Israel launched more deadly strikes on besieged Gaza on Thursday as world powers watched nervously whether the country would retaliate against a weekend attack by its arch enemy Iran.

Egyptian officials have told a Qatari news outlet that the U.S. has accepted Israel’s plan for an operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah in return for Israel not carrying out a large strike on Iran in response to Tehran’s unprecedented missile and drone attack.

A U.S. National Security Council spokesperson however said that the report is not true and that such a plan has never been discussed.

Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Rice University

Prior to launching a barrage of drones and missiles at Israel on April 13, 2024, Iran reportedly got word to Washington that its response to an earlier strike on its embassy compound in Syria would seek to avoid major escalation. The message was conveyed via the Gulf Arab state of Oman.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country reserved the right to protect itself after Iran's unprecedented attack, and that it alone would decide how to do so.

Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel over the weekend in an attack that caused little damage after most of the projectiles were intercepted.

As regional tensions run high, Iran paraded drones, missiles and soldiers on Wednesday to show it is ready for any response from Israel after launching an unprecedented attack on its bitter enemy.

The Islamic republic carried out its first-ever direct attack on Israel at the weekend in response to an April 1 air strike on its consulate in Damascus which has been widely blamed on Israel.

Negotiations between Israel and Hamas to secure a truce in Gaza and a hostage exchange have stalled, Qatar's prime minister said on Wednesday.

"We are going through a sensitive stage with some stalling, and we are trying as much as possible to address this stalling," Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani told a news conference.

Israel is vowing to retaliate against Iran, risking further expanding the shadow war between the two foes into a direct conflict after an Iranian attack over the weekend sent hundreds of drones and missiles toward Israel.

Israeli officials have not said how or when they might strike. But as countries around the world urge Israel to show restraint and the threat of a multi-front war mounts, it's clear that a direct Israeli attack on Iranian soil would lead to major fallout.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog held talks with the British and German foreign ministers in Jerusalem on Wednesday calling on the international community to work "defiantly" against the Iran.

"The whole world must work decisively and defiantly against the threat by the Iranian regime which is seeking to undermine the stability of the whole region," Herzog said in a statement issued by his office.

The U.N. Security Council will vote Thursday on the Palestinians' application to become a full member state of the United Nations, several diplomatic sources told AFP.

Amid Israel's offensive in Gaza, the Palestinians in early April revived a membership application first made to the world body in 2011, though the veto-wielding United States has expressed opposition to the proposal.

Heavy thunderstorms lashed the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, dumping the heaviest rain ever recorded in the country in the span of hours as it flooded out portions of major highways and Dubai's international airport.

The state-run WAM news agency called the rain "a historic weather event" that surpassed "anything documented since the start of data collection in 1949." That's before the discovery of crude oil in this energy-rich nation then part of a British protectorate known as the Trucial States.