DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s supreme leader on Saturday threatened Israel and the United States with an “overwhelming response” to attacks on Iran and its allies.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iranian authorities are increasingly threatening to launch a new attack. Israel, after its attack on the Islamic Republic on October 26c attacks targeting military bases and other locations, killing at least five people.

Any attack from either side could plunge the Middle East, currently reeling from the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon, into a broader regional conflict just ahead of the war. US presidential election Tuesday.

“The enemies, whether it is the Zionist regime or the United States, will definitely receive an overwhelming response to what they have done to Iran, the Iranian nation and the resistance front,” Khamenei said in the video published by Iranian state media.

The religious leader did not provide detailed information about the timing and scope of the threatened attack. The U.S. military operates from bases in the Middle East, and some troops currently operate a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, battery in Israel.

The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln is likely based in the Arabian Sea, and Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said Friday that more destroyers, fighter squadrons, tankers and B-52 long-range bombers will arrive in the region to deter Iran. and its militant allies.

Khamenei, 85, had adopted a more cautious approach in his previous statements, saying officials would evaluate Iran’s reaction and that Israel’s attack “should not be exaggerated or underestimated.” Iran launched two major direct attacks on Israel in April and October.

But Iran’s efforts to downplay the Israeli attack were thwarted when satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press showed damage to military bases near Tehran linked to the country’s ballistic missile program, as well as a Revolutionary Guard base used for satellite launches.

Iran’s allies whom Tehran calls the “Axis of Resistance”It has also suffered severely from ongoing attacks by Israel, particularly by Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Iran has long used these groups both as an asymmetric way to attack Israel and as a shield against a direct attack. Some analysts believe these groups want Iran to do more to provide them with military support.

But Iran is dealing with its own problems at home, as its economy struggles under the weight of international sanctions and has faced widespread, numerous protests for years. After Khamenei’s speech, the Iranian rial fell to 691,500 against the dollar, near an all-time low. When Tehran reached a nuclear deal with world powers in 2015, the figure was 32,000 rials per dollar.

General Muhammad Ali Naini, spokesman for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which controls the ballistic missiles needed to target Israel, gave an interview published by the semi-official Fars news agency just before Khamenei’s statements were published. In the document, he warned that Iran’s response “will be intelligent, strong and beyond the enemy’s understanding.”

“The leaders of the Zionist regime must look out their bedroom windows and protect the criminal pilots in their own little territory,” he warned. Israeli air force pilots appear to have used air-launched ballistic missiles in the October 26 attack.

On Saturday, Khamenei met with university students to mark Student’s Day, which commemorates the November 4, 1978 incident when Iranian soldiers opened fire on students protesting the Shah’s rule at Tehran University. The conflict led to the deaths and injuries of many students and further escalated the tensions gripping Iran at the time, ultimately leading to the Shah’s flight from the country and the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

The crowd welcomed Khamenei noisily, chanting: “The blood in our veins is a gift to our leader!” Some threatened that American soldiers arriving in the Middle East standing up would “turn around in coffins” horizontally, making a hand gesture similar to the “break” sign made by slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a 2020 speech.

This Sunday, Iran will mark the 45th anniversary of the US Embassy hostage crisis according to the Iranian calendar. The raid of the embassy by Islamist students on November 4, 1979 sparked a 444-day crisis that reinforced the decades-long hostility between Tehran and Washington that continues today.

Eleven people were injured in an attack on a central Israeli town early Saturday, as Iran’s supreme leader vowed a punitive response to Israel’s attack last week.

In central Israel on Saturday, an attack fired from Lebanon crashed into a building in the predominantly Israeli Arab town of Tira, wounding 11 people, according to the Magen David Adom emergency service.

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said on Saturday it was using missiles and explosive drones to target military and intelligence facilities in northern and central Israel. He claimed responsibility for launching missiles at the Israeli army’s Unit 8200 base in Glilot, on the border with Tel Aviv, and at military facilities in Zvulun. Tira is approximately 19 km from Glilot. Hezbollah also said it targeted Palmachim Air Base in central Israel with explosive drones, which “hit targets with precision.”

The Israeli military did not confirm whether any of the three Hezbollah targets were hit and said it had no comment on the group’s claims.

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said 11 people were injured in an Israeli airstrike on the southern suburb of Beirut on Saturday afternoon.

In a separate incident, a Lebanese ship captain was taken away by a group of armed men who landed on the beach north of Beirut, Lebanese officials said on Saturday. The incident occurred at dawn on Friday and authorities are investigating whether Israel was involved, officials said.

No statement was made from Israel on the issue. In the past, Israel has carried out commando operations deep into Lebanon to kidnap or kill Hezbollah and Palestinian officials.

Israel has also stepped up its attacks against Hamas fighters remaining in the Gaza Strip, raising concerns about the humanitarian conditions of civilians remaining there.

A series of Israeli attacks on Nuseyrat, a refugee camp in central Gaza, killed at least 42 people in 24 hours, more than half of them women and children. There are casualties, according to the Associated Press. He also said 150 people were injured.

Israel’s war in Gaza has led to the deaths of more than 43,000 Palestinians since October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants killed nearly 1,200 people in Israel and took some 250 hostages back to Gaza. Health officials in Hamas-run Gaza do not distinguish between civilians and combatants but say more than half of the deaths in the region are women and children.

Gambrell writes for the Associated Press. AP journalists Adam Schreck in Jerusalem, Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Natalie Melzer in Tel Aviv and Shlomo Mor in Tira, as well as Times staff, contributed to this report.