Iran fires missiles at Israel

Iran has fired a series of missiles at Israel in what appeared to be the latest escalation as Israeli forces battle the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement in Lebanon.

“A short time ago, missiles were launched from Iran towards the State of Israel,” Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in a statement. “You are asked to remain vigilant and follow the Home Front Command’s instructions precisely.”

Hagari urged citizens to follow urgent “life-saving instructions” issued by the Home Front Command via text message and to head for a protected space immediately.

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“The air defense system is fully operational, detecting and intercepting threats wherever necessary, even at this moment,” Hagari said. “However, the defense is not hermetic, and therefore it is essential to follow the Home Front Command’s instructions. You may hear explosions, which could be the result of interceptions or impacts.”

The IDF then reported that “sirens sounded all across Israel” as videos circulated online of Israeli interceptors firing into the skies of Israel. In a follow-up statement shared with Newsweek, the IDF said that “all Israeli civilians are in bomb shelters as rockets from Iran are fired at Israel,” accompanied by a map of red alerts nationwide.

The attack was later confirmed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which said “dozens of ballistic missiles targeting important military and security targets” were launched in “self-defense” over the killing of Hamas Political Bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July and in response to “the intensification of the regime’s evils with the support of the United States” over attacks in Gaza and Lebanon.

Last Friday, the IDF conducted a strike in southern Beirut that killed Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and IRGC Major General Abbas Nilforushan, both of whom were mentioned in the latest IRGC statement. Following their deaths, which came amid nearly a year of cross-border escalations, Israel stepped up its strikes in Lebanon and announced it had begun “limited, localized, and targeted ground raids” against Hezbollah across the border.

After the strikes concluded on Tuesday, the Iranian Mission to the United Nations also offered justification for the attack and warned against any follow-up retaliation.