this is sky news today. the headlines at 10:00. iran launches the first ever direct attacks on israel where pour than 300 drones and missiles and ies rate says they intercepted 99%. u.s. military helped repel and the royal air force was involved. fears about israel's possible response means tensions remain high in the region. joe biden calls it a brazen attack and reaforms america's ironclad commitment to protect israel. he called a meeting of g7 leaders later today to discuss the unfolding crisis. we will have all the latest live throughout the morning here on sky news and we will be assessing what israel will do next.

good morning. we begin with a tense and significant turn of events in the middle east. overnight, the skies of jerusalem lit up with explosions as iran carried out its first ever direct attack on israel. it comes two weeks after suspected israeli strike in syria that killed two iranian generals. in a moment, we will hear from the israeli military on the state of the country's defenses and whether there could be further action taken by benjamin netanyahu. first, our middle east correspondent has this. >> reporter: israel says more than 300 missiles and drones were launched by iran overnight. they arrived in israeli airspace before 2:00 a.m. in the morning. these were intercepts over jerusalem. the holy city was under attack and the skies above a light with the trails of israel's air defense system. the region had been on edge for days, but this was a bigger,

far more dang rouse retaliation than many predicted. the u.s. government seemed to have warning the attack was coming. president biden cut short the weekend by the beach in delaware and flew back to the white house to be with his national security team. he was watching and monitoring events from the situation room. as the attacks unfolded. israeli military warned people to stay close to bomb shelters. >> dozens of unmanned aircraft were intercepted outside of the borders state of of israel with a total number of threats was over 200. the idf does and will do everything that is required to protect the security of the citizens of the state of israel. >> reporter: the nation braised airspace was closed over jordan and iraq. flights in the airheaded for tel aviv were turned back. u.s. embassy told the staff to take shelter and schools in israel have about ordered to

close for the next two days. israeli military says the vast majority of missiles and drones were intercepted outside of the airspace. the few missiles that did fall within the country only caused minor damage. the u.s. president condemned the attack and what he calls the strongest possible terms. he says that he's spoken to israel employment primingster to reaffirm america's commitment to the security of the country. iran's mission to the united states tweeted to say the matter was concluded and warned the u.s. not to get involved and israel not to retaliate. the attacks were celebrated by regime supporters in tehran. they might be satisfied by the response, but israel might feel it has no choice but to retaliate. this could still be just the beginning. sky news in jerusalem.

i am join by a spokesman for the israeli defense forces. what is the situation there now? >> good morning. indeed, the idf continues to be posed for any threats against israel. what happened is a unity of reasonable players against the diabolical plan of iran when they fired over 300 rockets, explosive drones missiles towards ies cruise missiles this is a serious act against israel. what happened israel and aerial defenses and ability of the u.s. military and british military and air force and french air forces as well as other players in the region, are very, very clear message to iran it won't go.

together, united, we saved israeli lives tonight. >> will you respond. >> that's a very good question. what we are looking towards the government today and the government will convene later today and they will make their decisions. and they will instruct the military accordingly. we will, of course be preparing for any eventualty and developments required. of course, this is a very grave attack against the state of israel by iran. but it's not although it's different, it doesn't change the reality that we have experienced over the last six months with all of iran's approximateies have been conducting a coordinated orchestrated attack pest against israel from hezbollah and leb none and how theies in yemen and hamas. we are facing another development in the war effort where iran has cleared stepped up a notch against israel and putting so many lives yesterday at risk where the country

basically was engulfed by alarms and thankfully, almost without success, we have one 7- year-old baby girl who has been injured critically injured and is fighting for her life this morning. and, of course, the limited ability of iran's ballistic missiles to hit israel, they were able to hit one of our air bases that didn't really do much damage in the air bases up and operational and operations didn't cease during that event. they fired 170 explosive drones towards israel. none reached israel. they were intercepted beforehand and launched 30 cruise missiles towards israel and none of those reached israel, and they were all intercepted outside israel's airspace, and out of the 120 ballistic missiles they fired, towards us, a handful actually

