A summary of today's developments
Israel will respond to Iran’s weekend missile and drone attack on its territory, the military chief of staff said on Monday. “This launch of so many missiles, cruise missiles, and drones into Israeli territory will be met with a response,” chief of staff Herzi Halevi said, speaking from the Nevatim air force base in southern Israel, which sustained some damage in the attack.
Iran does not want increased tensions but will respond immediately and more strongly than before if Israel retaliates, Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told his British counterpart on Monday, according to Iranian state media. British prime minister Rishi Sunak said he would soon speak with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu on how to prevent escalation in the region after Iran’s drone and missile attack.
Israeli settlers killed two Palestinians on Monday in the occupied West Bank province of Nablus, Salah Bani Jaber, the mayor of Aqraba, told Reuters.
Israel has moved in a “significant way” but Hamas is the barrier to a deal that would see fighting in Gaza paused and hostages released, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said. Hamas rejected the latest proposed deal and has said any new hostage deal must bring about an end to the Gaza war and withdrawal of all Israeli forces, Reuters reports.
A UN report said that Israel has destroyed over 3,000 buildings within a 1km “buffer zone” that it is creating inside the Gaza Strip along the territory’s border with Israel.
France’s president Emmanuel Macron has said that France will do everything to avoid an escalation in the Middle East. He told the BFMTV news channel: “We will do everything to avoid a conflagration - that is to say an escalation. “We need to be by Israel’s side to ensure its protection to the maximum, but also to call for a limit to avoid an escalation.”
The Netherlands said it will reopen its embassy in Tehran on Tuesday after closing it for two days for safety reasons. It added in the statement that it does not exclude a new closure of its embassy.
The IDF has said that four of its soldiers were wounded overnight near the UN-drawn blue line that separates Israel and Lebanon. In a statement it said the injuries were caused by “an explosion of an unknown source” and that “The soldiers were evacuated to a hospital to receive medical treatment.”
Updated
Portugal’s new prime minister told his Spanish counterpart on Monday his country will “not go as far” as Spain in its plan to recognise a Palestinian state without a concerted European Union approach.
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez, who has visited several countries in the past few days on a diplomatic campaign to garner support for the initiative, reiterated his plan to recognise Palestinian statehood in the coming months.
But Luis Montenegro, who met Sanchez in Madrid, said that while Portugal will support a full U.N. membership for a Palestinian state in an upcoming General Assembly vote, it would wait for the EU to work out a common stance on the matter before moving forward.
“We don’t go as far as other governments... because we maintain that understanding must be built on a multilateral basis within the European Union and the United Nations,” Montenegro told reporters.
Both leaders called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza where death toll from Israel’s offensive to rout out Hamas has been mounting, prompting calls for a lasting solution for peace in the region. Both also condemned Iran’s missile attack on Israel over the weekend.
Israeli settlers killed two Palestinians on Monday in the occupied West Bank province of Nablus, Salah Bani Jaber, the mayor of Aqraba, told Reuters.
“About 50 settlers, a large number of them armed, attacked the residents of Khirbet al-Tawil village east of Aqraba in the province of Nablus. They opened fire on the youth and this led to the death of two of the youth and the injury of others,” the mayor said.
Israel has moved in a “significant way” but Hamas is the barrier to a deal that would see fighting in Gaza paused and hostages released, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday.
Hamas rejected the latest proposed deal and has said any new hostage deal must bring about an end to the Gaza war and withdrawal of all Israeli forces, Reuters reports.
“Israel moved a significant way in submitting that proposal. And there was a deal on the table that would achieve much of what Hamas claims it wants to achieve, and they have not taken that deal,” Miller told a press briefing.
The United States is still pursuing a deal that would allow for a ceasefire lasting at least six weeks and allow more aid into Gaza, Miller added.
Iran did not provide warnings to the US last week about its timeframe for launching an attack on Israel or its potential targets, the White House said.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that the US did exchange messages with Iran but that there were never any messages regarding Iran’s timeframe or targets for its weekend attack, Reuters reports.
Updated
Israel will respond to Iran’s weekend missile and drone attack on its territory, the military chief of staff said on Monday.
“This launch of so many missiles, cruise missiles, and drones into Israeli territory will be met with a response,” chief of staff Herzi Halevi said, speaking from the Nevatim air force base in southern Israel, which sustained some damage in the attack.
Iran’s attack was a response to the killing of seven Iranian officers in a strike on the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus on April 1, Reuters reports.
Updated
Rishi Sunak has echoed calls by fellow world leaders for Israel to show restraint in its response to the weekend’s attack by Iran, as the international community seeks to prevent a full-scale regional conflict, writes Kiran Stacey and Patrick Wintour.
Updating the House of Commons for the first time since the weekend’s largely unsuccessful attack involving more than 300 drones and missiles, the prime minister told MPs he was urgently working with allies to try to prevent any escalation.
His statement followed similar calls by the US president, Joe Biden, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and came as Israeli ministers concluded a cabinet meeting to discuss retaliatory options, reportedly without agreement.
Sunak said he would plead directly for calm in a call with Benjamin Netanyahu, although sources said such a call was unlikely to happen on Monday.
Israel released 150 Palestinians detained during its military operations in Gaza back into the enclave on Monday and many have alleged they were abused during their time in captivity, Palestinian border officials said.
The detainees, including two members of the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) who had been detained for 50 days, were released through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Gaza on Monday, the border officials said.
Several were admitted to hospitals, complaining of abuse and ill-treatment inside Israeli jails, they said. The Israeli has military has denied the allegations.
“I went into jail with two legs and I returned with one leg,” Sufian Abu Salah, said from the hospital, adding that he had no medical history of chronic diseases.
“I had inflammations in my leg and they (the Israelis) refused to take me to hospital, a week later the inflammations spread and became gangrene. They took me to hospital where I had the surgery,” Abu Salah said, adding that he had been beaten by his Israeli captors.
A resident of Abassan town east of Khan Younis, Abu Salah, 42, told Reuters was arrested by Israel forces at the end of February from a school where he and his family had taken refuge.
The father of four, who said he had no medical history of illnesses before his arrest, said he had no idea where he had been held, but that “it looked like an army camp not a prison.”
The Israeli military said in a statement to Reuters it acts according to Israeli and international law and those it arrests get access to food, water, medication and proper clothing.
“The IDF is operating to restore security to the citizens of Israel, to bring home the hostages, and to achieve the objectives of the war while operating by international law,” the military told Reuters, adding that specific complaints of inappropriate behavior are forwarded to relevant authorities for review.
Israel’s war cabinet – Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister; Yoav Gallant, the defence minister; and Benny Gantz, a former defence minister and centrist Netanyahu rival – have spent the last two days deliberating how to respond to Iran’s first ever direct attack on the Jewish state. The salvo involved more than 300 missiles and drones, the majority of which were intercepted with the help of the US, UK, France and Jordan.
It is widely expected that Israel’s next steps will have to be calibrated along two axes: the country must take some sort of action to demonstrate to Iran that such an unprecedented show of force cannot pass without consequences, but at the same time must take into account Tehran’s threat that it will strike again “with greater force” if Israel retaliates. None of the options are without risk.
Will Israel respond?
While the destructiveness of the Iranian strikes could have been much worse, with just one casualty reported, a seven-year-old girl, a major red line has still been crossed from an Israeli security and deterrence standpoint. The important questions on a response are how and when: while statements from Gallant and Gantz have implied that a direct Israeli response to Tehran is not imminent, Netanyahu is yet to make a formal decision.
U.S. president Joe Biden has reiterated Washington’s commitment to Israeli security ahead of a meeting with Iraq’s prime minister, Reuters reports.
Iraqi prime minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, speaking alongside Biden, said their views may be divergent about what is happening in the region.
The U.S.-Iraqi relationship is at important juncture, Sudani said, adding that he would discuss moving from a military relationship to a full partnership.
Israeli forces killed a Palestinian teenager and wounded three other people during a military raid in the occupied West Bank on Monday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
The killing of 17-year-old Yazan Ishtayeh brought to six the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces or armed settlers since Friday, as Palestinian authorities reported increased settler rampages across the West Bank.
A spokesperson for Israel’s Border Police said that undercover border police troops, together with the Israeli army, launched an operation in the city of Nablus to arrest a suspect, Reuters reports.
During the activity, there was rioting in which one person threw an explosive device at the troops and was shot dead by the undercover unit, the spokesperson said.
The United States strongly condemns the killing of Israeli teenager Binyamin Achimair and is increasingly concerned by the violence against Palestinians and their property that ensued in the occupied West Bank after his death, the State Department said.
