Iran’s Unprecedented Attack on Israel

I'm Isabelle kersner in Jerusalem it's. coming up to about 5:30 a.m. at the end. of a very long and surreal night here. for the first time in Israel's history. uh the country came under a direct. attack from. Iran this night started. ominously with cancellations of all educ.

ational activities for Sunday morning. then the reports on TV that the airport. was closing down after midnight and. then came the announcement that swarms. of drones were actually on their. way there were lots of diams on TV how. long it takes drones to arrive how long. it takes cruise missiles to arrive how.

long it takes ballistic missiles to. arrive so everybody was basically up and. [Music]. waiting sure enough at about 2 a.m. Air. Raid Sirens were going off in Jerusalem. very quickly followed by a long series. of booms in the sky and flashes of light.

wow wow. wow my apartment building woke carpet. came to life the neighbors were sitting. on the stairs in the. stairwell everybody in this country is. used to incoming rocket. fire it was a fairly relaxed. atmosphere but quite surreal and bizarre. nonetheless.

[Music]. and now Dawn is just about breaking I. can hear bird. song and we're being told it's not over. there will be some kind of Israeli. response and the question is whether.

that will be wrapped up within a couple. of days or whether we are entering into. an. unprecedented Regional. war from The New York Times I'm Sabrina. tavernes and this is the. [Music]. daily overnight on Saturday Iran. launched its first direct attack on. Israeli soil.

shooting hundreds of missiles and drones. at multiple targets around the. country today my colleague Eric Schmidt. on what happened and what it means for. the risk of a broader war in the Middle. [Music]. [Applause]. East it's Monday April 15.

[Music]. so Eric we witnessed this extraordinary. attack overnight on Saturday against. Israel by Iran you know missiles drones. lighting up the sky in multiple. locations around the region the whole. country was really on high alert I was. watching New York and it really was like. the whole world was holding its breath. with this attack tell me what happened. at around 9 :00 Israel time we started.

to get intelligence that the Iranians. had launched a first wave of attack. drones Iran has basically three buckets. of weapons that they're launching over. time against. [Music]. Israel so the drones come first they're. packed with explosives relatively slow. moving make a lot of noise with their. buzzing that goes on people can actually. see them the next wave that's coming.

after this are cruise missiles these are. larger missiles guided that are headed. toward Israel at the same time faster. moving then finally the Iranians launch. as many as 100 ballistic missiles. ballistic missiles are the fastest. moving missiles they carry a big payload. and what makes them so dangerous is that. especially if launched in large numbers. they can overwhelm defenses on the. ground.

H you've got well over 300 drones and. missiles of different kinds that have. been engaged but the thing you have to. know about these 300 weapons is that the. vast majority of them are actually shot. down mostly by Israel but also by allies. like the United States Britain and. Jordan and in the end only a dozen or so. maybe a few more actually impact in. Israeli territory. [Music].

so where do these missiles actually hit. so you have some damage to this Air Base. in the n desert you have military. Targets in the Goan Heights you have. some injuries on the ground about a. dozen or so civilians are injured and. it's unclear whether it's you know from. the blast themselves or more likely from. kind of some of the shrapnel and debris. that's falling from the sky there was. one seven-year-old girl for instance who. was severely wounded outside of Arad.

Israel and ban Arab but no fatalities. that we know of so far uh and no you. know major injuries which is given the. scale of this attack is really quite. remarkable and Eric walk me through why. this Iranian attack was so clearly. repelled well there's several main. reasons one is that the Israelis have a. very sophisticated layer of defenses the. best known of them is called Iron Dome. but it seems here it was another defense.

technology called Aros system that. shoots down uh ballistic missiles that. was particularly effective and in. addition to Israel's already very strong. defenses you have a number of Israel's. allies principally the United States uh. that it's engaging with their combat. planes they've got F-15 fighter jets up. in the sky that are shooting down we. were told more than 70 of these. exploding drones wow and then you've got. a couple of US Navy destroyers off the. coast of Israel in the Eastern.

