Iran will take even tougher action against Israel if attacks escalate President Masoud Pezeshkian warned during a cabinet meeting in Tehran on Sunday.

He spoke after both sides launched fresh attacks on each other overnight into Sunday.

Israel launched "Operation Rising Lion" with a surprise attack on Friday morning that wiped out the top echelon of Iran's military command and damaged its nuclear sites, and says the campaign will continue to escalate in coming days. Iran has vowed to "open the gates of hell" in retaliation.

President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran's responses will grow "more decisive and severe" if Israel's hostile actions continue.

Israel's strikes on Iran were years in the making: analysts

Iranian strikes overnight hit residential buildings in Israel killing at least 10 people.

Iran has not given a full death toll but said 78 people were killed on Friday and scores more have died since, including in a single attack that killed 60 on Saturday, half of them children, in a 14-storey apartment block flattened in Tehran.

At least 4 Filipinos injured after Iran's retaliatory airstrikes in Israel: DFA

(production: Bahareh Khodabandeh, Melory Ghazi)