Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh will meet Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday with Middle East tensions at a high after Israel's reported attack on Iran and Gaza bracing for a new Israeli offensive.

Erdogan has sought but failed to establish a foothold as a mediator in the Palestinian conflict. And he has remained discreet about his meetings with the Hamas head.

The United States was "not involved in any offensive operation", U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday following reports that Israel had carried out revenge strikes on Iran.

"I'm not going to speak to these reported events... All I can say is for our part and for all the members of the G7 our focus is on de-escalation", Blinken told a press conference on the Italian island of Capri.

Russia has made clear to Israel that Iran "does not want escalation", Moscow's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday, after reports Israel had carried out retaliatory strikes against its arch-rival.

"There have been telephone contacts between the leadership of Russia and Iran, our representatives and the Israelis. We made it very clear in these conversations, we told the Israelis that Iran does not want escalation," Lavrov said in an interview with Russian radio stations.

International reactions Friday after Israel's reported attack on the Iranian province of Isfahan, where it has military bases and nuclear facilities:

- China -

Qatar's warning that it was reassessing its role as a mediator between Israel and Hamas has raised concerns about the prospects for a ceasefire and the return of hostages.

Since Hamas's deadly October 7 attack on Israel sparked devastating retaliation against Gaza, Qatar has been an important conduit to the Palestinian militant group, whose political office is in Doha.

The United States has vetoed a widely backed U.N. resolution that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for Palestine, a goal the Palestinians have long sought and Israel has worked to prevent.

The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 12 in favor, the United States opposed and two abstentions, from the United Kingdom and Switzerland. U.S. allies France, Japan and South Korea supported the resolution.

Israeli strikes on Friday targeted a Syrian army position in the country's south, a war monitor said, as U.S. media reported Israel had carried out hits on its arch-rival Iran.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the strikes, which he attributed to Israel, "targeted a radar installation of the Syrian army" between the provinces of Sweida and Daraa provinces.

Explosions rocked Iran's central Isfahan province on Friday, according to state media, while U.S. officials told American news outlets that Israel carried out a retaliatory strike on the Islamic republic.

The attack comes less than a week after Tehran launched a barrage of more than 300 drones and missiles in its first-ever direct assault on Israel's soil. That unprecedented onslaught was itself a reprisal for an earlier strike in Syria widely blamed on Israel.

A senior Revolutionary Guards general threatened on Thursday to target Israel's "nuclear facilities" if it strikes Iranian atomic sites, state media reported, anticipating retaliation for Tehran's unprecedented weekend attack.

Israel's military chief has vowed a response to the Iranian aerial attack, which was mostly intercepted, while world leaders have urged de-escalation.

Hundreds of Gazans found rare respite at the beach this week from more than six months of traumatizing Israeli bombardments in the Palestinian territory.

After temperatures suddenly soared, children paddled in the sea and their friends played ball games on the sand around Deir el-Balah in the center of the coastal strip -- but the war was never far away.