[IMPORTANT] Hamas launches foot assault against settlements.

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I disagree that this withdrawal is a concession on the part of Israel. In fact, I think it's a prelude to a Rafah invasion, they need to withdraw, in order to allow civilians in Rafah to evacuate back north. By "eliminating Hamas", I don't think they ever meant completely destroying Hamas as an organisation or movement, I think that they always meant destroying their military capabilities which they have already done in the rest of the Gaza strip. The last 4 remaining Hamas military brigades are in Rafah.

Iran informed the US that it would refrain from responding to the airstrike in which senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders were killed in Damascus if a ceasefire in Gaza is reached, Jadeh Iran reported on Sunday.

The news outlet cited an anonymous Arab diplomatic source, saying the source spoke to the news outlet two days ago. The source added that "If America succeeds in containing the situation, it will be a great success for the Biden administration and we can build on that."

The report comes as negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal resume between Israel and Hamas in Cairo and as Israel continues preparations for a possible response to the Damascus airstrike that Syria and Iran blamed on Israel.

Three sons of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza on Wednesday, a senior Israeli diplomatic official confirmed.

The official said that all three sons were part of Hamas’s military wing and that Israel is ready to go after any member of Hamas involved in violence.

Initially the attack was reported by the Hamas-affiliated news agency Shehab, with The Jerusalem Post also receiving indirect confirmation, before the senior diplomatic official confirmed.

Likewise, the Iranian-aligned Lebanese outlet al-Mayadeen reported, citing Palestinian sources, that the strike had also killed several of Haniyeh's grandchildren, and that they had been killed in a vehicle in the Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City.

Haniyeh himself later confirmed that three of his sons and three of his grandchildren had been killed in the strike.
"All of Gaza's citizens paid a price with the blood of their children, including me," he was cited as saying.

That area has been under IDF control for several months

Dozens of other relatives reportedly killed in war
An airstrike in October reportedly killed 14 other members of Haniyeh's family, including his brother and nephew; his granddaughter Roaa Haniyeh was also reportedly killed by the IDF, as was his oldest grandson, Jamal. In February, Palestinian sources reported that Haniyeh's son, Hazem Haniyeh, had also been killed.

It was quiet, grim work for a recovery team this week as it sifted through the rubble of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. Shovels in hand, they unearthed what appeared to be a femur, a shoulder blade, the bones of a rib cage.

For two weeks in March, the Israeli military carried out a devastating raid at Al-Shifa, once the pillar of the Gazan medical system. The siege raised fears for the safety of hundreds of civilians trapped inside.

Since the Israel Defense Forces withdrew last week, Palestinian crews have so far recovered the bodies of more than 400 people from Al-Shifa, the surrounding neighborhoods and the southern city of Khan Younis, according to Mahmoud Basal, a spokesman for the Gaza Civil Defense.

In a video recorded Monday by an NBC News crew, families watched as workers gathered remains, some of them little more than tattered clothing tangled around a cluster of bones and piled into white bags labeled “unidentified body.”

Unfortunately, the bodies are rotten, are cut into pieces because of the bulldozers,” said Khalil Hamada, the head of general forensics for the Ministry of Justice. Hamada said Israeli forces used bulldozers to bury the dead in the sandy soil of Al-Shifa.

There are numerous shallow graves, and “many dead bodies were partially buried with their limbs visible,” with other bodies uncovered and exposed to the heat, the World Health Organization said Saturday.

Safeguarding dignity, even in death, is an indispensable act of humanity,” WHO said in a statement. In addition to those who were killed in the most recent offensive, in November, during the IDF’s first raid on Al-Shifa, hospital staff had been forced to bury 179 patients in a mass grave.

Israeli forces alleged that the hospital was being used as a Hamas hub. Gaza’s Health Ministry said around 30,000 patients, medical staff members and displaced people were sheltering at the hospital, with both the IDF and Gazan authorities saying that hundreds were killed, and hundreds more taken into custody.

“Where are they? We do not know if they were detained or buried underground. We want someone to help us. I appeal to all the world to stand with us,” Maha Swelem, a nurse at Al-Shifa, told NBC News in an interview in Arabic on Monday.

