Iran's supreme leader threatens Israel and the US with "a crushing response" after strikes on Iran and its allies.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke on Friday, local time, as Iranian officials increasingly threatened to launch yet another strike against Israel after its October 26 barrage on the Islamic Republic.

The Israeli strikes targeted military bases and other locations and killed at least five people.

"The enemies, whether the Zionist regime or the United States of America, will definitely receive a crushing response to what they are doing to Iran and the Iranian nation and to the resistance front," the Ayatollah said in video released by Iranian state media.

The supreme leader did not elaborate on the timing of the threatened attack, nor the scope. 

The US military operates throughout the Middle East, with some troops now manning a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, battery in Israel.

Eighty-five-year-old Mr Khamenei had struck a more cautious approach in earlier remarks, saying officials would weigh Iran's response and that Israel's attack "should not be exaggerated nor downplayed."

Mr Khamenei on Saturday met with university students to mark Students Day, which commemorates a November 4, 1978, incident in which Iranian soldiers opened fire on students protesting the rule of the shah at Tehran University. 

The crowd offered a raucous welcome to Khamenei, chanting: "The blood in our veins is a gift to our leader!"

Some also made a hand gesture given by the slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in 2020 in a speech in which he threatened that American troops would "return in coffins."

Like the US and UK, Australia designates the entirety of Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation on the basis that it directly or indirectly engages in terrorist acts. 

Rockets fired from Lebanon injure 11, Israeli medics say

Meanwhile, rockets fired from Lebanon injured 11 people in central Israel on Saturday after one rocket hit a home, Israeli emergency services said.

Qasim Mohab, a resident of the central Israeli city of Tira, told Reuters he saw children and women screaming after the rocket hit the area. 

"We were able to evacuate and rescue those who were inside the house, and thank God we were blessed that there was no one killed," he said. 

Another strike in Israel's Sharon area — north of Tel Aviv — injured 19 people, police said early on Saturday. 

Four of the injured were "in moderate condition", the Israeli police added. 

Around the time the Sharon rockets hit, Hezbollah said it had targeted an intelligence base on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

Israel's ambulance service said that 11 people were hurt by shrapnel. 

On Friday, Lebanon's health ministry said 52 people were killed in Israeli strikes on more than a dozen towns in the Baalbek region, which has UNESCO-listed Roman ruins.

The Israeli military said on Saturday it had killed two Hezbollah commanders in the area of Tyre on Friday.

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.

Iran-backed Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas a day after Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 43,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Israel's offensive in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave.

In Lebanon, at least 2,897 people have been killed, its health ministry said as of Friday.

Seventy-one people in Israel and Israeli-occupied territories have been killed by Hezbollah's fire, according to Israeli authorities.

Pentagon announces additional resources

Earlier on Friday, the Pentagon announced it will deploy additional resources to the Middle East. 

They included B-52 bombers, fighter jets, refuelling aircraft and Navy destroyers.

The additional resources come as the Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group prepares to leave the region

The Pentagon said in a statement that deployments would take place in the coming months and demonstrated the flexibility of the US military movements around the world.

"Should Iran, its partners, or its proxies use this moment to target American personnel or interests in the region, the United States will take every measure necessary to defend our people," Pentagon spokesperson Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder said in a statement.

The United States has had as many as two aircraft carriers in the Middle East during the past year of soaring tensions since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023.

The Lincoln's withdrawal will create an aircraft carrier gap until another is cycled into the Middle East.

The United States has pledged to help defend Israel against attack as well as safeguard US forces in the Middle East who have been attacked by Iran-backed groups in Syria, Iraq, Jordan and off the coast of Yemen.

Wires