Israel draws up plans to attack Iran in response to drone strike
Israel has said it has drawn up plans to attack Iran in response to the unprecedented missile and drone strike.
On Sunday night, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said the country’s war cabinet had approved both “offensive and defensive action” despite warnings from Western leaders.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, called off an immediate retaliation on Saturday night following intervention from Joe Biden, the US president, who asked him to “think carefully” about his next move.
US defence officials said Iran fired more than 100 ballistic missiles and hundreds of drones and rockets at Israel on Saturday in an attempt to overwhelm its air defences.
The warheads were mostly intercepted by a combination of the Israeli, American, French, Jordanian and British fighter jets and warships.
The attack, which Iran claimed was “legitimate self-defence”, came in response to the bombing of an Iranian consulate compound in Damascus earlier this month.
Israel has pledged to respond to the strike in kind, although the exact nature and timing of its operation is not yet clear.
Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, on Sunday called for “calm heads to prevail”, as Western leaders lined up to urge Israel to refrain from further escalation.
He said: “If this attack had been successful, the fallout for regional stability would be hard to overstate”.
Mr Biden told Mr Netanayhu in a call on Saturday night that the US would not join retaliatory strikes against Iran, and suggested he should “take the win” of minimal damage from the Iranian attack.
“The Israelis made clear to us they’re not looking for a significant escalation with Iran,” a US official said, adding that Mr Biden had “made very clear to the prime minister last night that we do have to think carefully and strategically about the risks of escalation”.
Mr Biden and Mr Sunak on Saturday joined the heads of other G7 countries on a call to discuss the West’s next steps.
The leaders reportedly agreed to put diplomatic pressure on Israel not to inflame tensions with Iran further, risking a full-scale war between the two countries that would engulf the region.
In a joint statement, the G7 leaders said an “uncontrollable regional escalation…must be avoided”, adding: “We will continue to work to stabilise the situation and avoid further escalation.”
Iran said it was not considering another strike “at present” but that it would retaliate again if Israel launched a counter-attack.
“If the Zionist regime persists in its evil actions against Iran, by any means and to any extent, it will face a response at least tenfold greater and of similar nature,” the regime’s Supreme National Security Council said.
The attack came after days of threats by Ali Khamenei, the country’s Supreme Leader, pledging to “punish” Israel for the death of the consulate strike on April 1.
US intelligence officials gave Israel 72 hours’ notice that the attack was coming, after tip-offs from other Middle Eastern countries given warning by Iran.
On Saturday evening, Iran launched hundreds of drones from its territory towards Israel, followed by ballistic missiles and rockets from its proxy groups in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
A video released on Iranian state television showed the message “‘we will make you regret it” written on the side of one of the missiles.
Mr Hagari said “99 per cent” of the weapons were shot down by fighter jets and warships from Israel, the US, UK and Jordan, with help from missile defence systems on the edge of Israeli territory.
One Iranian ballistic missile appeared to have been destroyed by Israel while it was outside of the Earth’s atmosphere.
The Royal Air Force deployed four Typhoon fighter jets from Cyprus, and intercepted almost a dozen of the attack drones over Iraq and Syria, The Telegraph can reveal.
The Ministry of Defence said it had sent resources to the region to bolster Israel’s defence but would not send one of the UK’s two aircraft carriers.
US officials said American fighter jets had shot down more than 70 exploding drones and two US Navy warships had destroyed between four and six ballistic missiles.
The officials said that Iran had deployed more than 300 drones and missiles, which was at the “high end” of what the Pentagon had expected. Mr Hagari said the weapons had a total of “60 tons of warheads and explosive materials”.
However, Iran’s notification of other countries in the region raised suspicion that it had intended for its warheads to be shot down and for the strike to be interpreted as a warning.
Jordan announced several hours before the launch that it was closing its airspace. Other countries in the region followed suit.
Some members of the Israeli war cabinet, including the minister Benny Gantz, called for caution when weighing on a retaliation.
Mr Gantz said Israel needs to build a regional coalition to “make sure Iran pays the price, in the manner and time right for us”.
Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister, said the incident could be used to build a coalition of allies against Iran, warning against action that would divide Israel from the West.
“We have an opportunity here to establish a strategic alliance against this serious threat from Iran, which threatens to put nuclear explosives on the heads of these missiles,” he said.
Israel’s air defences remained on high alert on Sunday, while the IDF announced it had called up two reserve brigades for “operational activities on the Gaza front” ahead of an expected assault on Rafah.
The Foreign Office on Sunday summoned the Iranian embassy’s charges d’affaires and condemned Iran’s “profoundly dangerous and unnecessary escalation,” calling for an end to its “reckless and unlawful behaviour”.
On Sunday night, the UN Security Council was preparing for an emergency meeting to discuss Iran’s attack, after a request from Israel.
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