israel awake and on edge. overnight. as iran unleashed hundreds of missiles and drones in retaliation for the april 1st attack on the iranian consulate in syria. i'm jonathan hunt, live in los angeles. it's daylight now in israel, where they are now looking to assess the damage following iran's first ever direct military assault on israeli territory. now that damage is believed to be minimal, with israel's air defense systems, along with us military action taking out most, if not all, of the iranian drones and missiles. but the message iran wanted to send is very clear. and now the unprecedented revenge mission is pushing an already tense region even closer to a wider war. multiple thresholds have been crossed here that have not been crossed before for. and i

think it is correct to say that, we're going to be looking at a new middle east in the future. the white house is monitoring the situation closely, and president biden has, as you would expect, been in contact with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. the president released this statement late saturday night, saying in part, quote, at my direction, to support the defense of israel, the us military moved aircraft and ballistic missile defense destroyers to the region over the course of the past week. thanks to these deployments and the extraordinary skill of our service members, we helped israel take down nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles. and the idf has, in fact, in the last few minutes, confirmed that they took out 99% of those drones and missiles that were launched at it from iran. they also, as we

understand it, were launched from yemen and from iraq, possibly also from syria. now for the very latest, let's turn to fox news correspondent stephanie bennett, live from london. hello again, stephanie. hey, jonathan. yeah, a lot of interesting information in that latest release from the idf. they said more than 300 targets were intercepted and as you said, 99% of those threats were taken care of. now, some of those they claim from iraq and also yemen, and they say not a single cruise missile entered israeli territory. israel's minister of defense saying our support from international allies was always tight. but tonight it was unprecedented. we have thwarted the most significant wave of the attack, and we did so successful. we now, of course, there was slight damage to the infrastructure of an air base, but reports show it did minimal damage and all aircraft are operating from it. of course, after a busy last few hours,

u.s. defense officials say it appears the attacks have paused for now, slowed down a little bit. israeli minister of defense saying the campaign, though, is not over yet. we must remain alert and attentive and must be prepared for every scenario. this, of course, is the islamic state's first ever direct attack on the jewish state, raising the risk of a broader regional confrontation to surely ensue. crews will start to assess the damage as we wait for more information on more response. for now, the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, took to social media this evening saying, quote, we were intercepted in our break together, we will win israeli air defenses with support, of course, from the u.s. jordan and british air forces intercepted many of those drones, many of those missiles over syria, iraq and jordan. now, the u.s. shot down approximately. they're thinking 70 iranian drones and multiple ballistic missiles. once the drone set off, they took a few hours to travel over from iran, over to israel. so everyone had a little bit of time for that

brief heads up to prepare. of course, again, all stemming from april 1st, when the israeli air strike on an iranian embassy compound in syria that killed several iranian military advisors. this, of course, a developing story. jonathan steph, we've heard the reaction, obviously, from president biden here, that the commitment to israel's defense is ironclad and will continue to be. so what about the reaction in london and other european capitals? yeah, jonathan, here in the uk, the british prime minister, rishi sunak, posting on social media today saying i condemn in the strongest terms the iranians regime's reckless attack against israel. they also said iran has once again demonstrated that it is intent on sowing chaos in its own backyard. going on to say that the uk will continue to stand up for israel's security and that all of our regional partners, including jordan and

iraq, alongside our allies, we are urgently working to stabilize the situation and prevent further escalation. no one wants to see more bloodshed and we're also seeing more comments coming through as the hours go on. and we'll bring you the latest when we get them. steph bennett, thanks for your excellent work through the night here as we mentioned, the white house has already issued a statement saying that the us will continue to stand alongside side and behind israel as it fights off these attacks from iran. politicians on capitol hill also speaking out and springing into action, trying support, trying to support their strongest middle east ally. fox news correspondent chanley painter has more good evening chanley. good evening. great to be with you, jonathan. yes the white house releasing a statement here in the u.s. that the president, of course, condemning the attacks on israel by iran, the president spoke on the phone with israeli

