North Florida residents are on high alert as Iran launched drones towards Israel late Saturday, according to the Israeli military. The state-run media in Iran reported that dozens of drones had been fired, marking a significant escalation in the long-standing tensions between the two nations.
Military Response and Preparation
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli army’s spokesman, announced that it will take several hours for the aircraft to arrive and assured that Israel is prepared for the attack. This comes as a retaliation to an airstrike last week that claimed the lives of two Iranian generals in Syria. While Israel has remained silent on the attack, Iran accused it of being the perpetrator.
The Israeli aviation authorities have taken the step of closing the country’s airspace to all flights as of 12:30 a.m. local time (5:30 p.m. EDT).
The attack marked a historic first, as this is the first time Iran has ever launched a full-scale military assault on Israel, despite the decades of enmity dating back to the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
International Support and Reaction
The White House has stated that it will provide unspecified support for Israel’s defense against the ongoing attack. “The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defense against these threats from Iran,” National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement.
President Joe Biden was set to convene a principals meeting of the National Security Council to discuss the unfolding attack. Biden had cut short a weekend trip to his beach house in Delaware to return to the White House and monitor the situation.
Precautions and Preparations
- Earlier Saturday, the Israeli military announced that it was cancelling school and limiting public gatherings to no more than 1,000 people as a precaution.
- Hagari reiterated that Israel is “prepared and ready” with defensive and offensive actions. He also said there was “tight” cooperation with the U.S. and other partners in the region.
- Israel has a number of layers of air defense capable of intercepting everything from long-range missiles to UAV’s and short-range rockets. Hagari said Israel has an “excellent air defense system” but stressed it is not 100% effective and urged the public to listen to safety announcements.
For days, Iranian officials including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have threatened to “slap” Israel for its Syria strike.
Iran has largely avoided directly attacking Israel, despite its targeted killings of nuclear scientists and sabotage campaigns on Iran’s atomic sites. Iran has targeted Israeli or Jewish-linked sites through proxy forces.
Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip has inflamed decade-old tensions in the Middle East, and any new attack threatens to escalate that conflict into a wider regional war.
