Iran launches salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel

Iran fired a salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday in retaliation for Israel's campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Alarms sounded across Israel and explosions could be heard in Jerusalem and the Jordan River valley after Israelis piled into bomb shelters. Reporters on state television lay flat on the ground during live broadcasts.

Reuters journalists saw missiles intercepted in the airspace of neighboring Jordan. Israeli media reports said as many as 100 missiles had been launched.

Earlier, the military had announced that any ballistic missile strike from Iran was expected to be widespread and told the public to shelter in safe rooms in the event of an attack.

Iran has vowed to retaliate following attacks that killed the top leadership of Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel killed its leader of more than 30 years, Hassan Nasrallah, on Saturday with a massive airstrike on Beirut that sowed panic, just days after the group was shocked when booby-trapped pagers and radios blew up across the country.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said a missile attack under way against Israel on Tuesday was in response to the killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah last week as well as that of the Hamas leader.

The firing of missiles came after Israel said its troops had launched ground raids into Lebanon, though describing them as limited. The Israeli campaign in Lebanon is the biggest escalation of regional warfare since fighting erupted in Gaza a year ago.

In Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden said the United States was prepared to help Israel defend itself from Iranian missile attacks.

"We discussed how the United States is prepared to help Israel defend against these attacks, and protect American personnel in the region," Biden said on X about a meeting held with Vice President Kamala Harris and the White House national security team earlier in the day.

The firing of missiles came after Israeli troops launched ground raids into Lebanon, in the biggest escalation of regional warfare since war erupted in Gaza a year ago.

Israel closes airspace

Israeli army radio said that take-offs and landings at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv have stopped after Iran launched missiles towards Israel.

Rapid escalation

Though so far characterised by Israel as limited, the first ground campaign into Lebanon for 18 years would pit Israeli soldiers against Hezbollah.

It marks the biggest escalation of regional warfare since war erupted in Gaza a year ago, and follows weeks of intense airstrikes that have decapitated Hezbollah by killing most of its top leaders. More than a thousand Lebanese have been killed and a million have fled their homes.

In the latest announced killing of a senior Hezbollah figure, Israel said it had assassinated Muhammad Jaafar Qasir, describing him as a commander in charge of weapons transfers from Iran and its affiliates.

The rapid escalation that has engulfed Lebanon into war has killed hundreds. Near the city of Sidon along the Mediterranean south of Beirut, mourners wept over coffins containing black-shrouded bodies of people killed in Israeli strikes.

"The building got struck down and I couldn’t protect my daughter or anyone else. Thank God, my son and I got out, but I lost my daughter and wife, I lost my home, I have become homeless. What do you want me to say? My whole life changed in a second," said resident Abdulhamid Ramadan.

Many Lebanese said they were ready to resist Israeli forces.

"Not just Hezbollah, all of Lebanon will fight this time. All of Lebanon is determined to fight Israel for the massacres it committed in Gaza and Lebanon," said Abu Alaa, a Sidon resident.

Four dead in Tel Aviv shooting attack: Israel police

At least four people were shot dead Tuesday in a suspected attack in Israel's central city of Tel Aviv, police said, adding that the two assailants had been "neutralised".

"Four civilians were killed by gunfire from two terrorists. Additionally, there are seven injured individuals in varying degrees of severity according to medical sources. Both terrorists have been neutralised on site," police said in a statement.