Iran fired a salvo of ballistic missiles at Tel Aviv on Tuesday in retaliation to the Israeli campaign against Tehran’s Hezbollah allies in Lebanon and the martyrdom of its chief and that of Hamas.

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 neighbouring Jordan. Israeli media reports said as many as 100 missiles had been launched.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the missile attack under way was in response to the martyrdom of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah last week as well as that of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

“In response to the martyrdom of [Hamas leader] Ismail Haniyeh, Hassan Nasrallah and [Guards commander] Nilforoshan, we targeted the heart of the occupied territories (Israel),” the Guards said in a statement reported by the Fars news agency.

The Guards threatened to carry out “crushing attacks” against regional Israel if it retaliated after the missile attack.

“If the Zionist regime reacts to Iranian operations, it will face crushing attacks,” the Guard said.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave the order to launch missiles at Israel, a senior Iranian official told Reuters, adding that Tehran “is fully ready for any retaliation”

Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York posted on X that the attack on Israel is a “legal, rational, and legitimate response to the terrorist acts.”

“Should the Zionist regime dare to respond or commit further acts of malevolence, a subsequent and crushing response will ensue. Regional states and the Zionists’ supporters are advised to part ways with the regime,” the mission wrote.

 Air traffic was halted at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport, a spokesman said. “There are currently no takeoffs and landings,” said a spokesman for Israel’s main international airport.

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 its Hezbollah allies in Lebanon.

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

In Washington, US 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.

Biden directed the US military to aid Israel’s defence and shoot down missiles targeting Israel, the White House National Security Council (NSC) said.

Biden and US Vice President Kamala Harris are monitoring the attack from the White House situation room and receiving regular updates, NSC spokesperson Sean Savett said in a post on X.

The Iranian missile launches came after Israeli ground troops launched raids into Lebanon and its warplanes bombed from the skies.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the “broadening of the Middle East conflict, with escalation after escalation” after Iran fired the salvo of ballistic missiles.

“This must stop. We absolutely need a ceasefire,” Guterres said in a statement.

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, Iran’s best-armed proxy force in the Middle East.

It marks the biggest escalation of regional warfare since fighting 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.

Iran, which sponsors Hezbollah, has vowed to retaliate against Israel, raising fears that war could spill across borders throughout the region, despite efforts by the United States, Israel’s closest and most powerful ally, to contain it.

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, and 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.