Russia on Wednesday strongly condemned what it said was a "missile strike" on Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, which the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog announced earlier was hit by a projectile.

U.S.-Israeli strikes hit Iranian facilities at a major Gulf gas field on Wednesday causing a fire, Iranian state television reported.

Israel’s defense minister said on Wednesday that the Israeli military killed Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib.

Israel Katz announced Khatib’s killing and said that “significant surprises are expected throughout this day on all the fronts,” without elaborating.

Iran lashed out following the killing of one of its top leaders in an airstrike with attacks on its Persian Gulf neighbors and Israel on Wednesday, using some of its latest missiles to evade air defenses and killing two people near Tel Aviv as the war in the Middle East showed no signs of slowing.

Israel kept up intense pressure on Lebanon with strikes it said targeted Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, hitting multiple apartment buildings in Beirut and killing at least six people.

Iran's Supreme National Security Council on Tuesday confirmed the death of its chief Ali Larijani, after Israel said it had killed him in an air strike.

U.S. President Donald Trump, whose call for assistance from allies to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil traffic has largely been rebuffed, said Tuesday that U.S. forces "no longer need" military help in the Iran war.

"Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer 'need,' or desire, the NATO Countries' assistance -- WE NEVER DID! Likewise, Japan, Australia, or South Korea," Trump posted on his Truth Social network, adding: "WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!"

Falling debris from missile interceptions killed one person on Tuesday in the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi and injured two medical staff in Kuwait, authorities said, as Iran pressed its attacks against Gulf countries.

Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, announced his resignation on Tuesday, saying he "cannot in good conscience" back the Trump administration's war in Iran.

Kent said on social media Iran "posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby."

The U.N. human rights chief's office expressed concerns about possible "ethnic cleansing" in a new report on Tuesday, saying that Israel has accelerated the expansion of settlements in large parts of the occupied West Bank and the forced displacement of more than 36,000 Palestinians.

The report from the office of Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, covers a yearlong period through the end of October. It decries increased violence by Israeli settlers and security forces against Palestinians in the area.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that Iran's powerful national security chief Ali Larijani was "eliminated last night", along with the commander of Tehran's Basij paramilitary force.

"I have just been updated by the Chief of Staff that Larijani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, and the head of the Basij -— Iran's central repression apparatus -— (Soleimani), were eliminated last night," Katz said in a statement released by his ministry.