#IsraelIranConflict Iran responds to the continuous attacks from Israel on its territory with the launch of dozens of missiles

"Just moments ago, with the launch of hundreds of ballistic missiles of various kinds towards the occupied territories, the operation of decisive response to the brutal attack of the Zionist regime has begun," reported the official Iranian news agency IRNA on Friday night.

Tehran had initially responded to Israel's attacks by sending 100 drones into Israeli territory, most of which were intercepted.

Analysis by Frank Gardner, BBC security correspondent

Israel has risked much with the so-called Operation Rising Lion. It argues that it had no other option, that Iran was accelerating its work to build a nuclear bomb, and that this was its best - and possibly last - opportunity to prevent it.

But the counterargument is more relevant today than ever: when the dust settles after this latest exchange of fire between Iran and Israel, the Iranian leaders who survive will rush to obtain a nuclear weapon.

The hawks of the Iranian security system have long argued that it is not only a national right for Iran to possess nuclear power, but that it would be the best deterrent against future attacks.

They will have taken note of the different paths taken by Libya and North Korea. Libyan Colonel Gaddafi abandoned his Weapons of Mass Destruction program in 2003 and eight years later died in a ditch, overthrown by the protests of the Arab Spring, backed by Western air power.

In contrast, Kim Jong-un's regime in North Korea has defied Western sanctions and has managed to amass a formidable arsenal of ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads. No one is in a hurry to attack North Korea.