Iran launched a large aerial attack on Israel and the territory it controls starting late on Saturday, firing at least 300 drones and missiles.
It is the first such direct attack launched from Iranian territory after decades of shadow warfare between the two countries.
The assault was in response to a recent strike on a building in the Iranian Embassy complex in Syria that killed several of Iran’s top commanders.
What happened during the attack?
Air raid sirens sounded in Israel and the West Bank overnight, signalling the start of an attack that had been anticipated for days. In the event, almost all of the missiles and drones were intercepted, the Israeli military said on Sunday.
Israel had used two primary defensive weapons systems, the Iron Dome and the Arrow 3, to thwart the attack.
The United States participated in the defensive actions, and Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin III said that US forces had intercepted missiles and attack drones launched from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Britain also said its planes had shot down drones. In addition, Jordan, which neighbours Israel, said that its military shot down aircraft and missiles that entered its airspace.
What damage did the attack cause?
The attack caused no deaths, but 12 people were brought into the Soroka Medical Center in southern Israel overnight. Chief spokesman for Israel’s military, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the Nevatim Air Force base in the Negev desert in southern Israel suffered light damage from the attack and was functioning.
What was the immediate cause of the attack?
Iran and Israel have for decades engaged in clandestine warfare, in which they have attacked each other’s interests on land, sea, air and in cyberspace. Iran provides support for proxy forces including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen.
The undeclared conflict escalated on April 1, when Israeli warplanes struck the building in Damascus which is part of the Iranian Embassy complex, according to Iranian and Syrian officials. At least three senior commanders and four officers overseeing Iran’s covert operations in the Middle East were killed. Iran vowed to retaliate.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has so far spoken only about the defensive military operation. In a post on social media on Sunday he said: “We intercepted. We blocked. Together we will win.”
Several world leaders have reacted to the attacks.
President Biden, who has used increasingly robust language to criticise Netanyahu’s war in Gaza, has also repeatedly affirmed the country’s right to defend itself and sent weapons to the country. He said he would convene a meeting of the Group of 7 leaders on Sunday.
The United Nations Security Council was also scheduled to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the attack.
Several hundred Iranians gathered in Tehran to celebrate the attack. Iran’s Foreign Ministry described the attack as a defensive measure, and the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps warned the United States against getting involved.
What are the attack’s wider implications?
Iran’s attack occurred over half a year after Hamas’s lethal foray into Israel, which set off the Gaza War. Although the strike may temporarily divert attention from that war, it also highlights the greater volatility in the area.
The subject can be deemed concluded, according to a message made on social media overnight by Iran’s permanent representation to the UN. Iran will, however, react far more harshly if the Israeli administration makes another error.
US officials speaking on condition of anonymity said that President Biden and his team, hoping to avoid further escalation, are advising Israel that its defence against the Iranian attack was a major victory that might not require another round of retaliation.
But Israel’s government will be under pressure to respond to the attack and Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said that its confrontation with Iran was “not over yet.”
Israel has not said it carried out the consulate strike but is widely believed to have been behind it.
It is the first time that Iran has attacked Israel directly.
Previously Israel and Iran had been engaged in a years-long shadow war – attacking each other’s assets without admitting responsibility.
Those attacks have ratcheted up considerably during the current war in Gaza sparked by the Palestinian group Hamas’s assault on nearby Israeli communities last October.
Why are Israel and Iran enemies?
The two countries were allies until the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, which brought in a regime that has used opposing Israel as a key part of its ideology.
Iran does not recognise Israel’s right to exist and seeks its eradication.
The country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has previously called Israel a “cancerous tumour” that “will undoubtedly be uprooted and destroyed”.
Israel believes that Iran poses an existential threat as evidenced by Tehran’s rhetoric, its build-up of proxy forces sworn to Israel’s destruction, its funding and arming of Palestinian groups including Hamas and the Lebanese Shia militant group Hamas, and what it believes demonstrated by Tehran’s rhetoric, the formation of proxy forces dedicated to destroying Israel, the financing and arming of Palestinian organizations like Hamas and the Lebanese Shia militant group Hamas, and what it perceives to be Iran’s covert pursuit of nuclear weapons—although Iran disputes this—Israel believes that Iran poses an existential threat to the country.
