"If, as is widely believed, Israel is behind a recent series of assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists in Tehran, government officials presumably knew that Iranian revenge attacks were likely and took that possibility into account," it said, noting that both incidents involved "relatively low-level targets" and only succeeded in causing few casualties.

"Israel is not about to go to war over the bombing of a diplomatic car in New Delhi and an attempted bombing in Tbilisi," the Jerusalem Post said. 

"But if Iran and Hezbollah continue their efforts and succeed in perpetrating a large attack producing greater casualties and devastation, the government will have a difficult time holding itself back."

Many papers suggested the attacks, which followed on from several failed attempts against Israeli targets in Azerbaijan and Thailand over the past few months, were only the start of a wave of attempts targeting Israelis overseas.

"Israel views both terror attacks yesterday as part of a surging wave of terror attacks," wrote Alex Fishman, military commentator for the top-selling Yediot Aharonot. 

"It is unlikely that the Iranian intelligence officer in Tehran who is responsible for organising this wave will win a promotion for his achievements so far," he wrote.

"But the existence of this wave means that there are additional terror cells out there in other places on the planet, which are continuing to seek an Israeli target. The order given to make every effort to get Israel to stop killing Iranian scientists has already been issued, and these attempted terror attack will continue."

The method used in Monday's attacks resembled the tactics of assassins who have been targeting Iranian nuclear scientists, by attaching magnetic bombs to their vehicles.

Three scientists and a physicist have been killed in the past two years in murders blamed by Iran on Israeli and US secret services.

The bomb attacks also also fell between anniversaries of the deaths of two top Hezbollah militants, Imad Mughniyeh and Abbas Mussawi, which spark annual travel warnings from the Israeli government.

The deaths of both men were blamed on Israel and sparked vows of revenge from Hezbollah, which has close ties with Iran.