reached any sort of destination. so, we are poised and prepared for any developments. the reality is one that's extremely tense and, and think we have to look open eyed to what can actually happen further and that is why the idf is prepared in our aerial defenses continue to be on high alert. >> before we get onto that, what involvement was theres from your allies in particular the u.s. and the uk because we understand the royal air force was on an operation in the region at the time. >> i don't want to talk on their behalf. i think we each have our own seats at the table. think over the last six months, there's been a lot of coordination and we saw the head of the u.s. sent com over the last few days. i would say ironing out details in order to be prepared for iran's attack. and it worked perfectly. i think it's probably unprecedented in the nature of modern warfare and this type of

rocket stand off attacks that we experienced, how it works so well. 99% interception rate is high but it's because we worked together. >> what coordination was there with your arab partners and allies in the region? >> so, i won't go into specifics. of course, there's great opportunities strategic opportunities in facing the diabolical intentions of iran together. because iran has proven through the last six months extensively in the last 24 hours of their ilill intention and intent to destabilize the region and there's a strong message to iran. >> was the attack on iran's consulate in syria provocative. >> i am not going to comment on that. i can say that iran has been hiding behind its approximateies over the last

six months. even just this month we have more rockets fired by hezbollah. >> but they were not entirely unprovoked in this instance. it's a response to what happened on april 1st. >> i think that what we have seen throughout the course of the last six months iran has been the puppet master of everything bad that's happening. they equip and train, fund, all of these hostile players houthis with 100 to 200 million dollars year. his bow lea and iran with a billion dollars a year and lebanon sorry. iran is not a stand off player. >> so, really, really, you are at war with iran. has this opened up a front in your war then? >> i certainly hope not. i think we need to be prepared for that reality. our goal is to secure the safety of the people of israel, to make sure that people here can go on living their lives in

a normal situation. 300 missiles rockets and drones were fired at israel over last night, and their intention was to kill israelis. they failed. that's a good thing. we need to make shower that doesn't happen again. >> i am sure you agree it's the safety of all civilians across the region that is paramount is it not? >> absolutely. >> yeah. so what is happening in gaza right now because we know recently you've withdrawn troops from the south. is your purported ground assault on rafah. >> we have forces on the grouped in the northern areas. and we are preparing ourselves for operations in rafah that will take place in under the instruction of the government. but in the same time, with the intention to evacuate civilians from the combat area. you know, hamas has to go. that's reality of the war. when they broke into and invaded israel on the 7th of

october, they basically sealed their own destiny. they can't be trusted with the powers of government because we have seen what they do with the powers. they build a terrorist army, they came into the bedrooms, our kitchens and living rooms, and butchered our babies, abducted men, women and children and elderly and they have to go and this has to be the outcome. we have to conduct our operations in accordance to the laws of armed conflict. and that's what we are doing. and, of course, we will pursue hamas so that they cannot threatening israel ever again. >> we are hearing from jordan's foreign minister that region escalation must be prevented that could push the region in an abyss of war. but the first step towards de- escalation is ending the israeli aggression on gaza and starting to implement the two state solution is the only path to security and peace for all coming from jordan's foreign minister there on x. many would agree with that. that there has to be a path to

security and peace for all. do you think that means israel, then, will not escalate this further? >> matt, this war can be over today if hamas unconditionally surrenders and releases 133 ies railsies 133 ies rails israelis they hold. we want to create a better secure reality for all the people in the region. israelis deserve to have live in security as well. >> final question, it is not happening so far, the hostages remain in gaza and the talks have stalled once more, we understand this morning. you need to concede some ground to bring this to an end, don't you? >> so you suggesting we raise a white flag and surrender to hamas and hop they don't do it

again. >> there has to be a diplomat being diplomatic solution. >> peace with hamas is not pole. they were given ample opportunities to create a peace israel left the gaza strip and allowed and permitted hamas to choose their path. up fortunately the path they chose was a path of death and destruction abduction and rain and killing. this is exactly what they used the time, the 17 years they have been in power. they have built -- they used the years to build a terrorist army that came into israel. they didn't use the ample international support and projects to build above ground. they bullet a diabolical, the most extensive expansive construction project ever to exist in the gaza strip is beneath ground to serve their

