Israel’s envoy to the United Nations, in a letter to the Security Council president, called Iran’s air assault a “flagrant violation of Israel’s sovereignty.”

“Today, Iran has launched a direct attack from within its territory of more than 200 (drones), cruise missiles and ballistic missiles towards Israel,” Israeli ambassador Gilad Erdan wrote.

“The attack is a severe and dangerous escalation,” he said.

Erdan demanded that the Security Council “condemn Iran for these grave violations” and designate its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the armed force defending Tehran’s revolutionary government, as a terrorist organization.

The UN Security Council was set to hold an emergency meeting Sunday over Iran’s unprecedented drone and missile attack on Israel, the body’s president said.

Iran-backed groups in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen have carried out a flurry of attacks on Israeli and Western targets since 7 October, when Iran-backed Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel.

The attack resulted in the deaths of some 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 33,091 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

Meanwhile, former US President Donald Trump blasted President Joe Biden over Iran’s major attack on Israel, alleging that his rival in November elections showed American “weakness” in the Middle East.

“God bless the people of Israel. They are under attack right now. That’s because we show great weakness,” he said at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

Trump, who while in office ordered the killing of a top Revolutionary Guard leader in Baghdad and withdrew the United States from the Iran nuclear accord, has repeatedly accused his Democratic opponent of a soft approach toward Tehran.

“The weakness that we’ve shown is unbelievable, and it would not have happened if we were in office,” Trump said Saturday.

“But America prays for Israel; we send our absolute support to everyone in harm’s way.”

Biden, meanwhile, was huddling at the White House with his key military and national security advisors, saying on X that the US “commitment to Israel’s security against threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad.”