Iranian missile attack on Israel: What you should know and Biden’s response

AAs Iran fired a massive barrage of ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday, President Biden’s hopes of ending the war in Gaza before he leaves office and staving off a larger regional war in the Middle East appeared weaker than ever. The attack from Iran came after Israel expanded its war against Iran’s proxies in the region by launching a brazen series of attacks to topple Hezbollah’s leadership on its northern border and Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen met.

Now Biden is caught between his promise to end the war in Gaza and continuing to support Israel’s defense in an escalating conflict on another front.

The president spent much of Tuesday in the Situation Room, the cramped, wood-paneled command center in the basement of the West Wing, as U.S. intelligence arrived that Iran was preparing a missile attack on Israel in retaliation for the death of Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary general.

Biden ordered the US military to support Israel in its defense against Iran. As the Israelis rushed to bomb shelters, Israeli and US forces largely intercepted the volley of nearly 200 rockets. “The attack appears to be repelled and ineffective,” Biden told reporters at the White House on Tuesday afternoon. “Make no mistake, the United States fully supports Israel.”

National security adviser Jake Sullivan called the attack a “significant escalation by Iran.” The escalations are likely to continue. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Iran had “made a big mistake” and “will pay for it.”

Here are the events that led to Iran’s latest bombing of Israel.

No ceasefire agreement in Gaza

Since the horrific Hamas massacre in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed, the Biden administration has tried to broker a deal between Israel and Hamas that would allow for the return of the scores of hostages still in Gaza would be taken home. However, so far Hamas has refused to release the hostages and Israel has refused to withdraw its forces from Gaza, saying its military campaign will continue until Hamas’s ability to launch attacks from Gaza is destroyed be. Since last October, the death toll in Gaza has surpassed 40,000, local health officials say.

While these negotiations were ongoing, Iran’s proxy force on Israel’s northern border, Hezbollah, continued to fire thousands of rockets from its bases in southern Lebanon into northern Israel, preventing some 60,000 Israelis from returning to their homes within range of Hezbollah’s rockets.

Read more: Exclusive: Netanyahu at war

The pager attacks

For months, Israel largely held back from escalating the war with Hezbollah. Then, over a period of days starting September 17, Israel detonated thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by the Hezbollah leadership in Lebanon, killing more than 40 people and largely crippling the terrorist group’s communications. Over the next few days, the Israeli Air Force dropped hundreds of bombs on Hezbollah’s military infrastructure and leadership in Lebanon.

Last Thursday, as the United Nations General Assembly met in New York, the US and France called on Israel to sign a 21-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. Israel rejected the plan. The next day, shortly after Netanyahu gave a tough speech at the United Nations, an Israeli strike hit Hezbollah’s underground headquarters in the suburb of Dahieh, south of Beirut, killing Nasrallah, the militant group’s leader.

What Israel might do next

Iran had already carried out a direct attack on Israel in April with a barrage of rockets and explosive drones. The Israelis launched a counterattack inside Iran, hitting a radar system near where Iran is developing its nuclear weapons program. It was a sign to Tehran that Israel can evade Iran’s missile defenses and knows the locations of sensitive targets.

Both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have signaled their commitment to helping Israel defend itself. Israel will continue to rely on US weapons to deter Iranian attacks. Israeli officials have been frustrated that the U.S. has not done more in recent years to prevent Iran from cooperating with Russia on weapons development and are urging American officials to work harder to intercept Iranian oil shipments on the black market that Tehran is providing extra bring income.

As Israel demonstrated with the pager attacks in September, it has innovative ways to go on the offensive. It’s possible that Israel will demonstrate more new capabilities in the coming weeks and months, including with cyberweapons, says Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C. “Israel must most likely increase the pressure and increase the price before it can de-escalate,” says Schanzer.

Biden would still like to bring the war to an end through diplomacy. “I think the chances of that happening are probably pretty slim,” says Schanzer.

Asked by reporters in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Tuesday what consequences the missile attack on Israel would have on Iran, Biden said: “That remains to be seen.”