Iran fires waves of missiles at Israel – news, weather, sports from Boston

JERUSALEM (AP) — Iran fired at least 180 missiles at Israel on Tuesday, the latest in a series of escalating attacks in a years-long conflict between Israel and Iran and its Arab allies that threatens to push the Middle East closer to a regional war.

The orange glow of rockets flashed across Israel’s night sky as air raid sirens wailed and millions of residents crawled into bomb shelters. Israel announced retaliation for Iran’s rocket fire, which it said caused few injuries.

Before the Iranian attack, Israel had landed a series of devastating blows against the leadership of Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon in recent weeks. It then increased pressure on the militant group, which has fired rockets at Israel since the start of the war in Gaza, by reportedly launching a limited ground attack in southern Lebanon.

Israel has said it will continue attacks on Hezbollah until it is safe for citizens displaced from their homes near the Lebanese border to return. Hezbollah has vowed to continue firing rockets at Israel until there is a ceasefire in Gaza with Hamas, which is also backed by Iran.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the country’s air defense intercepted many of the incoming missiles, but some landed in central and southern Israel.

“This strike will have consequences,” he said. He said the attack caused only “very few” injuries but did not elaborate.

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Israel and Iran have been waging a shadow war for years, but direct conflict has rarely occurred.

Israel views Iran as its greatest enemy – citing Iran’s repeated calls for the destruction of Israel, its support for Arab militant groups and its nuclear program. Iran denies Israeli allegations that it is developing a nuclear weapon.

Shortly before Iran fired its missiles, a shooting attack in Tel Aviv killed six people, police said, adding that the two suspects who opened fire on a boulevard in the Jaffa district were also killed.

In the US, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan called the Iranian missile attack a “significant escalation”, although he said it was ultimately “depressed and ineffective”, partly due to the US military’s assistance in shooting down some of the incoming missiles.

In April, Iran launched another direct attack on Israel, but few of its projectiles reached their targets. Many were shot down by a US-led coalition, others apparently failed to take off or crashed in flight.

Iran said it fired the rockets at Israel in retaliation for attacks that killed leaders of Hezbollah, Hamas and the Iranian military. It referred to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Revolutionary Guard General Abbas Nilforushan, both of whom were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut last week. It also mentioned Ismail Haniyeh, a top Hamas leader who was assassinated in a suspected Israeli attack in Tehran in July.

Earlier on Tuesday, Israel said it had begun limited ground operations against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Israeli airstrikes and artillery fire hit villages in southern Lebanon, and Hezbollah responded with rocket fire into Israel. There was initially no information on the number of victims.

While Hezbollah denied that Israeli troops had entered Lebanon, the Israeli army said it had also carried out dozens of ground attacks in southern Lebanon for almost a year.

If true, it would be another humiliating blow to Hezbollah, the most powerful armed group in the Middle East. Hezbollah suffered from weeks of targeted attacks that killed Nasrallah and several of his top commanders.

On Tuesday morning, Israel warned people in southern Lebanon to evacuate north of the Awali River, about 60 kilometers (36 miles) from the border and much further than the Litani River, which marks the northern edge of a planned zone declared by the United Nations serve as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah after their war in 2006.

The border region has largely emptied over the past year due to a firefight between the two sides. But the scope of the evacuation warning raises questions about how far Israel plans to send its troops into Lebanon.

Questions have been raised about the entry of Israeli forces

An Associated Press reporter saw Israeli troops operating in armored trucks near the border and helicopters circling overhead, but could not confirm that ground troops had entered Lebanon.

Ahead of Israel’s announcement of an invasion, U.S. officials said Monday that Israel described carrying out small ground strikes in Lebanon as it prepared for a broader operation.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday that the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon has experienced sporadic incursions by Israeli forces, but “they have not experienced a full-scale invasion.”

Hagari said Israel had carried out dozens of small raids in Lebanon since October 8, when Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel after the war broke out in Gaza.

Hagari said Israeli forces crossed the border to collect intelligence and destroy Hezbollah’s infrastructure, including tunnels and weapons. Israel said Hezbollah was preparing its own October 7-style attack on Israel. It was not immediately possible to confirm these claims.

Hagari said Israel’s objectives for its ground offensive in Lebanon were limited. “We’re not going to Beirut,” he said.

The Israeli military was accused of lying to the media in 2021 when it released a statement saying ground troops had entered the Gaza Strip. The military played down the incident as a misunderstanding, but well-informed military commentators in Israel said it was part of a ruse to lure Hamas into the fight.

Israel attacks more targets and Hezbollah fires rockets

The Israeli military official said Hezbollah fired rockets into central Israel on Tuesday, triggering air raid sirens and injuring one man. Hezbollah said it fired volleys of a new medium-range missile at the headquarters of two Israeli intelligence agencies near Tel Aviv.

The Israeli military official said Hezbollah also fired projectiles at Israeli communities near the border, targeting soldiers without hurting anyone.

Israel’s statements suggested it could focus its ground operations on the narrow strip along the border rather than launching a larger invasion aimed at destroying Hezbollah, as it attempted against Hamas in Gaza.

Hezbollah and Hamas are close allies backed by Iran, and any escalation has raised fears of a larger war in the Middle East that could attract Iran and the United States, which has rushed military assets to the region in support of Israel.

Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon in the past two weeks, nearly a quarter of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry. Hundreds of thousands have fled their homes.

Hezbollah is a well-trained militia believed to have tens of thousands of fighters and an arsenal of 150,000 rockets and missiles. The last round of fighting in 2006 ended in a stalemate, and both sides have spent the last two decades preparing for their next showdown.

Recent airstrikes that wiped out much of Hezbollah’s leadership and the explosions of hundreds of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies suggest that Israel has penetrated deep into the group’s upper echelons.

The group’s acting leader, Naim Kassem, said Monday that Hezbollah commanders killed in recent weeks had already been replaced.

As fighting intensifies, European countries have begun withdrawing their diplomats and citizens from Lebanon.

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