Iran claims that the bombardment of Israel on Saturday night is retaliation for an airstrike on an Iranian embassy facility in Damascus, Syria, on April 1. The attack claimed the lives of senior Iranian officers.
Iran views the airstrike as an infringement on its sovereignty and accuses Israel of carrying out it. Although Israel has not acknowledged carrying it out.
Iran says Saturday night’s bombardment of Israel is a response to the 1 April air strike on an Iranian consulate building in the Syrian capital Damascus, which killed senior Iranian commanders.
Iran blames Israel for the air strike, which it saw as a violation of its sovereignty. Israel has not said it carried it out but is widely assumed to have done so.
Thirteen people were killed, including Brig Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi – a senior commander in the Quds force, the overseas branch of Iran’s elite Republican Guards (IRGC). He had been a key figure in the Iranian operation to arm the Lebanese Shia armed group Hezbollah.
The consulate attack follows a pattern of air strikes against Iranian targets widely attributed to Israel. Several senior IRGC commanders have been killed in air strikes in Syria in recent months.
Who are Iran’s allies?
Iran has built up a network of allies and proxy forces in the Middle East that it says form part of an “axis of resistance” challenging US and Israeli interests in the region. It supports them to varying degrees.
Syria is Iran’s most important ally. Iran, along with Russia, helped the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad survive the country’s decade-long civil war.
Hezbollah in Lebanon is the most powerful of the armed groups Iran backs. It has been trading cross-border fire with Israel on an almost daily basis since war erupted between Israel and Hamas. Tens of thousands of civilians on both sides of the border have been forced to leave their homes.
Iran backs several Shia militias in Iraq which have attacked US bases in Iraq, Syria and Jordan with rocket fire. The US retaliated after three of its soldiers were killed at a military outpost in Jordan.
In Yemen, Iran provides support to the Houthi movement, which controls the most populated areas of the country. To show support for Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis have fired missiles and drones at Israel and have also been attacking commercial shipping near its shores, sinking at least one vessel. The US and UK have struck Houthi targets in response.
Iran also provides weapons and training to Palestinian armed groups including Hamas, which attacked Israel on 7 October last year, sparking the current war in Gaza and the confrontations drawing in Iran, its proxies and Israel’s allies in the wider Middle East. However, Iran denies any role in the 7 October attacks themselves.
What was in wave of Iranian attacks and how were they thwarted?
In the middle of Saturday night, air raid alerts went off in Israel, residents were urged to seek shelter while explosions were heard as air defences were activated.
Interceptions lit up the night sky in several places across the country, while many drones and missiles were shot down by Israel’s allies before they reached Israeli territory.
At least nine countries were involved in the military escalation – with projectiles fired from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yemen and downed by Israel, the US, the UK and France as well as Jordan.
What is Israel’s Iron Dome missile system?
Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles towards Israel, the Israeli military said on Sunday.
The attack included 170 drones and 30 cruise missiles, none of which entered Israeli territory, and 110 ballistic missiles of which a small number reached Israel, military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a televised statement. The BBC has not independently verified those figures.
The shortest distance from Iran to Israel is about 1,000km (620 miles) across Iraq, Syria and Jordan.
What happens now?
Israel’s Channel 12 TV cited an unnamed Israeli official as saying there would be a “significant response” to the attack.
Israeli airspace has been reopened as has that of neighbouring countries, but Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the confrontation with Iran was “not over yet”.
Meanwhile, Iran has warned Israel its response “will be much larger than tonight’s military action if Israel retaliates against Iran”, armed forces chief of staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri told state TV.
He said US bases would also be attacked if the US took part in any Israeli retaliation.
IRGC commander Hossein Salami also said Tehran would retaliate against any Israeli attack on its interests, officials or citizens.
The UN Security Council is due to meet at around 20:00 GMT to the latest crisis at Israel’s request.
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