Israel vows Iran ‘will pay’ for missile attack, sends more troops into Lebanon

Hours after Iran launched strikes against Israel, a senior Hamas official has told NBC News it has been let down by its Arab neighbors in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks. 

“We are disappointed by the action of the region, of countries in the region,” said Dr. Basem Naim who is part of the militant group’s political wing based in Qatar. He added that “Iran was maybe the only country regarding supporting the resistance.”

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement that the assault on Israel was a response to the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday and the killing of Hamas political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran in July.

But Naim said Iran was “an independent state.” with its “own interests.” He added that Iran was “calculating very well what to do and what not to do. But at the same time we have seen clearly that Iran was maybe the only country regarding supporting the resistance.”

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Hezbollah said its clashes with Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon this morning dealt “big losses” to Isrrael.

“We’re in the first round of war, it is the beginning of what happened in Odaisseh today,” Hezbollah spokesperson Mohammad Afif told reporters at a news conference in Dahiya. “Our forces and resistance fighters are fully prepared to confront and resist the enemy,” he added.

Hezbollah said earlier today it repelled Israeli forces during clashes in the town. “The number of enemy casualties in today’s battles is very large and there is a blackout by the enemy,” Afif said.

The Israeli military has not commented, and NBC News has not independently verified the claims.

Israel has banned United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres from entering the country and declared him persona non grata, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a post on X.

“Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel, as almost every country in the world has done, does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil,” he said.

Israel has frequently criticized the international body, which has urged it to stop its assault in Gaza and refrain from a full-scale invasion of Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also refused to meet with Guterres since Oct. 7.

The U.S. vice presidential debate began last night with a question about whether the candidates would support a pre-emptive strike by Israel on Iran, which neither of them directly answered.

“Israel’s ability to be able to defend itself is absolutely fundamental,” along with securing the release of the remaining hostages and ending the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, said Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic nominee.

Sen. JD Vance, the Republican nominee, said, “It is up to Israel what they think they need to do to keep their country safe, and we should support our allies wherever they are when they’re fighting the bad guys.”

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Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said this morning that the U.S. and its European allies should “get lost” from the region so that “undoubtedly these conflicts, wars, and clashes would completely cease.”

“The countries of the region are capable of managing their own affairs, governing their region, and living together in peace and security,” he was quoted as saying by the semi-official Mehr news agency today.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed that Israel will receive a “far more crushing response” if it makes a “mistake” and retaliates for Iran’s missile attack.

“No one should mess with the pride and honor of the Iranian nation,” he said at a cabinet meeting this morning.

At least 51 people have been killed and 82 more injured in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Gaza Strip, in a large Israeli air and ground operation in the southern city of Khan Younis.

A number of victims were still trapped under the rubble and that emergency responders have not been able to reach them, it added.

Israel’s military has yet to comment on the operation, which began early today.

This takes the death toll in Gaza since Oct. 7 to 41,689 deaths and 96,625 injuries, the health ministry said.

U.S. forces in the Middle East intercepted multiple missiles launched toward Israel amid Iran’s attack, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said.

“We fulfilled our commitment to partner with Israel in its defense,” Austin said in a statement, condemning the Iranian attack as “outrageous act of aggression” and urging Iran to halt further attacks.

Austin and Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant “expressed mutual appreciation” for the coordinated defense in a call. The defense measures “helped prevent significant casualties and damage,” the Defense Department said in a readout.

Austin also expressed condolences to Gallant over a shooting and stabbing attack in Tel Aviv yesterday in which six people were killed, which Israeli police have called a terrorist attack.

The United Nations Security Council has scheduled an emergency meeting on the escalating situation in the Middle East for this morning at 10 a.m., at the request of France and Israel.

Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the U.N., said he had called for the emergency session “to discuss this unprecedented attack and to issue a clear, unequivocal condemnation of Iran.”

The council also held emergency sessions on Sept. 20 and 24 to discuss the situation in Lebanon.

The IDF issued an evacuation warning for dozens of villages in southern Lebanon today, saying “any home used by Hezbollah for its military needs is expected to be targeted.”

“You must immediately head north of the Awali River,” the IDF said, referring to the river that is nearly 50 miles from the Israeli border and one third of the way into Lebanon’s entire length.

The warning was issued for residents of 21 villages and towns, with the IDF’s Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee saying on X, “Anyone who is near Hezbollah members, installations, and combat equipment is putting their life at risk.”

“Save your lives and evacuate your homes immediately,” he said, “We will inform you of the safe time to return to your homes.”

Buildings are reduced to rubble this morning, as rescue workers search through the wreckage left after an overnight Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburb of Shayyah.

Three people were injured last night in Jordan from the fragments of the Iranian missiles that were launched toward Israel, government spokesperson Mohammed al-Momani told the state-owned Al-Mamlaka TV.

Jordan allowed U.S. forces to fly and shoot down Iranian missiles within the Arab country’s airspace, a U.S. official and a senior Jordanian official told NBC News.

The Jordanian official confirmed the news and added that Jordan would do the same for “any other missile flying over our airspace.”