Mediterranean Sea they take down as many. as six of these ballistic missiles the. other thing that's obviously important. is that Iran gave everyone you know a. lot of warning this was going to happen. and we didn't know exactly which bases. they were going to shoot at we didn't. know exactly what part of the country. was going to be attacked but it became. pretty clear in the messaging that Iran. did beforehand that they weren't going. to attack major cities that wasn't the. goal here that wasn't the objective it. was going to go after military targets. uh in the way they did it was pretty. much as us officials expected the.

Iranians to do H so Eric it seems like. really at the end of the day this attack. you know despite its unprecedented. nature was actually really not nearly as. bad as it could have been from the. Israeli perspective but why did Iran. attack Israel to begin. with yeah I mean as you said this is. really from the US and Israeli. perspective given the vast number of. drones and missiles that were launched. at Israel this was a win that they were.

able to get out of this crisis with. relatively a little damage on the ground. and all that but for the Iranians you. have to understand well what prompted. this in the first. place the latest now from the Middle. East Syrian State media reporting that. an air strike hit Iran's Consular. building in Syria today and what this is. really all about was. retaliation for a strike on April 1st. that the Israelis carried out in.

Damascus Syria has reportedly killed. seven members of Iran's Islamic. revolutionary Gods cor among the dead. pulled from the rubble a high ranking. Iranian military leader and even though. the Israelis haven't come out and. formally acknowledg this it's clear that. Israel is behind this Muhammad zahidi. one of the leaders of Iran's. revolutionary guard Corps a commander. that was involved in the weapon. shipments to groups like Hezbollah and. Iran backed Syrian Shia militias has. been targeted in an Israeli air strike.

this afternoon these weren't just any. old Iranian officers these were a couple. of their top generals and other senior. officials from a group called The cuds. Force it's a wing of the Iranian. Security Services that carries out. covert operations across the region in. places like Gaza in places like. Lebanon these are the actors that. organize the very attacks against Israel. Israel has long targeted Iranian. military installations in Syria Monday's.

attack marked the first time Iran's. Embassy compound itself had been hit but. the other important thing these guys. weren't killed on some dusty road in a. military truck in some Battlefield or. anything like this they were in a. diplomatic facility this is kind of. essentially their Sovereign soil in a. foreign country and if that's violated. it's a big. [Music]. deal so for the Iranians it's not just. the loss of these key operatives in this. CT organization that carries out some of.

their most Sinister activities but it's. almost as if you're carrying out a. strike on Iranian soil itself this. Embassy complex and they feel they need. to respond to this and respond in kind. respond in force because carrying out an. attack on Iranian soil effectively was. really an audacious thing to do. absolutely and this was so audacious. that the Israelis didn't tell their. closest Ally the United States until. about 5 minutes before the strike is.

going to hit wow American officials were. not happy not only does it create this. diplomatic and security challenge but it. also for Secretary of Defense Lloyd. Austin it presents a very serious. problem about what will the response be. and what kind of threats now will this. POS to American troops in the Middle. East so the US does something pretty. unusual right away one is they come out. and say publicly that the Israelis. didn't give them any kind of advanced. notice of this and the other thing they. do that's also unusual is the United.

States kind of both publicly but very. much privately starts to Signal the. Iranians through back channels that the. US government had nothing to do with. this attack on April 1st and the. Damascus Embassy you know they had no. prior knowledge of it and were not. involved in it and so the message to the. Iranians from Washington is don't blame. us we know Israel is our key Ally but we. had no idea this was coming you know we. don't want to get caught in the blowback. interesting so the Americans are.

basically saying look Israel we're in. the middle of a pretty high stake. situation here there's this war in Gaza. proxies are firing Rockets into your. territory it's all kind of on a Harris. trigger taking this shot at these. Iranian military officials was not a. good idea how do the Israelis respond. what is their explanation to their. American Allies for killing this top. Iranian commander on April 1st well the. Israelis are saying look these are the. people that are planning attacks on us.

