The United States will not take Iran at its word over pledges of openness on a believed nuclear weapons program, Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday, after Israel threatened to act against Tehran.

"I assure (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and the people of Israel that nothing that we do is going to be based on trust," the top U.S. diplomat told reporters in Tokyo.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday that Israel was "upset and angry" with signs of an emerging new relationship between the Islamic republic and the West.

On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a UN summit his country was ready to act alone to halt Iran's alleged efforts to build a nuclear bomb.

Iran's top general on Wednesday rejected Israel's threat of military strikes as an act of "desperation" after Tehran's charm offensive to repair ties with the West.

"Today the choice of military option is rusted, old and blunt. It is put on a broken table that lacks stability," said armed forces chief-of-staff Hassan Firouzabadi, quoted by Fars news agency.

Caretaker Energy Minister Jebran Bassil lashed out on Wednesday at Israel, considering that it can't prevent Lebanon from protecting its oil reserves as he accused it of digging a well 5 kilometers from Lebanese offshore reserves.

“We will treat Israel as it is treating us. The Jewish state can't oblige us to commit to stances that it fails to keep,” Bassil said in comments published in As Safir newspaper.

Israel is ready to act "alone" to stop Iran making a nuclear bomb, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday in a hardline warning against rushing into deals with the new leadership in Tehran.

"Israel will not allow Iran to get nuclear weapons. If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone," Netanyahu told a U.N. summit in a fierce attack on overtures made by Iran's President Hassan Rouhani.

Palestinians on Tuesday held the funeral of a Gaza resident killed by the Israeli army the night before, an Agence France Presse correspondent said, in an incident human rights groups condemned.

Huwayshel Hawajira, 36, was shot dead by Israeli soldiers in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday evening, Palestinian medical sources said, and taken to a nearby hospital in Beit Hanun.

As Washington and Tehran seek detente, Israel and the United States remain divided over the Iranian nuclear issue, commentators say, despite efforts to play down their differences.

Washington has long insisted on sanctions and diplomatic efforts to pressure Tehran over its atomic program, which the West and Israel allege is aimed at producing a nuclear bomb and which Iran denies.

Iran claimed Tuesday that Israel's arrest of an alleged Iranian spy was a "repetitive scenario" aimed at ending what it called the Jewish state's "isolation" within the international community.

Just hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left for Washington on Sunday, Israel's Shin Bet security service announced the arrest on September 11 of a man it said was an Iranian spy carrying photographs of the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of lying in his rejection of Tehran's overtures to the West as a cosmetic "charm offensive".

"We have seen nothing from Netanyahu but lies and actions to deceive and scare, and international public opinion will not let these lies go unanswered," Zarif said in an interview with Iranian television broadcast on Tuesday.

Israeli soldiers shot and "hit" two Palestinians as they tried to cut through the security fence separating Israel from the Gaza Strip on Monday, an Israeli army spokesman said.

But it was not immediately clear if the Palestinians were wounded or killed in the shooting near the Beit Hanun area of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, the Israeli official added.