Iran launched missiles at Israel on Sunday in response to Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, shattering a fragile ceasefire and marking the most serious escalation since April, after 100 days of war.
A senior Iranian official has promised a “decisive and painful” response to Israel’s airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut and, a few hours later, sirens sounded across northern Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces said it had so far intercepted all the Iranian ballistic missiles, as US president Donald Trump called Israeli prime minister Bejamin Netanyahu urging him ‘‘not to strike back, adding he was ‘‘not happy about it’’ and that it would “not help” negotiations with Tehran.
After the Israeli attack in the Dahieh district of Beirut, Ebrahim Rezaei, the spokesperson for the Iranian parliament’s foreign policy and national security committee, wrote on X: “We will give a decisive and painful response to the Zionist regime’s attack on the suburbs … Watch the sky of the occupied territories tonight.” Iran considers Israel to be occupied Palestine.
The speaker of Iran’s parliament and top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said US bases and assets in the region had become “legitimate targets” after the Israeli strike.
“They are neither committed to a ceasefire nor believe in dialogue, and through the naval blockade and violation of agreements regarding Lebanon they showed that they only understand the language of power,” Ghalibaf said in a post on X.
On Sunday night, the IDF said missiles had been launched from Iran towards Israel and it was also preparing for attacks after its Beirut strike.
Iran launched about 10 ballistic missiles at northern Israel.
All the missiles were intercepted or struck open areas, according to the military.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said: “This operation is not a passing event, but rather the beginning of a full week of continuous strikes.”
In a statement it added: “Waves of missiles and drones will continue to be launched around the clock for the next seven days until the enemy is deterred and ceases its crimes.
“Any targeting of Iranian territory will be met with a devastating and overwhelming response beyond all expectation.”
Last week, Tehran threatened that any Israeli attack on Beirut would be considered a violation of the US-Iran ceasefire and would be met with an attack on Israel. Israeli media said on Sunday that a limited attack on Israel’s territory by Iran and Hezbollah was anticipated after the strike.
The attack on the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, hit two apartments in two separate buildings, Lebanon’s state news agency reported, killing two people and wounding 11, according to an initial toll.
The Israeli prime minister’s office said the Israeli military had struck “terrorist headquarters” in the southern suburbs “in response to Hezbollah’s firing at Israeli territory”. Israel said it had intercepted Hezbollah rocket fire at northern Israel on Sunday morning, though the armed group did not claim responsibility for the attacks.
The strikes showered the streets in rubble and caused a wave of people to flee the southern suburbs in fear of further strikes.
After Iran’s missile attacks on northern Israel, Trump urged Tehran to return to the negotiating table.
“What I would suggest to Iran: you’ve shot your missiles, that’s enough. Get back to the table and make a deal,” the US president told Fox News in a phone interview, adding how he was not happy with Israel’s strikes on the southern Beirut.
“It’s certainly not going to help negotiations,” Trump said, adding, “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.”
Trump also told Axios: “If Netanyahu strikes (Iran) back, it’s just gonna keep going like the last 47 years, or last 3000 years.” He also said the US was “very close” to a peace deal with Iran, adding: “I don’t want it to blow up because of what is happening now”.
The strikes on Beirut came just days after Hezbollah rejected a ceasefire proposal agreed by the Lebanese government and Israel. Washington had previously asked Israel to not strike Beirut, though Israeli media reported that the US had been informed before Sunday’s strike.
Fighting in Lebanon started on 2 March when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, triggering an Israeli invasion. Israeli strikes have killed more than 3,613 people in Lebanon, while Hezbollah has killed at least 30 Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and three Israeli civilians.
The skirmishes in Lebanon have been an obstacle for Iran-US negotiations, as Tehran insists that Lebanon be included in a broader ceasefire deal. On Sunday, Donald Trump told NBC News he was not demanding that Lebanon be part of any peace deal with Iran, claiming again that such an agreement, which has so far proved elusive, was near.
“I think they’d like to see it, but I’m not demanding,” the US president said in the interview recorded on Friday. He added: “We’re very close to a deal, or I’m going to blow the hell out of them [Iran].”
Before the strike on Sunday, Israel had issued a forced evacuation order for most of the city of Tyre, one of the largest cities in southern Lebanon, which is hosting thousands of people displaced from villages in the surrounding area. Plumes of smoke were later seen rising from the city.
Israel also carried out airstrikes across the south of Lebanon, while Hezbollah claimed responsibility for rocket and artillery barrages against Israeli troops in the Nabatieh area. Fighting has been concentrated around the city of Zawtar al-Sharqiya after Israel took Beaufort Castle along the route to Nabatieh, a large city in south Lebanon that it has been encircling.
On Saturday, the Israeli military killed two Lebanese army soldiers and an army captain in a strike on their vehicle. The Lebanese army is not party to the Hezbollah-Israel war.
The government of Lebanon and Israel are negotiating directly in Washington in an attempt to reach a comprehensive ceasefire. Hezbollah, which is the party fighting with Israel, is not participating in talks and in recent days has said it will not agree to any ceasefire deal that does not include a withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon and an end to Israeli strikes across the country, not just in Beirut.
It is unclear how negotiations in Washington will be affected by Israel’s latest strikes on Beirut.
Israelis are bracing for a possible attack by Iran, reviving fears of a conflict that appeared to have subsided after the temporary ceasefire was reached in April.
At the same time, Israeli forces continue to carry out strikes across Gaza, where a fragile truce brokered last October has done little to halt military operations in the besieged territory.
On Sunday, Israeli strikes on a Hamas-run police station and a vehicle in the Gaza Strip killed at least nine people and wounded 20 others, health officials said, as mediators began new efforts to salvage the truce.
One strike hit a police post adjacent to a large tent encampment of displaced families in Khan Younis, in the south of the territory, killing five people and wounding 16 others, medics said.
Earlier in the morning, Israel was confronted with violence at home after an Arab Israeli gunman opened fire at a petrol station near the town of Kokhav Yair, located on the Israeli side of the boundary with the occupied West Bank, killing one person and wounding five others before being shot dead by police, authorities said.
The attack came amid heightened tensions across Israel and the occupied West Bank, days after a series of settler attacks on Palestinian communities and the fatal shooting of a Palestinian baby that further inflamed an already volatile situation.
Police identified the gunman on Sunday as a resident of the predominantly Palestinian city of Taybeh, in central Israel. His motives were not immediately clear.
Authorities initially feared that the shooting might be part of a coordinated attack. However, investigators later concluded that the incident involved the gunman and a single accomplice. The second suspect was arrested after allegedly attempting to stab police officers responding to the incident.