During the siege, Swelem said that she was corralled into one of the hospital’s buildings, along with about 15 others. After Israeli soldiers shot four people “in front of my eyes,” Swelem said, they then took her husband, a volunteer paramedic. “I don’t know what happened to him yet,” she said. “Did they kill him and bury him?”

Dr. Mutasim Salah, a member of a health emergency committee in Gaza, said “the smell of death” permeated the charred ruins of the hospital. But they were determined to keep working to identify the corpses, perhaps bring closure to mourning families and document what he described as a war crime against innocent civilians.

Safeguarding dignity, even in death, is an indispensable act of humanity,” WHO said in a statement. In addition to those who were killed in the most recent offensive, in November, during the IDF’s first raid on Al-Shifa, hospital staff had been forced to bury 179 patients in a mass grave.

Israeli forces alleged that the hospital was being used as a Hamas hub. Gaza’s Health Ministry said around 30,000 patients, medical staff members and displaced people were sheltering at the hospital, with both the IDF and Gazan authorities saying that hundreds were killed, and hundreds more taken into custody.

“Where are they? We do not know if they were detained or buried underground. We want someone to help us. I appeal to all the world to stand with us,” Maha Swelem, a nurse at Al-Shifa, told NBC News in an interview in Arabic on Monday.

During the siege, Swelem said that she was corralled into one of the hospital’s buildings, along with about 15 others. After Israeli soldiers shot four people “in front of my eyes,” Swelem said, they then took her husband, a volunteer paramedic. “I don’t know what happened to him yet,” she said. “Did they kill him and bury him?”

Dr. Mutasim Salah, a member of a health emergency committee in Gaza, said “the smell of death” permeated the charred ruins of the hospital. But they were determined to keep working to identify the corpses, perhaps bring closure to mourning families and document what he described as a war crime against innocent civilians.

US and Israeli officials fear that most of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas since October 7 have been killed in captivity, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, as talks to secure a hostage release deal and a temporary truce continued in Cairo.

While the IDF has confirmed the deaths of 34 of the 129 remaining hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7, citing intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza, the report said that “Israeli and American officials estimate privately that the number of deaths could be much higher.”

Some US estimates indicate that most of the hostages are already dead, American officials familiar with the intelligence told the paper, while stressing that US information on the hostages is limited and depends in part on Israeli intel.

US officials quoted in the report said that some of the hostages had likely been killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza amid the ongoing war, while others had died of health issues, including injuries suffered during their abduction.

Officials believe hostages who are still alive are being used as human shields surrounding the group’s leadership, hidden deep in Gaza tunnels, the report said.

Iran has signalled to Washington that it will respond to Israel's attack on its Syrian embassy in a way that aims to avoid major escalation and it will not act hastily, as Tehran presses demands including a Gaza truce, Iranian sources said.
Iran's message to Washington was conveyed by Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian during a visit on Sunday to the Gulf Arab state of Oman, which has often acted as an intermediary between Tehran and Washington, the sources said.

A source familiar with U.S. intelligence was not aware of the message conveyed via Oman but said Iran has “been very clear” that its response to the attack on its Damascus embassy compound would be “controlled” and “non-escalatory” and planned “to use regional proxies to launch a number of attacks on Israel.”

The diplomatic messaging points to a cautious approach by Iran as it weighs how to respond to the April 1 attack in a way that deters Israel from further such actions, but avoids a military escalation that could suck in the United States.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that Israel "must be punished and it shall be", saying it was tantamount to an attack on Iranian soil. Israel has not confirmed it was responsible, but the Pentagon has said it was.

Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim militias have not attacked U.S. troops in Syria and Iraq since early February.

The threat of an Iranian attack is viable and credible, the White House said as the American news outlet CBS reported that Iran could attack military sites within Israel with missiles and drones on Friday.

America, France, Russia, and India issued travel warnings. At the same time, Israel’s Home Front Command remained silent even as the war cabinet met and the army was on high alert for an Iranian response to an alleged IDF airstrike in Damascus that killed seven Iranian generals on April 1.

