Iran has launched missiles towards Israel, IDF spokesperson says

LAST UPDATE | 5 hrs ago

[Developments on this story are now being covered in a liveblog. The article below will no longer be updated]

MISSILES HAVE BEEN launched by Iran towards Israel, according to a statement from the Israel Defence Forces.

The attack has been confirmed by Iranian state media, who said that an attack had been launche against the Israeli capital, Tel Aviv, but did not provide further details.

“A short while ago, missiles were launched from Iran towards the State of Israel. You are instructed to remain alert and precisely follow the Home Front Command’s instructions” said a military spokesperson.

The army has been urging civilians to remain in protected zones. ”The public is asked to adhere to the Home Front Command’s guidelines. Upon hearing a siren, you must enter a protected space and remain there until further notice.”

The US embassy said earlier in a statement that it was instructing its staff and their families to “shelter in place”.

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Ongoing escalation

The news broke as the Israeli military said it launched a fresh strike on Beirut on Tuesday, the latest in a flurry of attacks targeting Hezbollah in the Lebanese capital.

Lebanese state media reported a “violent enemy strike that targeted the area between Jnah and Ouzai in the vicinity of Al-Zahraa Hospital”, then another minutes later on a roundabout near the Kuwaiti embassy.

“The IDF conducted a precise strike in Beirut,” the statement said this afternon, without offering details.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah said that it has launched an attack against an Israeli air base in Tel Aviv.

The group said it had launched “a salvo of Fadi-4 rockets at the Sde Dov air base in Tel Aviv”, adding the attack came in defence of Lebanon and “in response to the targeting of civilians and the massacres that the enemy carried out”.

Hezbollah dedicated the attack on the disused base to its leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Friday.

In the Red Sea, Yemen’s Houthi movement claimed responsibility for attacks against three ships.

In a statement on X, the group’s spokesperson Yayha Saree said the “naval blockade against the Israeli enemy” would continue until “Israeli aggression” against Lebanon ceased.

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In Israel, police in Tel Aviv have reported a suspected attack in the capital, with seven people reportedly injured in what officials are calling a “terror attack”.

“Paramedics are providing medical treatment to a number of casualties in varying conditions including unconscious casualties,” police said in a separate statement.

‘Military intervention’

This morning, Israel said it had had begun “limited ground operations” in southern Lebanon. Sources in Lebanon including the armed forces, Hezbollah, and UNIFIL have said that there is no evidence of any Isaeli incursion.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres today urged for a de-escalation of the conflict in Lebanon, his spokesperson said.

Guterres “appeals for an immediate ceasefire,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, adding that “an all-out war must be avoided in Lebanon at all costs, and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon must be respected.”

Meanwhile, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that an international military intervention may be the only way to resolve the situation and force a two-state solution.

“The two-state solution – one Israeli, one Palestinian – can only be done if the international community declares, at some point, that we now have to impose it by force,” she said.

With reporting from © AFP 2024.