Explosions in the sky as the iron dome fends off most of the attacks. Air raid sirens wailing across israel. The country shutting down air space to international and domestic flights. This is a severe and dangerous escalation. Whit iran retaliating for a deadly attack on its consulate in syria. President biden cutting his weekend short, monitoring the unfolding events from the situation room surrounded by top advisers. U. S. Military assets in the region, ships and manpower helping to fend off the attack. Janai the world watching and waiting for israels possible response. National Security CouncilSpokesman John Kirby joins us live. Gma with full analysis of the unfolding situation from israel to the white house to wall street amid fears of a widening war. Whit and good morning, america. So great to have you with us on a very busy morning here. The world is awaiting israels next move following irans unprecedented attacks on the country with hundreds of missiles and drones. It comes after Iranian Military officers were killed on the consulate in syria. Janai President Biden back to the white house early from his retreat in delaware, the administration again pledging unwavering support for israel using that word ironclad. G7 leaders holding a Video Conference this afternoon. Well speak with the president S National Security spokesman. Gio and the idf saying it shot down 99 of the drones and missiles. The u. S. Also saying it helped with dozens of interceptions. This is irans first ever direct military attack on israel. Its a major escalation and weve got team coverage. We begin here with abcs Britt Clennett in jerusalem. Good morning, britt. You were hearing the sirens for much of the night. Reporter good morning, gio. It was a tense and long night here in jerusalem after that massive attack from iran. We saw explosions peppering the sky from all angles. Air raid sirens blaring out and residents urged to take shelter. This for the first time iran ever carried out strikes against israeli territory. Israel this morning saying it thwarted a major attack overnight from iran with the help of the u. S. The first ever strikes directly from iranian soil, on israel. Iran launching a barrage of more than 300 missiles and attack drones, most shot down by the idf and u. S. Before entering israeli territory, but not all. Explosions lighting up the night sky over jerusalem. The sound of emergency sirens piercing the air, warning people to seek shelter from the ongoing assault. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a message on social media this morning. We intercepted, we blocked. Together, we will win. Last night, netanyahu saying, we are prepared for any scenario, both in defense and attack. The idf saying they intercepted the majority of the projectiles with over 90 success rate. One arab israeli girl was critically injured in an attack in southern israel. This is a severe and dangerous escalation. Our defensive and offensive capabilities are at the highest level of readiness. Reporter u. S. Armed forces helped to shoot down dozens of objects launched at israel, according to abc sources. The u. S. Embassy in jerusalem lifting its shelter in place order saying the threat of missiles and drones has diminished. Iran says its attack was to avenge israels strike on the iranian consulate in syria last week leaving 16 people dead, including two generals of the revolutionary guard. People seen celebrating in the streets of tehran amid irans assault on israel. President biden scrapping his weekend plans to return to the white house, seen here meeting with hiS National Security team in the situation room. Biden also reaffirming his pledge to help israel in their defense, hopping on a call with Prime Minister netanyahu, telling him overnight, israel demonstrated a remarkable capacity to defend against and defeat even unprecedented attacks. The leaders of the g7 meeting today over Video Conference to coordinate a response to this weekends attack. The world is now waiting to see what israels next move will be. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu convening the war cabinet in just a few hours to discuss their response, and iran with a warning to the u. S. To not take part in any retaliatory strike. Guys . Janai so much to continue watching. Britt, thank you for that. We continue our coverage from israel with a look at what residents experienced on the ground overnight. Josh einiger from our new york station wabc is in jerusalem. Josh, good morning. We heard britt say that you saw explosions, heard the air raid sirens. Reporter it was quite an experience, janai. Good morning to you, and im standing in front of the old city here in jerusalem, these old thousandsyearold buildings Still Standing. Everythings Still Standing which is quite a relief for people who have emerged from their shelters today. They did have days to prepare for what might come. There was a bit of a run on Grocery Stores and then a few hours before this happened, the israel home front defense issued a warning closing schools, and canceling largescale public activities, and then there was, of course, hours to prepare, but nothing could prepare you for the light show in the sky that we saw here over the old city in jerusalem. From this vantage point, we saw about 10 to 12 projectiles streaking through the sky and we saw the iron dome Defense System taking them out one after another. We all went to shelter, our team of three along with other people in the hotel were staying. We were in the staircase. We went down to the basement and when we got the allclear, we came back upstairs and heard more explosions. We turned and looked at the old city and saw over the vicinity of the al aqsa mask fireworks, clearly supporters of the iran regime cheering after