A senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said Israel is panicking over a possible response from Iran after the deadly strike on the Iranian consulate building in Syria earlier this month.

“It has been a week that the Zionists are in complete panic and are on alert,” Yahya Rahim Safavi was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.

“They don’t know what Iran wants to do, so they and their supporters are terrified,” ISNA quoted him as saying.

Iran has blamed Israel and pledged to avenge the air strike that killed seven IRGC members, including two generals. The Israeli army has since announced a leave suspension and also said officials decided to increase manpower and draft reserve soldiers to operate air defences.

“This psychological, media and political war is more terrifying for them than the war itself, because they are waiting for an attack every night and many of them have fled and gone to shelters,” Safavi said.