THE Middle East was poised for wider war today as tensions between Israel and countries it has attacked approaching boiling point.

US ally Jordan was reportedly seeking to dissuade Iran from retaliating to the murder in its capital of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, with whom Israel was supposedly negotiating a Gaza ceasefire.

Hezbollah, one of whose commanders was killed in an Israeli bombing of the Lebanese capital Beirut, fired two drones at an Israeli military base in response to recent “attacks and assassinations,” with two Israeli soldiers wounded, according to the Israeli Defence Forces.