this unprecedented attack last night. Whit . Whit josh einiger for us, we appreciate it. Joining us now from washington is national Security CouncilSpokesman John Kirby. John, good morning to you. Its always great to have you. So israel and the u. S. Have been expecting the response from iran, but this was unprecedented. Was the administration surprised in any way by the scale of this attack . It absolutely was a massive air attack that iran launched on israel. We have been watching as closely as we could, the intelligence picture. We had a pretty good indication of the size and the scale and the scope of what iran was planning, and that is why because we had a good sense of what they were going to do, and with how much, thats why we were able to really help israel knock down almost everything that iran threw at them. Whit and john, we know that President Biden and Prime Minister netanyahu spoke over the phone last night, and there is a report that biden told netanyahu that the u. S. Will oppose any israeli counterattack against iran. Can you confirm what was said and what other context could you provide for that conversation . Thats not thats not an accurate reading of the conversation. The president understands the Prime Minister runs a government for a sovereign state of israel and that theyll decide whether and how theyre going to respond to what iran did last night. We respect that, but again, the president s message to the Prime Minister was that he knows that the United States stands with israel. There wasnt just the United States. Other countries also helped israel defend itself last night, that israel demonstrated a superior military capability to what the iranians threw up against them, and as weve said many, many times, we dont want to see the situation escalate further. Were not looking for a war with iran. Whit do you expect israel will strike back directly at iran, and whats the u. S. Role now Going Forward . I wont speak for the israelis. Thats going to be up to them to decide whether and how theyll respond to this. They showed last night an incredible military capability on their own, but certainly in concert with friends. They also showed iran that israel does have friends, that there was a coalition that helped them support themselves. That alone is significant, and of course, the damage was extremely light. Again, showing how unified the United States and israel are in israels selfdefense. Whit and iran warned the u. S. To stay out of this conflict, and yet we saw our assets taking down missiles and drones in the skies. Is there a concern now from the administration that iran could respond with an attack on the u. S. Or u. S. Assets . The president also made clear in that Statement Last night that hell do whatever he has to to protect our troops and our facilities, our people in the region, and we will do that, and we have sent a very clear signal to iran privately and publicly that any attack on our troops and our facilities will have consequences. Were very serious about that. We have not seen any threats specific threats to our personnel or our facilities, but well stay vigilant to that, absolutely, but when it comes to defending israel, again, the president has been very, very clear. Israel is a good friend and an ally, and our commitment to them is ironclad, commitment to helping them defend themselves and weve shown that last night. Whit our viewers might be wondering, what does this mean for us and our troops in the region . And how likely is it the u. S. Is getting pulled into this widerscale war in the middle east . Well, its important to remember that our troops are in the region largely to go after isis, and thats isis in iraq and isis in syria. Thats why theyre there, and we add Additional Forces to the region since october 7th to help with defense of israel and to help the defense of commercial shipping in the red sea. Largely what were doing with the exception of the mission against isis which is an active mission, were largely in a defense role in the red sea, in the gulf of aden, in the eastern mediterranean. That is what were there for. Were going to obviously be vigilant to any potential threat on the forces in the region. The president has been clear were not looking for a war. Were not looking for a second or third front. Were not looking for escalation and were certainly not looking for a war with iran. Iran responded in an unprecedented way. Israel defended in a truly unprecedented, remarkable way. We dont want to see this situation escalate further. Whit yeah. The world is watching to see what happens next. John kirby, thank you for your time this morning. We appreciate it. Janai . Janai right now to abc news contributor, colonel Steve Ganyard who joins us. Steve, thank you so much for being with us. Your extensive military experience, based on what you just heard, john kirby there saying they dont want this conflict to spread further, but whats your feeling about whether that happens . Well, janai, iran doesnt actually have a lot of friends in the world. The chinese and the russians have been helpful in various ways, but in the region, they dont really have many friends. Most of the gulf countries, the saudis, the emirates, the kuwaitties, they dont like iran much either so its hard to see how this would spread much farther. The key is the gloves have been dropped. Its no longer a shadow war between israel and iran. Iran will now be vulnerable to israeli counterattacks. They are indeed vulnerable. The Israeli Air Force can own the air space over iran. The ships at sea and submarines that israel has make most of the iranian shipping and navy vulnerable. It will be interesting to see how iran or how israel reacts to this, and what theyre able to do. I dont think that they need