Iran fired missiles at northern Israel on Sunday in retaliation for the Israeli Defense Forces targeting what it called Hezbollah command centers in Beirut.
The IDF on Sunday said air defense systems were activated after missiles were detected headed toward Israel from Iran, marking the first direct Iranian attack on the Jewish state since an April ceasefire. Initial reports indicated that at least several missiles were launched, though it was not immediately clear if all of them were intercepted by Israeli forces.
The attack comes hours after Israeli missiles struck Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, killing at least two people and wounding others, according to Lebanese authorities. Israel said the strike was retaliation for Hezbollah rocket fire toward northern Israel earlier in the day. Iran had stated that any attack on the Lebanese capital would amount to war.
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Israel’s strike on Beirut shattered a fragile U.S.-backed ceasefire reached only days earlier and crossed a threshold that Iranian officials had repeatedly warned could trigger a military response. Tehran has argued that any truce with Israel must extend beyond Iran itself and include Israeli operations in Lebanon.
A renewed ceasefire was announced on Wednesday following U.S.-mediated negotiations involving Israel and the Lebanese government that called for a halt in hostilities and the establishment of security zones in southern Lebanon, though Hezbollah was not a party to the talks and quickly rejected key provisions of the deal. Iranian-backed Hezbollah has insisted that any end to the war in Lebanon would be brokered through talks between the United States and Iran.
Iranian officials condemned the attack on Beirut, threatening a “painful” retaliation and warning that both Israeli and U.S. assets in the region could become targets if strikes on Lebanon continued. Iranian Parliament Speaker and top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Tehran would be “in direct confrontation with the enemy” following the attack.
Ghalibaf framed Israel’s strikes on Beirut as being “greenlit” by the U.S. and said the two countries are not “committed” to a ceasefire or peace negotiations.
“They are neither committed to a ceasefire nor believe in dialogue, and by demonstrating through the naval blockade and violation of agreements regarding Lebanon that they only understand the language of power,” Ghalibaf said.
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The missile launches threaten to unravel months of diplomatic efforts aimed at ending the war that began Feb. 28. Since then, the conflict has expanded across the region, drawing in Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed groups while repeatedly placing ceasefire negotiations at risk.
Sunday’s exchange casts fresh doubts on any peace prospects with missiles once again flying between Iran and Israel, heightening fears that the broader regional war is renewed.