U.S. embassy locks down diplomats in Israel as officials fear Iranian attack with ‘100 drones and dozens of missiles’ and White House warns threat is ‘real, credible, and viable’

The U.S. embassy in Jerusalem has imposed travel restrictions on diplomats living in Israel as officials fear an Iranian attack could be coming using 100 drones and dozens of missiles. 

The attack would be in retaliation for the killing last week of a senior officer at Iran’s embassy in Damascus, though Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attack.

The White House on Friday wouldn’t go as far as to say that an attack was ‘imminent,’ instead calling the threat ‘viable.’ 

‘We still deem the potential threat by Iran here to be real, to be viable, certainly credible and we’re watching it as closely as we can,’  White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Friday on a Zoom call. 

Kirby added that the U.S. was in ‘constant communication with our Israeli counterparts about making sure that they can defend themselves against those kind of attacks.’ 

Iranians burn an Israeli flag during a rally marking Quds Day and the funeral of members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps who were killed in a suspected Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy complex in Damascus, Syria last week 

The NSC spokesperson gave no details on the potential timing of such an attack. 

‘I really don’t want to get into armchair quarterbacking this thing in a public way in terms of the conversations we’re having or what we’re seeing in the intelligence picture,’ Kirby said.  

On Thursday, the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem did not explicitly mention Iran but issued a warning to government workers. 

‘Out of an abundance of caution, U.S. government employees and their family members are restricted from personal travel outside the greater Tel Aviv, … Jerusalem, and Be’er Sheva areas until further notice,’ the security alert read.