That violence resulted in the killing of two Palestinians, Jihad Abu Aliya, 25, and Omar Ahmad Abdulghani Hamed, 17, the department said in a statement.
“We strongly condemn these murders,” it added, Reuters reports.
“The violence must stop. Civilians are never legitimate targets. We call on the authorities to take measures to protect all communities from harm, and we urge Israel and the Palestinian Authority to do everything possible to de-escalate tensions,” the department added.
The Group of Seven (G7) leading industrialised nations is working on a package of coordinated measures against Iran following Saturday’s retaliatory missile and drone attack on Israel, the UK’s prime minister Rishi Sunak said.
“We are urgently working with our allies to see what steps we can take together in a coordinated fashion to deter and condemn what Iran is doing,” Sunak said in parliament, citing discussions among G7 leaders over the weekend.
“I spoke to my fellow G7 leaders, we are united in our condemnation of this attack.”
Israel’s war cabinet discussed a range of options at its meeting on Monday, with the intention of hurting Iran for its drone and missile attack on Israel but without causing an all-out war, Israel’s Channel 12 news reported.
In an unsourced report, the broadcaster said Israel’s intention was to embark on action coordinated with the US, which has said it would not join Israel in any direct attack on Iran.
Iran’s weekend attack is a sign that Israel’s key defensive policy of deterrence has been severely damaged by the actions of the Netanyahu government, according to the leader of Israel’s opposition, analysts and former Israeli officials.
“This government, this prime minister, have become an existential threat to Israel. They have shattered Israeli deterrence,” the opposition leader, Yair Lapid, said on Monday.
Israel’s deterrent policy has long been an obsession of the country’s political and military circles, and is regarded as a vital pillar of its security. The term refers to military policies – including retaliations to previous attacks and maintaining capabilities – and the deployment of soft and hard power to persuade enemies that an attack is not worth it.
The French foreign ministry said on Monday it had summoned the Iranian ambassador to condemn the Iranian attack on Israel, Reuters reports.
“He was reminded, with the greatest firmness, of France’s condemnation of the attack,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that France was working with its partners to de-escalate the situation and calling on everyone to exercise restraint.
The Netherlands will reopen embassy in Tehran on Tuesday after closing it for safety reasons
The Netherlands said it will reopen its embassy in Tehran on Tuesday after closing it for two days for safety reasons.
It added in the statement that it does not exclude a new closure of its embassy.
“The security of the representation continues to be closely monitored, making a new closure possible in the near future.”
On Sunday, the Dutch government advised against all travel to Israel due to the uncertain security situation after overnight airstrikes by Iran, Reuters reports.
Updated
The UK’s prime minister Rishi Sunak told the House of Commons that threats to stability are increasing across the globe, not just in the Middle East.
He said: “I want to be clear, nothing that has happened over the last 48 hours affects our position on Gaza. The appalling toll on civilians continues to grow, the hunger, the desperation, the loss of life on an awful scale, the whole country wants to see an end to the bloodshed and to see more humanitarian support going in.
“The recent increase in aid flows is positive but it is still not enough. We need to see new crossing open for longer, to get in vital supplies.”
Sunak added Iran’s nuclear programme “has never been more advanced than it is today and threatens international peace and security”.
Germany’s Lufthansa airline said it will resume its flights serving Tel Aviv, Amman and Erbil on Tuesday, after the airline halted its services to and from the Middle East due to soaring tensions in the region.
Flights to Tehran and Beirut will remain canceled up to and including Thursday, the company said.
Lufthansa will continue not to use Iranian airspace up to and including Thursday, it added.
Belgium has summoned the Iranian ambassador to strongly condemn the attack on Israel and urge restraint, its foreign office has said.
At the request of the foreign minister, Seyed Mohammad Ali Robatjazi was told that a regional escalation is absolutely to be avoided.
The minister for foreign affairs Hadja Lahbib said:
This attack constitutes an unprecedented escalation and a risk of conflagration for the entire region. We condemn it in the strongest possible terms. This attack endangers regional stability and the population, and takes us further away from peace. I call on all parties to exercise the greatest restraint.
Iran will respond more strongly than before if Israel retaliates, says Iranian foreign minister
Iran does not want increased tensions but will respond immediately and more strongly than before if Israel retaliates, Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told his British counterpart on Monday, according to Iranian state media.
British prime minister Rishi Sunak said he would soon speak with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu on how to prevent escalation in the region after Iran’s drone and missile attack.
British military jets helped shoot down the drones.
Updated
Iraq has called on all parties to show restraint amid soaring tensions between neighbouring Iran and Israel, Deputy Prime Minister Muhammad Ali Tamim said on Monday as he met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
He said at the start of a meeting of the US-Iraq Higher Coordinating Committee in Washington:
The government of Iraq is warning about escalation in the area to be dragged into a wider war that will threaten international security and safety.
And therefore we call on all parties for self restraint and respect the rules of diplomatic works and also international laws.
Updated
Israel’s war cabinet has wrapped up its meeting scheduled to discuss Israel’s response to Iran’s attack, Channel 12 TV news reports.
Channel 12 reported that several options were discussed, with each of them being a “painful” retaliatory strike against Iran but one that doesn’t spark a regional war.
The war cabinet also is aiming to choose a response that won’t be blocked by the US, the network said.
The UK government has ruled out publishing a legal summary of its actions in defending Israel from an attack by Iran.
A spokesperson for the prime minister, who traditionally in the UK speaks on the record but anonymously, said “There are no current plans to publish legal advice, which is in line with longstanding precedent” and that “the UK was acting in the collective self-defence of Israel and for regional security.”
They said UK forces were operating within existing permissions and defined geographic area of the Operation Shader mission against Islamic State, an existing mission in Iraq and Syria.
They said:
In addition, the pilots were given further permission to intercept any airborne attacks originating from Iran or their proxies within the range of our existing mission. This was a commonsense measure to ensure that missiles that were flying at or past our aircraft en route to do damage, we could take them out.
The Czech Republic is the latest country to say that it has summoned an Iranian ambassador over Tehran’s attack on Israel.
Reuters reports that foreign minister Jan Lipavský posted to social media to say “The Czech diplomacy made it clear to Iran that it has crossed all the lines by attacking Israel. The Iranian regime is endangering the security situation in the region. All this with the tacit approval of its Russian friends.”
UN report: Israel has destroyed over 3,000 buildings in 1km 'buffer zone' it is creating inside Gaza border
A UN report has said that Israel has destroyed over 3,000 buildings within a 1km “buffer zone” that it is creating inside the Gaza Strip along the territory’s border with Israel.
The report says:
Statistical analysis shows the rapid increase in damaged and destroyed buildings within the zone, from 15% to 90% between October 2023 and February 2024. Satellite-derived analysis undertaken on 29 February 2024 on 4042 buildings within the zone, shows 3033 destroyed, 593 damaged (severe or moderately) and 416 with no visible damage.
Haaretz quotes Harel Dan, who it says is an expert in GIS and remote sensing, who said the UN report has “some noise in it” but looks close to the truth. The Israeli newspaper has previously reported that the zone might in places extend to 1,200m. Volker Türk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, has previously singled out the project as potentially a war crime.
Reuters reports that Israel’s military has confirmed that four of its soldiers were injured “hundreds of metres inside Lebanese territory”.
Here are some images sent to us over the news wires taken today at the Maghazi camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip.
Kim Willsher is based in Paris for the Guardian:
While he was speaking earlier about Iran’s attack on Israel, France’s president Emmanuel Macron also addressed calls for Israel to be banned from the Olympics, which Paris is hosting later this year.
Macron called for a wider truce and ceasefire – including during the Olympic Games – as a “diplomatic move for peace”.
He said comparing Russia, which is not invited to the Games, with Israel, which is, was a false equivalence.
“Israel was the victim of an act of aggression, a terrorist attack and we must stop this equivalence,” he said. “You can disagree with what Israel is doing, but you cannot say Israel initiated the aggression.”
A little more on the reports earlier that Hezbollah caused the injuries to four soldiers that the IDF reported earlier today. The Israeli military said in its statement that it happened “during IDF activity in the area of the northern border”.
Al Jazeera is reporting that Hezbollah said the incident happened after it “planted explosive devices in the Tal Ismail area” and that they were detonated when the Israeli forces had crossed over the UN-drawn blue line that separates the countries and had entered into Lebanon.
Kim Willsher is based in Paris for the Guardian:
In calling on Israel to limit any response that would lead to “a new escalation”, French president Emmanuel Macron also said it was important to remember the Hamas “terrorist attack on 7 October was the trigger” for recent events.
