Iran has launched ballistic missiles at Israel, causing sirens to sound across the country, the Israeli military said on Tuesday.

Orange fire lit up the skies over Israel as NBC News crews in both Tel Aviv and across the border in Tyre, Lebanon, watched the apparent rockets being fired. Smaller streaks of light were also seen, appearing to come from Israel’s air defense system as the country tried to repel the attack.

Explosions were also heard on NBC News video, but it was unclear whether the sound came from rockets colliding in midair or from Iranian missiles landing in Israel.

U.S. officials warned earlier in the day that Iran was preparing a ballistic missile attack on Israel, a senior White House official and a Defense Department official told NBC News on Tuesday.

The attack follows Israel’s launch of large-scale attacks in Lebanon, including the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and a ground invasion in the south of the country.

“The United States has indications that Iran is preparing to launch an early ballistic missile attack on Israel,” the White House official said. “We actively support defensive preparations to defend Israel against this attack. A direct military attack by Iran on Israel will have serious consequences for Iran.”

Iran is expected to target military and government locations, rather than civilians, the officials said.

Officials say the expectation is that this could involve more firepower than Iran’s attack on Israel in April, which launched hundreds of drones that took hours to reach Israel, followed by several ballistic missiles later. The number of ballistic missiles could be higher this time, the officials said, and Iran could try to launch many missiles at once to overwhelm its air defenses.

It is unclear whether missiles will be launched from any of Iran’s proxy militias in the region. U.S. officials also do not know whether America’s allies in the region will help defend Israel against the Iranian attack, or allow flights over their territory to help the U.S. shoot down projectiles.

A spokesperson for the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations had no comment on White House reports of an impending attack on Israel.

U.S. officials have anticipated a response from Iran following Israeli attacks on Hezbollah’s leadership last week, which U.S. intelligence officials and analysts described as a devastating blow to Iran’s proxy power in the region.

President Joe Biden has been briefed and updated in recent hours about Iran’s possible attack on Israel and the overall situation in the Middle East, according to a senior White House official.

White House spokesperson Emilie Simons said in a post on X that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met with the national security team about the attack threat.

“They assessed the status of U.S. preparations to help Israel defend against attacks and to protect U.S. personnel,” Simons said.

Iran has told the US it still does not want a broader war, the officials said.

In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly last week, Iran’s new president Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran wants to live in peace, adding that the Islamic regime does not seek war with Israel.

Pezeshkian blamed Israel for escalating violence in the region and his comments came days before the Israeli assassination of Nasrallah, a key ally.

Iran’s last attack on Israel took place in April, launching hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel, and came only after significant public build-up. It was a retaliatory strike following an attack on an Iranian consular building in Damascus, Syria, and the killing of seven members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

It took almost two weeks for Iran to launch its attack and it took hours for the weapons used to arrive in Israel, allowing the country and its allies to quickly mobilize.

According to the American Jewish Committee, a ballistic missile from Iran could reach Israel in just 10 minutes.

Hezbollah began shooting at Israel on October 8 in support of Hamas, which is also an Iranian proxy and has been at war with Israel since the October 7 terrorist attack that killed 1,200 people. The group has since exchanged fire with Israel, causing tens of thousands of people to flee on both sides of the Lebanese-Israeli border.

In recent weeks, Israel has killed several members of Hezbollah’s senior leadership in Lebanon, including Nasrallah, in addition to detonating a number of sabotaged communications equipment carried by members of the group. It has created fear and instability in what were once considered Iran’s strongest proxy militias.

Hezbollah was founded in the 1980s in response to the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon as a Shia resistance militia that gained domestic popularity by fighting the Israeli presence in Lebanon until it left in 2000.

But the country’s leaders have also pledged allegiance to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, while portraying themselves as a group committed to Lebanese self-determination.

Hezbollah has been a US-designated terrorist since 1997, according to the State Department.

Hours before news broke of a possible attack from Iran, Israel announced a ground invasion of southern Lebanon on Monday evening. The Israeli army said in a statement that it carried out targeted ground attacks on Lebanese villages along the border with northern Israel.

Critics question the descriptions of Israel’s ground operations as limited, recalling similar characterizations of the IDF operations in Rafah before the Gaza city was razed. Others also noted that the 1982 invasion of Lebanon would be limited in nature, but that Israel’s military presence at one point reached as far as Beirut.

Nadav Shoshani, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said Tuesday that a ground operation in Beirut was “not on the table.”

“We are talking about limited, localized, targeted tariffs based on accurate intelligence in areas near the border,” Shoshani said.