Rumbles and air raid sirens rang across Israel on Sunday morning after Iran launched hundreds of drones, ballistic and cruise missiles in an unprecedented retaliation mission that pushed the Middle East into a region-wide war.
The attack marked the first time Iran has launched a direct military attack on Israel, despite decades of hostility in the country since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Condemnation from the UN chief and others was swift, with France saying Iran “risks potential military escalation”, Britain calling the attack “reckless” and Germany saying Iran and its proxies “must stop it immediately”.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Iran had launched numerous drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles, with the vast majority of them intercepted outside Israel’s borders. According to him, military aircraft alone intercepted more than 10 cruise missiles, also outside Israeli airspace.
Hagari reported that several rockets fell in Israel. A 7-year-old girl in a Bedouin Arab town was seriously injured in southern Israel, apparently by a rocket strike, rescuers said, although they said police were still investigating the circumstances of her injuries. Hagari said the missile hit a military base, causing minor damage but no injuries.
“A large-scale attack by Iran is a serious escalation,” he said. When asked whether Israel would respond, Hagari said only that the army was “doing and will do everything necessary to protect the security of the State of Israel.” According to him, the incident is not over yet, and dozens of Israeli military aircraft remain in the sky.
US forces shot down several Iranian-launched drones flying toward Israel, according to a U.S. defense official and two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter. The Israeli military said its Arrow system, which shoots down ballistic missiles outside the atmosphere, handled most of the interceptions and noted that “strategic partners” were involved.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he spoke with US President Joe Biden early Sunday morning. Details of their conversation were not immediately made public. But Biden said his commitment to Israel’s security was “cast-iron” in the face of Iranian threats, a shift from his harsh criticism of Israel’s handling of the Gaza war.
Iran vowed revenge after the April 1 events. airstrike in Syria killed two Iranian generals in the Iranian consulate building. Iran accused Israel of involvement in the attack. Israel has not commented on this.
Israel and Iran were on a collision course during Israel’s six-month period of rule. war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. The war erupted after Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two militant groups backed by Iran, carried out a devastating cross-border attack on October 7 that killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped another 250. The Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip has caused widespread destruction and killed more than 33,000 people, according to local health officials.
Almost immediately after the war began, Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon, began attacking Israel’s northern border. Both sides engage in daily firefights while Iranian-backed groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen fire rockets and missiles toward Israel.
In a statement published late Saturday by Iran’s state news agency IRNA, the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard admitted launching “dozens of drones and missiles into occupied territories and positions of the Zionist regime.”
In a later statement, the Revolutionary Guard issued a direct warning to the US: “The terrorist US government is warned that any support for or participation in harming Iranian interests will result in a strong and regrettable response from Iran’s armed forces.”
IRNA also quoted an anonymous official as saying that ballistic missiles were part of the attack. The ballistic missile follows an arcing trajectory, heading into space before gravity knocks the weapon down at several times the speed of sound.
Israel has multi-level air defense network this includes systems capable of intercepting a variety of threats, including long-range missiles, cruise missiles, drones and short-range missiles. However, with a massive attack involving multiple drones and missiles, the likelihood of achieving the target is higher.
Iran has a huge arsenal of drones and missiles. Online videos published by Iranian state television allegedly show delta-wing drones reminiscent of Iran’s Shahed-136s, which Russia has long used in its war with Ukraine. Slow flying drones carry bombs. Ukraine successfully used both surface-to-air missiles and ground fire to defeat them.
Some Israelis watched as the interceptions lit up the night sky.
Air raid sirens were reported in many places, including northern Israel, southern Israel, the northern West Bank and the Dead Sea near the Jordanian border.
The Israeli army ordered residents of the Golan Heights – near the Syrian and Lebanese borders – as well as the southern towns of Nevatim and Dimona and the Red Sea resort of Eilat to occupy protection zones. Israel’s main nuclear facility is located in Dimona, and a large air base is located in Nevatim. Loud booms were heard in Jerusalem and in northern and southern Israel.
Army Logistics Command canceled Sunday classes and limited public gatherings to no more than 1,000 people. Israel and some other countries in the region have closed their airspace.
Netanyahu previously warned: “Whoever harms us, we will harm them.”
In Washington, Biden convened a major meeting of the National Security Council to discuss the attack.
General Eric Kurilla, head of the US Central Command, was in Israel over the weekend consulting with Israeli defense officials. Central Command oversees US forces in the Middle East.
Iran’s UN mission issued a warning to both Israel and the US: “If the Israeli regime makes another mistake, Iran’s response will be significantly more severe,” it wrote online. “This is a conflict between Iran and the criminal Israeli regime that the US MUST STAY AWAY FROM!”
For days, Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have threatened to “slap” Israel for its attack on Syria.
In Iran’s capital Tehran, witnesses saw long lines at gas stations early Sunday as people appeared worried about what might happen next. Dozens of hardliners demonstrated in support of the attack in Palestine squares.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported heavy Israeli airstrikes and shelling at several locations in southern Lebanon following the launch of Iranian drones. The Lebanese group Hezbollah said it fired “dozens” of Katyusha rockets at an Israeli military site in the Golan Heights early Sunday. It was not immediately clear whether there was any damage.
Iranian missiles or drones were intercepted in the skies over the Jordanian capital Amman. In the Lebanese capital Beirut and other parts of the country, residents reported seeing rockets in the sky and hearing explosions, likely from interceptions. In Syria, explosions were heard in the capital Damascus and elsewhere. A British military observer, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Syrian air defenses were attempting to disrupt Israeli attempts to intercept Iranian missiles.