In a seeming rejection of all of the international pressure, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told his weekly cabinet meeting that he told both the German foreign minister and the British foreign secretary that Israel will act in a way that works for Israel at a time and place of their choosing.

All of this comes amid a lot of talk about what’s going to come next – if Israel is going to respond to Iran and how, when and where it is going to attack.

The general consensus is that Israel is going to respond. That is the inclination from all of the Israeli officials we’ve been hearing from, including the prime minister, the defence minister and the Israeli army chief of staff.

An analyst says Israel’s threat of a response to Iran’s strike will likely be met with “direct retaliation”.

“After the hit on the Iranian consulate, the Iranians could not take it any more. They had to respond by re-establishing their deterrence credibility,” said Hassan Ahmadian, a professor at the University of Tehran.

“Now the Israelis are talking about retaliation. This is not perceived as retaliation in Iran – it is perceived as another attack on Iran,” he told Al Jazeera.

He said the Supreme National Security Council – the main Iranian body that would decide on any more strikes against Israel – has noted “any hit on Iran will be retaliated against directly”.

Lloyd Austin has lauded what he called the “exceptional skill and professionalism” of US forces in helping shoot down Iranian drones and missiles directed at Israel over the weekend.

“Alongside Israel and our allies, we had enormous success in defeating Iran attack,” Austin told US legislators during a briefing.

“We will continue to stand ready to protect our troops in the region and to support the defence of Israel from attacks by Iran or its proxies,” he said.

Austin reiterated that the US commitment to Israel’s security is “ironclad”. US officials have repeatedly sent that message in the wake of the attack, while urging Israel to avoid a response that could lead to wider escalation.

Israel and its allies hailed their success in stopping a barrage of Iranian missiles and drones in a historic attack over the weekend. However, that response likely came with a price tag topping over one billion dollars, according to a Bloomberg report.

Reem Aminoach, a former brigadier general and chief financial adviser to the head of the Israeli military, gave the estimated figure.

He cited calculations he’d done for the number of interceptor missiles Israel would have had to fire. Israel has said Iran fired 170 drones, 30 cruise missiles and 120 ballistic missiles.

The US, UK, France and Jordan were also involved in shooting down the Iranian weapons.

‘Israel is the provocateur’ in the standoff with Iran

Even as its closest allies are urging restraint in the wake of an unprecedented Iranian attack on Israel, Israeli officials are turning to social media to drum up support – and fear.

Israel’s official account posted a video on X with clips from this weekend’s attack. An image of London in the United Kingdom is then shown with with the message “coming to a city near you”.

“Stop Iran now, before it’s too late!” said the post, which came the same day UK foreign minister David Cameron met with Israeli officials in an effort to avoid wider escalation.

The Israeli military has intensified attacks across the Gaza Strip. The situation is dire in many areas, in particular, Nuseirat refugee camp. Attacks and confrontations are still raging in the vicinity of the recently established corridor [bordering the camp].

Residents tell us they have been hearing constant bombardment as residential houses come under attack and agricultural land is targeted.

The United Nations has asked for $2.8bn in funding to assist more than three million people in Gaza and the occupied West Bank until the end of the year to prevent looming famine in the war-torn territory.

A flash appeal published by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the sum was needed to help 3.1 million people and “reduce human suffering and prevent further loss of life”.

A major chunk of funding – $782.1m – will be destined for food aid for 2.3 million people in Gaza and 400,000 people in the West Bank, the appeal said. More than six months of war have created critical food shortages among Gaza’s Palestinians that in some areas now exceed famine levels, according to the UN.

Israel’s leader has denounced suggestions that areas in Gaza are facing famine after six months of war. Netanyahu “rejected the claims by international organisations about famine in Gaza”, his office said.

A United Nations-backed report last month said northern Gaza could be hit by famine any time between mid-March and May, and more than 70 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million population face “catastrophic hunger”.

Last week, Samantha Power, the director of the US Agency for International Development, said famine was already occurring in northern Gaza.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees defines famine as a situation where a substantial proportion of the population of an area is unable to access adequate food, which results in widespread acute malnutrition and loss of life by starvation and disease.

A Muslim graduate in the US has condemned a decision by the University of Southern California to cancel her graduation speech after complaints over the support she showed for Palestinians.

Nemat “Minouche” Shafik is the latest leader of an elite US university to be called to testify before members of the US Congress on how her institution has responded to protests amid the Israel-Gaza war.