terrorist endeavors. i would say with hamas there's no peace. we all have to agree hamas has to go. we have to agree that hamas must go either by force or through as i said, they can unconditionally surrender and it will be over today. but we know that they are not going to do that. they aren't going to concede power and we need to take it from them. it is a challenge and we do need international support to permit that, but every dough sent person around the world needs to acknowledge the fact there can be no peace with hamas. did you see what they did to us? did you see what they continue to say they will repeat on doing to us? that's why the only outcome for a peace in the region can be without hamas, we are on the path to get rid of hamas and it may take time because they have been planning this for 17 years. and so there's no quick fix. there's no easy prescription. and indeed, we need to do it in a way which allows and permits the change of the regime in gaza. and ideally i say the people of

gaza need to choose their destiny but it needs to be a destiny without terrorism against israel. >> thank you very much. >> thank you, matt, good day. let's speak to our middle east correspondent who joins me from jerusalem now. your response to what we heard from peter lerner. >> reporter: we are in a moment of deep concern and great uncertainty. what happens next could be genuinely defining for the future and security of the middle east. will israel retaliate? or will diplomatic efforts to try to de-escalate the situation take the heat out of it be successful. you asked peter willner if israel would respond he didn't give an answer for two reasons because it's not the military that makes the decision it's

the politicians when they meet today, tomorrow, whenever it will be politicians, the war cabinet who make the decision. the other reason he wasn't able to give an answer because people don't know yet. that decision has not been taken, and it's going to be discussed. in the war cabinet. what are israel's options by way of response? and they have a number of options they could look at. not just a direct response to iran. they could look to take on their proxys in the north where there's been a war for the six months with hezbollah but they could take it up a notch or two. think what we will see in the coming hours, possibly the coming days as well, if time allows, is huge international diplomacy from america, led by america and also from regional players. we have seen it in the last few minutes in jordan. urging for de-escalation. we will see it when washington

wakes up in a few hours time. we will see it from london and from brussels. people will be wanting to make sure that what happened last night and the events that led up to it, it ends there. and it does not become more dangerous. >> thanks so much. let's bring in now our security and december fence defense editor. in terms of diplomacy the u.s. is promising ironclad support for israel. but what will be happening behind the scenes in terms of what is discussed or also given that g7 leaders are soon to meet too? >> well, there have been discussions for ever since that strike against the iranian consulate in damascus which iran blamed on israel, killed senior iranian general, other officers killed. israel has not responded to

that. has not admitted it did it or denied it was hyped it. but ever since that moment, the region was on alert for an iranian retaliation. and the conversations behind the scenes were all about initially is it possible to avert that retaliation. but it was clear it's not possible to avertitis is there a way to contan it and once the strike happened overnight from iran took place, is there a way to stop israel from retaliating in a way that would then ignite a far graver full scale war in the region which is clearly what countries in the region are all talking about trying to prevent. but the scale of the attack, over 300 drones missiles and including ballistic missiles, launched against israel from multiple countries in the region, not just iran, also

from lebanon, from syria, from iraq, and from yemen, and i think for israel, it is a huge unprecedented assault against the country. yes, 99% of those munitions were intercepted and shot down, i mean, that's a sign of just how sophisticated the israeli defenses are supported by the u.s. and as wells british and french. we have yet to hear exactly what the british involvement was in that. we just know that jets were in the air as part of an ongoing operation in the region against islamic state but with permissions to be able to intercept iranian missiles and drones if the opportunity came their way. but given they had advance warning of that as well this was coming. and so they were obviously prepared. i think, really, all eyes are on what israel decides to do next. israeli military clearly they have been at war for the last six months, and will respond to

any orders that they are given. but this is a moment of real maximum peril in terms of this conflict which is already consumed the region igniting into something far more dang rouse that would potentially really have an impact globally on security, trade and, of course, devastation tating for the region. >> devastating. >> describing the attack on israel as reckless and pledging to continue to stand up for israel's security. he said, i condemn in the strongest term the iranian regime's reckless attack against ies are a i will. iran has once again demonstrated that it is intent on sewing chaos in its backyard. he continued the uk will continue to stand up for israel's security and that of all 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 more bloodshed. let's go to rob powell in westminster. rob, we are hearing of some british involvement in repelling that iranian attack overnight because the rf were thought to be on an operation in neighboring iraq at the time. >> yeah, the exact details of the precise involvement that the raf had last night and whether they did indeed intercept and shoot down drones from iran missiles from iran, we don't know that yet. all the ministry of defense have said is that resources, jets have been sent to the region. actually as part of a separate decade long mission that the raf and uk is running to counter isis in iraq and serial. but crucially, the jets were given the permission to shot down iranian drones missiles if they saw fit. so, this was not an u.s., uk joint operation to defend

