Jerusalem (AFP) - Iran launched around 180 missiles at Israel on Tuesday in response to the killings of Tehran-backed militant leaders, prompting alarm across the region and vows of retaliation.

Most of the missiles were intercepted by Israeli air defences or by allied air forces before they reached Israel, as sirens sounded nationwide.

The Israeli military announced after about an hour that the attack was over with a “large number” of missiles intercepted.

Israeli medics reported two people were lightly injured by shrapnel, while in the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian was killed in Jericho “when pieces of a rocket fell from the sky and hit him”, the city’s governor Hussein Hamayel told AFP.

It was Iran’s second direct attack on Israel after a missile and drone attack in April in response to a deadly Israeli air strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.

The United States said Tuesday’s attack “appears to have been defeated and ineffective”, with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan warning that Tehran could expect “severe consequences”.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said: “I’m not going to get into what those consequences are… but there are things on which we will be coordinating with our Israeli counterparts”.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted “three military bases” around Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv.

They said the attack was in response to Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last week as well as the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a Tehran bombing widely blamed on Israel.

UN chief Antonio Guterres condemned the “broadening conflict in the Middle East”, saying in a statement: “This must stop. We absolutely need a ceasefire.”

Israeli airspace was closed for several hours with all flights diverted, a spokesman for the airport authority said.

Iraq and Jordan, which lie between Iran and Israel, closed their airspace too. Lebanon did too before reopening.

Jordan said its air defences responded to missiles and drones.

US President Joe Biden ordered the military to “aid Israel’s defence” and shoot down Iranian missiles, the White House said.

While Iran-backed groups across the region had already been drawn into the Gaza war, sparked by Palestinian group Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, Tehran had largely refrained from direct attacks on its regional foe.

- ‘Direct conflict’ -

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said the latest Iranian “attack is a severe and dangerous escalation. There will be consequences.”

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said that “If the Zionist regime reacts to Iranian operations, it will face crushing attacks”, according to a statement carried by the Fars news agency.

President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran had exercised its “legitimate rights” and dealt “a decisive response… to the Zionist regime’s aggression”.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell condemned the attack and said that the “dangerous cycle of attacks and retaliation risks spiralling out of control”.

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier said he was concerned about “a direct conflict that seems to be underway between Iran and Israel”.

Iran-backed group Hamas praised the Iranian attack, saying it was “in revenge for the blood of our heroic martyrs”.

And Tehran-aligned armed factions in Iraq threatened to target “all” US forces in the country if Iran comes under attack.

The escalation came after the Israeli military said early Tuesday that troops had started “targeted ground raids” in south Lebanon, across Israel’s northern border.

The Israeli ground offensive came despite growing calls for de-escalation after a week of air strikes that killed hundreds in Lebanon, including Hassan Nasrallah, the powerful leader of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

Iran has said Nasrallah’s killing will bring about Israel’s “destruction”, though the foreign ministry said Monday that Tehran would not deploy any troops to confront Israel.

The Pentagon said the United States was boosting its forces in the Middle East by a “few thousand” troops.

- Tel Aviv attack, Gaza shooting -

In Lebanon, the UN peacekeeping mission said the Israeli offensive did not amount to a “ground incursion” and Hezbollah denied any troops had crossed the border.

There was no way to immediately verify the claims, which came as Israel struck south Beirut, Damascus and Gaza, despite international calls for restraint to avoid a regional conflagration.

Israel seeks to dismantle Hezbollah’s military capabilities and restore security to the north, where tens of thousands have been displaced by nearly a year of cross-border fire.

The Iran-backed group, which suffered heavy losses in a spate of attacks last month, said it targeted Israeli army bases on Tuesday.

Separately, a suspected shooting attack late Tuesday at a light rail station in Tel Aviv killed at least six people, police said.

Two assailants were “neutralised”, police added without elaborating. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

In Gaza, the civil defence agency said Israeli bombing killed 19 people on Tuesday.

The military said troops opened fire Tuesday on “dozens” of Palestinians in central Gaza they saw as an “immediate threat”. At least some were hit, it added.

Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,638 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN has described the figures as reliable.

- ‘Lost my home’ -

Hezbollah began low intensity strikes on Israeli troops a day after its Palestinian ally Hamas staged its unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, which triggered Israel’s devastating assault on Gaza.

The escalating violence in Lebanon has killed more than 1,000 people since September 17, Health Minister Firass Abiad said.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said there could be as many as one million, with authorities having registered almost 240,000 crossings into Syria since September 23.

In central Beirut, Youssef Amir, displaced from southern Lebanon, said: “I have lost my home and relatives in this war, but all of that is a sacrifice for Lebanon, for Hezbollah”.

Beirut resident Elie Jabour, 27, told AFP that despite opposing Hezbollah “politically… I support them defending the border”.

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