The army warned citizens to prepare for an attack of unspecified scale, as warplanes flew over much of Israel. Authorities closed schools and banned large gatherings, with some airports in the region halting operations. U.S. forces also shot down Iranian attack drones, U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.
And Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in brief remarks that it would take several hours for drones to reach Israel, leaving citizens to endure a grisly countdown into the early hours Sunday. Many families had already heeded the warning to equip safe rooms and shelters with water and food. The army said it had raised a shield of fighter jets and air defense systems over Israel and intended to intercept as many planes as possible before they enter Israeli airspace.
“Continue to act responsibly and calmly, as you have done so far, and make sure you follow the guidelines,” Hagari said. “The IDF is prepared and ready in all its defensive and offensive systems; we prepared in advance for a variety of scenarios.
Later, Hagari said Iran had launched missiles from its territory. “You may hear explosions following interceptions or falling debris,” he warned.
A military official said the IDF was monitoring new waves of air attacks.
President Biden was airlifted from his beach house in Delaware to Washington, where he convened his national security team and received regular updates in the White House Situation Room, the White House said.
For days, intelligence reports have been mounting with warnings that Tehran was poised to retaliate for a deadly airstrike on an Iranian embassy compound in Syria believed to have been carried out by Israel. The administration, fearing that U.S. troops might also be targeted, last week began sending more ships and warplanes to the region.
After six months of war in Gaza and Iranian-backed militant fire in Lebanon and Yemen, Washington leaders and analysts in Cairo have warned that an attack from Tehran, particularly if launched directly from Iran against Israel could trigger an even wider conflagration. Numerous senior administration officials have warned Iran in recent days that U.S. support for Israel’s security is “ironclad.”
“The United States will stand with the Israeli people and support their defense against these Iranian threats,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement.
But earlier Saturday, Iran appeared to ignore those precautions when Revolutionary Guard naval forces stormed the MSC Aries, an Israeli-affiliated ship near the Strait of Hormuz, and diverted it to the Iranian territorial waters.
Shortly after launching “dozens” of drones, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the airstrike targeted “specific targets” in Israel. Iranian state media said the attack drone swarm was aimed at avenging the seven people, including two senior members of the Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force, who were killed in the Damascus airstrike .
Israel’s war cabinet met in an emergency session at midnight Saturday and the Pentagon said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Israeli, Jordanian, Lebanese and Iraqi authorities closed airports and restricted airspace.
“There is no doubt that this is an escalation. There is no doubt that the Iranians have now given Israel the legitimacy to attack on Iranian soil,” Yaakov Amidror, a former Israeli brigadier general and national security adviser, said in an interview.
Tensions in the region have quickly reached their highest levels since the October 7 attack on Israeli towns by Hamas and the subsequent war in Gaza.
Israel has exchanged fire almost daily across its border with Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon, and authorities ordered residents in some northern towns to seek shelter after air raid sirens sounded early Sunday. Yemen-based Houthi rebels, another Iranian proxy group, have launched hundreds of drones and missiles at ships in the Red Sea and toward Israel.
But so far, a full-fledged attack by Tehran-backed forces, at the request of Hamas leader Yehiya Sinwar, has failed to materialize.
“We don’t want to fight several major wars at once, and so far we haven’t had to,” said an Israeli official who requested anonymity to discuss security issues. “But we are ready, and maybe this is where we are.”
Military experts said Israel’s multi-tiered air defense networks, along with American-built F-35 fighter jets, have proven effective against a range of aerial threats. Israel’s famous Iron Dome system has often shown an interception rate well above 90 percent during rocket attacks launched by Islamist militants in Gaza.
But with the scale and duration of the attack still uncertain, they warned that Iran was capable of deploying a formidable arsenal.
“With a combination of drones, cruise missiles and probably ballistic missiles coming, what they’re trying to do is overwhelm the system,” Amidror said. “Each is problematic on its own, but together they are even more difficult. This is unprecedented. This means that Iran has opened a new chapter in the war.
The Israeli military said it was immediately focusing on defending itself against the attacks and would determine its response later. Officials said they intended to intercept as many drones as possible before they reached Israeli airspace.
“If we don’t succeed, then we will do what we are doing and what we have been doing for six months in Israeli skies,” the IDF official said.
The Iranian mission to the UN in New York said the that the attack should be seen as the promised response to the strike on its diplomatic compound and that “the matter can be considered over.”
But the message continues: “If the Israeli regime makes another mistake, Iran’s response will be considerably harsher. This is a conflict between Iran and the rogue Israeli regime, which the United States MUST STAY AWAY FROM!
Lior Soroka and Alon Rom contributed from Tel Aviv; Loveday Morris from Berlin and Susannah George from Muscat, Oman.
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