israel. the uk involvement last night looks more second order that it may have been more of a support capacity. in terms of language and diplomacy from the uk we are seeing the jewel position of condemning events overnight. but also trying to urge restraint and de-escalation. think later today we will likely hear from senior members of the government more closely involved with the uk military response. for now, though, it was up to the health secretary to deliver the broader uk position when she told the uk studios this morning. >> i am conscious this is a moving situation and more details will emerge. but, we want to ensure now that this does not escalate and so our message to everyone is that we have to contain this, we have to work with israel to ensure that they are supported but to do so in a way that helps to de-escalate tensions

in the region because this is not what any of us wanted. british jets and uk jets were sent to the region as part of what a called operation shade an antiinitiative that means basically bolstering or resources in the region. that happened overnight. but i can't go into further details emafraid as to what those jets did overnight. >> it may be later today we find out a few more operations details including if there was direct intervention or the uk shooting down any iranian drones operation shade as she referred to ongoing mission against islam he can state in iraq and syria. so parts of the uk role was to support the more direct mission waged by the u.s. to defend israel by increasing military footprint the west has in the region. in way.

later this afternoon, it involved g7 call due to take place around mid-afternoon that joe biden announced would be happening. the stance from the opposition here, labor is similar to the -- they had been urging restraint and iran chose a different path about but really the dual approach from the uk as from many western allies and other countries as the days progress, of making clear that they stand with israel and condemn the attack and stand with israel in terms of safeguarding security. but also, reflecting that deep concern that is felt that a retaliation and reaction from israel now could lead to something more uncontrolled and more dangerous behind the scenes you may see the uk using whatever leverage it has to try to avoid that. >> robin west minister many thanks-deed in you are watching sky news after the break, iran unleashes that major attack on israel for the first time from

ies soil, i will be joined by military expert michael clark for his take on what could happen next. on what could happen next.

us. rail says 300 missiles and drones were fired by iran and some came from iraq, syria and yemen but 99% were interseptembered before entering military airspace. they order residents to take cover and the southern towns. the country's main nuclear facility home some ballistic missiles did reach israeli territory causing minor territory where a young girl was reportedly injured in the country's south. we heard that from the idf spokesman a short while ago. more on the situation with our security and defense analyst professor michael clark. good morning to you.

>> good morning, matt. >> tell us more about the scale of this attack from iran and the weapons that they would likely to have used. >> it was a fairly big atark and clearly the israelies are learning from the russians they used drubs, 185 drones according to israelis, and cruise missiles 36 cruise missiles and 110 ballistic missiles. and those various devices were fired, as you said, from iran, from iraq, from syria, and from lebanon and from yepen. and the yemen and the it was to overwhelm them from different weapons from different directions. the one that mattered were ballistic 110 launched and 103 were intercepted and 7 got through out of 371 according to israeli source. so 7 out of 331. very low percentage rate, but most of those 7 seemed to have

hit the air base which is in the desert in the south. that's symbolically important although the israelis are saying it didn't do much damage, some -- there was an injury and no fatalities and some damage to outlying buildings. that's what they say. but that's the base from which the israeli f35s took off last -- two weeks ago on the first of april to bomb damascus consulate which started this round of hit for tat retaliation. and so, that allows the iranians to say they have hit the base from which the attack against them was launched, and already in some arab news media, outlets, they are saying the base has been completely destroyed. it's a smoking ruin and so on. and there's lots of celebrations about that in certain arab capitals. if that's what they think that's okay. israelis say it's minor but that's symbolic hit will give iranians some reason to say as

