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

The meeting is aiming to be held at 4:00 pm (2000 GMT) on Sunday and is at Israel's request, a spokesperson for Malta, which holds the rotating presidency this month, told the media Saturday evening.

Israel's envoy to the UN, 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."

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

Iran-backed groups in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen have carried out a flurry of attacks on Israeli and Western targets since October 7, 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.