Israel vows response to Iran missile attack as fears of conflict escalation rise

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By James Mackenzie and Maya Gebeily

JERUSALEM/BEIRUT (Reuters) -Iran fired ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday in retaliation for Israel’s campaign against Tehran’s Hezbollah allies in Lebanon, drawing vows of a sharp response from both Israel and the United States.

Alarms sounded across Israel and explosions could be heard in Jerusalem and the Jordan River valley. Israelis piled into bomb shelters and reporters on state television lay flat on the ground during live broadcasts.

Israel said more than 180 missiles were launched into Israel from Iran and Israeli air defences were activated to intercept them. U.S. Navy warships fired about a dozen interceptors against Iranian missiles headed toward Israel, the Pentagon said.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said the assault was in retaliation for recent Israeli killings of militant leaders and aggression in Lebanon and Gaza. Its forces used hypersonic Fattah missiles for the first time, and 90% of its missiles successfully hit their targets in Israel, the Revolutionary Guards said.

No injuries were reported in Israel, but one man was killed in the occupied West Bank, authorities there said.

Washington and the European Union condemned the attack, and the U.N. Security Council scheduled a meeting on the Middle East for Wednesday.

U.S. President Joe Biden expressed full U.S. support for Israel and described Iran’s attack as “ineffective.” He said there was an active discussion about how Israel would respond, and he would speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israeli officials promised consequences for the onslaught.

“We will respond wherever, whenever and however we choose, in accordance with the directive of the government of Israel,” Israeli Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.

Washington backed up its longtime ally. “We have made clear that there will be consequences, severe consequences, for this attack, and we will work with Israel to make that the case,” spokesman Jake Sullivan said at a White House briefing.

Sullivan did not specify what those consequences might be, but he stopped short of urging restraint by Israel as the U.S. did in April when Iran carried out a drone and missile attack on Israel.

Netanyahu was due to meet with his security cabinet in a bunker near Jerusalem, two Israeli officials said.

Iran’s foreign ministry said its operation was defensive and was only directed at Israeli military and security facilities. Earlier, Iran’s state news agency said Tehran targeted three Israeli military bases. Iran urged U.N. Security Council action.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned what he called “escalation after escalation”, saying: “This must stop. We absolutely need a ceasefire.”

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also called for an immediate regional ceasefire. “The dangerous cycle of attacks and retaliation risks … spiralling out of control,” he posted on X.

Iran said if Israel retaliated Tehran’s response would be “more crushing and ruinous”. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a social media post: “This is just part of our capability. Do not get into a confrontation with Iran.”

Oil prices shot up 5% on fears of a wider war between the two arch enemies.

The previous round of Iranian missiles fired at Israel in April – the first ever – were shot down with the help of the U.S. military and other allies. Israel responded at the time with airstrikes in Iran, but wider escalation was averted.

The Pentagon said the scope of Tuesday’s airstrikes was about twice the size of April’s assault.

ESCALATION IN LEBANON

Iran had vowed to retaliate following Israeli strikes that killed the top leadership of its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, including the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, a towering figure in Iran’s network of fighters across the region.

Hamas, the Iran-backed militant group in Gaza, praised the Iranian missile strikes, saying they avenged Israeli assassinations of three militant leaders, including Nasrallah.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, locked in nearly a year of war, celebrated as they watched dozens of rockets en route to Israel. Some of those rockets fell in the Palestinian enclave after being intercepted by Israel but caused no deaths, witnesses said.

In Beirut, Israeli strikes killed the commander of the Imam Hussein division, Israel’s military said, referring to a Hezbollah-linked group based in Syria.

Israel said overnight that its troops had launched ground raids into Lebanon, though it described the forays as limited.

Nearly 1,900 people have been killed and more than 9,000 wounded in Lebanon in nearly a year of cross-border fighting, most in the past two weeks, according to Lebanese government statistics on Tuesday.

But a ground campaign into Lebanon for the first time in 18 years pitting Israeli soldiers against Hezbollah, Iran’s best-armed proxy force in the Middle East, would be a major regional escalation.

(Reporting by James Mackenzie and Steven Scheer in Jerusalem; Maya Gebeily and Timour Azhari in Beirut; Phil Stewart, Jeff Mason and Idrees Ali in Washington; Michelle Nichols in New York; Adam Makary, Jaidaa Taha and Enas Alashray in Cairo; and Tala Ramadan, Jana Choukeir, and Clauda Tanios in Dubai; Writing by Peter Graff and Cynthia Osterman; Editing by Gareth Jones and Rosalba O’Brien)