Iran has fired a barrage of missiles at Israel in retaliation for the killings of top Hezbollah and Hamas leaders last evening, as the war in the Middle East threatens to escalate into a major regional conflict. Visual scenes showed Israelis running for bomb shelters as sirens blared across the country and orange streaks lit up the night sky. Israel said it had intercepted most of the missiles and vowed to make Iran “pay” for the attack. Amid claims and counterclaims from Iran and Israel, it’s hard to know how successful Tuesday’s strikes will be and whether Israel will immediately retaliate.

Here are 5 points from what Israel and Iran said about Tuesday’s attacks.

Yesterday there were reports of 400 missiles being fired from Iran at Israel. But Iran confirmed this morning that it had fired 200 missiles, while Israel put the count at 180. Sirens sounded across the country and most of the missiles were intercepted by Israeli air defenses or coalition air forces before they reached their homeland. Missiles are being fired at Israel. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the missiles hit “three military bases” around Tel Aviv and other bases, adding that 90 percent of them “hit their targets”. Israel denied the claim, saying only 20 missiles landed while the rest were disabled. Iran claimed it hit the headquarters of Mossad, Israel’s top intelligence agency. However, Israel has denied this and said that some of the missiles fell on empty ground. A video of a large crater near the Mossad headquarters has surfaced on social media – possibly caused by a missile strike. Iran said yesterday that it had successfully used a hypersonic al-Fatah missile to target military installations in Israel. This claim was disputed by Israel as it claimed to have intercepted most of the missiles. Israel said only two people were injured in the attacks. Iran has warned that it will launch “crushing strikes” against Israel if it responds to an Iranian missile attack. But Israel called the missile attack “Iran’s biggest mistake” and vowed to retaliate at a time and place of its choosing. IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said, “This attack will have consequences. We have plans, and we will work on them at the time and place we decide.”



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