Iran preparing to launch imminent ballistic missile attack on Israel, US official says
Israel's military has said its聽paratroopers and commandos were engaged in intense fighting with Hezbollah militants after launching "limited, localised and targeted raids" against the armed group in Lebanon.
Tuesday 1 October 2024 17:55, UK
Iran is preparing to imminently carry out a ballistic missile attack against Israel, according to a senior White House official.
The unnamed official said the US was helping Israel defend itself and warned that a direct military attack on Israel would have "severe consequences" for Iran.
"We are actively supporting defensive preparations to defend Israel against this attack," the White House official said.
An official added military and government sites, not civilian, were expected to be targeted.
State media in Iran has not suggested any attack is imminent. It comes after US officials told Sky's partner network NBC News that Iran has signalled to the US that it still does not want a wider war.
Israel's US Embassy directed all US government employees and their family members to shelter in place until further notice.
Israel-Lebanon latest: Follow live updates
Iran previously launched an unprecedented direct attack on Israel in April, but most Iranian projectiles did not reach their targets.
Many were shot down by a US-led coalition, while others apparently failed at launch or crashed while in flight.
The latest warning comes as Israel's military said its paratroopers and commandos were engaged in intense fighting with Iran-backed Hezbollah militants after launching "limited, localised and targeted raids" against the armed group in Lebanon.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said its air force and artillery supported ground troops as they targeted Hezbollah locations in the border area of southern Lebanon which "pose an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel", including stockpiles and weapons.
Israel says it wants about 60,000 of its residents to be able to safely return to their homes in the north of the country after they were displaced by Hezbollah rocket attacks which started on 8 October last year.
Israel has declined to say how deep its troops will venture into Lebanon or how long the operation is expected to last - but a military spokesman said it will continue tonight.
Offensive 'limited in duration'
Sources told Sky News' US partner network NBC News the offensive will be limited in duration and scope, lasting for days, not weeks.
A spokesperson for the IDF said Israel's forces had "trained and prepared in recent months" for the ground operation, which was announced on Tuesday around 2am local time (midnight UK time).
Later, the Israeli military warned people to evacuate nearly two dozen Lebanese border communities.
Israel advised people to evacuate to the north of the Awali River, some 60km (36 miles) from the border and much further than the Litani River, which marks the northern edge of a UN-declared zone intended to serve as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah after they went to war in 2006.
Hezbollah said it had launched rocket and artillery attacks against Israeli troops in Israel, but made no mention of Israeli forces operating inside Lebanon.
It is harder for Israel to carry out targeted operations in Lebanon than Gaza
The Israeli military has always stated Hamas in Gaza is not their real enemy and they will have planned to target Hezbollah for years.
The real enemy is Hezbollah because behind Hezbollah is Iran.
The plan they are now implementing must have been put together reasonably recently because they can only take on one opponent at a time comfortably.
Essentially they think they have finished off in Gaza for the time being, and they will now just bomb and raid Gaza.
They have only got a couple of brigades there as far as we can see, and they've moved a lot of forces to the north, including their best forces, the 98th Division, which seems to be taking the lead in Lebanon.
But in some respects, it is harder for Israel to be targeted and proportional in its attacks on Lebanon.
This is because parts of the country are very mountainous, so there are lots of tunnels beneath the surface.
They are rock tunnels, so they are not in the sand. It's very difficult to penetrate them, except with bunker buster bombs - and they do an awful lot of other damage in any case.
Winkling out Hezbollah or hurting them so much that they have to pull back will be a much harder job in southern Lebanon than it was in Gaza.
It marks the first time regular Israeli ground troops have entered Lebanese territory since 2006.
Israel had earlier launched small special forces operations into southern Lebanon ahead of a potential ground offensive, an Israeli official told NBC News.
It also began shelling border towns across southern Lebanon and sent an evacuation warning to residents living in the southern suburbs of Lebanon's capital Beirut, advising civilians living in specific buildings to leave ahead of airstrikes on the city.
The IDF also declared three small border communities to be "closed military zones", restricting access only to army personnel in the hours ahead of its incursion into Lebanon.
Shortly after the Israeli military announced troops had entered southern Lebanon, a military statement said approximately 10 projectiles had crossed into Israel from Lebanon. It said some were intercepted and others fell in open areas.
Shelling on the border areas meant UN peacekeepers could no longer carry out patrols "due to the intensity of the rockets going back and forth", it said.
The Lebanese Army - separate from Hezbollah - pulled troops back from checkpoints near the border amid intense shelling.
Thousands of people have fled Lebanon following the recent escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
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Read more:
Is wider war in the Middle East now inevitable?
Iran seems to have badly miscalculated the risks Israel is willing to take
Battle 'may be long', Hezbollah deputy warns
Earlier, Hezbollah's deputy leader Naim Qassem said the group was ready for an Israeli ground offensive and the battle "may be long".
The UK Foreign Secretary reiterated calls on Monday for British nationals in Lebanon to leave the country, calling the situation in the country "volatile" and having the potential "to deteriorate quickly".
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The UK government has chartered a commercial flight out of Beirut to assist those who want to leave, scheduled to depart on Wednesday.
The Lebanese health ministry said more than 1,000 people have been killed across the country in the past two weeks due to Israeli airstrikes, and up to a million may now be displaced.