Explosions rocked Iran's central Isfahan province on Friday, according to state media, while US officials told American news outlets that Israel carried out a retaliatory strike on the Islamic republic.

The attack comes less than a week after Tehran launched a barrage of more than 300 drones and missiles in its first-ever direct assault on Israel's soil. That unprecedented onslaught was itself a reprisal for an earlier strike in Syria widely blamed on Israel.

World leaders appealed for calm Friday after reported Israeli retaliation against Iran added to months of tense spillover from the war in Gaza, with Iranian state media reporting explosions in a central province.

Israeli officials made no public comment on the attack and Iranian officials played down its significance.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Israeli micro-drones used in the operation had caused no deaths or damage, dismissing it as a "desperate attempt to make a victory out of their repeated defeats".

Qatar's warning that it was reassessing its role as a mediator between Israel and Hamas has raised concerns about the prospects for a ceasefire and the return of hostages.

Since Hamas's deadly October 7 attack on Israel sparked devastating retaliation against Gaza, Qatar has been an important conduit to the Palestinian militant group, whose political office is in Doha.

The gas-rich emirate, which also hosts the region's largest US military base, successfully brokered a week-long break in fighting in late November when scores of Israeli and foreign hostages were released.

Economies in the Middle East and North Africa face a "shadow of uncertainty" from ongoing tensions in the region, a senior IMF official told AFP on Thursday.

"We are in a context where the overall outlook is cast into shadows," the International Monetary Fund's director for the Middle East and Central Asia department, Jihad Azour, said in an interview in Washington.

"The shadow of uncertainty on the geopolitical side is an important one," added Azour, a recent candidate to be the next Lebanese president.

Dubai airport, one of the world's busiest, witnessed major disruption for a third straight day Thursday after the heaviest rains on record drenched the desert United Arab Emirates.

Emirates, Dubai's state-owned flagship airline, and sister carrier flydubai resumed check-ins after telling passengers to stay away on Wednesday, when thousands of delayed passengers clogged the airport.

The airport, which handles more international passengers than any other, hopes to resume "something approaching normality" within 24 hours, Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths told AFP.

The United States on Thursday spoiled a long-shot Palestinian bid for full United Nations membership, vetoing a Security Council measure despite growing international distress over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

The move by Israel's key ally had been expected ahead of the vote, taking place more than six months into Israel's military offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory, in retaliation for the deadly October 7 attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel.

International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva on Thursday drew attention to the suffering in Yemen and Sudan, both plagued by civil wars and often overshadowed by the plight of other countries.

"When we have these highly visible wars like the one in Ukraine, like the one in Gaza... they overshadow the pain and suffering that is happening in other places," Georgieva said during a press conference.

She added: "But rest assured: for us at the Fund, all members are benefiting from our support and our attention as difficult as conditions may be."

Birds sang and planes rumbled overhead as Abdeljabbar al-Arja dug the remains of his dead neighbours from the rubble in Gaza.

An overnight Israeli strike hit the home where a displaced Palestinian family was sheltering in the southern city Rafah, relatives and neighbours told AFP as they scraped at the soil with their hands.

Al-Arja said the blast killed at least 10 people.

"We retrieved the remains of children and women, finding arms and feet. They were all torn to pieces.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday painted a dark picture of the situation in the Middle East, warning that spiraling tensions over the war in Gaza and Iran's attack on Israel could devolve into a "full-scale regional conflict."

Guterres also said Israel's military offensive on Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, in retaliation for their unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, had created a "humanitarian hellscape" for civilians trapped in the besieged Palestinian territory.

The United States and Britain announced widespread sanctions against Iran's military drone program on Thursday, in response to its weekend attack against Israel.

"Today, we are holding Iran accountable -- imposing new sanctions and export controls," US President Joe Biden said in a statement.

Tehran launched its first-ever direct military attack on Israel late Saturday in retaliation for an April 1 air strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus -- widely blamed on Israel -- that killed seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including two generals.