Iran has launched a number of missile attacks at Israel on Tuesday night, following which Israel has threatened to retaliate.
Some hours after Iranian strike, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while addressing during a Security Cabinet meeting said: "Iran made a big mistake tonight, and it will pay for it."
Earlier, Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari stated: "Iran's attack is a severe and dangerous escalation. There will be consequences. We will respond wherever, whenever and however we choose, in accordance with the directive of the government of Israel."
The rescue services said in Israel that two people in Tel Aviv were lightly injured by shrapnel, and a building in the northern part of the city was damaged. However, there are no immediate reports of fatalities in Israel yet.
The Israel Airports Authority published a statement announcing the country's closure of the airspace. Incoming flights have been diverted to other countries, according to Xinhua news agency. Jordan and Iraq, the neighboring countries with security concerns, have closed their airspace to flights and halted air traffic temporarily, it reported.
A wave of sirens sent millions of residents in Iran to shelters as Tehran launched at least 200 ground-to-ground missiles, Channel 13 TV news reported. The military said large explosions could be heard across the country because of intercepts of some Iranian missiles or some that evaded Israeli air defense systems to land within Israel.
IDF reported that according to Israeli air defenses, it intercepted a large number of ballistic missiles launched by Iran.
And according to IDF, the US also joined the defense of Israel both in terms of detecting the threat from Iran and intercepting some of the missiles.
Chief of Staff, Major General Herzi Halevi, in a situation assessment said at the end: "We proved our ability to prevent the enemy from achieving, by combining exemplary civil behavior and a very strong air defense system. We will choose when to collect the price, and prove our precise and surprising attack capabilities, in accordance with the guidance of the political echelon.".
Meanwhile, Iranian state-run IRIB TV quoted the country's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps as saying that it had targeted Israel with dozens of ballistic missiles.
The IRGC announced its missile attacks in "retaliation for Israel's assassinations of Hamas Politburo Chief Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and senior IRGC commander Abbas Nilforoushan, as well as its intensification of malicious acts with the US support in its offensives against Lebanese and Palestinian peoples", IRIB TV reported.
The operation was conducted after Iran's Supreme National Security Council issued its endorsement of the operation and with a command from the General Staff of Iran's Armed Forces, the army, and the Defense Ministry, it added.
It warned that if Israel retaliates through launching an attack against Iran, it will face further "crushing and destructive" attacks.
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