Key points
- Israel said on Tuesday night that a ballistic missile strike by Iran had ended and there will be consequences for it
- Israeli military spokesman not aware of any casualties as a result of volley but some places in south and centre of country were hit
- Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered the attack in return for killing of Hizbullah leader by Israel in Beirut
- Strike comes after Israeli troops earlier launched ground raids into Lebanon
- United Nations secretary general António Guterres condemns ‘escalation after escalation’ in region, leads global reaction to strike
That concludes our rolling coverage of Tuesday night’s developments in the Middle East. Thanks for joining us.
You find our latest wrap on the situation here following Iran’s missile attack on Israel, as well more from our contributors over on the Middle East section of irishtimes.com.
[ Iran fires barrage of ballistic missiles at IsraelOpens in new window ]
The Pentagon said on Tuesday that two US navy destroyers fired about a dozen interceptors against Iranian missiles aimed at Israel.
Pentagon spokesperson maj gen Patrick Ryder told reporters that no other US military assets were used to shoot down the missiles, which were all fired from inside Iran. – Reuters
A Downing Street spokesperson in London said UK prime minister Keir Starmer had spoken to Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and King Abdullah of Jordan
Starmer spoke to the king about the “urgent need for a ceasefire in both Lebanon and Gaza” and “discussed the escalating situation across the Middle East” with Netanyahu.
“[Starmer and Abdullah] began by underscoring the urgent need for a ceasefire in both Lebanon and Gaza. They both called for de-escalation to prevent the extreme humanitarian situation from worsening,” the spokesperson said.
“The prime minister said he will work alongside partners and do everything possible to push for de-escalation and push for a diplomatic solution.
In a call with the Israeli prime minister, Starmer “condemned Iran’s attack on Israel today in the strongest terms, which began during the leaders’ conversation, and expressed the UK’s steadfast commitment to Israeli security and the protection of civilians ... the prime minister also underlined the importance of a ceasefire in Lebanon to allow space for a political solution ... the prime minister also raised the situation in Gaza and the importance of a ceasefire and action to bring home the hostages.” – PA
Reuters reports that Iran did not give the United States prior notice of its attack on Israel on Tuesday, Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York said.
“No notice was given to the United States prior to our response; however, a serious warning was issued afterwards,” the Iranian mission said in a statement.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin condemned the strike on Israel said in a statement on Tuesday.
“I strongly condemn the missile attack by Iran on Israel and call on Tehran to immediately halt its reckless actions.
“Our sympathy is with the Israeli people in the face of this aggression, and with all in the region impacted by ongoing violence.
“My Department is in contact with our Embassy in Tel Aviv and our Representative Office in Ramallah. We urge all our citizens affected to take every precaution and follow the advice of authorities.
“This continuing escalation needs to stop.
“The consequences of widening regional conflict would be disastrous for all the peoples of the region.
“I urge all leaders to think of the immediate and long term consequences of their actions.
“We need to see immediate ceasefires in Gaza and in Lebanon, the release of hostages and a return to diplomatic and political pathways to bring this cycle of violence to an end.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Taoiseach Simon Harris said that Irish citizens have been advised to leave Lebanon or make arrangements to leave while it is still possible.
Mr Martin said on Tuesday morning there are between 140 and 150 registered Irish citizens in Lebanon along with Irish troops serving with Unifil.
The BBC is reporting that the Israeli Defence Forces have said it shot down some 180 missiles fired at it from Iran.
Israeli air defences shot down dozens of Iranian missiles that flew over Syria on Tuesday, Syrian army sources told Reuters, after Iran launched a salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel. – Reuters
German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock on Tuesday said she condemned the Iranian missile attack on Israel in the “strongest possible terms”, saying Iran must stop the attack immediately.
“We have urgently warned Iran about this dangerous escalation. Iran must stop the attack immediately. It is driving the region further to the brink of the abyss,” Baerbock said in a post on social media platform X. – Reuters
A simple message from World Health Organisation general secretary Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Hamas said on Tuesday it praises Iranian missile strikes avenging deaths of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and brig gen Abbas Nilforoushan.
“We congratulate the heroic rocket launch carried out by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran, on large areas of our occupied territories, in response to the occupation’s continuing crimes against the peoples of the region, and in retaliation for the blood of our nation’s heroic martyrs.” – Reuters
Iran’s missile attack on Tuesday was serious and will have consequences, Israel’s military spokesperson said, declining to specify how and when Israel would respond.
Rear admiral Daniel Hagari said he was not aware of any casualties from the missile volley. He said there were a few hits in the centre of the country and in the south.