"We are prepared to defend ourselves on the ground and in the air, in close cooperation with our partners, and we will know how to respond,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Friday as he met with the head of US Central Command (CENTCOM) Michael Erik Kurilla at the IAF Hatzor airbase.

US National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby said that Washington was “certainly mindful of a very public and what we consider to be a very credible threat made by Iran in terms of potential attacks.”

US officials have been in “constant communication” with their Israeli counterparts, to make sure “they can defend themselves against those kinds of attacks,” Kirby stated.

“We are taking this seriously and so are our Israeli counterparts,” he stated.

Kirby added that the United States is looking at its own force posture in the region in light of Tehran's threat. Gallant, after speaking with Kurilla in Israel, said that they had discussed the “close cooperation between the US and Israel, between our defense establishments and our militaries.”

In light of the heightened possibility of an attack, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in the last 48 hours.

The US, France, Russia, and Germany have all worked behind the scenes to avert a direct confrontation between the two arch-foes, which comes as Israel has been under attack by Iranian proxy groups for the last half year.

The US embassy asked its staff and their families not to travel outside of “greater Tel Aviv (including Herzliya, Netanya, and Even Yehuda), Jerusalem, and Be’er Sheva areas until further notice.”

France advised its citizens to refrain in the coming days from traveling to Iran, Lebanon, Israel, and the Palestinian territories. It also asked that the families of diplomatic staff leave Iran.

India advised its citizens on Friday against traveling to Iran and Israel until further notice given the "prevailing situation in the region".

US will attempt to intercept launches at Israel if feasible, US officials say
The US will attempt to intercept any weapons launched at Israel if it’s feasible to do so, two US officials told CNN, in an indication of the level of ongoing cooperation between the two militaries before an anticipated Iranian attack.

US Navy forces in the Red Sea have previously intercepted long-range missiles launched from the Houthis in Yemen toward Israel. US forces in Iraq and Syria could also potentially intercept drones and rockets targeting northern Israel, depending on the location from which they’re launched.

There have been a number of conversations where US officials have urged Israel not to escalate the situation in retaliating against Iran, according to one of the US officials.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group fired a large barrage of rockets at northern Israel on Friday night, as the country braces for an expected retaliatory attack by Iran or its proxies to an alleged Israeli strike in Syria that killed several Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members.

A statement from the Iran-backed terror group claiming responsibility for the rocket fire on the Galilee Panhandle said Hezbollah operatives launched dozens of Katyushas at Israel Defense Forces artillery positions in northern Israel.

The military said around 40 rockets were launched, some of which were intercepted, while others impacted open areas or fell short in Lebanon.

There were no reports of injuries in the attack.

The IDF also said air defenses shot down two explosive-laden drones launched by Hezbollah at northern Israel.

Sirens sounded amid the incident, including as a result of falling shrapnel from the interception.

Hezbollah also fired several projectiles from Lebanon at the Upper Galilee earlier in the day, which, according to the IDF, caused no injuries.

The IDF said it also shelled the launch sites.

The attacks Friday evening came not long after the IDF said it struck several buildings used by Hezbollah, where operatives were gathered, in southern Lebanon’s Ayta ash-Shab.

Another building belonging to the terror group in Taybeh was also hit, the IDF added.

Iranian forces took over the Portuguese ship "MCS ARIES" in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, according to Israeli media.

The ship is currently sailing through the Persian Gulf, according to ship tracking site, Marine Traffic. The ship was heading in the direction of India.

The MSC Aries is associated with Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer's Zodiac Maritime Shipping Company, Reuters reported.

ran state-run media stated that its Revolutionary Guards had seized the MSC Aries ship, saying it was "linked to Israel" and it was being transferred to Iran's territorial waters.

A Guards navy special forces helicopter boarded the Portuguese flagged vessel and seized it, the Iranian state-run media reported.

Numerous media outlets cited a video reportedly seen exclusively by the Associated Press showing a helicopter raiding a ship near the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday. A Middle East defense official reportedly told the wire service that Iran is behind the attack.