through their proxies and we are in a. war of survival with them and they are. the root of the problem that we are. facing not just in in Gaza with Hamas. but with hisbah with the houthis in. Yemen with these milias in Iraq and. Syria Iran is behind all of these groups. these partners and proxies that they. have and they're willing to take the. risk despite the blowback that they. almost certainly know will happen once. they strike these Iranians in Syria they. willing to take it because they just.

don't get opportunities like this very. often and they feel pretty confident. that they can take a step like this as. risky it is and audacious as it is. because they've seen it work. [Music]. before we'll be right back. [Music].

so Eric why were the Israelis so. confident that engaging with Iran in. this kind of risky way was something. they were willing to gamble on I mean it. resulted in this historic Iranian attack. so why risk something like that so the. Israelis had been involved in a shadow. war with Iran for years where each side. took shots at some of their senior. military people or other operatives but. it's always been kind of below the radar. if you will the Israeli strike on April.

1st that precipitated this attack from. Iran was a clear departure from that. shadow war and I think one reason why. Israel had that change in approach was. because it was looking to a specific. American action against Iran as a kind. of a. model in January 2020 the United States. under President Trump made an EXT. extraordinary move he went after a guy.

named Major General kasum. sulamani now sulamani at the time was. Iran's most powerful security and. intelligence. commander and he worked closely with. Iraqi and Lebanese allies he nurtured. proxy forces to form a kind of Shiite. axis of power throughout the whole. region medy in in Iran lauded him as a. hero somebody he was essentially.

Untouchable to the west and he was. almost too big to kill however he'd also. been long designated as a terrorist by. the United States and because many of. his forces had been fighting against the. United States after the United States. invasion of Iraq so Trump orders a. strike to kill General sulamani he was. on a visit to Iraq and while he's at the. Baghdad airport they take him out and. it's just stunning I remember the strike. because it was you know everybody was. saying this is going to be the beginning.

of the end I mean this guy is the most. important guy in many ways in Iran and. the United States just killed him yeah. yeah well Trump said he was plotting. imminent and Sinister attacks against. American interests that was his. reasoning after the strike but everybody. was just waiting to holding their breath. for what's going to happen next what. will be Iran's response to the death of. their top General and sure enough 5 days. later. Iran responded they launched more than a.

dozen ballistic missiles at al-asad. Airbase a major American base in Western. Iraq where hundreds of US service. members are stationed the response was. important in Iran's view this a major. attack again using a very sophisticated. weapon against an American base in Iraq. more than 100 Americans suffered brain. injuries but no one was killed given. suman's position and the influence he. had over covert operations the Iranian.

attack could have been much. [Music]. worse in fact the Iranians come out. looking kind of restrained in the. response Iran did not want a full-scale. war with the United States at this point. despite their public remarks despite the. loss of this revered General would push. came to shove at that point they did not. want to cross that line so what is the. lesson in the sumani example for what we.

saw this past weekend Eric I mean is it. fair to say that perhaps the Israelis. were right in their assumptions you know. that what we saw in how Iran prosecuted. this attack on Saturday the advanced. warning the slow rollout the targeting. of remote bases rather than Urban. centers that all of this seems to have. been done to send a signal and that that. signal was that Iran is only willing to. go so. far yes they're essentially you know. maneuvering themselves to give them a.

way out it's an offramp here by. basically saying okay look we're done. for these strikes for now this has been. a defensive measure that's how they're. calling it that's how they're casting it. and basically unless you israelies want. to ramp this thing up you know we're. done we're done for now and that seems. to be where Iran wants to leave it right. and so the ball is in Israel's court. right now as to what the response will. be next okay so what do we know about.

what Israel is thinking what's going to. be Israel's response so that's the. question everyone is asking right now. Israel's closest and strongest Ally the. United States is pushing Israel to. basically stop here President Biden. spoke with prime minister Netanyahu and. told him hey you got everything you. wanted you killed the generals you. stabed off this massive Iranian attack. this basically could not have worked out. any better for you take the out the. Iranians are giving you and let this be.

