The Parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee approved two bills on Sunday relating to the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, known as UNRWA. One would block the agency’s ability to “operate any institution, provide any service, or conduct any activity, whether directly or indirectly” in Israel, and the other would bar civil servants and government agencies from having any contact with UNRWA or its representatives. The bills now await final approval in the Parliament, the Knesset.

Mr. Guterres also said that Israel would be in violation of international law if it approved such legislation because it would be “diametrically opposed to the U.N. Charter.”

He described UNRWA as the backbone of humanitarian aid in Gaza and as the main agency coordinating crucial services: deliveries of supplies from other U.N. agencies, their offices, protection of staff members and operating shelters serving hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians.

Without UNRWA, the delivery of food, shelter and health care to most of Gaza’s population would “grind to a halt,” Mr. Guterres said, and some 660,000 children would lose the only entity that could provide them education.

The measures would also deal a blow to the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, where UNRWA provides health care, social services and operates schools for Palestinians.

The relationship between Israel and the United Nations has deteriorated since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the war in Gaza that followed. The U.N., while denouncing the attack, has been sharply critical of Israel’s conduct of the war as disproportionate, collective punishment and accusing Israel of committing war crimes. Mr. Guterres and Mr. Netanyahu have not spoken directly in months, according to U.N. officials.

UNRWA has been operating since 1949 under a mandate of the General Assembly, which constitutes the organization’s core body. But, in the last year, UNRWA has become a flashpoint in the Israel-Gaza war.

Israel raised accusations that UNRWA had been infiltrated by Hamas, and then accused some of its 12,000 workers of participating in the Oct. 7 attacks, leading the United States and more than a dozen other funders to temporary halt donations. The U.N. fired nine workers that it found my have had ties to Hamas, but a U.N. investigation found that Israel had not provided evidence for its broad claims, and most funders have resumed donations.

Palestinian officials, including the ambassador to the U.N., Riyadh Mansour, have accused Israel of targeting UNRWA as part of a campaign to choke off income and aid to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates “vehemently condemned” the Knesset committees for passing the two bills.

Beyond the immediate humanitarian impact, Mr. Guterres said abolishing UNRWA would be an “enormous setback to sustainable peace efforts and a two-state solution — fanning even more instability and insecurity.”

Aaron Boxerman contributed reporting.

Footage from the attack, broadcast on Iran’s state television, showed the building partly collapsed and badly damaged, and sirens could be heard in the background. A crowd gathered near the site, and a pile of debris and twisted metal covered the road and cars parked nearby, the footage showed.

It was not immediately clear if the strikes were part of Israel’s promised retaliation for Iran’s launch of about 200 missiles at Israel last week. It was also not known if the targeted building in Damascus belonged to Iran’s Embassy compound. The embassy owns and rents a number of buildings to house its staff in that neighborhood, according to the two Iranian officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence.

It was not clear if the targeted official was among the dead, but the Iranian Embassy said in a statement on Tuesday that no Iranian citizens had been killed or wounded in the strikes. That could not be independently verified.

The Israeli military declined to comment on the strikes.

In April, Israeli officials confirmed that Israel had struck part of the Iranian Embassy complex in Damascus. That attack killed at least three senior commanders and four officers overseeing Iran’s covert operations in the Middle East. Iran retaliated by launching hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles at Israel at the time.

The latest Israeli attack in Damascus, the Syrian capital, comes as the United States and its allies have been trying to avert a direct war between Iran and Israel.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Aragchi, was in Damascus on Saturday as part of a regional diplomatic tour of Arab countries. He was to travel to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

Before he left, Mr. Aragchi said at a conference in Tehran about Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel that his message to regional Arab countries was that Iran would continue its steadfast support of the regional miltiant groups known as the “axis of resistance.”

While Iran did not want war with Israel, he added, it was prepared to strike back if attacked, according to a video of his speech.

Ms. Singh played down the notion that any tensions between Mr. Austin and Mr. Gallant were behind the postponement, and did not comment on whether internal Israeli political machinations might have prompted the decision.

“We’re in constant communication with the Israeli government at different levels, including the secretary to Minister Gallant,” Ms. Singh told reporters. “We’re going to keep talking to them about their response.”

President Biden has said he would not support an Israeli strike against Iranian nuclear or energy sites in response to the missile attack on Israel last week, saying that any response should be “proportionate,” essentially acknowledging that some counterstrike is appropriate.

The president and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel last spoke on Aug. 21 by phone, according to a White House statement.

In a phone call on Sunday, Mr. Austin made clear to Mr. Gallant that the United States wanted Israel to avoid retaliatory steps that would result in a new escalation by the Iranians, a senior Pentagon official said on Monday. The two men had been expected to discuss options in more detail in the face-to-face meeting on Wednesday.

As Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon expands to include ground incursions and intensifying airstrikes, senior Pentagon officials are mulling whether the enhanced American military presence in the region is containing a widening war, as they had hoped, or inflaming it.

In the 12 months since Hamas has attacked Israel, opening a conflict that includes Yemen, Iran and Lebanon, the Pentagon has sent a bristling array of weaponry to the region, including aircraft carriers, guided-missile destroyers, amphibious assault ships and fighter squadrons. But Pentagon officials complain that the Israelis have not been completely candid or timely in alerting the United States to impending Israeli operations, including its assassination of Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

Mr. Gallant had informed Mr. Austin during a phone call as the Israeli operation was underway. Pentagon officials said Mr. Austin was seething that the Israelis had not given more notice to allow American troops in the region to increase defensive measures against likely Iranian retaliation.

When asked about Mr. Austin’s reaction, Ms. Singh told reporters that “he was caught off guard.”

Ephrat Livni contributed reporting.

Outwardly, Mr. Biden has voiced strong support for Israel, sometimes in the face of withering international criticism. He has said that Israel has a right to defend itself, although he has from time to time publicly expressed some of his frustration with Mr. Netanyahu. Privately, the president has reacted far more explosively, sometimes with expletives, to Israel’s moves, as multiple news reports have indicated.

Mr. Netanyahu and the president last spoke on Aug. 21, according to a White House statement.

Mr. Woodward’s book, obtained by The New York Times and other news outlets on Tuesday, adds additional, inside-the-room details to those previous accounts, including direct quotes from Mr. Biden speaking with his staff or with the prime minister.

In April, for instance, the president questioned Mr. Netanyahu’s conduct in the war in a phone call, asking, according to the book, “What’s your strategy, man?”

When Mr. Netanyahu insisted that the Israeli military needed to push deeper into southern Gaza and invade the southern city of Rafah, a key border crossing with Egypt, the president, using Mr. Netanyahu’s nickname, dismissed this response.

“Bibi, you’ve got no strategy,” Mr. Biden replied, according to Mr. Woodward.

In May, Mr. Biden halted a shipment of 3,500 bombs to Israel out of concern that they would be used in the Rafah operation and cause excessive civilian casualties. After Mr. Netanyahu proceeded with the invasion of Rafah anyway, Mr. Biden told advisers that Mr. Netanyahu was a liar, using an obscenity, and added that “18 out of 19 people who work for him” were also liars, the book says.

He questioned Mr. Netanyahu’s motivations, saying that “he doesn’t give” a damn about Hamas but gives a damn “only about himself,” although he used an earthier term than “damn.”

Mr. Biden has also occasionally expressed his irritation with Mr. Netanyahu directly with the prime minister as the relationship has frayed.

“Bibi, what the fuck?” the president yelled at Mr. Netanyahu in July, the book says, after an Israeli airstrike killed a top Hezbollah military commander, Fuad Shukr, and several civilians in an airstrike near Beirut and an Israeli bomb killed Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s political leader, during a visit to Iran.

“You know the perception of Israel around the world increasingly is that you’re a rogue state, a rogue actor,” Mr. Biden told him, the book reports.

“This is Haniyeh,” Mr. Netanyahu replied, according to the book, “one of the leading terrorists. A terrible guy. We saw an opportunity and took it.”

The New York Times could not independently verify the specific statements reported in Mr. Woodward’s upcoming book.

As efforts at a cease-fire in Gaza have all but collapsed, the war has reached the one-year mark and conflicts with other Iranian proxy groups like Hezbollah have escalated, threatening to draw Iran directly into the conflict. Mr. Biden and Mr. Netanyahu are facing a situation not unlike one they have faced in the recent past.

In April, Israel conducted a strike in Syria that killed a top general in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, and Iran responded with a salvo of about 300 ballistic missiles, rockets and drones at Israel. The United States and its allies helped intercept most of the projectiles and, as The New York Times has previously reported, Mr. Biden urged Mr. Netanyahu not to respond, telling him to “do nothing” and “take the win.”

But Israel launched a limited, calibrated strike against Iran in response, and Mr. Biden told his advisers he had anticipated as much. “I know he’s going to do something but the way I limit it is tell him to ‘do nothing,’” he said, according to Mr. Woodward.

That statement may foretell what lies ahead in the fraught relationship. Last week, Iran fired nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel in what it said was retaliation for the Israeli assassinations of Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader; Mr. Haniyeh; and a commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Mr. Biden has warned Israel against striking Iranian nuclear sites, saying any response should be “in proportion.” But based on the recent past, the president may not expect Mr. Netanyahu to take U.S. advice.

Here’s what we know about the Israeli forces engaged in the ground operation.

How many Israeli troops are in Lebanon?

The Israeli military has said that its 36th, 98th, 91st, and 146th divisions have sent troops across the border into Lebanon, though it has not publicly disclosed how many soldiers are involved in the invasion or how many each division has contributed.

