Iran has attacked Israel with numerous missiles. According to initial estimates by the Israeli army, around 180 projectiles were fired on Tuesday evening. Most were intercepted by Israel and a US-led defense coalition, the Israeli military said. There was one fatality in the West Bank and two injured in Tel Aviv.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced retaliation. “Iran made a big mistake tonight – and it will pay for it,” Netanyahu told the Israeli security cabinet, according to his office. Iran’s attack failed.

The US government also rated the rocket attack on Israel as “thwarted and ineffective”. Nevertheless, it is a “significant escalation,” said US security advisor Jake Sullivan in Washington. The US Department of Defense warned Iran against further attacks on Israel. Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said: “We certainly hope that they don’t do that, but of course we have to be prepared for that possibility.”

According to army spokesman Daniel Hagari, the rocket attack made a small number of hits in central and southern Israel. No major damage was reported in the cities or by the military until late in the evening. “This attack will have consequences,” warned Hagari. There are already plans for that.

According to its own statements, the USA uses warships to defend itself against missiles. US President Joe Biden had ordered the US military to support Israel and shoot down Iranian missiles. According to Palestinian sources, the rocket attack killed a man in the West Bank. The 38-year-old Palestinian was killed by rocket fragments in Jericho, the Palestinian Civil Defense and local media said. The person killed originally came from the Gaza Strip.

Iran: Attack in retaliation for killing of Hezbollah chiefs

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard said the attack was in retaliation for the killing of Hamas foreign chief Ismail Haniya, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and an Iranian general, state television said.

Millions of people in Israel sought refuge in shelters during the attack. Dozens of people gathered in a bunker beneath a shopping center in central Tel Aviv. A woman reacted in panic to the sounds of explosions that could also be heard in the underground rooms. Many people read or listened to the news until the all-clear was given after around an hour and they were allowed to leave the bunker again.

Will the USA be drawn into the war?

The US security advisor Sullivan also said that the attack would have consequences and that they were now working on this with Israel. Asked whether the Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was dragging the US into a regional war, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller replied: “The United States is offering its advice, it is offering its support, it is offering its deterrence capabilities to. They offer our partners their diplomatic skills. But ultimately, our partners and allies must make their own decisions about their future, and the United States must make its own decisions about national interests.” The US is prepared to use diplomacy and deterrence to prevent a regional war. This will continue to be done.

In the Israeli coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv, two people were slightly injured by shrapnel in the attack, according to the Magen David Adom rescue service. Several others were treated for minor injuries after a fall or for acute anxiety.

Shortly before the rocket attack, several people were killed in a shooting and knife attack in southern Tel Aviv. According to police, at least six people were killed in the attack in Jaffa, a predominantly Arab district. The fatalities are therefore civilians.

Threat from Iran with “devastating attacks”

According to their own statements, the air force of the Revolutionary Guards fired on important military targets in Israel. At the same time, the Revolutionary Guards threatened further “devastating and destructive attacks” if Israel responded to the Iranian strike.

After the rocket attack, UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged the conflicting parties to show restraint: “This has to stop. We absolutely need a ceasefire,” wrote Guterres on the X platform.

US government warned of attack

Shortly before the attack, the US government warned of an “imminent” missile attack by Iran on Israel. A little later, the Israeli authorities ordered people in the Tel Aviv area to stay near shelters.

In April, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) carried out a direct attack on Israel for the first time in the history of the Islamic Republic. The IRGC air force fired more than 300 drones, missiles and cruise missiles at their arch-enemy. The attack was successfully repelled. Iran was reacting to the killing of high-ranking generals who had previously been killed in a suspected Israeli attack in Syria.

Recently, Iran’s allies have been significantly weakened

Israel’s military and secret services had recently significantly weakened Iran’s allies in the region. At the end of July, the foreign chief of the Islamist Hamas was killed in Tehran. Iran’s leadership then vowed revenge. Last Friday, Nasrallah, the head of the Lebanese Shiite organization Hezbollah, another key ally of Tehran, was killed. Previously, exploding radio receivers, so-called pagers, injured hundreds of Hezbollah officials and killed several. Since then, it has been unclear whether and how Iran’s military leadership will respond.

On Tuesday, the Israeli military took another step: Israeli ground troops entered Lebanon again for the first time in almost two decades. Around a year after the start of the Gaza war, the focus of the fighting shifted towards the neighboring country to the north. The army spoke of “limited” attacks near the border on targets of the Shiite Hezbollah, which is closely allied with Iran.

Bonfire in Beirut

After the Iranian missile attack, some cheers broke out in the Lebanese capital Beirut. Eyewitnesses reported that shots of joy could be heard from the suburb of Haret Hreik, where Israel killed Hezbollah chief Nasrallah. Clapping and cheering could also be heard in central Beirut, where many families displaced by Israel’s attacks in the country are currently holding out on the streets and public squares.

Since the 1979 revolution, the USA and Israel have been considered archenemies of the Islamic Republic. With the outbreak of the Gaza war almost a year ago, there were multiple threats that the shadow conflict would develop into a conflagration. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards are the country’s elite armed forces and are considered significantly more powerful than the regular army.