A U.S. official tells Fox News that Iran has been at a state of readiness to launch an attack on Israel within 12 to 24 hours since early August following the July 31 assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
In recent days the U.S. has seen additional movement of missiles in Iran to prepare for the now "imminent" attack, the official said.
Iran started moving these missile launchers in recent days following the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, Lebanon, on Friday. Nasrallah was killed by an Israeli airstrike.
The U.S. official said Iran's attack could look similar to the one it launched in April against Israel, which had more than 300 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones. However, the U.S. official did not know what the exact scope or size will be.
Iran could launch its attack as soon as this afternoon, U.S. officials also said.
Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Tuesday during a tour of weapons seized from Hezbollah in Lebanon that the terrorist group's Radwan special forces unit is being dismantled.
“We are advancing the IDF’s operations and eliminating Radwan Forces -- this reflects our determination to ensure the return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes," the Israel Defense Forces quoted Gallant as saying.
“Everything you see here – the weapons, missiles, explosives, RPGs – they were found by the IDF in areas from where Radwan forces planned launch attacks to kill and kidnap Israeli citizens," Gallant continued.
“We are eliminating the Hezbollah terrorist organization in southern Lebanon and dismantling its Radwan forces along the entire border," he also said.
The IDF says over the past few days, Gallant was briefed by the leader of the IDF’s Northern Command, Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin, "on IDF activities to locate and destroy Hezbollah’s attack infrastructure in southern Lebanon" and "as part of the briefings, the Minister was shown a variety of Hezbollah weapons that were found and confiscated by IDF troops."
The U.S. State Department announced Tuesday that sanctions are being imposed on two Israelis and a “violent extremist group” in the West Bank.
The move comes as a senior White House official tells Fox News that "The United States has indications that Iran is preparing to imminently launch a ballistic missile attack against Israel.
“The Department of State is today imposing sanctions on two Israeli individuals: a violent Israeli settler and the CEO and director of U.S.-designated Hashomer Yosh," State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.
Hashomer Yosh describes itself as an organization that assists "various farmers throughout Judea and Samaria, who bravely protect our lands and stand strong in the face of economic difficulties and frequent agricultural crime."
"The actions of these individuals have contributed to creating an environment where violence and instability thrive,” Miller said. “Their actions, collectively and individually, undermine peace, security, and stability in the West Bank.
“Concurrently, the Department of the Treasury is designating Hilltop Youth, a violent extremist group that has rampaged through Palestinian communities in the West Bank. It has carried out killings, mass arson, and other so-called ‘price tag’ attacks to exact revenge and intimidate Palestinian civilians,” he added. “Hilltop Youth has repeatedly clashed with the Israeli military when it tries to counter Hilltop Youth’s destructive activities.”
Fox News’ Gillian Turner and Nick Rojas contributed to this report.
{{#rendered}}A senior White House official tells Fox News that "The United States has indications that Iran is preparing to imminently launch a ballistic missile attack against Israel.
"We are actively supporting defensive preparations to defend Israel against this attack. A direct military attack from Iran against Israel will carry severe consequences for Iran," the official said Tuesday.
The development comes after Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah "the flag-bearer of resistance" in the region."
The blood of the martyr shall not go unavenged," Khamenei said after Nasrallah was killed late last week in Beirut, Lebanon, by an Israeli airstrike, according to Reuters.
Fox News' Nick Rojas and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Israel on Tuesday has declassified military operations aimed at thwarting an October 7-style attack by Hezbollah along the country’s northern border with Lebanon.
In a video message, Hagari said the Lebanese terrorist group since the onset of the war in Gaza has fired more than 9,500 rockets at Israeli homes, forcing 60,000 residents to evacuate.
“Hezbollah has openly declared that it plans to carry out its own October 7th massacre on Israel's northern border, but on an even larger scale. They call this plan ‘Conquer the Galilee,” Hagari said. “For years, Hezbollah has been planning to do in northern Israel what Hamas did in southern Israel on October 7th: invade Israel, infiltrate civilian communities and massacre innocent civilians. To make sure that Hezbollah can never carry out such an attack and in order to enable all 60,000 Israelis to safely return back to their homes in northern Israel, the IDF is taking action.”
“Hezbollah planned to launch their October 7th attack from villages across southern Lebanon, where they have been building up their arms, capabilities and forces for the last two decades. Hezbollah also dug tunnels under homes in these villages close to the border with Israel,” Hagari continued. “Tonight, we are declassifying a series of IDF operations conducted since the beginning of the war aimed at dismantling Hezbollah's terrorist infrastructure and capabilities in the area of the Israel-Lebanon border.”
