The three Israelis were expelled shortly after arriving in the country on Wednesday, December 10, 2025.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained that the move was necessary to uphold Ghana’s commitment to protecting the dignity and rights of its citizens abroad.

Following the incident, the Chargé d’Affaires ad interim of the Israeli Embassy was summoned by the Ministry, as the Israeli Ambassador is currently out of the country. Both sides have since agreed to work toward an amicable resolution.

In a statement, Minister of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Okudzeto Ablakwa, emphasized that Ghana is committed to safeguarding the dignity of its citizens while maintaining respectful and cooperative relations with all friendly nations.

“The Ministry expects Ghanaians abroad to be treated with the same dignity and respect that the country extends to foreign nationals within its borders,” the statement added.

The family, it said, were trying to reach their home to inspect it when the incident happened in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City on Friday night.

This is the deadliest single incident involving Israeli soldiers in Gaza since the start of the ceasefire eight days ago.

The Israeli military said soldiers had fired at a “suspicious vehicle” that had crossed the so-called yellow line demarcating the area still occupied by Israeli forces in Gaza.

Israeli soldiers continue to operate in more than half of the Gaza Strip, under the terms of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP news agency the victims were members of the Abu Shaaban family and were killed while “trying to check on their home” in the area.

The dead included women and children, according to the civil defence.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said a “suspicious vehicle was identified crossing the yellow line and approaching IDF troops operating in the northern Gaza Strip” on Friday, prompting it to fire “warning shots” towards the vehicle.

It said the vehicle “continued to approach the troops in a way that caused an imminent threat to them” and “troops opened fire to remove the threat, in accordance with the agreement.”

Hamas said the family had been targeted without justification.

The IDF has warned Palestinians from entering areas in Gaza still under its control.

With limited internet access, many Palestinians do not know the position of Israeli troops as the yellow demarcation line is not physically marked, and it is unclear if the area where the bus was travelling did cross it.

The BBC has asked the IDF for coordinates of the incident.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Friday the army would set up visual signs to indicate the location of the line.

In a separate development on Saturday, the Palestinian embassy in Cairo said the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza will open on Monday for Palestinian residents in Egypt to return to Gaza.

In another part of the ceasefire deal, Hamas on Friday had released the body of Israeli hostage Eliyahu Margalit to the Red Cross, which returned it to Israel.

Mr Margalit was the tenth deceased hostage to be returned from Gaza. The remains of another 18 people are yet to be repatriated.

Israel handed the bodies of 15 more Palestinians over to officials in Gaza via the Red Cross, the Hamas-run health ministry said, bringing the total number of bodies it has received to 135.

There has been anger in Israel that Hamas has not returned all of the dead hostages’ bodies, in line with last week’s ceasefire deal – though the US has downplayed the suggestion it amounts to a breach.

The IDF has stressed that Hamas must “uphold the agreement and take the necessary steps to return all the hostages”.

Hamas has blamed Israel for making the task difficult because Israeli strikes have reduced so many buildings to rubble and it does not allow heavy machinery and diggers into Gaza to be able to search for the hostages’ bodies.

As part of the US-brokered ceasefire deal, Israel freed 250 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and 1,718 detainees from Gaza.

Hamas also returned all 20 living hostages to Israel.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 251 others hostage.

At least 67,900 people have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are seen by the UN as reliable.

Source: BBC

Israel’s national team is currently participating in European qualifiers for next summer’s men’s Fifa World Cup, while Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv is playing in the Europa League.

The BBC has been told by a senior figure at one football federation that many nations are pushing for a vote on whether to throw Israel out of European football, and that the leadership of governing body Uefa wants to act.

On Friday the Turkish FA demanded Israel be banned from football, and a group of 48 athletes signed a joined letter calling for the country’s suspension.

The Times reports that a vote could come as soon as next week and that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been campaigning against it.

Meanwhile, the US State Department has vowed to resist any attempt to bar Israel from potentially qualifying for a World Cup which will be held mostly on American soil.

So how exactly could a vote work, and what repercussions could it have?

How would a vote work?

Decisions on important matters in European football are made by the executive committee of Uefa, the governing body for the continent.

The executive committee – a group of 20 officials from its different member states – controls Uefa, overseeing the management of its governance, finances and rules.

The group is headed by president Aleksandr Ceferin, who has been in post since succeeding Michel Platini in 2016.

Sixteen members are then elected to their positions by vote, while two represent the European Club Association (ECA), and one represents the European Leagues organisation.

Emergency meetings of the group are not necessarily announced to the public, and even once the result of a vote is declared, Uefa does not typically reveal which members voted which way.

In order for any decision to be voted through by the executive committee, a simple majority of 11 out of 20 members is needed.

In reality, Uefa typically undertakes formal votes of its executive committee only when it knows there will be a clear outcome in one direction or another.

Decisions taken by the group are effective immediately, meaning a decision to suspend Israel would in theory be implemented straight away.

As Uefa governs the World Cup qualifying process for Europe, Israel would effectively be barred from next summer’s tournament.

The Israeli FA did not respond to a request for comment when contacted by BBC Sport.

Who would be making the decision?

The 16 executive committee members who are elected come from a range of countries, and represent their national football federations. One, Moshe Zuares, is an Israeli who was elected this year.

Among the others four come from countries – Spain, Norway, Albania and Armenia – whose governments have issued pro-Palestine messages. However, apart from Turkey, no other football associations have publicly expressed a position on Israeli teams’ participation in international football.

The head of the ECA, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, is a very powerful figure. He is also president of European champions Paris St-Germain, and chairperson of BeIN Media Group, one of Uefa’s most lucrative broadcasting partners.

Al-Khelaifi is a former tennis player from Qatar, which has criticised what it called “reckless Israeli behaviour” after Israel’s forces carried out a strike on senior Hamas leaders in the Qatari capital, Doha, this month. Al-Khelaifi has made no public comment about Israel’s participation in competitions.

His fellow ECA representative Miguel Angel Gil Marin, CEO of Atletico Madrid, is Spanish, while European Leagues representative Claudius Schafer is Swiss.

Image source: Getty Images

Image caption: Aleksander Ceferin and Nasser Al-Khelaifi are key figures in Uefa’s decision-making

Could Uefa and Fifa disagree?

Any decision to suspend Israel taken by Uefa would need to be ratified by global governing body Fifa afterwards.

When Russia was thrown out of football competitions in 2022, Fifa and Uefa announced the decision in a joint statement just four days after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began.

But there is a possibility of disagreement.

Earlier this year Fifa president Gianni Infantino described his relationship with US president Donald Trump as “absolutely crucial”.

Infantino even invited Trump to be part of the Club World Cup trophy presentation in July, and has left a replica of the competition’s trophy sitting in the White House’s Oval Office.

The Trump administration is vehemently pro-Israel, strongly criticised the decision of the UK and others to recognise a Palestinian state, and is now making clear its opposition to any plan to bar Israel from the World Cup.

The BBC has asked Fifa whether it would ratify a Uefa vote to suspend Israel but has not received a response.

Image source: Getty Images

Image caption: Gianni Infantino attended Donald Trump’s inauguration in January and has made multiple visits to the White House since

Which athletes are calling for Israel to be banned?

On Friday a group of 48 athletes signed a statement calling on Uefa to “immediately suspend” Israel from all competitions until it “complies with international law and ends its killing of civilians” in Gaza.

French World Cup winner Paul Pogba is the highest profile signatory, while Crystal Palace midfielder Cheick Doucoure is the only current Premier League player to sign, alongside others including ex-Chelsea winger Hakim Ziyech, former Ipswich captain Sam Morsy and former England cricketer Moeen Ali.

The signatories say they are a “united voice of sports professionals from around the world, standing for justice, fairness, and humanity in sport”.

The statement adds: “[Israel’s] actions violate international humanitarian law and contradict the principles of respect, safety, and peace that sport represents.

“Sport is not neutral in the face of injustice. To remain silent is to accept that the lives of some are worth less than others.”

Image source: Getty Images

Image caption: Paul Pogba is a World Cup winner who has played for Manchester United and Juventus, and is now at Monaco

Is perception changing at the top of football?

Uefa has previously resisted calls to bar Israel from its competitions, with Ceferin saying in August that he is generally opposed to bans.

“I think that all athletes should have the opportunity to compete and that other things should be handled differently,” the Slovenian said.

But the organisation was heavily criticised – including by Liverpool star Mohamed Salah – in the summer when it posted about Palestinian footballer Suleiman al-Obeid on social media but did not refer to the circumstances surrounding his death.

The Palestinian Football Association (PFA) had said he had been killed in an Israeli attack while waiting for humanitarian aid in the southern Gaza Strip.

The PFA has also said that the number of footballers killed or who have died from starvation in Gaza totals 421, including 103 children.

Subsequently, Uefa placed banners on the pitch before the Super Cup match between Paris St-Germain and Tottenham in Italy in August reading ‘stop killing children’ and ‘stop killing civilians’.

The Turkish FA has now become the first Uefa member to publicly demand Israel’s suspension.

“Despite positioning themselves as defenders of civilized values and peace, the sports world and football institutions have remained silent for too long,” said Turkish FA president Ibrahim Haciosmanoglu.

“It is time for Fifa and Uefa to take action. Israel must be banned from all sporting competitions immediately.”

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 65,502 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Former Arsenal and current Real Betis defender Hector Bellerin has been outspoken on the Israel-Gaza conflict, and told the BBC he feels the rules have not been equally applied to Russia and Israel.

“I just don’t understand how when the war between Russia and Ukraine started, Russia couldn’t compete in any sports, and now the measurement is a different bar for what is happening with Israel,” the Spaniard said. “I don’t think that is right.

“There are kids and families that are being bombed every day. I wish that all my colleagues, all the organisations in football would step forward, because football most of the time is the place where people look.”

But others maintain that Israel should keep their place in Uefa competitions.

“For either Uefa or Fifa to remove Israel from football competitions would be a betrayal of Jewish communities all over the world, and an act of vilification, demonisation and de-legitimisation of Israel,” said Simon Johnson, ex-director of corporate affairs at the FA and former chief executive of the Jewish Leadership Council.

“It would do nothing to end the war or bring peace to the region.”

Pressure seems to be building towards a formal decision which, whichever way it goes, could have seismic consequences far beyond football.

A United Nations commission of inquiry said earlier this month that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

That has led a panel of UN experts and the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to call for sporting sanctions against the country.

Next year’s World Cup is being co-hosted by the US, Mexico and Canada.

A US State Department spokesperson told BBC Sport: “We will absolutely work to fully stop any effort to attempt to ban Israel’s national soccer team from the World Cup.”

Meanwhile, there have been reports that European football’s governing body Uefa – which organises World Cup qualifying matches – could meet to decide whether to suspend Israel as early as next week.

One senior source at a European member association told BBC Sport: “Our understanding is that Uefa leadership wants to see some action on this.

“Nothing is confirmed or scheduled. But there is a new, high-level pressure from many nations compared to just a month ago.”

Israel are set to play Norway in a World Cup qualifier in Oslo on 11 October.

Earlier this month Norwegian football federation president Lise Klaveness said her organisation “has to deal with Israel participating in their competitions, but cannot and will not be indifferent to the humanitarian suffering that is taking place in the region, especially the disproportionate attacks against civilians in Gaza”.

The Italian FA has also spoken about the challenges of playing Israel, who Italy host on 14 October in Udine.

The UN report said there were reasonable grounds to conclude that four of the five genocidal acts defined under international law had been carried out since the start of the war in 2023.

A panel of human rights experts at the UN subsequently called on world football governing body Fifa and its European body Uefa to suspend Israel’s national team from international football,, external saying: “Sports must reject the perception that it is business as usual.”

Israel has regularly denied that its actions in Gaza amount to genocide and says they are justified as a means of self-defence. Its foreign ministry called the UN report “distorted and false”.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 65,419 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry. The ministry’s figures are quoted by the UN and others as the most reliable source of statistics available on casualties.

There has been an increase in calls to ban Israel from sporting competition since the UN’s report.

And it comes amid reports that Uefa could vote on whether to suspend Israel next week. Uefa has said that no meeting is currently planned.

Israel are third in their World Cup qualifying group – organised by Uefa – on nine points, six between leaders Norway.

The top team from each group qualifies automatically for the World Cup, with the runners-up going into the play-offs.

Spanish PM Sanchez said Israel should be treated in the same fashion as Russia by being banned from international sports competitions.

“Israel cannot continue to use any international platform to whitewash its image,” Sanchez said.

