Iran preparing missile attack on Israel, White House says

Iran is preparing to fire ballistic missiles at Israel, according to a senior White House official, who said the attack could be launched “imminently.”

“We are actively supporting defensive preparations to defend Israel against this attack,” the official said in a statement. “A direct military attack from Iran against Israel will carry severe consequences for Iran.”

The news comes just hours after Israel announced it had begun raids into southern Lebanon to take out military capabilities of the Iranian-backed militia group Hezbollah.

Hezbollah, a star proxy group for Iran, has has been severely crippled by the nearly yearlong cross-border conflict it has carried out against Israeli forces in a fight tied to the ongoing war in Gaza. Most of Hezbollah’s command structure has been eliminated.

In the past few weeks, Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, detonated pagers and walkie-talkies of rank-and-file members of the organization and carried out massive strikes that have killed more than a thousand people in Lebanon. 

Iran’s Supreme Leader Seyyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei said on Saturday after Hezbollah confirmed the death of Nasrallah that attacks against Israel “will become even more crushing.”

Iran has yet to carry out a retaliation attack against Israel for a bombing in Tehran at the end of July that killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, though Israeli authorities last month arrested a suspect accused of plotting assassinations against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other high-profile officials.

Iran last attacked Israel in April, sending some 300 drones and missiles at the country in an assault that was largely defeated by Israeli defense systems with the help of the U.S. and allies in the region.

The U.S. has positioned a bulk of assets in the Middle East region, including an aircraft carrier strike group, a guided-missile submarine, additional amphibious assault ships and fighter jets. On Monday, the Pentagon announced it was sending even more troops to the region.

Israel has set a war goal of returning its some 60,000 residents displaced by the Hezbollah conflict in the north of the country, and it has resisted U.S. pressure to avoid a wider war and not escalate the fighting in Lebanon. 

The Biden administration has pushed for months to reach a diplomatic agreement but has failed to reach a solution. A three-week ceasefire proposal offered last week by the U.S., France and several other countries was rejected by Netanyahu, who instead promised to carry on against Hezbollah and the Iranian-backed Hamas in Gaza. 

Israel is moving into Lebanon after the fight against Hamas has wound down in the past few months, with the militant group severely degraded nearly a year since Palestinian fighters invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking roughly 240 hostages.

Around 100 hostages still remain in Gaza, and Hamas remains active, with its new political leader, Yahya Sinwar, still at large.

Israel, however, has moved up brigades to the north to begin what appears to be a widening war in Lebanon. Small-scale raids into Gaza in October also preceded a larger Israeli invasion into the coastal strip last year.

Hezbollah has denied that Israel launched any incursion into Lebanon. The group’s deputy secretary general, Naim Qassem, said Hezbollah will restructure and there are “ready backup replacements” for killed leaders.

“Despite the loss of some leaders and the attacks on civilians, we will not waver,” he said in a Monday televised address. “The resistance is ready for a ground confrontation with the enemy.”

Israeli military spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a Tuesday video address that forces have entered Hezbollah infrastructure and dismantled more than 700 “terror assets.”

Hagari also claimed that Hezbollah was preparing to carry out a deadly invasion of southern Israel.

“To make sure Hezbollah can never carry out such an attack,” he said, the military “is taking action.”

This story was updated at 11:04 a.m.