prime minister benjamin netanyahu, to quote, reaffirm america's ironclad commitment to the security of israel. the statement goes on to say the president will convene with fellow g7 leaders to coordinate a united diplomatic response later today. meanwhile, the presumptive republican nominee addressed the attacks at a campaign rally in pennsylvania. watch i want to say god bless the people of israel. they're under attack right now. that's that's because we show great weakness. this would not happen. the weakness that we've shown is unbelievable, and it would not have happened if we were in office. you know that. they know that. everybody knows that. but america prays for israel. we send our absolute support to everyone in harm's way. iran's actions are also garnering reaction from members of congress on both sides of the aisle, including from the house majority leader steve scalise. excuse me, announcing

that the house will now refocus this week's agenda from themed legislation to an aid package for israel posting, quote, the house of representatives stands strongly with israel and there must be consequences for this unprovoked attack. also senate majority leader chuck schumer releasing a statement saying, quote, we stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of israel. iran's regime must take immediate steps to ratchet down their recklessly aggressive behavior. it can be expected schumer's stance to garner criticisms now from republicans since just weeks ago, schumer took to the floor to condemn netanyahu, calling for new elections in israel. but it now seems congress is primed to tackle bipartisan support legislation as soon as possible. jonathan chanley painter. thank you so much. i want to bring in now, once again for our continuing coverage. the israeli consul general, israel bahar, is a consul general. excuse me.

thank you so much for being here once again for us, is there any way really for this to be allowed to continue to this constant prodding of the international community by the iranian regime and now an outright, outright and very large attempted attack against israeli territory? don't we need to change the game here in terms of iran somehow? well, i hope so. i think we just get a reality check. what does it mean? having iran with its own aggression against independent states, the only democratic state in the region. so the world really needs to understand where it is in a point. i call it like a churchillian moment that the world needs to come forward and understand that in the last minute to stop iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, which is going to going to threat not only israel but the whole free world. so so if iran

is not going to be stopped, we're going to see a very different world, not the same world that we are living in right now. and this is a danger to israel, to america, to every civilized country around the globe. and how dependent is israel at this point, do you think, on global support, not just from the us, but how important is regional support? for instance, we saw jordan tonight using its air defense systems to take out some of those drones, some of those missiles. but it seems that israel needs every friend it can get right now. mister consul general, first of all, we know, we know to defend ourselves and also to carry an attack if we need to. however, it's definitely not an israeli sole issue, to deal with iran. and that's what we are saying for the last 20 years, iran is a regional threat and mostly also it's a superpower in the

region, and we need to understand it. so the moderate arab states, whether it's jordan, the emirates or any other states are, terrified that iran is going to expand its hegemony in the region. and we just saw last night that a lot of the countries, really hope that israel is going to stand tall and strong and face iran, without being deterred from iran. and we are calling the whole region and the whole world to stand up to iran. so to your question, is the region are stepping up? i hope so, maybe it's an opening door, a new opening track, that we are not going to be alone in this war against iran as the more the arab motor states are going to, come forward and be loud and clear that iran is a threat to the world and are going to be willing to do their effort on their part to join forces with us to stop iran. we are more than welcoming that,

mister consul general, thank you for staying with us tonight. we'll be back to you once again for more of your thoughts on what is happening in the middle east tonight. later at the bottom of the hour. thank you, mister consul general, i want to bring in now doctor sumantra maitra, global politics expert. doctor, thanks for staying with us once again, the. we were talking to the consul general earlier about the potential now for israeli retaliation, and the thought that any country that was targeted by 300 or so missiles and drones from any other country would almost certainly take military action. now, obviously, we are on a knife edge there. and if israel retaliates against what iran considers its retaliation for what it says not being officially admitted, but it says was an israeli attack on the iranian officials who were

in damascus at the time. do we just keep going with this tit for tat and how how does it end? what direction does it take us in doctor? you're right. jonathan, this is the risk of what we say, a spiral model of conflict where neither side has got any incentive to back down. and that would lead to further, you know, escalation from both sides. israelis, though, have options of having asymmetric escalations against other iranian proxies, for example. so, for example, if the iranians wanted to have a direct war with israel, they would have allowed hezbollah to attack israel. they didn't. they tried to do it with their drones, which were subsonic. took a long time to come. as we mentioned the other day, but also the israeli is, can also retaliate against iranian proxies in both iraq and syria and damascus. they have already done that against the quds forces in the region. so by

