Middle East latest: Rockets fired towards US military base in Syria (2024)

Israel is yet to provide supporting evidence for its claim a significant number of UNRWA staff were members of terrorist organisations, according to a new UN report.

A review of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), led by French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, has found the group has robust frameworks to ensure compliance with humanitarian neutrality principles, though issues persist.

This review was launched after Israel alleged 12 UNRWA staff had taken part in the Hamas attacks on 7 October on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza.

A UN oversight body is looking into those allegations in a separate investigation.

Reuters news agency reports it has reviewed a copy of the final report, which is set to be released later today.

Israel had made public claims based on an UNRWA staff list provided to it in March that "a significant number" of the group's staff were "members of terrorist organisations", the report states.

"However, Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence of this," it adds.

Several countries, including the UK, froze donations to the group following Israel's allegations.

In-person classes have been cancelled at a prestigious university in the US, as school officials hope to de-escalate tensions after pro-Palestinian protests led to mass arrests last week.

More than 100 protesters were arrested on Thursday at Columbia University in New York City when its president, Nemat Minouche Shafik, authorised police to clear an encampment set up by students demonstrating against Israel's offensive in Gaza.

In a statement today, Ms Shafik said: "These tensions have been exploited and amplified by individuals who are not affiliated with Columbia who have come to campus to pursue their own agendas."

She added: "We need a rest."

According to local media, Elie Buechler, an Orthodox rabbi at the university, told students campus and city police cannot guarantee the safety of Jewish students.

"It deeply pains me to say that I would strongly recommend you return home as soon as possible and remain home until the reality in and around campus has dramatically improved," he said in a WhatsApp message sent to hundreds over the weekend.

Tensions have risen at universities across the US since the war in Gaza began and the protests at Columbia, reminiscent of the demonstrations there against the Vietnam War more than 50 years ago, are the latest in a series of protests disrupting campuses, bridges and airports.

We reported earlier the head of Israeli military intelligence has resigned over failures around the 7 October attack (see our 8.21am post).

Major General Aharon Haliva became the first senior figure to step down over Hamas's attack, which broke through Israel's vaunted defences and killed 1,200 people, with more than 200 taken back to Gaza as hostages.

Speaking at the Reichman University in Israel in May last year, he spoke of the importance of never falling victim to a "surprise" again - just five months the Hamas attack.

"This year it's the 50th anniversary of the '73 war and you know in historic terms it happened yesterday," he said, referring to the war between Israel and a coalition of Arab states in 1973.

"We should all bear in mind the main lesson from that war in how important it is to listen to other people's opinions, to be open to different thoughts and ultimately to do whatever we can to make sure that the '73 Yom Kippur War and the surprise that we experienced there will never be repeated because it's extremely important for the future of the state of Israel."

At the same event, he told an audience Hamas knows the IDF's strength "very well" and it is "not something they should test".

"In order to leave them with that thought we need to continue to maintain regional alliances, to express military might," he added.

Mr Haliva, a 38-year veteran of the military, was one of a number of senior Israeli commanders who said they had failed to foresee and prevent the deadliest attack in Israel's history.

"The intelligence division under my command did not live up to the task we were entrusted with. I have carried that black day with me ever since," he said in a resignation letter released by the military.

He will remain in post until a successor is named.

According to Israeli tallies, 133 people remain as hostages.

Doctors have told the Sky News team in Gaza how they saved the life of an unborn baby even as her mother was dying from head injuries inflicted during devastating Israeli airstrikes in Rafah.

The baby's mother Sabreen, her father Shoukri and three-year-old sister Malak all died in an Israeli airstrike over the weekend.

Her uncle says he will care for her now.

Watch the short report here...

Gideon Falter, the campaigner at the centre of an antisemitism row with the Met Police, has slammed comments by a former senior officer - who said he may have arrested him for assault.

It comes after Mr Falter was threatened with arrest yards away from a pro-Palestine protest, where an officer described him as "openly Jewish" and said his presence was "antagonising demonstrators".

The force apologised but then had to apologise for their apology after suggesting opponents of pro-Palestinian marches "must know that their presence is provocative".

