Iran celebrates missile attack, as IRGC vows crushing response if Israel hits back
Crowds gather in Tehran’s Palestine Square to rejoice, state TV shows videos of orange glow of missiles streaking toward Israel; festivities in Iraq, Lebanon and West Bank
Iran on Tuesday boasted of its great success in launching a huge missile strike against Israel, which sparked celebrations in parts of the Muslim world, although the IDF said most of the projectiles were successfully intercepted.
For the Iranian regime and its supporters, the attack provided a rare moment to celebrate after several weeks in which Iran and its proxies suffered a series of stunning setbacks as Israeli strikes took out almost all of the Hezbollah terror group’s senior leadership in a series of brazen strikes.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) boasted of its ballistic missile attack on Israel and threatened to carry out “crushing attacks” against the Jewish nation if it retaliates.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei tweeted an illustration of a large underground weapons cache, with the message: “Victory comes from Allah and it is close.”
نَصرٌ مِنَ الله و فَتحٌ قرِيب… pic.twitter.com/l53SfjEslF
— KHAMENEI.IR | فارسی ???????? (@Khamenei_fa) October 1, 2024
The IRGC claimed that 90 percent of the 180 ballistic missiles it fired toward Israel hit their intended targets, which it said were three military bases around the Tel Aviv area.
The IDF said, however, that it intercepted a “large number” of the missiles and that there were only “isolated impacts” in central Israel and several in southern Israel, although it did not specify the exact locations of the impacts.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan called the attack “defeated and ineffective” and echoed Israel in promising the Islamic Regime would face consequences.
The IRGC said, meanwhile, that it would respond aggressively to any form of retaliation for the attack.
“If the Zionist regime reacts to Iranian operations, it will face crushing attacks,” the IRGC said in a statement carried by the Fars news agency, adding that Tuesday’s attack was “in accordance with the United Nations Charter.”
It said it came “after a period of restraint” following an “attack on the sovereignty” of Iran — a reference to the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in late July, which was blamed on Israel; Jerusalem has not directly acknowledged involvement.
Iran said it fired the missiles into Israel as retaliation for the assassination of Haniyeh, and for the killings of Hezbollah leaders and IRGC officials, including Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, both killed in an Israeli airstrike last week in Beirut.
Iranian state television played upbeat music over footage of the orange glow of missiles streaking across Israel’s night sky as its newscaster spoke of “the brave Iranian people.”
It later broadcast images of residents of Iran’s second city Mashhad celebrating the Guards’ attack in the streets, waving Hezbollah’s yellow flag and portraits of slain Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
Similar celebrations took place in the capital Tehran and several provincial cities including in Arak and Qom.
Tehran right now after missile strikes on Israel pic.twitter.com/5a2woNTBym
— Iran Observer (@IranObserver0) October 1, 2024
Some shouted “God is great!,” “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian hailed the country’s “decisive response” to what he called the Israeli “aggression.”
Iranian media carried online footage of what they said were missiles being fired at Israel. It also published videos of celebrations in Iraq.
The Iraqi people expressing joy over Iran's missile attacks against the occupied territories pic.twitter.com/EYyVuz9dfc
— IRNA News Agency (@IrnaEnglish) October 1, 2024
Celebratory gunfire also erupted from Beirut’s southern suburbs Tuesday, Lebanese state media said.
“Heavy gunfire heard from automatic weapons from areas of the southern suburbs, rejoicing in the missile launch from Iran towards Israel,” Lebanon’s National News Agency said.
An AFP correspondent also reported the sound of gunfire from the Hezbollah bastion, which has been hit by heavy Israeli raids since Friday, when a huge Israeli strike killed Nasrallah.
Hamas praised the attack, saying it congratulated “the heroic rocket launch carried out by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran, on large areas of our occupied territories, in response to the occupation’s continuing crimes against the peoples of the region, and in retaliation for the blood of our nation’s heroic martyrs.”
In the West Bank, Palestinians picked up a large piece of a fallen Iranian missile and set it up as a monument in the town of Dura near Hebron, with youths posing next to the twisted metal, flashing victory signs.
In the predominantly Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem, one resident told AFP that “as soon as the Palestinians heard the first sirens, there were whistles and applause, and there were cries of ‘Allahu Akbar!’ (God is Greatest).”
She said that people did not go to shelters because they don’t have any, and instead went out into the streets or onto roofs to see what was happening.
Sirens sounded across Israel on Tuesday evening as Iran launched its 180 ballistic missiles, forcing people across the country into bomb shelters. The Islamic Regime said the attack was a retaliation for Israel’s killing of Nasrallah amid escalated attacks on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.
Israel’s attacks over the past two weeks also killed the vast majority of Hezbollah’s leadership and culminated with the IDF launching a ground operation into southern Lebanon on Monday night which it said was aimed at destroying Hezbollah infrastructure on the border.
Similar to Iran’s first direct attack on Israel in April when it fired some 300 missiles and drones, Tuesday’s attack ended with minimal casualties although one Palestinian was killed by shrapnel in the West Bank.
In April’s attack, a Bedouin girl from the unrecognized village of Al-Fura near Arad was seriously injured, also by shrapnel.
