Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Iran seeks to develop a "stockpile" of nuclear bombs aimed at destroying Israel, two days after Israel bombed military targets in the Islamic republic.

"Iran is striving to develop a stockpile of nuclear bombs to destroy us, equipped with long-range missiles, intercontinental missiles that Iran is trying to develop," Netanyahu said in a speech to lawmakers as Israel's parliament began its winter session. "Iran could threaten the entire world at any point."

Palestinian prisoner rights organizations accused Israeli prison authorities on Monday of "brutally assaulting" Marwan Barghouti, the most prominent Palestinian detainee in Israeli custody.

Prison system staff assaulted Barghouti in his solitary confinement cell at Megiddo Prison in northern Israel on September 9, the Palestinian Commission of Detainees' Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoners' Club and a support group for Barghouti said in statements.

Iranian media on Monday said a civilian was killed during the Israeli strikes over the weekend which targeted military sites, although authorities had not previously reported civilian deaths.

"The martyr Allahverdi Rahimpour, a civilian who was killed near Tehran during the recent attack by the Zionist regime, has been buried," the local Fars news agency reported. Tasnim news agency also reported the death.

The top commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards has warned Israel it would face "bitter consequences" after its attack on Iranian military sites, local media said on Monday.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian says his country will respond to Israel “appropriately," after Israel openly attacked Iranian military sites for the first time this weekend.

“We are not seeking war, but we will defend the rights of our nation and country and will respond appropriately to the Zionist regime’s aggression,” Pezeshkian was quoted by state TV on Sunday as saying.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the strikes “severely harmed” Iran and achieved all of Israel’s goals.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday said Israel's attack on the Islamic republic "should neither be exaggerated nor minimized."

A driver rammed his truck into a crowd of people at a bus stop in central Israel on Sunday, killing a man and injuring more than two dozen people, medics and police said.

With the U.S. presidential election heading into the home stretch, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will likely be hoping for Donald Trump to return to the White House.

By Javed Ali, University of Michigan

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/israels-latest-strike-against-iran-may-actually-de-escalate-regional-tensions-for-now-at-least-242276