UKMTO reports incident
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said on Saturday that a vessel was seized by "regional authorities" 50 nautical miles (92 km) northeast of the United Arab Emirates' Fujairah.

UKMTO did not say which authorities it was referring to, however the two reports share the same location, and there are no other incidents in the area.

A US defense official said "we are aware of the situation reported by UKMTO and we are monitoring it" but would not confirm or deny the name of the vessel when asked if it was the MSC Aries, Reuters reported.

This is piracy and should be treated as such. I don't know the laws about piracy, however as it mostly takes place on the high seas, it should be seen as an international legal matter. The fact that this act was committed by a "sovereign nation" or that the ship's owner (at least in principle) happens to be Jewish should have nothing to do with it. Is the international legal community capable of swift justice in a situation like this?

Why do the Portiguese not complain ,, unless it was actually Israeli ..? if they had percieved it as such ???

Iran on Saturday evening launched drones toward Israel in a retaliatory attack, the Israeli military said.

In a statement, Israel Defense Forces said that Iran launched unmanned aerial vehicles "from within its territory toward Israel."

"The IDF is on high alert and is constantly monitoring the operational situation," the statement read. "The IDF Aerial Defense Array is on high alert, along with IAF fighter jets and Israeli Navy vessels that are on a defense mission in Israeli airspace. The IDF is monitoring all targets."

Israeli officials told CBS News it could be many hours before the drones reach Israeli airspace, which Israel closed at midnight local time. Alerts started to sound across Israel close to 2 a.m. local time, the IDF said. Alarms went off in Southern Israel, by the Dead Sea, in Jerusalem, and the Shomron area.

U.S. forces in the region have also shot down some of the Iranian-launched drones, two U.S. officials told CBS News.

"Iran has begun an airborne attack against Israel," National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement.

President Biden had returned to the White House on Saturday in preparation for an imminent attack.

"President Biden is being regularly updated on the situation by his national security team and will meet with them this afternoon at the White House," the statement went on. "His team is in constant communication with Israeli officials as well as other partners and allies. This attack is likely to unfold over a number of hours. President Biden has been clear: our support for Israel's security is ironclad. The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defense against these threats from Iran."

The U.S. is on standby for further action by Iran, and from within the region via its proxies, a U.S. official told CBS News.

The U.S. is positioned to be able to shoot down incoming drones from Iran via assets in Iraq and Syria, three U.S. officials told CBS News. The U.S. also has fighter jets that are now on standby.

The U.S. assets above are in addition to Navy destroyer USS Carney staying in the Central Mediterranean to provide additional protection if needed instead of heading West, and the destroyer USS Arleigh Burke remaining in the Eastern Mediterranean where it has been for a while.

The U.S. preference is for the Israeli government to wait and assess the impact of the Iranian reprisal before responding to it. The U.S. preference is for a calibrated response. The expectation is that the Israelis will calibrate based on whether it successfully intercepts Iranian incoming and whether or not there are any casualties.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his war cabinet in Tel Aviv after issued a video address Saturday night, saying, "In recent years, and even more so in recent weeks, Israel has been preparing for the possibility of a direct attack from Iran. Our defense systems are deployed, we are prepared for any scenario, both in defense and attack. The State of Israel is strong, the IDF is strong, the public is strong."

Iran launched a retaliatory attack against Israel on Saturday that risks sparking a regional conflict involving U.S. military forces. The operation, which Israeli officials said included more than 300 missiles and drones, marked the first time that Iran has launched a direct military attack on the Jewish state.

Of some 30 cruise missiles launched toward Israel, 25 were intercepted by Israeli fighter jets and none managed to enter the country, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson, said early Sunday. A "few" of the nearly 120 ballistic missiles fired toward Israel fell inside the country, he said, causing slight damage to infrastructure on the Nevatim Air Force Base but leaving it fully operational.

The assault severely injured a 10-year-old girl, but otherwise caused no casualties, Hagari said. About 31 people were treated for anxiety or injuries they sustained while heading to a protected area when sirens sounded, Israel’s first responder service said.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement late Saturday that the U.S. military shot down “dozens” of missiles and drones en route to Israel from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, calling Iran's assault "unprecedented."