“We firmly condemn this unusual attack, which was a victory for Israel which stopped almost every one of the drones. For the first time Iran has attacked Israel on its soil … we have to stand with Israel to ensure its protection and avoid escalation,” Macron said.
“A line has been crossed. Since 7 October, Israel has had the right to defend itself … the security of Israel must be assured. Israel must be able to protect itself and fight terrorism.”
He added it was now necessary “to convince Israel not to respond by escalating, but rather by isolating Iran and to convince the countries of the region that Iran is a danger”. He called for “increased sanctions” against Tehran and “greater pressure on its nuclear activities”.
“The situation is very unstable today, so there is a very strong diplomatic mobilisation around this,” he said.
Iran had vowed to retaliate after it accused Israel of bombing its embassy in Damascus, Syria two weeks ago killing officials including two top Iranian military commanders.
Dorsa Jabbari, reporting for Al Jazeera from Tehran, writes that the direct attack on Israel is being viewed as a “historic event” that “many Iranians believed would never happen.”
She writes for the news network “For more than four decades – since the establishment of the Islamic Revolution in 1979 – Iran’s leaders have not followed through on threats to directly hit Israel. The Supreme National Security Council of Iran issued a statement saying should Israel respond directly to Iran, then Iran’s counter-response will be ten times larger and stronger than what happened at the weekend. Ordinary Iranians here are now bracing for what comes next. These are tense times.”
The UK rejects Iran’s claim that it provided advance notice before attacking Israel, a spokesperson for British prime minister Rishi Sunak said on Monday.
Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Sunday that Iran gave neighbouring countries and Israel’s ally the United States 72 hours’ notice it would launch the strikes.
Sunak’s spokesperson told reporters:
I would reject that characterisation. And more broadly we condemn in the strongest possible terms their direct attack against Israel.
Updated
Humanitarian aid getting into the Gaza Strip has increased significantly in the last few days, White House national security spokesman John Kirby has said.
He told MSNBC:
The aid has increased and quite dramatically in just the last few days.
That’s important but it has to be sustained.
France joins western allies in calling for Israel to avoid escalation
France’s president Emmanuel Macron has said that France will do everything to avoid an escalation in the Middle East.
AFP reports:
Macron told the BFMTV news channel:
We will do everything to avoid a conflagration - that is to say an escalation.
We need to be by Israel’s side to ensure its protection to the maximum, but also to call for a limit to avoid an escalation.
The focus should be on “isolating Iran, convincing countries in the region that Iran is a danger, increasing sanctions, reinforcing pressure over nuclear activities” in Iran, he added.
The French president also said French jets helped repel an Iranian violation of Jordan’s airspace during the attack.
He said:
For several years now we have had an airbase in Jordan to fight terrorism.
Jordanian airspace was violated … We made our planes take off and we intercepted what we had to intercept.
French foreign minister Stéphane Séjourné on Sunday said he had asked the foreign ministry to summon the Iranian ambassador on Monday to express a “message of firmness”.
Updated
Direct action groups this morning blockaded the London offices of a landlord that provides premises for arms companies including BAE Systems, Boeing and Israel’s Elbit.
Videos and pictures circulated by the protesters showed dozens of people blocking entrances to the offices of London Metric on Curzon Street, Mayfair, chanting and holding banners saying “Stop arming Israel” and “Evict the arms companies”.
Subsequent pictures suggest police eventually moved in to secure access to the London Metric offices, displacing protesters.
Since 2008, the UK has licensed arms worth over £574 million to Israel, according to House of Commons research, including components made by Elbit, Boeing the BAE. One protester, named as Aditi Wilson, was quoted as saying:
British businesses and the British government have a moral obligation to stop arming Israel immediately. Has everyone lost their minds? How is it possible that we are condoning such obvious war crimes and racist rhetoric from Netanyahu?”
Another protester, named Eda Gencer said:
The UK is once again putting profit over humanity. How anyone can see the pictures emerging from Gaza and not be calling an immediate end to this genocide? We are here today to tell all business and the government to stop arms sales to Israel and end to the occupation! They are literally committing war crimes in front of us! This must end now!”
The Metropolitan police was contacted for comment.
Updated
Israeli border Police officers said they killed a Palestinian who allegedly hurled an explosive device at forces, and that undercover officers captured a wanted man during a raid in the West Bank city of Nablus this morning.
Times of Israel reports:
Police said in a statement that the undercover officers reached the wanted man’s home, where his wife claimed he was not home. The troops then used a military dog to locate the man in the area and detain him, police say.
During the operation, police said riots erupted during which a Palestinian hurled an explosive device at the officers. Police said the undercover officers opened fire at the suspect, killing him. Another rioter was shot in the leg, it says.
The slain Palestinian was named by media reports as 17-year-old Yazan Shtayyeh.
In another incident amid the raid, police said troops opened fire at a vehicle that accelerated toward them and refused calls to halt. The driver was wounded.
Updated
Israel’s repelling of Iranian drones and missiles was fully coordinated with the Pentagon, which had a US operational liaison officer in the control room of the Arrow ballistic air defence system, a senior Israeli official said.
Reuters reports:
The United States, along with Britain, France and Jordan, helped Israel intercept the bulk of the weekend barrage and potentially stave off escalation between the regional enemies.
At least half of the hundreds of pilotless one-way planes, cruise missiles and surface-to-surface missiles, which Israel said carried a total of 60 tonnes of explosives, were shot down by Israeli warplanes and aerial shields, according to local media.
Israeli officials said much of the work was done by their Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 high-altitude defence systems, which were developed jointly with the Pentagon and Boeing.
Arrow’s interceptor missiles cost between $2 million and $3.5 million a piece, according to Israeli industry sources.
Moshe Patel, director of missile defence at Israel’s Defence Ministry, said Arrow and lower-altitude interceptors were synced with counterpart US systems in the region.
He told Channel 12 TV:
The systems share information, for a joint picture of the sky, and the sky was certainly busy.
Afterward, there is also coordination in battle doctrine. An American officer sits in the control room of the Arrow weapons system and essentially conducts the coordination with the US systems, shoulder-to-shoulder.
There was no immediate comment from US Central Command, which oversees Middle East operations. On Sunday, it said US forces destroyed more than 80 of the drones and at least six of the ballistic missiles aimed at Israel.
Israel said 99% of all the projectiles were downed in time, limiting the toll to injuries to one person and damage to one military base. That surprised even Zvika Haimovitch, a retired brigadier-general who formerly commanded Israel’s air defences.
He told Reuters:
(This was) well-synchronised and coordinated between all the elements – the air, the ground forces - and, yes, to be honest it is a great percentage and much more than we expected if you would have asked me three days before.
But we need to be sure that we will be ready for the next time because for sure there’ll be a next time,” he said. “We need to take as an assumption that the Iranians will do their homework next time and will try to challenge our systems. That means we need to be one step before and not after our enemies.
I believe that the laser will be in the next few years one of our main solutions in dealing with a variety of threats – rockets, missiles, drones, UAVs and more
Daniel Gold, director of weapons development at Israel’s Defence Ministry, told Channel 12 television that work was already under way on more advanced Arrow models 4 and 5.
Arrow 3 shoots down incoming ballistic weapons above the atmosphere, using a detachable warhead that slams into the target in space.
The Maariv newspaper reported that Arrow 3 downed 110 missiles outside Israeli air space, at a potential cost of up to $385 million. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on that. Asked on Army Radio how much the interceptions had cost Israel, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he did not know.
Israel in 2022 said it was developing a laser-based missile shield to deliver shoot-downs as cheap as $2 each.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has called on the prime minister to fire Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, after security forces began preparations to dismantle the illegal Gal Yosef outpost in the West Bank.
Ben Gvir said:
Defence Minister Gallant’s decision to evacuate and destroy buildings on the Gal Yosef farm where 14-year old Benjamin Achimeir was murdered, even during the week of shiva [mourning], represents terrible obtuseness, moral confusion, security folly, and a violation of the dignity of the dead.
Instead of establishing and approving more farms and expanding Jewish settlement, we surrender to the enemy.
The far-right minister added that “the time has come for the prime minister to consider replacing Minister Gallant.”
Achimeir went missing after setting out in the early morning hours of Friday from a farm near the unauthorised West Bank outpost of Malachei Shalom to go shepherding, according to the IDF. He was later found dead in what the IDF and Shin Bet security agency designated as a terror attack — resulting in an extremist settler rampage in several Palestinian villages and violent clashes.
According to Hebrew media, police and representatives of the Civil Administration have begun confiscating equipment at the illegal farm in preparation for its demolition.
Qatar Airways has resumed its scheduled services to Iran, the airline has posted on social media platform X.
