Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei photographed on March 1. Khamanei said Israel "must be punished and shall be" after the April 1 attack on Iran's consular facility in Damascus. Majid Saeedi/Getty Images
Israel and its allies were scrambling to shoot down a fleet of Iran-launched drones on Saturday evening, according to both countries’ militaries, in a major escalation of a regional conflict sparked by the Israel-Hamas war. Iranian state media claimed that the country was coordinating the drones with a barrage of ballistic missiles.
The unfolding aerial attack comes in retaliation for Israel’s strike on an Iranian embassy in Syria earlier this month. Israel’s war cabinet held emergency meetings as President Biden cut short a weekend trip to Delaware to huddle with officials in the White House Situation Room. Flight tracking websites were reporting widespread airspace closures across multiple countries in the region as Israeli officials confirmed efforts to intercept the weapons before they entered Israeli territory, according to the New York Times. The exact targets of the offensive remained unclear.
Iran said that the April 1 attack on its consular facility in Damascus killed seven military advisers, including three top commanders, and in the weeks since, according to Reuters. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, vowed retaliation, saying Israel “must be punished and shall be.” As recently as Friday, when asked to assess how close Iran was to attacking Israel, President Biden said “my expectation is sooner than later.” As of early Saturday evening in the United States, the US claimed to be shooting down incoming Iranian drones, as television images showed the night sky above Israel lighting up with what appeared to be intercept fire.
