Iran’s leader breaks silence after Israel’s attack - but stops short of making pledge

Ali Khamenei responded to an attack on Iran by Israel. (Image: Getty)

Iran's leader has responded to an Israeli attack on his country that reportedly hit air defence systems protecting energy sites.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the attack "should not be exaggerated nor downplayed", though he stopped short of calling for an immediate military response.

Though he said "it would be wrong for us to say that it was nothing and it did not matter", Khamenei described the airstrikes as "malignant" and claimed Israel has tried to overstate the impact of its attack.

Khamenei added: "The evil committed by the Zionist regime (Israel) two nights ago should neither be downplayed nor exaggerated.

"The calculation error of the Zionist regime must be disrupted. They do not know Iran, its youth, its nation. They have not yet been able to fully comprehend the power, capabilities, initiative and will of the Iranian nation, we must make them understand it."

Israel struck military targets in Iran. (Image: Getty)

Israel hit Iran with a series of airstrikes early on Saturday, saying it was targeting military sites in retaliation for the barrage of ballistic missiles Iran fired upon Israel earlier this month.

Explosions could be heard in Tehran, the capital, though the Islamic Republic insisted they only casued "limited damage".

Israeli military claimed it targeted "missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the state of Israel over the last year" and hit surface-to-air missile sites and "additional Iranian aerial capabilities".

Some of the buildings damaged were in the Parchin military base, where the International Atomic Energy Agency suspects Iran in the past conducted tests of high explosives that could trigger a nuclear weapon.

The other area damaged could be found at the nearby Khojir military base, which analysts believe hides an underground tunnel system and missile production sites.

Iran long has insisted its nuclear programme is peaceful, though the IAEA, Western intelligence agencies and others say Tehran had an active weapons programme up until 2003.

Iran’s military has not acknowledged damage at either Khojir or Parchin from Israel’s attack, though it said the assault killed four Iranian soldiers working in the country’s air defence systems and one civilian.

It remains unclear how many sites in total were targeted in the Israeli attack. There have been no images of damage so far released by Iran’s military.