Iran launches extensive attacks on Israel after Khamenei declares war

Iran fired a pair of ballistic missile barrages at Israel early Wednesday, as Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared that “the battle begins” and called for showing “no mercy” toward Israelis, The Times of Israel reports.

The first salvo, which began to trigger sirens across a large swath of Israel shortly after 12:40 a.m., included some 15 projectiles. The next barrage of approximately 10 rockets began around 40 minutes later and triggered alerts in central Israeli communities and a number of West Bank settlements.

Several minutes before the attacks, the Israel Defense Forces issued alerts warning residents of the missile fire and instructing them to seek shelter. Following each salvo, the IDF informed Israelis it was then safe to leave the bomb shelters.

There were no reports of injuries in the successive attacks, but a fire was sparked at a parking lot in central Israel, damaging numerous cars.

It was not immediately clear if the blaze was the result of a direct impact or caused by falling debris from an interception.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps later claimed to have used hypersonic missiles.

“The 11th wave of the proud Operation Honest Promise 3 using Fattah-1 missiles” was carried out, the IRGC said in a statement carried by state television, claiming that Iranian forces “have gained complete control over the skies of the occupied territories.”

Warning sirens were also activated overnight around the Dead Sea due to a suspected drone infiltration, and shortly before 6 a.m. Wednesday morning in numerous northern communities. The IDF said after the latter incident that the air force downed a drone “from the east,” a term the military has previously used to refer to Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Yemen.

The overnight missile launches followed several smaller salvos throughout Tuesday, with the IDF saying it believed the attacks were decreasing in scope as Iran’s capabilities had been degraded by Israeli strikes.

“We must give a strong response to the terrorist Zionist regime,” Khamenei wrote on his English-language X account after the second missile barrage early Wednesday. “We will show the Zionists no mercy.”

He issued a similar tweet in Hebrew as well as a Shia-themed post in Farsi stating “the battle begins” and claiming a return to Khaybar, referring to a town whose Jewish inhabitants were conquered by Muslim forces in the 7th century.

The post featured an image of a man holding a sword entering a castle-like gate, with fiery streaks in the sky overhead.

Meanwhile, the IDF issued an evacuation warning Wednesday urging residents of District 18 in Tehran to leave the area, saying that Israel was going to take action in the area targeting military infrastructure.

Shortly afterward, the military announced that the Israeli Air Force had embarked on a new wave of strikes in the Iranian capital, without immediately providing further details.