“We condemn these reckless and unprecedented attacks by Iran and its proxies, and we call on Iran to immediately halt any further attacks, including from its proxy forces, and to deescalate tensions,” Austin said in the statement. “We do not seek conflict with Iran, but we will not hesitate to act to protect our forces and support the defense of Israel.”

Iran’s U.N. Mission issued a statement on X saying that Iran’s military action was in response to Israel’s attack on an Iranian diplomatic facility in Syria, an apparent reference to the April 1 bombing of an Iranian consular building in Damascus that killed two generals and five officers in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The statement said that Iran considered the matter “concluded” after the missile and drone strikes. But it warned that if Israel makes “another mistake,” Iran would deliver “a considerably more severe“ response.

President Joe Biden said he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu overnight and reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to the security of Israel. He also praised the country’s ability to fend off attacks as a sign to others who threaten the security of Israel.

“Tomorrow, I will convene my fellow G7 leaders to coordinate a united diplomatic response to Iran’s brazen attack,” Biden said. “My team will engage with their counterparts across the region. And we will stay in close touch with Israel’s leaders.”

U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria, as well as American warships in the region, were part of the effort to counter the Iranian attack, U.S. officials said. They include the USS Carney, a destroyer that has been involved in knocking out missiles and drones in the Red Sea fired by Iranian-backed Houthi forces from Yemen.

In back-channel communications with the U.S. over the past two weeks, Iran indicated it would retaliate against Israel but wanted to avoid an escalation that would lead to all-out war, U.S. officials said.

The question now is whether Iran’s attack will be interpreted in the way Tehran has planned, or trigger an unintended reaction from Israel that could escalate into an uncontrollable cycle of violence, analysts said.

How will Netanyahu respond?
There is concern among top U.S. officials that Israel could quickly respond to Iran’s attacks without thinking through the potential fallout, according to a senior administration official and a senior defense official.

Those concerns stem in part from the Biden administration’s views of the approach Netanyahu and other Israeli officials have taken to Israel's war against Hamas, as well as the attack in Damascus.

U.S. officials have privately expressed frustration with Israel’s decision to strike the Iranian consulate in Syria, saying Israeli leaders did not think through the timing and implications of the attack, including how it might affect negotiations over the release of hostages held by Hamas.

“I don’t think they had a strategy,” the senior administration official said. “The Israelis don’t always make the best strategic decisions.”

Senior leaders at the Pentagon also have privately expressed frustration at the timing of the Damascus strike, according to the senior defense official, because it had the potential to be “catastrophically escalatory.”

In the days leading up to Iran’s retaliatory attack on Israel, U.S. intelligence showed that Iran’s leaders felt the need to respond to Israel’s strike in Damascus due to concern of domestic blowback if the strike went unanswered, according to the senior administration official.

Biden has privately expressed concern that Netanyahu is trying to drag the U.S. more deeply into a broader conflict, according to three people familiar with his comments.

While the White House believes the Israelis are not looking for a wider war or a direct war with Iran, particularly given the resources they have fighting the war in Gaza, U.S. officials can’t be certain, the senior administration official said.

The official described Israel’s approach to military operations as “frenetic.”

“There’s this urgency to act,” the official said, “and that’s what happened in Damascus.” The official said it’s the same frustration U.S. officials have with the way Israel is operating in Gaza.

The defense official echoed that sentiment, saying the Israelis have shown they are much better at operations than they are at planning. “They have surprised us with their really short-sided planning for the past few months so in that way Damascus isn’t as surprising,” the defense official said.

Israel thanks allies and says it's ready for more attacks
Israel's military is ready for further acts of aggression from Iran and said the international coalition of allies that defended the country from some 303 missiles and armed drones was standing firm.

“Bless you dear soldiers and commanders of the IDF and IAF. Bless the coalition of nations led by the US and @POTUS,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog said in a post on X.

Israel Defense Forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner told Sky News today that the aerial defense operation, which involved American, British and French forces, was a "unity of reasonable players against the diabolical plan of Iran."

