Israeli air strikes targeted Gaza on Wednesday ahead of ceasefire talks that the United States hopes will stop Iran striking Israel in retaliation for the killing of a Hamas leader.

Iran and its allies blamed Israel for the July 31 killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran during a visit for the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian. Israel has not commented.

International mediators are hoping to kickstart stalled cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas with a new round of talks meant to finally clinch a deal between the sides. But the chances of a breakthrough appear slim.

The new talks are set to begin Thursday, but Israel and Hamas have been mulling an internationally-backed proposal for more than two months that would wind down the 10-month-long war and free the roughly 110 hostages still held in Gaza.

The U.S. has approved $20 billion in arms sales to Israel, including scores of fighter jets and advanced air-to-air missiles, the State Department announced Tuesday.

Congress was notified of the impending sale, which includes more than 50 F-15 fighter jets, Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles, or AMRAAMs, 120 mm tank ammunition and high explosive mortars and tactical vehicles and comes at a time of intense concern that Israel may become involved in a wider Middle East war.

Qatar will seek to convince Hamas to participate in Thursday’s peace talks over the war in Gaza, a U.S. State Department official said.

Hamas has so far declined to agree to take part in ceasefire negotiations, which take place amid fears that tensions between Israel and Iran could escalate following Israel’s killing of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh.

Palestinian militants have fired two rockets from the Gaza Strip and one of them landed in the sea off central Israel. The other projectile did not cross into Israeli territory, Israel's military said.

Hamas’ armed wing said it fired two rockets at Tel Aviv, located on the coast in central Israel.

A far-right Israeli minister has drawn international condemnation by praying with thousands of Jews at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in annexed east Jerusalem, defying a ban on Jewish prayer at the flashpoint site.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has often ignored the Israeli government's longstanding ban, vowed to "defeat Hamas" in Gaza in a video he filmed during his visit Tuesday.

Only a ceasefire deal in Gaza stemming from hoped-for talks this week would hold Iran back from retaliation against Israel for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on its soil, media reports quoted three senior Iranian officials as saying.

Iran's threatened retaliatory strike on Israel over the assassination of Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh drew major world powers on Tuesday into a high-wire act of diplomacy.

Halting or limiting an Iranian strike in some eyes could bolster a monthslong effort to reach a cease-fire in a war that's devastated the Gaza Strip and killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians, according to the territory's health ministry. It could also free the Israeli hostages who remain captive there since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.

An adviser to Iran’s president has told The Washington Post that Iran’s anticipated response against Israel will be “intelligence-based” and not through missiles and drones.

Aliasghar Shafieian, campaign media adviser to newly elected Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, suggested to The Washington Post that Tehran’s retaliation was unlikely to be a repeat of April’s hours-long volley. The killing of Haniyeh “was an intelligence-based mission,” he said, and “Iran’s response will be of a similar nature and at a similar level.”

Yemen's Houthi rebels stormed the headquarters of the United Nations' Human Rights Office in the capital, Sanaa, seizing documents, furniture and vehicles, a senior U.N. official said Tuesday.

The seizure was the latest move in a crackdown by the Houthis on people working with the U.N., aid agencies and foreign embassies. The crackdown comes as the Iranian-backed rebels have been targeting shipping throughout the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.