War Fears Rocketing Up

Tel Aviv: Dozens of rockets were fired by Hezbollah into northern Israel yesterday in a possible prelude to a feared Iranian revenge attack, as the US reinforced its military presence in the Middle East, sending a carrier group into the area.

The Iran-backed terrorist group, which has conducted frequent cross-border attacks on Israel, claimed in a statement that it fired the volley in response to Israeli air strikes.

The Israeli military said about 40 rockets had been launched, some of which were intercepted, along with two ­kamikaze drones.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Israel is on high alert for a revenge attack by Iranian forces or their regional proxy forces, of which Hezbollah is the most powerful. Tehran has threatened reprisals after an Israeli strike on its consulate in ­Damascus on April 1 killed 13 people, including two generals. Israel has vowed to respond against Iran if attacked.

It was unclear how much of an escalation the latest launches constituted, given previous exchanges of fire. However, the threats from Iran, and American intelligence reports about a possible “imminent” escalation in the Israel-Hamas war, has prompted the Pentagon to deploy a US aircraft carrier group to the northern Red Sea, as well as other unspecified resources.

Earlier reports indicated that the Pentagon was deploying extra air defence systems to guard against the possibility that a strike against Israel would also target US forces.

Three US service personnel were killed in January when a drone launched by Islamist factions in the region hit a military outpost in Jordan.

US troops stationed in Iraq and Syria also came under attack by Iran-backed proxy forces on more than 100 occasions between October and February. France, Poland and India yesterday joined the growing number of countries urging citizens not to travel to Israel because of heightened fears of an ­attack.

US President Joe Biden said Iran was “threatening to launch a significant attack” and sent the head of US Central Command, General Michael Kurilla, to ­Israel for urgent talks.

The White House said yesterday that the threat from Iran remained “real”.

After meeting Kurilla, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel and the US were “shoulder to shoulder” in facing the threat from Iran, despite recent differences over the conduct of the war in Gaza.

“Our enemies think that they can pull apart Israel and the United States, but the opposite is true – they are bringing us together and strengthening our ties,” Gallant said.

Washington, which has had no diplomatic relations with Tehran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, also asked its allies to use their influence with Iran to urge restraint.

Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said: “Iran does not seek to expand the scope of the war.”

But he added that it felt it had no choice but to respond.