hitting iranian agents and iranian proxies. but without hitting iran directly, it could continue to play that game for a long time. however, as you mentioned, there is always a risk in a spiral. at one point of time, the dam might break. at one point of time, one of the countries might need to show to their clients or to their population that they are. they have the resolve and that is a dangerous moment, israel has received from around the world, obviously, support in its war against hamas. it's also received a great deal of criticism for the way it is prosecuting that war. do you believe that those who have been critical of the war in gaza would be critical if israel nponded mitarily against iran, whether it was on iranian territory or against iranian proxies and interests elsewhere? so this is an interesting question, a couple

of there are two different types of criticism that has been hurled on israeli operations in gaza. the first one is ideological, obviously, that israel is committing genocide in gaza and all that stuff that i don't know, i don't i don't really think that's a valid criticism of israel anyway. so it was under attack. so it retaliated in gaza. fair enough. but the second criticism is one which is tactical. so for example, what is israeli end game in gaza? what is the what is the theory of israeli victory in gaza? what does it want to achieve. like how long does he want to, you know, does it want to continue, going to war in gaza? what other fronts? israel wants to start a conflict. so these are the questions that israelis need to answer. they don't want to commit a mistake that the americans did for example, in iraq where we go in but we don't know how to come out. and that's a that's a risk. now, as for the israeli retaliation against iran, obviously it needs to do something, i don't think it can take it lying down, but on the other hand, from the israeli

strategic perspective, it's also risky to start a confrontation. iran, at the end of the day, as the israeli consul general mentioned just before me, is not just a small power. it's not iraq. it's not syria. it is a big power. it's surrounded. it is almost on the verge of getting nuclear weapons. so one needs to be careful about escalation. and most importantly, iran has a lot of proxies, which are right next to israel. yeah, we are in a perilous situation and there are a lot of very consequential decisions to be made by the israeli war cabinet over the next 48, 72 hours. we shall see. doctor sumantra maitra, thank you so much for your, fascinating expertise on all of this, doctor. thank you. so here we are now, 300 missiles and drones launched from iran, from iraq, from yemen, all by iranian proxies at israel, 99% of those, according to the idf, shot down, successfully intercepted before doing any

damage. but the region obviously on a knife edge now. and we await now to see what

the pentagon continues to be on high alert is iran launches a missile attack on israel. u.s. forces working in formation with israel to shoot down some of those drones. dozens of drones, actually. israeli forces a few moments cup saying most of the drums were intercepted outside of israel's border. joining us now, national security correspondent jennifer griffin with the latest from the pentagon, what you got? >> registered drones have been shut down as we've reported he was officials tell us the u.s. military has shut down dozens of one-way attack drones outside of israeli airspace but also ballistic and cruise missiles. we've learned u.s. military assets in the region have been used to intercept some of those holistic and land attack cruise

missiles we were reported in the last hour or fire from iran so that means iran fired not just drones but also ballistic and cruise missiles. what is significant is the u.s. military engaged at least one of those ballistic missiles in a manner that protected israel so u.s. navy, u.s. air force, central command, very busy tonight across the middle east. we also understand the jordanian air force and missile defense systems very busy tonight, they've engaged. i've been told dozens of iranian drones passing through their airspace. idf has been clear most of the drones and missiles were destroyed and intercepted outside israeli airspace, good news for israel and shows the incredibly complex layered missile defense and air assets employed to engage not just

these missiles and drones but also we are told aircraft% by hostile aircraft sent toward israel and they were all intercepted, we are told so a lot of activity in the skies over the middle east tonight but we are getting good science from the idf telling israelis they no longer necessarily be in shelter so this first wave of attacks appears to be winding down but we are told the u.s. military aircraft are still in the skies patrolling, ensuring israel is safe tonight. >> i'm sure that is important thing to do. thank you. sandra. >> california for public congressman and former u.s. navy pilot, mike garcia, appreciate you joining us tonight working news.

