what we know about Iran’s attack on Israel

After the sending of Iranian missiles into Israel, a look back at the ins and outs of this attack, the second of its kind in almost six months.

Iran fired dozens of missiles at Israel this Tuesday, October 1, in response to the assassination of its allies, the leaders of Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas.

This Iranian attack, the second of its kind in nearly six months, “will have consequences. We have plans and we will act where and when we decide,” warned the spokesperson for the Israeli army , Daniel Hagari.

· About 180 missiles fired from Iran according to Israel

The Israeli military said Iran fired around 180 missiles toward the country during its attack on Tuesday evening.

“(The army’s) systems identified approximately 180 missiles fired towards Israeli territory from Iran,” it said in a statement. An Israeli security official confirmed this number to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Interceptor missiles were fired by the Israeli army above Jerusalem against projectiles coming from the east visible in their light traces, AFP journalists noted.

Dozens of detonations were heard and explosions were visible in the sky. Warning sirens rang out across Israeli territory. Traffic was completely halted at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport and Israeli airspace closed.

· One dead and two lightly injured

There were two minor injuries in Israel, according to emergency services. A Palestinian was killed in Jericho in the occupied West Bank by missile fragments, according to a Palestinian official.

About an hour after the attack, the army indicated that there was no longer an Iranian threat “for the moment” and affirmed that the population could leave the shelters. According to a military source, dozens of missiles were fired.

· A response to the assassinations of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders

The Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army, claimed to have struck “three military bases” located around Tel Aviv. This attack is a response to the assassinations of the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, the latter said, who threatened Israel with “crushing attacks” if it responded.

“In response to the martyrs of Ismaïl Haniyeh, Hassan Nasrallah and Abbas Nilforoushan (deputy leader of the Guards), we targeted the heart of the occupied territories” (Israel), indicated in a press release the Revolutionary Guards, ideological army of Iran. Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas are allies of Iran within an “axis of resistance” to Israel.

This attack is the second launched by Iran against Israel in six months after that of April, when Tehran claimed to have acted in “self-defense” after the attack which destroyed its consulate in Damascus, killing seven of its soldiers. Iran nevertheless fired twice as many missiles at Israel as in this previous attack, according to the US Department of Defense.

The Jewish state has been at war with Hamas in Gaza since an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement against Israeli territory on October 7, 2023. It is also fighting Lebanese Hezbollah which opened a front against Israel in support of Hamas, its ally. , the day after the start of the war. Israel has been the sworn enemy of the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution in Iran, which calls for its destruction in favor of a Palestinian state.

· Israel promises a response

The Israeli army said later in the evening that there will be “consequences.”

“We have plans and we will act where and when we decide,” warned Israeli army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.

The United States, which helped its Israeli ally to “shoot down Iranian missiles”, said it wanted to “coordinate” with the Israelis a response to Iran, their sworn enemy.

Benjamin Netanyahu also warned Iran which “made a serious mistake”, saying: “Whoever attacks us, we attack.”

· Support from part of the international community

Many countries supported Israel after the attack. Starting with the United States. American President Joe Biden reaffirmed that the United States “fully supports” Israel, targeted on Tuesday by an Iranian attack which was “repulsed” and proved “ineffective” according to him.

“The United States fully, fully, fully supports Israel,” Joe Biden told the press at the start of a meeting at the White House devoted to managing the damage caused by Hurricane Helene.

The European Union, Spain, and Britain also condemned the Iranian attack. UN chief Antonio Guterres has “condemned the widening of the conflict” in the Middle East.

Michel Barnier, for his part, spoke from the National Assembly of the situation which “is worsening in the Near and Middle East with an escalation and an attack and a direct conflict which seems to be engaged between Iran and Israel”.

The UN Security Council is due to meet urgently on Wednesday to discuss the escalation of hostilities in the Middle East.