Powerful detonations shook the air, while lights pierced the darkness high above. Iran’s announced attack on Israeli territory, using drones and missiles, had just begun, on the night of Saturday, April 13, to Sunday, April 14. It was a little after 1 am and no one knew whether to be driven by curiosity or fear. In the street, onlookers pointed out to each other the bright streaks in the sky, a sign of the activity of the Iron Dome’s protection systems, including the use of the Arrow system, capable of destroying warheads beyond the atmospheric layer.

These light trails could be seen from Jerusalem’s Old City, creating the false impression that the holy places could be targeted, when in fact they were just missiles destroyed high above the ground. Sirens wailed and repeated orders to go to shelters. And then, very quickly, it was all over. It lasted less than an hour. In other parts of Israel, the same scenario repeated itself. A 7-year-old girl, wounded by shrapnel in the south of the country, was the only casualty recorded. The Nevatim air base in the southern Negev was hit by missiles, but the infrastructure was not seriously damaged. A military intelligence site in the north was also hit, with no known damage.

Iran’s unprecedented attack on Israel was part of the escalation that began with the war in Gaza on October 7, 2023, and led to a gradual escalation between Israel and the Axis of Resistance (Iran’s regional allies) that had raised fears of a regional conflagration for six months. It was carried out using drones and ballistic missiles in response to strikes attributed to the Jewish state on April 1 against a building belonging to the consular section of the Iranian embassy in Damascus, the Syrian capital, which killed seven Iranian Revolutionary Guards, including two generals.

This retaliation had been in the pipeline for two weeks. It had been announced on numerous occasions, then reported as imminent, notably by American sources, who raised the possibility of direct strikes on Israeli soil, with the fear of seeing an escalation with the proportions of a regional war.

Late on Saturday morning, Teheran claimed responsibility for the seizure by the Revolutionary Guards of a commercial vessel chartered by a company linked to an Israeli businessman in the Strait of Hormuz. Later in the day, suicide drones were launched from Iran and immediately detected. The time needed to reach Israel through Iraq and Jordan was estimated at between five and six hours. None of these aircraft, nearly 200 in all, ultimately reached the Israeli border, having been shot down in flight over Jordan and Iraq. Destroyed parts were found not far from the Jordanian capital, Amman, some 60 kilometers from Jerusalem.

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