jen griffin's reporting there on the u.s. military shooting down what we now know was dozens of one-way attack drones and ballistic and land attack cruise missiles intercepted. these are things you are very familiar with. can you take us through the process, the u.s. military shooting down one-way attack drones and what's involved records unique to the u.s. military, really defense forces have a very sophisticated system, integrated air system comprised not only of surface to air missiles where they have medium-range missiles and short range systems like iron dome which most people are familiar with but israelis have fifteens and at 35's and they are airborne for a couple of hours, high-resolution long-range

active electronically scanned radars typical targets from triple digits, miles away in most cases. what we see is iran watching what looks to be by the time the account is done, i'm willing to bet it's going to be more than a couple hundred projectiles, rockets of drones and they are testing the air defense system. from a product perspective, you are airborne, you got in 120 air to air missiles on board from a 20-millimeter at your disposable as well and commander on the ground accrington turn directions and most of these one-way suicide crohn's on the radar look like cessna, it's similar to cessna 172 so they will pick them up among ranges, time to do positive identification and corroborate and make sure they are targeting the system and not an innocent

civilian aircraft for some reason before they pull the trigger. once they pull the trigger, it's high odds missiles they are using will take down these systems so this isn't a sophisticated checking of power from iran tonight but what it does demonstrate is how vulnerable israel is, threat from all 360 degrees from hezbollah, hamas and to the ea east, iran with directed past using not only drones but also ballistic missiles so this is why we need to stand behind the emphasis the fruits of appeasement relevant peace through strength we've been seeing out of this a penetration. there will keep the air sanitize the next several hours and i will shoot down most of the things that come down but if you chew a couple hundred, it only takes one get through this complex sometimes confusing picture to potentially kill hundred of people and this is why we need to help israel.

>> a couple didn't get through invented on the ground near military bases. he didn't name the military base but reports are that and airbase was targeted, that's where a lot of they go up potentially even though israel hasn't technology, that took out mohammed. want to ask you because i don't know if you saw it or not but these small drones, the ones you described as being the size of cessna cayman to israel with lights on. think u.s. pilots are israeli pilots would have them lighted up to shoot them down, maybe iranians were saying we want to make sure you get these so they don't actually kill anybody what you think this was an element of terror for iranians to cite see the light? that's us, we can put a missile anywhere we want to. >> i don't think we should

assume the best of intentions from the iranian regime. i don't know why they would have lights on, it would make it easier to see but they are going to track with radar other sensors, you don't need a like to see these things coming so it does require a response and if you recall 2019, iran shot down one of our global fox and expensive report, $75 million we did react in kind and strike back with iranian territory of the missile sites that launched missiles to take down the talk. it doesn't necessarily mean world war iii but israelis have a right to protect themselves and i don't care if they turned their flashlight on her indicate that they were supposed to be shut down, iranians need to be responsible. >> where your concerns lie stars terrorism here at home and a radiant presence confirmed look

radiant crossing over our borders, we are getting an update nypd, counterterrorism efforts in putting in place, increasing visibility at relevant institutions here out of an abundance of caution. where your concerns lie here at home? >> was clear with fbi director ray earlier this week in one of our appropriation hearings, i don't trust him. the fact that he's sounding alarms is interesting but this open southern border thing going on for three years in a man-made joe biden ran on so we have 7 million people in our country and we don't know who all of them are even if it's .01%, it's enough to create enough damage and kill enough americans to answer, doctor we are more vulnerable today than before september 10 of 2001 so we need to close the border, double on investments and readiness and recruiting of our military and

secure our comment but we need to invest in israel and make sure they don't run out of equipment. the amount of bullets israel has is a critical situation. we can defend our home and secure our borders and protect israel, we just need a president who cares to do that first. >> 7.4 million you mentioned, people apprehended by or patrol we got eyes on, estimated 1.8 -- we don't even know. >> they sit on the intelligence committee god knows how many are here we don't know and haven't been able to track this is why i told director ray flat out earlier this week i don't trust him or our president. they are intentionally putting us in clear and present danger's situation as leaders of our country so we need new