Her testimony comes four months after the presidents of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were also called to testify on the subject. That contentious, Republican-led hearing led to the resignation of Penn President Liz Magill and Harvard President Claudine Gay.

Protests since October 7 have forced private higher education institutions to grapple with their free speech policies. Pro-Palestine protesters have alleged that they have been unjustly stifled by university authorities on trumped-up allegations of hate speech. In turn, several university leaders have been accused of not doing enough to counter anti-Semitism on campus.

State Department spokesman Vedant Patel’s words come after the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) released a report detailing abuses committed against those held in Israeli detention.

The report detailed the testimonies of more than 100 Palestinians released from Israeli detention. Abuses included being denied food, water or toilet access for hours while detainees hands and legs were bound. Others said they had been inappropriately searched, beaten and groped.

The report said the actions may amount to “sexual violence and harassment”.

Patel called the accounts deeply disturbing and said that Washington will press Israel, its close ally, on the need for a full investigation. Rights groups have repeatedly said that past US appeals for such investigations have proven inadequate.

Gaza’s media office says more than 5,000 Palestinians have been arrested by Israeli forces since the assault on the enclave began in October. In a statement marking Palestinian Prisoner’s Day, the office said prisoners are being subjected to “vengeful policies” that aim to strip them of their most basic rights.

The statement comes a day after the Government Media Office called on rights groups to act after hearing testimonies from a large number of freed Palestinians who were recently detained by Israeli forces. These include testimonies and accounts from children younger than 12 years old.

“We call on the international community to uphold its moral and legal obligations and intervene to end the grave mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners,” it said.

The office also called for the immediate release of some 10,000 Palestinian prisoners currently held in Israeli jails.

Qatar has been working for months as a mediator in negotiations aimed at bringing about a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Israeli captives. But Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, said Doha is re-evaluating that role, adding that some parties have used the mediation for “narrow political interest”.

He made the comments during a joint news conference with Tukey’s foreign minister in Doha. He added that while Qatar remains committed to mediation on a “humanitarian basis”, there has been “abuse and harm” done related to Qatar’s role.

Some parties have made “destructive” statements against Qatar, he said, without saying to whom he was referring.

On Tuesday, Qatar’s embassy in Washington, DC, denounced comments from US lawmaker Steny Hoyer, who said the US would re-evaluate its ties with Qatar if it does not pressure Hamas to accept a ceasefire proposal advanced by the Israelis and accused Qatar of siding with Hamas.

Gilad Erdan, in a post on X, says the scheduled vote shows the UN Security Council is “investing its time in establishing a Palestinian terrorist state, at a time that is a huge reward for terrorism”.

He said any country that votes in favour of Palestinian membership “will prove that it only has foreign political considerations in mind and not any security or moral consideration”.

The Reuters news agency has reported that a draft resolution on full Palestinian membership will go to a vote on Friday. Palestinian officials have said full UN membership is needed to assure Palestinians are treated as “equals to other nations and states”.

The US is expected to use its veto to block the draft resolution.

A report by US news outlet The Intercept claims that editors at The New York Times have sent directives to reporters covering Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza, asking them to restrict the use of certain terms.

These terms include “genocide”, “ethnic cleansing” and “occupied territory”, according to a copy of an internal memo obtained by The Intercept.

The memo reportedly also instructs journalists not to use the word Palestine “except in very rare cases” and to stay away from using the term “refugee camps” to describe certain areas of Gaza.

According to the report, several staffers told The Intercept that some of the memo’s contents “show evidence of the paper’s deference to Israeli narratives”.

Times spokesman Charlie Stadtlander told The Intercept that memos such as these are “standard practice” and provide guidance “to ensure accuracy, consistency and nuance”. “Across all our reporting, including complex events like this, we take care to ensure our language choices are sensitive, current and clear to our audiences.”

Hezbollah says it fired missiles and drones at Israel’s northern Bedouin village of Arab al-Aramshe, targeting an “Israeli military facility” there.

The attack injured at least seven people, two severely, according to Israel’s Arutz Sheva media, adding they were being treated at Israel’s Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya. Hezbollah launched “a combined attack with guided missiles and explosive drones on a military reconnaissance command centre” in northern Israel.

The strikes came “in response to the enemy assassinating a number of resistance fighters in Ain Baal and Shehabiya” on Tuesday, the armed group said.

