Israel Shot Down 300 Iranian Drones and Missiles

Welcome to Jerusalem as a new chapter is now being written in the turbulent history of the Middle East. After decades of shadow wars and covert operations, Iran and Israel, long-time arch enemies are now in direct confrontation. In the early hours of the morning here in this region, Iran launched 100s of drones and missiles over Israeli territory. Israel backed by its allies said, “Almost all of the projectiles were shot down.” It says “The attack was foiled.” And this morning, Israel is still on high alert and the Israeli army says, “It is now weighing its response.” Let’s just look at this video of the events throughout the night here in Jerusalem and across Israel. What you hear is the air raid sirens in Jerusalem and many other cities. What you see on the screen is Israel’s air-defense system, the Iron Dome in operation, flashes in the Jerusalem sky as drones and missiles are shot down. A coalition of Israel’s allies, including the United States and the United Kingdom helped shoot down some of the Iranian projectiles before they reached Israeli territory.

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This is footage of the intercepts happening over neighboring Jordan and this is another video which shows the intercepts in the skies over Damascus in Syria and you can see there, the objects being hit in the sky. And two, a reminder of just how regional this crisis is in Iraq as well. More drones and missiles were intercepted. As they traveled, some of them, the drones taking hours to reach Israel, being intercepted before they reached the borders of Israel.

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These are momentous times. Let’s just recap, here at 10 o’clock in the morning in Jerusalem and in many countries across the region, what we know so far, Israel says that, “Iran has attacked its territory with around 300 drones and missiles, including ballistic missiles.” There were, as we’ve just been seeing, significant explosions in the sky over Israel. Those are being caused by interceptions from Iran’s, Israel’s much-vaunted air-defense system, the Iron Dome. The Israeli military says, “It shot down as many as 99% of the drones and missiles fired from Iran.”

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In the night, U.S. President, Joe Biden, spoke with Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. He condemned the attacks by Iran. He said that, “The U.S. also shot down some Iranian drones.” UK Coalition forces were also involved in defensive operations. And President Biden says, “He will convene a meeting of G7 countries later today to coordinate,” what he called, “A united diplomatic response.” In terms of the damage, Israeli military says that, “One girl, a ten-year-old girl was injured and they hope she will recover, and that light damage was caused to an air base in Southern Israel.” We’re still waiting for details of that.

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Now this morning, after these overnight attacks, these unprecedented overnight attacks, the first time Iran is directly attacking Israel from Iranian territory. The war of words is continuing with Iran warning Israel and the United States that, “Any response by Israel would be met with an even harsher response.” And Iran’s proxies in the region have also been speaking. They also were in action last night. They fired rockets at Israel. Let’s listen to Daniel Hagari, the IDF spokesman giving us this update. We’re going to bring you that to the minute, but let’s bring in my colleague in London, Maryam Moshiri.

Lyse, thank you very much indeed. Yes, Daniel Hagari will listen to that quote in a moment or two, but I want to just briefly take a look at some of the major international reaction. President Biden rushed the situation room in Washington to keep across developments. The White House published a photo from the Situation Room on X. You can see here the president surrounded by some of his top security officials, Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, among others. Well, president Biden has spoken over the phone with the Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, to say, “He condemns the attacks in the strongest possible terms.” Well, in a statement, President Biden said, “After spoken with Prime Minister Netanyahu to reaffirm America’s ironclad commitment to the security of Israel, I told him that Israel demonstrated a remarkable capacity to defend against and defeat even unprecedented attacks, sending a clear message to its foes, that they cannot effectively threaten the security of Israel.”

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He went on to say this, “I will convene my fellow G7 leaders to coordinate a united diplomatic response to Iran’s brazen attack.” Well, the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, was also quick to release a statement overnight. It said this, “I condemn in the strongest terms the Iranian regime’s reckless attack against Israel.” He said in the statement, “These strikes risk inflaming tensions and destabilizing the region.” “Iran has once again demonstrated that it is intent on sowing chaos in its own backyard.” “The UK will continue to stand up for Israel’s security and that of all our regional partners, including Jordan and Iraq.” “Alongside our allies, we are urgently working to stabilize the situation and prevent further escalation.” “No one wants to see more bloodshed,” that from the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak. Well, the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, released a statement saying this, “I strongly condemn the serious escalation represented by the large-scale attack launched on Israel by the Islamic Republic of Iran this evening.” “I call for an immediate cessation of these hostilities.” “I’m deeply alarmed about the very real danger of a devastating region-wide escalation.”

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“I urge all parties to exercise maximum restraint to avoid any action that could lead to major military confrontations on multiple fronts in the Middle East.” Well, let’s cross back to my colleague, Lyse Doucet, who joins us live from Jerusalem. And Lyse, talk us a little bit more through what we know about what happened overnight and the reaction since then.