leadership obviously. >> appreciate you joining us tonight, thank you very much. interesting perspective thank on what it takes to shoot one of these things down. >> not easy. >> israel : immediate meeting of un security council, morgan ortega's joins us as we monitor breaking news out of israel, she g

israel awake and on edge. overnight. as iran unleashed hundreds of missiles and drones in retaliation for the april 1st attack on the iranian consulate in syria. i'm jonathan hunt, live in los angeles. it is daylight, of course, now in israel, where they are assessing the damage following iran's first ever direct military assault on israeli territory. that damage seems to be minimal, with israel's air defense systems helped by u.s. military action taking out most, if not all, 99. in fact, we are told of the iranian drones and missiles. but the message iran wanted to send is very clear. there are,

by the way, reports of injuries, including a seven year old israel girl who's in critical condition. we believe she was hit by shrapnel. now the unprecedented revenge mission carried out by iran is now pushing an already tense region. even closer to a wider war. multiple thresholds have been crossed here that have not been crossed before, and i think it is correct to say that, we're going to be looking at a new middle east in the future. the white house is, of course, monitoring the situation closely. and president biden has been in contact with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. mr. biden released a statement late on saturday night saying in part, quote, at my direction , to support the defense of israel, the us military moved

aircraft and ballistic missile defense destroyers to the region over the course of the past week. thanks to these deployments and the extraordinary skill of our service members, we helped israel take down nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles. joining us now, israeli consul general israel bahar. consul general, thank you again for being with us tonight. but first of all, how seriously do you think the israeli war cabinet is now considering a military response to this unprecedented attack by iran? i believe the israeli government right now, and definitely also last night is, on an hour by hour basis. it's, reassessing its, next response, whether we're going to respond or not militarily, for sure, we have the moral standing and the

legal international standing, to respond if we decided to, because israel is being attacked by iran, without any aggression on our side, really on iran's soil. and by the way, jonathan, you generally you generally are saying and you're repeating the fact that, we attack a consulate in damascus that belongs to, to the iranian regime. it was not a consulate. it was a military compound that was related to the revolutionary guard of the iranians. so this is a military compound, another real consulate, yes. we take your point. obviously the iranians will say otherwise, but, we take your point of what the what israel believes that and has said that building was used for. and no doubt there were obviously members of the iranian revolutionary revolutionary guard were there

at that point, how do you interpret the support for israel so far in this particular situation? i'm not talking about gaza. i'm talking about this particular situation with iran. is it enough? should the world stand four square behind israel, if indeed it decides that military a military response is necessary? first of all, we i think we are thankful to the american support and britain's support, so, president biden's statement, definitely we need to give credit to the american servicemen and personnel for doing a terrific job in intercepting the missile that war. war attacked or on their way to israel. and, you know, there's a lot of israeli and american technology that on a day by day basis, we are developing together our defense mechanism, defense technology that we deploy together. and

this cooperation is a great success for israel. and the scientists and american scientists. so we are thankful for that, on the other international, front, we definitely we, we expect for more support from other countries and we do get it right now. and we hope that going to steadfast and stand tall with israel in the upcoming days. yeah. mr. consul general, i get the impression, reading between the lines a little bit of president biden's statement from the white house tonight that he's saying this was, in essence, a win for israel and that they were attacked with 300 or so missiles and drones, none of which did any significant damage, the vast majority of which never even made it to israeli territory. that would seem to perhaps imply that the president's view might be that there doesn't need to be an

israeli military reaction. i wonder how you view president biden's statement. the first phase of what happened in the last 48 hours. it was really a defensive, phase a, and that's what it was. we defended ourselves. the american help us to do it. and the question what is phase b? so phase b can be diplomatic. definitely. it also can be militarily the prime minister is going to decide on it with his, wartime cabinet. but from a diplomatic point of view, and i'm not running away from answering your question, but from a diplomatic point of view, we need to do two things. one, we need to bring back a crippling sanctions against iran economy and two, we need to outlaw the revolutionary guard and name it as a terrorist organization, as it should be, because that's what they are. they're terrorists. if there was going to come together this week to do it in the un council, it's definitely it's going to be a first step.

