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By Brendan Cole
Senior Reporter
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Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Iran will "pay" for launching a barrage of missiles into Israel.
Tehran launched its largest-ever missile attack on Israel, which appears to have been mostly blunted by Israeli defenses with the help of the United States and its allies.
One regional analyst told Newsweek it marked a "dangerous escalation" in the monthslong conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed militias Hezbollah and Hamas.
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What We Know
Israel's military said Iran launched around 180 missiles toward Israel, with footage on Israeli TV appearing to show some of the weapons flying over the Tel Aviv area shortly before 7:45 p.m. local time Tuesday. A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave the order for the attack.
Iranian officials had previously told Newsweek that Tehran did not inform the U.S. before launching the barrage, although an unnamed White House source had warned on Tuesday that an attack by the Islamic Republic was imminent.
Tuesday night's barrage was larger than the 110 ballistic missiles and 30 cruise missiles Iran fired toward Israel in April in response to an Israeli airstrike in April on the Iranian embassy in Damascus.
Israel said most missiles on Tuesday night were shot down by aerial defense systems, although the BBC reported that some military bases, restaurants and schools were hit.
Israel's Iron Dome air defense system is designed to intercept short-range rockets of the sort fired by Hamas and Hezbollah and defended some elements of Iran's attack; other parts of the country's layered defense systems played a role.
Israel Aerospace Industries told Newsweek in a statement that its Arrow and Arrow 3 systems "precisely intercepted long-range ballistic missiles and protected the citizens of Israel."
Boaz Levy, IAI president and CEO, said: "The great achievement this evening is that the citizens of Israel can wake up tomorrow morning, for the second time after an Iranian attack, to a day as normal as possible, and celebrate Rosh Hashana safely."
However, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said 90 percent of the projectiles fired had hit their targets and that hypersonic missiles had been used for the first time.
Iran had said that the attack was limited to Israeli security and military targets and was to avenge last week's assassination of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on September 27 and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in July, both blamed on Israel. It mentioned the death of IRGC commander Abbas Nilforoushan who was also killed last week.
Iran had previously warned of a response to Israel's bombardment of Lebanon and the killing of Hezbollah's leaders, which has delivered the biggest blow to the group. Tehran is Hezbollah's key backer and, after years of arming the group, the decapitation of its leadership has delivered a significant blow to Iran's influence in the Middle East.
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What We Don't Know
Israeli military officials said on Wednesday that the attacks appeared to be over, but it is still unclear how much damage was caused.
Israeli officials have not yet reported any serious injuries, but the Palestinian civil defense authority in the occupied West Bank city of Jericho said a man there died.
CNN reported that footage shows a concentration of missiles had fallen at, or near, the headquarters of intelligence agency Mossad, as well as Nevatim and Tel Nof air bases.
However, the biggest unknown is what Israel will do next and whether it could presage a wider regional war, especially as Iran's barrage came on a day when the Israeli military announced it had launched a targeted ground operation into Lebanon to flush out Hezbollah.
Former Israeli intelligence officer Avi Melamed said that Iran's barrage was an attempt by Tehran to establish its deterrence and disrupt Israel's advances against Hezbollah, and is likely to prompt a large counterstrike.
"The scale of the launches has likely escalated tensions to the brink of a regional conflict that Iran may struggle to win," Melamed told Newsweek.
"Israel's response this time will likely be broader and less restrained than it was in the wake of Iran's unprecedented direct strike in April."
However, with Netanyahu vowing that Iran had "made a big mistake tonight and will pay for it," there is growing concern about a regional conflagration.
"Iran's missile barrage in retaliation for Israel's campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon represents a dangerous escalation of this already tragic conflict," Defense Priorities Middle East director Rosemary Kelanic told Newsweek.
Update 10/01/24, 4:30 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with the latest details and new images.
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