Missile debris lands in the Jordanian capital

Biden told Netanyahu that U.S. won’t support Israeli counterattack, official tells NBC News
Biden told Netanyahu that while the U.S. commitment to defend Israel is ironclad, it will not participate in offensive operations against Iran, a senior administration official told NBC News.

In their call last night, the official said, Biden told Netanyahu that since the Iranian attack appeared to have caused minimal casualties and damage, Israel should not retaliate against Iran.

Hamas rejects latest hostage deal proposal, Netanyahu's office says
Palestinian group Hamas has rejected a proposal to free the remaining 133 hostages taken from Israel on Oct. 7 last year, which set off the six-month-old Israel-Hamas war, Israel has said.

The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Mossad intelligence agency said in a statement early today that a week after meeting with Israeli officials and three mediators in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, "Hamas responded negatively to the outline presented to it."

The Israelis said the rejection — which it said included "a very significant area of flexibility" from Israel — proves that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar "does not want a humanitarian deal and the return of the abductees."

The Hamas leader, the prime minister's office said, "continues to take advantage of the tensions with Iran and strive for the unification of the arenas and an overall escalation in the region."

Israel said it would continue with the goals of the war, to free the hostages and wipe out Hamas entirely.

Hamas confirmed in a statement on Saturday, reported by the Reuters news agency, that it had rejected the proposal. The group said it continued to work towards a permanent ceasefire as well as the "the withdrawal of the occupation army from the entire Gaza Strip."

Iran says it told U.S. and neighbors 'limited' attack was coming, summons Western ambassadors
Iran has sought to make clear this morning that it considers its exchange with Israel over, while warning against a response.

Tehran informed the U.S. ahead of time that it would launch a "limited" retaliatory attack against Israel for self-defense, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said in a meeting with foreign ambassadors in the Iranian capital today. He also said that Iran's regional neighbors were given 72 hours notice that the retaliatory strikes were coming.

President Ebrahim Raisi said that his country's armed forces had "taught a lesson to the Zionist enemy." Raisi warned that "any new adventure will be responded with a heavier and regrettable response."

And Tehran said that it had summoned the French, British and German envoys over their reactions to the attack.

War cabinet meeting underway in Israel as government weighs response

Israel's war cabinet is meeting now, a senior Israeli official told NBC News, noting that "policy issues are going to be laid out."

“From our perspective the situation is ongoing and we don’t know if it’s over yet,” the official said. “We are still dealing with their proxies in the region and we are still in the middle of a war.”

Iranian leadership has said it considers its response to Israel concluded and that it acted in self-defense following the strike on its diplomatic facilities in Syria.

The Israeli official referred to the Iran attack as a “failure," adding that they believed Iran's regime made a mistake "by exposing itself to the world.”

Arab officials worry Netanyahu could use this moment to start a wider war with Iran
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could use this moment to start a wider war with Iran.

The concern comes amid pleas from across the Arab world for restraint in the region. Ayman Safadi, the Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs tweeted that an escalation of the conflict could push the "whole region into abyss of war," and said "the first step towards de-escalation is ending the Israeli aggression on Gaza & starting to implement the 2-state solution as it is the only path to security & peace for all."

Egypt's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, meanwhile, tweeted that the escalation between Iran and Israel "is nothing but a direct result of what Egypt has repeatedly warned about, about the dangers of expanding the conflict in the region as a result of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, and the provocative military actions being practiced in the region."

Other Arab officials urged diplomacy to prevent exacerbating tensions. In a statement posted on X, the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on the U.N. Security Council “to assume its responsibility towards maintaining international peace and security, especially in this region that is extremely sensitive to global peace and security, and to prevent the escalation of the crisis that will have serious consequences if it expands.”

In the United Arab Emirates, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs called for "resolving differences through dialogue and through diplomatic channels, and for adhering to the rule of law and respecting the United Nations Charter."

While a list of sites Iran tried to hit has not been publicized by Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — which launched the drones and missiles — the main target of the attack appeared to be a sensitive airbase in southern Israel, home to the F-35 stealth fighter jet, the military’s most advanced aircraft.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, Iran’s attack comprised 170 drones, 30 cruise missiles, and 120 ballistic missiles — 99% of which were intercepted by air defenses.

