Iran launches a drone attack on Israel, a major escalation of Middle East conflict

Air raid sirens sounded across Israel and the occupied West Bank and Israeli officials urged people to seek shelter after Iran launched dozens of drones and missiles toward Israel late Saturday night in an attack that marked a major escalation of conflict in the Middle East.

More than 200 projectiles in total were launched by Iran, the "vast majority" of which were intercepted or shot down outside of Israel's borders, said Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari. Officials reported minor damage to a military base in southern Israel and one injury to a 10-year-old child, who was reported to be in critical condition.

"We will do everything we need, everything, to defend the state of Israel," Hagari said.

Iran had vowed to retaliate after an airstrike on an Iranian consulate in Syria earlier this month killed seven Iranian military officials. It is the first time that Iran has launched an attack on Israel from Iranian soil, Israeli officials said.

U.S. forces in the region were active in shooting down drones, a U.S. defense official said. And interceptions by Israel's anti-missile defense system lit up the skies over populous areas including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

The Israeli emergency medical service Magen David Adom reported that a 10-year-old child had been struck in the head by shrapnel in the area of Arad, a town near the southwestern edge of the Dead Sea. Paramedics also treated about 20 people who suffered from anxiety or minor injuries experienced while seeking shelter, the service said.

Saturday's attack, which was first announced by Israeli officials around 4 p.m. ET, was staged in waves and took hours to reach Israel, officials said.

In a statement broadcast on Iranian state television, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps described the attack as a "large-scale military operation" against multiple targets inside Israel.

In a post on the social media site X, Iran's permanent mission to the United Nations wrote that the attack was a direct response to the strike on the consulate and that "the matter can be deemed concluded."

"However, should the Israeli regime make another mistake, Iran's response will be considerably more severe," the statement continued. "It is a conflict between Iran and the rogue Israeli regime, from which the U.S. MUST STAY AWAY!"

The U.S. military was directly involved in the response, a senior U.S. defense official said. "In accordance with our ironclad commitment to Israel's security, U.S. forces in the region continue to shoot down Iranian-launched drones targeting Israel. Our forces remain postured to provide additional defensive support and to protect U.S. forces operating in the region," the official said.

Israelis were urged to take shelter

Officials in Israel had explicitly urged residents of Nevatim, Dimona and Eilat — three cities in Israel's Negev desert region — and people in the northern occupied Golan Heights to take shelter. A major Israeli air base is located near Nevatim, and an Israeli nuclear research facility is located in Dimona.

Airspace over Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon was closed late Saturday.

Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based militant group, said that it had staged its own attack by launching dozens of rockets toward an Israeli military base in the Golan early Sunday.

In a Saturday night address to Israelis, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his country was ready for "any scenario, both defensively and offensively."

"We have determined a clear principle: Whoever harms us, we will harm them. We will defend ourselves against any threat and will do so level-headedly and with determination," Netanyahu said.

The launch was also confirmed by the White House, where a spokesperson said President Biden would monitor the attack from the Situation Room alongside top defense and diplomatic officials.

"President Biden has been clear: our support for Israel's security is ironclad," said National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson. "The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defense against these threats from Iran."

On Saturday evening, the White House said Biden spoke on the phone with Netanyahu.

Iran blames Israel for an earlier attack on its consulate

The attack on Israel comes four days after Iran's leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed retaliation for an April 1 strike on an Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital of Damascus. Iran said the strike killed seven members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, including two generals, and it blamed Israel for the attack. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied being behind the attack, though the Pentagon said Israel was responsible.

By Saturday, as anticipation had grown over a possible retaliation, Israeli officials warned residents living in communities near Gaza and the Lebanon border to limit the size of gatherings and to work indoors or within reach of a shelter. Schools across Israel were closed through Monday.

In anticipation of the attack, President Biden had cut short a trip to Delaware in order to return to the White House Saturday. "We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel. And Iran will not succeed," Biden said Friday.

U.S. defense officials told NPR Saturday that the U.S. military had moved assets around the region in anticipation of an attack, including aircraft, and had shored up defensive positions for forces in the region. The top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, Gen. Michael Kurilla, arrived in Israel Thursday to coordinate with the Israeli military.

The attack is a large escalation of hostilities in the region

The strike and retaliation represent an escalation of conflict in the region that many officials worldwide had expressed worry about ever since the outbreak of war between Israel and the Gaza-based militant group Hamas on Oct. 7, the day Hamas led an attack on Israel that left some 1,200 people dead.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on Saturday that he condemned Iran's attack and was "deeply alarmed about the very real danger of a devastating region-wide escalation."

Egypt's foreign affairs ministry called Iran's attack a "dangerous escalation" and in a Saturday night statement urged "the exercise of the utmost restraint to spare the region and its people further factors of instability and tension."

Iran has long supplied Hamas with funds and weapons. The White House has not directly linked Iran to the Oct. 7 attack.

In the six months since Oct. 7, Israel has bombarded Gaza and conducted a devastating ground invasion that has left much of the territory in ruins and more than 33,000 Palestinians dead, according to Palestinian health officials.

The last time Iran launched a similar attack was in 2020, when it fired ballistic missiles at the Ain al-Asad Air Base in Iraq, wounding dozens of U.S. troops, in retaliation for the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani by a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad.

Additional reporting by NPR's Daniel Estrin and NPR's Carrie Kahn in Tel Aviv, NPR's Tom Bowman in Washington, D.C., and NPR's Jane Arraf in Amman. Alon Avital and Itay Stern contributed reporting from Tel Aviv.