must stop. We absolutely need a ceasefire.”