the end of it for now yeah look we came. to your Aid when you were in need we put. our planes and our Ships In Harm's Way. and help knock down these missiles and. drones but we will not help you. retaliate against Iran if that's the. decision you decide to make Eric this. strikes me as a pretty tricky moment for. President Biden right because you know. he's asking Netanyahu not to ESC at but.

at the end of the day you know Netanyahu. has lots of constituencies he's dealing. with he's under lots of pressure and now. that Iran has attacked like this. directly it's going to be harder for. Biden to use his leverage against Israel. so I guess the next question then is. Will Netanyahu actually take the win as. the Americans are advising him to do. well and that's the open question you've. got in one year the Americans are. telling him stop take the win don't make. this any worse but in the other year.

you've got the far-right cabinet members. saying you cannot let this stand you. know you you must strike aggressively. back you cannot do this and so what you. seem at least the early statements from. the Israelis are saying look we will. continue to defend ourselves and we will. respond at a time and place of our. choosing it's sort of international. speak for we're going to do something. but we're going to do it later that's. right and of course we're the the. hardliners in netanyahu's cabinet to win.

out that of course would potentially. spark the regional war that we've long. been worrying about and have been. talking to you for a long time about. Eric that's right and of course that. would have multiple effects I mean think. about it just as there's this huge. debate before all this happened over the. Israeli operation in Rafa and Southern. Gaza now well Israel's ability already. is so difficult to do that but can you. imagine having to to and prosecute its.

mission of dismantling the last. stronghold of Hamas and Gaza and having. to what fight some other kind of broader. second or third front at the same time. as a whole it would you know upset the. stability of the entire region this. happens and any escalation here would. open the door to a much wider Regional. War I gu the question is you know will. Israel bring us into one or will Iran. lose patience and and bring us into one. from that side yes in the United States.

and Iran they're saying here is this the. line we're willing to walk up to and the. question is whether Israel is willing to. set that line or go. further you know you seem to have in. this case the Iranians and the Americans. in a weird way are kind of aligned in. this like enough enough already in the. Israelis everybody's kind of leaning. forward and saying okay now. what is this going to get. worse and that's what we just don't. don't know.

yet Eric thank. you thank. you on Sunday the United Nation Security. Council held an emergency meeting at the. request of Israel with diplomats urg. restraint by all parties to prevent the.

conflict in the Middle East from. escalating the Secretary General of the. UN Antonio guz told the council that it. was quote time to step back from the. brink we'll be right back. [Music].

here's what else you should know today. on Friday in a major turnaround the. house passed a reauthorization of a. surveillance law that National Security. officials say is crucial to Gathering. intelligence and fighting terrorism and. civil liberties Advocates say improperly. allows warrantless surveillance of. American. citizens the law known as the foreign. intelligence surveillance act or fisa. had stalled in the house just a few days.

before when former president Donald. Trump had urged lawmakers to kill it but. Republican speaker Mike Johnson rescued. it by putting forward a version that. extends the law by Just 2 years instead. of the original five that was enough to. persuade hard-right Republicans who had. been blocking the bill to vote for it. and in Sydney Australia six people were. killed and at least 12 others were. injured in a stabbing Rampage at a.

crowded shopping mall on. Saturday the attack was the deadliest. Act of mass violence in the country in. years the authorities said that there. were no indications that it was a hate. crime or related to. [Music]. terrorism today's episode was produced. by relle Banja Alex Stern and Luke. vender plug it was edited by Mark George. with help from Lisa Chow contains.

original music by Dan Powell Marian. Lozano and Alicia Bebe and was. engineered by Chris Wood our theme music. is by Jim brunberg and Ben Lanser of. [Music]. [Music]. wonderly that's it for the day. I'm Sabrina Tavern see you tomorrow.

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