NYT (“Iran Launches About 180 Ballistic Missiles at Israel“):
Iran fired several waves of ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday evening, a sudden assault that left Israel fighting simultaneously on three fronts and raised the likelihood of an all-out conflict between two of the most powerful militaries in the Middle East.
The attack was the culmination of a dizzying sequence of events over less than 24 hours that began with Israel launching an invasion into Lebanon to pursue the Hezbollah militia, an Iranian ally. Israel pounded Lebanon from the air throughout Tuesday as its troops advanced on the ground and Hezbollah fired rockets deep into Israel.
Iran fired about 180 missiles during its assault, the Israeli military said, making the barrage one of the largest of its kind and forcing millions of Israelis to take cover in bomb shelters for more than an hour. Many of the missiles were intercepted by Israel’s air defense system, while some fell in central and southern Israel, according to the Israeli military.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in Israel, but one Palestinian man was killed by falling shrapnel in the occupied West Bank.
The attack left the region on edge, uncertain about how Israel would respond. As Israel’s top commanders met to assess the situation, the chief military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said Israel would respond in a way and at a time of its choosing. And Iran said it would fire more missiles if Israel counterattacked.
A senior White House official said the United States would help defend Israel and warned that a direct attack against Israel would “carry severe consequences for Iran.”
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps said in a statement that the missile attack had been in retaliation for Israel’s assassinations of Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah; Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh; and an Iranian commander.
Given that Israel and the United States had sufficient intelligence warnings ahead of time to make them known publicly hours ago, this could well be another one-off. Iran may well just be “doing something” to save face in the wake of numerous embarrassing setbacks for its anti-Israel proxies.
If there are significant Israeli casualties or this is followed by another wave, though, Netanyahu will have little choice but to launch direct attacks on Iran. The wider regional war all parties seemingly wanted to avoid could well be upon us.
UPDATES:
The Reuters live blog quotes US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan: “Based on what we know at this point, this attack appears to have been defeated and ineffective.”
They have a headline “Israel to conduct ‘powerful strikes’ tonight throughout the Middle East, local media report” with no follow-on text