The Russia national team have been banned from competing in international football tournaments since the country’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The Israeli FA declined to comment when contacted by BBC Sport, and Fifa has been approached for comment.

Sanchez’s comments came as the final stage of the Vuelta a Espana was abandoned earlier this month after pro-Palestinian protesters entered part of the course in the centre of Madrid.

Protesters knocked down barriers and occupied the road at several points on the course including Gran Via, where cyclists were due to pass multiple times.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing under their national flags at the 2024 Olympics.

Earlier this week, IOC president Kirsty Coventry sidestepped a question about sanctioning Israeli athletes, saying: “The sports movement has to showcase the good that is in humanity.”

Meanwhile, supporters of Greek side PAOK displayed Palestinian flags and banners during their side’s Europa League match against Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv on Wednesday.

Fans held signs in English reading “Stop the genocide” and “Show Israel the red card”.

Chants of “Free Palestine” were also heard after Maccabi supporters unfurled an Israeli flag.

The displays came after protests earlier in the day in Thessaloniki, where fans and activist groups rallied against Israel’s participation in European football.

Demonstrators submitted more than 1,900 signatures to Uefa in support of a petition launched this week, which said there could be “no fair play with representatives of genocide”.

The match had been designated high risk due to the ongoing situation involving Israel and Gaza, with PAOK warning supporters before the match: “The display of banners, messages or flags with political content could result in heavy sanctions for our club.”

Maccabi face Aston Villa at Villa Park in the Europa League on 6 November.

Syria’s Interior Ministry announced a ceasefire agreement for Suwayda later on Wednesday. Druze religious leader Sheikh Yousef Jarbou confirmed a truce would take effect immediately.

Jarbou said the agreement was “to completely halt all military operations in Suwayda by all parties” and “to fully integrate Suwayda into the Syrian state.”

Footage showed four explosions from Israeli strikes battering the sides of the Syrian military headquarters in Damascus earlier on Wednesday, leading to large plumes of smoke rising in the sky, before another air strike hit close to the presidential palace.

Israel claims it has been carrying out the strikes in Syria to protect Syria’s Druze minority, which Israel views as a potential ally and which has been involved in clashes with Syrian government troops in Suwayda, a Druze stronghold. The community there has not welcomed Israeli intervention in the past.

Syrian state news agency SANA reported that one person was killed, and 28 others were wounded in the strikes, citing the Ministry of Health.

Reporting from Damascus, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr witnessed the attack on the headquarters of the Syrian military, which followed Israeli drone strikes on the complex hours earlier.

“We watched those strikes come in, one after another, in the heart of the Syrian capital,” she said, adding that the sight of Israeli war planes overhead “caused panic”.

“This is a significant escalation,” she said. “This is the Israeli leadership giving a very, very direct message to Syria’s new authorities that they will intensify such strikes … if the government does not withdraw its troops from southern Syria.”

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement posted on X that the “warnings in Damascus have ended – now painful blows will come”. As Israel’s military announced it was beefing up its forces along the Syrian border, and had carried out strikes on Syrian military convoys moving south, he added that Israel’s military would “continue to operate forcefully in Suwayda to destroy the forces that attacked the Druze until their complete withdrawal”.

Initial ceasefire collapsed quickly

The strikes followed the resumption of fierce fighting in Suwayda, a major centre for the Druze community, after a ceasefire announced by the Syrian government on Tuesday swiftly collapsed.

Syria’s Defence Ministry officials blamed groups “outside the law” for breaking the ceasefire and attacking government troops, who they said were responding to fire while taking measures to protect civilians. The ministry told Al Jazeera it had opened safe corridors in the city for civilians to flee.

Speaking from Damascus, Al Jazeera’s Bin Javaid said at least 70 people were believed to have been killed in the fighting so far. Medical sources in the city say more than 200 people have been injured in the violence.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor based in the United Kingdom, says more than 250 people had been killed as of Wednesday morning, including four children, five women and 138 soldiers and security forces. The observatory added that at least 21 people were killed in “field executions”.

One woman, 20-year-old Evelyn Azzam, told the Associated Press news agency from her home in Jaramana, near Damascus, that she feared her husband had been killed by security forces in Suwayda.

She had been speaking to her husband, Robert Kiwan, on the phone when he was questioned by security forces about whether he was affiliated with Druze militias, when her husband was shot in the hip, she said. She had had no update on his condition since he was taken to hospital.

Chaos at the border

The bloodshed has led to chaotic scenes along the border separating the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria. Large numbers of Israeli Druze gathered there, with some crossing into Syria to support Druze groups there, while hundreds gathered on the other side of the fence, calling on Israel and the international community to intervene and stop the violence.

Source: Aljazeera

During the proposed deal, “we will work with all parties to end the War”, Trump said in a post on Truth Social, without detailing what the conditions are.

“The Qataris and Egyptians, who have worked very hard to help bring Peace, will deliver this final proposal. I hope… that Hamas takes this Deal, because it will not get better — IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE,” Trump wrote.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said that Israel was “absolutely” ready for a ceasefire, but it was not immediately clear whether Hamas would accept the conditions of the proposed deal.

Trump’s announcement comes before a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scheduled for next week, in which the US president has said he would be “very firm”.

The US president said on Tuesday that he believed Netanyahu wanted to end hostilities in Gaza.

“He wants to. I can tell you he wants to. I think we’ll have a deal next week,” Trump added.

On Tuesday, Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer was due to meet US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance in Washington.

Speaking on the BBC News channel, Danon said that Hamas was “playing hardball”.

“We are putting pressure on Hamas, and if they will not come to the table, the only option we will have to bring back the hostages, is to apply more military pressure,” Danon said.

“The war will end when the hostages are back home,” he added.

Around 50 Israeli hostages are still in Gaza, at least 20 of whom are believed to be alive.

Last week, a senior Hamas official told the BBC mediators have increased efforts to broker a new ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza, but that negotiations with Israel remain stalled.

Israel has said the conflict can only end when Hamas has been completely dismantled. Hamas has long called for a permanent truce and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Trump’s comments come shortly after Israel ordered evacuations in northern Gaza ahead of increased military action. At least 20 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a seafront cafe in Gaza City on Monday, according to medics and eyewitnesses.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza after Hamas’s 7 October, 2023 attack on Israel, in which around 1,200 people were killed. At least 56,647 have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

The Israeli military this week also said it was examining reports of civilians being “harmed” while approaching aid distribution centres in Gaza run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

More than 170 charities and other NGOs have called for the controversial group to be shut down. Organisations like Oxfam and Save the Children say Israeli forces “routinely” open fire on Palestinians seeking aid.

Israel denies this accusation and says the organisation is necessary to bypass Hamas interference in aid distribution.

In March, a previous ceasefire deal collapsed when Israel launched fresh strikes on Gaza. The Israeli military described the action as “pre-emptive strikes… based on Hamas’s readiness to execute terror attacks, build up force and re-arm”.

The previous ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas – which started on 19 January – was set up to have three stages, but did not make it past the first stage.

Stage two included establishing a permanent ceasefire, the return of remaining living hostages in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

BBC

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]]> https://www.adomonline.com/iranian-ambassador-defends-strike-on-israel-as-legitimate-response/ Wed, 18 Jun 2025 13:15:52 +0000 https://www.adomonline.com/?p=2546008 The Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Ghana, H.E. Ali Ghomshi, has strongly defended Iran’s recent retaliatory actions against Israel, describing them as a legitimate act of self-defence in accordance with international law, following what he termed an “unprovoked and illegal aggression” by the Israeli regime.

In a forcefully worded statement issued in Accra on Wednesday, June 18, and copied to Myjoyonline, Ambassador Ghomshi said Iran had no choice but to respond after Israeli forces launched a pre-dawn airstrike on Iranian territory on Friday, June 13. The attack, which occurred as Iranians were preparing for a national celebration, killed several civilians, including women and children, and destroyed key infrastructure in densely populated areas.

“The world witnessed once again a military aggression, in violation of all international laws and principles, targeting densely populated cities, residential areas, civilians, urban infrastructure, including energy supply facilities, as well as the peaceful nuclear facilities of our country,” the statement read.

Ambassador Ghomshi described the assault as “a flagrant violation of all international norms and regulations,” particularly highlighting that the attacks targeted Iran’s peaceful nuclear infrastructure—a move he called both reckless and illegal.

“We did not start this war; rather, it was imposed on us through aggressive actions against our country’s territorial integrity,” he stated, accusing Israel of sabotaging Iran’s readiness for a new round of negotiations aimed at addressing global concerns about its nuclear programme in return for lifting sanctions.

He said Iran’s military response, which he characterised as “fierce,” was conducted with “all our own capacities and with the help of God the Almighty,” and would be sustained “resolutely” for as long as necessary.

“Our response to the Zionist regime is legitimate defence in accordance with international law, with reason, and with human logic,” he insisted.

Accusations Against Israel

The Ambassador accused Israel of routinely defying international conventions, pointing out that the country is not a signatory to critical treaties such as the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and refuses oversight from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

“This regime… possesses nuclear weapons, and openly threatens other countries with their use, [and] should never imagine itself in a position to act as a guarantor of global order or to attack the peaceful nuclear facilities of an NPT member state,” he said.

He further linked the Israeli military action against Iran to what he described as ongoing war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories.

“We must not forget the crimes currently unfolding in the West Bank and Gaza, simply because another act of aggression is taking place,” he added.

Ambassador Ghomshi condemned what he called the silence and complicity of some Western governments, particularly the United States, saying:

“It is unimaginable that such aggressions and crimes by the Israeli regime could have taken place without the approval and full support of certain Western governments, including the United States of America.”

Call to the International Community

The statement included a pointed call to the United Nations and the broader international community to hold Israel accountable for what he described as repeated illegal acts of aggression.

“If [member states] truly believe in the principles enshrined in the UN Charter… in the prohibition of the use of force… in the rule of law at the international level… in collective security, then they must act now,” he stated.

Ambassador Ghomshi sharply criticised what he described as “ambiguous statements” from the UN and Western nations that place equal blame on Iran and Israel.

“Statements that equate the aggressor with the country under attack and ask Iran to exercise restraint are nothing but hypocrisy, nothing but irresponsibility,” he asserted.

Tribute and Determination

He ended the statement by extending condolences to the victims’ families and hailing the resilience of the Iranian people.

“The memory of each and every one of these dear ones will forever live on in the proud history of Iran,” he said. “Iran remains determined to exercise its right to self-defence, fully protect its sovereignty, citizens, and national security by utilising all its defensive capabilities.”

Background

The Israeli airstrike that prompted Iran’s response marked a major escalation in the already tense relationship between the two long-time adversaries. According to reports from international agencies, the Israeli bombardment resulted in at least 45 civilian deaths and damaged energy infrastructure and nuclear facilities in the cities of Isfahan and Natanz.

Iran’s response — a series of drone and missile strikes on Israeli military installations — caused extensive damage, though the full scale of casualties on both sides remains unclear. The situation has reignited concerns about a wider regional conflict, especially as tensions persist in Gaza and the West Bank, where over 36,000 Palestinians are reported to have been killed since October 2023.

Ambassador Ghomshi’s statement came not long after the Israeli Ambassador to Ghana granted an interview on JoyNews defending his country’s actions — a sign of the intensifying diplomatic contest to shape global opinion amid growing calls for de-escalation.

Israel said it was declaring a state of emergency in anticipation of a missile and drone strike by Tehran.

An Israeli military official said Israel was striking “dozens” of nuclear and military targets. The official said Iran had enough material to make 15 nuclear bombs within days.

“Following the preemptive strike by the State of Israel against Iran, a missile and UAV (drone) attack against the State of Israel and its civilian population is expected in the immediate timeframe,” Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.

Two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said Israel had begun carrying out strikes on Iran and there was no U.S. assistance or involvement in the operation.

CNN reported that U.S. President Donald Trump was convening a cabinet meeting.

Crude oil prices jumped more than $3 a barrel on the news.

Iran’s state TV said several explosions were heard in Tehran and the country’s air defence system was on full alert.

U.S. and Iranian officials were scheduled to hold a sixth round of talks on Tehran’s escalating uranium enrichment programme in Oman on Sunday, according to officials from both countries and their Omani mediators. But the talks have appeared to be deadlocked.

Trump said on Thursday an Israeli strike on Iran “could very well happen” but reiterated his hopes for a peaceful resolution.

U.S. intelligence had indicated that Israel was making preparations for a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, and U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity that Israel could attack in the coming days.

Israel has long discussed striking its longtime foe Iran in an effort to block Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon.

