Iran warns of an "unprecedented" retaliation if Israel attacks, while President Trump describes the Middle East as a "dangerous place."

The bodies of two deceased hostages were recovered from southern Gaza in a military operation, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet security agency announced Wednesday evening.

The U.S. last week vetoed a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that also demanded an "immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire" and unhindered aid access in Gaza, arguing it would undermine U.S.-led efforts to broker a ceasefire.

A Houthi source told Newsweek that any attack on Iran "will drag the entire region into the abyss of war" amid escalation tension.

US President Donald Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza and stop talk of an attack on Iran, according to a source familiar with the conversation.

Concern about a strike and the prospect of retaliation led the United States to withdraw diplomats from Iraq and authorize the voluntary departure of U.S. military family members from the Middle East.

President Javier Milei of Argentina has received the $1 million Genesis prize in Jerusalem in recognition of his support for Israel ss it faces a mounting international isolation over the war in Gaza

Netanyahu has promised his politically powerful ultra-Orthodox governing partners that he would find a way out of the quagmire that would protect their interests. But with a few holdouts in his Likud party urging a more just approach, the ultra-Orthodox parties have grown increasingly impatient with the lack of a resolution.