Israel sends more troops to Lebanon as it vows a 'painful' response to Iran's missiles

Caption

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday. / AP

Israel says it is sending more troops into southern Lebanon to fight Hezbollah, as Israel also promised a "painful" response after Iran fired nearly 200 missiles at Israel Tuesday night.

The Israeli military said it is deploying more soldiers and an armored tank brigade to assist in what it called a “limited, localized” ground offensive against the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

On social media, the Israeli military’s Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, warned residents of an additional 24 villages in southern Lebanon to evacuate immediately. “For your safety, you must leave your homes immediately,” he said, adding that any civilian near Hezbollah fighters, facilities or weapons risks their lives.

Residents were advised to evacuate north of the Awali River, about 30 miles from the Lebanese border with Israel.

Also on Wednesday, sirens went off across Israel’s north after the Israeli military said around 100 rockets were fired from Lebanon. The military issues alerts to communities around the port city of Haifa and Western Galilee, both near the Israel-Lebanon border.

The Israeli military announced a soldier killed in combat in Lebanon, according to The Associated Press, which said Hezbollah claimed to have killed and wounded an unspecified number of Israeli troops.

Two weeks of Israeli strikes across Lebanon have killed more than 1,030 people, including 87 children, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry.

Israel vows to respond to Iran's missile strike

Iran fired about 180 ballistic missiles toward Israel late Tuesday. The Israeli military said most were intercepted, but there were several hits.

The only confirmed death from the Iranian attack was in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where a 38-year-old Palestinian man was killed after a missile fell on the city of Jericho, according to Palestinian civil defense.

Video footage shared on social media showed a large crater where a missile had landed near Israel's Mossad spy agency headquarters.

Officials in Jordan said two people were lightly injured from falling shrapnel.

The Pentagon said two U.S. destroyers also fired a dozen interceptors at the Iranian missiles headed to Israel.

Now, the region is bracing for Israel's response and the risk of a wider war.

“This evening, Iran made a big mistake — and it will pay for it,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said hours after the attack.

Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari called Iran’s attack “a severe and dangerous escalation,” and promised, "We will respond wherever, whenever and however we choose." On Wednesday, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said the response will be ”decisive and painful.”

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said late Tuesday that the missile attack was in response to several recent killings, including the assassination of Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah late Friday in Beirut; the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Tehran in July in a strike widely assumed to be carried out by Israel; and an Iranian commander.

Iran’s mission at the United Nations said the attack was a “legal, rational, and legitimate response to the terrorist acts of the Zionist regime.”

This is a developing story that will be updated.