Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen on Tuesday denounced UN chief Antonio Guterres over his criticism of Israel’s Gaza campaign, as Cohen recounted graphic details of Hamas attacks on civilians.

“Mr. Secretary General, In what world do you live?” Cohen told Guterres at a special Security Council session on the crisis.

The US military is taking new steps to protect its troops in the Middle East as concerns mount about attacks by Iran-backed groups, and it is leaving open the possibility of evacuations of military families if needed, officials told Reuters.

The measures include increasing US military patrols, restricting access to base facilities and hiking intelligence collection, including through drone and other surveillance operations, officials say, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The US military is also beefing up monitoring from guard towers on US military facilities, hiking security at base access points and increasing operations to counter potential incoming drones, rockets and missiles, the officials say.

The new package of force protection measures have not been previously reported.

“With the increase in the number of attacks and attempted attacks on US military locations, continuous review of our force protection measures is critical,” US Army General Michael “Erik” Kurilla, head of US Central Command, said in a statement to Reuters.

Kurilla, who oversees American forces in the Middle East, said the steps are already taken to increase force protection measures, as well as the deployment of additional US military assets to the region in recent days, “has prevented more serious casualties of our forces in theater.”

US forces in Iraq and Syria have been repeatedly targeted since the Israel-Gaza conflict began on October 7. The attacks have caused minor injuries to four US service members so far and five US military contractors, all of whom returned to duty, one of the officials said.

Last week off the coast of Yemen, a US warship shot down more than a dozen drones and four cruise missiles fired by Iranian-backed Houthis.

The heightened tensions have put US personnel on constant alert. During a false alarm at Al-Asad air base in Iraq on Thursday, a civilian contractor died from cardiac arrest.

A US military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, did not specifically say what might trigger the evacuation of US military families, who are deployed to Middle East locations including Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet.

“We continuously review and should we think the threat is rising to a level that threatens the dependents of our service members in the (region), we will err on the side of caution,” the official told Reuters.

Senior Biden administration officials including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have warned of the risk of major escalation in attacks on American troops in the Middle East and that Iran could seek to widen the Israel-Hamas war.

“We see a prospect for much more significant escalation against US forces and personnel in the near term and let’s be clear about it, the road leads back to Iran,” a senior defense official told Pentagon reporters on Monday.

Austin has ordered new air defenses to the Middle East to safeguard troops, including a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.

The United States has also sent warships and fighter aircraft to the region to try to deter Iran and Iran-backed groups, including two aircraft carriers.

The Pentagon has said it has not seen a direct order from the highest levels in Iran to carry out the attacks. But White House spokesperson John Kirby said it was clear that Iran was facilitating them.

“We know that Iran is closely monitoring these events, and in some cases actively facilitating these attacks and spurring on others who may want to exploit the conflict for their own good for Iran,” Kirby said on Monday.

Iranian security officials told Reuters Iran’s strategy was for Middle East proxies like Hezbollah to pursue limited strikes on Israeli and US targets but to avoid a major escalation that would draw in Tehran.

Delhi’s air quality improved marginally on Tuesday but remained in the ‘poor’ category, according to monitoring agencies.

The city’s 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 220, improving from 263 at 4 pm on Monday.

The 24-hour average AQI settled at 218 in neighbouring Ghaziabad, 179 in Faridabad, 158 in Gurugram, 170 in Noida and 248 in Greater Noida.

An AQI between zero and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘moderate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301 and 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 and 500 ‘severe’.

On Sunday, Delhi’s air quality turned ‘very poor’ for the first time since May, mainly due to a drop in temperature and wind speed, which allowed pollutants to accumulate. A few incidents of firecracker burning were also reported from parts of Delhi on the occasion of Dussehra on Tuesday.

In accordance with the practice of the last three years, Delhi had last month announced a comprehensive ban on the manufacture, storage, sale and use of firecrackers within the capital city.

A public awareness campaign, ‘Patakhe Nahi Diye Jalao’, will be soon reintroduced to discourage burning of firecrackers.

Unfavourable meteorological conditions and a cocktail of emissions from firecrackers and paddy straw burning, in addition to local sources of pollution, push Delhi-NCR’s air quality to hazardous levels around Diwali every year.

On Monday, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said the government has identified eight more pollution hotspots in addition to the existing 13 in the national capital and special teams will be deployed there to check pollution sources.

Rai said the government has also decided to use suppressant powder to prevent dust pollution in the city.

Dust suppressants could include chemical agents like calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, lignosulfonates and various polymers. These chemicals work by attracting and binding fine dust particles together, making them too heavy to become airborne.

The minister also said the government will relaunch a campaign to curb vehicular pollution on October 26, a year after Lieutenant Governor (LG) V K Saxena put it on hold, questioning its effectiveness.

Sources in the city government’s environment department said the LG’s permission will not be required for the “Red Light On Gaadi Off” campaign this year as the participants will not receive any honorarium, unlike in previous seasons.