April 14, 2024 - Iran's attack on Israel

Airports in Tehran have suspended flights until 6:00 a.m. local time Monday, according to Iran's state-aligned Tasnim news agency and semi-official news outlet ISNA.

All flights in and out of Iman Khomeini Airport, which serves international flights, and Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport, serving domestic flights, have been cancelled. 

Flights in Shiraz, Isfahan, Bushehr, Kerman, Ilam, Sanandaj and several other airports in the west of Iran have been cancelled, the state-affiliated outlets said. 

It comes after Lufthansa and its subsidiary Austrian Airlines — currently the only two Western carriers that operate international flights to Iran — announced the suspension of flights to and from Tehran earlier this week, as the region was on high alert for a retaliatory strike by Iran against Israel.

Tehran's attack on Israel targeted the Nevatim airbase, an Iranian army official has said on Sunday, alleging that this is where Israel's early April strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus was launched from.

The “operation” targeted “the Nevatim airbase, where the F-35 planes were used for targeting our consulate in Damascus,” the chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Major General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, said on Iranian state TV IRINN.

Iranian ballistic missiles that reached Israel fell on the airbase located in the south of the country and caused only light structural damage, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said. The base is functioning and continuing its operations following the attack, with planes continuing to use the base, Hagari added.  

The attack on the Iranian consulate annex building on April 1 killed senior Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders. Israel is widely suspected to be behind the airstrike, though it has not officially claimed responsibility.

Bagheri said Iran’s operation also targeted a “large information center” near Israel's border with Syria.

Iran launched an unprecedented large-scale drone and missile attack at Israel overnight on Saturday, in retaliation for a suspected Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic complex in Syria.

The reprisals marked the first time the Islamic Republic has launched a direct assault on Israel from its soil, marking a dangerous new inflection point in the fast-widening Middle East conflict.

In the aftermath of the attack, Tehran has continued to make threats against Tel Aviv and its Western allies, warning that its response will be "stronger and more resolute" if Israel continues to commit "military aggression."

Below are the latest developments:

The confrontation between Iran and Israel is "not over yet," Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Sunday, following Tehran's attack on Israel the previous night.

"The State of Israel was attacked with hundreds of missiles and [unmanned aerial vehicles], and the [Israel Defense Forces] thwarted this attack in an impressive manner," Gallant said, urging Israelis to remain "alert and attentive to the instructions published by the IDF and Homefront Command." The defense minister stressed that Israel "must be prepared for every scenario."

"Together with the United States and additional partners, we managed to defend the territory of the State of Israel," Gallant continued. "Very little damage was caused – this is the result of the IDF’s impressive operations."

Gallant is one of three men who make up Israel's war cabinet, alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz. The war cabinet has been authorized to decide on Israel’s response to the Iranian attack, an Israeli official told CNN.

On Saturday evening, Netanyahu addressed the citizens of Israel, proclaiming that Israel has been preparing for a direct attack by Iran and is ready for "any scenario, both defensively and offensively."

"We have determined a clear principle," Netanyahu continued. "Whoever harms us, we will harm them. We will defend ourselves against any threat and will do so level-headedly and with determination."

An Israeli airstrike has destroyed a building in the town of Nabi Sheet in Lebanon's Baalbek region, northeast of the capital Beirut, on Sunday, Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) said.

The Israeli military told CNN it cannot yet confirm these reports.

Some background:

Tensions between neighbors Israel and Lebanon have escalated since October 7, with rocket fire regularly exchanged between the two countries. Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah has repeatedly declared its support for the Palestinian people in Gaza and their resistance against Israeli attacks on civilian areas. 

Israeli strikes in the Baalbek region are rarer considering it is further north into Lebanon, about (50 miles) 80 kilometers from the Israel-Lebanon border. Last Sunday, the Israeli military said it struck four sites of Hezbollah's air defense unit in the Baalbek area.

Almost all the ballistic missiles and drones Iran launched at Israel in an unprecedented attack late Saturday were intercepted and failed to meet their mark, according to Israeli and American officials, highlighting the formidable and multi-layered missile defense deployed by the two allied partners.

Most of the more than 300 Iranian munitions were intercepted before they got to Israel, more than 1,100 miles (1,770 kilometers) from their launch points.

The US Navy and US warplanes shot down multiple ballistic missiles, as well as other Iranian ordnance, officials told CNN’s Oren Liebermann at the Pentagon.

Israel's Iron Dome system, the bottom layer of Israel’s missile defense, uses a command-and-control system that quickly calculates whether an incoming projectile poses a threat or is likely to hit an unpopulated area. If the rocket does pose a threat, the Iron Dome fires missiles from the ground to destroy it in the air. There are at least 10 Iron Dome batteries in Israel.

Other Israeli missile defense systems include David's Sling, which uses Stunner and SkyCeptor kinetic hit-to-kill interceptors to take out targets as far as 186 miles away, and Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 systems, jointly developed with the United States, which intercept incoming ballistic missiles in space.

Israel also has state-of-the-art fighter aircraft, including F-35I stealth jets that it has used to shoot down drones and cruise missiles before, according to news reports.

Read the full analysis here

Iran’s IRGC leader said a “new equation” was created after its attack on Israel, and that it will now respond directly whenever Israel attacks its interests, assets or people. 

"Honest Promise" was the name given to Iran’s unprecedented attack late on Saturday, which saw drones and missiles launched at Israel over a five-hour period.

The attack marked a dangerous new inflection point in the fast-widening Middle East conflict, bringing the long-running shadow war between the two sides into the open and raising the prospect of full-blown regional conflict.

The US assessed that almost all of the drones and missiles – including more than 100 ballistic missiles – launched by Iran had been knocked out of the sky. No cruise missile made impact and nothing of “value” was hit, according to a senior White House official.

Iraq said it had reopened its airspace after it was temporarily closed overnight amid the attacks on Israel.

The Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority confirmed Sunday that this decision follows the successful "mitigation of all risks" that previously affected the safety and security of civil aviation in Iraq.

The airspace closed on Saturday night as a precautionary measure, following a thorough risk assessment conducted by Iraqi authorities.

Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called on the Israeli government to "learn lessons" and move on to Rafah."

In a post on X, Smotrich said that he had warned that "giving up on Israel's red lines and chasing after Hamas for a deal" would "only decrease" the chance of bringing Israeli hostages held in Gaza back.

"It's time to learn lessons, change direction, move on to Rafah now and restore full Israeli control all over the Gaza Strip," Smotrich added.

Some context: The far-right minister has, in the past, denied the existence of a Palestinian people or nationhood, prompting a rebuke from the United States in March 2023.

More than 1 million Palestinian civilians are estimated to be sheltering in Rafah in southern Gaza, most of them displaced from other parts of the besieged enclave and crammed into a sprawling tent city.

Israel has been threatening an invasion into Rafah for some time now - despite pushback from allies like the US. Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had set a date for the action, adding that "entry into Rafah" is necessary for a "complete victory over Hamas."