Iran launched ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday, causing sirens to sound all over the country, the Israel Defense Forces said.
Orange fire illuminated the sky over Israel as NBC News crews in both Tel Aviv and across the border in Tyre, Lebanon, viewed the apparent missiles being fired. Smaller streaks of light were also seen, appearing to come from Israel’s aerial defense system as it tried to ward off the attack.
Booms were also heard in video captured by NBC News, but it’s unclear whether the sound erupted from clashing missiles in the air or from Iranian missiles landing in Israel.
Iran said it concluded the attack roughly an hour after the IDF first alerted that the missiles had been fired.
Approximately 180 missiles were fired toward Israeli territory, the IDF said after the attack. No fatalities were reported, but Israel’s emergency services said it had treated two people with minor injuries caused by shrapnel.
U.S. officials warned earlier in the day that Iran was preparing a ballistic missile strike targeting Israel, a senior White House official and a Defense Department official told NBC News on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the National Security Council said President Joe Biden had authorized the military to aid Israel’s defense against Iranian attacks and to “shoot down missiles targeting Israel.”
Jordan allowed U.S. forces to fly over its airspace to shoot down Iranian missiles, a U.S. official and a senior Jordanian official confirmed to NBC News.
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The assault follows Israel’s launching widespread attacks in Lebanon, including the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and a ground invasion of the country’s south.
“The United States has indications that Iran is preparing to imminently launch a ballistic missile attack against Israel,” the White House official said. “We are actively supporting defensive preparations to defend Israel against this attack. A direct military attack from Iran against Israel will carry severe consequences for Iran.”
Iran is expected to target military and government sites, not civilians, the officials said.
Officials say the expectation is that this could involve more firepower than Iran’s attack on Israel in April, when hundreds of drones took hours to reach Israel followed by some ballistic missiles. The number of ballistic missiles could be higher this time, the officials said, and Iran could try to launch many missiles simultaneously to overwhelm air defenses.
A spokesperson for the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations had no comments on the reports from the White House of an impending attack on Israel.
U.S. officials have been anticipating a response from Iran following Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah leadership last week, which U.S. intelligence officials and analysts described as a devastating blow to Iran’s proxy power in the region.
Biden has been updated on Iran’s possible attack on Israel and the overall situation in the Middle East over the last several hours, according to a senior White House official.
White House spokesperson Emilie Simons said in a post on X that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris had met with the national security team regarding the attack threat.
“They reviewed the status of U.S. preparations to help Israel defend against attacks and protect U.S. personnel,” Simons said.
Iran has signaled to the U.S. that it still does not want a wider war, the officials said.
Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, told reporters during a visit to New York for the United Nations General Assembly last week that Iran wants to live in peace, adding that the Islamic regime is not seeking war with Israel.
Pezeshkian did lay the blame on Israel for escalating violence in the region, and his remarks came days before the Israeli assassination of Nasrallah, an important ally.
In a post on X, Pezeshkian defended Iran’s “rights” to the attack against Israel and said that it launched the missiles “in defense of Iranian interests and citizens.” He added that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should know that while Iran is not seeking a war, “it will stand firmly against any threat.”
“This is just a glimpse of our capabilities,” the post said. “Do not engage in conflict with Iran.”
Iran last attacked Israel in April, launching hundreds of drones and missiles after a significant public buildup. It was a retaliatory attack following a strike on an Iranian consular building in Damascus, Syria, and the death of seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
It took nearly two weeks for Iran to launch its attack and the weapons used took hours to arrive in Israel, allowing the country and its allies to mobilize quickly.
A ballistic missile from Iran could reach Israel in as short as 10 minutes, according to the American Jewish Committee.
Hezbollah began firing at Israel on Oct. 8 in support of Hamas, which is also an Iranian proxy and has been at war with Israel since its Oct. 7 terrorist attack, which killed 1,200 people. The group has been exchanging fire with Israel ever since, displacing tens of thousands of people on both sides of the Lebanese-Israeli border.
Over the past few weeks, Israel has killed multiple members of Hezbollah’s senior leadership in Lebanon, including Nasrallah, on top of detonating a number of sabotaged communication devices carried by members of the group. It’s caused fear and instability in what was once considered Iran’s strongest proxy militia.
Hezbollah was formed in the 1980s in response to Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon as a Shia resistance militia that gained domestic popularity by fighting Israel’s presence in Lebanon until it left in 2000.
But its leadership has also pledged its allegiance to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei while billing itself as a group dedicated to Lebanese self-determination.
Hezbollah has been a U.S.-designated terrorist organization since 1997, according to the State Department.
Hours before news broke on a potential attack from Iran, Israel announced a ground invasion of southern Lebanon on Monday night. The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that it was conducting targeted ground raids on Lebanese villages along the border with northern Israel.
Critics cast doubt on the descriptions of Israel’s ground operations as limited, recalling similar characterizations of the IDF’s operations in Rafah before the Gazan city was leveled. Others also remarked that Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon was supposed to be limited in nature but Israel’s military presence went as far as Beirut at one point.
Nadav Shoshani, a spokesperson for the Israeli military, said Tuesday that a ground operation in Beirut “is not on the table.”
“We’re talking about limited, localized, targeted rates based on precise intelligence in areas near the border,” Shoshani said.
