Israel-Hamas war: What happened on day 189?

Iran launched hundreds of drones directly from its territory against Israel on Saturday night, in a radical change from its usual use of proxies, the IDF has confirmed.

Iran has confirmed as well that its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has begun its missile and drone attack against Israel.

The IDF said that it is ready to shoot them down, though air defense is not hermetic.

Iranian Shahed-136 kamikaze UAV over Iraq at very low altitude, heading to Israel. pic.twitter.com/HpWeqXMMep

— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 13, 2024

The IDF's shoot-down capabilities include aircraft, Iron Dome, David's Sling, and the Arrow missile system.

Israel El Al Airlines has cancelled 15 flights scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, the carrier said on Saturday as hostilities with Iran surged and Israel closed its airspace starting at 12:30 a.m. Sunday morning as a precaution.

Foreign destinations affected include Paris, Rome, Barcelona, Milan, Bucharest, Sofia, Athens, Dubai and Moscow, the El Al statement said.

Family members of Gaza hostages issued an emergency statement on Saturday evening outside the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv.

The statement said: "If in order to receive our loved ones quickly and alive, the price is a ceasefire, agree to end the war and return all the hostages in a deal now. Then, you will be free to deal with the threats from Gaza. First, save lives. The lack of coordination that leads to decisions that endanger the lives of the abductees is carelessness and a crime." 

Additionally, thousands gathered Saturday evening at the Hostages Square in Tel Aviv to call for the return of the hostages held by Hamas. 

The official announcement about the rally read: "The Prime Minister and the cabinet must rescue and release all the hostages! For their freedom and the freedom of all the people of Israel!"

US President Joe Biden will return to Washington on Saturday afternoon to consult with his national security team a day after saying that he expects an Iranian attack against Israel "sooner, rather than later."

Biden cut his weekend trip to Delaware short, the White House said Saturday, to discuss events in the Middle East.

Tehran has vowed to retaliate for an alleged Israeli attack on Iran's embassy compound last week in Damascus that killed a senior commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' overseas Quds Force and six other officers.

As Biden prepared to return to Washington, Israel put its military on full alert and canceled all educational and other youth activities.

Israel closed its schools and canceled all extracurricular educational activities starting Sunday as the IDF remained on high alert for an attack from Iran with dozens of planes already in the sky prepared to defend the country.

“Starting tomorrow morning and during the next few days, none of the educational systems, camp programs, and planned trips will take place,” IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a video statement.

No public events with more than 1,000 people can be held, the Home Front Command stated.

The directives will be reassessed at 6 a.m., Hagari said, as he urged Israeli civilians to be vigilant, to head to shelters upon hearing a warning siren, and to remain there for 10 minutes.

Schools had already gone on break, so the statement was largely symbolic but spoke to the growing sense of emergency due to the threats from Tehran, in the aftermath of an airstrike in Damascus on April 1, attributed to Israel, in which seven Iranian generals were killed.

The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas has rejected an Israeli ceasefire proposal, saying on Saturday it had handed to mediators in Egypt and Qatar its response to the proposal it had received last Monday.

After more than six months of war with Israel in Gaza, the negotiations remain deadlocked, with Hamas sticking to its demands that any agreement must end the war.

"We.. reaffirm our adherence to our demands and the national demands of our people; with a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of the occupation army from the entire Gaza Strip, the return of the displaced to their areas and places of residence, intensification of the entry of relief and aid, and the start of reconstruction," the Islamist faction said.

Israel wants to secure the return of hostages seized by Hamas in its Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war, but says it will not stop fighting until Hamas is destroyed as a military force. It also says it still plans to carry out an assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than a million civilians have taken refuge.

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The Israeli war cabinet will meet on Saturday night to discuss how to deal with the impending Iran threat, Israeli media reported on Saturday. 

The meeting is set as an anonymous American source told Al Jazeera that Iran plans to attack in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The official claimed that  "Iran is expected to launch an attack from its territory against Israeli targets, with the participation of its affiliates in Iraq and Syria.

Dozens of drones are airborne from Iran toward Israel, according to Israeli media reported Saturday night citing Israeli and US intelligence. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a video message said that "in recent years, and even more so in recent weeks, Israel has been preparing for the possibility of a direct attack from Iran.

He warned Tehran that "whoever harms us, we will harm them. We will protect ourselves from any threat and we will do so with steadfastness and determination."

Schools across Israel's educational system will be closed starting Sunday morning due to threats of an Iranian attack, the IDF announced Saturday night.