Israel has been studying options for a retaliatory attack on Iran despite being urged to hold fire by the United States.
According to Israeli media, the war cabinet led by Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, decided it had no choice but to act “clearly and forcefully”. The aim was to show that Israel “will not allow an attack of that magnitude against it to pass without a reaction”.
The White House is urging restraint, saying the US will not take part in action itself and that it expects the Israeli response to be limited to avoid further escalation.
That would appear to set boundaries on an otherwise broad set of options for Israel, which has already repeatedly struck Iranian and Iran-linked targets in recent years,
