The White House on Friday described footage of an Israeli soldier pushing an apparently dead man off a rooftop in the West Bank as "deeply disturbing" and said it had demanded an explanation from Israel.

"We've seen that video, and we found it deeply disturbing. If it's proven to be authentic, it clearly would depict abhorrent and egregious behavior by professional soldiers," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

Israeli security officials say an Israeli citizen has been indicted for involvement in an Iranian assassination plot against top Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A statement from the Shin Bet internal security agency on Thursday said that the citizen was recruited by Iranian intelligence to “carry out terrorist activities” on Israeli soil and “promote assassination attacks” on Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the head of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar.

Senior diplomats from the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Italy will meet on Thursday in Paris to discuss the spiraling tensions in the Middle East, sources said on Wednesday.

The meeting will take place as fears grow of an all-out war engulfing the region, with conflict raging in Gaza and after two days of exploding pagers and other devices in Lebanon, an unprecedented attack Hezbollah has blamed on Israel.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday in Cairo that a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza would be the best way to stop violence from spreading in the Middle East.

The Israeli military said four soldiers were killed in southern Gaza and five others were wounded, with three of them in serious condition.

The deaths on Tuesday came nearly a year into the war in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. The army did not describe the circumstances, but Israeli media reported that the soldiers were killed by a hidden bomb that exploded inside a building.

Israel’s military said they have intercepted two suspicious drones that approached Israel from Lebanon and Iraq on Wednesday morning, the day after pagers used by the militant group Hezbollah exploded in Lebanon and Syria, killing at least nine people, including an 8-year-old girl, and wounding nearly 3,000. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed Israel for what appeared to be a sophisticated remote attack.

The Israeli military said they intercepted a drone launched from Lebanon over the Mediterranean Sea near the coast of northern Israel. Another drone launched from Iraq was intercepted by Israeli air force fighter jets. There were no injuries or damage reported.

Yemen's Houthi rebels shot down two American MQ-9 Reaper drones in under a week, the United States military acknowledged Wednesday, further highlighting the regional spread of the Israel-Hamas war.

As the one-year anniversary of the war approaches, Houthis continue a campaign to target ships traveling through the Red Sea as U.S.-led airstrikes pound their positions in Yemen. That's imperiled a waterway that typically sees $1 trillion of trade pass through it, as well as crucial shipments of aid to war-torn Sudan and Yemen.

The U.N. General Assembly will vote Wednesday on a Palestinian resolution demanding that Israel end its "unlawful presence" in Gaza and the occupied West Bank within a year, withdraw its military forces and evacuate all settlers.

The resolution is being put to a vote in the 193-member assembly as Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza approaches its first anniversary and as violence in the West Bank reaches new highs. The war was triggered by Hamas attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin discussed heightened Middle East tensions with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant on Tuesday, saying it is important to reduce them, the Pentagon announced.

The call between the defense chiefs came on the same day that hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded in an attack the Lebanese militant group blamed on Israel, but the Pentagon declined to say whether the explosions were discussed.

Fourteen people were wounded in Syria on Tuesday when pagers used by Hezbollah exploded, a Britain-based war monitor said, adding to a toll of at least eight dead and 2,750 wounded in Lebanon.

"Fourteen people whose nationalities are unknown have been wounded in Damascus and its countryside after pagers used by Hezbollah exploded," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. A source close to Hezbollah told AFP that some of its members had been wounded in pager blasts in neighboring Syria, without specifying how many.