Jerusalem/Tehran: Israel has pledged to retaliate after Iran conducted a series of missile attacks on Israel late on Tuesday night.
Hours after the Iranian strike, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during a Security Cabinet meeting, said: “Iran made a big mistake tonight, and it will pay for it.”
Earlier, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Daniel Hagari said: “Iran’s attack is a severe and dangerous escalation. There will be consequences… We will respond wherever, whenever and however we choose, following the directive of the government of Israel.”
Israel’s rescue services said that two persons in Tel Aviv were lightly injured by shrapnel and that a building in the city’s north had been damaged. There have been no early reports of casualties in Israel.
Israel’s Airports Authority published a statement declaring the shutdown of the country’s airspace, with incoming flights diverted to neighbouring countries. According to Xinhua, due to security concerns, neighbouring Jordan and Iraq have also declared the temporary closing of their airspace to planes and suspension of air traffic.
Iran fired at least 200 ground-to-ground missiles, sounding sirens across the country and sending millions of people fleeing to bunkers, according to Israel’s Channel 13 TV news.
Large explosions were heard around the country as a result of either successful interceptions of some Iranian missiles or the landing of others on Israeli soil after they evaded Israeli air defences, according to the military.
According to the IDF, Israeli air defences intercepted “a large number” of Iran’s ballistic missiles.
According to the IDF, the United States also helped Israel defend itself by detecting the Iranian danger and intercepting some of the missiles.
At the end of the situation assessment, Chief of Staff Major General Herzi Halevi said: “We proved our ability to prevent the enemy from achieving by combining exemplary civil behaviour and a powerful air defence system. We will choose when to collect the prize and prove our precise and surprising attack capabilities in accordance with the guidance of the political echelon.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) claimed that it had targeted Israel with dozens of ballistic missiles, Iranian state-run IRIB TV reported.
The IRGC said in a statement that the attacks were in “retaliation for Israel’s assassinations of Hamas Politburo Chief Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and senior IRGC commander Abbas Nilforoushan, as well as its intensification of malicious acts with the US support in its offensives against Lebanese and Palestinian peoples”, according to IRIB TV.
The operation was carried out following the approval of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and a directive by the General Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, with the support of the country’s army and Defense Ministry, the IRGC added.
It warned that if Israel retaliates by attacking Iran, it will face further “crushing and destructive” attacks.
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–IANS
