Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant have exchanged criticism over stalled talks for a ceasefire deal that would free hostages held in Gaza.

"The reason a hostage deal is stalling is in part because of Israel", Israeli media, including television channel Kan, reported Gallant saying in a private briefing for a parliamentary committee on Monday.

The White House has said that it shares the Israeli intelligence assessment that Iran could launch a strike on Israel as soon as this week.

National security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Monday that “it is difficult to ascertain at this particular time if there’s an attack by Iran or its proxies what it could look like,” but that the U.S. and its allies were preparing for “a significant set of attacks.”

Iran on Tuesday rejected Western calls to stand down its threat to retaliate against Israel for the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran late last month.

"The declaration by France, Germany and Britain, which raised no objection to the international crimes of the Zionist regime, brazenly asks Iran to take no deterrent action against a regime which has violated its sovereignty and territorial integrity," foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said in a statement.

A 5.5 earthquake hit central Syria late Monday, with the shock felt in neighboring Lebanon, official media in both countries said.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday expressed "great concern" about the "spiral of violence" in the Middle East in a phone call with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, his spokesman Wolfgang Buechner said in a statement.

Scholz "appealed to President Pezeshkian to do everything possible to prevent a further military escalation", expressed "great concern about the danger of a regional conflagration in the Middle East" and said "the spiral of violence in the Middle East must be broken now".

Frequent beatings, overcrowding, withholding of basic rations. Released Palestinians have described to The Associated Press worsening abuses in Israeli prisons crammed with thousands detained since the war in Gaza began 10 months ago.

Israeli officials have acknowledged that they have made conditions harsher for Palestinians in prisons, with hard-line National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir boasting that prisons will no longer be "summer camps" under his watch.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday that he had wanted to attack Lebanon as early as October 11, 2023.

Iranian officials have told U.S. counterparts in meetings in a regional capital that Tehran is willing not to retaliate over the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran should the war on Gaza stop, a senior source said.

The Iranians also said that the Lebanon and Yemen fronts against Israel would be deactivated, the source told Kuwait’s al-Anbaa newspaper.

Hamas appeared to push back against resuming negotiations on Thursday on any new cease-fire proposals.

In a statement, it urged mediators United States, Egypt and Qatar to submit a plan to implement what was agreed on last month, based on U.S. President Joe Biden's proposal, "instead of going to more rounds of negotiations or new proposals that provide cover for the occupation's aggression."

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered a guided missile submarine to the Middle East and is telling the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group to sail more quickly to the area, the Defense Department said Sunday.

The moves come as the U.S. and other allies push for Israel and Hamas to achieve a cease-fire agreement that could help calm soaring tensions in the region following the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut.