Hours after Israel staved off a massive wave of Iranian missile and drone assault, President Joe Biden has reportedly told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from retaliating against the biggest aerial attack on the country by a hostile state in 30 years.
The U.S. will not support Israel in its military response against Iran, President Biden said to Prime Minister Netanyahu during a phone call on Saturday, the news website Axios reported.
According to The New York Post, President Biden also downplayed the Iranian attack comprising hundreds missiles and drones, telling Prime Minister Netanyahu that “nothing of “value” was hit in Iran’s airborne attack Saturday and asserted American forces will not be participating in any offensive against Iran.”
Israeli journalist Barak Ravid reported in the Axios:
President Biden told Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a call on Saturday that the U.S. won’t support any Israeli counterattack against Iran, a senior White House official told Axios.” (….)
“You got a win. Take the win,” Biden told Netanyahu, according to the official. (…)
The official said that when Biden told Netanyahu that the U.S. will not participate in any offensive operations against Iran and will not support such operations, Netanyahu said he understood.
Iran on Saturday evening launched more than 300 attack drones, and long-range ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.
“Iran launched hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles in an unprecedented revenge mission that pushed the Middle East closer to a regionwide war,” the Associated Press noted. A 7-year-old Israeli girl was in “serious condition” after being “wounded by shrapnel following the interception of an Iranian drone” over southern Israel, The Times of Israel confirmed.
The IDF, supported by the U.S. armed forces and other Western allies, intercepted nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles. An Israeli “military spokesman said the launches numbered more than 300 but 99% of them were intercepted,” the AP News reported.
While Biden appears to have abandoned Israel as it faces a direct attack from Iran, Netanyahu assured that the Jewish State was prepared to deploy military capabilities “both defensively and offensively,”
“Our defensive systems are deployed; we are ready for any scenario, both defensively and offensively,” the Israeli prime minister said in an address to the nation as news of the Iranian attack broke. “We have determined a clear principle: Whoever harms us, we will harm them. We will defend ourselves against any threat and will do so level-headedly and with determination.”
Netanyahu also thanked the United States, Britain, France and others allies for their military support.
The U.S. armed forces stationed in the region intercepted several of the missiles and drones headed towards Israel. According to the AP News, “U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a separate statement that U.S. forces “intercepted dozens of missiles and UAVs en route to Israel, launched from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. “
Biden’s weak response appears to have emboldened Iran, with Islamic Guard (IRGC) chief Hossein Salami threatening more attacks if Israel responds to the missive overnight strike, reports suggest.
Following the overnight Iranian aerial strikes, the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group ramped up rocket attacks on northern Israel, firing 30 missiles on Sunday morning.
“On Sunday morning, about 30 rockets were fired again from Lebanon toward northern Israel. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for that rocket fire as well, saying it came in response to Israeli strikes on towns in southern Lebanon earlier in the night. One of the rockets fell in Katzrin, causing heavy damage to property but no injuries,” the Jerusalem Post reported.
The IDF reportedly destroyed a weapons factory and other Hezbollah targets along the Israeli border with Lebanon.
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