All the drones and cruise missiles were downed outside of the country’s airspace by the Israeli Air Force and its allies, including the United States, United Kingdom, Jordan, France, and others — according to the IDF’s top spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.

The drones had a flight time of multiple hours to reach Israel, and the cruise missiles similarly would have taken around more than an hour to reach their target, according to assessments by defense officials.

The ballistic missiles, however, have a much shorter flight time — around 10 minutes — and are more challenging to intercept, and indeed some managed to evade Israel’s air defenses early Sunday.

The IDF said that the long-range Arrow air defense system managed to knock down the “vast majority” of the 120 ballistic missiles. The Arrow 3 system is designed to take out ballistic missiles while they are still outside of the atmosphere.

Unlike the drones and cruise missiles, the ballistic missiles were shot down over Israel, leading the IDF to activate warning sirens over fears of falling shrapnel. The sole injury in Israel due to the Iranian attack was a Bedouin girl who was struck and seriously wounded by falling shrapnel in the Negev desert.

It is understood that explosions were heard across the country as a result of the Arrow interceptions of the ballistic missiles, despite them being shot down high up in the sky and, in some cases, in space. Flashing lights seen in the sky were caused by the interceptions themselves, as well as the falling shrapnel.

Another sign that Nevatim was believed by Israel to be the target of the attack came hours earlier, when the “Wing of Zion” official state plane took flight from the airbase. The move was intended to prevent the plane, which is stored at Nevatim, from being targeted in the attack.

Comments made by Hagari Sunday morning further hinted that Nevatim was Iran’s main target.

Air Force planes continue to take off and land from the base, and depart for offense and defense missions, including the Adir (F-35) planes that are now returning to the base from a defense mission and soon you will see them landing,” Hagari added.

Iran’s use of hundreds of drones and missiles to directly target Israel overnight on Sunday in retaliation for an Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus set some major political and military precedents.

It was the single largest drone attack ever carried out by any country, and it was the first time Iran directly attacked Israel after almost a half-century of being archenemies.

The politics
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) dubbed the operation “True Promise” to show that top leaders in Tehran, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, intend to make good on their vows of “punishment” for attacks by Israel and others.

The attack was in response to the April 1 Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus that killed seven IRGC members, including two generals in charge of leading operations in Syria and Lebanon, along with six other people.

It was mainly aimed at strengthening Iran’s deterrence, which critics said had been compromised after increasingly confrontational policies and military strikes by the United States and its allies across the region, especially following the January 2020 assassination of top general Qassem Soleimani in Iraq.

Iranian officials also appeared to have exercised a degree of “strategic patience” after the late December assassination of another top IRGC commander in Syria, Razi Mousavi, in an Israeli air raid amid the fallout of the war on Gaza.

Inaction, lower-grade strikes, or being content with military action through the “axis of resistance” of aligned groups across the region would in this vein be viewed as too costly for Iran both locally and abroad.

That is true even as Tehran recognises that Israel and the embattled government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may see benefits in escalating tensions across the region and forcing the US military into taking more action against Iran.

On the other hand, the unprecedented Iranian attacks may have briefly shifted the world’s attention from the deaths of tens of thousands of women and children in the Gaza Strip, but they could translate into soft power gains for Iran in the Muslim world in the long run, when compared with other regional powers.

Saudi Arabia has not ruled out normalising relations with Israel despite the carnage in Gaza, and Turkey only started limiting some exports to Israel earlier this week after the Israeli government refused to allow it to airdrop aid over the besieged enclave, where infants are dying of starvation. Both Saudi Arabia and Turkey have, however, been deeply — and vocally — critical of Israel’s war on Gaza.

Iran would also have plausible arguments at the United Nations Security Council since attacks on diplomatic missions signal a violation of the Vienna Convention, and since Article 51 of the UN Charter enshrines the “inherent right” of self-defence, something Israel has been heavily leaning on since the start of the Gaza war.

A list of military firsts for Iran
There is no official confirmation from Iran about exactly how many drones or ballistic and cruise missiles it used to attack Israel, but the Israeli military said more than 300 were launched.

