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

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has offered a measured response to Israeli attacks on the country, saying the attack should not be “exaggerated or downplayed” while refraining from pledging immediate retaliation. instantly.

President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran would “give an appropriate response” to the attack that killed at least four soldiers, adding that Tehran was not seeking war.

Israel said it targeted military sites in several areas of Iran on Saturday in retaliation for Iranian attacks, which included a barrage of nearly 200 ballistic missiles fired toward Israel on Saturday. October 1.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had crippled Iran’s missile production and air defense systems. He said the attacks had “severely damaged Iran’s defense capabilities and missile production capabilities”.

“The attack was precise, powerful and achieved its goal,” Netanyahu said at a memorial service for the victims of the attack on October 7 last year.

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

Official Iranian sources have publicly downplayed the impact of the attack, saying that most of the missiles were intercepted and those that did not cause only limited damage to defense systems. Are not.

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

President Pezeshkian largely echoed the supreme leader’s language when speaking during a cabinet meeting: “We do not seek war, but we will defend the rights of our nation and our country. “

Israel’s attacks were more limited than some observers expected. The US has publicly pressured Israel not to attack oil and nuclear facilities, advice that appears to have been heeded by Tel Aviv.

Iran’s foreign minister said on Sunday that Iran had “received signs” of an impending attack hours before it took place.

“We received indications from that evening about the possibility of an attack that night,” Abbas Araghchi told reporters.

Western countries in turn called on Iran not to respond in order to break the cycle of escalation between both Middle Eastern countries, which they fear could lead to all-out war in the region.

Iranian media published footage of daily life going on as normal and cast the “limited” damage as a victory, a choice analysts said was intended to reassure Iranians.

Fighting continues between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon as well as between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas in Gaza.

On Sunday, an Israeli airstrike on the town of Sidon in southern Lebanon killed at least eight people, according to local authorities.

In Gaza, nine people were killed in an Israeli attack on a shelter converted into a school in the al-Shati refugee camp, Palestinian officials said.

Palestinian media and Reuters news agency said three of the dead were Palestinian journalists, citing government officials.

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

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday proposed a two-day ceasefire in Gaza, including the exchange of four Israeli hostages for several Palestinian prisoners.

He said that within 10 days of implementing such a temporary ceasefire, negotiations would be resumed with the aim of achieving a more permanent ceasefire.

However, speaking to the BBC Arabic Service, a senior Hamas official said the ceasefire conditions – rejected by Israel for months – remained unchanged.

Sami Abu Zuhri said the Palestinian rebel group continues to demand a complete ceasefire, a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and a serious prisoner exchange agreement.

“Any agreement that does not guarantee these conditions is null and void,” he added.