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Iran Launches Drone Swarm at Israel
Drone swarm is expected to reach the country overnight, an Israeli official confirmed
An anti-Israel billboard in Tehran, where Iranian leaders are facing public pressure to avenge the killing of several senior military personnel.
Earlier on Saturday, President Biden rushed back to the White House to meet with his national security team, as U.S. officials braced for a possible Iranian military strike.
Exactly how and when Iran might retaliate, after an attack in Syria in which it says Israel killed one of its top generals, is up to Tehran. But some U.S. officials expressed worry about a phased attack involving drones and ballistic missiles that could begin under cover of darkness.
The White House said Biden was cutting short a weekend trip to Rehoboth Beach, Del., and would meet with his national-security team in Washington “about events in the Middle East.” A U.S. official said the subject was Iran.
Biden’s return to Washington came as U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin discussed “urgent regional threats” with his Israeli counterpart, according to a statement from a Defense Department spokesman.
“Secretary Austin made clear that Israel could count on full U.S. support to defend Israel against any attacks by Iran and its regional proxies,” said the statement, referring to the discussion between Austin and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan also consulted his Israeli counterpart Saturday.
“During the call, I reiterated the United States’ ironclad commitment to the security of Israel,” Sullivan wrote on X about his conversation Saturday morning with Israeli national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi
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A senior Iranian official, meanwhile, pushed back against domestic pressure on the country’s military to strike quickly and hard against Israel, suggesting that Tehran is trying to balance those demands against U.S. warnings as it decides
how to retaliate against the attack that occurred in Syria earlier this month.
The strike in Damascus, Syria, earlier this month put Israel’s military on high alert for an Iranian response. Photo: Ammar Safarjalani/Zuma Press
Iran has vowed to respond in kind to what it says was
an Israeli airstrike on an Iranian consulate building in Damascus on April 1, which killed seven Revolutionary Guard members, including the general. The U.S. has said it would throw its full support behind Israel if Iran attacks it.
“Some ask why the Islamic Republic does not take revenge,” said Mojtaba Zonnour, a conservative cleric and head of the Iranian parliament’s national-security and foreign-policy committee, whose statements often reflect the views of the security establishment.
Any decision to take action against Israel “should be based on national interests and security, not public demands,” Zonnour said, addressing a conference in Tehran, according to the semiofficial ILNA news agency. He added that a response would come eventually. “Maybe sooner, maybe later, but it will happen,” he said.
Israel, which hasn’t claimed responsibility for the April 1 attack, has long accused Iran of threatening its national security through allied militias, particularly from Lebanon and Syria. It has called on the U.S. and European countries to do more to contain Iran’s military reach in the region.
Tensions between Israel and Iran have increased markedly since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7 last year, killing roughly 1,200 people. Since then, Israel’s military response has included killing numerous high-ranking Iranian commanders, as well as commanders of Hamas—which Iran funds and arms—through airstrikes.
The April 1 bombing, though, was seen as extremely provocative because it hit a diplomatic facility and constituted one of the most high-level killings of an Iranian official in decades.
Israel has braced for an Iranian response ever since. Israel on Saturday updated its emergency guidelines for civilians for the first time since the Damascus strike. Israel closed schools across the country until Tuesday and limited gathering sizes, although antigovernment protesters congregated in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has vowed to respond to the Damascus attack. Photo: Iranian Supreme Leader’S Office/Zuma Press
Meanwhile, the Iranian navy early Saturday seized an Israeli-linked containership sailing under a Portuguese flag in the Strait of Hormuz, indicating another type of measure Tehran might take in coming days.
On Friday, the U.S.—warning that an Iranian attack could be imminent—rushed warships into position to protect Israel and American forces in the region, hoping to head off
a direct Iranian attack on Israel that could spark a wider conflict in the Middle East.
