Explosions echoed over an Iranian city in what sources described as an Israeli attack, but Tehran played down the incident and indicated it had no plans for retaliation — a response that appeared gauged towards averting region-wide war. The limited scale of the attack and Iran’s muted response appeared to signal a successful effort by diplomats who have been working to avert all-out war since an Iranian drone and missile attack on Israel last Saturday.
Israel had said it would retaliate after Saturday’s strikes, the first ever direct attack on Israel by Iran, which caused no deaths after Israel and its allies shot down hundreds of missiles and drones. Tehran launched those attacks in response to a presumed Israeli air strike on April 1 that destroyed a building in Iran’s embassy compound in Damascus and killed several Iranian officers including a top general.