Iran fired two waves of ballistic missiles at Israel overnight Tuesday, with the first barrage beginning around 12:40 a.m. and the second approximately 40 minutes later, as sirens sounded across central Israel and parts of Judea and Samaria.
The first salvo reportedly involved roughly 15 missiles, while the second involved about 10.
Most of the missiles were intercepted, but at least one impacted central Israel, igniting a fire in a parking lot and damaging several vehicles. Firefighters responded to the blaze, though it remained unclear whether the fire was caused by a direct hit or debris from an interception.
There were no reports of injuries from either barrage as of Wednesday morning. Material damage was limited, with the most significant incident being the fire in the central Israel parking lot.
Drone alerts
On Wednesday morning, the Israeli Air Force intercepted 10 drones launched toward Israel from Iran in two separate incidents that set off sirens in the southern Golan Heights.
Alarms sounded from 9:57 a.m. to 10:17 a.m. for seven UAVs that were intercepted before crossing into Israeli territory. This was preceded by three drones that triggered alerts between 9:04 a.m. and 9:19 a.m. The IDF did not specify the locations of those interceptions.
No damage or casualties were reported.
The military hours earlier reported that two UAVs crossing into Israeli airspace from the east had been intercepted, after sirens sounded in the Dead Sea area between 2:20 a.m. and 2:30 a.m.
No injuries or damage were reported.
Later, at 5:55 a.m., sirens were triggered in several areas in northern Israel due to a hostile aircraft infiltration. The IAF intercepted a suspicious aerial target that entered from the east.
Earlier attacks
Three separate Iranian ballistic missile attacks targeted Israel’s north, south, and center on Tuesday evening.
The most recent of these barrages, which was successfully intercepted by the IDF, targeted the Haifa, Galilee and Golan Heights regions in Israel’s north. According to initial reports, no injuries or damages were recorded.
Earlier in the evening, air-raid sirens were activated across southern Israel, including in the desert metropolis of Beersheva.
One ballistic missile was shot down, while a second projectile fell short outside Israeli territory. No injuries or significant damage were reported in the attack.
Less than two hours earlier, the Israeli military had also intercepted several Iranian missiles fired at the Jewish state’s population centers.
According to Israel’s Magen David Adom medical emergency response group, no casualties were reported in the assault, except for four people who sustained injuries while rushing to shelter.
The attack triggered air-raid sirens in the country’s densely populated center, including Tel Aviv, as well as in the coastal plain and Samaria.
Israel’s Channel 12 News reported that fewer than 10 missiles were launched in that attack, which was reportedly fended off with the help of a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-ballistic-missile battery.
Early on June 13, more than 200 Israeli fighter jets attacked dozens of enemy targets, including military and nuclear sites, in a “preemptive, precise, combined” opening strike against Tehran’s nuclear program, the IDF said.
Since the start of the war on Friday, Iranian attacks on Israel’s civilian population centers have killed 24 people in the Jewish state. Three were killed on Friday, 13 overnight on Saturday, and eight early on Monday.
Channel 12 said on Tuesday that Iran launched 17 waves of attacks using more than 400 ballistic missiles, in addition to suicide drones.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the operation would “continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat,” vowing to end the Iranian threat to the Jewish state’s “very survival.”