Iran launched a retaliatory attack against Israel on Saturday that risks sparking a regional conflict that could draw in U.S. military forces. The attack marked the first time that Iran has launched a direct military attack on the Jewish state.
Israeli military officials said the attack began with more than 100 Iranian drones heading toward Israel. It will take hours before the drones arrive, and Israeli officials said they hope to intercept them.
A senior Biden administration official warned that the assault could also involve dozens of cruise missiles and ballistic missiles.
The official said the administration expects Israeli government facilities to be targeted but not civilian or religious sites. U.S. assets in the region are also not expected to be targeted, the official said.
The U.S. and Israel have been closely coordinating how to defend against the attack, the official said. “We’re ready. The Israelis are ready.”
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Iranian state television said that “in response to crimes by the Zionist Regime,” Iran had launched “missiles and drones on specific locations in the occupied lands.”
The attack came weeks after a suspected Israeli strike on an Iranian consular building in Syria’s capital, Damascus, killed two generals and five officers in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC. Israel did not take responsibility for that strike, but Tehran vowed revenge.
White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement that Iran has launched “airborne attacks on Israel.”
President Joe Biden is being updated about the situation in the Middle East by his national security team and plans to meet with them later Saturday at the White House, the statement said. Additionally, Biden’s team is in “constant contact” with Israeli officials, partners and allies.
The attack on Israel is likely “to unfold over a number of hours,” Watson said in the statement.
Three U.S. officials said Washington is prepared to help defend Israel with warships in the region, including 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.
The U.S. has signaled its support for Israel and worked to persuade Iran to stop short of a significant escalation that could spiral into a full-blown war between Iran and Israel.
Iran has previously avoided a direct conflict with Israel, instead opting to damage its adversary through armed proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and elsewhere. In back-channel communications with the U.S. over the past two weeks, Iran indicated it would retaliate against Israel but wanted to avoid a massive escalation that would lead to all-out war, U.S. officials told NBC News.
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.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said at a prayer ceremony celebrating the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on Wednesday that Israel “must be punished, and it will be punished.” Since the building destroyed was a consular building, he said, it amounted to an attack on Iranian soil.
Growing tensions
Tensions in the region have been at boiling point since Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 terror attack and mass hostage taking and Israel’s subsequent full-scale assault on the Gaza Strip, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 33,000 and pushed the population to the brink of starvation. While increasingly critical of the way Israel is pursuing the war in Gaza, Biden has pledged that America’s “commitment to Israel’s security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad.”
Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, spoke to U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Thursday and said that “a direct Iranian attack will require an appropriate Israeli response against Iran.”
Two U.S. officials told NBC News last week that the administration was considering options for how to respond to various possible retaliatory moves by Iran.
The blast at the consular building killed two of Iran’s top commanders, including Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior member of the Quds Force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite foreign espionage group.
His death marked the killing of the most senior Iranian official since Gen. Qassem Soleimani was targeted by an American airstrike in 2020.
Zahedi was a key figure in coordinating the so-called Axis of Resistance — the anti-Israel, anti-Western network of Iran-backed groups that operate with militants from across the Arab world. Tehran currently backs…
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