Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave a cautious response to Israel’s attack on the country, saying the strike should not be “exaggerated or downplayed” while stopping short of promising immediate retaliation.
President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran would “respond appropriately” to the attack, which killed at least four soldiers, adding that Tehran was not seeking war.
Israel said it targeted Iranian military bases in several regions on Saturday in retaliation for Iranian attacks, including nearly 200 ballistic missiles fired at Israel on October 1.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel had weakened Iran’s air defense and missile production systems. He said the attack “severely damaged Iran’s defense capabilities and its ability to produce missiles.”
“The attack was precise and powerful and achieved its purpose,” Netanyahu said at a ceremony to commemorate the victims of last October 7 attack.
“This regime must understand a simple principle: We will hurt whoever hurts us.”
Official sources in Iran publicly downplayed the impact of the attack, saying most of the missiles were intercepted and those that were not intercepted only caused limited damage to the air defense system.
In his first public comments since the attack, Khamenei said: “The authorities should decide how to convey the strength and will of the Iranian people to the Israeli regime and take actions that are beneficial to the interests of this nation and country. ”
President Pezeshkian largely echoed the supreme leader’s language, telling a cabinet meeting: “We do not seek war, but we will defend the rights of our nation and state.”
The Israeli attack was more limited than some observers expected. The United States has publicly pressured Israel not to attack oil and nuclear facilities, and Tel Aviv appears to have listened.
Western countries have in turn urged Iran not to respond in a bid to break a cycle of escalation between the two Middle Eastern countries that they fear could lead to a full-scale regional war.
Iranian media showed footage of daily life continuing as normal and viewed the “limited” damage as a victory, a move that analysts said was intended to reassure Iranians.
Fighting continues between Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah, and between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.
An Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese town of Sidon killed at least eight people on Sunday, according to local authorities.
In Gaza, nine people were killed in an Israeli attack on a converted school shelter in the Shati refugee camp, Palestinian officials said.
Palestinian media and Reuters quoted government officials as saying that three of the dead were Palestinian journalists.
In Israel, a truck crashed into a bus stop near an Israeli military base in northern Tel Aviv, killing one man and injuring at least 30 others in what authorities said was a suspected terror attack.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on Sunday proposed a two-day ceasefire in Gaza that would include the exchange of four Israeli hostages for some Palestinian prisoners.
He said talks should resume within 10 days of the imposition of a temporary ceasefire to reach a more permanent ceasefire.
But a senior Hamas official told BBC Arabic that its ceasefire conditions – which Israel has rejected for months – had not changed.
Sami Abu Zuhri said Palestinian militant groups continue to demand a complete ceasefire, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a serious prisoner exchange agreement.
“Any agreement that does not guarantee these conditions is of no value,” he added.
