Image source, Getty Images

The UN Security Council will convene on Sunday for an emergency meeting over Iran's drone and missile attack on Israel, the body's president has said.

The meeting was requested by Israel, who wrote in a letter to the council's president, Vanessa Frazier, that the attacks "pose a grave threat to international peace and security".

The letter accuses Iran of violating its international obligations and of being "the architect of instability for years" through its support for Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.

"The gravity and volume of the attacks are unprecedented," the letter adds, "and are a flagrant violation of Israel's sovereignty, of international law, and of Security Council resolutions."

It asks the Security Council to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - the primary branch of the Iranian armed forces - as a terrorist organisation.

In a separate letter to Frazier, Iran defended itself, saying it acted in "self-defence as outlined in Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, and in response to the Israel's recurring military aggression".

The emergency meeting is scheduled for 16:00 EST (21:00 BST).

President Biden concludes his statement by saying that he will convene the G7 leaders on Sunday "to co-ordinate a united diplomatic response to Iran's brazen attack".

He adds that his team will remain in close contact with Israel's leaders.

Biden says that while the US has not seen attacks on its facilities, it "remains vigilant to all threats".

"We will not hesitate to take all necessary action to protect our people," Biden says.

More from President Joe Biden.

As we reported, he spoke to Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu just moments ago. He says he reaffirmed America's "ironclad" commitment to Israel in the call.

"I told him Israel demonstrated a remarkable capacity to defend against and defeat even unprecedented attacks," Biden says.

He adds that by doing so, Israel has sent "a clear message to its foes that they cannot effectively threaten the security of Israel".

President Joe Biden says the US "helped Israel take down nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles" from Iran.

In a statement, he says he directed US military aircraft and ballistic missile defence destroyers to the region "over the course of the past week".

"Thanks to these deployments and the extraordinary skill of our servicemembers, we helped Israel take down nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles," the president says.

"I condemn these attacks in the strongest possible terms."

Germany condemns Iran's attack "in the strongest possible terms" and warns Tehran it is risking all-out regional war, a spokesman for Chancellor Olaf Scholz says.

"With this irresponsible and unjustifiable attack, Iran is risking a regional conflagration. Germany stands closely by Israel's side," the spokesman said.

The Israeli military has told the BBC that "some restrictions have been lifted" on movement inside Israel but did not provide further detail.

The Times of Israel, meanwhile, reports that Israelis nationwide are no longer required to stay near shelters, but that restrictions on gatherings and the cancellation of all educational activities and school trips are still in place.

Will Vernon
Reporting from Washington

This is an unprecedented, direct assault by Iran on the territory of Israel, a key US ally.

How the US responds will depend on the scale of the Iranian strikes, the types of weapons used and the extent of casualties and damage.

President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likely discussed a potential response in their phone call just moments ago.

The US will want to de-escalate this situation as much as possible and may be forced to reign in the Israelis when calibrating their response. America and Israel will be urged to proceed cautiously and make any retaliation proportional.

For the US and its allies, the nightmare scenario is being dragged into a tit-for-tat, escalatory conflict that could trigger a wider regional war.

The US president and the Israeli prime minister are speaking now, according to a spokesperson for Benjamin Netanyahu, who released the below image.

We'll bring you the latest on their call as we get it.

Image source, Israeli PM's office

Sebastian Usher
BBC Arab Affairs Editor

The attack that Iran is mounting on Israel is more extensive than had perhaps been anticipated.

But it was inevitable that Tehran would have to ratchet up its response after sustaining what it saw as a violation of its sovereignty with the strike on its diplomatic compound in Syria.

That may have been Israel's intention - to force Iran out of its comfort zone of relying on regional proxies to challenge Israeli and US interests in the region.

Now, Israel has the ball in its court as to how strongly it will hit back at Iran, which lacks the sophisticated air defence system that Israel has to defend itself.

Further escalation will truly take the region into perilous, uncharted territory.

Israel earlier said that it had intercepted dozens of missiles as well as drones from Iran.

Now, two US officials have told the BBC's partner CBS that Iran launched missiles in addition to drones.

One of the officials said the US was still assessing how many missiles were launched and what types.

Image source, EPA

As we've been reporting, Israel's military says it has intercepted the "vast majority" of missiles and drones launched by Iran.

In a new statement, the IDF says it intercepted the majority using its "Arrow" aerial defence system, together with strategic allies in the region, before the launches crossed into Israeli territory.

It says a small number of hits were recorded, including at an IDF base in southern Israel, "where minor damage was caused to infrastructure".

Note that the Arrow defence system is designed to defeat ballistic missiles at high altitude, rather than slow moving drones. Israel used the Arrow system to shoot down a Houthi ballistic missile that was fired from Yemen at the outset of the war in Gaza.

