Washington: A senior US administration official on Tuesday warned that Iran is preparing an 'imminent' ballistic missile attack on Israel over the escalating conflict with the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group. The official warned of "severe consequences" should Iran carry out such an attack.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter, told the Associated Press that the US is actively supporting Israeli defensive preparations. This comes after the Israeli military on Tuesday warned people to evacuate nearly two dozen Lebanese border communities hours after announcing what it said were limited ground operations against Hezbollah. "A direct military attack from Iran against Israel will carry severe consequences for Iran," the official said.
However, Iran's state media has not suggested any attack is imminent. According to several reports, Iran had said it would not deploy any forces to Lebanon or Gaza to confront Israel, saying the Lebanese and Palestinian fighters had the strength and capability against Israeli aggression. White House officials did not immediately offer any evidence backing its intelligence finding.
Iran already launched an unprecedented direct attack on Israel in April, but few of the Iranian projectiles reached their targets. Many were shot down by a US-led coalition, while others apparently failed at launch or crashed while in flight. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier spoken about "large challenges" while fighting an Iranian axis.
Is Iran reluctant to attack Israel?
Israel's apparent ground raids in Lebanon follow its deadly detonation of booby-trapped Hezbollah pagers, two weeks of airstrikes, and then its killing on Friday of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, one of the heaviest blows in decades to the group. The intensive air strikes have eliminated several Hezbollah commanders but also killed about 1,000 civilians and forced one million to flee their homes, according to the Lebanese government.
This has put Iran in a dilemma - while not responding to Israel's aggression could alienate the militias it relies on in the region, any possible retaliation could risk a wider war as the clerical establishment faces intense challenges at home. Though his leadership of Hezbollah was the crown jewel in Iran’s decades-long strategy of arming regional militias to counter both Israel and the United States, Iran remains cautious about when — or if — it will strike back.
Iran hung back after the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7 even as millions of Iranians purportedly volunteered online to fight on behalf of the Palestinians. In the time since, an increasingly emboldened Israel has attacked Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthi rebels and other groups. Iran could encourage more asymmetric attacks, targeting Jewish tourists, synagogues or Israeli diplomatic missions as it has done in the past.
What is happening in Israel and Lebanon?
As tensions run high, Hezbollah said it fired missiles at the headquarters of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency and at a military intelligence unit on the outskirts of Tel Aviv on Tuesday, causing the Israeli military to announce new restrictions on public gatherings and closed beaches in several areas, including Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
In a video, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) showed a Fadi-4 missile fired by Hezbollah at Israel fell directly in Kfar Qassem, an Arab village in central Israel, saying, "Hezbollah doesn’t care who, or how. They only care about harming Israelis." Hezbollah has officially denied reports that Israeli troops have entered Lebanese territory as part of their ground invasion.
In its first statement since Israel announced the start of ground operations, Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afifi said reports that Israeli forces had entered Lebanon were “false claims”. He said Hezbollah fighters are ready “to have a direct confrontation with enemy forces that dare to or try to enter Lebanon to inflict casualties among them”.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military on Tuesday ordered the evacuation of nearly two dozen Lebanese border communities. The evacuation order, posted by the Israeli military's Arabic spokesman on the social media platform X, specified around two dozen communities in southern Lebanon and ordered people to evacuate north of the Awali River, some 60 km from the border.
(with inputs from agencies)
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