Iran warns Israel against 'slightest' response, closes nuclear sites

President Ebrahim Raisi has warned Israel it will face a "painful response" if it takes the "slightest action" in response to Iran's unprecedented drone and missile barrage at the weekend.

Iran's first-ever direct attack on Israel, which began on Saturday, was in response to an April 1 air strike on Tehran's consulate in Damascus which has been widely blamed on Israel.

The strike levelled the five-storey consular annexe of the Iranian embassy and killed seven Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals.

"We firmly declare that the slightest action against Iran's interests will definitely be met with a severe, extensive and painful response," Raisi said in a call late Monday with Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

Raisi reiterated that Iran was acting in "self-defence", saying the operation targeted Israeli bases used to carry out the consulate strike, a statement from his office said.

He criticised the support of some Western government for Israel.

Israeli armed forces chief Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi vowed Monday to respond to the unprecedented attack, even after appeals for restraint poured in from world leaders fearing wider regional conflict.

"This launch of so many missiles, cruise missiles, and UAVs into the territory of the State of Israel will be met with a response," Halevi told troops at the Nevatim airbase, which was hit in Iran's Saturday night barrage.

The Israeli army has said the vast majority of the weapons were shot down -- with the help of the United States and other allies -- and the attack caused only minimal damage.

Iran said it had informed the United States and given a 72-hour warning to neighbouring countries ahead of what it called its "limited" attack on Israel.

Iran ‘closes’ nuclear facilities

Iran temporarily closed its nuclear facilities over "security considerations" in the wake of its massive missile and drone attack on Israel over the weekend, the head of the UN's atomic watchdog said Monday.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a UN Security Council meeting, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi was asked whether he was concerned about the possibility of an Israeli strike on an Iranian nuclear facility in retaliation for the attack.

"We are always concerned about this possibility. What I can tell you is that our inspectors in Iran were informed by the Iranian government that yesterday (Sunday), all the nuclear facilities that we are inspecting every day would remain closed on security considerations," he said.

The facilities were to reopen on Monday, Grossi said, but inspectors would not return until the following day.

"I decided to not let the inspectors return until we see that the situation is completely calm," he added, while calling for "extreme restraint".

Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel overnight from Saturday into Sunday in retaliation for an air strike on a consular building in Damascus that killed seven of its Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals.

Israel and its allies shot down the vast majority of the weapons, and the attack caused only minor damage, but concerns about a potential Israeli reprisal have nevertheless stoked fears of all-out regional war.

Israel has carried out operations against nuclear sites in the region before.

In 1981, it bombed the Osirak nuclear reactor in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, despite opposition from Washington. And in 2018, it admitted to having launched a top-secret air raid against a reactor in Syria 11 years prior.

Israel is also accused by Tehran of having assassinated two Iranian nuclear physicists in 2010, and of having kidnapped another the previous year.

Also in 2010, a sophisticated cyberattack using the Stuxnet virus, attributed by Tehran to Israel and the United States, led to a series of breakdowns in Iranian centrifuges used for uranium enrichment.

Israel accuses Iran of wanting to acquire an atomic bomb, something Tehran denies.

Japan urges Iran to show 'restraint'

Japan's foreign minister urged her Iranian counterpart on Tuesday to "exercise restraint" following Tehran's missile and drone attack on Israel, according to a readout of their telephone talks issued by Tokyo.

Yoko Kamikawa told Hossein Amir-Abdollahian that "Japan is deeply concerned about the attacks by Iran against Israel, which further deteriorate the current situation in the Middle East, and strongly condemns such escalation," the statement said.

She added that "the current situation is not in the interest of the international community as a whole, including Japan, not to mention that of Iran and the Iranian people, and strongly urged Iran to exercise restraint, stating that further escalation of tensions must be prevented," it said.

Kamikawa also "pointed out the importance of freedom of navigation and safety and called for Iran to ensure the safety of navigation in the waters of the region," the statement added.

Iran launched the weekend attack, its first ever to directly target Israeli territory, in retaliation for a deadly air strike widely blamed on Israel that destroyed Tehran's consular building in Syria's capital early this month.

The strikes raised Middle East tensions to a dangerous new level six months into a deadly conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, prompting international cries of alarm.

Israeli forces taking part in settler attacks on Palestinians: UN

The UN voiced grave concern Tuesday over escalating violence in the West Bank, demanding that Israeli security forces "immediately" stop supporting settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied territory.

With the Gaza war raging, the United Nations rights office decried that Palestinians in the West Bank had been "subjected to waves of attacks by hundreds of Israeli settlers, often accompanied or supported by Israeli security forces (ISF)".

"The Israeli security forces must immediately end their active participation in and support for settler attacks on Palestinians," rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.

"Israeli authorities must instead prevent further attacks, including by bringing those responsible to account."

She stressed that "those reasonably suspected of criminal acts, including murder or other unlawful killings, must be brought to justice through a judicial process that complies with international human rights standards, following a prompt, impartial, independent, effective and transparent investigation".

Shamdasani pointed out that following the killing of a 14-year-old Israeli boy from a settler family at the weekend, "four Palestinians, including a child, were killed and Palestinian property was destroyed in revenge attacks".

The UN rights office, she said, had received information that "armed settlers and Israeli forces" had entered a number of towns and villages.

"Dozens of Palestinians were reportedly injured, including through the use of firearms, by settlers and ISF, and hundreds of homes and other buildings, as well as cars, were torched," she said.

"Three Israeli soldiers suffered injuries after they were hit with stones," she added.

The UN also highlighted reports that settlers had established at least two new outposts in recent days in the Jordan Valley and South Hebron Hills.

The outposts, she said, were "near Palestinian communities which have been repeatedly attacked by settlers in the past months and are at imminent risk of being forcibly transferred from their homes and land".

"Israel, as the occupying power, must take all measures in its power to restore, and ensure, as far as possible, public order and safety in the occupied West Bank," she said.

"This obligation includes protecting Palestinians from settler attacks, and ending unlawful use of force against Palestinians by the ISF."

The West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has seen a surge in violence since early last year, particularly since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in Gaza on October 7.

At least 468 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers across the West Bank since October 7, according to official Palestinian sources.