Image source, Reuters

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres says he is "deeply alarmed about the very real danger of a devastating region-wide escalation".

"I strongly condemn the serious escalation represented by the large-scale attack launched on Israel by the Islamic Republic of Iran this evening. I call for an immediate cessation of these hostilities," he says in a statement, adding:

President Joe Biden’s meeting with his national security advisers in the White House has concluded after roughly two hours, a US official tells the BBC's partner CBS News.

The official adds that Biden will speak by phone this evening with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

His national security team will continue to work with partners in the region to prevent further escalation, they say.

Bars in the streets of Tel Aviv were still busy despite Iran launching dozens of drones and missiles at Israel in a retaliatory attack.

Here's one university student describing the evening as a "usual night in Tel Aviv".

British Royal Air Force (RAF) jets in the region "will intercept any airborne attacks within range" of the UK's existing missions in the Middle East "as required", the Ministry of Defence says.

It also urges parties in the conflict to de-escalate.

Another statement by Defence Minister Grant Shapps says additional RAF assets have been deployed to the region, including jets and air refuelling tankers.

"I strongly condemn the senseless airborne attack that Iran has launched on Israel," he says. "It serves no benefit other than to further undermine regional security."

You can read the full statement here., external

More from IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari now, who says that there has only been one report of an injury so far.

He adds that light damage was caused to one military facility after a number of Iranian missiles landed in Israel, but did not give further details of which base.

Hagari did not provide more detail on this injury, but earlier Israel's ambulance service said paramedics were treating a seven-year-old girl who was injured by shrapnel from falling debris in the Bedouin area of the Arad region.

We're hearing from IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.

In a televised statement, he says Iran launched a "massive swarm" of more than 200 killer drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles.

He says Israel's defence systems, and allies in the region, have intercepted the "vast majority" of the missiles and drones, dozens of which he says were shot down outside of Israeli territory.

It's just after 03:00 in Israel and sirens are sounding as its air defences intercept Iranian objects in the sky. Here's the latest:

• Iran launched dozens of drones and missiles towards Israel in an unprecedented retaliatory attack
• Sirens are sounding in Jerusalem, with flashes in the night sky as objects are intercepted by Israel's air defences
• Iran suggests it will not launch further strikes, but warns against Israeli retaliation or any involvement by the US
• The US shot down some drones that were headed towards Israel, military officials said earlier
• Addressing the nation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military was “ready for any scenario"
• Iran's attack follows a strike on its consulate in Syria on 1 April that killed seven Revolutionary Guards, which Israel has not officially acknowledged

Joe Inwood
International Correspondent, BBC Newsnight

It seems that the idea behind Iran's attack is to overwhelm Israel’s advanced defences with cheap drones, to give its more sophisticated ballistic missiles a better chance of hitting their targets.

It is a similar tactic seen elsewhere, says Justin Crump from the defence analysts Sibylline.

“Iran’s tactics seem to have drawn on lessons from Ukraine, where the same drones have been used mixed with cruise and ballistic missiles to overwhelm air defences," he says.

A few months ago, we were taken to an Israeli Iron Dome battery. It consisted of a number of interconnected launchers each loaded with multiple missiles.

Each one is able to take down an incoming drone or missile in mid-air.

Iran seems to have calculated that getting past this system requires quantity as well as quality.

According to Crump, however, it is a strategy that is far from certain to succeed.

“Israel is not Ukraine; US and likely UK aircraft are seemingly helping destroy targets," he says. "And the Israeli Air Force is highly capable. Moreover, Israel has various anti-missile systems that will be hard to overwhelm.”

The extent to which this unprecedented attack is able to penetrate Israel’s air defences, and the damage it can do, will likely influence the level of any Israeli response.

Lyse Doucet
Chief international correspondent

This is uncharted territory fraught with risk and unpredictability.

Iran and Israel have fought shadow wars for decades, but for the first time Iran is now targeting Israel directly from Iranian soil.

This is no longer a confrontation led by Iran’s array of powerful proxies across the region against an enemy which has long kept silent about its own attacks on Iranian assets and targeted assassinations.

Israel describes Iran as the world’s greatest sponsor of terrorism; for Iran, hostility towards Israel, what it calls the “Zionist regime” is a core tenet of its 1979 revolutionary doctrine.

The risk of confrontation had risen with every month the Gaza war has ground on.

Iran has long prided itself on playing a long game, on exercising “strategic patience".

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has avoided all-out war ever since he came to power in 1989 in the shadow of the destructive Iran-Iraq war.

Now the world waits to see the impact of this unprecedented strike.