The airline has resumed its scheduled services to Iran, including 20 weekly flights to four gateways — Tehran, Mashhad, Shiraz and Isfahan.
Qatar Airways announces following airport and airspace reopening, that it has resumed its scheduled services to Iran, which include 20 weekly flights to four gateways - Tehran, Mashhad, Shiraz and Isfahan. Qatar Airways’ customers can book flights on the https://t.co/1T0MS4AJnD…
— Qatar Airways (@qatarairways) April 15, 2024
Washington and Tehran have not had diplomatic relations for decades, but before Iran’s attack on Israel they had direct communications through “the Swiss channel”.
AFP reports:
Switzerland represents US interests in Iran, and at times of soaring tensions its role as go-between takes on heightened importance.
The Swiss foreign ministry refused Monday to divulge what actions the country had taken in connection with Iran’s weekend attack on Israel.
But US and Iranian officials alluded to the important role Switzerland was playing as an intermediary.
As Washington engaged in whirlwind efforts prior to the attack to prepare for the expected violence, it sent “a series of direct communications through the Swiss channel”, a senior administration official told AFP.
Mohammad Bagheri, the Iranian armed forces’ chief of staff, was more explicit, telling state television that “we sent a message to America through the Swiss embassy that if it cooperates with Israel in their next potential actions, their bases will not be secure”.
Updated
Images over the news wires show that displaced Palestinians are continuing to try to move north within the Gaza Strip despite the Israeli military issuing a warning for them to remain in the south.
In the message, the IDF spokesperson said “The northern Gaza Strip area is a dangerous combat zone, and therefore we repeat our calls for you to remain in the humanitarian areas and shelters in the southern Gaza Strip area and avoid trying to return to the northern Gaza Strip, in order to preserve your safety.”
Al Jazeera spoke to one Palestinian making the journey, who told the news network even if his house had been destroyed, he wanted to go there. “I couldn’t stay in the south,” he said. “It’s overcrowded. We couldn’t even take a fresh breath of air there. It was completely terrible.”
Israeli media is reporting that Hezbollah is claiming responsibility for the explosion which wounded four Israeli soldiers close to the UN-drawn blue line that separates Israel and Lebanon. [See 11.16 BST]
Bethan McKernan is Jerusalem correspondent for the Guardian
Iran’s foreign ministry said on Monday that “no pre-arranged agreement was made with any country” before Iran’s attack in retaliation for a 1 April strike attributed to Israel that killed several Iranian Revolutionary Guards officers at a consular building in the Syrian capital, Damascus.
Regional officials, including Iran’s foreign minister, had previously said Tehran had given notice to neighbouring countries days before its attack, which gave Israel and allies the US, UK and Jordan time to convene a significant defensive response.
On Monday, Iran’s foreign ministry said the west should “appreciate Iran’s restraint in recent months”.
“Instead of making accusations against Iran, [western] countries should blame themselves and answer to public opinion for the measures they have taken against the … war crimes committed by Israel” in its war against Hamas in Gaza, said the ministry’s spokesperson, Nasser Kanani.
Four IDF soldiers wounded overnight by explosion close to Lebanon
The IDF has said that four of its soldiers were wounded overnight near the UN-drawn blue line that separates Israel and Lebanon. In a statement it said the injuries were caused by “an explosion of an unknown source” and that “Tthe soldiers were evacuated to a hospital to receive medical treatment.”
In Israel, Ynet, citing an IDF spokesperson, reports that “the suspicion is that it was a bomb placed by Hezbollah forces, or the explosion of an old mine.”
Here are some images from Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, and London sent to us over the newswires today.
Here is another video clip of that tense UN security council meeting, with Israel and Iran’s representatives at the UN – Gilad Erdan and Amir Saeid Iravani – exchanging sharp words about the actions of each other’s nations.
Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 33,797 Palestinians and wounded 76,465 Palestinians since 7 October, according to the latest figures released by the health ministry in Gaza.
Reuters reports the ministry, which is led by Hamas, claims there have been 68 Palestinians killed and 94 injured in the past 24 hours.
Israel claims that during the course of its ground offensive inside the Gaza Strip it has lost 260 soldiers, with just over 1,500 wounded.
It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued by either side.
Patrick Wintour is the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, and has this round-up of earlier comments from the UK’s foreign secretary
The UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, urged Israel to act with its head as well as its heart and not escalate the conflict by mounting a revenge raid on Iran.
His remarks imply the UK would not take part in an attack on Iran but would continue to defend Israel if it came under further assault.
Lord Cameron said: “We are saying Israel has a right to respond but we do not support a retaliatory strike. There are times where we have to be smart as well as tough, where we have to use head as well as heart.”
He said on Sky News the UK would have responded if a UK diplomatic facility had been attacked by missiles – but he condemned the scale of the Iranian response to the attack on its consulate in Damascus, saying: “If those weapons got through it could have led to thousands of civilian casualties.”
Pressed on LBC on the wisdom of the Israeli embassy attack in Damascus, the former Conservative prime minister said: “It is a matter for Israel. We have not made a comment on it. Can I understand Israel’s frustration with Iran? Yes. Absolutely I can. I am not getting into what Israel has or has not done.”
He said: “Iran is responsible for Hamas in Gaza, they are responsible for what is happening in Yemen, they are responsible for Hezbollah in Lebanon.”
Read more here: Cameron urges Israel to be ‘smart’ by not escalating tensions with Iran
Russia: 'extremely concerned about the escalation of tensions in the region'
“We are extremely concerned about the escalation of tensions in the region,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has told reporters. “We call on all countries in the region to exercise restraint.”
“Further escalation is in no one’s interests. Therefore, of course, we advocate that all disagreements be resolved exclusively by political and diplomatic methods,” Reuters reports Peskov said. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022.
On Sunday Moscow noted that Tehran had said the attack was made within the right to self-defence after Israel’s strike on an Iranian diplomatic building in Damascus. Israel has not acknowledged that it carried out the strike, and rarely comments on attacks it launches inside Lebanon or Syria.
Russia’s foreign minister spoke to his Iranian counterpart on Sunday night.
As diplomatic efforts focus on attempts to defuse further escalation between Israel and Iran, some of the displaced population of Gaza have been attempting to use the coastal road to return north to see what is left of their homes after months of Israeli aerial bombardments and its military ground offensive.
Here is the video clip of UN secretary general, António Guterres, warning that the world is on the brink of “a devastating, full-scale conflict.”
The European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell has described the situation in the Middle East as being “on the edge of the cliff”, and said he hoped any Israeli response to Iran’s attack would not lead to escalation.
At the weekend Tehran launched a barrage of drones and missiles at Israel in its first direct state-to-state attack on the country after years of being accused of waging a proxy war. Iran said the move was in retaliation for a strike early in April which destroyed its consulate in Damascus, which it blamed on Israel.
Reuters reports that speaking Spanish radio station Onda Cero, Borell said “We’re on the edge of the cliff and we have to move away from it. We have to step on the brakes and reverse gear.”
Highlighting what he said was a “profound division” within Israel’s governing coalition, he said there was a “more moderate and sensible” faction that favours retaliation in “a way that avoids a response to the response.”
Borrell said the EU needed to retain good relations with Iran, despite having imposed sanctions on it. “It’s in everyone’s interest that Iran does not become a nuclear power and that the Middle East is pacified,” he said. He spoke to Iran’s foreign minister on Sunday.
Israel’s war cabinet is expected to reconvene at 2pm local time, which is 11am GMT.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz is in Shanghai, and Reuters reports that while there he has warned Iran not to launch another attack on Israel, but said the Israeli government must also contribute to cooling tensions.
Reuters has a quick flash that Benjamin Netanyahu will reconvene his war cabinet at 2pm local time (11am GMT).
More details soon …
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that two Palestinian men have been injured after being shot with live ammunition during an Israeli military incursion into the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Nablus.
In the UK the Board of Deputies of British Jews has written to Rishi Sunak to thank the UK for its part on the defence of Israel at the weekend.
President Marie van der Zyl said:
I want to thank you for your unambiguous statement condemning the Iranian regime’s attack against Israel. I also understand that RAF jets were involved in the operation to shoot down the Iranian drones; our community is encouraged by the fact that our nation’s air force was part of this response.
It continued by saying that the government should resist pressure to suspend arms sales to Israel and called for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation.
In the UK, the prime minister is expected to address parliament about the situation this afternoon. Earlier today the UK foreign secretary urged Israel not to retaliate against Iran, saying the attack had represented a “double defeat” for Tehran, in that it failed to cause damage or casualties, and also exposed to the world what he described as the “malign” influence.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has said that Israel has released two ambulance crews today that it had been detaining for 50 days. It says six other crews are still detained and their whereabouts are unknown. The two crews had been detained at an Israeli military checkpoint in Khan Younis.
