A senior Iranian commander said a possible Israeli airstrike against his country's nuclear facilities is "welcome" because it would give Tehran a reason to retaliate and "get rid of" the Jewish state "forever".

Hizbollah also separately warned Israel of a catastrophic strike if Iran is attacked.

The remarks by General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the Revolutionary Guard's air force, were reported by the official IRNA news agency.

Hajizadeh said in the event of an Israeli strike, Iran's response would be "swift, decisive and destructive".

But General Hajizadeh also claimed Israeli threats of a strike were part of a psychological war against Iran.

Israel considers Iran an existential threat because of its suspect nuclear programme. Tehran denies seeking atomic weapons, saying its uranium enrichment is for peaceful purposes.

Meanwhile, a former deputy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a pre-emptive military strike against Iran over its nuclear programme could embroil Israel in a "disastrous war".

Shaul Mofaz, a parliamentary opposition leader who quit the cabinet last month where he served as vice-premier, said on Israeli TV he thought Israel was "planning a hasty, irresponsible event".

The former general and defence minister said he thought Israel could not do anything to force a strategic change in Iran's nuclear programme.

As a member of Netanyahu's security cabinet for two months, Mofaz was privy to deliberations on Iran's nuclear programme.

He told Channel 2 in an interview that any Israeli military action "can at the most delay it (Iran's programme) by about a year and can bring upon us a disastrous war".

Naming Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak, he said he was "very worried at what they are preparing".

He added: "I hope very much we don't reach such a war because it would be a disaster."

Days after he quit late in July in a dispute about military conscription policy, Mofaz, who heads the centrist Kadima party, cautioned he would not back any Israeli military "adventures".

His comments echoed those of other former security officers who have spoken against any unilateral attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, with some saying such an assault could spur Tehran to speed up uranium enrichment.

Some officials have voiced concern that any strike could prompt Iran's proxies in the region, such as Hizbollah in Lebanon, to launch rocket attacks on Israel.

There has been a surge in rhetoric from Israeli politicians this month, suggesting Tel Aviv might attack Iran's nuclear facilities ahead of US presidential elections in November.

However, senior Israeli officials have said a final decision about whether to attack Iran has not yet been taken, with ministers disagreeing and the military unhappy about the prospect of going it alone without full US backing.

The battle for psychological ascendancy between the Iran-Syria-Hizbollah alliance and Israel escalated sharply on Friday after Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened missile strikes deep inside Israel if it attacked Iran.

Invoking imagery possibility resulting from counter-strikes against Israel's nuclear facilities, he said retaliation by his battle-hardened organisation would kill thousands and make life "hell" inside the country.

"I tell the Israelis that you have a number of targets, not a large number ... that can be hit with precision rockets ... which we have," he said.

The Hizbollah secretary general's harsh warning follows a feverish advocacy from influential sections in Israel for airstrikes that would impair Iran's nuclear facilities.

Nasrallah said Netanyahu and Barak are the chief advocates of a war against Iran, despite massive opposition from the military generals, security veterans and senior figures from the past and present administrations.

His remarks appear to have a more immediate and specific context.

Richard Silverstein, a blogger with a reputation of revealing information censored in Israel, has posted details from an alleged "briefing document" on Israeli war plans against Iran.

They include at their core a massive cyber-assault that would cripple Iran's communication systems and impair its electricity grid.

Israeli missile strikes would then destroy Iran's key elements of the nuclear establishment, including residences of the atomic scientists. "The missiles will strike their targets - some exploding above ground like those striking the nuclear reactor at Arak - which is intended to produce plutonium and tritium - and the nearby heavy water production facility; the nuclear fuel production facilities at Isfahan and facilities for enriching uranium-hexafluoride.

Others would explode underground, as at the Fordo facility," says the blog. Iran's state-run Press TV citing "Iranian observers" earlier dismissed the report as "a joint US-Israeli publicity and (psychological) war campaign to incite fear among the Iranian public".