James Shotter, Neri Zilber, Bita Ghaffari and Felicia Schwartz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iran launched a barrage of drones and missiles at Israel on Saturday night in retaliation for a suspected Israeli strike in Damascus that killed several Iranian commanders, pushing the Middle East closer to a full-blown regional war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Israeli officials said Iran had fired more than 300 projectiles, including 170 drones, 30 cruise missiles and 120 ballistic missiles at Israel, the first time that it had targeted the Jewish state directly. Iran-backed militants in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen also fired rockets, drones and missiles at Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for Israel\u2019s military, said 99 per cent of the barrage had been intercepted. A Bedouin girl was critically injured by shrapnel in the south of the country and an air force base suffered minor damage, but there were no other reports of serious impacts, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At 7.30am local time, Israel reopened its airspace, which it had closed ahead of the Iranian salvo. But it kept in place orders closing schools and limiting large gatherings, and Hagari said that the country remained \u201cready and prepared for additional threats and scenarios\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Israel\u2019s foreign minister Israel Katz reiterated previous Israeli threats to retaliate if Iran attacked it directly. \u201cIf Iran attacks Israel, Israel will attack Iran\u2009.\u2009.\u2009. All considerations will be taken into account,\u201d he said in an interview with Israel\u2019s Army Radio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hardliners demanded decisive action. \u201cWe need a crushing attack,\u201d Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel\u2019s ultranationalist national security minister wrote on X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
General Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, said by targeting the Iranian consulate in Damascus in an attack on April 1, Israel had \u201ccrossed a red line that was unbearable\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe mission is accomplished and the operation is over and we have no intentions of going further,\u201d Bagheri said, but if Israel opted to \u201ccommit any act against us, be it on our territory or our compounds in Syria and elsewhere, the next operation will be larger\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US President Joe Biden condemned the \u201cunprecedented\u201d assault, and said that US aircraft and two US destroyers, one of which Washington moved to the region over the past week, had helped intercept the barrage. The UK and France also helped ward off the attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden said he would convene other G7 leaders on Sunday \u201cto co-ordinate a united diplomatic response to Iran\u2019s brazen attack\u201d. Following a request from Israel, the UN Security Council also scheduled an emergency meeting for Sunday to discuss the attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The UK deployed RAF jets and refuelling tankers to the Middle East on Saturday to help intercept drone attacks. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: \u201cI condemn in the strongest terms the Iranian regime\u2019s reckless attack against Israel\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009The UK will continue to stand up for Israel\u2019s security.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iran said it launched the barrage in response to Israel\u2019s suspected strike on its consulate in Damascus on April 1, which marked a significant escalation of the hostilities that have engulfed the Middle East since the war between Hamas and Israel erupted in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the past six months, Israeli forces have traded near-daily fire with Hizbollah in Lebanon, while other Iranian proxies in Iraq, Syria and Yemen have also fired missiles and drones at Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But until now, Iran and Israel have avoided a direct confrontation. Despite their long history of enmity, the two countries have never exchanged fire using strikes launched from their own soil. Only once before \u2014 in 2018 \u2014 did Iranian forces based in Syria fire on Israel directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iranian officials said the barrage had been launched in defence of Iran\u2019s \u201csovereignty and territorial integrity\u201d, and that the attack, which involved \u201cdozens\u201d of missiles and drones, had targeted Israeli military bases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated to Iran\u2019s elite Revolutionary Guards, described the assault as a \u201cmulti-layered attack from four directions\u201d, deploying \u201chundreds of drones and a large number of missiles of different types\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It added that Hizbollah, Iraqi militants and Houthi rebels in Yemen had all participated in the attack. Hizbollah said it had launched dozens of Katyusha rockets at an Israeli barracks in the Golan Heights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the wake of the barrage, Iran\u2019s mission to the UN warned the US to \u201cstay away\u201d in comments on social media platform X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The strike sparked condemnation from around the world, with countries from Japan to Saudi Arabia urging restraint, and UN secretary-general Ant\u00f3nio Guterres saying he was \u201cdeeply alarmed about the very real danger of a devastating region-wide escalation\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Iranian attack \u201cputs the region on the precipice of a broader regional war that almost no one seems to actually want\u201d, said Jonathan Panikoff, director of the Atlantic council\u2019s Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iran\u2019s first direct attack on Israel \u201cshatters the previous conflict threshold\u201d in their long-running war, he said. \u201cWhat is clear is that this is the beginning of a new era, one in which Iran is willing to respond directly to Israeli attacks and in doing so risk retaliation against the Iranian homeland.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said that the US did \u201cnot seek escalation\u201d and would hold talks with its allies in the \u201chours and days ahead\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Israel had been bracing for an Iranian response since Tehran made clear that they considered the strike on the consulate in Damascus, which killed one of Iran\u2019s most senior commanders in Syria and Lebanon, tantamount to an attack on its territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Late on Saturday the Israeli military announced a 1,000-person limit on public gatherings and shuttered schools, and ordered people in the occupied Golan Heights in the north of the country, and several areas in the south, to remain close to shelters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shortly after 11pm, Israel confirmed that Iran had launched its barrage, and just before 2am sirens went off in Jerusalem, across southern and northern Israel and in the Golan Heights. Skies over Israel were lit up by incoming missiles and Israeli air defence interceptors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a recorded statement earlier on Saturday Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel\u2019s prime minister, said he appreciated the US \u201cstanding by Israel\u2019s side\u201d, and the support of the UK, France and other countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The long-serving premier also issued a direct threat to Iran. \u201cI established a clear principle \u2014 whoever hurts us, we hurt him. We will protect ourselves from any threat and we will do so with composure and determination,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(Source: Financial Times)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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