⭕️Israeli forces released two PRCS ambulance crews today morning after a 50-day detention. They were arrested at a military checkpoint in Khan Younis while evacuating patients from #AlAmalHospital. The Israeli occupation continued to detain six PRCS crews until now, and their… pic.twitter.com/6tlgnoUylx
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) April 15, 2024
Reuters reports that the European Union aviation safety agency said on Monday it continues to recommend caution in the airspaces of Iran and Israel, and also in a zone of about 100 nautical miles surrounding Israel.
UK foreign secretary Cameron appears to concede Iran had a right to respond to Israeli attack on Damascus consulate, but questions scale
In the UK, on Sky News, the UK’s foreign secretary David Cameron has been asked whether the UK would have retaliated if one of its diplomatic buildings had been flattened in another country, as Iran’s was in Syria. He appeared to concede that Iran had some right to respond to the destruction of its diplomatic building in Damascus, widely thought to have been carried out by Israel, but questioned the scale of Tehran’s response due to its potential to inflict civilian casualties.
Asked whether Israel had shown “good judgment” in attacking the Iranian consulate building in Syria and killing senior Iranian military commanders, the former UK prime minister said:
I can completely understand the frustration the Israelis feel when they look at the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and they look at the terrible things that they have done all over the world, including the support they give to Hamas, and of course, Hamas were responsible for the 7 October attack and that is where all of this begins. So you can completely understand the frustration.
Pressed on Iran’s frustration about “part of its sovereign territory being flattened” when the diplomatic building was attacked, Cameron continued:
I would argue there is a massive degree of difference between what Israel did in Damascus, and 301 weapons being launched by the state of Iran at the state of Israel, for the first time a state on state attack. 101 ballistic missiles, 36 cruise missiles, 185 drones, that is a degree of difference. And I think a reckless and dangerous thing for Iran to have done, and I think the whole world can see. All these countries that have somehow wondered, well, you know, what is the true nature of Iran? It’s there in black and white.
He was then asked “what would Britain do if a hostile nation flattened one of our consulates?” to which he replied “Well, we would take very strong action.”
It was then put to him that Iran would argue that is what it has just done. Cameron responded “Well what they did, as I’ve said, was a massive attack.”
“So they were right to respond, but they over-reacted, is that what you are saying?” he was then asked. The UK’s foreign secretary then said:
What I’m saying is the attack they carried out was on a very large scale. Countries have a right to respond when they feel they’ve suffered an aggression, of course they do. But look at the scale of that response. Had those weapons not been shot down. There could have been thousands of casualties, including civilian casualties. I think that’s a really important point to take into account.
So far, since 7 October, the casualty count, which includes civilians, has included about 1,140 people killed in the initial Hamas attack in southern Israel, during which about 240 people were taken captive as hostages, and over 33,000 people reported killed inside the Gaza Strip by Israel’s military action there.
Updated
UK foreign secretary Cameron: 'reckless and dangerous' attack on Israel was a 'double defeat' for Iran
Describing it as “a reckless and dangerous thing for Iran to have done”, the UK’s foreign secretary David Cameron said that Tehran’s attack was a “double defeat”, as it had failed to inflict damage on Israel, and that “they’ve revealed to the world that they are the malign influence in the region.”
On Sky News in the UK he stressed how large the attack had been, specifying that it had featured “301 weapons – 110 ballistic missiles and 40 cruise missiles. This was very significant.”
He said “if you’re sitting in Israel this morning, you’re thinking quite rightly, we have every right to respond to this, and they do, but we are urging that they shouldn’t escalate.”
He continued “our hope is that there won’t be a retaliatory response, and instead, the world’s focus should shift to Hamas. They still hold those hostages. They’ve been offered a deal that prisoners can be released from Israeli jails in return for some of those hostages, and there’ll be a pause in the fighting. That’s what needs to happen next.
“I think the smart thing to do is actually to recognise that Iran’s attack was a failure. And we want to keep the focus on that, on Iran’s malign influence, and actually pivot to looking at what’s happening in Gaza, and getting those hostages released.”
UK foreign secretary Cameron: situation in Gaza remains 'unacceptable'
The UK’s foreign secretary has questioned Benjamin Netanyahu’s judgment on the level of aid being allowed to enter Gaza, and said that he has had “tough conversations” with Israel on the topic.
Saying that he had “many arguments and disagreements” with Israel’s prime minister over the 20 years they have known each other, the former UK prime minister David Cameron said:
It’s our job to work with the Israeli government to support them in their campaign to get rid of Hamas, and I think that’s right. You can’t expect Israel to live next door to a territory that is governed by people that carried out the 7 October attacks, but our job is to work with Israeli Government.
We will have our disagreements. We have some very tough conversations with them, for instance, about the need to get aid into Gaza, where I’ve been extremely tough with them about that, but I think rightly because the situation in Gaza is unacceptable.
There are too many people going hungry. There are too many people that can’t get water and medicine. The Israelis have now said [there will be] 500 trucks a day, opening the port of Ashdod, getting more aid in, and that’s that’s hugely helpful, and we need to make sure that’s delivered.
Pressed specifically on where Netanyahu had shown bad judgment, Cameron said:
We have to work with the prime ministers and the governments that are there. He has good judgment on many things, but there are times that we prefer to disagree. When we do, we should have frank conversations. That’s what friends do.
I think not letting more aid into Gaza. That I think was a mistake. We were very frank with the Israelis all the way through that they needed to open up the crossing points. There [needs to be] a lot more trucks, the need to make sure there was proper deconfliction, so that aid workers can get around Gaza. And we wouldn’t have you know, further incidents like the terrible killing of the World Central Kitchen workers. I think it was a bad judgment not to open up Gaza to aid earlier. And we had that argument with him.
For our First Edition newsletter today, Archie Bland spoke to Mohammad Ali Shabani, editor of Amwaj.media, a news website covering Iran, Iraq and the Arabian peninsula:
“The operation was heavily telegraphed and choreographed by Tehran,” Mohammad Ali Shabani said. “But it was still more than most analysts expected, including myself.”
“What happened was a spectacle – geared to make the world see,” Shabani said. “So there is a face-saving component. But it was signalled in advance, so that there was ample time for Israel and the United States to prepare. They are saying that the ball is now in Israel’s court.”
Shabani said, “even with the US out of the nuclear deal and Biden keeping the Trump-era sanctions, they are still talking – maybe through intermediaries, but they are still talking. [Iran] could have done a North Korea and cut off all contact, but they haven’t. What that suggests is that even with the conservatives building power, there is still a strong constituency in favour of diplomacy.”
Read more here: Monday briefing – The calculations and confusion that could lead Iran and Israel into all-out war
Updated
France’s interior minister Gérald Darmanin has posted to social media to say he asked local officials to step up security “at places visited by our Jewish compatriots, especially with regards to synagogues and Jewish schools.”
He said he was making the move “as Passover approaches and given the current international situation.”
On Sunday foreign minister Stéphane Séjourné confirmed that France participated in defending Israel from the attack by Iran, but did not specify in what capacity.
It is Martin Belam here with you for the next few hours as we follow developments in the Middle East crisis. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
Summary of the day so far
It’s 9:30am in Tehran and 9am in Tel Aviv and Gaza. Before I handover to my colleague in London, Martin Belam, here’s a summary of the latest developments:
Israel has called for fresh sanctions on Iran at a tense meeting of the UN security council, called in the wake of Iran’s attacks on Israel. Israel’s UN envoy, Gilad Erdan, has urged the council to “impose all possible sanctions on Iran before it’s too late” and “condemn Iran for their terror”, reports Agence France-Presse. Iran launched explosive drones and missiles on Saturday – its first ever direct attack on Israeli territory.
Iran’s UN envoy, Amir Saeid Iravani, responded saying that the Islamic republic was exercising its “inherent right to self-defence” and “had no choice” but to act. He insisted his country did “not seek escalation or war”, but would respond to any “threat or aggression”.
United Nations secretary general António Guterres has called on members not to further escalate tensions with reprisals against Iran. “It’s time to step back from the brink,” Guterres said. “Neither the region nor the world can afford more war.”
Israel is quiet on its next steps against Iran, with an official reportedly saying the country’s war cabinet has met without making a decision on its next steps. The war cabinet met late Sunday to discuss a possible response, but an Israeli official familiar with the talks has told Associated Press that no decisions have been made. “We will build a regional coalition and collect the price from Iran, in the way and at the time that suits us,” said a key War Cabinet member, Benny Gantz.