The U.S. military is planning for the full range of contingencies in the Middle East, including the possibility that it might have to help evacuate American civilians, a U.S. official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The proceedings, which opened Monday in The Hague, are rooted in a United Nations General Assembly resolution introduced last year by Norway and several other countries. The resolution requested the ICJ’s opinion on whether Israel has breached its obligations under the UN Charter by overriding the immunities afforded to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

Central to the case is Israel’s decision, through two laws passed in the Knesset in October 2024, to sever ties with UNRWA, accusing the agency of harboring Hamas operatives. The legislation instructed the government to halt all cooperation with UNRWA, including visa support for its international staff — severely disrupting the flow of aid to Gaza.

The hearing comes as warnings of famine intensify in the besieged territory. According to the Gaza Government Media Office, more than 61,700 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military campaign, now entering its 18th month, with thousands still missing under the rubble. Medical officials in Gaza reported that Israeli forces killed 23 Palestinians in predawn assaults on Sunday, following a day in which at least 53 were killed across the Strip.

Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation has further deteriorated amid escalating regional violence. Houthi-affiliated media reported that U.S. forces bombed a detention center holding African migrants in northern Saada, Yemen, killing at least 68 people and injuring 47 others.

The ICJ hearings are expected to feature submissions from a range of countries. Statements from nations critical of Israel’s conduct are expected in the early days, while Israel’s supporters, including the United States and Hungary, are scheduled to address the court later in the week.

An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, which triggered the current conflict. Over 200 individuals were taken captive during those attacks.

Following this week’s hearings, the ICJ is expected to deliberate for several weeks before delivering its advisory opinion — a ruling that, while non-binding, could carry significant political and diplomatic weight.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Hamas had so far refused to accept a temporary ceasefire extension under a proposal by US President Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff.

A Hamas spokesman called the move “cheap blackmail” and a “coup” on the ceasefire agreement and urged mediators to get Israel to resume the supply of aid.

The Palestinian group wants phase two of the deal to go ahead as originally negotiated, with the release of hostages and Palestinian prisoners and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

On Friday night, Hamas said it would not agree to any extension of phase one without guarantees from US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators that phase two would eventually take place.

A statement from Netanyahu’s office said: “With the end of Phase 1 of the hostage deal, and in light of Hamas’s refusal to accept the Witkoff outline for continuing talks – to which Israel agreed – Prime Minister Netanyahu has decided that, as of this morning, all entry of goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip will cease.

“Israel will not allow a ceasefire without the release of our hostages. If Hamas continues its refusal, there will be further consequences.”

The Hamas spokesman said: “Netanyahu’s decision to stop aid going into Gaza once again shows the ugly face of the Israeli occupation… The international community must apply pressure on the Israeli government to stop starving our people.”

Late last night, Netanyahu’s office said Israel had agreed to a US proposal for the ceasefire to continue for about six weeks during the Muslim Ramadan and Jewish Passover periods.

If, at the end of this period, negotiations reached a dead end, Israel would reserve the right to go back to war.

US envoy Witkoff has not made his proposal public. According to Israel, it would begin with the release of half of all the remaining living and dead hostages.

Netanyahu’s office said Israel would immediately start negotiations if Hamas changed its position on the six-week ceasefire extension.

The first phase of the ceasefire that came into force on 19 January expired on Saturday.

It halted 15 months of fighting between Hamas and the Israeli military, allowing the release of 33 Israeli and five Thai hostages for about 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

But negotiations on phase two, including the release of all remaining living hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, have barely begun.

There are believed to be 24 hostages alive, with another 39 presumed to be dead.

Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking another 251 hostage.

Israel responded with an air and ground campaign in the Gaza Strip, during which at least 48,365 people have been killed, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

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The Palestinian Football Association (PFA) submitted a proposal to have Israel suspended from international football in May over the war in Gaza.

“The Fifa Disciplinary Committee will be mandated to initiate an investigation into the alleged offence of discrimination raised by the Palestine Football Association,” Fifa said.

The PFA believes Israel’s federation has committed “violations of Fifa regulations” and called for sanctions against the country’s national teams and clubs.

Fifa president Gianni Infantino said: “The Fifa Council has implemented due diligence on this very sensitive matter and, based on a thorough assessment, we have followed the advice of the independent experts.

“The ongoing violence in the region confirms that, above all considerations, and as stated at the 74th Fifa Congress, we need peace.

“As we remain extremely shocked by what is happening, and our thoughts are with those who are suffering, we urge all parties to restore peace to the region with immediate effect.”

Two investigations have been mandated by the Fifa Council into the IFA, with the first into allegations of discrimination within its national league, to be conducted by Fifa’s disciplinary committee.

The governing body said that the second, led by Fifa’s governance, audit and compliance committee, will consider “the participation in Israeli competitions of Israeli football teams allegedly based in the territory of Palestine”.

Israel are playing their Nations League home matches in Hungary, where an away game against Belgium last month was also moved because of security concerns.

They are scheduled to host France and play in Italy during the international break in October.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October by Hamas gunmen, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.

Since the attack, a military campaign in Gaza has killed a total of 41,689 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

The Fifa Council met on Thursday with Israel launching a ground invasion in southern Lebanon against the armed group Hezbollah, while Iran has fired more than 180 missiles towards Israel.

Shino Moshe Zuares, the president of the IFA, previously said: “We are facing a cynical political and hostile attempt by the Palestinian association to harm Israeli football.”

Exceptional transfer window proposed for Club World Cup teams

Also announced after Fifa’s meeting in Zurich on Thursday were regulations regarding the Fifa Club World Cup and a change to next summer’s transfer window.

The expanded tournament in 2025 will have 32 teams competing in the United States from 15 June to 13 July.

Fifa member associations of participating clubs will have the option of opening an “exceptional registration window” for new signings from 1 to 10 June.

Competing clubs will also be able to replace players during a “a restricted in-competition period” from 27 June to 3 July.

Fifa said this was in order to “encourage clubs and players whose contracts are expiring to find an appropriate solution to facilitate the players’ participation”.

The decision to open the additional window is at the discretion of each member association – Chelsea and Manchester City have qualified from England.

Fifa has also said it will request an expansion of the Olympic women’s football tournament from 12 to 16 teams, in line with the men’s event.

In March, the PFA called for a vote at Fifa’s congress in May to suspend Israel because of the war in Gaza.

At the time, the president of world football’s governing body Gianni Infantino said, following a legal assessment, that it was a matter for the Fifa Council to make a decision on.

The council is the main decision-making body of the organisation that governs world football.

Thursday’s Fifa Council meeting has listed a “proposal submitted by the Palestine Football Association at the 74th Fifa congress” on its agenda.

The Palestine FA believes Israel’s federation has committed “violations of Fifa regulations” and wants sanctions against the country’s “national teams and clubs”.

Shino Moshe Zuares, the president of the IFF, has previously said: “We are facing a cynical political and hostile attempt by the Palestinian association to harm Israeli football.”

Israel are playing their home matches in the Nations League in Hungary, while an away game against Belgium last month was also moved to the country because of security concerns.

They are scheduled to host France and play in Italy during the international break in October.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October by Hamas gunmen, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.

Since the attack, a military campaign in Gaza has killed a total of 41,689 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

The Fifa Council will meet amid Israel launching a ground invasion in southern Lebanon against the armed group Hezbollah, while Iran has launched more than 180 missiles towards Israel.

Soon after the attack, which was largely unsuccessful, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tehran that it had made “a big mistake” and “will pay for it.”

Some 181 missiles were launched in the strike, according to Israeli officials. The Israel Defense Forces said that it intercepted “a large number” of them.

One Palestinian in the West Bank was reported killed and two Israelis were injured by falling shrapnel and debris that had caused damage and started fires in the area.

Explosions could be heard across much of Israel, from Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley. Reporters on state television lay flat on the ground during live broadcasts.

One rocket impacted a school in Gadera, in central Israel, and photos and videos from the scene showed severe damage to the school building, although nobody was injured. Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo, the Home Front Command chief, visited the site of the impact alongside first responders.

Israel’s air defenses were “effective,” the IDF said. The US also participated in the defense of Israel, both by detecting the threat from Iran ahead of time and intercepting some of the missiles, according to the military.

The IDF said there were “isolated” impacts in central Israel and several more impacts in southern Israel. It emphasized that there was no damage to the “competence” of the Israeli Air Force in the attack, and said the IAF’s planes, air defenses, and air traffic control were operating normally.

At a security cabinet meeting in a secure bunker near Jerusalem in the aftermath of the attack, Netanyahu warned that Tehran had made a “big mistake tonight” and vowed that “it will pay for it.”

The strike on Israel had “failed,” he said, and was “thwarted thanks to Israel’s air defense system, which is the most advanced in the world.”

He thanked the US for its support as well.

“The regime in Iran does not understand our determination to defend ourselves and our determination to retaliate against our enemies,” said Netanyahu. “[Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar and [top Hamas military commander Mohammed] Deif did not understand this, [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah and [Hezbollah chief of staff Fuad] Shukr did not understand this, and there are probably those in Tehran who do not understand this.”

“They will understand,” he threatened, stressing that “whoever attacks us — we will attack him.”

A previous attack using 300 missiles and drones in April — the first ever direct Iranian on Israel — was thwarted with the help of the US military and other allies. Israel responded at the time with airstrikes in Iran, but wider escalation was averted.

Among the bodies found was that of California native Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose ordeal after he was taken at gunpoint at the Nova music festival on October 7 led to him becoming one of the faces of the devastating international hostage crisis that has challenged the leadership of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and triggered widespread destruction in Gaza.

Israeli soldiers found the six bodies in tunnels under the enclave, according to the military. The hostages were “brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists, a short while before we reached them,” Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a briefing.

The parents of 23-year-old Goldberg-Polin have been among the most vocal of the hostage families pushing Netanyahu to seek a deal securing their relatives’ return. Their tireless and high-profile campaigning saw them meet with world leaders, and earlier this month, give an emotional address at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

“With broken hearts, the Goldberg-Polin family is devastated to announce the death of their beloved son and brother, Hersh. The family thanks you all for your love and support and asks for privacy at this time,” the family said in a statement.

The Israeli military named the other five victims as Eden Yerushalmi, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi, Alex Lobanov and Ori Danino. CNN is reaching out to their families.

US President Joe Biden said the bodies were recovered under the city of Rafah in southern Gaza.

“I am devastated and outraged,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House that also paid tribute to Goldberg-Polin’s parents.

“They have been courageous, wise, and steadfast, even as they have endured the unimaginable,” Biden said. “They have been relentless and irrepressible champions of their son and of all the hostages held in unconscionable conditions.”

Goldberg-Polin and friends hid inside a small bomb shelter when Hamas gunmen launched their murderous attack on Israel’s southern border. As militants began to throw grenades into the bunker, Goldberg-Polin rushed to throw them out, before his arm was blown off from the elbow down, according to a firsthand account from his friend.

‘Anguish and misery’

Goldberg-Polin’s death in particular will reverberate not just in Israel but in US political circles.

His parents Rachel and Jonathan have regularly met top US officials in Washington to press the case of the hostages, and their emotional address to top Democrats at the convention earlier this month inextricably tied the hostages’ fate to US policy over the war in Gaza.

Rachel Goldberg-Polin told CNN in January that she wears a piece of tape marking each day that has passed since her son was kidnapped.

In her convention speech, she described life since October 7 as living on “another planet.”

“Anyone who is a parent or has had a parent can try to imagine the anguish and misery that Jon and I and all the hostage families are enduring,” she told delegates.

Some of those discovered dead in the tunnels under Gaza this weekend were, like Goldberg-Polin, captured at the Nova music festival. Lobanov, a 32-year-old father of two, and Yerushalmi, 24, were both tending bars at the gathering, according to the Hostages Families Forum. Danino, 25, and Sarusi, 27, were also at the festival.

Gat, 40, was taken from Kibbutz Be’eri. She had been visiting her parents when Hamas militants stormed the community close to Gaza’s border, killing and taking hostages as they went.

Anger in Israel

News of more hostage deaths piles pressure on Netanyahu as anger inside Israel swells over the failure to strike a ceasefire deal, and as stark disagreements between the prime minister and his military leaders increasingly spill out into the open.

It also ups the stakes for Biden to push US ally Israel to find a way out of a devastating war in Gaza that has inflamed global public opinion and repeatedly threatened to spiral into an all-out regional conflict.

