Iran is attacking Israel with missiles, but the military says no casualties have been reported

Bells blared across Israel and loud noises were heard Tuesday night after Iran launched a missile attack on the country. A US defense official said the United States had seized some of the missiles to help defend Israel.

“The IDF is doing and will do everything necessary to protect the citizens of the State of Israel,” the Israeli military said in a statement, adding that Israelis should remain in protected areas “until further notice.”

“The explosion that you hear is from entering or falling [of missiles]. The air defense system detects and intercepts threats at all times,” the IDF said.

After about 40 minutes, the IDF said it was safe for Israelis to leave the shelters, and spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the military “did not identify any aerial threats from Iran.”

Hagari said Israel’s missile defense systems had made “a number of interceptions,” and while several Iranian weapons were located and tests were ongoing, the IDF was “not aware of any casualties.”

He urged people to remain vigilant.

Iran’s branch of the United Nations has released a statement confirming the attack on Israel and stating that its direct attack has ended.

“Iran’s lawful, reasonable, and legal response to the terrorist acts of the Zionist regime – which included targeting Iranian people and interests and violating the national sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran – was done in the right way,” Iran’s statement said. social media posts. Iran supports many militant groups in the region, and it was unclear whether any of them would go ahead with further attacks on Israel after the Iranian missile salvo.

The blast came hours after a senior White House official told CBS News that the US “has indications that Iran is preparing to launch a ballistic missile attack on Israel.”

That warning, which the Israeli military said was relayed to Washington, came hours after Israel announced the start of “determination, localization and targeted ground attack” against the Iran-backed group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“We actively support the defense arrangements to protect Israel from this attack,” said a White House official, adding that any “Iranian attack against Israel will have serious consequences for Iran.”

Israel Defense Forces spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Tuesday that US officials had informed the IDF that Iran could fire missiles “in the very near future.”

“At the moment, we have not seen an air threat from Iran towards Israel,” Hagari said, adding: “We have faced this threat in the past and we will face it now.”

The US embassy in Israel issued a security alert on Tuesday telling all US government employees and their families to evacuate “due to the current security situation.”

Iran at last a number of ballistic missiles were fired at Israel in Aprilin retaliation for an Israeli strike on the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital, which killed dozens of Iranian military commanders.

Iran launched more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel in that April attack, but Hagari said at the time that almost all of the missiles were intercepted before entering Israeli territory, and he reported only minor damage to one military base from the few missiles that did. . land in the country. Another 10-year-old girl was “severely injured by shrapnel” from the intercepted missile, but the IDF reported no other injuries.

US officials told CBS News earlier Tuesday that Iran had been ready to attack Israel again at short notice since early August, when Tehran threatened to retaliate. the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

An IDF spokesman said on Tuesday that Israeli Air Force planes were patrolling the skies “and our defense systems are on high alert.”

An Iranian legal source told CBS News on Tuesday that the country’s leadership is “under a lot of pressure to take action” against Israel amid increasing attacks on its close ally Hezbollah, adding that many senior officials in Tehran believed Israel was trying to attack. The source said they believed any Iranian strike on Israel would be limited.

President Biden has repeatedly called for a ceasefire amid weeks of heavy fire between Israel and Hezbollah over Lebanon’s southern border. US officials at the White House, the State Department and the Pentagon have all made clear the risk of an all-out war between Israel and an armed Iranian proxy group in Lebanon, warning that the regional conflict could escalate.

On September 30, the Deputy Press Secretary of the Pentagon, Sabrina Singh, told reporters that the number of American units already in the Middle East will be extended, and the forces that are supposed to replace them will move forward. That includes F-16, F-15E, A-10 and F-22 fighter jets and aircrew, he said, amounting to an increase of “several thousand” US troops in the region.

US defense officials told CBS News on Tuesday that there are now more US troops in the region, including 40,000 US troops, than when Iran launched its direct attack on Israel in April.

Iran supports a range of groups across the regionincluding Hezbollah, Hamas and Houthi rebels in Yemen. Tehran calls these groups a “resistance front” against Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian territory, while Israel refers to them as an axis of evil with the ideological goal of erasing the Jewish state from the map. Hezbollah calls its rocket and drone. Israel’s attacks are the legitimate support and protection of Palestinians in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and the Houthis say the same with their monthly targeting of commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea.

One of the biggest risks for the US is that Iran’s proxy groups – including militias based in Iraq and Syria – will target US forces in the region to retaliate for Washington’s support for Israel. They have already done so since October 7, firing rockets and drones at US bases more than 165 times. Most of the attacks cause little damage, but a drone attack in January on a US airport in Jordan, which was attributed to an Iranian-backed group in Iraq, it killed three US soldiers and hurt a lot.

Before a White House official told CBS News about Iran’s plans to launch a missile attack, Israel’s military stepped up domestic security measures in a large part of the country on Tuesday. Among the new measures announced by the IDF’s Homefront Command, were restrictions on the number of people allowed to gather in public in much of northern Israel, near the border with Lebanon.

Emmett LyonsEleanor Watson, Charlie D’Agata and Margaret Brennan contributed to this report.