Iran yesterday rejected Western calls to stand down its threat to retaliate against Israel for the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran late last month.

The leaders of France, Germany and Britain said yesterday that “there can be no further delay” in negotiating a ceasefire in Gaza, warning Iran and its allies against any “further escalation” of the conflict.

Israel yesterday faced international condemnation for its strikes on a school in Gaza used for internally displaced people.

Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards are holding military drills in the western parts of the country that will continue until Tuesday, Iran’s official news agency announced on Sunday.

Iran is set to carry out an order by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to “harshly punish” Israel over the assassination of a Hamas leader in Tehran, a Revolutionary Guards deputy commander was quoted as saying on Friday by local news agencies.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in a phone call on Friday that the escalation of tensions in the Middle East was “in no party’s interest” while also stressing the need for a Gaza ceasefire, the State Department said.

Deadly Israeli strike on Gaza school

Israeli troops yesterday launched a new assault into the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, as American, Qatari and Egyptian mediators renewed their push for Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire deal.

A series of attempted attacks using missiles and a sea drone targeted a merchant vessel off areas of Yemen held by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, a British maritime security agency said yesterday.

Israel said yesterday it was revoking the diplomatic status of Norway’s envoys to the Palestinian Authority accusing Oslo of “anti-Israel behaviour” during the Gaza war and drawing a formal protest.

Afghan government employees must attend mosque five times a day or face punishment, Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada said yesterday in his latest edict.

Turkey yesterday joined South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

Israel ordered residents and displaced Palestinians to evacuate the Beit Hanoon and Beit Lahiya areas of Gaza City yesterday, as reports said a “large scale” Israeli army operation is expected to begin there soon.

The United States said it was working “round the clock” to avert an all-out war in the Middle East, as Israel remained on high alert yesterday for potential Iranian retaliation for two high-profile killings.

The Greek coastguard yesterday said it had rescued 75 migrants in an area where one of the Mediterranean’s worst migrant shipwrecks occurred last year.

Iran said yesterday it has the “legal right” to respond to the assassination in Tehran last week of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, an attack blamed on Israel amid the Gaza offensive.

Israel returned the bodies of more than 80 Palestinians killed in its military offensive in the Gaza Strip, as Israeli airstrikes killed at least 18 more people yesterday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.

An Israeli airstrike hit a tent inside a hospital compound in central Gaza, killing at least five people, bringing the total number of Palestinians killed yesterday to 33, Gaza health officials said, after another round of talks ended without result.

Fears of a regional Middle East war grew yesterday after the assassination of Hamas’s political leader, blamed on Israel, triggered vows of vengeance from Iran-backed Middle East groups.

Hamas’ top leader Ismail Haniyeh was buried in Qatar yesterday following his assassination in the Iranian capital Tehran as senior officials of Hamas and other mourners said their fight against Israel would intensify.