Iran attacks Israel: Benjamin Netanyahu's war cabinet in favour of 'hitting back’, but…

Israel’s War Cabinet on Sunday met without deciding on the next steps, an official said, even as a nervous world waited for any sign of further escalation of the former shadow war, after Iran fired over 300 missiles and drones at the weekend, the first time it has struck Israel from its soil

Israeli leaders credited an international military coalition with helping thwart a direct Iranian attack involving hundreds of drones and missiles, calling the coordinated response a starting point for a “strategic alliance” of regional opposition to Tehran. On Monday, the US Central Command or CENTCOM on Monday, April 15, claimed that its forces, supported by US European Command destroyers, on April 13 and April 14, destroyed over 80 one-way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles (OWA UAV) and at least six ballistic missiles intended to strike Israel from Iran and Yemen.

The Israeli military also reported that 99 per cent of the barrage was successfully intercepted, and no Israeli casualties were reported, after Iran's prior indications of the attack. Iran stated that it had achieved its objective, aiming to temporarily halt the progression towards a larger conflict. Allies of Israel in the US and Europe urged restraint, advocating for the avoidance of further escalation in statements made on Sunday.

Israel's chief spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the country remained on high alert and is assessing the situation. “Over the last few hours we approved operational plans for both offensive and defensive action,” Daniel Hagari said in a televised statement.

The Iranian attack on Saturday, less than two weeks after a suspected Israeli strike in Syria that killed two Iranian generals in an Iranian consular building, marked the first time Iran has launched a direct military assault on Israel, despite decades of enmity dating back to the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran-Israel war: Latest updates

• Israeli officials said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's five-member war cabinet favoured retaliation in a meeting on Sunday, although the panel was divided over the timing and scale of any such response, Reuters reported.
• Channel 12 News reported that given several reports that the US is urging caution and that US President Joe Biden himself urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “think carefully and strategically,” the war cabinet suspended its discussions, but is expected to reconvene in short order.
• The Israel Hayom daily newspaper cited, however, an Israeli official as stating that “there will be a response", while the NBC network quoted an official source in the Prime Minister’s Office as saying that while a decision has yet to be made, “the IDF will need to present options” and that “it is clear that Israel will respond".
• A senior US official said President Joe Biden had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Washington would not offer military support for any retaliation on Iran. Biden reaffirmed the United States' "ironclad" support for Israel but also appeared to guide it away from a military response against the two countries' common adversary, Iran.
• United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called on members not to further escalate tensions with reprisals against Iran."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," Antonio Guterres told a Security Council meeting called on Sunday in response to the strikes.
• While world powers urged restraint on Sunday for fear that Iran's unprecedented missile and drone strikes on Israel could spark a wider war in the Middle East, 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".
• External affairs minister S Jaishankar conveyed India’s concerns over the situation in West Asia and emphasised the need to avoid escalation during separate phone conversations with his Iranian and Israeli counterparts on Sunday. Jaishankar first spoke to Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Sunday evening and discussed the “current situation in the region”, he said in a post on X.
• Earlier on Sunday, India expressed serious concern about the increase in hostilities in West Asia and called for immediate de-escalation after Iran carried out its first-ever direct attack on Israel.
• Earlier leaders of the G7 — the informal gathering of industrialised countries that includes the US, UK and France — issued a statement on Sunday “unequivocally condemning in the strongest terms Iran’s direct and unprecedented attack against Israel.” The statement came after the leaders met in a video conference hosted by the Italian presidency.
• “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,” the statement reads.
• Bloomberg reported that oil was little changed even after Iran launched an unprecedented attack on Israel. Global crude benchmark Brent crude initially rose as much as 0.7 per cent to $91.05 a barrel in early Asian trade, before trading flat.
• US air carrier United Airlines has cancelled Sunday’s planned flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Tel Aviv after rising regional tensions, Reuters reported.(With inputs from agencies)