Iran's retaliation against Israel for the raid on Tehran's consulate in Damascus produced a real battle over the skies of the Middle East, which involved at least eight countries on the night between 13 and 14 April. In three successive waves, the Pasdaran and pro-Iranian militias in the region launched almost 400 armed drones, rockets and missiles against the Jewish State, which however managed to shoot down 99 percent of the targets with the help of the United States and his allies.
At the end of the clash, which also involved fighters, missile defense systems and anti-aircraft batteries, the results seem rather modest: only one serious injury was recorded in Israel (a 7-year-old girl hit in the head by shrapnel from an anti-aircraft rocket ) and little damage to a military base in the south of the Jewish state.
Tehran seems satisfied overall: according to the Iranian diplomatic mission to the UN, “the issue can be said to be over” even if, the Pasdaran warn, in the event of a reaction from Israel the Islamic Republic is ready for an attack on an even larger scale . The tension has therefore not died down: the Israeli war cabinet has in fact promised a response but the United States has made it known that it will not support a counterattack by Tel Aviv. Meanwhile, Giorgia Meloni has called a video link meeting of the G7, which Italy chairs, for the early afternoon, promising a “strong” response. But let's get back to tonight's events: here's what happened.
The attack
The United States military was the first in the region to raise the alarm and warn Israel of the impending attack involving hundreds of drones and missiles fired by Iran against the Jewish state. As revealed today by Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, it was Tehran itself that alerted Washington to the operation, via diplomats in Belgium and the Netherlands, before the announcement in the Islamic Republic's state media.
In fact, after 10pm on April 13, Iranian public TV revealed that “large drone attacks” had been launched against Israel. “In response to the numerous crimes committed by the Zionist regime, including the attack on the consular building in Damascus, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched dozens of missiles and drones against specific targets within the occupied territories (Israel, ed.) ”, announced state television, quoting a note from the Pasdaran.
Operation “Honest Promise,” the announcement continued, had received “the approval of the Supreme National Security Council under the supervision of the General Staff of the Armed Forces.” A few minutes later, the social profiles of the Supreme Leader of the Revolution, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, once again published the promise to “punish the evil (Israeli, ed.) regime”.
Shortly before the announcement of the imminent attack, the authorities of Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon had decided to close their airspace. A decision that Israel had also followed, prohibiting flights over its territory from half past midnight (00.30) on 14 April, closing all schools and also prohibiting gatherings of over a thousand people until Monday 15 April.
Subsequently, first on social media and then on international news agencies, the first reports appeared on the sighting of dozens of unmanned aircraft that had entered Iraqi airspace from Iran and which, according to forecasts, would have reached in the following hours. the Jewish state.
Almost an hour later, the spokesman for the Israeli Armed Forces (IDF), Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, confirmed the ongoing attack for the first time, announcing the take-off of “numerous” fighter planes to counter the drones and missiles launched by Tehran. Initially, according to Hagari, the Israeli Air Force limited itself to monitoring the paths of the targets.
Only around 1.40am (local time) did the first warning sirens begin to sound for the population in southern Israel, which were soon extended to various areas of the country. Several explosions were therefore heard both in the north and in the south of the Jewish State, as well as in Jerusalem and in many cities of the occupied West Bank.
This is where it all began. The US military shot down the first Iranian drones in the provinces of Sueida and Daraa, in southern Syria, near the border with Jordan, and then continued to strike other targets in the Golan Heights and in several locations in eastern Syria, along the border with Iraq. Israeli planes also hit drones and missiles launched from Tehran on the border with Syria and Jordan.
The same Jordanian forces shot down dozens of targets that entered the airspace of Amman from the north, which today revealed that it had intercepted some “flying objects” during the night to “guarantee the safety” of its citizens. Other targets were hit in flight on the Palestinian side of the Jordan Valley as they headed towards Jerusalem. Still others would have been intercepted near the Iraqi-Syrian border by British Royal Air Force teams deployed in the Middle East. The French forces present in the area would also have participated at least in monitoring the drones launched against Israel.
Meanwhile, the regime of Bashar al-Assad in power in Syria and an ally of Iran had put its Russian-made Pantsir surface-to-air defense systems on alert around the capital Damascus and the country's main military bases for fear of a Israeli counterattack. Egypt had also put its air force and anti-aircraft batteries on alert after Iranian Defense Minister Mohammad Reza Ashtiani had threatened to respond to any state that opened “its airspace or territory to Israeli attacks against the Iran”.
The other fronts
However, the threat did not come only from Tehran. As Israel prepared to face the drones and missiles launched by Iran, warning sirens also began to sound in the northern Israeli community of Snir, on the border between Syria and Lebanon. Here, in fact, the Lebanese Shiite armed group Hezbollah had joined the Pasdaran attack, launching almost a hundred rockets against an Israeli army base on the Golan Heights.
Not only that: the pro-Iranian Yemeni Houthi rebels also tried to participate in the action. According to the British maritime security company Ambrey, the armed wing of the Ansarullah movement fired several armed drones from Yemen against Israel, coordinating the launches with Tehran so that they reached some ports of the Jewish State at the same time as the missiles launched by the Islamic Republic.
Other launches took place from Iraq, where numerous militias operate. mostly Shiites, who in recent years have allied themselves with the Ayatollah regime. However, most of these rockets and drones were destroyed.
Only one injured and little damage
It all ended around 2am. Shortly afterwards, IDF spokesman Hagari revealed that Iran had launched 170 drones, 30 cruise missiles and 120 ballistic missiles against Israel and that 99 percent of these targets had been intercepted and shot down by the air defenses of the Jewish State and the its allies outside the country's borders.
No drone or cruise missile, the IDF said, managed to enter Israeli airspace. Most of the rockets were shot down by the Arrow long-range air defense system. However, some managed to hit the Nevatim air base in southern Israel, causing “minor damage” but without affecting operations at the facility.
However, despite the limited results, the attack was not painless. A 7-year-old girl, originally from a Bedouin community near Arad, in the south of the country, was hospitalized in serious condition at the Soroka hospital in Beersheba after being hit in the head by some shrapnel from an interceptor rocket that fell on her house. his family after hitting an Iranian ballistic missile. She was seriously injured and underwent surgery during the night. She is currently the only victim of the Tehran attack and is in the hospital's pediatric intensive care unit.
Subsequently, while confirming the decision to close schools and avoid gatherings of over a thousand people, the IDF “Home Front Command” warned the population that they were no longer obliged to remain near the air-raid shelters. Once the threat was over, Israeli airspace was also reopened around 7.30 am, as were those of Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.
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