TEHRAN – Iran has launched a missile attack at Israel, as air raid sirens sounded across the country and Israelis rushed for shelter, reported Al Jazeera.
Iran’s Fars news agency is reporting that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the missile attack under way on Israel is in response to the killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah last week as well as that of the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh earlier this year.
“In response to the martyrdom of Ismail Haniyeh, Hassan Nasrallah and [IRGC commander Abbas] Nilforoushan, we targeted the heart of the occupied territories,” the IRGC said in a statement.
The Israeli military had earlier warned that any ballistic missile attack from Iran was expected to be widespread and told the public to shelter in safe rooms in the event of an attack on Tuesday.
Akiva Eldar, a Tel Aviv resident, said sirens have been sounding for a while.
“We’re not far from the Ministry of Defence and the Israeli military HQ and we’re still hearing sirens in Tel Aviv,” he told Al Jazeera. “We’re not really safe as long as war is still on. There have been clear instructions to stay in the safe rooms and bomb shelters, whoever has them in their houses.”
Iran has vowed to retaliate following Israeli attacks that killed senior leaders of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, which is aligned with Iran.
The firing of missiles came after Israeli troops launched a ground raids into Lebanon, in the biggest escalation of regional warfare since fighting erupted in Gaza a year ago.