Breaking: Iran Attacks Israel With Hundreds of Drones

Iran launched hundreds of drones directly from its territory against Israel on Saturday night, in a radical change from its usual use of proxies, the IDF has confirmed. Drones and missiles were also reportedly launched from Yemen and other countries around the region.

Iran has confirmed as well that its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has begun its missile and drone attack against Israel.

Israeli sources told ABC News that cruise missiles had been launched from Iraq towards Israel. Al-Arabiya reported that the US was intercepting drones over Iraq and Syria.

The IDF confirmed that more than 100 drones have been launched by Iran, while the defense sources had earlier told The Jerusalem Post that hundreds had been fired.

Iranian Shahed-136 kamikaze UAV over Iraq at very low altitude, heading to Israel. pic.twitter.com/HpWeqXMMep

— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 13, 2024

Declining to confirm or deny whether cruise missiles had also been fired, the IDF said that if they were fired, they would take around three to four hours to arrive. Unconfirmed estimates have said drones will start arriving in Israeli airspace in the middle of the night Israel time.

IDF sources would neither confirm nor deny reports of shooting down drones in Syrian airspace based on operational considerations.

The IDF said that it is ready to shoot them down, though air defense is not hermetic. Israeli aircraft had reportedly already begun shooting down projectiles as of 12:00 a.m.

The IDF’s shoot-down capabilities include aircraft, Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and the Arrow missile system.

In addition, the military can use GPS scrambling to disable certain kinds of attacking drones.

There are concerns that Tehran or its proxies may also fire long-range ballistic missiles and other rockets at Israel in some kind of overlapping wave with the drone attacks.

The Islamic Republic’s attack comes after it accused Israel of killing top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Muhammad Reza Zehidi on April 1, who had directed its proxy attacks on Israel in Lebanon and Syria, including being a top coordinator with Hezbollah.

The IDF declined to publicly commit to a preemptive strike on Iran now that the drones have been launched.

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