to rush it. They have some time to think about it and pick the targets, but i think there will be some sort of response from israel Going Forward. Janai okay. So we will be watching for a potential response. In terms of the weapons that iran used, you heard john kirby there call it a massive air attack. Just how forceful was this . Yeah. It really, really was remarkable. I think everybody was caught off guard about how many weapons that iran actually launched at israel. If you think about it, janai, the intercepts of these weapons were done from, say, 100 feet off the ground all the way to the edge of space. Thats remarkable defensive military technology achievement. Much of it was either funded by the u. S. Or u. S. Technology. Note that almost onequarter of the weapons that were intercepted last night were done by u. S. Forces. Jordanian forces helped out. We believe that maybe the saudis and emirates may have helped out. The uk helped out. There was all sorts of help here for israel, but remarkable achievement to only have one person wounded after almost 330 weapons launched from iran. Janai so an unprecedented attack, but relatively minimal damage. So steve, was this attack calibrated to send a message or really to do damage . Yeah. The iranians had been warned to not escalate the situation, maybe to do something that was just at least a notional payback to israel. This is why i think most people were caught unaware is that 300 weapons were launched. That is beyond just a message. That was a true intent to hurt israel, and so i think that was a surprise here, and i think that the iranians cant be surprised when the israelis retaliate in kind. Janai colonel Steve Ganyard, thank you so much for being with us this morning to add that context. Gio . Gio and all of this could have a major impact on the markets and oil prices. Abcs Alexis Christoforous is here tracking that part of the story. Good morning, alexis. Reporter good morning, gio. Unrest in the middle east has wall street on high alert. Investors are bracing for another spike in oil prices and in a possible stock selloff when the opening bell sounds on wall street tomorrow. Stocks were already in selloff mode tomorrow in anticipation of irans attack on israel. Stocks had their worst week of the year while oil prices climbed to a sixmonth high topping 90 a barrel, a level not seen since the early days of the israel hamas war. Analysts are now predicting oil prices above 100 a barrel as turmoil in the middle east threatens oil supply in the region, putting key shipping routes in jeopardy, and potentially sending gas prices and inflation soaring. It was just weeks ago stocks were rallying to record highs on hopes the fed would deliver three Interest Rate cuts this year. Those hopes were dashed after reports confirmed inflation is back on the rise, and now the risk of a wider regional war in the middle east is pressuring global stock markets, sending investors running to the relative safety of bombs, gold, and the u. S. Dollar. Whit . Whit Something Else to watch in all of this. Alexis, thank you. We appreciate it. Turning to other news, and the historic case getting under way tomorrow in new york as donald trump becomes the first former u. S. President to stand trial on criminal charges. Hes accused of falsifying Business Records to hide hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Aaron katersky is here now with more. Reporter whit, good morning to you. As you say, a former president has never stood trial as a criminal defendant. So tomorrow, here in the city he once called home, donald trump achieves a status he repeatedly tried to avoid. On the eve of his criminal trial, former President Trump is brimming with confidence. All i can do is tell the truth and the truth is theres no case. They have no case. Reporter trump launched a flurry of lastditch efforts trying to delay the trial repeatedly dispatching his lawyers to an Appeals Court with a plea to postpone the trial, alleging the judges bias, the jury pool tainted and the limited gag order is unfair. The court rejecting each one. When trump claimed the jurors have seen too much about the case, the publicity was at least in part by his own doing. Hundreds of people will show up for jury selection and answer 42 questions like have you ever attended a rally or Campaign Event for donald trump . Do you currently follow donald trump on any social media site . Do you have feelings or opinions about how mr. Trump is being treated in this case . You know, jury selection is largely luck. It depends who you get. Reporter prosecutors will try to convince the jury he wanted to influence the 2016 election when he directed his former fixer Michael Cohen to pay off film actress Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about a long denied affair. Reimbursement checks to cohen. The fact he was paying Michael Cohen for Legal Services performed in 2017, this simply was not true. Reporter cohen and daniels are expected to testify along with several or current or former members of trumps inner circle including his former director of Office Operations madeleine westerhout, and hope hicks. This moment in political history is going to unfold under tight security. It has to because the defendant has secured the republican nomination for president. Gio so aaron, talk to us about the importance of the trial here given the time frame. Its maybe the only one of the four criminal prosecutions donald trump faces thats ever going to make it to trial. Even the manhattan d. A. Has said the interest of justice would be better served if one of the other trials about classified documents or election interference went to trial first, but those cases are all mired in delays, and so this one is the one that starts tomorrow an