“Make no mistake, Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes. And we will keep working around the clock for a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages,” Biden said in his statement on Goldberg-Polin’s death.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said “The heart of an entire nation is shattered to pieces” by the news of the six dead.

“On behalf of the State of Israel, I embrace their families with all my heart, and apologize for failing to bring them home safely,” Herzog said in a statement.

“We will continue to fight relentlessly against the criminal, terrorist organization Hamas, which has once again proven there is no end to its willingness to commit murder and crimes against humanity.”

Israel launched its war against Hamas in Gaza after the militant group’s October 7 cross-border attacks, in which more than 1,200 Israelis were killed and 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities.

More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the health ministry in the enclave.

Anger has been growing inside Israel, led by many hostage families who believe Netanyahu and key far-right cabinet colleagues have been stalling on achieving a ceasefire resolution with Hamas that might bring those captured and killed home.

Netanyahu has been adamant that a deal can only be signed when Israel’s safety is assured.

But domestic pressure is building, with the Hostages Families Forum being among the most critical of the Israeli prime minister.

“The delay in signing the deal has led to their deaths and those of many other hostages,” the forum said in a statement in English,” the group said in a statement on Sunday.

“We call to Netanyahu: Stop hiding. Provide the public with a justification for this ongoing abandonment,” the forum added.

The group has called for a “public mobilization” on Sunday and will release more details later.

Biden said Saturday evening that his staff has been in touch with Israeli officials. Biden also called for an end to the war, expressing optimism that an agreement could be reached on a ceasefire-for-hostages deal and adding that parties involved in the negotiation have said they “agree on the principles.”

“It’s time this war ended,” Biden added. “I think we’re on the verge of having an agreement. It’s time to end it. It’s time to finish it.”

The US, Qatar and Egypt, who have acted as mediators, this month renewed a push to reach a hostage and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

The mediators have proposed a three-phase approach: a first phase involving a six-week ceasefire; a second phase that would release all hostages and a withdrawal of all IDF presence from Gaza; and a third reconstruction phase.

Source: CNN.com

While Israeli officials have tried to dismiss the disagreement as a routine financial matter, the churches say the move upsets a centuries-old status quo and reflects mounting intolerance for the tiny Christian presence in the Holy Land.

In a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week, the heads of the major Christian denominations alleged that four municipalities across Israel had recently submitted warning letters to church officials cautioning them of legal action if they did not pay taxes.

“We believe these efforts represent a coordinated attack on the Christian presence in the Holy Land,” wrote the heads of the Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Orthodox churches. “In this time, when the whole world, and the Christian world in particular, are constantly following the events in Israel, we find ourselves, once again, dealing with an attempt by authorities to drive the Christian presence out of the Holy Land.”

Christians are a tiny minority, making up less than 2% of the population of Israel and the Palestinian territories. There are 182,000 Christians in Israel, 50,000 in the West Bank and Jerusalem and 1,300 in Gaza, according to the U.S. State Department. The vast majority are Palestinians.

The churches, who are major landowners in the Holy Land, say they do not pay property taxes under longstanding tradition. They say their funds go to services that benefit the state, like schools, hospitals and homes for the elderly.

The letter said the municipalities of Tel Aviv, Ramla, Nazareth and Jerusalem in recent months have all either issued warning letters or commenced legal action for alleged tax debts.

The Jerusalem municipality told The Associated Press that the church had not submitted the necessary requests for tax exemptions over the last few years. It said that “a dialogue is taking place with the churches to collect debts for the commercial properties they own.”

The other municipalities did not immediately comment. It was unclear if the municipalities acted in a coordinated effort or whether the tax moves are coincidental.

In 2018, Christians closed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre — revered by Christians as the site of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection — to protest a move by Israeli officials to impose taxes on commercial properties in the holy city.

The Christian leaders argued that the sites — like pilgrim hostels and information centers — served important religious and cultural purposes, and that taxing them would infringe on Christian religious observance in the Holy Land. After the public backlash, Netanyahu quickly suspended the plan.

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The US government says Israel may have breached humanitarian law in Gaza using American weapons.

For families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, the announcement raised the possibility that their long wait was coming to an end — that they might soon see their loved ones.

But the fervour was short-lived.

A few hours after Hamas’ announcement, Israel rejected the proposal — which was different from one the two sides had been discussing for days — and said it was sending a team of negotiators for a new round of talks.

By Tuesday morning, Israeli tanks had rolled into Rafah, cementing the dashed hopes among Israelis and Palestinians of any imminent cease-fire.

In Rafah, disillusioned Palestinians spent Tuesday packing up their belongings and preparing to evacuate.

Families of Israeli hostages were incensed, too, and thousands of protesters demonstrated late into the night across the country.

Across Gaza, Palestinians have been demanding a cease-fire for months, hoping that a stop to the fighting will bring an end to the suffering.

Over 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israeli fire and airstrikes since the war erupted on Oct. 7., according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. That day, Hamas militants killed about 1,200 in Israel and took around 250 hostages.

An estimated 100 hostages and the remains of 30 others are still held by Hamas, which insists it will not release them unless Israel ends the war and withdraws from Gaza.

Hundreds of thousands in Gaza have been displaced, many sheltering in nylon tents in Gaza’s south, as “a full-blown famine” develops in the north of the enclave, according to the United Nations.

So when the news came out that Hamas had accepted a cease-fire proposal put forward by Egypt and Qatar, Palestinians poured onto the streets, carrying children on their shoulders and banging pots and pans in excitement. For a moment, it seemed life would get easier.

But in the early hours of Tuesday, Israeli tanks entered the edge of Rafah and took control of one of the key border crossings between Israel and Gaza. Palestinians in the city loaded their belongings onto large trucks and fled.

“They kept giving us hope and telling us tomorrow, or after tomorrow, a truce will take place,” said Najwa al-Siksik as drones buzzed over her tent camp. “As you can hear,” she said, “this was happening all night long.”

Al-Sisik said she had lost all hope of an eventual deal.

“(Israel) doesn’t care about us or our children,” she said. “It only cares about its people. And (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu only cares about being at the top.”

Raef Abou Labde, who fled to Rafah from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis earlier in the war, rode atop a car packed with belongings, headed to what was sure to be yet another temporary refuge. Labde said he had little faith that Netanyahu’s far-right government sincerely wanted a cease-fire deal.

“I hope to God that the truce happens,” he said. “But what I see is that Netanyahu doesn’t want a cease-fire. He wants to displace the Palestinian people to Sinai, destroy Gaza and occupy it.”

In Israel, the Hamas announcement did not provoke the kind of immediate celebrations seen in Gaza. Many relatives of hostages held in Gaza, who have seen what feels like countless rounds of cease-fire negotiations end with no deal, have grown jaded.

“We won’t believe there’s a deal until we start to see some hostages return home,” said Michael Levy, whose 33-year-old brother, Or Levy, remains in captivity.

Still, the back and forth between Israel and Hamas led to boisterous and sustained protests Monday night. Protesters, led by hostage families, blocked the main highway into Tel Aviv, lighting fires on the road.

Demonstrations also broke out in Jerusalem, Haifa, and Beersheba.

Hostage families slammed the government’s inaction on a possible deal in a hearing at Israel’s parliament Tuesday.

“We see all sorts of explanations — this isn’t the deal that we gave them, Hamas changed it,” said Rotem Cooper, whose father Amiram Cooper was kidnapped Oct. 7. He questioned whether military pressure was an effective bargaining tactic to force Hamas to release additional hostages.

For some, the news indicated that a deal was closer than ever before.

Sharone Lifshitz, whose father, Oded, is a hostage, said she believed the differences between the proposal Hamas had accepted and Israel’s “core demands” were not so wide.

“Hamas are shrewd operators,” she said. “Now it’s going to be hard for Israel to just say ‘no.’”

Others said they hoped Israel’s movement into Rafah Tuesday was a tactic to pressure Hamas into a mutually agreeable deal.

“This is a way to show that Israel is serious about its demands,” said Levy. “Hamas can’t just declare they have agreed to a deal with changed terms.”

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Horrifying photos show the plumes of smoke rising into the air following the strike as the targeted facilities erupt into flames.

Isfahan is home to a major airbase for Iran’s military and is associated with the country’s nuclear program, which was not believed to be the target of the attack.

Iranian state-sanctioned media revealed that no major damage from the alleged attacks occurred as they said that no important facilities near the city were “damaged significantly.”

It was later determined that the loud blast heard near Isfahan was Iranian battery defence systems firing at a “suspicious object,” the Tasnim news agency reported that a top commander said.

State media confirmed that the country’s air defence batteries were activated and fired on early Friday morning in several provinces, but did not elaborate on which ones or what specifically caused the batteries to fire – while it remains unconfirmed what the cause of the explosions was.

Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, Hossein Dalirian, a spokesperson for Iran’s civilian space program, added that several small “quadcopter” drones had been shot down.

People in the area reportedly heard the sounds of the explosions and the activation of the Iranian battery defence systems. A US official told ABC News the strikes came from Israel and were meant to target Iran. The retaliatory strike has not been officially confirmed by Israel, which declined to comment.

Commercial flights around western Iran were diverted from their routes early on Friday morning without explanation. Iranian-based Fars news agency claimed it was because “explosions” were heard over Isfahan, the city about 215 miles (350km) south of Tehran.

The attack marked the first time Iran had ever launched a direct military assault on Israel, despite decades of enmity dating back to the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Israel’s military said over 100 drones had been fired but that its air defenses were prepared for the attack and it was ready to respond. It didn’t mention ballistic missiles, which are less easily shot down, but Iran said they were part of the attack.

The U.S., with its large troop presence in the region, said it would provide unspecified support to Israel.

“We are monitoring the threat,” the Israeli military’s spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, announced in a nationwide television address, saying it would take several hours for the drones to reach Israel. The Israeli military said it could not confirm if it had intercepted any drones or what their targets were.

Iran had vowed revenge since an April 1 airstrike in Syria killed two Iranian generals inside an Iranian consular building. Iran accused Israel of being behind the attack. Israel hasn’t commented on it.

Israel and Iran have been on a collision course throughout Israel’s six-month war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

The war erupted after Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two militant groups backed by Iran, carried out a devastating cross-border attack on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others. An Israeli offensive in Gaza has caused widespread devastation and killed over 33,000 people, according to local health officials.

Almost immediately after the war erupted, Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant group in Lebanon, began attacking Israel’s northern border. The two sides have been involved in daily exchanges of fire, while Iranian-backed groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen have launched rockets and missiles toward Israel.

In a statement carried late Saturday by Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency, the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard acknowledged launching “dozens of drones and missiles towards the occupied territories and positions of the Zionist regime.” The statement did not elaborate.

IRNA later quoted an anonymous official saying ballistic missiles were part of the attack. A ballistic missile moves on an arch trajectory, heading up into space before gravity brings the weapon down at a speed several times faster than the speed of sound.

Israel has missile defense systems capable of targeting ballistic missiles. However, in a massive attack involving multiple drones and missiles, the likelihood of a strike making it through is higher.

Iran has a vast arsenal of drones and missiles. Online videos shared by Iranian state television purported to show delta-wing-style drones resembling the Iranian Shahed-136 drones long used by Russia in its war on Ukraine. The slow-flying drones carry bombs. Ukraine has successfully used both surface-to-air missiles and ground fire to target them.

Israel has a multilayered air-defense network that includes systems capable of intercepting a variety of threats including long-range missiles, cruise missiles, drones and short-range rockets.

Hagari, the army spokesman, said Israel was “prepared and ready” with both defensive and offensive responses. But he cautioned that the air defenses are not 100% effective and urged the public to heed safety instructions.

Early Sunday, the army ordered residents in the Golan Heights — near the Syrian and Lebanese borders — as well as the southern towns of Nevatim and Dimona and the Red Sea resort of Eilat “to stay near protective spaces until further notice.” Dimona is home to Israel’s main nuclear facility.

The army’s Home Front Command canceled school on Sunday and limited public gatherings to no more than 1,000 people. Israel closed its airspace and canceled all flights.

Earlier Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned: “Whoever harms us, we will harm them.”

In Washington, President Joe Biden cut short a weekend trip to his beach house in Delaware to return to the White House. He was set to convene a principals meeting of the National Security Council on Saturday to discuss the unfolding attack, the White House said.

“The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defense against these threats from Iran,” National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement.

Gen. Erik Kurilla, the head of the U.S. military’s Central Command, was in Israel over the weekend consulting with Israeli defense officials about the Iranian threat.

The Central Command oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East, while Israel has a formidable arsenal that includes long-range missiles and F-35 stealth warplanes.

