Presdiential hopeful Donald Trump has warned we’re approaching a “global catastrophe” as tensions in the Middle East escalate dramatically.

Iran launched at least 180 missiles at Israel on Tuesday evening, causing scattered damage and fires from falling shrapnel, but Israeli authorities said there were no injuries. An Israeli security official said most of the missiles were intercepted, though some managed to land.

This comes after Israel launched an invasion into southern Lebanon following almost a year of fighting in Gaza. Speaking during a press conferene in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Trump described the developing conflict between Israel and Iran as “two kids fighting in the schoolyard.”

He said: “I’ve been talking about World War III for a long time, and I don’t want to make predictions because the predictions always come true. We’re not going to make predictions but they are very close to global catastrophe.”

Israeli officials said Iran would pay a price for the strike. The missile attack came after Israel said ground troops crossed into Lebanon in what the military described as a limited operation to root out Hezbollah fighters and infrastructure.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, said it saw no sign of Israeli forces and that its troops were ready to confront them.

Israel said its incursion would be focused on the narrow strip of land just across the border. But it also issued evacuation warnings covering a wider swath of Lebanon, raising fears that a large-scale ground invasion was soon to come.

Not missing an opportunity to criticise Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, he added: “We have a non-existent president and a non-existent vice president who should be in charge, but nobody knows what’s going on, she was at a fundraiser in San Francisco.”

He continued: “This has been really bad but they have to finish that process, however it turns out. This is a little bit like two kids fighting in the schoolyard, sometimes you just sort of let it go a little bit and we’ll see what happens.”

In recent days, a wave of Israeli airstrikes has killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and several of his top commanders, while driving hundreds of thousands of Lebanese from their homes. Israel says a ground operation is now necessary to return tens of thousands of displaced Israelis to their homes in the north, pummeled by continuous rocket fire from Hezbollah since October 8.

Trump added: “It’s a horrible, horrible war and then you see what’s happening even today, when is that going to stop? You look at these forces, they shot down almost 200 rockets today, but this is not the way anybody should have to live, so we’re obviously going to be very involved in the Middle East.”