A complete division in Israel, as in the United States, usually comprises 10,000 to 15,000 soldiers, with roughly a third being combat troops and the remainder playing supporting roles, including in logistics and intelligence.

The Israeli military has declined to specify how many soldiers from the Israeli divisions have entered Lebanon since the invasion began, arguing that they do not want to publicize information that could benefit Hezbollah. Analysts estimate that they number in the thousands.

Gershon HaCohen, a retired Israeli major general who served as a reservist in Israel’s northern command in the last year, said that the number of Israeli troops fighting in Lebanon was in the lower range of that in 2006, during the last full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah. Prior reports in The Times put that figure at an estimated 10,000 to 30,000, depending on the phase of the 34-day war.

General HaCohen said that Israel’s announcement of the deployment of the additional division did not mean that Israel was significantly expanding its campaign into southern Lebanon. Instead, he suggested that the troops would simply be operating in new areas along the border.

Where are Israeli soldiers fighting in Lebanon?

Israeli soldiers have entered several Lebanese villages directly across Israel’s northern border. Many residents of such villages have evacuated over the past year of cross-border strikes between Israel and Hezbollah.

Israeli forces have been operating in and around the villages of Yaroun, Maroun al-Ras, Odaisseh and nearby Kfar Kila, according to Israeli security officials. During visits to the Israeli side of the border over the past week, a New York Times reporter heard booms and what sounded like clashes between soldiers and Hezbollah militants a few miles away in Lebanon.

Videos from Yaroun that were posted to social media and verified by The Times show many demolished and damaged homes, and soldiers walking near a launch site for anti-tank missiles directed toward Israel.

Which divisions also served in Gaza?

Two of the divisions that have been deployed in Lebanon — the 36th and 98th — also took part in Israel’s ground invasion of the Gaza Strip that began in the weeks following the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel last year.

The 36th division was involved in Israel’s raids on northern Gaza, while the 98th led Israel’s invasion of the southern city of Khan Younis.

What is Israel’s strategy in Lebanon?

Israeli military officials have repeatedly described the invasion as “limited, localized and targeted raids” against Hezbollah, suggesting the operation wouldn’t extend deep into Lebanon.

But it has called for the evacuation of dozens of villages in southern Lebanon and told residents to relocate north of the Awali River, which is more than 15 miles from the Israeli border at its nearest point.

Despite the extensive evacuation warnings, General HaCohen asserted the Israeli forces were staying near the border.

“The goal is not to eliminate Hezbollah, at least not at this stage, but to destroy their capabilities along the border,” he said.

Natan Odenheimer reported from Rosh Pina, Israel, and Adam Rasgon from Amman, Jordan. Gabby Sobelman contributed reporting from Rehovot, Israel.

Neither Hezbollah nor Israel has confirmed Mr. Safieddine’s death. And Hezbollah did not immediately respond to Mr. Netanyahu’s remarks.

Earlier on Tuesday, Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said that “Nasrallah’s successor seems to have been eliminated,” without naming Mr. Safieddine.

When asked in a news briefing on Tuesday if Mr. Safieddine had been killed in the strike, the spokesman for the Israeli military, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said, “The results of that strike are still being investigated.”

The group has been firing rockets into Israel in solidarity with Hamas, an ally that is also backed by Iran, since the war in Gaza began. Israel has retaliated with a ground invasion and airstrikes in southern Lebanon, killing more than 2,000 people, most of them in the past three weeks alone, according to the Lebanese health ministry. The ministry’s numbers do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

This was Mr. Netanyahu’s second appeal in weeks to the Lebanese people, hoping to sway public opinion against Hezbollah. In a statement on Sept. 23, he said, “Israel’s war is not with you; it’s with Hezbollah.”

The prime minister’s videotaped speech included another direct appeal to the people of Lebanon, calling on them to “stand up” and “free” their country from Hezbollah.

“Do you remember when your country was called the pearl of the Middle East? I do,” he said, adding, “A gang of tyrants and terrorists destroyed it.”

“You can take your country back,” he added. “You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering, as we see in Gaza.”

Euan Ward contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon.

Speaking on Monday evening at the Cipher Brief conference in Sea Island, Ga., he said Israel should build “an effective strategy that marries the use of force” against Hamas and Hezbollah with “good intelligence and ultimately smart diplomacy to try to produce a cease-fire to Israel’s north, as well as what has been a very elusive cease-fire in Gaza.”

Mr. Burns, a longtime diplomat before taking the helm of the C.I.A., has led the U.S. negotiations seeking to secure a cease-fire in Gaza in exchange for the release of hostages taken during the Hamas-led attacks last October. The United States, Qatar and Egypt have negotiated various proposals with Israel and Hamas as part of attempts to secure a deal.

“It has been pushing a very big rock up a very steep hill,” Mr. Burns said on Monday. “We’ve come close at least a couple of times, but it’s been very elusive.”

Mr. Burns said that he hoped he could close a Gaza cease-fire deal before the end of the Biden administration, and that he was focused on an agreement to end the fighting on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon as well as the conflict in Gaza.

“I very much hope that we’ll be able to pivot from what is currently an extremely risky environment dominated by military actions to one in which people in the region in particular see the possibility of doing a diplomatic arrangement to help produce a cease-fire in south Lebanon and Israel’s northern border, and on Gaza, a cease-fire and hostage deal across Israel’s southern border as well,” Mr. Burns said.

Asked if Israel was considering a strike on Iran’s nuclear or oil facilities, Mr. Burns said he would not make any predictions. He said Israel’s leadership was “weighing very carefully” how it would respond to Iran’s recent missile barrage, but was listening to President Biden’s concerns about an escalatory response.

Mr. Burns said he did not believe that Iran had decided to restart its nuclear weaponization program. While he predicted it would take Iran a week or a little more to produce one bomb’s worth of weapons-grade enriched material, he said no decision had been made by Iran to make a weapon.

“We watch it very carefully. I think we’re reasonably confident that working with our friends and allies, we would be able to see it relatively early on,” Mr. Burns said. “But the great risks now — the great danger in a way — is that time frame has been compressed in ways which create huge challenges for us.”

Sirens sounded in northern Israel and the city of Haifa at around the same time, as Israeli air defenses intercepted most of a barrage of more than 100 rockets coming from Lebanon over the course of 30 minutes, according to the Israeli military. One woman was slightly injured by shrapnel, and six others were hurt while seeking shelter, Israel’s emergency service said. Hezbollah took credit for the attack, saying it was in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in defense of Lebanon and in response to the Israeli invasion.

Earlier on Tuesday, Israel hit several other areas in south Lebanon with airstrikes, as the military announced that it was sending another division of ground troops across the border to aid in its campaign to eradicate Hezbollah infrastructure and head off further rocket launches into Israel.

Avichay Adraee, the Arabic-speaking spokesman for the Israeli military, warned residents of southern Lebanon to stay away from their homes. The military, he said on X, “continues to attack Hezbollah sites in and near your village, so for your own safety, you are prohibited from returning to your homes until further notice.” Israel has issued similar warnings for the past several days.

In his speech, a defiant Sheikh Qassem declared that Hezbollah had “overcome all the blows that have been dealt to us,” and that leaders who had been killed by Israel would be replaced so they could continue the fight. A successor to Mr. Nasrallah, he said, would be announced “when it has been finalized.”

Myra Noveck and Rawan Sheikh Ahmad contributed reporting.

Instead, the documents challenge the court’s jurisdiction, arguing that Mr. Khan failed to provide sufficient notice of the scope of his inquiry or to give Israel time to show that it is capable of independently investigating the same matters. Under the treaty setting up the International Criminal Court, which Israel is not a party to, a case could be inadmissible in the court if it is already being or will be investigated by a state with jurisdiction over it.

That means if Israel has the ability to conduct its own investigation into the actions underlying the accusations against Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant, the International Criminal Court in theory could give precedence to the country’s judicial system, allowing it the opportunity to address the claims.

In this case, Israel has argued that Mr. Khan did not provide enough information about what he was investigating, nor did he give Israel the chance to show it would inquire into the allegations itself.

“Despite having been forced into a bloody conflict that it did not want, Israel remains a democracy endowed with an independent judiciary and deeply committed to the rule of law,” the Israeli filing argued, adding that Israel “has the appropriate mechanisms” to ensure accountability for any alleged crimes.

In May, Mr. Khan sought arrest warrants for Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant, and Israel is hoping to thwart or delay the issuance of the warrants. Mr. Khan also sought warrants for three Hamas leaders who were responsible for the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks that set off the war in Gaza — Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Muhammad Deif. Of these three, only Mr. Sinwar is believed to still be alive.

Among other technical arguments rejecting the international court’s jurisdiction, Israel is now asking the I.C.C. to delay the request for arrest warrants for two of its top leaders until Mr. Khan provides more details about the scope of his investigation. And it wants the chance to show the court that it will address the accusations internally.

“Israel has primary jurisdiction and is best placed to investigate allegations of the sort raised by the Prosecutor, given the access required to relevant evidence, information and persons,” the Israeli submission argued.

The I.C.C. does have jurisdiction to proceed when a state is unable or unwilling to investigate accusations, or if the state inquiry is conducted in bad faith to protect the accused. And each situation is assessed on a case-by-case basis, so an Israeli inquiry wouldn’t necessarily preclude an I.C.C. prosecution going forward even if the court decides to grant Israel’s initial requests.