Both Iran and Israel should avoid escalating conflict, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday, in his most direct wording toward US ally Israel on the Middle East's spiraling tensions.

"No one should escalate this conflict. We've been engaged in intense diplomacy with allies and partners, communicating that message directly to Iran. We communicated that message directly to Israel," Blinken told reporters.

Iran has vowed a response after Israel was suspected of killing Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

A Pakistani man with ties to Iran has been arrested for allegedly plotting to assassinate a US official in retaliation for the US killing of Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

Asif Raza Merchant, 46, allegedly sought to hire a hitman to assassinate a politician or a US government official in the United States, the department said in a statement.

After a career in the shadows, spent in Israeli prisons and the internal security apparatus of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar has emerged as leader of the Palestinian group in the middle of a full-blown war.

Sinwar, who until now was the movement's Gaza chief, replaces Ismail Haniyeh, whose killing in Tehran last week sent tensions soaring across the Middle East and raised fears of a coordinated attack on Israel by Iran and its regional proxies.

UN peacekeepers on the Israeli-Lebanese border have never been more crucial, the force's global chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said Tuesday, as fears soared of an escalation in the Middle East.

Since Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, sparking a war in the Gaza Strip, Israel and Lebanese movement Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, have traded near-daily cross-border fire.

An Iranian appeals court has halved the prison sentence handed down against pop star Shervin Hajipour, whose song became the anthem of nationwide protests in 2022, the judiciary said Tuesday.

Hajipour, 27, is known for his song "Baraye" which became popular during mass demonstrations triggered by the September 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini.

Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, had been arrested for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women.

Hamas on Tuesday named Yahya Sinwar, the man Israel says masterminded the October 7 attack that sparked the Gaza war, as its new political chief following last week's killing of his predecessor Ismail Haniyeh.

The announcement came with the Middle East on edge as it awaited Iran's retaliation over the killing of Haniyeh in Tehran.

Iran blames Haniyeh's death on Israel and has vowed to avenge him, while Hamas's Lebanese ally Hezbollah has also pledged to retaliate for his killing and that of its military commander Fuad Shukr in an Israeli strike in Beirut hours earlier.

Wheeling herself around Doha's Thumama complex for medical evacuees from Gaza, Maryam Ahmed wears a look of determination, breaking into a smile when she sees someone she knows.

The six-year-old was evacuated to Qatar from Gaza in February after her home was hit by an Israeli strike which killed her mother, father and brother, and took her right leg.

Sitting in her new wheelchair, Maryam hitches up the skirt of her colourful, floral patterned dress to reveal what remains of her limb, amputated above the knee.

Lebanon's Hezbollah said six of its fighters were killed in Israeli strikes on Tuesday, with the group claiming cross-border attacks and low-flying Israeli warplanes breaking the sound barrier over Beirut.

Hezbollah has traded near-daily fire with Israel in support of its ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza.

Palestinian officials said Israeli forces killed 12 people in three separate raids in the northern West Bank on Tuesday, as violence in the occupied territory showed no sign of abating.

Five people were killed in the Jenin area and four in Aqaba town in Tubas district when Israeli forces carried out early-morning raids, the health ministry in Ramallah said.

The Israeli army said three people were killed and two arrested in another raid in the village of Kafr Qud, west of Jenin.

Saudi oil giant Aramco on Tuesday reported net profit of $29.07 billion in the second quarter, a slight drop from the same period last year as output remained subdued.

The decrease of 3.4 percent "mainly reflects the impact of lower crude oil volumes sold and weakening refining margins", the company said in a statement posted to the Saudi stock exchange.

Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest crude exporter, is currently producing roughly nine million barrels per day (bpd), well below its capacity of 12 million bpd.