JERUSALEM — Air-raid sirens echoed across Israel before dawn on Sunday after defense officials said ballistic missiles were launched from inside Iran, the latest escalation in a fast-moving regional confrontation.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported that its Arrow and David’s Sling interceptor systems engaged “multiple inbound threats” over the Negev Desert shortly after 2 a.m. local time. In a text message sent to journalists, an IDF spokesperson said initial data indicated “several successful intercepts,” though a full damage assessment was still under way.
Flight-tracking websites showed incoming aircraft redirected to holding patterns over the Mediterranean, and Ben-Gurion International Airport briefly halted departures. Israel’s public broadcaster Kan said residents from Eilat in the south to Haifa in the north received mobile alerts instructing them to seek shelter.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility from Tehran, but the launch came five days after Iranian officials vowed to retaliate for an April 1 strike on their consular compound in Damascus that they blamed on Israel. “We warned that the Zionist regime would pay a price,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said in a televised interview Saturday night, without elaborating.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened an emergency meeting of the security cabinet at military headquarters in Tel Aviv. “We will respond at a time and place of our choosing,” a senior Israeli official told reporters on condition of anonymity, describing the attack as “a direct act of aggression by Iran.”
Medical services said they had not received reports of casualties. However, one projectile apparently landed in open terrain near Dimona, according to local authorities.
Regional analysts warned that the exchange could spiral. “Any direct Iran-Israel confrontation breaks long-standing deterrence thresholds and drags neighboring states into the line of fire,” said Galia Lindenstrauss, a fellow at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies.
Diplomats said Israel is requesting an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council later today. Whether major powers can tamp down the crisis may determine if the latest salvo remains a symbolic show of force or tips the Middle East into a broader war.