Iran attack was 'declaration of war', Israeli president says - but insists 'we are seeking peace'

Iran’s attack on Israel was a “declaration of war”, the country’s president has told Sky News.

The remains of a rocket booster that, according to Israeli authorities, critically injured a seven-year-old girl. Pic: Reuters

Isaac Herzog said it was “about time the world faces this empire of evil in Tehran”.

World leaders need to “make it clear” to the Iranian regime that its behaviour is “unacceptable”, Mr Herzog added.

“We should be looking lucidly at the phenomena called Tehran and Iran.”

Israel has not sought war since its creation in 1948, the president insisted.

“We are peace seekers. We went to peace with our neighbours time and time again. Unfortunately, it all started on the 7th of October when another proxy of Iran, Hamas, led an unbelievably brutal massacre against Israeli citizens and the rest is history. We know it. So we should it in perspective.”

He described Iran’s launch of more than 300 drones and missiles towards Israel on Saturday as “just another example of how [Tehran] has operated for years and years”.

Follow live updates after Iran’s attack on Israel

“We were attacked last night from four corners of the Middle East with proxies shooting at us, firing missiles and ballistic missiles, drones and cruise missiles,” he told Sky News’s Middle East correspondent, Alistair Bunkall.

“This is like a real war. I mean, this is a declaration of war,” he said, before adding that Israel would exercise restraint.

Asked whether he agreed with Western allies who are calling for calm, Mr Herzog said: “The last thing that Israel is seeking in this region since its creation is to go to war – we are seeking peace.”

But Tehran has been “spreading havoc, terror and instability all over the world, and especially in our region”, he said.

Iran has proxies all over the Middle East and terror cells all around the world, Mr Herzog went on.

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Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said its direct assault on Israel was in retaliation for an “attack on the consular section of the Iranian embassy in Damascus” on 1 April.

Two generals and seven members of the IRGC were killed in the strike, which Tehran blamed on Israel. Israel has not publicly commented.

Mr Herzog told Sky News the strike “wasn’t in the consulate” but in a “separate building nearby the consulate”.

He added that the most senior general assassinated had led operations from Lebanon and Syria.

There had been “terror attacks day in, day out, with the entire machine instructed from Tehran”, he said.

Mr Herzog said the “number one issue” for Israel was the release of hostages still being held in Gaza.

“We want them back as soon possible,” he said. “The entire world leadership is calling for that. But Hamas is adamantly refusing. Time and again. That’s the real situation at hand.”

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Regarding aid deliveries to Gaza, he said: “We’ve opened up many crossings and passages. We’ve enabled an enormous amount of aid also to be parachuted down, and also coming from the sea and from terrestrial openings.”

Following last night’s attack, the IDF said 99% of Iranian missiles and drones were intercepted.

Mr Herzog said he was “happy that we are part of an incredible coalition of nations that has been part and parcel in preventing most of these missiles and drones and weapons to come into Israel”.

Rishi Sunak, the UK prime minister, said the RAF had shot down “a number” of Iranian attack drones.

He said “additional planes” were sent to the region as part of operations already under way in Iraq and Syria.

Had Iran’s attack on Israel been successful, the “fallout for regional stability would be hard to overstate”, Mr Sunak added.

“This was a dangerous and unnecessary escalation which I have condemned in the strongest terms,” he said.

US planes reportedly downed Iranian drones over northern Syria too.

The Israel Defence Forces is “poised and prepared for further aggression”, IDF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner told Sky News.

He also called the defence of Israel a “unity of reasonable players against the diabolical plan of Iran”.

Asked if Israel would respond, he said: “It’s a very good question. We are looking towards the government today – the government will convene later today and they will make their decisions and instruct the military accordingly.”