Israel on alert for possible strike from Iran as it vows limited ground incursion in Lebanon

US President Joe Biden expressed full US support for Israel and described Iran’s attack as “ineffective”. He said there was an active discussion about how Israel would respond, that he would speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and that the US was prepared to help Israel defend itself from Iranian missile attacks.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan condemned Iran’s ballistic missile attack on Israel as a significant escalation, adding that Israel appeared to have defeated the attack without loss of life.

“This is a significant escalation by Iran, a significant event, and it is equally significant that we were able to step up with Israel and create a situation in which no one was killed in this attack in Israel,” Sullivan told reporters at the White House on Tuesday.

“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,” Sullivan said.

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

Netanyahu vowed retaliation against Iran for its missile barrage on Israel.

“Iran made a big mistake tonight and it will pay for it,” Netanyahu said as he gathered his security cabinet for a late-night meeting.

The meeting was expected to be held in a bunker near Jerusalem, two Israeli officials said.

Netanyahu said the missile attack was a failure and that Iran would soon learn a painful lesson, just as its enemies in Gaza, Lebanon and other places have learned.

“Whoever attacks us, we attack them,” he 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 UN Security Council action.

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

Israel in a post on X, formerly Twitter, criticised Guterres for not holding “Iran responsible for firing 181 ballistic missiles at 10 million Israeli civilians”.

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 per cent on fears of a wider war between the two arch-enemies.

In what could be a related incident, Israel police say six people were killed in a shooting in Israel’s Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening. Police say two suspects opened fire on a boulevard in Jaffa, a mixed Arab-Jewish neighbourhood in southern Tel Aviv. Twelve people were wounded in the shooting and police said the two suspects were killed.

The previous round of Iranian missiles fired at Israel in April – the first ever – were shot down with the help of the US 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.

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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 1900 people have been killed and more than 9000 wounded in Lebanon in nearly a year of cross-border fighting, most in the past two weeks, according to Lebanese government statistics on Tuesday.

While Hezbollah denied Israeli troops had entered Lebanon, the Israeli army announced it had also carried out dozens of ground raids into southern Lebanon going back nearly a year. Israel released video footage purporting to show its soldiers operating in homes and tunnels where Hezbollah kept weapons.

Israel Defence Forces Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Israeli forces had crossed the border to collect information and destroy Hezbollah infrastructure, including tunnels and weapons. Israel has said Hezbollah was preparing its own October 7-style attack into Israel. It was not immediately possible to confirm those claims.

An Israeli military official said troops participating in the latest incursion were within walking distance of the border, focused on villages hundreds of metres from Israel. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations, said there had been no clashes with Hezbollah fighters.

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.

Reuters