For days, Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had threatened to “slap” Israel for its Syria strike.

In Iran’s capital, Tehran, witnesses saw long lines at gas stations early Sunday as people appeared worried about what may come next. Dozens of hard-liners demonstrated in support of the attack at Palestine Square.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported heavy Israeli airstrikes and shelling on multiple locations in south Lebanon following Iran’s launch of drones.

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it launched “dozens” of Katyusha rockets at an Israeli military site in the Golan Heights early Sunday. It was not immediately clear if there was any damage.

Flight-tracking data late Saturday showed the airspace over Jordan empty, while few flights continued on their north-south routes over Iraq. A sole Middle East Airlines flight from Dubai to Beirut remained airborne over Syria. Lebanon was closing its airspace.

IRAN’S REVOLUTIONARY GUARD SEIZES A CONTAINER SHIP

Early Saturday, commandos from Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard rappelled from a helicopter onto an Israeli-affiliated container ship near the Strait of Hormuz and seized the vessel.

Iran’s state-run IRNA said a special forces unit of the Guard’s navy carried out the attack on the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries, a container ship associated with London-based Zodiac Maritime.

Zodiac Maritime is part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer’s Zodiac Group. Zodiac declined to comment and referred questions to MSC. Geneva-based MSC acknowledged the seizure and said 25 crew members were on the ship.

“We are working closely with the relevant authorities to ensure their well-being, and safe return of the vessel,” MSC said.

Watson, the White House National Security Council spokesperson, said the crew was made up of Indian, Filipino, Pakistani, Russian and Estonian nationals and urged Iran to release them and the vessel.

IRNA said the Guard would take the vessel into Iranian territorial waters.

A Middle East defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, provided video of the attack to The Associated Press in which Iranian commandos are seen rappelling onto a stack of containers on the vessel’s deck.

The video corresponded with known details of the MSC Aries. The commandos rappelled from what appeared to be a Soviet-era Mil Mi-17 helicopter, which both the Guard and the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen have used before to raid ships.

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Israeli TV said the salvo was expected to reach Israel at 02:00 on Sunday (23:00 GMT on Saturday).

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had launched missiles as well as drones “at specific targets”.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said they were on high alert and “monitoring all targets”. Israel’s prime minster convened a meeting of his war cabinet.

Israel, Lebanon and Iraq have closed their airspaces, and Syria and Jordan have put their air defences on alert.

Iran had vowed to retaliate for an attack on its consulate in Syria on 1 April, which killed seven military officers, including a top commander.

It accused Israel of carrying out that attack. Israel neither confirmed nor denied it.

Shortly before news of Iran’s drone launches, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country’s “defensive systems” were deployed.

“We are ready for any scenario, both defensively and offensively. The State of Israel is strong. The IDF is strong. The public is strong.

“We appreciate the US standing alongside Israel, as well as the support of Britain, France and many other countries.”

After news broke of the attack, US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said: “President Biden has been clear: our support for Israel’s security is ironclad.”

“The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defence against these threats from Iran.”

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak condemned Iran’s “reckless” attack, vowing that the UK would “continue to stand up for Israel’s security and that of all our regional partners”.

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) – the most powerful branch of its armed forces – said it had launched the attack “in retaliation against the Zionist regime’s [Israel] repeated crimes, including the attack on the Iranian embassy’s consulate in Damascus”.

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Germany is accused of breaching the UN genocide convention by sending military hardware to Israel and ceasing funding of the UN’s aid agency.

Berlin rejects the claims and will present a defence to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Tuesday.

In 2023 some 30% of Israel’s military equipment purchases came from Germany, totalling €300m ($326m; £257m).

The allegations build on a separate case taken by South Africa in January, where judges in the Hague ordered Israel to take “every possible measure” to avoid genocidal acts. The court also ordered Hamas to release all hostages taken from Israel during its 7 October attacks immediately.

Israel rejects accusations that it is engaging in genocidal acts in its campaign in Gaza, and has insisted it has the right to defend itself.

More than 33,000 have been killed in Israel’s offensive in Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry there says, the majority of them civilians. Gaza is on the brink of famine, with Oxfam reporting that 300,000 people trapped in the north have lived since January on an average of 245 calories a day.

Nicaragua says Germany’s arms sales to Israel, which totalled $326.5m last year – a tenfold increase on 2022 – make it complicit in Israel’s alleged war crimes.

Components for air defence systems and communications equipment accounted for most of the sales, according to the DPA news agency.

Germany was also one of 15 Western nations which suspended funding for the UN’s Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) over allegations that some of the agency’s staff were involved in the 7 October attacks on Israel.

According to papers filed with the ICJ, Nicaragua wants the UN’s top court to order Berlin to halt weapons sales and resume funding of the aid agency, one of the few international bodies still operating in Gaza.

It says in the absence of such measures, “Germany is facilitating the commission of genocide and is failing in its obligation to do everything possible to prevent the commission of genocide”.

Speaking as the trial opened, Alain Pellet, a lawyer for Nicaragua, said it was “urgent that Germany suspend continued sales.

“Germany was and is fully conscious of the risk that the arms it has furnished and continues to furnish to Israel” could be used to commit genocide, he told judges.

Berlin has rejected the allegations, but has remained tight-lipped about its legal strategy ahead of the hearings.

“We note Nicaragua’s lawsuit and we deny the allegations as unjustified,” government spokesman Wolfgang Buechner said.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been a vocal supporter of Israel’s right to self-defence, but he has faced increasing domestic hostility to the continuation of arms sales to the country.

On Sunday, a group of civil servants wrote to the German leader calling on the government to “cease arms deliveries to the Israeli government with immediate effect”.

“Israel is committing crimes in Gaza that are in clear contradiction to international law,” the statement said, citing January’s ICJ ruling.

In January’s case, the ICJ ruled that “at least some of the acts and omissions alleged by South Africa to have been committed by Israel in Gaza appear to be capable of falling within the provisions of the Convention”.

Michael Becker, a law professor at Trinity College Dublin, told the BBC that there was uncertainty about states’ obligations to prevent genocide or ensure respect for humanitarian law. The case against Germany, he said, could potentially help clarify the issue.

Critics of Nicaragua’s case have highlighted the country’s chequered human rights record. The government of President Daniel Ortega has jailed opponents and banned protests. In March, the UK’s mission to the UN accused the government of a “relentless” crackdown on human rights.

The war has turbocharged their determination to unseat Israel’s longest-serving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In Jerusalem, police used skunk water – a foul-smelling substance fired from water cannon – to clear protesters who had blocked the Begin Boulevard, the city’s major north-south highway.

Well-worn slogans demanding his resignation and early elections were amplified by newer ones calling for an immediate deal to free about 130 Israeli hostages still held in Gaza. An unknown number of them are presumed dead.

The big fear of their families and friends, as well as the protesters, is that many more will die the longer the war drags on without a deal.

On Sunday evening, as thousands packed the broad avenues around the Israeli parliament, Katia Amorza – who has a son serving in the Israeli army in Gaza – put down her megaphone for a moment.

“Since eight this morning, I’m here. And now I’m telling Netanyahu that I would be glad to pay one way ticket, first class, for him to go out and not come back anymore.

“And I’m telling him also to take with him all those people that they put in the government that he chose one by one, the worst, the worst that we have in our society.”

A rabbi crossed the road past Katia and her megaphone. It was Yehudah Glick, who campaigns for Jewish prayer in the area Israelis call the Temple Mount, the site in Jerusalem of Islam’s third holiest mosque, al Aqsa.

Rabbi Glick said the protesters have forgotten that their real enemy is Hamas, not prime minister Netanyahu.

“I think he’s very popular. And that’s what aggravates these people. I think these people, are not willing to forgive the fact that for so long they’ve been demonstrating against him and he’s still in power.

“And I’m calling upon them to demonstrate, to come and demonstrate, speak loud and clear what they feel, but to be careful not to cross the very thin line between democracy and anarchy.”

The protesters, and Mr Netanyahu’s critics in countries that otherwise support Israel, believe the enemies of democracy are already in his government, a coalition that depends on the support of ultranationalist Jewish parties.

Among them is the Religious Zionism party, led by the finance minister Bezalel Smotrich. One of its MPs, Ohad Tal, said it was “naïve” to believe anything other than more military pressure on Hamas would free the hostages.

“You don’t think Hamas will bring back so easily the hostages in a deal, release everybody and then will allow us to, you know, to kill all the terrorists that we would release in such a deal…It’s not as simple.

“If there was a button that you can press and bring back all the hostages and make everything okay, every Israeli would press this button. But it’s not as easy as you may think.”

Benjamin Netanyahu used to say he was the only one who could keep his country safe. Many Israelis believed him.

He said that he could manage the Palestinians, settle Jews on the occupied land they want for a state, without offering the concessions and making the sacrifices necessary for a peace deal.

All that changed on 7 October last year when Hamas stormed through the border wire.

Many Israelis hold him responsible for the security lapses that allowed Hamas to attack Israel with such devastating effect.

Unlike his security chiefs, who rapidly issued statements admitting they had made mistakes, Mr Netanyahu has never admitted any responsibility.

That infuriates the thousands who blocked streets in Jerusalem on Sunday evening.

Israelis must be something like 40 years old at least to remember a time when Benjamin Netanyahu was not a dominant figure in their country’s politics.

After emerging as an eloquent spokesman for Israel at the United Nations, his first stint as prime minister came after a narrow victory in 1996 on a platform opposing the Oslo peace process.

Like the current American plan to make peace in the Middle East, the Oslo deals were built around the idea that allowing Palestinians to establish an independent state alongside Israel was the only hope of ending a century of conflict between Arabs and Jews over control of the land between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea.

Mr Netanyahu has been a consistent opponent of a Palestinian state. He has contemptuously dismissed the US strategy of backing for Palestinian independence as part of a “grand bargain” to remake the Middle East.

His critics here say his strident rejection of President Joe Biden’s plans for governance in Gaza after the war is a tool to secure the continued support of Israel’s extreme right wing.

One of the protesters outside the Knesset was David Agmon, a retired Brigadier General in the Israeli army. He ran the prime minister’s office when Mr Netanyahu was first elected.

“It’s the biggest crisis ever since 1948. I’ll tell you something else. I was the first chief of staff for Netanyahu in 1996, so I know him, and after three months I decided to leave. Because I realised who he is – a danger to Israel.

“He doesn’t know how to take decisions, he is afraid, the only thing he knows is to speak. And of course, I saw he depends on his wife, and I saw his lies. And after three months I told him, Bibi, you don’t need aides, you need a replacement. And I left.”

While the protesters were still on the streets, Mr Netanyahu ruled out early elections and repeated his determination to mount a new offensive against Hamas forces in Rafah.

His record as a political survivor and formidable campaigner means that even if his opponents get their wish for early elections, his dwindling band of devoted followers believe he might even win.

Israelis are not divided about destroying Hamas. That war aim has overwhelming support.

But the way the war is being handled, and the failure to rescue or free all the hostages, is putting Benjamin Netanyahu under career-ending pressure.

While Democrats were in favour of passing the bill, Republicans were divided and previously voted it down.

The package includes $60bn for Kyiv, $14bn for Israel’s war against Hamas and $10bn for humanitarian aid in conflict zones, including in Gaza.

Lawmakers voted 70 to 29 to approve the package.

The bill will now go to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, where its fate remains uncertain.

The package, which also includes more than $4bn in funds for Indo-Pacific allies, passed the Senate despite criticism from Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and former President Donald Trump.

In the end, 22 Republicans voted for the legislation including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“History settles every account,” Mr McConnell said in a statement following the vote. “And today, on the value of American leadership and strength, history will record that the Senate did not blink.”

Ukraine’s president also said he was “grateful” to senators for passing it.

“For us in Ukraine, continued US assistance helps to save human lives from Russian terror. It means that life will continue in our cities and will triumph over war,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The vote came after an all-night Senate session during which several Republicans made speeches criticising the measure.

The aid package is a stripped down version of a $118bn package that Senate Republicans voted down last week.

Republicans had initially demanded that any foreign aid be tied to more security measures at the southern border.

But after Mr Trump came out against the measure, Republicans were divided on the package.

Some lawmakers suggested that border security measures could be added back into the current version of the legislation.

Mr Johnson suggested in a statement on Monday night that the new bill would not pass the House without such provisions.

“House Republicans were crystal clear from the very beginning of discussions that any so-called national security supplemental legislation must recognise that national security begins at our own border,” he said.