they have done it seems, to say that's it from our point of view we have dop what we wanted to do but undoubtedly it was not a successful attack because they tried to be really clever, and defense forces of israel and allies were up for the challenge which is interesting. >> it seems like a certain level of choreography. the idf says they intercepted almost all of the missiles and drones 99%. we heard about iron dome so explain how it did repel the majority of the attack. >> yeah, i mean they have got -- the whole thing is multi- layered system. they have arrow system their own system very high altitude interceptors and they have got patriots which the american system, and made blockhead which is very high altitude interceptors and expensive, too. and coming down, they have got other systems that one called david sling which is the david

and goliath story. the iron dome is a series of systems which work on being able to intercept missiles or aircraft or drones coming closer and closer. and it depends on very good radars and a certain amount of help. i don't think ies realies would have managed what they did without american help because personifieded missile destroyers were in east of the mediterranean and karni is there which is a very hard missile destroyer and brought down a lot of missiles in the last few weeks and alley burk missile destroying the first of the class that was in eastern mediterranean and americans had aircraft and israeli aircraft were up. so i think a lot of aircraft would have been involved quite a lot of american aircraft and

americans think they brought down about 70 or more of the various devices, drones and ballistic missiles and so on. israelis will feel pleased in military terms. >> thanks indeed, michael. you are watching sky news coming up after the break, concerns over that major regional escalation. could it get worse after iran launched an unprecedented attack on israel? we will be talking to former air vice marshal shawn bell on how the raf may have been involved in defending israel's territory. been invoedlv in defending israel's territory.

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welcome back. a couple of new lines coming from the middle east to bring you now. israel's war cab in the said it is scheduled to meet at 12:30gnt in a couple hours time to discuss their response to

the iranian attack that happened overnight. it is due to meet at 12:30 according to an israeli official. at the same time, the gaza health ministry has released their updated figures on the number of people killed and injured in gaza. that figure stands now according to the gaza health ministry, of 33,729 palestinians killed in gaza. and 76,371 people injured since october 7th. so, just to reiterate the gaza health ministry released updated figures on palestinians killed in gaza since october 7th. the figure stands at the number of dead as 33,729. and 76,371 people have been injured. well overnight the skies of jerusalem lit up with explosions. as iran carried out the first

ever direct attack on israel and it comes two weeks after the suspected is israeli strike in syria. that killed two iranian generals. here's what we know. israel scrambled a bowl centered the air defenses prompting a state of high alert throughout the region. key western ally of israel joe biden returned to washington for crisis talks. the threat also prompted jordan to temporarily close its airspace in ordered to prevent any casualties. iran confirmed it launched more than 170 explosive drones, 120 ballistic missiles, and 30 cruise missiles against israel. the permanent mission of iran to the united nations deems the matter concluded but promises severe reprisals, their words, if israel makes another so- called mistake israeli and u.s. officials said 99% of the

missiles have been intercepted. benjamin netanyahu pledged israel must remain vigilant. earlier, i was joined by a spokesperson for the israeli defense forces lieutenant concern peterrer willner. >> idf continues to be poise and prepared for further aggression against israel. what happened in the early hours of this morning is an unity of reasonable players against a diabolical plan of iran when they fired over 300 rockets, explosive drones, missiles towards us rail cruise missiles. this is a very, very serious act against israel. what happened our aerial defenses and abilities of the u.s. military and the british military, and air force and french air forces as well as other players in the region, a very, very clear message to

iran this just won't go. together, united, we saved israeli lives tonight. >> will you respond? >> it's a very good question. think what we are lookings towards the government today and the government will convene later today and make their decisions. and they will instruct the military accordingly. we have of course be prepared ourselves for eventualty and developments required. this is a very brave attack against the state is of ies real by iran. but it's not although it's different it doesn't change the reality we experienced over the last six months with all of iran's proxys have been conduct a coordinated orchestrated attack effort against israel from hezbollah and houthis in yemen and hamas in gaza. we are facing another development in the war effort where iran has clearly stepped up a notch against israel, and putting so many lives yesterday

at risk where the country basically was engulfed by alarms. and thankfully, almost without success, we have one 7-year-old baby girl who has been injured, critically injured and is fighting for her life this morning. and, of course, the limited ability of iran's ballistic missiles to hit israel, they were able to hit one of the air bases that didn't really do much damage in the air bases. up and operation and operations didn't cease during that event. they fired 170 explosive drones towards israel. none of them reached israel. and they were all intercepted beforehand and launched 30 crews cruise missiles towards israel none of them reached israel and they were intercepted outside israel airspace and out of the 120 ballistic missiles they fired,

towards us, a handful actually reached any sort of destination. so, we are poised and prepared for any developments. the reality is one that is extremely tense as pointed out, and i think we have to very look open eyed to what can actually happen further and that's why the idf is prepared a or aerial defenses are on high alert. >> straight to the military analyst who jones me now. good morning. we are hearing of some raf involvement in the air defense of israel last night. what do you know? >> little more than you do matt about the ref's development. in view of this from an overall perspective, the iranians managed to fire i think 331 combination missiles and drones and very few got through and

they were intercepted outside israel's airspace. it was a huger when the you see the missiles first you have to detect them and track them and destroy them. if you wait until they enter the airspace that doesn't give you long to intercept them. almost certainly what's been happening a combination of intelligence, satellite and dates have been collected and information being passed to israelis and americans who seem to have done a launch of the intercepting part of last night and i think what's interesting is exactly at lieutenant kennel le rner said seven missiles did get to the air base where the f- 35s were launched on that mission on the 1st of april. but the base there is absolutely massive. there are three big ranways. it's no great -- runways and

there's no reports of fatalities and one report tragically of a young lady age 10 who got shrapnel damage but it does appear that whether it's by design or by grit defense, that the iranian attack has had limited impact on the people of israel. >> sean, it's a reminder that israel's allies, including the uk, via the rf are relatively active in the region as far as we know they were in operation nearby when this occurred. >> exactly right. i mean the military are involved trying to help not only on the eastern flank of nato, because of the russian invasion of ukraine, but also trying to provide stability around the region. the danger is, i think, that as we are seeing from biden now, there's no appetite for this to escalate. no one seems to want to see this escalate. iranians made it clear statement they see this as a one off and now it's over.

and besides, iranians will not to give americans or brits or israelis for that matter, an excuse to go against their nuclear capability because that would be strategically disasterous for iranians. but, as we have seen in the past, israel is determined to not only deal with hamas also hezbollah and houthis and the dark shadow of iran behind this. it will be interesting to see the outcome of the war cabinet later today. >> thank you very much indeed. america's president joe biden said he will be cop convenient g7 leaders to coordinate a diplomatic response to what he described as iran's brazen attack. and in statement the president said earlier iran and its proxys operating out of yellen syrian and iraq launched on unprecedented air attack against military facilities in israel. he said i condemn the attacks in the strongest possible terms. i spoken with prime minister

netanyahu to reaffirm america's ironclad commitment to the security of israel. the president continued tomorrow meets means today convene g7 leaders to coordinate a diplomatic response to the brazen attack. u.s. correspondent james matthews has the update from washington, d.c. on the phone call between joe biden and benjamin netanyahu. >> reporter: the two men had a chat on the phone last night and biden said to netanyahu, you got a win, take the win he said. essentially, passing the israeli prime minister on the back for a job well-done that biden doesn't want to get more complicated. and he realizes very much could should there and reaction that would feed into escalation. i think in speaking about the success of the israeli response over the past 24 hours, he said

this in his public statement. he spoke about how they see how they can't threaten the security of israel. i think he is now reading the story to israel adversities but israeli prime minister that they have achieved a result, they achieved success last night but he made it clear in that same phone call united states would not support any retaliation strike by israel against iran. the open question of course would be what influence does he have over israel. we have seen in the past over the course of the israel hamas conflict that benjamin netanyahu is a man who enjoys autonomy and doesn't hesitate to turn a deaf ear to american treaties that don't chime with his intentions. remains uncertainty and remains

concern among american officials senior administration officials who with whom we are in contact as speaking on condition of anonymity. but they speak about their surprise the incident that triggered this episode. the attack on the iranian consulate in damascus. the americans were not told about that until israeli planes were in the air on the mission about to strike. and the view of american officials is that carried serious risks of catastrophic escalation. so it's concern that the israelis will overreact without thinking through the potential fallout in term of american news overnight, some of that much of it, is coming out of united nations. the secretary general antonio gutierrez spoken about a serious escalation. and he condemned the iranian action, as talking about iranian mission posted the

matters can be deemed concluded they say suggesting they don't have any further intention of any strike. they think the matter is finished. israelis of course may have something to say about that. israelis are saying the united nations is they want the united nations security council to condemn the iranian action calling it a violation of israeli sovereignty and international law. >> more on the situation in the middle east coming up. you are watching sky news today. also sydney a fifth victim of the stabbing attack is named. and more details are revealed about the killer. are revealed about the killer. that's some bad luck brian. and i think i'm late on my car insurance. good thing the general gives you a break when you need it. yeah, with flexible payment options to keep you covered. so today is your lucky...day [crash] so today is your lucky...day for a great low rate, go with the general. “look at all those snacks, you must be a king!” “i did just pay 60%

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australians are mourning the deaths of six victims who were killed in series of stabbings in that shopping center in sydney. police identified the attacker as 40-year-old joel couche from queensland who was known to the authorities. sky's nicole johnston reports. >> reporter: horror in the heart of sydney. bodies removed from westfield shopping center. six people were killed on saturday. in a stabbing rampage through the mall. police say the suspect is this man, joel cochy and he suffered mental health issues. he was shot and killed by a police investigator who

confronted the attacker on her own. >> we are continuing investigations in relation to him and he is a man from queensland, we believe he came here last month. we are and have spoken with his family. we will continue to do so. and they are cooperating with us. we know that shortly after coming to sydney, he took possession of a storage facility that's been identified and we have worked through that very small stooge silt. >>reporter: on and oughtive afternoon the shopping sent wear was packed with people he walked through wielding knife some people tried to block him. and the bravery of ordinary australians in an extraordinary situation. so far, no known motive for the attack. >> as i had said last night, there is still to this point,

nothing that we have no information we have received, no evidence we have recovered, no intelligence we have gathered that would suggest that this was driven by any particular moat motivation ideology or otherwise. >> a nation in shock families in grief. >> australians waking up to try to deal with the shock and trauma that will come with what has occurred with violent actions that are unspeakable, and really just beyond comprehension. people going about their saturday afternoon shopping should be safe. should shouldn't be at risk. >> reporter: fear and panic took over. this time of attack is almost unheard of the dead is ashley

good. her 9-month-old daughter who was also stabbed is still in the hospital. two of the victims have no family in australia and five out of six people killed were women. >> a the love people running. i didn't know what was happening. i thought it was like people doing a prank or something and after some time i saw a guy with a knife running like around the food court to the -- >> reporter: tributes for the victims streets locked down. this beach side suburb has never seen anything like this. nicole johnston, sky news. let's go to sydney adam hancock joins me. good morning, adam. and we understand the attacker's family has given response what have they said? >> reporter: short while ago, the family of joel cauchi released a statement and it was

his family who informed the authorities who the man was. we are watching the news here last night like many other people and they spotted their picture on social media of the gunman and alerted authorities ants statement says joel's actions were truly horrific and we are trying to comprehend what happened he battled with mental health issues since was a teenager and they have no issues with the police officer who shot their son as she was doing her job to protect others and they hope she is coping okay. we learned quite a lot today about mr. cauchi. he is from queens land which is the neighboring state, a 40- year-old man. they understand he was in sydney for around four weeks before this attack took place. he rented out a very small storage unit, which they have been searching today. they believe that the attack is related to mental health issues rather than any kind of ideology or motive. we have heard today a lot about the victims of this attack as

well, very distressing stories we have been hearing all day. one is a man who worked security guard at the shopping center with the attack took place. he was a refugee from pakistan and a short while ago there was a vigil held for him but it's been a somber day here. >> thank you very much indeed. you are watching sky news. breaking news iran's foreign minister summoned the british french and german ambassadors that's coming from a news agency in iran so that british french and german ambassadors summoned by iran's foreign ministry. and, of course, that's all related to that unprecedented attack from iran towards israel. much of it thwarted by israel's air defenses, 99% in fact. but some did get through. a girl was injured in the

attack. and much more coming up about sky news throughout throughout the morning. do stay with us. hout the morning. do stay with us.