Iran has launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel

Iran fired ballistic missiles at Israel, setting off sirens across the country, the Israel Defense Forces said on Tuesday.

Orange fire lit the sky over Israel as NBC News teams both in Tel Aviv and across the border in Lebanon's Tire observed the rockets that appeared to be fired. Small streaks of light could also be seen that appeared to come from Israel's air defense system as the country tried to repel the attack.

Booming sounds were also heard in a video captured by NBC News, but it is unclear whether the sound came from missiles hitting the air or from Iranian missiles landing in Israel.

U.S. officials had warned earlier in the day that Iran was preparing a ballistic missile attack on Israel, a senior White House official and a Defense Department official told NBC News on Tuesday.

The attack follows widespread attacks by Israel in Lebanon, including the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and a ground invasion in the south of the country.

“The United States has indications that Iran is preparing to launch an imminent ballistic missile attack against Israel,” the White House official said. “We are actively supporting defense preparations to defend Israel against this attack. A direct military attack by Iran against Israel will have serious consequences for Iran.”

Iran is expected to target military and government sites, but not civilians, the officials said.

Officials believe this would potentially require more firepower than Iran's attack on Israel in April, which launched hundreds of drones that took hours to reach Israel, followed by several ballistic missiles later. The number of ballistic missiles could be higher this time, the officials said, and Iran could try to fire many missiles at once to overwhelm air defenses.

It is unclear whether rockets are being fired by one of Iran's proxy militias in the region. US officials also do not know whether America's allies in the region will help defend Israel against the Iranian attack or allow flights over their territory to help the US launch projectiles.

A spokesman for the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations did not comment on White House reports of an impending attack on Israel.

U.S. officials have been expecting a response from Iran following Israel's attacks on Hezbollah leadership last week, which U.S. intelligence officials and analysts described as a devastating blow to Iran's proxy power in the region.

President Joe Biden has been briefed and updated on Iran's possible attack on Israel and the overall situation in the Middle East in recent hours, according to a senior White House official.

White House spokeswoman Emilie Simons said in a post on X that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met with the national security team about the threat of attack.

“They reviewed the status of U.S. preparations to help Israel deter attacks and protect U.S. personnel,” Simons said.

Iran has signaled to the United States that it still does not want a major war, the officials said.

In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly last week, the new President of the United Nations General Assembly, Masoud Pezeshkian, said Iran wants to live in peace, adding that the Islamic regime does not seek war with Israel.

Pezeshkian blamed Israel for the escalation of violence in the region and his comments came just days before Israel's killing of Nasrallah, a key ally.

Iran's most recent attack on Israel in April, in which hundreds of drones and missiles were fired at Israel, came only after significant public outcry. It was a retaliatory attack following an attack on an Iranian consulate building in Damascus, Syria, and the deaths of seven members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

It took nearly two weeks for Iran to launch its attack and hours for the weapons used to arrive in Israel, allowing the country and its allies to mobilize quickly.

According to the American Jewish Committee, a ballistic missile from Iran could reach Israel in just ten minutes.

Hezbollah began firing on Israel on October 8 in support of Hamas, which is also an Iranian proxy and has been at war with Israel since the October 7 terror attack that killed 1,200 people. Since then, the group has been engaged in a shootout with Israel and has displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the Lebanese-Israeli border.

In recent weeks, Israel has killed several members of Hezbollah's senior leadership in Lebanon, including Nasrallah, and also detonated a number of sabotaged communications devices carried by members of the group. It has sparked fear and instability among what were once Iran's strongest proxy militias.

Hezbollah was founded in the 1980s in response to Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon as a Shiite resistance militia that gained popularity domestically by combating Israel's presence in Lebanon until it withdrew in 2000.

But its leadership has also pledged allegiance to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and portrayed itself as a group committed to Lebanese self-determination.

According to the State Department, Hezbollah has been a U.S.-designated terrorist since 1997.

Hours before news of a possible attack from Iran broke, Israel announced a ground invasion of southern Lebanon on Monday evening. Israeli forces said in a statement they were carrying out targeted ground attacks on Lebanese villages along the border with northern Israel.

Critics question the description of Israeli ground operations as limited, recalling similar descriptions of IDF operations in Rafah before the Gaza city was razed. Others also noted that the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 was intended to be limited in nature, but Israel's military presence at times extended as far as Beirut.

Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, said Tuesday that a ground operation in Beirut was “not on the table.”

“We are talking about limited, localized, targeted rates based on precise information in areas close to the border,” Shoshani said.