There is no official confirmation from Iran about exactly how many drones or ballistic and cruise missiles it used to attack Israel, but the Israeli military said more than 300 were launched.

Iranian drones have been making international headlines for the past few years, especially following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago. Ukrainian officials say the Iranian-designed Shahed drones of the Russian military continue to rain down over their territory.

Shahed-136 kamikaze drones that carry a relatively small warhead weighing some 50kg (110 pounds) were used in the attack on Israel, Iranian state television said on Sunday.

Telegram channels affiliated with the IRGC said the Shahed-238, which is powered by a turbojet rather than the propeller on the 136 model, was also used in the attack. The 238 model sacrifices some manoeuvrability for significantly higher speeds that are believed to reach as high as 600kmph (372mph).

Iran has long been known to possess the largest and most varied missile arsenal in the Middle East, but this was by far the largest test of its capabilities.

State television said the Emad long-range ballistic missile and the Paveh cruise missile were used to attack Israel.

In February, in large-scale military exercises that included simulating an attack on the Palmachim airbase in Israel, the IRGC used Emad missiles and launched the Dezful ballistic missile from a warship.

Iran also possesses Fattah, a hypersonic ballistic missile that could theoretically arrive in Israel in as little as seven minutes, along with a cruise missile variant of the same family. There was no indication the missiles were used in the early Sunday attacks.
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Either way, in multilayered attacks over several hours, Iran has just managed to conduct its largest-ever drone and missile strikes that covered some of their longest distances in a real military operation.

“The operation achieved a level of success that exceeded our expectations,” said IRGC commander-in-chief Hossein Salami, adding that the projectiles only targeted military sites, including the Nevatim airbase in the Negev desert that was allegedly used to launch the Israeli strikes on the Iranian consulate in Syria.

What are the economic effects?
The effect of the historic attacks on the already-troubled Iranian economy was likely lower than the weight of political and military dimensions on the list of considerations for Iranian leaders as they planned the offensive in almost two weeks since the consulate attack.

But as expected, there was an immediate reaction in local markets, with foreign currencies climbing amid rising anxieties over prospects of the conflict further sliding into a regional war.

The rial, Iran’s falling national currency, dropped to a new all-time low of about 670,000 per US dollar on Sunday before regaining some ground.

The semiofficial Tasnim news website reported on Sunday that very few currency and gold deals are taking place in Tehran and other markets as an atmosphere of caution is dominant.

Rafah attack would ‘further complicate the situation’: Ex-Israeli official
A former Israeli diplomat says Israel’s successful defence of Iran’s attack could help it wrap up the war on Gaza.

“What happened with Iran, I think it will help finish the war on Gaza because the defence the Israeli air force did last night is seen as a big achievement here. This might help Netanyahu because he has some achievement on his record,” Alon Liel told Al Jazeera.

“I think we should bring the hostages back, and we should finish the war on Gaza. Going back to Rafah will open the whole thing again and further complicate the situation. Very difficult for Israel to do so without American support. I can’t imagine us doing a major military move now without fully coordinating with the Americans. But they might approve going down, in a coordinated way, with moving the [Rafah] civilians out.”

West will condemn Iran’s attack, but largely ignore ‘Israeli provocations’
We spoke to Nader Hashemi, associate professor of Middle East and Islamic politics at Georgetown University, about the potential reaction around the world to Iran’s attack on Israel last night.

Hashemi said Iran will be widely condemned for its attack, unlike the series of Israeli provocations and attacks both within Iran and throughout the Middle East that have killed senior Iranian military officials and targeted key Iranian economic and nuclear sites, condemnations of which have been more muted.

“President Biden is rallying the G7 who will issue a condemnatory statement of Iran along these lines,” Hashemi said.

“In the Global South the response will be more measured” he said, adding “there will be calls for restraint, de-escalation and diplomacy without directly blaming Iran or Israel”.

“Arab and Muslim public opinion will note how many Arab states deployed military resources to protect Israel while doing the opposite in the context of the mass starvation and genocide in Gaza,” Hashemi concluded.