Iran and Israel continued on Sunday their aerial attacks, which began Friday with a series of Israeli strikes on Iran.

Israel may be trying to take advantage of a window: Iran has reportedly not yet rebuilt air defences which were degraded by an Israeli attack in October, and Iran’s strongest proxy in the region, Hezbollah in Lebanon, has been significantly weakened by Israeli action.

Russia has maintained a delicate balancing act in the Middle East for decades, trying to navigate its warm relations with Israel even as it has developed strong economic and military ties with Iran.

Israeli warplanes hit an underground site in western Iran that contained tunnels to store surface-to-surface missiles and cruise missiles, as well as launch shafts, the Israeli military said. Iran had previously released a propaganda video of the site and Israel added it on its list of targets,

Iranian media reported that Israel struck the South Pars Gas Field in what would be the first attack on an Iranian energy site.

The retaliatory strikes came on Saturday, a day after Israel killed top Iranian military leaders and scientists and destroyed an aboveground nuclear enrichment plant near Natanz.

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis said on Sunday that they targeted Israel in coordination with Iran, the first time an Iran-aligned group has publicly announced joint cooperation on attacks with Tehran. The Yemeni group targeted central Israel's Jaffa with several ballistic missiles in the last 24 hours,