Iran launched missiles at Israel on Tuesday and Israeli civilians across the country were ordered to remain near bomb shelters, the Israeli military said, as the conflict across the Middle East escalated with the second direct Iranian attack against Israel in the past six months.

The Iranian barrage came after a series of military moves by Israel against Tehran-allied Hezbollah in recent days, including the killing of the Lebanese Shiite movement’s top leadership in an airstrike on Beirut last week.

U.S. officials earlier in the day warned Iran of severe repercussions if it attacked Israel, though Tehran appears to have brushed off those warnings. It was not immediately clear exactly what types of weapons, or how many, Iran fired toward Israel. Iran was widely expected to use ballistic missiles in its attack.

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In social media posts, the Israeli Defense Forces did not immediately offer detail on the incoming Iranian fire.

“All Israeli civilians are in bomb shelters as rockets from Iran are fired at Israel,” the IDF said on X.

Iran’s state-controlled press said Tuesday the country had launched some 400 ballistic missiles at Israel from sites in Isfahan, Tabriz, Khoramabad, Karaj, and Arak. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement that Tuesday’s salvo was only the first stage of the attacks on the cruel Zionist regime.”

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PHOTOS: Israel says Iran has fired missiles at Israel and it warned residents to shelter in place

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Across Israel, the orders to shelter in place were sent to Israelis’ mobile phones and announced on national television. TV stations reported sirens in parts of Jerusalem as well as central Israel.

The U.S. in recent days has dispatched significant fresh military assets to the Middle East to aid Israel in repelling the Iranian attack. Such a strategy worked last April, when Iran fired hundreds of drones and rockets toward Israel but nearly all of them were shot down by American and Israeli air defenses.

But Iran may take an even more aggressive approach this time. Hezbollah was a critical cog in Iran’s network of anti-Israel and anti-U.S. allies in the region and Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s longtime leader killed last week, had close ties with Iran’s leadership.

Major Israeli airstrikes continued Tuesday in southern Lebanon. And Israeli ground forces overnight crossed into Lebanon for the first time in decades in what military officials said were “limited and targeted raids” against Hezbollah terrorists plotting to stage an Oct. 7-style attack against communities in northern Israel.

A senior White House official told the Associated Press on Tuesday there would be “severe consequences” should Iran launch a ballistic missile against Israel. The Biden administration and its allies have been working with little success to keep the fighting sparked by Hamas’ incursion into Israel on Oct. 7 from expanding into a wider regional war.