The Israeli military spokesperson is now on television reacting to what the country is calling the “serious attack” on Israel by Iran today.
Daniel Hagari, the spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), pledged that the attack “will have consequences”. He added that the country remained on high alert.
The situation across Israel and the region is extremely tense tonight. It is just after 8.30pm in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
The Agence France-Presse (AFP) has some background on Israel’s so-called Iron Dome, its anti-missile shield.
The Iron Dome air defence system has intercepted thousands of rockets since it went into operation in 2011, providing the country with crucial cover during times of conflict, the agency writes.
It has been heavily relied upon to protect military and civilian sites from frequent barrages of rockets fired from Gaza and Lebanon in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
Israel’s air defences were in operation on Tuesday night, when Iran fired missiles at Israel in what it said was a response to Israel’s killing of Tehran-backed militant leaders.
Herzi Halevi, Israel’s military chief, said Tuesday that the Iranian barrage had been blunted partly by “a very strong aerial defence array”.
Israel initially developed the Iron Dome alone after the 2006 Lebanon war and was later joined by the United States, which has provided funds and know-how.
Iranian state television, long controlled by hard-liners, has aired images of people in Arak, Qom and Tehran celebrating Iran’s missile attack in Israel.
The Associated Press reported that some shouted slogans:
God is great! Death to America. Death to Israel.”
However, Iran’s support of regional militias abroad has been a point of anger domestically during protests, as the country suffers under international sanctions.
The United States has now called on every nation in the world to join it in condemning Iran’s salvo of ballistic missiles against Israel earlier today.
The US state department called the assault brazen and unacceptable.
Matthew Miller, the state department’s spokesperson, was talking a little earlier. This statement has been swiftly and enthusiastically reported by Israeli media.
British prime minister Keir Starmer said Israel had the right to defend itself and said Iran “must stop these attacks”.
Iranian state TV reported earlier that in today’s attack, the Iranian military used Fattah hypersonic missiles on Israel for the first time.
It appears that Israeli defenses, aided by the US, largely intercepted today’s rockets before they could do significant damage or injure anyone on the ground, as Israelis sheltered amid the wailing of air raid sirens.
The Tasnim News Agency, which is associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran, posted a little earlier on reports of Iran using Fattah missiles in its assault on Israel today.
The US Department of Defense said that in its assessment, Iran intended to inflict on Israel with its missile attack earlier today and that the barrage of missiles was about “twice the scope” of the Islamic Republic’s attack on the Jewish state back in April of this year.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have calculated that about 180 ballistic missiles were launched from Iran at Israel today.
Back on 14 April, Iran had launched more than 300 drones and missiles towards Israel on a Saturday night in its first ever direct attack on the Israeli state. But it seems as though the weapons fired by Iran today made the overall barrage significantly more powerful than the spring attack.
In April, Tehran said it was responding to a strike on an Iranian diplomatic building in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on 1 April that killed a senior figure in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and eight other officers.
The US Department of Defense says US navy destroyers positioned in the Middle East region fired about a dozen interceptor weapons against the barrage of missiles that were fired from Iran into Israel earlier today.
Pentagon spokesperson Maj Gen Patrick Ryder told reporters that no other US military assets were used to shoot down the missiles, which were all fired from inside Iran, Reuters reports.
An unnamed US official had earlier said that the US would support Israel in its defensive capabilities against any incoming rockets, just prior to Iran launching missiles against the Jewish state.
The Pentagon also said it was not aware of any warning by Iran prior to the missile barrage earlier, signaling, perhaps, that prior apparent knowledge of an “imminent attack” came from US/allied intelligence.
It called Iran’s attack on Israel “significant”.
The United States national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Tuesday that Iran’s attack on Israel appeared to have been defeated, although Biden’s administration was still monitoring a “fluid” situation.
Sullivan said the administration was tracking the reported death of a Palestinian civilian in the West Bank, Reuters reports.
Sullivan was talking at the daily media briefing at the White House in Washington DC.
Hamas has praised the Iranian missile strikes on Israel that Iran said were launched to avenge the deaths of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and Iranian Brig Gen Abbas Nilforoushan.
We congratulate the heroic rocket launch carried out by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran, on large areas of our occupied territories, in response to the occupation’s continuing crimes against the peoples of the region, and in retaliation for the blood of our nation’s heroic martyrs,” the Hamas statement said, Reuters reported.
Hamas, the Islamic political and military group, controls the besieged Palestinian territory of Gaza.
Britain “completely condemns” Iran’s actions after it fired a salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel. Keir Starmer’s office said the prime minister called for de-escalation across the region.
A Downing Street spokesperson said: “The prime minister spoke to Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu this afternoon, and they discussed the escalating situation across the Middle East.
“The prime minister condemned Iran’s attack on Israel today in the strongest terms, which began during the leaders’ conversation, and expressed the UK’s steadfast commitment to Israeli security and the protection of civilians.
“During the call, the prime minister also underlined the importance of a ceasefire in Lebanon to allow space for a political solution in line with UNSC Resolution 1701.”
The spokesperson added Starmer “also raised the situation in Gaza and the importance of a ceasefire and action to bring home the hostages”.
The Guardian’s video editors have footage from the ground in Tel Aviv showing the moment missiles caused huge explosions and damage to a restaurant on the coast: