Gulf leaders including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman gather with EU heads of state and government in Brussels Wednesday for a summit aimed at averting a "general conflagration" in the Middle East.

The 27-nation European Union is seeking to work more closely with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) -- which brings together Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- in addressing conflicts in both the Middle East and Ukraine.

The Biden administration believes it has won assurances from Israel that it will not hit Iranian nuclear or oil sites as it looks to strike back following Iran's missile barrage earlier this month, two U.S. officials said Tuesday.

The administration also believes that sending a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery to Israel and roughly 100 soldiers to operate it has eased some of Israel's concerns about possible Iranian retaliation and general security issues.

The Biden administration has warned Israel that it must increase the amount of humanitarian aid it is allowing into Gaza within the next 30 days or it could risk losing access to U.S. weapons funding.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned their Israeli counterparts in a letter dated Sunday that the changes must occur. The letter, which restates U.S. policy toward humanitarian aid and arms transfers, was sent amid deteriorating conditions in northern Gaza and an Israeli airstrike on a hospital tent site in central Gaza that killed at least four people and burned others.

Qatar's ruling emir said Tuesday his small, energy-rich nation will hold a referendum on ending a short-lived experiment in electing members of the country's advisory Shura Council.

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani offered no immediate timeline for the referendum in an annual address to the Shura Council, which drafts laws, approves state budgets, debates major issues and provides advice to the ruler. The body does not have sway over matters of defense, security and the economy.

Turkey's foreign minister on Tuesday called for sanctions against Israel, urging the international community to cut all support over the conflict in the Middle East.

"We have reached the limit of words, diplomacy and international politics.. We must start with sanctions," Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told ruling party delegates at a meeting about Palestine, adding: "Israel needs to be boycotted."

Israeli police said one officer was killed and four civilians were wounded in a shooting Tuesday on a highway in central Israel.

Police did not immediately provide the identity of the shooter, but police spokeswoman, Mirit Ben Mayor, said that it was a militant attack.

A team of American troops supporting a missile defense system in Israel has arrived in the country, the U.S. military said.

A statement from Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder announced the team’s arrival in Israel on Monday. They’ll operate a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery there to defend against ballistic missile attacks from Iran. Tehran has launched two missile attacks on Israel as the wars in Gaza and Lebanon rage.

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Tuesday accused Israel of choosing to expand the conflict in the Middle East to implement "pre-existing plans" for the occupied West Bank and Lebanon.

Israel will take into consideration the United States’s opinion but will act against an Iranian missile attack based on its own "national interests,"0 the prime minister’s office said Tuesday.

"We listen to the opinions of the United States, but we will make our final decisions based on our national interest," Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

The head of the expeditionary arm of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has appeared in television footage aired Tuesday by Iranian state television.

Rumors circulated for weeks over Gen. Esmail Qaani’s status in the time since an Israeli airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut in late September. But Qaani, the head of the Quds Force, was seen in a black bomber jacket, wiping away tears at an event early Tuesday morning at Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport.