Iran said it launched dozens of drones and ballistic missiles towards Israel on Saturday in a major attack following days of acute tension building up in the region and warnings from the US and elsewhere about a wider conflict erupting.
Air attack warning sirens began wailing over Jerusalem just before 2am local time on Sunday after the weapons were fired a few hours earlier from Iran with US and Jordanian military assisting Israel’s air defenses in intercepting the first incoming barrage.
With weapons believed to be still in the air en route to Israel, Iran’s mission to the United Nations posted on X: “Iran’s military action was in response to the Zionist regime’s aggression against our diplomatic premises in Damascus. The matter can be deemed concluded.”
However, it threatened more severe action in the face of further Israeli aggression and warned the US and Jordan specifically not to assist Israel.
Edit: here are links to the NYT and BBC live feeds.
Edit 2: updated summary and archive to reflect article changes.
Fuuuuuuuuck.
Iran has all the right in the world to do this and is justified in doing so, but I really wish they hadn’t. Hopefully the attacks can be intercepted, and that’s that. Escalation benefits no one at all except Netanyahu and the Ayatollahs.
The best case scenario here is that everything is intercepted and Israel stands down from doing anything else. And, Jordan and the US and the UK use this moment to force Netanyahu to stop the genocide. This attack highlights just how reliant Israel is on its allies, and why it should listen to them when they say it’s time to stop.
We should be threatening to not act next time unless he completely capitulates and does a full withdrawal – and if he refuses, we keep our word and leave them to themselves.