Iran's foreign minister has warned that Lebanese and Palestinian militants had their "finger on the trigger" in anticipation of an Israeli ground offensive in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian however insisted that Tehran-backed militants would decide on their own to take action if Israel continued its war on Hamas.

"What I gathered from what I heard from them and the plans that they have -- they have their finger on the trigger," Abdollahian said of Lebanese and Palestinian militants he has met.

Speaking to U.S. National Public Radio from the United Nations, where he was attending a General Assembly session on the crisis, Abdollahian said the militants' actions would be "much more powerful and deeper than what you’ve witnessed."

"Therefore I believe that if this situation continues and women and children and civilians are still killed in Gaza and the West Bank, anything will be possible," he said.

"We don't really want this conflict to spread out," he added.

His remarks came after U.S. President Joe Biden ordered air strikes on two sites in Syria said to be used by Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.

The Pentagon cast the strikes as measured retaliation after strikes by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria that left one U.S. citizen contractor dead from a cardiac incident and 21 U.S. military personnel with minor injuries.