Israel-Iran crisis: Iranian cleric warns Israel against 'doing anything foolish' as France calls US sanctions 'unacceptable'

Military confrontation comes as Hamas' leader warns of mass breach of Israeli border fence

Syrian military video shows air defences trying to intercept Israeli missiles

The chief of the UN has called for an immediate halt to “all hostile acts” in the Middle East, a day after Israeli forces bombed Iranian military targets inside Syria.

Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, asked for the halt to avoid “a new conflagration” in the region following the most extensive military exchange between Israel and Iran.

Iranian senior cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said during Friday prayers that Western pressure will backfire, threatening that Israel will pay the price.

"The holy system of Islamic Republic will step up its missile capabilities day by day so that Israel, this occupying regime, will become sleepless and the nightmare will constantly haunt it that if it does anything foolish, we will raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground," the hardline cleric said. The worshippers chanted: "Death to America," and "Death to Israel".

Israel said the strikes were retaliation for an Iranian rocket barrage on its positions in the occupied Golan Heights. It was the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter rivals to date and risks direct clashes which could swiftly escalate.

It comes as Hamas' leader in the Gaza Strip hinted at the possibility thousands of Palestinians could breach the border fence with Israel during mass protests this week.

Britain supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Iranian aggression, Theresa May, the prime minister, told her Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel said it had attacked nearly all of Iran’s military infrastructure in Syria on Thursday after Iranian forces fired rockets at Israeli-held territory for the first time.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which closely monitors the civil war through sources inside Syria, said 23 fighters, including five Syrian soldiers, were killed. It was not immediately clear if any Iranians were among the dead.

The confrontation came two days after Donald Trump announced the United States would withdraw, with Israel’s encouragement, from a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

The British statement said Ms May and Mr Netanyahu “agreed it was vital for the international community to continue working together to counter Iran’s destabilising regional activity, and for Russia to use its influence in Syria to prevent further Iranian attacks”.

The statement added that Ms May had “reiterated our position on the Iran nuclear deal, noting that we and our European partners remain firmly committed to ensuring the deal is upheld, as the best way of preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon”.

The White House swiftly condemned Iran's "provocative rocket attacks from Syria against Israeli citizens" and expressed strong support for "Israel's right to act in self-defence," while Russia said the Israeli strikes marked a dangerous escalation and urged both Israel and Iran to avoid provoking each other.

In a statement, the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said "the Iranian regime's deployment into Syria of offensive rocket and missile systems aimed at Israel is an unacceptable and highly dangerous development for the entire Middle East."

Additional reporting by agencies

[11 May 2018 09:59 · Samuel Osborne]

Some further analysis from our Middle East correspondent, Patrick Cockburn, who says: "If Donald Trump does lead US to attack Iran directly, it will be due to a misunderstanding of the real options available."

[11 May 2018 10:09 · Samuel Osborne]

Thousands of Indonesian Muslims have staged a rally protesting Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. 

About 5,000 people flocked to Jakarta's landmark National Monument and unfurled Indonesian and Palestinian flags. 

The US plans to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on Monday, five months after Mr Trump recognised it as Israel's capital. Palestinians also claim it as their capital. 

The protest was organised by a new umbrella group including the most influential government-sanctioned Indonesian Ulema Council and some hard-line activists as well. The protesters performed Friday prayers at the monument before dispersing. 

Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has strongly condemned Mr Trump's move, which he described as a violation of UN resolutions. 

[11 May 2018 10:27 · Samuel Osborne]

[11 May 2018 10:36 · Samuel Osborne]

Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, and Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, are discussing the Iran nuclear deal after Donald Trump announced the US would withdraw, RIA reports, citing the Kremlin.

[11 May 2018 10:42 · Samuel Osborne]

Israeli troops shot and wounded a Palestinian protester in Gaza, Palestinian medical workers said, as demonstrators arrived for the last Friday of a six-week protest at the Gaza-Israel border.

Organisers of the protest, called the "Great March of Return," said they expected tens of thousands of Gazans at border encampments in the coming days.

Israeli troops have killed 43 Palestinians during the protest, which ends on 15 May, the day Palestinians call the "Nakba" or "catastrophe", marking the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the conflict surrounding the creation of Israel in 1948.

[11 May 2018 10:54 · Samuel Osborne]

Donald Trump's decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal is no reason to call into question Europe's relationship with the United States, Angela Merkel has said.

The German chancellor added that possibilities to save the deal without the US needed to be discussed with Iran.

[11 May 2018 10:58 · Samuel Osborne]

Ms Merkel said the US withdrawal undermines confidence in the global order. 

Germany, France and Britain have vowed to keep the 2015 nuclear agreement alive following the US decision to walk away.

Ms Merkel noted in a speech that it took 12 years of work to put together. 

She conceded "it is certainly anything but ideal" and acknowledged there are many other issues of concern with Iran. 

The German chancellor said: "Nevertheless, I think it is not right to unilaterally cancel a deal that was agreed, that was unilaterally approved in the UN Security Council. That diminishes confidence in the international order." 

Pointing also to the US withdrawal from the Paris accord on climate change, Ms Merkel added: "If we always say that, if we don't like things and we can't achieve a new international order, everyone will do what they feel like, that's bad news for the world."

[11 May 2018 11:07 · Samuel Osborne]

The US aims to topple Iran's cleric establishment, a senior Iranian cleric has claimed on state TV.

[11 May 2018 11:13 · Samuel Osborne]

The Iranian foreign minister will meet with representatives from France, Germany, and the UK in Brussels on Tuesday, the EU has announced.

They will likely be discussing what can be salvaged from the nuclear deal after Donald Trump announced the US would pull out.

[11 May 2018 11:25 · Samuel Osborne]

A senior Iranian cleric has said Europeans could not be trusted, after the country's president, Hassan Rouhani, said Tehran would remain in a 2015 nuclear deal even after the United States quit the pact, Iranian state TV reported.

"America cannot do a damn thing. They have always been after toppling of Iran's regime and this exit is in line with that aim ... these European signatories also cannot be trusted ... Iran's enemies cannot be trusted," Ahmad Khatami said as he led Friday prayers in Tehran.