The Reuters news agency is reporting that there is a possible split in the cabinet over the timing and scale of an Israeli response, according to officials. The five-member cabinet, in which prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz have decision-making powers, is expected to convene again for further discussions.
It’s being reported that Turkish, Jordanian and Iraqi officials say that Iran gave wide notice days before its drone and missile attack on Israel – but US officials are disputing that line and say Tehran was aiming to cause significant damage. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Sunday that Iran gave neighbouring countries and the United States 72 hours’ notice it would launch the strikes, according to the Reuters news agency. But one senior official in US President Joe Biden’s administration denied Amirabdollahian’s statement, according to Reuters.
France says it carried out interception missions during Iran’s attack on Israel, according to the Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne. “We took our responsibilities … we carried out interception missions,” Sejourne told local media on Sunday according to the Reuters news agency – but he didn’t elaborate further on the details of the action.
Lebanese group Hezbollah has praised Iran’s attack on Israel, describing it as a “brave” decision. The Iran-backed group added in a statement on Sunday that Iran had exercised its legal rights despite “threats, intimidation and pressure”, according to the Reuters news agency. The comments came as Israel said on Sunday that it had struck a Hezbollah site in Lebanon’s east near the Syrian border, in the wake of Iran’s attacks on Israel, reports Agence France-Presse.
China and Russia have reacted to the attacks Beijing urged restraint, calling the attack “the latest spillover of the Gaza conflict”, while Moscow said it expresses ‘extreme concern” according to Agence France-Presse.
At least a dozen airlines have had to cancel or reroute flights over the last two days, including Qantas, Germany’s Lufthansa, United Airlines and Air India. Iran’s missile and drone attacks on Israel have further narrowed options for planes navigating between Europe and Asia, Reuters reports.
The US secretary of defence Lloyd Austin and the Israeli minister of defence Yoav Gallant have held a call to discuss events in the wake of Iran’s attacks. It’s the third call between the pair this weekend, according to the US department of defense.
US Central command (Centcom) has posted on X, saying it destroyed more than 80 one-way drones from Iran and Yemen on 13 April and 14 April that were intended to strike Israel.
Updated
Read our analysis by Peter Beaumont and Emma Graham-Harrison on why Israel’s attack on an Iranian consulate in Syria was a gamechanger – prompting Iran to launch a large-scale attack on Israeli territory.
The large-scale attack by Iran on Israel may have passed with relatively little damage, but it marks a significant transformation in the conflict between the two enemies.
A war that has long been fought through proxies, assassinations and strikes away from Israeli soil – often in third countries – has spilled into the open.
While senior Israeli officials have framed this weekend’s Iranian attack as “revealing the true face” of Tehran, the reality is that the proximate cause was Israel’s misjudgment in its strike on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria that killed two senior Iranian generals, among others.
After years in which both sides operated within the framework of a largely undeclared set of “rules”, Israel – as analysts have pointed out – bulldozed through every red line to attack a location that Tehran maintains was tantamount to attacking Iranian soil.
Read the rest of the report here:
Russia has spoken with Iran in the wake of the attacks.
President Vladimir Putin’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, spoke to the Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian by telephone on Sunday, Reuters reports.
“Further escalation of the situation in the region and dangerous new provocative actions may lead to an increase in tension,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a readout of the call.
But Israeli ambassador to Russia Simona Halperin was quoted by Russia’s RIA state news agency as saying that Israel expected Russia to condemn Iran’s attacks.
Flight disruptions expected on Monday
At least a dozen airlines have had to cancel or reroute flights over the last two days, including Qantas, Germany’s Lufthansa, United Airlines and Air India.
Iran’s missile and drone attacks on Israel have further narrowed options for planes navigating between Europe and Asia, Reuters reports.
The industry is already facing restrictions due to conflicts between Israel and Hamas, and Russia and Ukraine.
Israel closed its airspace on Saturday, before reopening on Sunday morning.
Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon have also resumed flights over their territories.
Large Middle East airlines, including Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways said on Sunday they would resume operation in the region after cancelling or rerouting some flights.
Some more details from the recent extraordinary security council meeting a few hours ago, which saw strong statements from countries hoping to see tensions dial back, but with varying opinions over whether Israel or Iran was escalating the hostilities.
China’s ambassador to the UN, Dai Bing, spoke immediately after Russia’s representative, who had used the meeting to “unequivocally” condemn the Israeli airstrike on Iran’s Syria embassy on 1 April.
Dai Bing told the security council the international community had “deplored the unacceptable humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza” and demanded a ceasefire, and expressed concerns about its potential to exacerbate regional tensions “with serious compounding spillover effects”.
He then noted the Israeli airstrike on Iran’s embassy:
This incident was a serious violation of the UN charter and international law, as it violated both the sovereignty of Syria and that of Iran.
It was of a most egregious nature …
This round of escalations is the latest manifestation of the Gaza conflict spilling over to the wider region. It serves as another reminder that the Palestinian question remains central to the Middle East issue and bears on the peace, stability, and long term security in the region.
He repeated calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, of which China has been a proponent since early in the conflict.
Dai Bing’s security council address followed an earlier short statement from the Chinese government:
“China calls on the international community, especially countries with influence, to play a constructive role for the peace and stability of the region.”
The IDF spokesperson for the Arabic media Avichay Adraee has posted on X that Israeli has intercepted another drone.
According to translation, Israeli air force planes intercepted a drone flying into Israeli territory from the east.
Adraee says it did not pose a threat, but does not say who was believed to be responsible for the drone.
#عاجل خلال ساعات الليلة الماضية أعترضت طائرات حربية لسلاح الجو بنجاح مسيرة كانت تحلق في طريقها إلى الأراضي الاسرائيلية من جهة الشرق. لقد تابعت قوات جيش الدفاع القطعة الجوية التي لم تشكل تهديدًا وبالتالي لم يتم تفعيل انذارات وفق السياسة المتبعة. لم تقع إصابات أو أضرار
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) April 15, 2024
Israel’s defence forces have released some images of damage they say was caused after Iran’s drone and missile attack:
Japan’s foreign minister is preparing to delay a trip to Bahrain planned for later this week, amid Middle East tensions after Iran’s attack on Israel, three government officials said.
Yoko Kamikawa had notified parliament of her plans to visit Bahrain after the G7 foreign ministers’ summit in Italy from 17-19 April, according to Sankei newspaper.
Reuters also reports that the foreign ministry had not officially announced her trip.
One of the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the planned cancellation was to add more flexibility in the minister’s schedule to respond to the crisis.
Japan has strongly condemned the attacks and joined other global powers and Arab nations in calling for restraint.
Bahrain’s embassy in Tokyo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hezbollah praises Iran's attack on Israel
Lebanese group Hezbollah has praised Iran’s attack on Israel, describing it as a “brave” decision.
The Iran-backed group added in a statement on Sunday that Iran had exercised its legal rights despite “threats, intimidation and pressure”, according to the Reuters news agency.
The comments came as Israel said on Sunday that it had struck a Hezbollah site in Lebanon’s east near the Syrian border, in the wake of Iran’s attacks on Israel, reports Agence France-Presse.
A Hezbollah source also told AFP that “the Israeli strike targeted an area … near Baalbek and targeted a two-storey building belonging to Hezbollah”, adding there were no casualties.
Lufthansa suspends some flights until Monday
Lufthansa says it has suspended until Monday its flights to and from Tel Aviv in Israel, Amman in Jordan, as well as Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, a spokesperson said.
The German airline is “constantly monitoring the situation in the Middle East”, a spokesperson told Agence France-Presse on Sunday.
Flights to and from Beirut and Tehran will remain suspended until at least 18 April, after the company said Friday its planes would no longer use Iranian airspace.
Lufthansa flights to the Iranian capital have been suspended since 6 April.
Israel announced the reopening of its airspace on Sunday morning, along with its neighbours Jordan and Lebanon, and Iraq, which borders Iran.
It was reported by Reuters earlier that United Airlines cancelled Sunday’s planned flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Tel Aviv, the airline said in a statement.
Let’s get some more detail on what emerged from the UN security council meeting called in the wake of Iran’s attack on Israel.
Israel’s UN ambassador Gilad Erdan said “the mask comes off and the gloves must come on”, calling on the body to “take action”, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Erdan asked the Security Council to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation and to “impose all possible sanctions on Iran before it’s too late.”
In particular, he referred to the “snapback” mechanism that allows members of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal – which the United States exited in 2018 – to reimpose international sanctions against Tehran.