“During this operations, IDF Special Forces entered into Hezbollah compounds in dozens of locations along the border with Israel, collected intelligence, dismantled Hezbollah's weapons and terrorist infrastructures. Our soldiers entered Hezbollah's underground infrastructures, exposed Hezbollah's hidden weapon caches, and seized and destroyed the weapons, including advanced Iranian-made weapons,” he also said.
“Overall, IDF soldiers exposed and dismantle over 700 Hezbollah terror assets during these operations,” according to Hagari.
The Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday that it has called up " four additional reserve brigades for operational missions in the northern arena.”
“This will enable the continuation of operational activity against the Hezbollah terrorist organization and the achievement of operational goals, including the safe return of the residents of northern Israel to their homes,” the IDF said in a statement.
The development comes as Israel’s military is conducting limited ground operations inside Lebanon.
{{#rendered}}Details are emerging Tuesday regarding Israel’s military operations inside Lebanon, with two Lebanese security sources telling Reuters that units crossed the border overnight for probing and reconnaissance missions.
The maneuvers by the Israeli troops went only a short distance across the Israel-Lebanon border, an Israeli security official told the news agency, adding that there was no direct contact with Hezbollah terrorists.
Local sources also said to Reuters that residents in southern Lebanon have been fleeing their homes over the last two days as Israeli airstrikes are drawing nearer.
At least 600 are now taking refuge in a monastery near the border after the village of Ain Ebl received a warning from the Israeli military, the sources added.
Hezbollah also said Tuesday that it fired missiles targeting suburbs of Tel Aviv, which Israeli officials say left two wounded after they were hit by shrapnel from the blasts, according to Reuters.
As Israel continues to pound the Hezbollah terrorist movement in some of the most intense clashes since the 2006 war, United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSC) 1701 is facing new criticism for failing to disarm the Lebanon-based terrorist organization.
The U.S. and other world powers passed Resolution 1701 at the United Nations Security Council in 2006 in an attempt to prevent a third war between Israel and the U.S.-designated terrorist organization Hezbollah. Israel fought Hezbollah in 1982 and in the summer of 2006.
Two key elements of Resolution 1701 have proved to be largely ineffective, according to experts on Lebanon and the U.N.
The first part involved the 10,000 peacekeeping (with added personnel) U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) that was expanded in 2006 to aid the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) in assuming military control over the region, replacing Hezbollah, between the Litani River and the southern border in Lebanon.
UNIFIL was tasked to work with the LAF to ensure the area was "free of any armed personnel, assets, and weapons." However, Hezbollah’s growing absorption of the Lebanese state has turned it the de facto ruler over the country, according to many experts, or a heavily armed "state within a state."
The second crucial element of 1701 was to disarm Hezbollah. Yet, the Lebanese terrorist entity has dramatically re-armed itself to the point where it now has at least 150,000 missiles and rockets aimed at Israel.
North Korea on Tuesday is accusing Israel of committing “terrorist acts against Lebanon” following its strikes targeting Hezbollah terrorists inside the country.
“Israel is resorting to massacre, terrorism and assassination, talking about the ‘right to self-defense' and ‘security.’ Its brutality and shamelessness are arousing great hatred and resentment of the international community,” North Korean state media quoted a foreign ministry spokesperson as saying Tuesday.
“It is a hideous war crime and unethical crime that Israel killed many civilians by committing indiscriminate military attacks and terrorist acts against Lebanon,” the spokesperson continued, describing Israel and the U.S. as “cancer-like entities of regional peace and stability and the common enemy of the Arab people.”
“We strongly denounce Israel which is expanding its large-scale massacre of innocent civilians to the whole Middle East... and express invariable support and solidarity to the Arab people in their struggle for defending sovereignty, right to existence and territorial integrity,” the North Korean official added.
Fox News’ Timothy H.J. Nerozzi contributed to this report.
{{#rendered}}Turkey’s Foreign Ministry has released a statement Tuesday slamming Israel’s limited ground operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon, calling it an “illegal invasion attempt” that must “end immediately.”
“Israel’s violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon by launching a ground attack is an illegal invasion attempt,” the Ministry said. “This attack must come to an end immediately, and Israeli troops must withdraw from Lebanese territory.”
Turkey added that Israel’s military operation “targets the security and stability of the region and beyond.
