Iran launches multiple missiles against Israel

Iran has launched a barrage of missiles at Israel in response to the killing of senior Hezbollah and Hamas officials, sending Israelis rushing to bomb shelters and raising fears of all-out war in the region, Al Jazeera is reporting.

Alarms sounded across Israel and explosions could be heard in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv after Israelis piled into bomb shelters late on Tuesday.

Daniel Hagari, Israeli military spokesman said there were no reports of casualties from Tuesday’s attack, and that the army does not see “any more threats in our airspace”.

He said in a video message that people in Israel were safe to leave shelters.

Israel’s emergency services said at least two people sustained light injuries “from shrapnel in the Tel Aviv area”.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa, citing the civil defence, said a 38-year-old Palestinian man died from shrapnel wounds in Jericho in the eastern occupied West Bank.

“A Palestinian worker in Jericho was killed when pieces of a rocket fell from the sky and hit him,” Jericho governor Hussein Hamayel told AFP news agency.

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Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said the missile attack on Israel was a response to the killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah last week, as well as that of the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh earlier this year, Iran’s Fars news agency reported.

“In response to the martyrdom of Ismail Haniyeh, Hassan Nasrallah and [IRGC commander Abbas] Nilforoushan, we targeted the heart of the occupied territories,” the IRGC said in a statement.

It said its missile attack targeted “three military bases” in the Tel Aviv area.

Earlier, the IRGC said it launched tens of missiles at Israel, and that if Israel retaliated, Tehran’s response would be “more crushing and ruinous”.

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Iran’s state television said 80 percent of the missiles launched at Israel hit their targets.

The Israeli military, meanwhile, said a “large number” of missiles had been intercepted.

Speaking to reporters, Hagari said the attack was serious and will have consequences “in a timely manner”.

A senior Iranian official told the Reuters news agency that the order to launch missiles at Israel was made by the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Khamenei remains in a secure location, the senior official added.