Israel’s military said earlier that Iranian missiles were heading towards Israel and that air defences were active as AFP correspondents heard blasts from Jerusalem.

The Israeli military urged people in affected areas to head to shelters, as it said it “identified missiles launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel”.

“Defensive systems are operating to intercept the threat,” the military said on its official Telegram channel.

It later claimed that it was in turn carrying out “wide-scale” strikes on Tehran and a Hezbollah stronghold in Lebanon’s capital.