Iran intensified its attacks on oil and gas facilities around the Gulf on Thursday, dramatically raising the stakes in a war that is sending shock waves through the global economy.

The strikes, in retaliation for an Israeli attack on a key Iranian gas field, sent fuel prices soaring and risked drawing Iran's Arab neighbors directly into the conflict. Tehran's targeting of energy production further stressed global supply already under pressure because of Iran's stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported.

European leaders doubled down Thursday on refusing to join the United States and Israel military campaigns in the Middle East as they met in Brussels to grapple with rising oil and gas prices caused by the war.

European leaders have deflected entreaties from U.S. President Donald Trump to send military assets to secure the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for the global flow of oil, gas and fertilizer. However, rising energy prices because of the war and fears in Europe of a new refugee crisis have pushed leaders to make the Middle East a priority at the summit.

The city of Sidon on southern Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast was crowded with freshly displaced people Thursday after the Israeli military issued an evacuation warning two days earlier for residents of the city of Tyre, farther south on the coast, and nearby villages and Palestinian refugee camps.

The Lebanese University campus in Sidon opened its doors to people displaced from the Tyre district, initially without any supplies.

U.S. President Donald Trump pledged the U.S. would "massively blow up the entirety" of the world's largest gas field if Iran attacks Qatar again.

Trump made his threat on social media Wednesday night against Iran's South Pars natural gas field after Iranian missiles hit Qatar. The Iranian attack was in retaliation for an Israeli attack on the South Pars field earlier Wednesday.

Gila Pahima returned to Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel last spring, 18 months after its population had been evacuated because of Hezbollah rocket fire. Now air raid sirens are again sounding around the clock as the boom of missiles and interceptors echoes overhead.

"I feel like we're in constant war," she said. "You feel like you're on a battlefield all day."

France’s special envoy for Lebanon, Jean-Yves Le Drian, speaking to the France Info radio station Wednesday, said the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah "bears full responsibility for the resumption of fighting in Lebanon" but "Israel’s response has been disproportionate and counterproductive, as it unites various actors against Israel."

He criticized Israel for mass evacuation orders that have driven the displacement of more 1 million people in Lebanon and for spurning offers by the Lebanese government to enter into negotiations.

Israel’s defense minister said on Wednesday that the Israeli military killed Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib.

Israel Katz announced Khatib’s killing and said that “significant surprises are expected throughout this day on all the fronts,” without elaborating.

President Joseph Aoun called Wednesday for unity and solidarity and the rejection of division and sectarian provocation, hours after Israel flattened an apartment building in central Beirut and killed ten people in other neighborhoods of the city.

Israel's military claimed the building in Bashoura was being used by Hezbollah to store "millions of dollars intended to finance its activities," without providing evidence. An apartment in the building was hit last week, and the building had also been targeted in the 2024 war.

Iran lashed out following the killing of one of its top leaders in an airstrike with attacks on its Persian Gulf neighbors and Israel on Wednesday, using some of its latest missiles to evade air defenses and killing two people near Tel Aviv as the war in the Middle East showed no signs of slowing.

Israel kept up intense pressure on Lebanon with strikes it said targeted Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, hitting multiple apartment buildings in Beirut and killing at least six people.

Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, announced his resignation on Tuesday, saying he "cannot in good conscience" back the Trump administration's war in Iran.

Kent said on social media Iran "posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby."