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Israel’s war cabinet met on Sunday afternoon to discuss possible responses to a massive Iranian drone and missile attack overnight, with US President Joe Biden calling for restraint as the Middle East moves closer to ‘a full-fledged regional war.
Iran launched the attack, the first of its kind from its own territory against the Jewish state, in retaliation for a suspected Israeli strike in Damascus earlier this month that killed several Iranian commanders.
An Israeli person familiar with government deliberations said the decision facing the five-person war cabinet, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was whether to “act big” against Iran or react in a more measured manner.
Discussions are underway with all of the country’s key partners, particularly the US administration, but the decision will ultimately be up to Israel, the person added.
Biden had advised Israel to take a measured approach. “The president was clear. We don’t want to see this situation escalate,” John Kirby, a spokesman for the US National Security Council, said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “We are not seeking a broader war with Iran.”
Israeli officials said Iran fired more than 300 projectiles, including 170 drones, 30 cruise missiles and 120 ballistic missiles, at Israel, starting Saturday evening and lasting for several hours. Iran-backed militants in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen have also fired rockets, drones and missiles into Israel.
Daniel Hagari, an Israeli army spokesman, said 99 percent of the barrage was intercepted. A young girl was seriously injured by shrapnel in the south of the country and an air base suffered minor damage, but no other serious impacts were reported, he said.
Hardliners demanded decisive action. “We need an overwhelming attack,” Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s ultranationalist national security minister, wrote on X, while Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, said that if Israel “hesitates,” then “ we will put ourselves and our children in existential danger.”
Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, said that by targeting the Iranian consulate in Damascus in an attack on April 1, Israel had “crossed an intolerable red line.”
“The mission is accomplished and the operation is over and we have no intention of going any further,” Bagheri said, but if Israel chose to “commit any act against us, let it be on our territory or in our complexes in Syria and elsewhere, the next operation will be bigger.”
President Biden condemned the “unprecedented” attack and said he would convene other G7 leaders on Sunday “to coordinate a united diplomatic response to Iran’s brazen attack.”
Following a request from Israel, the UN Security Council also scheduled an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss the attack.
