Israel is preparing for a direct attack from Iran in response to strike that killed seven Iranian soldiers at an airbase in Syria

Israel is preparing for a revenge attack from Iran after the bombing of an air base in Syria last week, which killed seven Iranian soldiers.

Israel has officially neither confirmed nor denied the attack, but an Israeli Defence Force source told the New York Times they were responsible for the raid on April 9. 

Now, Israel is bracing itself for an attack directly from Iran, launched by the country's Revolutionary Guard Corps, to avenge the seven dead soldiers.

Tension: Israeli soldiers stand on top of their armored personnel carrier (APC) in the Golan Heights, near the Israeli Syrian border last week

The IDF reportedly believe an attack by the Iranian army will be launched from one of the bases they control in allied Syria - and have warned Tehran against any action.

'Israel will react strongly to any Iranian action from inside Syria,' senior IDF source told Sky News according to JPost.

Israel, which has often struck Syrian army locations during its neighbour's seven-year civil war, has neither confirmed nor denied mounting the raid. 

But Israeli officials said the Tiyas air base was being used by troops from Iran and that Israel would not accept such a presence in Syria of its arch foe.

Iran's Tansim news agency said seven Iranian military personnel had been killed in the attack, which contributed to a sharp escalation of tensions between the West and Russia.

Armed and ready: An Israeli Iron dome system is  seen near the Israeli Syrian border a day after the air raid on the airbase in Syria which killed seven Iranian soldiers

Missile strikes on a Syrian air base have left 14 dead hours after Donald Trump warned 'animal' dictator Bashar al-Assad there would be a 'big price to pay' for a horrifying chemical attack that killed dozens of children 

'(The Tiyas strike) was the first time we attacked live Iranian targets - both facilities and people,' New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman quoted the Israeli military source as saying.

Friedman described the seven Iranians killed as members of the Qods Force, a branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps that oversees operations abroad, and one of them as a commander of a drone unit.

Asked about the claim of Israeli responsibility cited in the New York Times article, which was published on Sunday, an Israeli military spokeswoman said: 'There is no comment at this time.'

While acknowledging that it has carried out scores of strikes in Syria against suspect Iranian deployments or arms transfers to Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, Israel generally does not comment on specific missions.

The attack on Tiyas came days before the United States, Britain and France launched 105 missiles targeting what Washington said were three chemical weapons facilities in Syria in retaliation for the suspected poison gas attack.

Assad has denied using chemical weapons.

Despite the Israeli source's comment to the New York Times that the killing of Iranians at Tiyas was unprecedented for Israeli missions in Syria, a 2015 air strike there that Hezbollah blamed on Israel killed an Iranian general along with several of the Lebanese guerrillas. 

Western action: The U.S., U.K. and France ordered strikes against  Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the Damascus area on Friday (pictured)