But former Met Chief Superintendent Dal Babu said the full 13-minute video of the incident shows a "different encounter" to the one Mr Falter had described.

Mr Babu said if he had been policing the march he would have considered arresting the antisemitism campaigner for "assault on a police officer and a breach of the peace".

Gideon Falter speaks to Sky News

Mr Falter responded: "I did not assault a police officer. How on Earth can anybody say that? I'm quite clearly in the video trying to continue to walk where I was going."

He added: "I think it's a pretty outrageous thing to say, I think it's a pretty outrageous thing to be giving any credence to.

"I was Jewish. I was crossing the street."

Mr Babu later reaffirmed his view of the encounter and said the video shows Mr Falter pushing policing officers "out of the way", which amounts to "common assault".

We understand Met Police chief Sir Mark Rowley is meeting the home secretary today and policing minister this week to discuss antisemitism.

Mr Falter has called for Sir Mark to step down.

Read more here...

The Palestinian civil defence claims it has uncovered 210 bodies from a temporary burial ground inside a hospital previously besieged and raided by Israeli forces in Gaza.

After Israel's military withdrew from the southern city of Khan Younis earlier this month, residents have been returning to the site at Nasser hospital looking for the bodies of their loved ones.

A burial area was built in the hospital when Israeli forces were besieging the facility last month, with people unable to bury the dead in a cemetery at the time, the defence group says.

At the time, people were not able to bury the dead in a cemetery and dug graves in the hospital yard.

In a statement, the department said a total of 210 bodies have been recovered from the hospital yard since Friday.

Some of those bodies were of people killed during the hospital siege, while others were killed when Israeli forces raided the hospital last month, the civil defence claims.

Relatives are looking to rebury the bodies in permanent graves elsewhere.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has given 1,500 body bags and protective gear to the civil defence to help dig up the site and move the bodies, it said.

Israeli troops advanced into Khan Younis in December, as part of its brutal ground offensive in response to Hamas's 7 October attacks in southern Israel.

At least 34,151 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the enclave's Hamas-run health ministry claims.

The ministry also reports 77,084 have been wounded.

It also claims 54 people have been killed over the past 24 hours, with hospitals receiving another 104 injured.

The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its reports, but says most of those killed are women and children.

Iran's foreign ministry says nuclear weapons have "no place" in the country's "doctrine".

A Revolutionary Guards commander had warned Tehran might change its nuclear policy if pressured by Israeli threats, but ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani appeared to row back on the remarks today.

"Iran has repeatedly said its nuclear programme only serves peaceful purposes," he said.

"Nuclear weapons have no place in our nuclear doctrine."

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last say on Tehran's nuclear programme, banned the development of nuclear weapons in a fatwa, or religious decree, in the early 2000s.

Iraqi armed faction Kata'ib Hezbollah has denied saying it had resumed attacks on US forces.

The group's denial comes hours after another statement was circulated on Telegram channels thought to be affiliated with them.

That statement declared attacks had resumed three months after they were suspended - but the group now says that is "fabricated news".

Earlier, sources had told the Reuters news agency at least five rockets were launched from the Iraqi town of Zummar towards a US military base in northeastern Syria.

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, referred to it as a "failed rocket attack".

Two security sources and a senior army officer in Iraq said a small truck with a rocket launcher fixed on the back had been parked in Zummar, which is on the border with Syria.

Kata'ib Hezbollah, an Iraq-based militant group, is thought to have ties to Iran.

Israeli police say they have arrested two people after a car ran over pedestrians in Jerusalem this morning, leaving three with minor injuries.

Footage of the incident, which was caught on CCTV and aired by Israeli media, appears to show a car hitting three ultra-Orthodox Jews, with at least two of them flying over the dashboard.

Two of the victims are males aged 21 and 15.

Following the incident, officers say the suspects fled on foot, leaving behind a makeshift "Carlo" submachine gun.

Police said two "terrorists" came out of the car with the weapon and tried to open fire but were "unsuccessful".

Officers and border forces searched for the pair, who fled on foot and left the weapon behind on their way.

Palestinians have carried out periodic attacks on Israeli cities and towns since the country's war against Hamas began on 7 October, while violence has spiked in the West Bank in that time.