Yes, Mary, across the region are now looking closely at exactly what kind of retaliation Iran has carried out. There was so much discussion in the run-up to the Iranian strike, which was telegraphed by the United States with Joe Biden days ago saying that, “An attack was imminent and then saying it would happen sooner rather than later.” And then there was the unnamed military sources in the U.S. speaking about the kind of attack that, indeed, did unfold in the early hours of the morning. 300 projectiles, including drones and missiles, including ballistic missiles. Iran has cast this as a limited, beautifully calibrated strike. It caused limited damage, but here in Israel and amongst its allies, they’re now looking at this strike, and even though the U.S. and the UK are urging restraint, Israel says, “It is now looking at its options.” Well, let’s look in more detail. We can join our security correspondent, Frank Gardner. Frank, just give us a bit more detail about what kind of weaponry Iran deployed in this first retaliatory strike against Israeli territory.

Okay, so according to the Israeli military, the IDF, Iran launched 170 drones, which were all intercepted and around 120 missiles, mostly ballistic missiles. Now, Iran has invested heavily, despite all the years of sanctions on it. It’s managed to build up a significant force of ballistic missiles. But Israel, that Israel’s intelligence will know exactly where those were launched from. So, I would expect that Israel’s response when it comes will almost certainly be starting at hitting those bases from which the missiles were launched. Israel didn’t intercept all of these on its own. Some of them were intercepted over Jordanian airspace, some, I think over Syria and Iraq, because some of the missiles and drones took circuitous routes. It’s 1500 kilometers between the two countries, between Iran and Israel. The way I would categorize this, that I would, I suppose depict it, Lyse, is that I think we are on the middle rung of an escalatory ladder.

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So there’s been this simmering conflict between Iran and Israel, really ever since the Islamic Revolution back in 1979. But the big events that have really heated this up and pushed things to the state that they’re in now is the October the 7th attack by Iran, backed Hamas on Israel. Then the Gaza war, of course, but specifically Israel’s attack, as you mentioned on April the 1st, although Israel didn’t claim responsibility for it, everybody knows it was Israel that hit the Iranian consulate in Damascus, killing senior commanders. That was considered by Iran to be a major escalation, because it was an attack on Iranian territory, even though it was in Damascus, it was diplomatic territory. And, it has spent the last 13 days with its security establishment mulling over what their calibrated response would be. The problem is that we are in a tit for tat attack situation now, and Israel’s response, I fear will escalate things further.

Frank, there the number of projectiles used by Iran, marks a significant escalation, but is it also fair to say that some of this was symbolic? Here in Jerusalem, we knew the drones had been launched, but it took two hours for them to reach the Israeli skies, if they reached them at all. So Iran would’ve known, they may have planned that the damage, the impact on the ground would be limited. Is that part of how they would see this carefully calibrated response?

I think that is the crucial word, calibrated. Exactly. There is more that Iran could have done. It didn’t aim. It seems that it was aiming at primarily military targets. One of the casualties is a seven-year-old Bedouin girl in the South of Israel. It was certainly aiming these, I think, at the Nevatim Airbase in the Negev, in the South of Israel. Yes, there is more that it could do. And of course, Iran don’t forget, that the IRGC, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps has a thing called the Quds Force, which is its external operations wing. It’s, they do black ops. And Iran in the past has struck at Israeli targets outside the region, so this isn’t over. Iran has said, “That’s it, the account is settled for now.” And, that’s not the way Israel looks at it. So Israel will retaliate, and then Iran has threatened a response to that retaliation. So as I say, we’re on this middle rung of an escalatory ladder.

And beyond this tit for tat that we’re seeing unfolding now and could unfold further, there is the broader issue, isn’t there, Frank, of deterrence, that Iran wants to send a clear signal, Israel wants to send a clear signal, that they are able and willing to inflict significant cost, so the other side should not try to attack them again?

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of pride involved here on both sides. Israel with some justification feels very proud of its air defenses, its IDF. And of course, let’s not forget that against the background of all of this, you’ve got the Gaza conflict going on with over 33,000 people killed, mostly civilians. That had galvanized much of the region into a huge sense of disapproval of Israel. But many of the countries in the region, as you of course know, Lyse, are no friends of Iran. So you’ve got the monarchies, all the Gulf state monarchies are quite wary of Iran. I mean, Saudi Arabia only ended its own simmering conflict with Iran’s proxies in March last year.

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So Jordan, for example, has helped shoot down some of these missiles. Jordan finds itself kind of caught in a very difficult area. Iraq, although Iraq is seen by some as a bit of an Iranian proxy these days, nevertheless, Iraq will be deeply unhappy at this escalation. None of this, of course, is good for business, none of its good for economies, none of its good for foreign investment. So the entire region will be holding its breath now, just hoping that Israel’s response, if and when it comes to Iran, is going to be calibrated to the extent that it doesn’t take this further. What do we mean by that?

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Well, all six Gulf Arab states are host to U.S. bases, and at the moment, the U.S. is not involved other than shooting down the drones. And the U.S. has said, “We’re not going to take part in any Israeli response.” But if Iran chose to attack those U.S. bases, that would bring in the Gulf States, there would be the risk to things like desalination plants, oil and petrochemical processing. You’d be looking at a huge, great big Middle East war, which is exactly the escalation everyone feared ever since October the 7th.

Frank, as always, thank you for bringing in your wisdom and insights, both on the security and also the political front. I’m sure we’ll be speaking to you again today.