Iran said it launched dozens of drones and ballistic missiles towards Israel on Saturday in a major attack following days of acute tension building up in the region and warnings from the US and elsewhere about a wider conflict erupting.
Air attack warning sirens began wailing over Jerusalem just before 2am local time on Sunday after the weapons were fired a few hours earlier from Iran with US and Jordanian military assisting Israel’s air defenses in intercepting the first incoming barrage.
With weapons believed to be still in the air en route to Israel, Iran’s mission to the United Nations posted on X: “Iran’s military action was in response to the Zionist regime’s aggression against our diplomatic premises in Damascus. The matter can be deemed concluded.”
However, it threatened more severe action in the face of further Israeli aggression and warned the US and Jordan specifically not to assist Israel.
Edit: here are links to the NYT and BBC live feeds.
Edit 2: updated summary and archive to reflect article changes.
Obligatory, since people are not getting it:
https://youtu.be/SZE4pEKc6WY
There can not be a “cost of doing business” for the likes of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. Has anyone here ever wondered why Hezbollah are so tame in this conflict, why they are so deathly afraid of an escalation? Hint: They are seeing the footage from Gaza too, they too are keeping track of how every single Hamas commander is being systematically hunted down, how Israel is willing and able to level an entire apartment block just to get one of them, global public opinion be damned - or, if they are feeling particularly humane that day, sending a small missile or drone precisely into the window that commander happens to be sitting behind.
How anyone expected anything but pure hellfire in response to the October 7 massacres and rapes is beyond me. No nation on Earth would have reacted any differently. The likes of Switzerland or Denmark would have gone medieval on the perpetrators in a situation like this. Iran is playing a very dangerous game. One “lucky” hit by one of their missiles or drones, e.g. into a busy crowd, school or hospital, could spell the end of the regime in Tehran.
I see this canard a lot, and it’s simply not true.
There are plenty of nations that don’t have track records of ignoring international law and committing egregious human rights abuses, including during armed conflict.
It is simply not reasonable to assume those countries would start a campaign of massive civilian slaughter.
Last time I checked, the UK didn’t level parts of Belfast during the troubles and commit collective punishment of civilians there.
Or similarly how Turkey handles its current operation in northern Syria that started with ISIS attacking Turkish villages across the border and continues against local groups funneling support to PKK there.
Good example.
I don’t think you understand how many orders of Magnitude hezbollah is above hummus
Sure thing, but they don’t want to experience the kind of air campaign (let alone ground assault) that is currently wiping the floor with Hamas. They are much larger and more capable than the Palestinian terror org, but the mere fact that they don’t have an air force would make any meaningful escalation a very uneven fight. There’s a reason Nasrallah hasn’t seen any daylight in years.
Wiping the floor, I mean, they did kill a shit ton of Innocent and children. So they won that.
Other than that, they can’t even keep the stuff that they’ve already bombed to hell with no one in it.