U.S. officials reportedly warned Tuesday that Iran is about to fire ballistic missiles at Israel, as Israeli forces battled Iran’s terrorist proxy, Hezbollah, in Lebanon.

Israel reacted to the warning by saying that it had not detected any incoming missiles from Iran yet, but that it was ready. 

Meanwhile, the State Department told employees of the U.S. embassy to shelter in place.

In April, Iran fired some 300 missiles, projectiles, and drones directly at Israel. Almost all of them were intercepted by Israel’s air defenses, and those of other US allies in the region. 

The Biden administration urged Israel not to mount a significant response. Israel did retaliate, but did so in limited way, targeting Iran’s air defenses, and demonstrating that Israel could penetrate them easily.

Iran is suddenly vulnerable to Israeli attack. The Iranian regime had used Hezbollah as a deterrent force against any attack on its nuclear program, but Hezbollah’s capabilities have been severely degraded over the past two weeks. 

Iran had also vowed to avenge the killing of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, but apparently had not managed yet to mount a significant response. 

Israel officially announced Tuesday that it had begun ground operations in Lebanon, and revealed that it had been sending commando units into Lebanon for months. 

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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