Thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets of Iran in a show of support for the unprecedented drone and missile attack under way against arch-foe Israel.

“Death to Israel!” and “Death to America!” chanted demonstrators in Tehran’s Palestine Square shortly after the Revolutionary Guards announced the launch of Operation Honest Promise.

A mural saying “the next slap is fiercer” was unveiled in the square where a huge banner has hung for days calling, in Hebrew, for Israelis to “take shelter”.

A large crowd of demonstrators gathered outside the British embassy in Tehran. Supporters of the retaliatory attack also demonstrated in Iran’s third largest city Isfahan where Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, one of the generals killed in the Damascus strike, is buried.

Demonstrators also gathered near the grave in the southern city of Kerman of prominent Guards commander Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a 2020 US drone strike in Baghdad.