Israel said its air defenses, joined by a US-led coalition of allies including Britain, intercepted most of the missiles, but several projectiles successfully penetrated the country’s formidable air defense system.

A missile hit the road outside the headquarters of Israel’s foreign intelligence service Mossad near Tel Aviv.An additional projectile exploded near a school in a town in central Israel, severely damaging the building and leaving a Big crater, according to videos online. and Israeli military statements. A missile blast damaged about 100 houses in Hod Hasharon, a town north of Tel Aviv, the municipality said.

“It was a very powerful impact with a great risk of claiming human lives,” the municipality said.

According to US officials, Iran also targeted several Israeli military bases in the attack, including the Navatim base in the Negev desert, which caused minor damage. Online videos show around twenty missiles raining down, with some apparently exploding.

Israel’s military on Wednesday declined to comment on the damage to the Navatim air base and other locations, arguing that it did not want to give Iran information that would help it understand the effectiveness of its barrage. . The military said its air force was fully operational and ready to launch retaliatory strikes against Iran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country would respond to Iran’s attack, calling it a “big mistake”.

Despite the widespread attack, health officials in Israel reported no deaths and only minor injuries. A Palestinian from the Israeli-controlled West Bank town of Jericho died after being shot.

The United States warned that Iran was preparing to launch a ballistic missile attack against Israel, following weeks of Israeli airstrikes inside Lebanon that killed senior officials of the Tehran-backed militia Hezbollah, including its leader Hassan Nasr. Allah was killed.

The barrage came hours after the Israeli military confirmed ground operations inside Lebanon on Tuesday to push Hezbollah back from the Israeli border and prevent the militant group from firing rockets and missiles at Israeli towns and cities. Trying to. On October 7 last year, a day after Hamas attacks, Hezbollah opened fire on Israel, sparking a war in Gaza.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it launched the missile attack in response to the killing of Nasrallah and guard commander Abbas Nilfroshan, who were with the Hezbollah leader when a series of Israeli bombs hit the Lebanese capital Beirut on Friday. Destroyed a building.

Over the past two weeks, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes targeting Hezbollah leaders and their weapons supplies, killing more than 1,600 people in Lebanon and displacing nearly a million from their homes. is lying

Iran warned that Tuesday’s attack would be retaliated by Israel with “further crushing and destructive actions”.

In April, Iran launched its first attack on Israeli soil after another senior Israeli military commander was killed in an airstrike in the Syrian capital, Damascus. In the attack, Iran fired 120 ballistic missiles, 30 cruise missiles and more than 150 drones, an attack that was foiled by Israel, the US and other allies.

According to the Wall Street Journal report, Iran had telegraphed the attack several days in advance, giving Israel and the United States time to prepare, while Tehran sent a message to Arab officials on Monday night that it would Going to attack this time. A U.S. defense official said a number of Tuesday’s missiles were intercepted, some of which were targeted by U.S. forces in the area.

Ozzie Rubin, the former head of Israel’s missile defense unit and one of the founders of the country’s air defense programs, said the April attack was easy to defend because it involved cruise missiles and drones fired from Iran. The Israeli army had plenty of warning. Tuesday’s attack, by contrast, was entirely ballistic missiles, which came within 15 minutes from Iran.

He said the good interception rate for ballistic missiles is more than 80 percent, which the Israeli military achieved in April. Ultimately, he said, there was not yet enough information to accurately assess how effective Israel’s air defenses were.

Israel has three multilayered, overlapping, air defense systems, most of which were developed jointly with the United States in the 1980s. The Arrow 3 intercepts long-range ballistic missiles that leave Earth’s atmosphere, while an older version of the Arrow is still used for medium- to long-range missile threats. David’s sling covers short to long range missiles, drones and aircraft. The Iron Dome, its most famous system, specializes in dealing with short-range attacks.

Write to Dov Lieber at [email protected] and Rory Jones at [email protected]