Mr Johnson claimed lawmakers “should have gone back to the drawing board” with the legislation to focus on border security provisions.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, meanwhile, hailed the passage of the bill on Tuesday. He said the Senate was “telling Putin he will regret the day he questioned America’s resolve”.

The US is one of the largest providers of aid to Ukraine. The White House asked Congress months ago to pass a bill that included foreign aid.

This could be Congress’s last shot at passing Ukraine aid for the foreseeable future, and Ukraine has warned that it may not be able to successfully defend itself against Russia without Washington’s backing.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says the freed hostages are in “good medical condition”, and they have been taken to hospital for medical tests.

Earlier, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said Rafah was under attack, with a number of deaths reported.

Israel said it had conducted strikes in southern Gaza, providing no details.

In a statement on social media, the IDF said that during an overnight “joint operation between the IDF, ISA [Israel Security Agency or Shin Bet], and Israel Police, two Israeli hostages from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak were rescued: Fernando Simon Marman (60) and Louis Har (70)”.

Israeli officials did no give any details of the operation, but Defence Minister Yoav Gallant described it as “impressive”.

He added: “We will continue to fulfil our commitment to return the abducted, in any way.”

Israel’s military launched its operations in the Gaza Strip after more than 1,200 people were killed in southern Israel on 7 October by Hamas gunmen, who also took about 240 people hostage.

On Sunday, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said 112 more Palestinians had been killed by the Israeli military over the previous day, bringing the overall death toll to more than 28,100 and more than 67,500 injured.

Monday’s reported Israeli rescue raid in Rafah comes shortly after witnesses in the city spoke of dozens of Israeli air strikes on the city’s north and centre.

The international community has warned Israel against conducting its planned offensive in the city, where 1.5 million people are sheltering. Most of them have fled from the rest of Gaza.

A senior UN humanitarian official has told the BBC that there is nowhere safe for them to go now.

On Sunday, US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that a Rafah offensive should not happen without measures to ensure the safety of civilians.

Mr Biden said Israel needed a “credible and executable plan” to protect the more than a million people in the city, according to the White House.

Mr Netanyahu has insisted it will go ahead and a plan is being prepared.

Seven men – four of them brothers – were killed in an Israeli air strike early on 7 January, as they sat around a fire next to the road through al-Shuhada village, 10km (six miles) from the city of Jenin.

The BBC has spoken to relatives of the men killed, witnesses in the area at the time, and a paramedic at the scene. All provided strong evidence that the men were not members of armed militant groups, and that no clashes with Israeli forces were taking place in the location at the time.

Khalid al-Ahmad, the first paramedic to arrive that morning, is convinced the men were doing nothing wrong.

“One of them was wearing slippers and pyjamas,” he told the BBC. “Don’t you think that someone who wants to resist [the Israeli occupation] would at least wear proper shoes?”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has linked the strike to a military operation hours earlier in Jenin refugee camp, in which a female soldier was killed.

The IDF directed us to a statement it released at the time, which said that “during the operation, an aircraft struck a terrorist squad that hurled explosives at the forces operating in the area”.

Footage from both the IDF and a nearby CCTV camera does not show any clear evidence of confrontations with Palestinians in al-Shuhada at the time of the strike.

The four brothers – Alaa, Hazza, Ahmad, and Rami Darweesh – were aged between 22 and 29 years old. They were Palestinian emigrants who had returned from Jordan a few years earlier with their mother and five siblings.

They had Israeli permits, allowing them to cross into Israel for agricultural work each day. These permits are often difficult to obtain and are rapidly withdrawn from anyone Israel sees as a security threat – or as linked to someone who is.

The three men killed with them were members of their extended family.

Permits for two of the brothers, seen by the BBC, were issued in September 2023 and valid for several months. The borders with Israel have been closed to Palestinian workers since the Hamas attacks in October.

The paramedic, Khalid al-Ahmad, said that after 20 years working in Jenin, he was used to scanning trauma sites for weapons or explosives, as a basic safety routine.

“I would tell you if there were weapons there,” he said. “Honestly, these were civilians. There was nothing relating to the resistance – no bullets, no weapons. And there was no Israeli presence at all.”

Armed Palestinian groups – usually quick to claim any members killed by Israeli forces – have been silent about these seven men, with no statement describing any of them as “martyrs” for their cause.

At their funeral, their bodies were wrapped in the flags of Palestinian groups, including Hamas. The bodies of those killed by Israel are often wrapped in the flags of movements supported by friends or family members – even when the deceased are not supporters themselves.

Relatives and neighbours all told us the men had no connection with militant groups – as did the head of Jenin’s main hospital, Wissam Bakr, where the bodies were brought that morning.

“They are not armed, they are not fighters,” he said. “Normally, it’s clear from the people if he’s a fighter with one of the militant groups. These seven? No, no, it’s sure, all of them are civilians.”

It was at the hospital that the men’s mother, Ibtesam Asous, saw her sons’ bodies.

“They were all gone,” she said. “I expected that one of them might have been martyred, but not all four of them. I was shocked when I saw that they had all been killed.”

We asked the Israeli army to explain why this group of men was targeted.

A spokesperson replied that soldiers had begun pursuing the “terrorists who murdered an Israeli citizen” and that the air strike targeted “a terrorist squad that hurled explosives at the forces operating in the area, putting them in danger”.

Hours before the air strike in al-Shuhada, a 19-year-old border policewoman, Shai Germai, was killed when her vehicle hit an explosive device during clashes with Palestinian fighters in Jenin Camp.

Afterwards, the army convoy withdrew from Jenin through al-Shuhada, where the Darweesh brothers had gathered with their three distant relatives, near an all-night coffee shop popular with agricultural workers and customers for the nearby dawn vegetable market.

Night-vision drone footage provided by the IDF shows small flashes followed by an explosion as vehicles pass along the road – a heat pattern that could be produced by a petrol bomb. The video does not have a date-stamp or time-stamp.

The army also provided similar footage of its air strike on the location – but the two pieces of video are cut and edited together, making it impossible to tell how much time passed between them.

We asked the IDF to clarify the timings of both events. It replied that it would not be providing any more comment or information.

The timing is important, because of the circumstances needed under international law to justify using lethal force.

The UN’s human rights body described the situation in the West Bank at the end of last year as “alarming and urgent”.

“Israeli forces have increasingly used military tactics and weapons in law enforcement operations,” a statement from its spokesperson said in November. “Law enforcement is governed by international human rights law, which prohibits the intentional use of lethal force except when strictly necessary to protect life.”

Ibtesam Asous, the men’s mother, said she had seen a change in the methods used by Israeli forces in the West Bank since the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October.

“They are acting just as they used to,” she said. “The only thing that changed is that, before, the army would shoot a guy in his leg. But now it’s bigger – now they are bombing with rockets and killing as many people as they can.”

According to UN figures, last year was the bloodiest on record in the West Bank: 492 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces – 300 of them since the Hamas attacks in October, including 80 children.

Almost all were killed with live ammunition.

Twenty-eight Israelis, mostly civilians, were killed in the West Bank by Palestinians last year – including three since the attacks in October, two of whom were soldiers.

Attacks have also been carried out by Palestinians inside Israel, including one earlier this week that killed one woman and injured 17 other people.

Two witnesses who were in the coffee shop that morning told us that the army convoy left al-Shuhada between 04:00 and 04:45 local time (02:00-02:45 GMT), before the air strike took place, and that there were no clashes with local people.

“The soldiers passed four times and nobody approached them,” one said. “When the [vehicles] were fully outside the village, they bombed. Young men, sitting near a fire to stay warm, were hit with a rocket.”

Another man told the BBC it was around an hour between the army leaving the village and the air strike happening around 05:00, and that many people in the coffee shop – including him – had left in between the two events.

Khalid al-Ahmad, the paramedic from the Palestinian Red Crescent, remembers the Israeli army withdrawing from Jenin Camp in the early hours of the morning, and says it was “almost 5am” when he was called to the village after the strike.

The director at Jenin Hospital confirmed that the bodies had arrived there at around 05:15.

CCTV footage from a nearby camera, part of which was filmed on a mobile phone by an unknown source, shows the 30 seconds immediately before the air strike, during which a car passes down the same stretch of empty road, apparently without incident. There is no time-stamp visible in the recording.

A group of people – the Darweesh brothers and their relatives – can be seen standing and sitting around a fire. Then the air strike hits.

Some of the brothers had been going to work, their mother said, while Hazza had been heading to an early morning dialysis appointment at Jenin Hospital.

He was worried that the military operation would block the road, she said, and wanted to leave early.

The hospital kidney unit confirmed that Hazza Darweesh had a regular 7am appointment for dialysis that day, and showed us his name on the schedule.

A video taken by the brothers’ uncle, Youssef Asous, shortly after the air strike shows bodies strewn across the ground.

The experienced Jenin paramedic, Khalid al-Ahmad, said he despaired of ever being able to forget the scene.

“They were kids without weapons,” Youssef said. “If they had weapons, I would have seen them. There were only the chairs they were sitting on.”

“At the end of the day, anyone Palestinian is a target – if you are an armed person, then you are targeted; and if you are a civilian, then you are also a target.”

We put all the allegations in this report to the IDF spokesperson, who repeated that the army had nothing more to add.

Ibtesam Asous visited the site of the attack for the first time this week – her other children had tried to stop her coming, she said, but she had to see it for herself.

“I wanted to come and imagine where each of them was sitting,” she explained, gesturing to different points on the ground as traffic thunders by.

“Alaa was there; Ahmad, Rami and Hazza were here. I wanted to see exactly where my sons were. It helps.”

Orsi Szoboszlay contributed to this article

Gaza lies in ruins and the Middle East is sliding towards a wider regional conflict that would pitch the world deeper into crisis.

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The decision has already been facing criticism for sending 221 young people to the country last weekend.

Speaking to the BBC, Malawi’s Information Minister, Moses Kunkuyu defended the move stating that it was part of the government’s ongoing programme of providing employment to young people locally and abroad.

“We are looking at an initial figure of around 5,000, that’s what we are targeting now. This has been happening in Malawi for decades and we’ve been exporting young people to countries in Africa and outside Africa,” he said.

Mr Kunkuyu, however, said that Israel had assured Malawi that its citizens will work in safe zones unaffected by the fighting.

In a statement Malawian opposition leader Kondwani Nankhumwa said “Sending people to a war-torn country like Israel, where some countries are withdrawing their labour is something unheard of.”

The Malawians will replace some of the more than 10,000 foreign farm workers who have left Israel due to the war.

The deal – mediated by Qatar – includes a four-day pause in the fighting.

They are accused of a range of offences, from throwing stones to attempted murder. Some were convicted while others were awaiting trial.

The group of 24 women and 15 teenage boys was released across the Beituniya checkpoint in the occupied West Bank.

They will then be allowed to return home, according to Israel’s prison service.

The detainees were chosen from a list of 300 women and minors compiled by Israel.

Less than a quarter of those on the list have been convicted – the vast majority are being held on remand while awaiting trial. Most of those listed are teenage boys – 40% of them under the age of 18. There is also one teenage girl and 32 women.

Earlier, the road by Beituniya checkpoint, near Ramallah, was sharp with the smell of tear gas. Groups of Palestinian men and boys faced the Israeli army lining up on the road ahead.

The army fired rubber bullets and tear gas towards the crowd, to push them back.

Some of the young people gathered threw stones and tear gas canisters back towards the troops.

“It’s a sign of hope for Palestinians and Israelis that the ceasefire will continue and the killing will stop,” Mohammed Khatib, who was in the crowd, told the BBC.

Upon the prisoners’ release, the bus that transported them inched its way through a sea of jubilant Palestinian supporters.

Through the windows, some of the prisoners could be seen dancing, one wrapped in a Palestinian flag. Outside, mobile phones were raised to the glass amid ululations and shouts of welcome and “God is great”.

A few in the crowd waved Hamas flags, but others spoke of Palestinian unity, a small moment of victory in the midst of a gruelling war.

For Israel, the released prisoners are a security threat; for the Palestinians gathered here to greet them, they are victims of Israel’s occupation – and their release is a symbol.

Thirteen Israeli hostages were released by Hamas under the truce deal. It was confirmed on Friday that they had arrived back in Israel.

The Thai prime minister says that a group of Thai nationals held hostage by Hamas in Gaza were also released – separate from the Qatar-mediated truce deal.

Israel and Hamas reached a deal earlier this week to release 50 of the hostages held in Gaza during four-day pause in fighting.

