IRAN LAUNCHES DRONES AT ISRAEL - UPDATED (1)

From the Washington Post:

Iran launched drones from its territory toward Israel late Saturday, the Israeli military said. Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in brief remarks Saturday evening it would take several hours for the drones to reach Israel. Israeli forces were responding according to plan, he said. If threats with “shorter arrival times” are found, “we will immediately alert,” Hagari said.

Hagari said the IDF was on “high alert and is constantly monitoring the operational situation.” Aerial defenses were on “high alert,” with Air Force jets and Navy vessels on a “defense mission in Israeli air and naval space.”

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched “dozens of drones and missiles” toward Israel, Iranian state media reported. The attack was targeting “specific targets” in Israel, it said.

Iranian state media said the attack was in retaliation for the Israeli strike on an Iranian consular building this month in Damascus, Syria, which killed seven people, including two senior members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Jordan is temporarily closing its airspace to all incoming, departing and transit aircraft beginning at 11 p.m. local time, state-run media said Saturday. The report did not specifically mention the possibility of an Iranian attack.

The attack by Iran against Israel is expected to “unfold over a number of hours,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement from the White House, pledging the United States’ “ironclad” support for Israel. President Biden’s national security team is in touch with Israeli officials, she said, and he plans to meet with the team at the White House.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard naval forces seized the MSC Aries, an Israeli-affiliated ship, near the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday and diverted the vessel to Iranian territorial waters.

Iran’s official news agency, IRNA, shared footage showing a person rappelling from a helicopter to board a ship, which it said was Portuguese-flagged and “connected to” Israel.

The Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC) confirmed that the MSC Aries vessel was “boarded by Iranian authorities via helicopter” as the ship passed the Strait of Hormuz and has been diverted toward Iran.

“Israeli-owned shipping is advised to reconsider transiting the Strait of Hormuz,” British marine safety firm Ambrey said in a note.

On Saturday, Israel Foreign Minister Israel Katz accused Iran of “conducting a pirate operation in violation of international law.”

The IDF said Saturday that dozens of combat planes were airborne as part of the state of readiness. And its Homefront Command, which is responsible for civil defense, issued new guidance late Saturday that limited gatherings nationwide to a maximum of 1,000 people and banned all educational activities, including school trips.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was also convening his war cabinet, according to local media reports.

And of course the whacko American “settlers” never miss an opportunity:

Even as Israel faced threats from abroad, turmoil also erupted at home, with settlers on Saturday rampaging violently across parts of the occupied West Bank. The groups, angered over the death of an Israeli teen, who the IDF said was murdered by “terrorists,” stormed Palestinian villages, burned homes, and attacked motorists, killing one man in the village of al-Mughayyir.

The boy, identified as 14-year-old Binyamin Achimair, lived in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank and went missing while shepherding on Friday. Gallant appealed to the settlers to halt their attacks, saying Saturday that actions of “revenge” would “make it difficult” for security forces to track down the suspects.

Also Saturday, a group of Washington Post reporters traveling in the West Bank came across the immediate aftermath of one of several attacks unfolding in the area.

A few miles north of the city of Ramallah, two heavily damaged cars were partly blocking traffic, both with shattered windows and heavy body damage. The driver of one vehicle, Rida Badran, 27, described a violent encounter that had happened minutes before.

He had been driving away from Ramallah when he came across a group of men, which he described as Israeli settlers, throwing rocks at cars.

When he encountered the group, Badran said he quickly reversed direction and headed back toward Ramallah, along with other vehicles. Almost immediately, their way was blocked by several cars parked across the road. Several men jumped from the cars and attacked Badran and the other cars with stones, sticks and axes, he said.

Badran threw his car into reverse in an attempt to escape and collided with another vehicle attempting to do the same. Both cars fled for more than a mile before pulling over.

“I have no words,” he said.

Israel and the United States have braced for an Iranian attack since an Israeli strike earlier this month killed seven people, including two senior members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in Damascus, Syria.

The United States is worried a counterattack might also target U.S. troops in the Middle East and began last week to dispatch more ships and warplanes to the region.

What more can go wrong in 2024???

Well, for starters, the Iranians could launch ballistic missiles - they have a 12-minute travel time to Israel.

THIS REPORT WILL BE UPDATED AS MORE INFORMATION ARRIVES.

UPDATE

From Associated Press:

Booms and air raid sirens sounded in Jerusalem early Sunday after Iran launched dozens of drones and ballistic missiles toward Israel in an unprecedented revenge mission that pushed the Middle East ever closer to a regionwide war.

The attack marked the first time Iran has launched a direct military assault on Israel, despite decades of enmity dating back to the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. Condemnation was swift, with France saying that “Iran has crossed a new threshold with regard to its destabilizing activities and is risking a potential military escalation.” Britain called the attacks “reckless.”

There was no immediate word from authorities on whether any explosions were an incoming attack. Air raid sirens were reported in numerous places, including northern Israel, southern Israel, the northern West Bank and the Dead Sea near the Jordanian border. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said it was treating a 10-year-old boy in critical condition in the Bedouin area in the Arad region but provided no details.

U.S. forces downed some of the Iran-launched drones flying toward Israel, according to a U.S. defense official and two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter. The defense official said the effort to intercept the attack was ongoing.

Israel’s military said over 100 drones had been fired. It didn’t mention ballistic missiles, which are less easily shot down, but Iran said they were part of the attack.

“We are monitoring the threat,” the Israeli military’s spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, announced in a nationwide television address.

In a statement carried late Saturday by Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency, the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard acknowledged launching “dozens of drones and missiles towards the occupied territories and positions of the Zionist regime.”

In a later statement, the Revolutionary Guard issued a direct warning to the U.S.: “The terrorist U.S. government is warned any support or participation in harming Iran’s interests will be followed by decisive and regretting response by Iran’s armed forces.”

IRNA also quoted an anonymous official saying ballistic missiles were part of the attack.

The Israeli Home Front Command canceled school on Sunday. Israel closed its airspace and canceled all flights.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations issued a warning to both Israel and the U.S. “Should the Israeli regime make another mistake, Iran’s response will be considerably more severe,” it wrote online. “It is a conflict between Iran and the rogue Israeli regime, from which the U.S. MUST STAY AWAY!”

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported heavy Israeli airstrikes and shelling on multiple locations in south Lebanon following Iran’s launch of drones. The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it launched “dozens” of Katyusha rockets at an Israeli military site in the Golan Heights early Sunday. It was not immediately clear if there was any damage.

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