Pressure has been building on the Iranian leadership to respond to the Syria strike, from hard-liners bent on avenging one of the most serious attacks on Iranian personnel in recent years and from parts of the public who want the military to stand up to Israel.
In recent days, some Iranians have begun mocking the military and the leadership for not taking action despite numerous threats, including by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, to avenge the strike in Damascus.
“Israel, they don’t have the balls to seek revenge,” read a fresh piece of graffiti on a wall in Tehran, referring to the government. “Hit them harder next time, Israel, they have wet their pants,” read another.
Other residents of Tehran said they were mostly worried that a conflagration with Israel would pile further pressure on the country’s sanctions-squeezed economy and questioned the value of spending billions of dollars on foreign military ventures if the country can’t defend itself against Israeli attacks.
Iranian state news agency IRNA said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ naval forces in the Strait of Hormuz had boarded the Portugal-flagged MSC Aries by helicopter and were directing it to Iranian territorial waters.
The Aries is connected to a London shipping company controlled by an Israeli family. The incident marked the first time Iran has seized a large ship since January. MSC, the Greek company managing the Aries, confirmed the vessel had been seized, adding that the ship had 25 crew members on board and that it was “working closely with the relevant authorities to ensure their wellbeing, and safe return of the vessel.”
Iran didn’t explicitly link the capture of the vessel to its promised revenge against Israel.
Israel’s Iron Dome system intercepts rockets launched from Lebanon. Photo: ayal margolin/Reuters
The Portuguese ministry of foreign affairs said there were no Portuguese citizens onboard the MSC Aries but that it was monitoring the situation and had asked Iran for clarification about the incident. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called on the European Union, of which Portugal is a member, to declare the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization, which the Trump administration
did in 2019.
Israel’s military remained on high alert on Saturday for a major attack by Iran or one the regional militias it arms and funds, such as the Lebanese group Hezbollah, which has been exchanging fire with Israel since October.
On Saturday Jordan’s Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission it has temporarily closed Jordan’s airspace to all incoming, outgoing, and transit flights.
Iran’s arsenal of drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles have long concerned Israel and the West. Israel’s multilayered aerial-defense system has shown itself capable of defending the country against individual or small volleys of incoming drones and missiles. But officials and analysts say it could potentially be overwhelmed by a sufficiently large swarm of drones or a massive missile barrage.
“If they send many, they can saturate the system,” said Yehoshua Kalisky, a weapons-systems researcher at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies.
A large-scale Iranian missile attack on Israel would almost certainly trigger a heavy Israeli response, taking the Middle East to the brink of a bigger war.
Israel’s defense minister said earlier this week that Israel would mount a powerful response to any attack on its soil. On Saturday, he said that Israel and the U.S. have upgraded their operational and intelligence capabilities ahead of what he characterized as a planned attack by Iran or an affiliated militia group.
Smoke indicates an Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese border village of Tayr Harfa on Saturday amid cross-border tensions. Photo: kawnat haju/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
A Palestinian inspected damage to a home near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Saturday. Photo: jaafar ashtiyeh/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
“Iran will bear the consequences for choosing to escalate the situation any further,” the Israeli military spokesman Hagari said Saturday, adding that Israel “is prepared for all scenarios and will take the necessary steps—together with our allies—to protect the people of Israel.”
U.S. Army Gen. Erik Kurilla, the head of U.S. Central Command, remained in Israel on Saturday after conducting joint assessments with the head of the Israeli military and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Friday.
An Israeli defense official said Saturday that the country was planning for all possible Iranian responses, including an attack on Israeli soil. “We’re preparing for all options,” the official said.
Israel’s military said it attacked a large Hezbollah military complex in Lebanon on Saturday morning, after more than 40 projectiles were launched across the Lebanese border into Israel on Friday night, according to the military.
The Israeli military also said it destroyed rockets in the Gaza Strip that it said were poised to launch at central Israel. Iran supports Hamas and other Palestinian militants in Gaza.
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