Israeli forces bombarded Beirut and southern Lebanon overnight as the region braced for Israel’s response to a missile attack by Iran that intensified fears of an all-out war in the Middle East.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed retaliation against Tehran after dozens of missiles were fired into Israel. “Iran made a big mistake — and it will pay for it,” he said on Tuesday. “Whoever attacks us, we will attack them.”
The surprise missile attack by Iran, which it said was in response to Israeli assassinations of senior leaders of Hizbollah and Hamas, has brought the region even closer to an all-out conflict as Israel escalates its offensive against Tehran’s proxies.
In the past two weeks, Israel has assassinated Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanese movement Hizbollah, launched waves of strikes against Hizbollah targets in Lebanon, bombed a port controlled by Houthi rebels in Yemen, and been blamed for explosions in Syria.
On Tuesday, Israeli forces launched a ground invasion against Hizbollah in southern Lebanon.
The US pledged to join Israel in exacting “severe consequences” from Iran for its missile barrage, said White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
Only a handful of the Iranian missiles slipped past Israel’s sophisticated air defences, including one that appeared to have struck near the headquarters of Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service.
One death was reported in the Palestinian city of Jericho, where a man was struck by debris from an intercepted missile.
A person briefed on the situation said Iran had targeted military and intelligence infrastructure near Tel Aviv and other facilities elsewhere in the country.
Iran said the strikes were retaliation for Israel’s targeted killings across the region, including Nasrallah on Friday, and threatened to respond if Israel retaliated.
“Our action is concluded unless the Israeli regime decides to invite further retaliation. In that scenario, our response will be stronger and more powerful,” Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said in a post on X on Wednesday.
Araghchi said he had spoken to his UK, German and French counterparts, warning that while Iran did not seek war, it was “not afraid of it”. He also urged “any third party” to refrain from intervening, a clear reference to the US.
On Wednesday, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appeared to blame the US and European countries for the escalation in the region.
“The cause of all regional problems is the presence of those very parties who falsely advocate peace and stability in the region,” he said, without making any reference to Iran’s missile strike on Israel.
Hizbollah spokesperson Mohammed Afif said on Wednesday that its conflict with Israel would be fought “in rounds”. “If you have defeated us in this round, it is only the first,” he said.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz condemned Iran’s missile attack on Israel on Wednesday, saying Iran risked “setting the whole region on fire”. “We must prevent that at all costs,” he said. “Hizbollah and Iran must immediately stop their attacks on Israel.”
On Wednesday, Israel barred UN secretary-general António Guterres from entering the country over what the foreign ministry said was his failure to “unequivocally condemn” Iran’s missile attack.
Israeli warplanes carried out heavy bombardments in Beirut and southern Lebanon on Tuesday night. Over the past two weeks, Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,800 people in Lebanon and forced up to 1mn from their homes, according to Lebanese authorities.
The air strikes came after Israel issued new evacuation orders for about 20 villages and towns in southern Lebanon, which is largely empty after days of intensive strikes that have flattened residential buildings in densely populated neighbourhoods.
The depth of Israel’s ground incursion into Lebanon remained unclear more than a day after the Israel Defense Forces said it was conducting targeted raids just across its northern border.
The IDF said it was sending additional forces to join what it said were “limited, localised, targeted raids” into Lebanese territory, including troops from the Golani infantry brigade and a separate armoured brigade.
Israeli troops have been conducting covert raids into the area for nearly a year since Hizbollah began firing into northern Israel a day after Hamas’s October 7 attack.
In the first sign of contact between Israeli forces and Hizbollah, the Iran-backed militant group said on Wednesday that its fighters had repelled a group of Israeli troops “trying to penetrate” the southern community of Odeisseh, close to the border.
Hours later, Hizbollah said it had engaged in clashes with Israeli troops about 20km south-west of Odeisseh, still within a few hundred metres of the border.
The IDF did not comment on the claims but said that its commandos in southern Lebanon had fought Hizbollah in “close-range engagements” supported by the Israeli air force.
Israeli warplanes struck targets in southern Beirut, and Israel said they had killed two more Hizbollah commanders on Tuesday.
There were 55 dead and 156 wounded in Israeli attacks across Lebanon on Tuesday.
In oil markets, the international benchmark Brent crude was up 2.2 per cent at $75.14 a barrel on Wednesday, while the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate was up 2.4 per cent at $71.52 a barrel.
Prices had risen as much as 5 per cent after the Iranian attack on Tuesday night.
Additional reporting by William Sandlund in Hong Kong, Bita Ghaffari in Tehran and Heba Saleh in Beirut
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