“We are on high alert both defensively and offensively,” Hagari said in a TV broadcast. “We will defend the citizens of the state of Israel. This attack will have consequences. We have plans, and we will operate at the place and time we decide.” – Reuters
British prime minister Keir Starmer has spoken to Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Jordan’s king Abdullah, Sky News said on Tuesday.
The Sky News report came after Iran fired a salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel in retaliation for Israel’s campaign against Tehran’s Hizbullah allies in Lebanon.
Reuters journalists saw missiles intercepted in the airspace of neighbouring Jordan.
Starmer’s office did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment. – Reuters
Reaction from world leaders to Tuesday night’s developments in the Middle East has begun to filter through.
United Nations secretary general António Guterres said in a post on X: “This must stop.”
A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Tuesday evening that Tehran had informed Russia ahead of its missile attack on Israel and that the US was alerted to it by Iran through diplomatic channels “shortly before the attacks”.
Earlier this evening, a senior Iranian official told Reuters the missile launches were ordered by Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has remained in a secure location since Israeli air strikes on Beirut killed Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah last week.
Israeli air defences shot down dozens of Iranian missiles that flew over Syria on Tuesday, Syrian army sources told Reuters, after Iran launched a salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel. – Reuters
The Guardian has said that reports are coming through that the Israeli military has told residents across the country that they are “permitted to leave protected spaces”.
The ballistic missiles began flying into the Israeli skies, passing over parts of Jordan, just over an hour ago, after several tense hours after warnings that an attack was imminent.
The Israel Defense Forces spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, said moments ago in a televised address that there were no reports of injuries on the ground as Iran fired what is believed to be around 200 rockets.
He added that there appeared to be no more threat of incoming weapons from Iran “for now” but added that Israel remained ready.
Israel has within the past few minutes reopened its airspace.
In a second incident in Israel on Tuesday evening, four people were killed and seven wounded in a shooting attack in the Jaffa neighbourhood of Tel Aviv on Tuesday, Israeli police said in a statement.
They said the two shooters had been “neutralised” and the situation was “under control”. The families of the victims had been notified.
TV footage showed gunmen getting off at a light rail station and opening fire. Medics and paramedics provided on-site medical treatment to a number of wounded people with varying degrees of injuries, including some who were unconscious, Israel’s MDA ambulance service said. – Reuters
Reuters also reports that the Jordanian army has said its forces are in a state of readiness to confront any attempts that threaten the kingdom’s security following Iran’s strike.
Iran’s missiles passed through Jordan’s airspace after they were launched.
Iranian state TV says that 80 per cent of the missiles fired at Israel by Iran hit their targets, Reuters reports.
Pictures of the missiles launched at Israel by Iran are filtering through on our wires.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday the missile attack from Iran was over and people could leave air raid shelters.
“Following the situational assessment, it was decided that it is now permitted to leave protected spaces in all areas across the country,” it said in a statement. – Reuters
Meanwhile, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari has said that Iran’s attack on Israel is serious and will have consequences.
Earlier, Reuters reported that Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave the order to launch missiles at Israel, a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday, adding that Tehran “is fully ready for any retaliation”.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations has publicly defended the strike on Israel in a post on X and repeated the earlier warning from the country’s Revolutionary Guard that Israel will face further strikes it is retaliates.
Across the Atlantic, Joe Biden has directed the US military to aid Israel’s defence against Iranian attacks and shoot down missiles targeting Israel, the White House National Security Council said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday they launched tens of missiles toward Israel and warned that if Israel retaliated Tehran’s response would be “more crushing and ruinous”, Iranian state TV reported. – Reuters
US president Joe Biden and vice-president Kamala Harris are monitoring the Iranian strike on Israel from the White House’s situation room, Reuters reports.
Israeli military spokesperson rear admiral Daniel Hagari released a video statement on Tuesday saying “the air defence system is fully operational, detecting and intercepting threats wherever necessary, even at this moment”. – AP
Reuters reports that Israeli army radio says nearly 200 missiles were fired from Iran into Israel.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday that missiles had been launched from Iran at Israel.
Alarms sounded across the country and Israelis rushed for shelter. Reporters on state television lay flat on the ground during live broadcasts.
Earlier, the military had announced that any ballistic missile strike from Iran was expected to be widespread and told the public to shelter in safe rooms in the event of an attack.
Iran has vowed to retaliate following attacks that killed the top leadership of its Hizbullah allies in Lebanon.
The firing of missiles came after Israeli troops launched ground raids into Lebanon, in the biggest escalation of regional warfare since fighting erupted in Gaza a year ago.
Though so far characterised by Israel as limited, the first ground campaign into Lebanon for 18 years would pit Israeli soldiers against Iran’s best-armed proxy force in the Middle East in the biggest escalation of regional warfare since fighting erupted in Gaza a year ago.
