Iran launches drones and missiles attack on Israel.
The Eagle News Service:
Iran has launched drones and missiles attack against Israel yesterday, which came as a response to an Israeli raid on the Iranian consulate in Syria two weeks ago.
The overnight escalation came more than six months into Israel’s devastating war on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians and pushed the besieged territory to the brink of famine. The war has driven up tensions in the Middle East, spreading to fronts with Lebanon and Syria and drawing long-range fire at Israeli targets from as far away as Yemen and Iraq.
The Israeli military said that the Iranian attack consisted of more than 300 “killer drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles”, but that 99 percent were intercepted with help from forces from France, the United Kingdom and the United States.
According to Israel health ministry, a girl in southern Israel was wounded by shrapnel from an intercepted drone, while the military said “a small number of hits were identified, including at [an Israeli military] base in southern Israel, where minor damage was caused to infrastructure”.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed the attack, saying it launched the drones and missiles under Operation True Promise as part of the punishment for “the Zionist entity’s crime of targeting the Iranian consulate in Syria” on April 1.
The raid in Damascus killed 13 people, including two senior generals in the IRGC’s elite Quds Force.
Before the Iranian attack, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon announced temporarily closing their airspace, while Syria also put on high alert its Russian-made Pantsir ground-to-air defence systems around Damascus and major bases.
US President Joe Biden and G7 allies condemned Iran’s retaliatory attack on Israel. Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the U.S. will not participate in offensive operations against Iran.
Israel hailed the success of its aerial defenses in the face of an unprecedented direct attack from Iran in which 99% of the barrage of 300 drones and cruise and ballistic missiles were shot down by the Israeli military and allies.
Iran warned Israel and the US of a ‘much larger response’ if there is any retaliation for its mass drone and missile attack on Israeli territory overnight.
