The Israeli military says Iran has launched a missile attack at Israel, as air raid sirens sounded across the country and Israelis rushed for shelter.

The military had earlier warned that any ballistic missile attack from Iran was expected to be widespread and told the public to shelter in safe rooms in the event of an attack on Tuesday.

Akiva Eldar, a Tel Aviv resident, said sirens have been sounding for a while.

“We’re not far from the Ministry of Defence and the Israeli military HQ and we’re still hearing sirens in Tel Aviv,” he told Al Jazeera. “We’re not really safe as long as war is still on. There have been clear instructions to stay in the safe rooms and bomb shelters, whoever has them in their houses.”

Iran has vowed to retaliate following Israeli attacks that killed senior leaders of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, which is aligned with Iran.

The firing of missiles came after Israeli troops launched a ground raids into Lebanon, in the biggest escalation of regional warfare since fighting erupted in Gaza a year ago.

This is a breaking story. More soon.