Iran attack live updates: Tehran warns of 'severe' retaliation to any new Israeli attack (2024)

'We will make our own decisions,' Netanyahu tells allies

It's Columbia University's turn to be grilled before Congress after previous hearings led to the resignations of two Ivy League presidents over questions of antisemitism and the school’s response toconflicts on campus.

Nemat Shafik was originally scheduled to testify in December before the House Education and Workforce Committee, but cited scheduling conflicts at the time.

Tensions and accusations of hate and bias have roiled Columbia, too. In anop-edpublished in The Wall Street Journal Tuesday, Shafik emphasized the delicate balance between protectingfree speechand fostering a safe environment for students on campus.

“Calling for the genocide of a people — whether they are Israelis or Palestinians, Jews, Muslims or anyone else — has no place in a university community,” Shafik wrote. “Such words are outside the bounds of legitimate debate and unimaginably harmful.”

TEL AVIV — As Israel weighs its response to the barrage of missiles and drones fired at the country over the weekend, Iran’s president could not have been more clear with his messaging: Don’t attack.

Speaking at an army parade this morning in Tehran, Ebrahim Raisi said that even the “tiniest” attack by Israel would bring a “severe and harsh response.”

It comes as the Israeli military is promising to respond to Iran’s weekend barrage of missiles and drones.

“Firing 110 ballistic missiles directly to Israel will not get scot-free. We will respond in our time, in our place, in the way that we will choose,” IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said.

At least 13 people were injured after rockets struck western Galilee in northern Israel today, the country's emergency services said in a statement.

The Magen David Adom emergency responders, along with the IDF, are providing medical treatment to the injured and evacuating them to the medical center in Nahariya, it said.

Four of the injured are in serious condition, it added.

In recent days, there have been frequent exchanges across the border with Lebanon between the Israeli military and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group.

Hezbollah said in a statement that it had struck a building in the village of Arab Al-Aramshe, in the western Galilee, this morning. It claimed to have killed and wounded Israeli soldiers in the attack, which it said was a response to the Israeli killing of its members and commanders in Lebanon.

NBC News has not independently verified the claims.

CENTRAL ISRAEL — While the vast majority of Iran’s ballistic missiles were intercepted outside Israeli airspace, the country's military now faces the task of collecting and analyzing those that did get through.

NBC News was given access to a military base in central Israel yesterday, where we saw what the Israel Defense Forces said was the remains of a fuel tank from one of those ballistic missiles.

A hulking tube 36 feet long, it would have carried a warhead that weighs around a thousand pounds, said Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the IDF's chief spokesperson. “If those ballistic missiles would have hit Israel, it would have caused dangerous consequences to the region,” he told reporters.

The IDF said the fuel tank may have been from an Emad missile but that it continued to study the weapon. The fuel tank was found in the Dead Sea and the IDF believes it fell there after being intercepted. A rip in its metal side pointed to possible shrapnel from an interception.

KYIV, Ukraine — In thewave of Iranian drones and missilesthat were shot down before reaching their targets over the weekend, another ally sees the possibilities, and limits, of Western support.

TheUnited States and its partners helped Israel, so why —Ukraineis asking — won’t they helpprotect us from Russian attacks?

It “looks extremely strange,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told NBC News in an interview yesterday.

“How does the civilian population of Ukraine or the civilian infrastructure of Ukraine differ from the civilian population of Israel from a humanistic point of view?” he asked bluntly.

Read the full story here.

Israel has made a decision to respond to Iran's retaliatory strikes, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said after meeting the Israeli President Isaac Herzog this morning.

"It’s clear the Israelis are making a decision to act," he told reporters."We hope they do so in a way that does as little to escalate this as possible."

Cameron said Israel should refocus on its war against Hamas and on the release of the hostages. Tehran has said that any retaliation by Israel will not go unpunished.

Herzog also met with German Foreign Minister in Jerusalem Annalena Baerbock and thanked the two for the "warm discussion."

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has hailed what he framed as the success of the country's retaliatory strikes on Israel, speaking at an annual military parade in Tehran today.

Raisi said that the operation was "limited" and "punitive" but that any Israeli response would be met with a retaliation that would not be limited.

“The army stands by the nation and acts to defend the homeland, territorial integrity, and the values of the Islamic Revolution,” he said, according to the state news agency IRNA.

The United Nations appealed for $2.8 billion yesterday to provide desperately needed aid to 3 million Palestinians. It stressed that tackling a looming famine in Gaza requires not only food, but also sanitation, water and health facilities.

Andrea De Domenico, head of the U.N. humanitarian office for Gaza and the West Bank, told reporters that “massive operations” are required to restore those services and meet minimum standards — and this cannot be done during military operations.

He pointed to the destruction of hospitals, water and sanitation facilities, homes, roads and schools, adding that “there is not a single university that is standing in Gaza”.

De Domenico said Israel’s recently-ended second major military operation at Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical facility, was so destructive that it has been forced to shut down.

A huge banner displayed across the facade of a building in the Iranian capital, Tehran, yesterday depicts missiles aimed at Israel.

The United States will put in place new sanctions targeting Iran and entities that support its Islamic Revolutionary Guard “in the coming days,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said last night.

Sullivan said that the U.S. military will also work to strengthen missile defense and early warning systems across the Middle East “to further erode the effectiveness of Iran’s missile and UAV capabilities.”

“These new sanctions and other measures will continue a steady drumbeat of pressure to contain and degrade Iran’s military capacity and effectiveness and confront the full range of its problematic behaviors,” Sullivan said in a statement.

The European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said its foreign affairs council met and was also united in increasing its sanctions against Iran.

JERUSALEM —At the moment, talks for a cease-fire and the release of Israeli hostages by Hamas are “almost frozen,” a senior Arab diplomat with direct knowledge of the negotiations told NBC News.

The official did not attribute blame and said discussions stalled as tensions with Iran took center stage following Israel’s April 1 attack on the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Sunday that Hamas had rejected Israel’s most recent offer for a deal.

• An uneasy alliance of Arab states helped defend Israel from Iran. Their resolve may soon be tested.
• Sen. Tom Cotton doubles down on comments urging people to ‘forcibly remove’ protesters blocking traffic
• Artist refuses to open Israeli pavilion at Venice Biennale until Gaza cease-fire, hostage release
• Mike Johnson unveils plan to move Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan aid as separate bills this week
• U.S. officials expect Israeli response to Iran strikes will be limited