Adedokun Waliyu 
Explosions echoed over an Iranian city on Friday in what sources described as an Israeli attack, but Tehran played down the incident and indicated it had no plans for retaliation – a response that appeared gauged towards averting region-wide war.
The limited scale of the attack and Iran’s muted response both appeared to signal a successful effort by diplomats who have been working round the clock to avert all-out war since an Iranian drone and missile attack on Israel last Saturday.
Iranian media and officials described a small number of explosions, which they said resulted from Iran’s air defences hitting three drones over the city of Isfahan. Notably, they referred to the incident as an attack by “infiltrators”, rather than by Israel, obviating the need for retaliation.
A senior Iranian official told Reuters there were no plans to respond against Israel for the incident
“The foreign source of the incident has not been confirmed. We have not received any external attack, and the discussion leans more towards infiltration than attack,” the official said.
Jonathan Lord, head of the Middle East security program at the Center for a New American Security, a U.S. think tank, said Iran’s response “seems to indicate that Iran is seeking to step down off the ledge, minimise the impact of the attack, and perhaps walk back down the escalation ladder from here.”
Israel said nothing about the incident. It had said for days it was planning to retaliate against Iran for Saturday’s strikes, the first direct attack on Israel by Iran in decades of shadow war waged by proxies which has escalated throughout the Middle East during six months of battle in Gaza.
The two longstanding foes had been heading towards direct confrontation since a presumed Israeli airstrike on April 1 that destroyed a building in Iran’s embassy compound in Damascus and killed several Iranian officers including a top general.
Iran’s response, with a direct attack on Israel, was unprecedented but caused no deaths and only minor damage because Israel and its allies shot down hundreds of missiles and drones.
Allies including the United States had since been pressing hard to ensure any further retaliation would be calibrated not to provoke a spiral of hostilities. The British and German foreign ministers visited Jerusalem this week, and Western countries tightened sanctions on Iran to mollify Israel.
There was no word from Israel as to whether further action might be planned. Apart from direct strikes on Iranian territory, it has other ways of attacking, including cyber attacks and strikes on Iranian proxies elsewhere.
In a sign of pressure within Israel’s hard-right government for a stronger response, Itamar Ben Gvir, the far-right national security minister posted a single word on X after Friday’s strikes: “Feeble”.
“In light of reports of strikes on April 19th, we urge all parties to work to prevent further escalation,” foreign ministers of the Group of Seven industrialised democracies said in a joint statement at the end of a three-day meeting in Italy.
They also called for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the release of hostages held there by Hamas, an influx of aid for civilians in Gaza and for Israel to hold off from attacking Rafah, the last refuge for more than a million Gazans.
“It is absolutely necessary that the region remains stable and that all sides restrain from further action,” European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said. Similar calls came from Beijing, Moscow and Arab states in the region.
In financial markets, global shares eased, oil prices surged and U.S. bond yields fell as traders worried about the risks.
In Iran, news reports on Friday’s incident made no mention of Israel, and state television carried analysts and pundits who appeared dismissive about the scale.
An analyst told state TV that mini drones flown by “infiltrators from inside Iran” had been shot down by air defences in Isfahan.
Shortly after midnight, “three drones were observed in the sky over Isfahan. The air defense system became ac
