Middle East conflict live updates: Israel carries out airstrike on Iran, Israeli official says

Iran’s attack on Israel was itself a response to a deadly Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria earlier this month. The United States and allies have urged restraint, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week said Israel alone will decide its response to Iran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told the U.N. Security Council before the Israeli strikes that if there is any retaliation from Israel, Iran “will not hesitate one bit to assert its inherent right to give a decisive and proper response to it.”

The United States and its allies announced new sanctions on Iran. President Biden said the measures would hold Tehran responsible for the weekend’s attack on Israel. The administration’s actions are meant to “degrade and disrupt” the Iranian drone program, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said.

The United States on Thursday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that aimed to extend full member status to a Palestinian state at the United Nations. Twelve council members voted in favor and the United Kingdom and Switzerland abstained.

U.N. Secretary General António Guterres told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday that although Israeli authorities have cleared more aid convoys to enter Gaza, “the impact is limited, sometimes nil.”

At least 33,970 people have been killed and 76,770 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children.

Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, including more than 300 soldiers, and says 260 soldiers have been killed since its military operation in Gaza began.