Iran’s UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani also addressed the meeting and lashed out at Israel:
“It is time for the security council to shoulder its responsibility and address the real threat to international peace and security,” Iravani said.
The body “must take urgent and punitive measures to compel this regime to stop a genocide against the people of Gaza.”
The rising tensions come against the backdrop of Israel’s six-month-old war against Hamas in Gaza, which began after the Palestinian militant group’s 7 October attack in Israel. 1,170 people, mostly civilians, died in that attack according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 33,729 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Since the 1979 Iranian revolution – Israel has been considered by Iran to be a sworn enemy and calls for Israel’s destruction.
Until now, Tehran had refrained from attacking Israel head-on, and the two countries have opted instead to confronting each other through third parties.
On Sunday United Nations secretary general António Guterres urged restraint:
“It’s time to step back from the brink,” Guterres said.
Updated
The Israel-Gaza is continuing – a conflict seen as a trigger for this current round of tensions in the Middle East.
In the latest developments, Agence France-Presse is reporting that thousands of Palestinians are filing along the coast road, heading north on Sunday, after hearing that several people managed to cross a closed checkpoint towards Gaza City.
Israel denies opening the checkpoint.
An AFP journalist saw mothers holding their children’s hands and families piling on to donkey carts with their luggage as they made the journey.
They hoped to cross a military checkpoint on Al-Rashid road south of Gaza City, but the Israeli army told AFP that reports the route was open were “not true”.
Israel started its war on Gaza after the 7 October Hamas attacks. More than 1.5 million Palestinians have taken refuge in the southern city Rafah, according to the United Nations.
Updated
Biden speaks to King of Jordan in call
The US president, Joe Biden, has posted on X about his call with Jordan’s King Abdullah II.
Biden said the call included discussion of the war in Gaza:
I spoke with His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan today about the situation in the Middle East. We agreed to remain in touch over the coming days as we continue to monitor the situation. We also discussed our efforts to increase critical humanitarian assistance to Gaza.
The King said any “escalatory measures” by Israel would lead to a broader conflict in the region, according to the Royal Court, Associated Press reports.
The US president says he also spoke with some of the US forces involved in shooting down the Iranian drones.
I spoke with His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan today about the situation in the Middle East. We agreed to remain in touch over the coming days as we continue to monitor the situation. We also discussed our efforts to increase critical humanitarian assistance to Gaza. pic.twitter.com/JJqo7trLNv
— President Biden (@POTUS) April 15, 2024
In the US, House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he will try to advance wartime aid for Israel this week, in the wake of Iran’s attack.
The attack has increased the pressure on Johnson, but also gave him an opportunity to underscore the urgency of approving the funding, reports Associated Press.
Johnson told Fox News that he and Republicans “understand the necessity of standing with Israel” and he would try this week to advance the aid.
“The details of that package are being put together right now,” he said. “We’re looking at the options and all these supplemental issues.”
Read more in our latest report on US funding to Israel and Ukraine:
Here’s our latest explainer on how the world is reacting to Iran’s attacks on Israel, including what happened at the UN security council meeting and Joe Biden’s warning to Israel that the US will not take part in any counteroffensive against Iran.
Read Adam Fulton’s piece here:
Israel set to reopen schools after Iran attack
Schools are due to reopen across Israel on Monday, Israel’s military has announced, after they were ordered closed due to Iran’s attack over the weekend.
After a “situational assessment”, the IDF said in a statement early Monday, “it was decided to restore educational activities across Israel”.
“In the areas of the northern border (with Lebanon) and communities near the Gaza Strip, educational activities will resume … with restrictions,” the statement continued, adding that curbs on large gatherings would also be lifted in most places, reports Agence France-Presse.
בתום הערכת מצב הוחלט כי החל מהיום בשעה 00:00, יבוצע שינוי במדיניות ההתגוננות של פיקוד העורף.
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) April 14, 2024
במסגרת השינויים הוחלט על חזרת הפעילויות החינוכיות בכל רחבי הארץ. באזורי הנחיה קו עימות ועוטף עזה יתאפשרו פעילויות חינוכיות בכפוף להגבלות>>
Let’s get more on that urgent G7 meeting called by US president Joe Biden and the subsequent statement that was released.
Here is some of that statement:
We, the leaders of the G7, unequivocally condemn in the strongest terms Iran’s direct and unprecedented attack against Israel.
Iran fired hundreds of drones and missiles towards Israel. Israel, with the help of its partners, defeated the attack. We express our full solidarity and support to Israel and its people and reaffirm our commitment towards its security.
With its actions, Iran has further stepped toward the destabilisation of the region and risks provoking an uncontrollable regional escalation. This must be avoided.
The statement also said “we will also strengthen our cooperation to end the crisis in Gaza, including by continuing to work towards an immediate and sustainable ceasefire and the release of hostages by Hamas, and deliver increased humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in need,” reports the Press Association (AP).
The Group of Seven advanced economies include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and the US.
Israel and Iran have accused one another at the United Nations of being the main threat to peace in the Middle East. Each side has called on the UN security council to impose sanctions.
Here are some images from that tense meeting:
Updated
It’s being reported that Turkish, Jordanian and Iraqi officials say that Iran gave wide notice days before its drone and missile attack on Israel – but US officials are disputing that line and say Tehran was aiming to cause significant damage.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Sunday that Iran gave neighbouring countries and the United States 72 hours’ notice it would launch the strikes, according to the Reuters news agency.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said it had spoken to both Washington and Tehran before the attack, adding it had conveyed messages as an intermediary.
“Iran said the reaction would be a response to Israel’s attack on its embassy in Damascus and that it would not go beyond this. We were aware of the possibilities. The developments were not a surprise,” said a Turkish diplomatic source.
But one senior official in US President Joe Biden’s administration denied Amirabdollahian’s statement, according to Reuters.
The official says Washington did have contact with Iran through Swiss intermediaries – but did not get notice 72 hours in advance.
“That is absolutely not true,” the official said. “They did not give a notification, nor did they give any sense of … ‘these will be the targets, so evacuate them.’”
Tehran sent the United States a message only after the strikes began and the intent was to be “highly destructive” said the official.
Two Iraqi sources, including a government security adviser and a security official, said Iran had used diplomatic channels to inform Baghdad about the attack at least three days before it happened.
Israel calls for sanctions on Iran
Israel has called for fresh sanctions on Iran at a meeting of the UN security council.
Israel’s UN envoy, Gilad Erdan, has urged the council to “impose all possible sanctions on Iran before it’s too late” and “condemn Iran for their terror”, reports Agence France-Presse.
It’s as the UN secretary general called for restraint – fearing an escalation in the wake of Iran’s attacks on Israel.
“Neither the region nor the world can afford more war,” António Guterres told the body’s Security Council as it met to discuss Saturday’s Iranian attack.
“The Middle East is on the brink,” he warned. “The people of the region are confronting a real danger of a devastating full-scale conflict. Now is the time to defuse and de-escalate.”
Iran’s UN envoy, Amir Saeid Iravani, responded saying that the Islamic republic was exercising its “inherent right to self-defence” and “had no choice” but to act.
He insisted his country did “not seek escalation or war”, but would respond to any “threat or aggression”.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations also warned Washington to keep out of its conflict with Israel. It added in a message on X that “the matter can be deemed concluded”.
“However, should the Israeli regime make another mistake, Iran’s response will be considerably more severe.”
Iran launched its first ever direct attack on Israeli territory, in retaliation for a deadly airstrike widely blamed on Israel that destroyed Tehran’s consular building in Syria’s capital in April.
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When Saddam Hussein embarked on his failed venture to capture Kuwait in 1991, the Iraqi dictator lobbed dozens of Scud missiles at Tel Aviv in the hope of provoking an Israeli retaliation that would split the US-Arab coalition moving against him. Washington convinced Israel’s then prime minister, Yitzhak Shamir, not to step into the fray, and all-out regional war was averted.
This weekend Iran became the first sovereign state in 33 years to directly attack Israel, launching hundreds of missiles and drones overnight. Benjamin Netanyahu could be said to be facing a similar dilemma to Shamir – but it is his own decisions and miscalculations since 7 October that have led Israel to this precarious juncture.
“In the past it’s been fairly accurate to say Bibi [Netanyahu] was not usually one to escalate things. In his wars with Hamas, he has preferred short, intense and limited wars he can calculate are under control,” said Dahlia Scheindlin, a political strategist and policy fellow at the Century Foundation, using the longtime Israeli leader’s well known moniker.
“The problem is, 7 October was a gamechanger …”
Read the rest of our Jerusalem correspondent’s analysis here:
US secretary of defence Lloyd Austin and Yoav Gallant speak
The US secretary of defence Lloyd Austin and the Israeli minister of defence Yoav Gallant have held a call to discuss events in the wake of Iran’s attacks.
