Israeli police said at least six people were killed in a shooting attack in Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening. Twelve people also were wounded in the shooting.
Two suspects opened fire on a boulevard in the Jaffa neighborhood in southern Tel Aviv, 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.
Israel’s MDA ambulance service said Tuesday it received a report at 7:01 p.m of people wounded by gunfire.
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a news conference from the White House that the U.S. was aware of a “terrorist attack in Jaffa that took the lives of a number of Israeli civilians and wounded several others.”
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The shooting came just before Iran launched a barrage of missiles at Israel in response to the killings of Iran-backed militant leaders; the missile attack sent Israelis to shelters and prompted alarm across the region.
Sullivan said Iran launched nearly 200 ballistic missiles towards targets in Israel. He said American Naval destroyers joined Israel “in firing interceptors to shoot down inbound missiles.”
After about an hour, the Israeli military announced there was no longer a threat and “it was decided that it is now permitted to leave protected spaces in all areas across the country,” after a “large number” of Iranian missiles were intercepted.
U.S. and Israeli officials said there were no reports of Israeli civilian casualties.
The explosions from the Iranian missile barrage rang out just hours after a senior White House official told CBS News the U.S. had “indications that Iran is preparing to imminently launch a ballistic missile attack against Israel.”
That warning, which Israel’s military said had been communicated from Washington, came after Israel announced the beginning of “limited, localized, and targeted ground raids” against the Iran-backed group Hezbollah in Lebanon.