Oil prices jumped by over a dollar today due to rising concerns Middle East tensions could escalate, potentially disrupting crude output from the region, following Iran’s biggest ever military blow against Israel.

Brent futures leapt $1.08, or 1.47%, to $74.64 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude spiked $1.12, or 1.6%, to $70.95 at 2:50 a.m. ET.

During trading yesterday, both crude benchmarks surged more than 5%.

Australian police are seeking to block two pro-Palestinian assemblies on Oct. 6 and 7, one year after Hamas launched a terrorist attack on Israel in which officials say about 1,200 people were killed and Israel launched its offensive in the Gaza Strip that local officials say has killed more than 41,000 people.

After negotiations with protest organizers, police in the state of New South Wales are “not satisfied that the protest can proceed safely,” they said in a statement, and will apply to the state Supreme Court to stop the two events from going forward.

“The first priority for the NSW Police Force is the safety of the participants and the wider community,” the statement said, adding that the force supports the rights of free speech and peaceful assembly.

In response, Palestine Action Group Sydney called the move an “attack on fundamental democratic rights.”

“We have a right to demonstrate,” the group said on Facebook. “The Palestine Action Group unequivocally opposes this attempt to silence protests.”

Anti-war protesters clashed with police in Melbourne last month, leaving two dozen officers injured.

Danish authorities are investigating two blasts near the Israeli embassy in the capital, Copenhagen police said in a statement on X.

Nobody was injured, the police said.

The Israeli embassy said explosions were heard nearby overnight. “The embassy was closed, the embassy staff is unharmed and there is no damage to the embassy building,” the embassy said in a post on X today.

“Shocked by the appalling incident near the embassy a few hours ago. We have full confidence in the Danish authorities and the police in their investigation,” said Israeli ambassador David Akov.

A soldier was severely injured yesterday in a stabbing and shooting attack in Tel Aviv that killed seven people and has been called terrorism by Israeli police.

The soldier was one of 12 people wounded in the attack, six of them seriously. She was evacuated to a hospital to receive medical treatment and her family has been notified, the Israel Defense Forces said.

The Palestinian Mujahidin Movement, also known as Palestinian Islamic Jihad, took responsibility for the attack, in which both suspects were killed.

Israeli strikes were reported in Beirut overnight as the Israeli military said this morning it had conducted a series of “targeted strikes” on weapons production sites in the Lebanese capital in the past few days.

Hezbollah has “deliberately” embedded its weapons production facilities beneath residential buildings in populated areas in Beirut, according to the statement.

Warnings were advanced to civilians to mitigate the risk of harming them prior to the strike, it added.

Lebanese officials say more than 1,000 people have been killed and more than 1 million displaced in the country by weeks of Israeli airstrikes.

A group of young Palestinian men take photos of a fallen rocket shell, believed to have been fired by Iran, in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank last night.

Though Israel will decide when and how to respond to the Iranian missile attack, its response “will be noticed,” said Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the U.N. “It will be painful.”

“And I think that the people of Iran who are watching us understand that it’s not against the Iranian people, it’s against the radical regime that led the Iranian people into the situation,” he added.

The U.S. Embassy in Israel has lifted its shelter-in-place order for U.S. government employees and their family members, saying the threat of missile barrages has diminished. It said previous travel restrictions remain in place.

“The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem is continuously and closely monitoring the security situation,” the State Department Bureau of Consular Affairs said in a post on X.

Hezbollah said its fighters forced an Israeli infantry force to retreat from Lebanon’s southern town of Adaisseh today.

The Israeli soldiers tried to “infiltrate” Adaisseh but Hezbollah clashed with them, “inflicting losses” on the force and eventually repelled them, the Iran-backed militant group said in a statement.

The IDF has not yet commented on the claims, which would represent the first known clashes between the two sides on the ground in Lebanon.

The Israeli military says that infantry and armored units will join its invasion of southern Lebanon targeting Hezbollah.

“The 36th Division, including soldiers of the Golani Brigade, 188th Armored Brigade, 6th Infantry Brigade, and additional forces are joining the limited, localized, targeted raids on Hezbollah terror targets and terrorist infrastructure in southern Lebanon that began on Monday,” the IDF said in a post on Telegram.

“The soldiers are being accompanied by the IAF and the 282nd Artillery Brigade.”

Iran has “no intention of continuing” its strikes, foreign minister Abbas Aragchi said today, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency, adding that its strikes on Israel last night were “a legitimate defensive right.”

“Any new move by the regime or its supporters will face an even tougher response from Iran,” he said. Aragchi said Iran, via a message to the Swiss embassy, also warned the U.S. to “step aside and not interfere.” He said later on state TV that there was no exchange of messages with the U.S. prior to the attack.

Iran launched nearly 200 missiles at several Israeli military targets overnight, which Aragchi said, can restore “geopolitical deterrence in the region.”

Israeli officials say Iran launched 180 ballistic missiles on Israel after days of Israeli attacks on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. A large number of the missiles were intercepted by Israeli and U.S. defenses. Israeli officials said they were unaware of any casualties. In Tel Aviv, a terrorist attack killed six people, Israeli police said.