Iran rains missiles on Israel

Iran fired a salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday in retaliation to Tel Aviv’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 people piled into bomb shelters.

Israeli media reports said as many as 100 missiles had been launched. In a statement on the state television, Iran claimed it had launched dozens of missiles at Israel. “If Israel responds militarily to this operation, it will face a harsher response,” the statement said. Iran referred to Hezbollah leader Hassan NAmritsarallah and Revolutionary Guard Gen Abbas Nilforushan, both killed in an Israeli airstrike last week. The statement also mentioned Ismail Haniyeh, a top Hamas leader who was killed in Tehran in an Israeli “attack”.

It warned this attack represented only a “first wave”. The firing of missiles came after Israel said its troops had launched ground raids into Lebanon, though describing them as limited. The Israeli campaign in Lebanon is the biggest escalation of regional warfare since fighting began in Gaza a year ago. Hezbollah and Hamas are close allies backed by Iran, and each escalation has raised fears of a wider war in the Middle East that could draw in Iran and the United States, which has rushed military assets to the region in support of Israel. Israeli strikes have killed over 1,000 people in Lebanon over the past two weeks, nearly a quarter of them women and children.