At least 13 people are confirmed to be injured from an air attack claimed by Hezbollah on Israel’s northern village of Arab al-Aramshe, with four in a serious condition, according to The Times of Israel, citing Israel’s national ambulance service.

Israel’s military says it has identified the “source of the fire” and later launched air strikes at a Hezbollah military compound near the southern Lebanese village of Ayta ash Shab.

In addition to striking the southern Lebanese town of Aita al-Shaabb, Israel’s military carried out air raids on the southern towns of Yarin and Naquora, reports Lebanon’s an-Nahar media.

The attacks follow a spate of cross-border bombing between Israel’s military and Hezbollah this morning, with each claiming to hit military sites on opposite sides of the border.

The military said it struck Hezbollah infrastructure north of the city of Baalbek in Lebanon’s northeast. It said the site was used by Hezbollah’s “air defense system”.

The announcement came as Hezbollah released video of its attack on Arab al-Aramshe in northern Israel earlier today. Israeli media has reported that 13 military reservists, two security officers and three civilians were wounded in the attack.

Earlier, the head of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, Philippe Lazzarini, told the UN Security Council that no organisation can replace UNRWA in Gaza when it comes to aiding the victims of Israel’s assault.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said saving UNRWA is “saving lives” during remarks at the UN Security Council. He spoke as Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of UNRWA, briefed the council at a meeting requested by Jordan earlier today.

“Supporting UNRWA is supporting regional stability. Saving UNRWA is saving lives, saving hope and standing on the side of justice,” Safadi said.

Lazzarini warned that dismantling the agency will have major implications during a time of “seismic change” in the region.

Shortly after the briefing, Algerian state TV said Algeria gave UNRWA a $15m exceptional fund.

A former spokesman for the UN’s agency for Palestinians says Israel’s criticism of the UNRWA is politically motivated and based on false accusations.

“This attack is based on a lie. It’s dishonest,” Chris Gunness told Al Jazeera. “If you get rid of UNRWA you suddenly get rid of the 5.9 million refugees registered with UNRWA.”

He said if the agency is disbanded, Palestinians would lose “inalienable rights” such as healthcare, education, and the right to self-determination. Gunness accused Israel of working to eradicate the organisation to the detriment of the Palestinian people.

“In Gaza, we’re seeing since March 22 UNRWA aid convoys blocked to the north. The implications of that are the 300,000 people there will slip further into starvation,” he said.

The United States, Israel and 46 other countries have issued a joint statement “unequivocally” condemning Iran’s “large-scale attack” on Israel on Saturday night. The statement said, “Several hundred ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and attack drones … could have caused significant damage and loss of life.”

The countries also said Iran “violated the airspace of several” other countries, putting “at risk the lives of innocent people” and “appeared to traverse airspace near holy sites in Jerusalem”.

More than half of the countries that signed the joint statement were from Europe, with other signatories including Argentina, Australia, Canada, Ecuador, Japan, New Zealand, Micronesia, Palau, Papua New Guinea and South Korea.

The new joint letter from 48 countries condemning Iran’s attacks on Israel comes after the UN Security Council (UNSC) failed to issue a joint statement following an emergency meeting called for by Israel.

The Security Council has also yet to adopt a statement condemning the earlier attack by Israel on Iran’s embassy compound in Syria, after the United States, Britain and France blocked a Russian-drafted statement on April 2.

It is worth noting that the new letter of condemnation from the US, Israel and 46 other countries “demand[s] that all Council resolutions be fully implemented”, but does not specify which resolutions it is referring to.

Israel has historically ignored UN resolutions and has consistently criticised the United Nations and its agencies in recent months, while senior Israeli officials have called for the resignation of the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

On March 25, the UNSC passed a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the release of all captives.

Professor Mohamad Elmasry, of the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, said it has been “fascinating” to watch as the US and allied countries refuse to condemn, or even acknowledge, Israel’s attack on the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus.

“They are turning a blind eye to Israeli aggression and they are throwing all of the blame on Iran, which was just retaliating,” Elmasry said. “This is what US foreign policy does, and I think we can expect more of that unfortunately,” he told Al Jazeera.

European Union leaders have agreed to impose new sanctions on Iran’s drone and missile producers, European Council chief Charles Michel has said at an EU summit in Brussels.

“The idea is to target the companies that are needed for the drones, for the missiles,” the council president told reporters, adding the sanctions were “a clear signal that we wanted to send”.