WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department has begun evacuating nonessential diplomats and their families from the U.S. embassy in Israel as hostilities between Israel and Iran intensify and there is the possibility that the United States could become directly involved in the conflict.

Airstrikes continued for a sixth day Wednesday amid the most intense faceoff in the history of the Israel-Iran conflict. The confrontation that began Friday, when Israel launched an air campaign targeting Iran’s nuclear program and its military leaders,

Iran said it had conveyed to Washington that it will respond firmly to the United States if it becomes directly involved in Israel's military campaign, the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva said on Wednesday.