It’s the third call between the pair this weekend, according to the US department of defense.
Here’s some of what the department had to say in a statement about the call:
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant today for a third time this weekend to review the successful combined operation by the United States, Israel, and their partners to defend Israel from unprecedented attacks launched from Iranian territory and by Iran’s proxies. The Secretary emphasized that while the United States does not seek escalation, we will continue to take all necessary action to defend Israel and U.S. personnel.
Israel's war cabinet makes no decision on next steps - reports
Israel is quiet on its next steps against Iran, with an official reportedly saying the country’s war cabinet has met without making a decision on its next steps.
The war cabinet met late Sunday to discuss a possible response, but an Israeli official familiar with the talks has told Associated Press that no decisions have been made.
Asked about plans for retaliation, Israeli military spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari declined to comment directly. “We are at high readiness in all fronts,” he said.
“We will build a regional coalition and collect the price from Iran, in the way and at the time that suits us,” said a key War Cabinet member, Benny Gantz.
But the Reuters news agency is reporting that there is a possible split in the cabinet over the timing and scale of an Israeli response, according to officials.
The five-member cabinet, in which Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz have decision-making powers, is expected to convene again for further discussions.
Iran launched its attack in response to a suspected Israeli strike on an Iranian consular building in Syria, killing two Iranian generals.
Both countries have been engaged in a shadow war for years, but Sunday’s assault was the first time Iran launched a direct military assault on Israel.
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China and Russia react to Iran attacks
Countries and major organisations around the world have reacted to Iran’s strikes on Israel – including China and Russia.
Beijing urged restraint, calling the attack “the latest spillover of the Gaza conflict” and calling for the implementation of a recent UN security council resolution demanding a ceasefire, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
China calls on the international community, especially countries with influence, to play a constructive role for the peace and stability of the region
Russia also reacted. AFP reports:
Moscow expressed “extreme concern over the latest dangerous escalation in the region” and urged all sides to “show restraint”.
“We are counting on the regional states to solve the existing problems with political and diplomatic means,” the foreign ministry said.
Ukraine, fighting against Russia’s invasion, also had a response:
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned the attack, saying Iran’s actions “threaten the entire region and the world, just as Russia’s actions threaten a larger conflict”.
And some of the other main reactions:
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen posted video on X where she condemned the attack, describing it as ‘unprecedented’.
Nato spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah said the military alliance is “monitoring developments closely”.
France involved in defending Israel during Iran attack
France says it carried out interception missions during Iran’s attack on Israel, according to the Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne.
“We took our responsibilities … we carried out interception missions,” Sejourne told local media on Sunday according to the Reuters news agency – but he didn’t elaborate further on the details of the action.
Israel’s chief military spokesperson said earlier on Sunday that France was among the countries involved in defending against the Iranian attack.
US military says it destroyed more than 80 drones intended for Israel
US Central command (Centcom) has posted on X a short time ago, saying it destroyed more than 80 one-way drones from Iran and Yemen on 13 April and 14 April that were intended to strike Israel.
Centcom says it was supported by US European Command destroyers and it included ballistic missiles:
On April 13 and the morning of April 14, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces, supported by U.S. European Command destroyers, successfully engaged and destroyed more than 80 one-way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles (OWA UAV) and at least six ballistic missiles intended to strike Israel from Iran and Yemen.
This includes a ballistic missile on its launcher vehicle and seven UAVs destroyed on the ground in Iranian-backed Houthi controlled areas of Yemen prior to their launch.
Defense of Israel Activities Update
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) April 14, 2024
On April 13 and the morning of April 14, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces, supported by U.S. European Command destroyers, successfully engaged and destroyed more than 80 one-way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles (OWA UAV) and at least six… pic.twitter.com/QYyk01o1Vs
UN secretary general calls for de-escalation
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has called on members not to further escalate tensions with reprisals against Iran.
Guterres was speaking to a meeting of the UN security council called in the wake of Iran’s attack on Israel, Reuters reports.
Iran launched explosive drones and missiles on Saturday – its first ever direct attack on Israeli territory.
The attack was in response to a suspected Israeli strike on Iran’s embassy compound in Syria on 1 April. That attack killed top Revolutionary Guards commanders and followed months of clashes between Israel and Iran’s regional allies – triggered by the war in Gaza.
António Guterres condemned Iran’s attack on Israel and also said:
The Middle East is on the brink. The people of the region are confronting a real danger of a devastating full-scale conflict. Now is the time to defuse and de-escalate.
Meanwhile, Robert Wood, deputy US ambassador to the UN said the Security Council has an obligation to not let Iran’s actions go unanswered.
“In the coming days, and in consultation with other member states, the United States will explore additional measures to hold Iran accountable here at the United Nations,” he said, without providing specifics.
Iran’s UN ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, said his country’s action was necessary and proportionate. He said that while Tehran does not seek an escalation or war in the region and has no intention of engaging in conflict with the US, Iran has a right to defend itself.
“If the US initiates military operations against Iran, its citizens, or its security and interests, Iran will use its inherent right to respond proportionately,” he said.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, accused Iran of violating international law at the meeting and played a video on a tablet that he said showed Israel’s interception of Iranian drones above Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound, one of Islam’s holiest sites.
Erdan called on the Security Council to condemn Iran, reimpose sanctions and designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guards a terror organisation.
“The snooze button is no longer an option”, Erdan said.
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Welcome and opening summary
It’s 2:47am in Tehran and 2:17am in Tel Aviv and Gaza. Welcome to our latest blog on the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has called on members not to further escalate tensions with reprisals against Iran, at a meeting of the UN security council called in the wake of Iran’s attack on Israel.
Iran launched a swarm of explosive drones and fired missiles on Saturday in its first-ever direct attack on Israeli territory, risking a major escalation. The attack was in response to a suspected Israeli strike on Iran’s embassy compound in Syria on 1 April that killed top Revolutionary Guards commanders and followed months of clashes between Israel and Iran’s regional allies, triggered by the war in Gaza.
“The Middle East is on the brink. The people of the region are confronting a real danger of a devastating full-scale conflict. Now is the time to defuse and de-escalate,” Guterres told the meeting.
More on that in a moment but first, here’s a summary of the latest developments:
The Israel Defense Forces announced that it intercepted a UAV that approached Israel earlier this evening. In a post on X, the IDF wrote: “A Sa’ar 6-class corvette successfully intercepted a UAV that approached Israeli territory from the south-east using the ‘C-Dome’ Defense System earlier this evening.”
UN chief António Guterres called for maximum restraint on Sunday following Iran’s retaliatory attacks on Israel, Reuters reports. In a UN security council meeting, Guterres said: “The Middle East is on the brink. The people of the region are confronting a real danger of a devastating full-scale conflict. Now is the time to defuse and de-escalate.”
Jordan’s prime minister Bisher Khasawneh said that escalation in the region would lead to “dangerous paths,” Reuters reports. Speaking to the Jordanian cabinet, Khasawneh said. “The army will respond to anything that will jeopardise the security and safety of the kingdom and the sanctity of its airspace and territory in the face of any danger from any party with all the available means.”
The G7 has released the following statement on Iran’s retaliatory attacks on Israel: “We, the leaders of the G7, unequivocally condemn in the strongest terms Iran’s direct and unprecedented attack against Israel … We express our full solidarity and support to Israel and its people and reaffirm our commitment towards its security.”
Jordan has summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest against Iran’s comments which were regarded by Jordan as an interference in the kingdom’s internal affairs, Reuters reports. Speaking to Jordan’s state-owned Mamlaka news outlet, Safadi referred to comments made by Iranian official media which warned that Jordan would be the next target in the event it cooperated with Israel in a showdown with Iran.
A senior Joe Biden administration official has told reporters on Sunday: “We are committed to defending Israel. We would not be a part of any response they do. This is a very consistent policy.” “Our aim is to de-escalate regional tensions. We do not want a broader regional conflict. Our focus has been to contain this crisis,” the official added.
Iran’s action against Israel was a “legitimate act of self-defence,” Syria’s foreign minister Faisal Mekdad told his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in a phone call on Sunday. Syrian state media SANA further reports: “It is a legitimate right to self-defence against this racist Zionist entity, which does not respect international law and will, nor the Charter of the United Nations.”
US air carrier United Airlines has cancelled Sunday’s planned flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Tel Aviv after rising regional tensions, Reuters reports. The flight was set to take off from Newark at 3:20pm local time and land in Tel Aviv at 8:55am local time.
