Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed retaliation Iranian missile attack on Israelsaying Tehran would “pay for this”.
“The Iranian regime does not understand our determination to defend ourselves,” Netanyahu said in a statement released shortly after the attack, which occurred on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. “They will understand. We will respect the rule we have established: whoever attacks, we will attack.”
Iran launched at least 180 ballistic missiles toward Israel on Tuesday evening, triggering alerts urging people to take shelter across the country. The missiles were seen entering Israeli airspace from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Abdel Karim Hana/AP
Israel Defense Forces spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said many missiles were intercepted by Israeli air defense systems, although some landed in southern and central Israel.
The United States helped Israel defend itself against the Iranian attack. In a statement Tuesday evening, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said “U.S. forces in the Middle East intercepted several missiles launched by Iran toward Israel,” calling it “an outrageous act of aggression by of Iran.
About 45 minutes after the attack began, and after several waves of interceptions, people were given the green light to leave their shelters.
Tsafrir Abayov/AP
Israeli emergency services said two people were injured by shrapnel, but their injuries were not serious. Palestinian authorities in the West Bank said a Palestinian was killed by a missile that landed in Jericho, although they did not know where the missile came from, the Associated Press reported.
The Iranian mission to the United Nations, in a statement issued shortly after the attack on Israel, called it “a legal, rational and legitimate response to the terrorist acts of the Zionist regime – which involved targeting Iranian nationals and interests and to infringe national law. sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Israel has carried out numerous airstrikes in southern Lebanon and Beirut in recent days, killing the leader of the its proxy group, Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallahand causing the displacement of a million people in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Prime Minister. Earlier on Tuesday, Israel said it had also launched a limited land incursion towards the south of Lebanon.
Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps later called the missile barrage a specific retaliation for Israel’s assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the longtime political leader of Hamas who was killed in strike in Tehran after attending the inauguration of the new Iranian president at the end of July and the assassination of IRGC commander Abbas Nilforoshan in Beirut at the end of September.
The IRGC added a warning to Israel, saying that if it “reacts to Iranian operations, it will face overwhelming attacks.”
The joint head of Iran’s armed forces, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, said on Tuesday that any further retaliatory action against Iran would result in attacks on Israeli infrastructure.
“If [Israel]…wants to pursue these crimes or wants to do anything against our sovereignty and territorial integrity, tonight’s operation will be repeated several times stronger and all their infrastructure will be targeted,” Bagheri said, according to the partner network from CBS News, BBC News.
It was unclear Wednesday how Israel would respond to the Iranian missile attack, but there were growing fears it could spark a broader war in the region.
“I condemn the widening conflict in the Middle East, escalation after escalation,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday after the Iranian missile attack. “This has to stop. We absolutely need a ceasefire.”
