"Earlier, we alerted about a large-scale drone launch targeting our territory. Most of the targets were intercepted", Defrin said during a press briefing after the army said Iran had launched about 100 drones towards Israel.

"The Israeli Air Force continues to operate to intercept unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) launched from Iran toward the State of Israel," the military said in a statement shortly before Defrin's briefing.

In its largest military action against Iran to date, Israel's wave of strikes hit about 100 targets including nuclear facilities and military command centres, and killed senior figures, among them the armed forces chief and top nuclear scientists.