The agreement should see a total of 150 Palestinians held in Israeli jails released and a significant increase in humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza. Some 60 lorries carrying medical supplies, fuel and food entered from Egypt on Friday.

Hamas took more than 200 hostages during a cross-border attack on southern Israel on 7 October in which 1,200 people were killed.

Human rights organisations say the number of Palestinians held without charge in Israeli jails has shot up since the 7 October attacks.

There are now thought to be more than 6,000 Palestinians held by Israel on security grounds – many still awaiting trial.

Almost every Palestinian family in the West Bank is thought to have had a relative detained by Israel at some point in the past – often in jails inside Israel, making it difficult or impossible for their relatives to visit.

Hamas militants killed more than 1 300 Israelis in their attack on Saturday. In response, Israeli air strikes have killed more than 1 400 people in Gaza so far, authorities there said.

“I would like to express… our deepest condolences to the Israel Football Association and the Palestine Football Association, in light of the horrendous violence that has been occurring over the past days,” Infantino wrote.

“It is as heart-breaking as it is shocking to see a region whose people have known such profound suffering over far too long, suffer even more.

“The footballing world stands firmly in solidarity with the people of Israel and Palestine, and with all the innocent victims that have paid an unspeakable price.”

Both Fifa and European football’s governing body Uefa have not made any public statements about the conflict. But Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin also wrote to the head of the IFA to express his condolences.

“Fifa joins in calling for the immediate end of hostilities and for the immediate relief of the suffering of the people of both Israel and Palestine,” Infantino added.

“Of course, we know that football cannot solve the problems of the world, but it can play even a small part in bringing a light of hope where there appears to be only darkness ahead.”

Infantino also said that Fifa would offer assistance in relief efforts.

Her department’s role was to explain Israel to the world, and did not wield much power to begin with. Since the conflict began about a week ago, it has lost even more agency.

She wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that it is now “a waste of public money”.

Translated from Hebrew to English, she said: “This office cannot make a significant contribution to the country and the good of the country is more important to me than anything else.”

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The effects of Hamas’ violent invasion of Israel, with all its repercussions for peace in the Middle East, he said, had further compounded global development challenges.

“Ladies and gentlemen, there should be no disagreement about the intensity and scale of the challenges that confront our world, and the urgent need to address them,” the President stated.

Delivering an address at the headquarters of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), Washington, D.C., he drew attention to the need for nations to promote freedom, democracy, and security.

Ghana, one of the most enduring democratic nations in West Africa, is a regional leader and critical member of the West African regional bloc, ECOWAS.

As sub-Saharan Africa faces a wave of extra-constitutional movements and growing political instability, the United States and its partners are seeking ways to best support the country and other longstanding democracies in the region to promote and sustain democracy as a governance model.

The USIP’s discussion with President Nana Akufo-Addo will also examine the country’s critical role as a regional leader in promoting peace, stability and sustainable development.

The meeting is looking at issues related to Ghana’s leadership in building peace in West Africa, Russia’s war against Ukraine, and examining regional security in the Pacific Islands, amongst others.

President Nana Akufo-Addo, in his address, pointed out that the world was in turmoil and “we are confronted with perilous situations.”

“Terrorism and violent extremism, climate change, food insecurity, political instability in parts of Africa, post-election violence, health pandemics, energy crises, rising commodity prices, geo-political tensions, the conflicts in the Middle East, and the needless war in Ukraine, amongst others, have weakened the foundational pillars of multilateralism,” he lamented.

He argued that the world was operating in the most challenging and difficult of times.

“The interlocking challenges and the convergence of crises we face post existential threats that require our immediate solidarity and collective actions,” he advised.

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It follows the Hamas attack on southern Israel, which President Biden called an “unprecedented and appalling assault”.

A US National Security spokesperson said several US citizens were among the dead.

Israel says more than 700 people have been killed and 100 kidnapped.

In Gaza, more than 400 people have been killed following retaliatory Israeli air strikes, according to Palestinian officials.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the USS Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier, a missile cruiser and four missile destroyers were heading to the region. He said fighter jets would also be sent.

Further military aid to Israel would be sent in the coming days, the White House said, adding that the US was working to ensure Israel’s enemies did not try to seek advantage from the situation.

The large deployment reflects American concerns that the conflict between Israel and Hamas could draw in other parts of the region.

In particular, the US is eager to prevent Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah movement from joining the conflict. It is backed by Iran, which also funds and arms Hamas.

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has expressed support for the Hamas attack, saying Israel needed to be held to account for endangering the region.

Hamas has said assistance from Iran helped it carry out its attack, which involved rockets, drones and militants on paragliders and saw hundreds of fighters break through Israeli border fortifications around the Gaza Strip.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US had not seen evidence of direct Iranian involvement, but that Iran had been helping the Gaza-based group for years.

“Hamas wouldn’t be Hamas without the support that it’s gotten over many years from Iran. We haven’t yet seen direct evidence that Iran was behind this particular attack or involved. But the support over many years is clear,” he told US TV.

At a UN Security Council meeting, Iran denied involvement in the attack on Israel.

Hundreds of people are still reported missing. Among them is 23-year-old American-Israeli Hersh Golberg-Polin, who was at a music festival in the desert which was stormed by militants.

His parents told the Jerusalem Post they received two messages from him reading: “I love you” and “I’m sorry.”

Reports have started to emerge of other missing North Americans too, including peace activist Vivian Silver.

A friend of the 75-year-old Canadian told The Canadian Jewish News that Ms Silver had called her sister on Saturday morning to say Palestinian militants were at her door.

“There was screaming and yelling and Vivian was fighting and then the phone went dead,” he said.

Israel’s ambassador to the US, Michael Herzog, told CBS News that he understood Americans were among the soldiers and civilians abducted in southern Israel but did not have details.

The US sends billions of dollars of military aid to Israel, a close ally, each year. Since World War Two, Israel has been the largest overall recipient of US foreign aid.

The UN Security Council is due to meet in New York shortly to discuss the violence in Israel and Gaza.

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More than 600 Israelis have been killed in attacks from Gaza since Saturday, the government said.

Uefa said Israel’s Euro 2024 qualifier against Switzerland on Thursday is among matches postponed “in light of the current security situation”.

European football’s governing body says new dates will be arranged.

Postponed matches

European Championship 2024 qualifier

12 October: Israel v Switzerland

European Under-21 Championship 2025 qualifiers

12 October: Israel v Estonia

17 October: Israel v Germany

European Under-17 Championship 2024

11-17 October: Mini tournament involving Israel, Belgium, Gibraltar and Wales

Uefa said it will assess the situation over the coming days to see whether Israel’s European Championship qualifier in Kosovo can still take place on 15 October.

“Uefa will continue to closely monitor the situation and will remain in contact with all teams involved before making decisions on new dates and on potential changes to other upcoming fixtures,” it said.

Israeli Premier League champions Maccabi Haifa are playing in the Europa League this season and are due to visit Villarreal following the international break.

Their next home game in the competition is scheduled for 7 November against the Spanish side.

Isolated weapons fire from both sides in the minutes before and just after the Sunday night deadline failed to derail the Egypt-brokered truce.

At least 44 people have died in the most serious flare-up since an 11-day conflict in May 2021.

US and United Nations leaders urged both sides to continue to observe the ceasefire.

In a statement, US President Joe Biden praised the truce and called on all parties “to fully implement [it] and to ensure fuel and humanitarian supplies are flowing into Gaza”.

He also urged reports of civilian casualties to be investigated in a timely manner.

The ceasefire was mediated by Egypt – which has acted as an intermediary between Israel and Gaza in the past – over the course of Sunday.

But as it came into effect late on Sunday, the Israeli military confirmed it was striking Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) targets in Gaza in response to rockets fired just before. Israeli media also reported some isolated rocket fire from Gaza in the minutes after the deadline.

But no further violence was reported as the night wore on.

The latest violence began with Israeli attacks on sites in the Gaza Strip, which its military said was in response to threats from a militant group. It followed days of tensions after Israel arrested a senior PIJ member in the occupied West Bank.

By Sunday evening, the Palestinian health ministry said that 15 children had been confirmed among the 44 deaths recorded in the latest violence. Gaza’s health ministry has blamed “Israeli aggression” for the deaths of Palestinians and for the more than 300 people wounded.

Israel accused PIJ militants of accidentally causing at least some of the deaths inside Gaza – claiming on Saturday that the group fired a stray rocket killing multiple children in Jabalia.

Concerns over the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where health officials warned that hospitals only had enough fuel to run generators for another two days, led to the ceasefire deal being agreed.

“We appreciate the Egyptian efforts that had been exerted to end the Israeli aggression against our people,” PIJ spokesman Tareq Selmi said.

Israel said that it “maintains the right to respond strongly” if the ceasefire is violated.

The latest conflict closely follows Israel’s arrest of Bassem Saadi, reported to be the head of PIJ in the West Bank, a week ago.

He was held in the Jenin area as part of an ongoing series of arrest operations after a wave of attacks by Israeli Arabs and Palestinians that left 17 Israelis and two Ukrainians dead. Two of the attackers came from the Jenin district.

Large crowds gathered on Sunday for the funerals of those killed in strikes on Rafah, in the south of the territory, including senior PIJ commander Khaled Mansour – the second top militant to have died. Demonstrations in support of Gaza have also been held in the West Bank city of Nablus.

PIJ, which is one of the strongest militant groups operating in Gaza, is backed by Iran and has its headquarters in the Syrian capital Damascus.

It has been responsible for many attacks, including rocket fire and shootings against Israel.

In November 2019, Israel and PIJ fought a five-day conflict following the killing by Israel of a PIJ commander who Israel said had been planning an imminent attack. The violence left 34 Palestinians dead and 111 injured, while 63 Israelis needed medical treatment.

Israel said 25 of the Palestinians killed were militants, including those hit preparing to launch rockets.

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The incident happened at a villa which was hosting a company event in the central town of Karmi Yosef, 25 miles (40km) south-east of Tel Aviv.

The victim has been identified as a 32-year-old employee of the company.

A couple in their 60s who own the property were arrested on suspicion of causing death by negligence.

Mobile phone footage of the incident shows people in swimming costumes in and around the near-empty pool watching in shock as the water drains away into a large hole, taking with it inflatable objects.

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A man who edges near to have a look slips backwards, but manages to get up, narrowly avoiding also being pulled into it.

An incredulous voice off-camera is heard to exclaim “What?” in Hebrew.

Media reports say the victim, Klil Kimhi, fell into the hole, which was 43ft (13 metres) deep. They say it took rescue teams four hours to reach him.

A second man also fell into the hole, but managed to climb out, suffering light injuries.

One of the partygoers told Israel’s Channel 12 News that there were about 50 people at the gathering, while another said there were only about six people in the pool when the sink hole opened, Israel media reported.

“The water level suddenly started receding and a hole opened up, creating a vortex that swept two people inside,” the unnamed woman told Channel 12 News.

The Times of Israel quoted local media as saying the homeowner had built the pool without planning permission at the site, which had known infrastructure problems.

In a major political development, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will switch places with Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid under an existing deal.

An election could take place in late October, commentators say.

The former prime minister and current opposition leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, has vowed to return to office.

Monday’s announcement comes after weeks of speculation that the coalition – the most diverse in Israel’s history – was on the brink of collapse.

It risked losing an important vote next week after a member of Mr Bennett’s own right-wing Yamina party quit the coalition, leaving it a minority in the 120-seat Knesset (parliament).

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Mr Bennett said he had made the “right decision” in the interests of Israel’s security, as dissolving the Knesset extended temporary laws which were put in jeopardy by the vote.

The coalition had been teetering for weeks. Last week, Yamina MK Nir Orbach resigned from it, saying the government had failed in its main mission “of lifting [Israelis’] spirits” – a move which left it with only 59 seats. Others had also threatened to rebel.

The announcement on Monday night caught members of the government by surprise. The Times of Israel quoted sources as saying neither the defence nor interior ministers knew about the decision.

The bill to dissolve the Knesset will go to a vote next week. If it passes, as expected, Mr Bennett will make way for centrist Yair Lapid to become interim prime minister.

The two men formed the coalition just over a year ago after a series of inconclusive elections, ousting Mr Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader.

The coalition was stitched together from eight parties from across the political spectrum, united only by the desire to make it impossible for Mr Netanyahu to form a government.

Mr Netanyahu, who is currently standing trial on corruption charges which he denies, said it was “great news for millions of Israeli citizens”.

“This government is going home,” he said, adding that he would form “a wide, national government” headed by his Likud party.