towards taking seriously the iranian threat in regards to your question about the military action, really, we need to wait our israeli assess what it needs to do, i believe that all of the options on the table in the israeli cabinet and the government will need to decide its course, what it's going to do. we have allies around the world. we are listening to them. but eventually israeli needs to defend itself by itself. and that's up to us to decide whether we are going to do it or not. and mr. consul general, we have some other breaking news very much related, of course, because all of these things are related regarding the war against hamas in gaza. the mossad has reported this morning, sunday morning in israel, that hamas has outright rejected the latest deal to release the hostages. your thoughts on that, sir? it's pretty much was obvious for me

anyway that hamas is playing a game with the issue of the hostages. unfortunately, we went a very, very long way in order to get a deal to release the hostages. some people had a criticism that maybe the israeli government is not doing enough. it's not flexible enough and willing to negotiate with hamas, we did negotiated. we went way long ahead in order to reach a deal. and hamas, because it's a terrorist organization, inhumane, that holds five americans hostages right now in the tunnels in gaza. and another probably, almost 100 israelis in the tunnels, there needs to be released, are not being released before hamas. they don't have dignity to human beings, to civilians, and for sure not to the international community. so, i'm not surprised about it, hopefully we need to exercise more

military pressure on them. it probably that's the only way they're going to get them out. mr. consul general, it has been an absolute pleasure having you with us tonight for our breaking news coverage. we thank you, sir, for your time and your thoughts on all of these issues that israel is facing. and to sum up very briefly, 300 missiles and drones fired by iran and iranian proxies at israel in the last few hours, 99% of them the

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breaking news, is real under attack as a ranked laundress dozens drones and cruise missiles. strongest now, former trump investment senior fellow maven sale. the big russian tonight, what does israel do? what does the biden administration counsel netanyahu to do and if they did retalia retaliates, what you think they would do? >> what we have seen, i will try to do justice to all three. last month we seen the white house publicly parading netanyahu and his work on coalition government basically being best, nagging them not to fight despite and gaza, provide this amount of humanitarian assistance, have this kind of internal accountability for mistakes treatment, i'm worried

now that israel has faced unprecedented attack on common, 200 missiles and drones at least biden felt israel to take it easy. quote america dukes? what was joe biden do if an enemy launched 200 missiles at the united states? we wouldn't supply and give speeches of the run, the american people would demand the president take action and israeli people i think will demand netanyahu's coalition government take action because the only way you will resort deterrent against iran. they are doing it because they think they can get away with it and israel have to prepare wro wrong. >> thanks for joining us. we cannot confirm one security council will meet sunday tomorrow 4:00 p.m. on the situation in the middle east. we are still waiting on the readout between president biden and netanyahu. your thoughts and what message you want u.s. to send amid the

conflict? >> i think the message u.s. needs to send as we are behind israel one 100%. our closest ally in the region faces unprecedented attack on the torment, there's no if's, answer but. one thing we do here is we need to get military assistance approved through congress, not so long ago a couple members were talking about conditioning eight, israel is not want to get conditions unless it agrees to the wish list of the house and senate. that's up the window and it's important for israel to hear on a bipartisan basis america will have its back and try to restore deterrence against regime in iran that white house is calling from day one. >> the genie is out of the bottle, somebody walked across

the redline. iran for the first time act is really all meant. how does that change the dynamic? >> iran likes to play games with a hide behind their proxies. it was never plausible. we all knew what was going on but now they feel emboldened to strike over. that tells me they think they can get away with it. got to prove them wrong. >> thank you for joining us. >> really great to have them on. don, great to be with you covering this. thanks to our reviewers for joining us and we will be back here monday, get 1:00 p.m. eastern time. >> stay with fox news for mark breaking news out of israel.

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