Iran has fired missiles into Israel in response to the Israeli navy’s marketing campaign towards Tehran’s ally Hezbollah.
Explosions may very well be heard in Jerusalem and the Jordan River valley after Israelis sought shelter in bomb shelters as scores of missiles rained down.
This is what they witnessed.
Folks attempting ‘take some cowl’
“We are talking probably in excess of 50, 60, 70 missiles,” mentioned Center East correspondent Alistair Bunkall as he gazed up on the sky from Tel Aviv.
He defined that there was a “huge amount of activity in the air above us” and it was arduous to differentiate between an incoming missile and one launched by Israel to intercept.
Bunkall mentioned the Iranian missiles had been heading in direction of central Tel Aviv.
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Alistair Bunkall reporting from Tel Aviv
Bunkall says tonight’s strikes seems to be a part of a “far larger attack than April” – when Iran fired weapons at Israel after the Israeli navy attacked the Iranian embassy in Syria.
Iran seems to have fired ballistic missiles this time, which take 10 to 12 minutes to achieve Israel.
Again in April it was drones – a lot slower and simpler to intercept.
“A lot of people” are out within the open air in the intervening time, Bunkall mentioned tonight.
Some determined to attempt to proceed their journeys house, he added, whereas others have tried to “get to the side of the road and take some cover, whether that’s under a bridge or in a lay-by somewhere”.
‘We noticed them intercept’
Iron Dome rockets have been seen going as much as intercept missiles, mentioned our safety and defence editor Deborah Haynes, who’s in northern Israel close to the border with Lebanon.
“We saw the Iranian missiles streaking across the sky, we saw the intercepts and then we saw the explosions when the intercepts were successful,” Haynes mentioned.
“It’s an incredibly difficult operation to try to intercept ballistic missiles anyway, let alone some 200 of them,” she added.
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Deborah Haynes close to the Israeli border with Lebanon
Haynes additionally mentioned she heard “small arms fire” close by in the course of the missile assault.
“While these strikes from Iran are being launched towards Israel, Israeli forces have launched their limited group operation into Lebanon,” she mentioned.
‘An extremely harmful second’
Sirens had been going off in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as our lead world presenter Yalda Hakim reported from Beirut in Lebanon.
She mentioned “thuds and bangs were blaring across” Israel.
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Yalda Hakim has been reporting from Beirut
Hakim added that she had been chatting with some Israeli individuals who advised her they’d been “taking shelter in bunkers at the moment, that they are hearing some interceptions, but they are also unclear about what projectiles have managed to get through”.
“This is an incredibly dangerous moment for Israel, for this region,” she mentioned. “An incredibly tense, frightening moment for the citizens of Israel as we wait and see what damage has actually been done.”
