Live: Israel vows to retaliate within hours after Iran missile attack

Israel is preparing to make Iran “pay a heavy price” for attacking the Jewish state with an estimated 181 ballistic missiles, as air strikes hit Beirut. Follow live updates.

Israel will launch “powerful strikes” on Iran in retaliation for a ballistic missile barrage which sent Israelis running for cover.

Citing government sources, Israeli media is reporting the strikes will commence overnight aimed at targets “throughout the Middle East”, meaning they could commence within hours.

The retaliation comes after Iran fired an estimated 181 ballistic missiles in an unprecedented aerial attack on Israel, with most of the missiles intercepted by Israel’s air defences or allied forces before they reached the Jewish state.

Iran ballistic missile attack on Israel

As air raid sirens rang, seven people were killed and at least eight others wounded in a shooting and stabbing terror attack in Jaffa, Tel Aviv, according to Israel Police.

Two terrorists, one of whom was armed with a rifle and the other with a knife, attacked civilians on the Tel Aviv light rail before getting off and continuing on foot and shooting and stabbing people on Jerusalem Street in the city, the Times of Israel reports.

Both terrorists were “neutralised on site”, police said, and were later identified as Palestinian residents of the Hebron in the West Bank.

Iran threatened “crushing attacks” if Israel retaliated against the missile barrage, which the White House said was “defeated” by the combined air defences of Israel and the United States Navy.

No Israelis were said to be injured, but a 37-year-old Palestinian man was killed by shrapnel in the West Bank.

“A Palestinian worker in Jericho was killed when pieces of a rocket fell from the sky and hit him,” Jericho governor Hussein Hamayel told AFP.

Iran ballistic missile barrage

The first missiles were launched at 2.30am AEST – about five hours after Israel was tipped off by the US that the attack was imminent.

US president Joe Biden and presidential nominee Kamala Harris convened an urgent national security council meeting just minutes before the first bombs rained down.

Iran claimed the attack targeted “three military bases” in the Tel Aviv area, with video of the attack showing several impacts as a number of missiles penetrated Israel’s defences.

The attack lasted about an hour before the military announced an end to the threat.

It was Iran’s second on Israel after a missile and drone attack in April in response to a deadly Israeli air strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.

Meanwhile, Israel has launched fresh attacks on Lebanon with two strikes hitting Beirut’s southern suburbs early Wednesday local time.

The Israeli army said its troops had been locked in fierce clashes in Lebanon after launching a ground offensive, escalating the conflict after a week of air strikes.

It said the targets posed an “immediate threat” to northern Israeli communities, and warned Lebanese civilians against driving in a southern zone along the border.

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Originally published as Live: Israel vows to retaliate within hours after Iran missile attack