JERUSALEM/CAIRO: Israel’s air strikes “hit hard” Iran’s defences and missile production, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, but Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the damage from Saturday’s attack should not be exaggerated.
With warfare raging in Gaza and Lebanon, direct confrontation between Israel and Iran risks spiralling into a regional conflagration. But a day after the air strikes, there was no sign they would spark another round of escalation.
However, heavy fighting in Lebanon between Israeli forces and Iran-backed Hezbollah, which sharply intensified over recent weeks, continued on Sunday with an Israeli airstrike killing eight people in a residential block in Sidon, medics said.
“The air force attacked throughout Iran. We hit hard Iran’s defence capabilities and its ability to produce missiles that are aimed at us,” Netanyahu said in a speech, calling the attack “precise and powerful” and saying it met all its objectives.
