Iran has launched missiles at Israel in response to strikes in Beirut – warning of ‘more crushing and regretful blows’ as Donald Trump said he’s going to tell Benjamin Netanyahu not to hit back.
The attack – the first Iranian strikes on Israeli soil since April – comes a few days after the Lebanese and Israeli governments agreed to a ceasefire in US hosted talks.
Tehran had warned of retaliation after Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs today in defiance of Washington’s request days ago to stand down.
The strike on a residential building killed two people and wounded 20, Lebanon’s health ministry said.
Israel has now said it will retaliate against Iran over this evening’s attack – though Iran has vowed to respond with greater force.
Ahead of the regime’s strikes, senior member of Iran’s parliament, Ebrahim Rezaei, said on X: ‘Watch the sky of the occupied territories tonight.’
Trump described this evening’s Iranian strikes as ‘unhelpful’ and is calling for calm between the two nations.
Speaking to Fox News, he added: ‘We’re very close. I would say an agreement would be signed on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday of this coming week. And now this takes place.’
A streak of light illuminates the sky during a missile attack from Iran towards Israel today, as seen from Ashkelon
A projectile crosses the night sky over the West Bank city of Nablus today. Israel’s military reported air defence sirens sounded across northern Israel and central areas
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a neighbourhood in the southern Lebanese coastal city of Tyre today
Addressing Iran, he said: ‘You’ve shot your missiles, that’s enough. Get back to the table and make a deal.’
Mr Trump said he would ‘call Bibi right now and tell him not to retaliate’.
‘Each of them had their fun. Israel had its strike and Iran had its strike. We don’t need another one,’ he said.
Iran’s parliament speaker said earlier today: ‘The (US) naval blockade imposed against the Iranian people, together with Washington’s green light today to the Zionist regime, makes U.S and Israeli bases and assets in the region legitimate targets.’
Brig Gen Effie Defrin, spokesman for the IDF, said Israel is ‘prepared for the possibility of additional fire’.
He added that air defence systems are ‘deployed across the entire country’ and the military’s chief of general staff is holding a ‘situational assessment’.
‘The IDF will continue to operate throughout Lebanon and will deepen the blow to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation’, he said.
Effie Defrin had previously said the Iranian regime had made a ‘grave mistake’.
An Israeli air-defence missile flies in the sky over Israel, as seen from Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank today
Missiles launched from Iran today towards Israel are seen in the sky over the West Bank city of Hebron
Sirens sounded in several regions across northern Israel due to the missile attack, which followed an Israeli strike on the Lebanese capital, Beirut
President Donald Trump told Fox News he was ‘not happy’ about the Israeli attack on Lebanon today
Netanyahu’s office had claimed the IDF strike on Beirut was in retaliation for the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group firing at northern Israel earlier today, and that Israel targeted ‘command centres’.
A senior U.S. official said the it was ‘not surprised’ by the attack in Beirut. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, would not say if the U.S. had been given a heads-up on the strike.
Though, Mr Trump told Fox News he was ‘not happy’ about the Israeli attack.
Netanyahu – who wants to remove Hezbollah as a threat – told his cabinet: ‘We are striking them very hard, and we know that Hezbollah is on the run.’
Israel’s military said ‘steps were taken to mitigate harm to civilians’ including aerial surveillance.
Hezbollah did not immediately claim responsibility for firing at Israel earlier in the day.
Israel announced on Monday last week it would strike the southern suburbs after Hezbollah claimed attacks in northern Israel, but urgent talks via Washington halted the attacks on the condition that Hezbollah stop targeting Israeli border towns.
Lebanon and Israel later renewed a ceasefire agreement in talks that Beirut hopes will end the fighting.
An initial agreement took effect on April 17, days after a 10-minute Israeli bombardment of Beirut killed over 300 people.
Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs twice following the deal. Israeli strikes over southern Lebanon continue daily, and Israeli forces have seized around a fifth of Lebanon in a ground invasion.
Netanyahu, who faces elections later this year, has expressed a desire to press ahead with Israel’s offensive until he believes Hezbollah no longer poses a threat.
Hezbollah has scathingly rejected a U.S brokered deal and urged Lebanon to end its direct talks with Israel. Instead, it backs Iran’s inclusion of a ceasefire in Lebanon as a condition in negotiations with the U.S.
The fighting threatens efforts to end the Iran war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit point for oil and gas and related products like fertilizer. Its closure has jolted the world economy and spiked warnings of hunger in vulnerable regions.
In an interview taped on Friday and aired today with NBC’s Meet the Press, Mr Trump said: ‘I’d like to see Lebanon have a better life. I’d like to see a more surgical attack on Hezbollah. I think it should be more surgical.’
Mr Trump added he is ‘not demanding’ that Lebanon be part of the short-term deal to extend the ceasefire in the Iran war.
More than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon since the war began March 2 when Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel, two days after Israel and the U.S began attacking Iran.
More than one million people in Lebanon have been displaced. The fighting has killed at least 31 Israeli soldiers and three civilians.
Lebanon’s army commander, Gen. Rodolphe Haikal, went to Pakistan on Saturday at the invitation of Pakistan’s army chief, who has been involved in mediating talks between the U.S. and Iran.
The Lebanese army did not say whether the visit is related to mediation efforts.
