AA / Jérusalem / Zein Khalil – Abdel Raouf Arnaout
Nearly 200 missiles were fired towards Israel by Iran, Tel Aviv announced Tuesday evening.
For their part, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards indicated in a press release that they had struck “targets” in Israel with “dozens” of missiles, to avenge Hassan Nasrallah – the secretary general of Lebanese Hezbollah – and Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas political bureau.
The Iranian response comes the day after Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian declared that Americans and Europeans had promised Tehran a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip if it refrained from responding to Israel’s assassination of ‘Ismail Haniyeh (at the end of July), but that they had not kept this promise, according to Iranian state media.
Israeli Army Radio reported that ‘Iran fired at least 200 missiles causing warning sirens to sound throughout Israel.’
Air traffic was completely halted at Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion Airport on Tuesday evening, according to a spokesperson, as explosions rang out in central Israel following the launch of a ballistic missile attack from Iran.
“There are currently no takeoffs or landings” at Ben-Gurion Airport, an airport spokesperson said.
The Israeli army ordered residents of the southern and central regions to enter shelters “immediately”.
Warning sirens sounded in several cities and towns in southern and central Israel, according to the daily Haaretz and Israeli Channel 7.
The Anadolu correspondent reported that dozens of missiles crossed the skies of the occupied West Bank, towards the Negev and Tel Aviv.
He said he heard very loud explosions in the sky over the occupied city of Jerusalem, caused by the interception of Iranian missiles by the Iron Dome.
According to the private daily Yediot Aharonot, a building was damaged by a missile that fell north of Tel Aviv.
The Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (KAN) called the Iranian response an “unprecedented ballistic missile attack on Israel.”
The Israeli army announced on Saturday September 28 in a press release that it had “eliminated” the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, during strikes carried out by F-35 combat planes which targeted a target in the popular district of Haret Hreik, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Hezbollah stronghold, during the night from Friday to Saturday.
The Lebanese movement confirmed shortly after the death of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
Israel confirmed, overnight from Monday to Tuesday, that it was carrying out “limited, localized and targeted ground raids” in southern Lebanon. The Israeli army announced in a press release that it was targeting “Hezbollah targets and infrastructure”.
At dawn on Tuesday, the Israeli army announced that ground troops had crossed the border into South Lebanon. However, Hezbollah, the UN peacekeepers and the Lebanese army have not detected an Israeli incursion for the time being.
*Translated from Arabic by Majdi Ismail
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