“This dangerous invasion attempt is likely to spark a new wave of migration and to give ground to extremists all around the world,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
The Ministry concluded that the U.N. Security Council “must uphold international law and take the necessary measures against this attack that aims the occupation of Lebanon.”
Former Navy SEAL Cameron Hamilton, who has trained Israeli soldiers, told "Fox News @ Night" that the Israeli military has “done a very effective job by reducing Hezbollah’s rocket infrastructure to less than 50 percent.”
“Israel does feel, I’m sure, emboldened here with some momentum,” he continued. “I think they have to ensure that they keep their borders safe and we will see how long this goes.”
Hamilton added that Israel wants peace and “they don’t want this conflict to continue.”
The Israeli military announced Monday night that its troops began “limited, localized, and targeted ground raids based on precise intelligence against Hezbollah terrorist targets and infrastructure in southern Lebanon.
“These targets are located in villages close to the border and pose an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel,” the Israel Defense Forces said.
The Israel Defense Forces released a video Tuesday purportedly showing a missile that was fired by Hezbollah landing in a village in central Israel.
The IDF says the projectile landed in Kfar Qassem, which is located east of Tel Aviv.
“Hezbollah doesn’t care who, or how. They only care about harming Israelis,” the IDF wrote on X.
The two sides have been exchanging rocket fire since Hamas launched its war on Israel on Oct. 7 last year.
On Monday, Hezbollah’s second-in-command Naim Qassem said the terrorist group will continue to fire rockets at Israel, adding that “We know that the battle may be long,” according to Reuters.
{{#rendered}}Photos of Syrians celebrating the assassination of Hezbollah terrorist leader Hassan Nasrallah last week put the spotlight on the brutal activities of the terror group's role in sex slavery, mass starvation and kidnappings in the Syrian civil war which led to the deaths of over half a million Syrians.
Walid Phares, a leading expert on Hezbollah and Lebanon, told Fox News Digital that Hezbollah has "committed ethnic cleansing" in Syria. He said Hezbollah "was behind the uprooting of millions of Syrians, of all communities, mainly Sunni. They have perpetrated rape. They have perpetrated mass sexual abuse, including keeping sexual slaves."
Israel’s targeted assassination of Nasrallah last weekend has prompted greater interest in the inner workings of the Shiite terrorist organization that is widely considered the de facto ruler over Lebanon.
The Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist entity is mainly known in America for bombing the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, which killed 63 people in 1983, and the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut also in 1983, resulting in the murders of 241 U.S. military personnel.
A new investigative video series by the Center for Peace Communications (CPC) shines a rare light on the U.S.-designated terrorist movement Hezbollah’s role in sexual slavery, rape and mass murder. The shocking expose about Hezbollah’s enslavement of a Syrian woman aired days after Israel reportedly launched devastating explosions of pagers held by thousands of Hezbollah terrorists across Lebanon in September.
CPC President Joseph Braude told Fox News Digital "Hezbollah’s war on Israel obscures its larger war to subjugate much of the region — as a tyrant in Lebanon, an occupier in Syria, a mafia of sex and drug trafficking, and the nerve center of Iran’s Arab empire. Millions of Arabs whose lives have been shattered by the militia want a different future. Hezbollah does not want the world to hear their voices."
The Israeli Defense Forces announced Tuesday it was carrying out "limited and targeted" raids along Israel's northern border against the terror group Hezbollah.
The ground raids will target Hezbollah strongholds that threaten Israeli communities along the Jewish State's northern border, according to IDF spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.
Hagari said Hezbollah turned villages in Lebanon into military bases in preparation for an attack on Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces’ Arabic spokesman Avichay Adraee is urging residents of dozens of villages in southern Lebanon to evacuate their homes Tuesday as the limited ground operation against Hezbollah is underway.
“Hezbollah's activities are forcing the IDF to act against it. The IDF does not want to harm you, and for your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately,” he wrote on X. “Anyone who is near Hezbollah members, installations, and combat equipment is putting [their] life at risk. Any home used by Hezbollah for its military needs is expected to be targeted.
“You must immediately head north of the Awali River. Save your lives and evacuate your homes immediately,” he added. “Be careful, you are not allowed to head south. Any head south could put your life at risk. We will let you know when it is safe to return home.”
The IDF announced earlier Tuesday that it was carrying out "limited and targeted" raids along Israel's northern border against the terrorist group Hezbollah.
The raids come after Israeli airstrikes over the last week killed multiple top members of Hezbollah, including the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
Fox News’ Landon Mion contributed to this report.
{{#rendered}}Live Coverage begins here