Israel launched a deadlier attack on besieged Gaza on Thursday as Western governments announced sweeping sanctions on Iran’s military drone program in response to the country’s unprecedented attacks on its arch-enemy Israel.

World powers have been watching nervously since Israel vowed to retaliate against Iran for weekend attacks, amid growing concerns that an escalation of tit-for-tat attacks could push the region toward a wider war.

Iran warned on Thursday that Tehran would in turn target Israeli “nuclear facilities” if Israel attacks its nuclear facilities in expected retaliation, further raising tensions.

More than six months into the bloodiest war in Gaza ever, Israeli forces say they have bombed dozens of targets in the area, while Qatar says efforts to broker a truce have stalled.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy attacks by Hamas, which launched the war on October 7, stressing that Israel “reserves the right to defend itself” against Iran.

The Islamic Republic last weekend launched its first-ever attack directly targeting an enemy in the region, but Israel, with the support of its allies, intercepted most of the 300 missiles and drones without causing casualties.

Iran’s attack was in retaliation for an April 1 airstrike widely blamed on Israel that leveled its consulate in Damascus and killed seven Revolutionary Guardsmen.

‘The Middle East is on the edge of a cliff’

The international community has been urging de-escalation since the Iranian attack, which follows months of violence by Israeli and Iranian-backed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

“The Middle East is on the edge of a precipice,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Thursday.

“One miscalculation, one miscommunication, one mistake could lead to unimaginable consequences – a full-scale regional conflict that would be devastating to all parties involved,” he told the UN Security Council.

The United States, Israel’s top ally and military supplier, has made clear it will not join any Israeli attacks on Iran, instead announcing new sanctions on Thursday over the country’s military drone program.

“We are holding Iran accountable,” U.S. President Joe Biden said, adding that he discussed increasing economic pressure on Tehran with other leaders at a Group of Seven meeting on the Italian island of Capri.

The U.S. sanctions target 16 people and two entities involved in producing drones used in Iranian attacks, as well as companies that supply components to the country’s steel industry.

Washington added that Britain would impose sanctions on Iran over its drone and missile programs, which are also the target of pledged sanctions announced by the European Union on Wednesday.

Israel has not yet revealed how or when it will retaliate against Iran.

ABC News quoted three unnamed Israeli sources as saying that Israel “prepared for retaliatory attacks against Iran on at least two nights in the past week, but later aborted them.”

Sources told ABC that a range of possible responses being considered by Israel include attacks or cyberattacks on Iranian proxies in the region.

Iran’s top general has warned Israel not to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Ahmed Khatalab, the head of Iran’s Nuclear Protection and Security Forces, said that if this did happen, “the regime’s nuclear facilities would be targeted and operated by advanced weapons.”

However, Tehran has also sought to calm tensions through indirect diplomatic channels with its other main rival, the United States.

Speaking at a U.N. meeting in New York, Foreign Minister Hussein Amir-Abdullahian said Iran was “trying to tell the United States clearly” that it “does not want tensions to escalate” in the region.

Focus shifts from Gaza

Israel faces growing global opposition in a relentless war that has reduced large swaths of Gaza to rubble and its 2.4 million people under siege, with most water, food, medicine and other vital supplies blocked.

Guterres said the Israeli offensive had created a “humanitarian hell” for civilians trapped in Gaza. He said Israel had made “limited progress” in allowing more aid into the territory and called for more action.

However, Roxane Farmanfarmaian, a Middle East and North Africa expert at the University of Cambridge, told AFP that Iran’s attacks on Israel “succeeded in diverting attention, especially from the media, from the famine in Gaza and the war in Gaza” “.

The war broke out after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on October 7 that killed 1,170 people in southern Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli data.

The militants also took about 250 hostages. Israel estimates that 129 people remain in Gaza, 34 of whom are presumed dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 33,970 people in Gaza, mostly women and children. according to the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory.

UN Security Council vote

Gaza Civil Defense said on Thursday that 11 more bodies had been found overnight in the southern city of Khan Younis.

The civil defense department said that the southern city of Rafah was also bombed by Israel. Gaza rescue teams found the bodies of eight family members, including five children and two women, from a house.

Another attack occurred overnight in Rafah, killing at least 10 people, relatives and neighbors told AFP as they searched for the bodies of the victims.

“Suddenly, a missile hit them,” said neighbor Abdeljabbar al-Arja, who spoke of finding the arms and feet of the women and children.

“This is terrible, this is not normal,” he said. “The whole world is complicit.”

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said ceasefire talks had reached an impasse despite months of efforts by U.S. and Egyptian mediators.

He said Qatar was “radically re-evaluating its role as a mediator” as the country had become a target for politicians to “score points”.

The UN Security Council is expected to vote soon on Palestine’s bid to become a full member of the United Nations.

However, the United States, which holds veto power, has repeatedly expressed opposition to the move.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)