LONDONSINGAPORE, April 19 Reuters Investors rushed into the Swiss franc and Japanese yen long seen as safehaven currencies on Friday after reports said Israel had attacked Iran in the latest titfortat exchange between the two adversaries, pushing up oil prices and causing caution across global markets.

People familiar with the matter told Reuters that Israel attacked Iran, days after Iran launched an unprecedented assault on Israel in response to a suspected Israeli strike on its consulate in Syria, although Iran played the incident down and said it did not plan a new response.

Markets initially reacted sharply to the news, which sparked a selloff in risk assets, caused oil and gold prices to jump, and ignited a rally in U.S. Treasuries and safehaven currencies.

The Swiss franc , valued at times of stress for its stability, jumped more than 1 as the first reports came in to hit 0.9011 per dollar, its highest in two weeks.

It then pared its gains, and was up around 0.5 at 0.9079 to the dollar as markets retraced some of their initial reaction after a relatively subdued response from Iran.

The U.S. dollar index , which tracks the currency against six major peers, also rose but then gave up its gains to stand 0.1 lower at 106.07.

Iranian state media said three drones over the central city of Isfahan had been shot down and a senior Iranian official said there were no plans for immediate retaliation. Israel39;s leadership and military were silent early on Friday.

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