WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden cautioned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “think carefully and strategically about the risk of escalation” as Israel weighs its response to a brazen Iranian attack that the United States fears could escalate into a broader regional war.

“The president told the prime minister that Israel really came out ahead in this exchange,” a senior administration official briefing reporters said Sunday afternoon, adding that Israel “clearly demonstrated its military superiority.”

Biden and Netanyahu spoke by phone hours after Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel Saturday night into Sunday morning, nearly all of which were intercepted by Israel’s multilayered air defense system with the support of the United States and other allied militaries.

The direct attack came in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Damascus on April 1 that killed two senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) generals and several other IRGC members.

The senior administration official said Iran intended to be “highly, highly destructive” on Saturday but was thwarted by Israel's military. Analysts, however, said the attack — Iran’s first launched from its own territory against Israel — seemed calibrated to avoid a major Israeli response that would draw Iran and its proxies into an all-out war.

“If successful, this attack could have caused an uncontrollable escalation, a broader regional conflict,” the senior administration official said, adding that the Israelis have said they are not looking for "a significant escalation with Iran."

The United States and Iran lack diplomatic relations but use private channels to communicate, including the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, which represents US diplomatic interests in the country. As the attack was ongoing, the Biden administration received an Iranian message via the Swiss “basically suggesting that [the Iranians] were finished after this,” the administration official said.

The unprecedented attack comes days before Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian is expected to travel to New York for the UN Security Council’s April 18 meeting on Gaza, where health officials in the Hamas-run enclave say the Palestinian death toll has surpassed 33,000.

Iran’s Mission to the United Nations said on social media Saturday that its aerial attack was justified under Article 51 of the UN Charter, which provides for the right of self-defense. The mission said the attack was “deemed concluded,” but “should the Israeli regime make another mistake, Iran’s response will be considerably more severe.”

The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting at 4 p.m. on Sunday upon request from Israel, the council’s president said. Israel wants the UN’s top body to condemn the attack and designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization.

Biden and the other leaders of the Group of Seven nations unanimously condemned the attack during a virtual meeting on Sunday and discussed imposing coordinated sanctions in response, the senior administration official said.