Hossein Amir-Abdollahian

Iran's top diplomat said Thursday his country has told the United States that it is not seeking escalation after an unprecedented attack on Israel.

Israel's armed forces chief has vowed to respond to Iran's unprecedented attack against the country, even after appeals for restraint poured in from world leaders fearing wider regional conflict, as the dire situation in Gaza worsens.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan reached out to his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Sunday stressing Turkey's aim to avoid further escalation in the Middle East following Iran's retaliatory measures against Israel Saturday night.

According to Turkish sources, Fidan specifically conveyed that "Turkey seeks an end to actions that heighten tensions in the region." 

Pakistan's prime minister held an emergency security meeting on Friday with military and intelligence chiefs after trading deadly air strikes with Iran on militant targets this week.

The rare military actions in the porous border region of Baluchistan — shared between the two countries — have further stoked regional tensions already enflamed by the Israel-Hamas war.

Pakistan said Wednesday that Iran carried out an air strike on its territory that killed two children, after Tehran launched attacks in Iraq and Syria against what it called "anti-Iranian terrorist groups".

Pakistan denounced the strike, near the nations' shared border late on Tuesday, as "completely unacceptable", saying it was unprovoked.

Iran has summoned Russia's envoy to protest a recent statement by Moscow and Arab countries calling for talks over three islands controlled by Tehran but claimed by the United Arab Emirates.

The leader of Hamas travelled to Egypt on Wednesday as hopes grew that Israel and the Palestinian militant group may be inching toward another truce and hostage release deal in the Gaza war.

The Qatar-based Hamas chief, Ismail Haniyeh, arrived in Cairo for discussions on the "aggression in the Gaza Strip and other matters", the group said in a statement.

Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Friday discussed the fate of Germans held in Iran with her Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, her ministry said.

The two ministers held a telephone call with a "particular focus... on German consular cases", the ministry wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Turkish and Iranian top diplomats urged that the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas can spread to the other parts of the region as armed non-state actors may no longer be controlled if Israel's atrocities against the civilians are not stopped.

Israeli ground forces have penetrated relatively deep into the territory of the Gaza Strip, Israel's army radio reported. Numerous targets of the Islamist organization "Hamas" in the northern part of the strip were attacked.

Video footage of the overnight action shows armored vehicles driving through a sandy border zone, tank fire and explosions near destroyed buildings.