Guards chief threatens to hit back 'painfully' if Israel attacks Iranian targets

Iran's Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami warned on Thursday of further retaliation against Israel if it attacks Iranian targets, which Israel has vowed to do after Iran's missile attack on October 1.

"If you make a mistake and attack our targets, whether in the region or in Iran, we will strike you again painfully," Salami said at the funeral of a Guards general killed in an Israeli strike last month.

Abbas Nilforoushan, a top commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force foreign operations arm, was killed on September 27 alongside Hassan Nasrallah, the chief of Lebanon's Hezbollah, in an Israeli strike on south Beirut.

Funeral services for Nilforoushan, whose body the Guards said was recovered last week, began on Monday in Iraq. His body was then moved to Iran for burial in his hometown of Isfahan later on Thursday.

During his speech, Salami criticised as "not reliable" the THAAD missile defence battery which the Pentagon on Tuesday said arrived in Israel, along with about 100 American troops to operate it.

"Do not trust these systems. You cannot massacre Muslim nations and remain safe," he said.

"We know your weaknesses. You know them well," he added addressing Israel.

The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system is "designed to intercept targets outside and inside the atmosphere," according to its manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

Salami's remarks came as Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi intensified diplomatic efforts on ways to contain the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon from spreading across the region.