Middle East latest: Iran fires missiles at Israel

The Israeli military says Iran has fired missiles at Israel, and is warning Israelis to shelter in place. The announcement Tuesday followed warnings from a senior U.S. administration official that Iran was preparing to “imminently” launch a ballistic missile attack on Israel.

The U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the intelligence, said the U.S. is actively supporting Israeli defensive preparations.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a warning Monday to Iran, which backs Hezbollah and Hamas. “There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach," Netanyahu said, just days after an airstrike south of Beirut killed the leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah group, which is backed by Tehran.

The Israeli military earlier warned several southern Lebanese communities near the border to leave their homes, shortly after starting what it called a limited ground operation against Hezbollah targets.

Hezbollah’s acting leader, Naim Kassem, promised the group will fight on following the death of its long-time chief Hassan Nasrallah and several of the group’s top commanders who have been assassinated in recent days. Kassem said the group’s fighters are ready and the slain commanders have already been replaced.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the Lebanon border almost daily since Oct. 8, the day after Hamas sent fighters into Israel and sparked the war in Gaza. It's been almost a year since some 250 people were abducted from Israel, and friends and family are worried about their loved ones as attention turns away from hostages and north toward Lebanon.

Iran-backed Iraqi militias warn US against ‘hostile action’ in support of Israel

BEIRUT — Iran-backed Iraqi militias say if the U.S. takes part in “any hostile action” against Iran then American interests in the region will be under threat.

The statement Tuesday from the group calling itself the Coordination Committee for the Iraqi Resistance also warned Israel against using Iraqi airspace to retaliate against Iran for a missile barrage fired at Israel, saying “all American bases and interests in Iraq and the region will be our target.”

Iran-backed militias in Iraq regularly target bases housing U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria with drones, saying they are retaliating for Washington’s support of Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Police say 6 people killed in shooting in Tel Aviv

JERUSALEM — Israel police say six people have been killed in a shooting in Tel Aviv.

Police say two suspects opened fire Tuesday evening on a boulevard in Jaffa, a mixed Arab-Jewish neighborhood in southern Tel Aviv. Twelve people also were wounded in the shooting.

Police said the two suspects were killed.

The attack came moments before a massive barrage of rockets from Iran sent people into bomb shelters across Israel, including in Tel Aviv.

UN chief again calls for a cease-fire in the Middle East

UNITED NATIONS — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned “the broadening of the Middle East conflict, with escalation after escalation.”

Guterres' comments Tuesday came shortly after Iran said it fired dozens of ballistic missiles at Israel. The Israeli military said its army has crossed the border into Lebanon and is conducting “localized ground raids” on Hezbollah positions.

“This must stop,” the U.N. chief said in a statement Tuesday. “We absolutely need a cease-fire.”

Hezbollah says Israeli images from Lebanon are part of a ‘propaganda war’

BEIRUT — The Lebanese Hezbollah militant group says media published by the Israeli military showing its cross-border forays into Lebanon have nothing to do with the ongoing conflict.

The Israeli military says its army has been carrying out secretive ground operations to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanese villages close to the border for the past year and has released footage of what it said was Israeli soldiers uncovering tunnels and weapons in Lebanese villages.

Hezbollah said in a statement Tuesday that picture and videos that the Israeli military says show tunnels and houses entered by Israeli soldiers are “very old and have no relationship to any current military action on the Lebanese border.”

It says the images are part of a “psychological and propaganda war.”

The Israeli military has said its forces entered Lebanon overnight to begin a “limited” ground incursion. Hezbollah denies that any Israeli troops have crossed the border.