By Jaidaa Taha, Yousef Saba, Jana Choukeir and Yomna Ehab

March 19 (Reuters) - European gas prices surged 28% and oil gained 6% on Thursday after Iran attacked energy infrastructure in the Middle East in retaliation against Israeli attacks on it gas facilities, marking the biggest escalation of the nearly three-week war.

The Iranian aerial attacks caused extensive damage to the world's largest gas plant in Qatar, targeted a refinery in Saudi Arabia, forced the United Arab Emirates to shut gas facilities and started fires at two Kuwaiti refineries.

MOSCOW, March 19 (Reuters) - A senior Russian official called on Thursday for the creation of a safety zone around Iran's Russian-built Bushehr nuclear plant to prevent a major disaster, two days after a projectile struck within several hundred metres of its reactor.

Alexei Likhachev, head of state nuclear corporation Rosatom, said there were 72 tons of fissile material and 210 tons of spent nuclear fuel at the site, and that any strike on it could lead to a catastrophe.

WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday that the United States' objectives in the war against Iran have not changed since strikes started on February 28.

The United States has carried out strikes against 7,000 targets inside Iran so far, and hit more than 40 Iranian mine-laying vessels and 11 submarines, according to the Pentagon.

"Our objectives, given directly from our America-first president, remain exactly what they were on day one," Hegseth told reporters.

The blast struck without warning in the Palestinian town of Beit Awa, sending a hail of missile fragments through a beauty salon and killing four women inside.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the first Palestinian deaths in the Middle East war have sharpened a sense of helplessness as they find themselves ensnared in the crossfire of yet another conflict.

Issa Masalmeh was sitting nearby when a loud bang startled him to his feet at around 9:30 pm on Wednesday and he saw debris hurtling down from the sky.

WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - The United States has carried out strikes against Iran-aligned militia groups in Iraq, the top U.S. general said on Thursday.

"AH-64s have been striking against Iranian-aligned militia groups to make sure that we suppress any threat in Iraq against U.S. forces or U.S. interests," General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali, Katharine Jackson, Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Here are the latest developments in the Middle East war:

- Iran says not behind Oman attacks -

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said Tehran and allied forces in the region were "in no way" behind attacks on Oman and Turkey during the war, instead blaming "deception by the Zionist enemy", referring to Israel.

- Khamenei: enemy 'defeated' -

Khamenei said the enemies of the Islamic republic were being defeated in the war against the US and Israel in a written message for the Persian New Year, Nowruz.

Iran executed three men on Thursday who were accused of killing police officers during protests in January, with activists warning of the risk of a new surge in hangings as war rages with Israel and the United States.

They were the first hangings Iran has carried out related to the nationwide demonstrations that were met with a brutal crackdown by the authorities.

Rights groups said the trio, who included a teenager who had taken part in international wrestling competitions, were executed without a fair trial and had given confessions under torture.

MOSCOW, March 19 (Reuters) - The Kremlin on Thursday condemned what it called an intensification of Ukrainian attacks on Gazprom gas compressor stations serving two major pipelines, saying such incidents threatened critical infrastructure and international energy routes.

Gazprom said earlier that attacks on three compressor stations supporting the TurkStream and Blue Stream pipelines had increased in frequency this week, but all of them had been repelled.

CAIRO, March 19 (Reuters) - Israel reopened the Rafah crossing with Egypt on Thursday after nearly three weeks to allow some wounded Palestinians to leave for treatment, after Gaza medics said Israeli strikes had killed four people in the enclave.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said only eight Palestinians who were injured in Israeli attacks during the two-year war and 17 of their family members would be allowed into Egypt for medical treatment after the crossing reopened on Thursday.

It was unclear how many would be let through from Egypt back into Gaza.

DUBAI, March 19 (Reuters) - Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi called for vigilance and coordination among regional countries to counter what he described as "destabilising and escalatory actions" by the United States and Israel, Iranian state media reported on Thursday.

Araqchi made the remarks in separate phone calls with his counterparts in Turkey, Egypt and Pakistan.

He said recent U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iranian infrastructure were aimed at escalating tensions and added that Iran would spare no effort in defending its sovereignty and security.