Sirens, explosions heard over Israel as Iran launches retaliatory air attacks
Iran's Revolutionary Guard says barrage targets 'occupied territories' in Israel
Booms and air raid sirens sounded across Israel early Sunday after Iran launched dozens of drones and ballistic missiles toward Israel in a retaliatory barrage that pushed the Middle East ever closer to a region-wide war.
The Israeli military's spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said Iran fired scores of drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles — with the vast majority intercepted outside Israel's borders. He said warplanes intercepted more than 10 cruise missiles alone, also outside Israeli airspace.
Hagari said a handful of missiles landed in Israel. Rescuers said a seven-year-old girl in a Bedouin Arab town was seriously wounded in southern Israel, apparently in a missile strike, though they said police were still investigating the circumstances of her injuries. Hagari said a missile struck an army base, causing light damage but no injuries.
"A wide-scale attack by Iran is a major escalation," he said. Asked whether Israel would respond, Hagari said only that the army "does and will do whatever is required to protect the security of the state of Israel." He said the incident was not over, and dozens of Israeli warplanes remained in the skies.
U.S. forces downed some of the Iran-launched drones flying toward Israel, a U.S. defence official and two U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter, told The Associated Press. Israel's military said its Arrow system, which shoots down ballistic missiles outside the atmosphere, handled most interceptions and noted that "strategic partners" were involved.
Air raid sirens were reported in numerous places, including northern Israel, southern Israel, the northern West Bank and the Dead Sea near the Jordanian border.
Retaliation for embassy strike
In a statement carried late Saturday by Iran's state-run IRNA news agency, the country's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Corps acknowledged launching "dozens of drones and missiles towards the occupied territories and positions of the Zionist regime."
Tehran had vowed revenge since an April 1 airstrike in Syria killed two Iranian generals inside an Iranian consular building. Iran accused Israel of being behind the attack, but Israel hasn't commented on it.
"Should the Israeli regime make another mistake, Iran's response will be considerably more severe," the Iranian mission to the United Nations said of Saturday's barrage, warning the United States to "stay away." However, it also said Iran now "deemed the matter concluded."
Israel and Iran have been on a collision course throughout Israel's six-month 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 cross-border attack on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others, according to Israeli tallies.
An Israeli offensive in Hamas-controlled Gaza has caused widespread devastation and killed more than 33,000 people, according to local health officials.
Almost immediately after the war erupted, Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant group in Lebanon, began attacking Israel's northern border. The two sides have been involved in daily exchanges of fire, while Iranian-backed groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen have launched rockets and missiles toward Israel.
In a letter to the United Nations early Sunday, Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan requested an immediate meeting of the Security Council to condemn Iran's actions and to designate the Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.
"The time has come for the Security Council to take concrete action against the Iranian threat," Erdan wrote.
West denounces Tehran
Condemnation from Western countries was swift.
"Canada unequivocally condemns Iran's airborne attacks against Israel," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement on Saturday night. "The Iranian regime's latest actions will further destabilize the region and make lasting peace more difficult."
In Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden cut short a weekend trip to his beach house in Delaware to return to the White House to convene a meeting with his national security team to discuss the attacks.
"Our commitment to Israel's security against threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad," Biden said on social media.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called Iran's actions "reckless" and said they showed it was "intent on sowing chaos in its own backyard."
The foreign ministries of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, called for the exercise of the "utmost restraint" to spare the region and its people from further factors of instability and tension.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who also condemned the attack, called for the immediate cessation of hostilities to avoid "major military confrontations."
Cargo ship seized
Hours earlier, Iran's Revolutionary Guards seized an Israeli-linked cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz. The move came days after Tehran said it could close the crucial shipping route and warned it would retaliate for the Israeli strike in Syria.
Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported that a Guards helicopter had boarded and taken into Iranian waters the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries.
MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Company), which operates the Aries, confirmed Iran had seized the ship and said it was working "with the relevant authorities" for its safe return and the well-being of its 25 crew.
MSC leases the Aries from Gortal Shipping, an affiliate of Zodiac Maritime, Zodiac said in a statement, adding that MSC is responsible for all of the vessel's activities. Zodiac is partly owned by Israeli businessman Eyal Ofer.
Video on Iranian news channels purporting to show the seizure included a figure abseiling from a helicopter onto a ship. Reuters was able to verify that the ship in the video was the MSC Aries but not the date it was recorded.
With files from Reuters and CBC News