It follows weeks of intense air strikes that have decapitated the Lebanese militant group by killing most of its top leaders, while killing more than a thousand Lebanese people and sending a million fleeing their homes.
Iran, which sponsors Hizbullah, vowed to retaliate against Israel, raising fear that war could spill across borders throughout the region, despite efforts by the United States, Israel’s closest and most powerful ally, to contain it.
In Washington, a senior White House official said the US was actively supporting preparations to defend Israel against a direct military attack on Israel by Iran. The official added that such an attack would carry severe consequences for Tehran.
The rapid escalation that has engulfed Lebanon into war has killed hundreds and sent a million people fleeing their homes for shelter. Near the city of Sidon along the Mediterranean south of Beirut, mourners wept over coffins containing black-shrouded bodies of people killed in Israeli strikes.
“The building got struck down and I couldn’t protect my daughter or anyone else. Thank God, my son and I got out, but I lost my daughter and wife, I lost my home, I have become homeless. What do you want me to say? My whole life changed in a second,” said resident Abdulhamid Ramadan.
Many Lebanese said they were prepared to resist Israeli forces: “Not just Hizbullah, all of Lebanon will fight this time. All of Lebanon is determined to fight Israel for the massacres it committed in Gaza and Lebanon,” said Abu Alaa, a Sidon resident.
In Beirut, the capital, Israel carried out an attack that hit a high-rise building in the central Jnah area and one on the capital’s southern suburbs that briefly closed the road to Beirut airport. The Israeli military said it had carried out a “precise strike”.
Some families in Beirut abandoned their homes and went to camp out for safety on the beach.
“We are not able to sleep and we don’t know for how long we will stay here. A month, two months, a week or two, until this war is resolved,” said Mohamed Terkmene, one of 1.5 million Syrians living in Lebanon, now sheltering on the beach.
Israel has long said it would do whatever it takes to secure its northern border and let tens of thousands of Israelis return to towns they fled since the outbreak of war in Gaza a year ago, when Hizbullah began firing across the frontier in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
An Israeli security official said troops in southern Lebanon had begun limited raids into Lebanon overnight that only went a short distance over the border, adding that no direct clashes with Hizbullah fighters were reported.
But in a clear sign that the war could expand further, the military said it was calling up four additional reserve brigades for operational missions on the northern border.
Israel has a history of fighting in Lebanon, which it invaded in 1982 in the midst of Lebanon’s own sectarian civil war. Israeli troops finally pulled out in 2000 but returned to fight another major war against Hizbullah in 2006. Since then, the border “blue line” has been monitored by the UN.
Hizbullah a Shiite militia formed by Iran to resist Israeli forces in Lebanon, has meanwhile evolved into Lebanon’s most powerful armed force, equipped with an arsenal of missiles and rockets. It is also Lebanon’s strongest political party, and sits at the forefront of a network of Iranian-backed armed movements across the Middle East.
Israel killed its leader of more than 30 years, Hassan Nasrallah, on Saturday with a massive air strike on Beirut that sowed panic, just days after the group was shocked when booby-trapped pagers and radios blew up across the country.
The killing of Mr Nasrallah has boosted the popularity of Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, which suffered a year ago from his failure to prevent the Hamas attack that killed 1,200 Israelis, saw 250 hostages taken back to Gaza and precipitated war there that has killed more than 41,500 Palestinians.
British foreign secretary David Lammy said Israel should avoid a repeat of the past and not get “bogged down in a quagmire” in Lebanon.
Israel’s military said its ground raids are aimed at Hizbullah strongholds along the border that threaten Israel, and it is not a war against the Lebanese people.
Military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israeli commandos who infiltrated southern Lebanon in past weeks had found tunnels, weapons caches and other evidence that Hizbullah was planning an attack inside Israel, similar to the raid on October 7th last year by Hamas fighters. Hizbullah has not commented on those claims.
In southern Lebanon near the border, Israeli officials have told residents to abandon their homes. At least 600 people were seeking refuge in a monastery after their Christian village of Ain Ebl received a warning from the Israeli military, residents told Reuters.
Ain Ebl was one of at least 20 towns where an Israeli military spokesman said residents should flee immediately because the military would attack houses used by Hizbullah.
An Israeli ground incursion will test the resilience of Hizbullah following the decapitation of its leadership. A Hizbullah spokesperson told Reuters on Tuesday the Israeli military had not entered Lebanese territory but that Hizbullah would be ready to fight them if they did.
Hizbullah said on Tuesday it had fired a “Fadi 4″ long range missile at military positions in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial capital. Israel’s ambulance service said two people had been wounded by shrapnel from the barrage of missiles. – Reuters
