With the prospect of Israeli retaliation for Iran's missile attack looming, some Iranian hardliners want their government to revise its nuclear doctrine to pursue atomic weapons.

Israel has vowed to launch a "deadly, precise, and surprising" attack on Iran in retaliation for its second-ever direct strike on Israeli territory.

On October 1, Iran launched 200 missiles on Israel, in what it said was retaliation for the killing of Tehran-backed militant leaders and a general from Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

The burgeoning alliance between Iran and Russia, which has already seen Tehran assist Moscow in its war against Ukraine, is increasingly troubling the West as tensions reach new highs in the Middle East.

The Islamic republic and Russia have in the last months put aside centuries of regional rivalry going back to the imperial era to focus on a shared confrontation with the West.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met his Qatari counterpart in Doha on Thursday, after Israel warned it would retaliate against his country for a missile attack last week.

Qatar has played a key role in efforts to secure Gaza ceasefire and has called for a truce in Lebanon, where Israel last month intensified air strikes against the Iran-backed Hezbollah.

The wars were the subject of "important consultations" between Araghchi and his counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said on social media platform X.

An Israeli air strike killed at least 22 people in central Beirut on Thursday as Israeli ground troops in Lebanon were accused of firing on the UN's peacekeeping headquarters, injuring two Blue Helmets.

The raid on Beirut, where an AFP journalist heard several loud explosions, was the third such attack on the centre of the Lebanese capital since Israel escalated its campaign last month.

Lebanon's health ministry issued the updated death toll and said the number of injured had risen to 117.

Wild populations of monitored animal species have plummeted over 70 percent in the last half-century, according to the latest edition of a landmark assessment by WWF published on Thursday.

Featuring data from 35,000 populations of more than 5,000 species of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish, the WWF Living Planet Index shows accelerating declines across the globe.

In biodiversity-rich regions such as Latin America and the Caribbean, the figure for animal population loss is as high as 95 percent.

Members of the United Nations Security council warned Israel on Wednesday against proceeding with a law aimed at curbing the UN's Palestinian refugees agency.

Israel has long been at odds with the agency known as UNRWA and alleged that some of its employees were involved in the October 7 Hamas attacks that triggered the war in Gaza.

The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in Israel's parliament, the Knesset, approved two bills on Sunday essentially aimed at ending UNRWA's activity and privileges in Israel. These bills were quickly condemned by UN chief Antonio Guterres.

Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu agreed Wednesday to stay in "close contact" as Israel mulls its response to Iran, with the US leader also urging the Israeli premier to "minimize" harm to civilians in Lebanon, the White House said.

Biden and Netanyahu's call was their first in nearly two months and came amid mounting pressure from Washington not to strike Iran's oil or nuclear facilities less than four weeks before the US presidential election.

United Nations officials warned Wednesday that Lebanon was staring down a "catastrophic" humanitarian crisis as the number of internally displaced people hit 600,000 and Israel presses its offensive against Hezbollah militants.

Hezbollah said its fighters were locked in clashes with Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, using rocket-propelled weapons to repel Israeli attempts to breach the border.

"Lebanon finds itself facing a conflict and a humanitarian crisis of catastrophic proportions," Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, told a briefing.

After weeks of anxiety under Israeli air strikes, Lebanese-Turkish mother-of-four Mona was gripped by a mixture of relief and sorrow as she prepared to evacuate Lebanon by sea.

"I feel we're being ripped away from our country," the 42-year-old who did not want to give her surname said.

"Lebanon is our country. It was the best country. But they destroyed our lives," she added crying, surrounded by more than 10 suitcases.

After a year of desperately hoping for positive news or a sign of life, the family of Israeli hostage Idan Shtivi has learnt he was killed on October 7, 2023, the first day of Hamas's attack.

"We thought he was alive for a year," Idan's brother, Omri, told AFP. "I just wish I could have hugged him one last time."

After 12 months of daring to hope, Omri's dreams of a reunion were shattered on Sunday when the Israeli army informed the family that 28-year-old Idan had been killed during his abduction at the Nova Festival which was targeted by Hamas militants.