The Israeli military said in a statement on its official Telegram account that missiles had been launched from Iran toward the State of Israel and that defensive systems were operating to counter the threat.

Air raid sirens sounded across Jerusalem, according to AFP journalists on the ground, who also reported hearing explosions in the distance during the interception attempts.

A short time after the alert, Israel’s military said civilians were permitted to leave protected shelters, indicating the immediate threat had passed.

Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency services said there were no immediate reports of direct casualties from the missile fire. However, emergency teams were treating a small number of people who sustained injuries while moving toward protected areas during the alert.

Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 reported that several people were injured near Tel Aviv following the Iranian missile strikes, though the extent of the damage was not immediately clear.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had targeted a satellite communications center in Haifa as well as Israeli military bases during the missile attack.

The Guards also said they struck U.S. targets elsewhere in the Middle East, including locations in Iraqi Kurdistan and the U.S. Fifth Fleet naval base in Bahrain, according to a statement published on the Sepah News website.

In the statement, the Guards said they would continue sustained attacks against what they described as enemy targets during the conflict.

A spokesperson for the Israeli military did not immediately comment when asked about the Hezbollah statement.

Hezbollah said the clash occurred after Israeli forces conducted an airborne operation in eastern Lebanon, an area where the group maintains a presence. The statement did not provide further details on the scale of the raid or whether there were casualties.

The reported raid comes amid intensifying hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, which have exchanged attacks since the conflict escalated last week. The war marks one of the most serious confrontations between Israel and the Lebanese armed group in years.

Israeli officials have said the military campaign is aimed at weakening Hezbollah’s operational and financial capabilities.

Separately, the Israeli military said it planned to strike a financial body associated with Hezbollah, according to a statement, underscoring Israel’s effort to disrupt the group’s funding channels as the fighting continues.

Hezbollah, backed by Iran and one of the most heavily armed non-state groups in the Middle East, has long maintained military infrastructure across parts of Lebanon, including areas close to the Israeli border.

Netanyahu’s coalition, a collection of ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox parties, has barreled ahead with legislation that aims to weaken Israel’s Supreme Court and give them control over the appointment of the nation’s judges.

They say the plan is a long-overdue measure to curb what they see as outsize influence by unelected judges. But critics say the plan will destroy Israel’s fragile system of checks and balances by concentrating power in the hands of Netanyahu and his parliamentary majority. They also say it is an attempt by Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption charges, to escape justice.

Tens of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets over the past two months to protest the sweeping overhaul. Protests last week were so large that Netanyahu was forced to take a helicopter to the airport in order to catch a flight for an official visit to Italy.

High-tech leaders, Nobel-winning economists and prominent security officials have spoken out against it, military reservists have threatened to stop reporting for duty and even some of Israel’s closest allies, including the U.S., have urged Netanyahu to slow down. Repeated efforts by Israel’s figurehead president, Isaac Herzog, to broker a compromise have not yielded fruit.

In a letter addressed to the German and British ambassadors in Israel, some 1,000 Israeli figures said Tuesday that Israel is in the midst of the most extreme crisis in its history and that Netanyahu is trying to turn the country into a “theocratic dictatorship.”

“In the face of Mr. Netanyahu’s dangerous and destructive leadership, and in light of a vast democratic civilian resistance against the destruction of state institutions by undemocratic law-making, we are asking that Germany and Great Britain swiftly announce to the defendant Netanyahu that his planned state visits to your countries are canceled,” reads the letter. “If these visits go ahead as planned, a dark shadow will hang over them.”

The letter was signed by internationally acclaimed author David Grossman, novelist Dorit Rabinyan, Oscar-nominated director Uri Barbash and scores of academics, business figures and professionals.

Netanyahu is scheduled to meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday in Berlin, where Israeli expats say they are organizing a large protest against their visiting prime minister. The Israeli leader is reportedly heading to Britain in the coming weeks as well.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert joined the chorus of critical voices on Tuesday, saying British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak should also refuse to meet Netanyahu because of the Israeli leader’s alliance with far-right politicians who he said have tolerated or even supported violent West Bank settlers.

“Everyone that loves Israel should be against this government,” Olmert, a fierce Netanyahu rival, told reporters. He said Sunak should “tell him ‘go to hell. I don’t want to see you. I don’t want to talk to a government that does these things.’”

Netanyahu returned to power in December, following the country’s fifth election in under four years, at the head of the most right-wing government in Israel’s 75-year history.

Late last month, settlers rampaged through a Palestinian town in the occupied West Bank after a Palestinian gunman killed two Israelis. The settlers burned dozens of cars and homes, and one Palestinian was killed.

Following the rampage, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a hard-line settler leader, said the Palestinian village should be “erased.” He later apologized for the comments following an international uproar.