Iran’s leader says Israel attack should not be ‘exaggerated or downplayed’

“The attack was precise and powerful and achieved its goals,” Netanyahu said at a ceremony commemorating the victims of last year’s terrorist attacks on October 7.

“This regime must understand a simple principle: whoever hurts us, therefore we hurt him.”

Official Iranian sources publicly played down the effects of the attack, saying most of the missiles were intercepted and those that were not caused only minor damage to air defense systems.

In his first public comments since the attack, Khamenei said: “The authorities must determine how to transfer the power and will of the Iranian people to the Israeli regime and take measures that serve the interests of this nation and country. ”

President Pezeshkian largely echoed the supreme leader’s words, saying at a cabinet meeting: “We do not seek war, but we will defend the rights of our nation and country.”

The Israeli strikes were more limited than some observers expected. The US has publicly pressured Israel not to strike oil and nuclear facilities, and Tel Aviv appears to have heeded the advice.

Western countries, in turn, have called on Iran not to respond in order to break a cycle of escalation between the two Middle Eastern countries that they fear could lead to an all-out regional war.

Iranian media released footage of daily life continuing as normal and described the “limited” damage as a victory, a choice analysts said was intended to reassure Iranians.

Fighting continued between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, and between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.

According to local authorities, an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese city of Sidon on Sunday killed at least eight people.

In the Gaza Strip, eight people were killed in an Israeli strike on a school that had become a shelter in the Al-Shati refugee camp. Palestinian media and Reuters reported that three of the dead were Palestinian journalists.

And in Israel, a man was killed and at least 30 injured after a truck crashed into a bus stop near an Israeli military base north of Tel Aviv in what authorities said was a suspected terrorist attack.