Israel reports light damage after Iran launches large strike

Iran mounted an immense aerial attack on Israel on Saturday night, launching more than 300 drones and missiles in retaliation for a deadly Israeli airstrike in Syria two weeks ago, and marking a significant escalation in hostilities between the two regional foes.

The strikes caused only minor damage to one Israeli military base, and most of the airborne threats were intercepted, Israeli military officials said. The United States said it had helped to shoot dozens of drones and missiles.

But the large-scale attack, aimed at targets inside Israel and the territory it controls, opened a volatile new chapter in the long-running shadow war between Iran and Israel.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard said in a statement broadcast on state television that it had launched "dozens of drones and missiles" toward Israel from Iran "in reaction to the Zionist regime's crimes." It later said on social media that it had hit military targets in Israel, warned the United States against getting involved, and threatened more strikes if Iran or its interests were hit.

Here's what we know:

-- A total of 12 people were brought in to the Soroka Medical Center in southern Israel overnight, according to a hospital spokesperson, Inbar Gutter.

-- One of the areas targeted was the Golan Heights, a strategic area bordering Syria that Israel annexed nearly 60 years ago. Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia backed by Iran, said it had fired dozens of rockets at an Israeli barracks there. But it was not immediately clear if that bombardment was part of the wider Iranian attack.

-- In the hours after the attacks, as Iranians gathered in Tehran to celebrate them, more air-raid sirens sounded across vast swaths of southern Israel, the West Bank and Golan Heights. The Israeli government also sent out warnings about possible missiles arriving in the Negev Desert, where there are several military bases. And the airspaces of Israel, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon were closed.

-- President Joe Biden cut short a weekend at his vacation home in Delaware to huddle with his national security team. He also spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.

-- The United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting at 4 p.m. Sunday to discuss Iran's attacks on Israel, the council's president said. Israel's U.N. ambassador, Gilad Erdan, had requested the meeting.