Iran has launched drone and missile attack on Israel after pledging retaliation for a strike on its consular building in Syria.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corp has said that it launched ballistic missiles at “specific targets” in Israel as part of what it called “Operation True Promise”.
The first wave reached Israel at around 2am local time (midnight BST), with sirens blaring across the country and explosions visible and audible in the sky in several places. Commercial capital Tel Aviv, the disputed city of Jerusalem, and Dimona, the desert city home to Israel’s nuclear plant, all appeared to have been targeted.
Iranian strikes caused “minor damage” to an Israeli base, army spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Sunday, after Iran’s state media reported “heavy blows” to the base from its missiles. “Only a few missiles fell in the territory of the state of Israel with slight damage to a military base in the south, with only slight damage to the infrastructure,” Hagari said in a statement.
President Joe Biden said that US forces helped take down “nearly all” the drones and missiles fired by Iran at Israel, adding that he had reaffirmed his “ironclad” support to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Biden said he would convene his fellow leaders of the G7 group of wealthy nations to coordinate a “united diplomatic response” to Iran’s “brazen” attack.
The Israeli army had earlier said that “dozens of surface-to-surface missile launches” were identified approaching Israeli territory, the majority of which were intercepted before they crossed into Israel. Troops are deployed on all fronts, prepared, and continuing to defend Israeli territory, the statement said.
India, meanwhile, said its seriously concerned at the escalation of hostilities between Israel and Iran that threatens the peace and security in the West Asia region. “We call for immediate de-escalation, exercise of restraint, stepping back from violence and return to the path of diplomacy,” a Foreign Ministry statement said.
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