Last week, the results of an Israel Channel 12 TV poll indicated that a bloc led by Mr Netanyahu would win most seats in a fresh election, though still two short of a majority.

The Israeli military said its forces returned fire “to neutralise” occupants of a car who had shot at them.

The incident in Jenin is the most serious of its kind for weeks, as Israel carries out near daily raids following a wave of deadly attacks.

Two Palestinians who committed recent killings came from the Jenin area.

Seventeen Israelis and two Ukrainians have been killed in shootings, stabbings, car-rammings and an axe attack in Israel and the West Bank since late March.

Dozens of Palestinians, including the attackers, have been killed in confrontations with Israeli forces since then.

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Witnesses have told the BBC the Israeli army was carrying out a search raid in Jenin’s old town on Friday morning and that there were massive exchanges of gunfire between them and Palestinian militants.

The Israeli military said that as troops moved on from one location the occupants of a car at the side of the road opened fire. All those in the car were killed.

Local sources told the BBC that all three men were members of militant groups in Jenin.

The militant Islamist group Hamas said one of the men was a field commander in its military wing. It warned the “cowardly assassination… will not go unpunished”.

The Israeli military said soldiers found two rifles, a submachine gun and ammunition in the vehicle.

Following the incident “fierce clashes” erupted which left 10 Palestinians wounded, the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, said.

Israel said its forces did not suffer any casualties.

The Palestinian presidency said Israel was “playing with fire”. It comes at a time of particularly high tensions following months of deadly incidents.

The march celebrates Israel’s capture of East Jerusalem in the 1967 war.

Israel regards the whole of Jerusalem as its capital, something rejected by most countries and the Palestinians.

The Palestinians claim Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state of their own – ruled out by Israel – and political displays by either side are viewed by the other as direct challenges.

The BBC’s Yolande Knell said the scene was raucous by the Damascus Gate entrance of the Old City, as young Israelis chanted and danced, carrying flags and playing drums as they headed towards the Muslim Quarter.

They shouted out: “The people of Israel live!”

Some Jewish Israeli families were among the crowd, carrying pushchairs down the narrow steps. There was a heavy presence of Israeli police, some with dogs guarding over the proceedings, she said.

But in this space where there would be usually large numbers of Palestinians going about their business or sitting on the stairs at that time of day there were only a handful of Palestinian journalists, our correspondent added.

Earlier, there were violent confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli police at a flashpoint holy site in the Old City. Shortly after, hundreds of Jewish visitors, including a far-right MP, ascended the hilltop site, where some danced, waved Israeli flags and bowed down to pray, before being stopped by police. Palestinians view such actions as incendiary and militant groups had warned they would not tolerate it.

“Israel is irresponsibly and recklessly playing with fire by allowing settlers to desecrate the holy sites” in East Jerusalem, the president’s spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa. Palestinian officials often describe Israelis who visit the holy site revered by Muslims and Jews as settlers and their presence there as a desecration.

Jews and other non-Muslims are allowed to visit the site at certain times but are forbidden to pray or display any religious or national symbols under a long-standing agreement with the Muslim authority which administers the compound.

The site is known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary), and contains the al-Aqsa (Qibli) mosque, the third holiest place in Islam. It is also known to Jews as the Temple Mount and is the holiest place in Judaism.

One Palestinian Jerusalemite activist, Usama Barham, told the BBC that “what happened this morning inside our holy mosque [at the site] was much more dangerous than the Flag March”.

Last year, a devastating 11-day conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza erupted on Jerusalem Day when Gaza’s Hamas rulers fired rockets towards the city after Israeli police and Palestinians clashed at the holy site.

The Flag March takes place on Israel’s Jerusalem Day and has proceeded through Damascus Gate every year apart from 2021, when authorities rerouted it because of the volatile situation.

“We came to show that Israel is ours and we’re never giving up our city,” participant Eitan Englander said. “We are happy to be here. We don’t come to fight. We come to show our pride in our country.”

The march ended at the Jewish holy site of the Western Wall, which abuts the al-Aqsa mosque compound.

This year’s march took place amid an already highly charged atmosphere between Israelis and Palestinians.

A wave of deadly attacks on Israelis by Palestinians or Israeli Arabs, and the deaths of dozens of Palestinians, including attackers, militants and civilians, by Israeli forces has fuelled anger on both sides.

It also follows recriminations over the killing of Al Jazeera Palestinian-American reporter Shireen Abu Aqla, shot dead while reporting on an Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank on 11 May.

They had picked up the ordnance on a visit to the Israeli occupied Golan Heights, site of wars between Israel and Syria, according to authorities.

Video footage on social media showed people running from the scene in panic.

The family was allowed to board their flight after being interrogated by security, who gave the all-clear.

Israel captured most of the Golan Heights from Syria during the Six-Day War in 1967 and remnants of the conflict can still be found in the area.

Israel’s YNet news site said in the incident on Thursday night a member of the family produced the shell from their backpack and asked a security official if it could be put in a suitcase.

The official ordered her immediate vicinity to be cleared, but another passenger who misheard her started shouting “terrorists shooting”, triggering mass panic, the site said.

Video posted on social media by Israel’s Kan public broadcaster showed dozens of people shouting and fleeing the check-in area, with others crouching or lying on the floor in the confusion.

תיעוד: בהלה בנתב"ג בעקבות חשש מחפץ חשוד. לאחר בדיקות הוכרז על חזרה לשגרה@sharonidan pic.twitter.com/pOMLp3oaeC

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) April 28, 2022

Amid the chaos, a 32-year-old man, Uri, injured himself as he tried to escape and was taken to hospital.

“I was at the airport waiting for an hour in line until I got to the check-in counter, and suddenly at a radius of five metres (16ft) people started running away and left luggage,” he told YNet.

“The fear was that someone is spraying bullets, I understood that I too have to escape, so I ran towards the check-in, I stumbled on a conveyor belt… and flew a distance of six metres.”

Ben Gurion airport, just outside Tel Aviv, is considered to have one of the highest levels of security in the world. Vehicles and travellers pass through security checks before they reach the terminal and check-in area.

Israel is also on high alert after a series of deadly attacks across the country in recent weeks.

The report identifies the US, Canada, the UK, Germany and Australia as among countries where there was a sharp rise.

This was fuelled by radical left- and right-wing political movements and incitement on social media, it says.

The report’s release coincides with Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, which begins on Wednesday night.

Known in Israel as Yom HaShoah, the day commemorates the six million Jews murdered by Nazi Germany across Europe during World War Two.

The Anti-Semitism Worldwide Report 2021, by the Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University’s Faculty of Humanities, is based on the analysis of dozens of studies from around the world, as well as information from law enforcement bodies, media and and Jewish organisations.

It says that in 2021 there was “a significant increase in various types of anti-Semitic incidents in most countries with large Jewish populations”.

It found that:

• In the US, which has the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, the number of anti-Jewish hate crimes recorded in both New York and Los Angeles were almost twice that of the previous year
• In France, the number of recorded anti-Semitic incidents increased by almost 75% compared with 2020
• In Canada, a leading Jewish group reported a 40-year record in anti-Semitic physical violence in one month – August
• In the UK, the number of recorded physical assaults against Jews increased by 78% compared with 2020
• In Germany, anti-Semitic incidents recorded by police were up 29% compared with 2020, and 49% compared with 2019
• Australia also experienced a sharp rise in recorded anti-Semitic incidents, with 88 in May alone – the highest monthly total ever

The report’s authors blame in part reactions to May 2021’s fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip for the rise in anti-Semitic incidents.

That month, Israel and militants fought an 11-day conflict in which 261 people were killed in Gaza, according to the United Nations, and 14 people were killed in Israel.

The report also calls out “the vast reach of social networks for spreading lies and incitement”.

Social media played “an exceptionally alarming role” in anti-Semitic incidents, it says.

“The data raise concerns regarding the utility of legislation and agreements reached with social media companies on banning anti-Semitic expressions from their platforms.”

“The gravest concern is the dark web, which shelters extremists and where anti-Semitic content is freely and openly spread,” it warns, referring to a part of the internet only accessible through special browsing software.

The report also identifies the proliferation of conspiracy theories surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic as fuelling anti-Jewish hate crimes.

“Right at the outset of the pandemic in 2020, conspiracy theories began to sprout around the world, blaming the Jews and Israel for spreading the virus,” it says.

“The lockdowns, which glued people to their screens at home, contributed significantly to popularising toxic anti-Semitic discourse on social networks.

“In 2021, when the lockdowns were gradually eased, anti-Semites returned to the streets.”

The singer called for “resolve” for the conflict that has seen casualties on both sides.

“My heart is breaking with the violence I’m seeing displayed between Israel and Palestine! I can’t bare (sic) to see it,” she wrote.

“Innocent Israeli and Palestinian children are hiding in bomb shelters, over 40 lives lost in Gaza alone, at least 13 of whom were also innocent children! There needs to be some kind of resolve! We are sadly watching innocent people fall victim to notions perpetuated by government and extremists, and this cycle needs to be broken!”

The Savage X Fenty owner isn’t the first celebrity to speak out against the escalating situation.

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“Wonder Woman” actress Gal Gadot echoed Rihanna’s sentiment in a Tweet on Wednesday that received backlash on social media.

“My heart breaks,” Gadot, who was born in Israel, tweeted. “My country is at war.”

Social media users immediately posted nasty comments about the actress and would not let her forget her time serving in IDF, with multiple people accusing her of supporting “ethnic cleansing” and “mass genocide” for wishing Israel peace.

Gadot turned off comments to the post on Twitter.

Israel’s military said air and ground forces were involved in attacks on Friday but had not entered Gaza.

Video from Gaza City showed the night sky lit up by explosions from Israeli artillery, gunboats and air strikes.

Some 119 people have been killed in Gaza and eight have died in Israel since fighting began on Monday.

Meanwhile, Jewish and Israeli-Arab mobs have been fighting within Israel, prompting its president to warn of civil war.

Defence Minister Benny Gantz ordered a “massive reinforcement” of security forces to suppress the internal unrest that has seen more than 400 people arrested.

Police say Israeli Arabs have been responsible for most of the trouble and reject the accusation that they are standing by while gangs of Jewish youths target Arab homes.

This week’s violence in Gaza and Israel is the worst since 2014. It came after weeks of spiralling Israeli-Palestinian tension in East Jerusalem which culminated in clashes at a holy site revered by both Muslims and Jews. Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza, began firing rockets after warning Israel to withdraw from the site, triggering retaliatory air strikes.

In Gaza, Palestinians fearing an incursion by Israeli troops have been fleeing areas close to the border with Israel. Residents who had left Shejaiya in Gaza City said shells had been falling on homes.

“There is a lot of shelling and the children are all afraid. Even us adults have been in war since our childhood. We are afraid and cannot bear it anymore,” Um Raed al-Baghdadi told AFP.

The Israeli military said it had conducted an operation overnight to destroy a network of Hamas tunnels that it dubbed “the metro”, but no troops had entered Gaza. It added that – over the course of Thursday evening and Friday morning – 220 more projectiles were fired from the Gaza Strip.

In southern Israel an 87-year-old woman died after falling on her way to a bomb shelter near Ashdod. Other areas including Ashkelon, Beersheba and Yavne were also targeted.

In a statement released early on Friday morning, Mr Netanyahu said the Israeli military operation against Palestinian militants would continue for “as long as necessary”. He added that Hamas would pay a heavy price, as would other “terrorist groups”.

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A Hamas military spokesman said the group was ready to teach Israel’s military “harsh lessons” should it decide to go ahead with a ground incursion.

On Thursday, Israel’s military called up 7,000 army reservists and deployed troops and tanks near its border with Gaza. It said a ground offensive into Gaza was one option being considered but a decision had yet to be made.

As fighting entered its fifth day, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres called for “an immediate de-escalation and cessation of hostilities in Gaza and Israel”.

His plea echoed that of other diplomats – including from Israel’s ally the US – but appeals to Israeli and Palestinian leaders have so far failed to produce a ceasefire agreement.

A senior Hamas official has said the group is ready for a “reciprocal” ceasefire if the international community pressures Israel to “suppress military actions” at the disputed al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

Gaza’s health ministry said 27 children were among those killed since fighting began, and many other civilians have died. Another 600 Gazans have also been wounded.

Israel says dozens of those killed in Gaza were militants, and that some of the deaths are from misfired rockets from Gaza.

Israel has also called up 10 reserve border patrol companies to help tackle the worst unrest between Arab and Jewish communities for many years.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has proposed introducing “administrative detention” for rioters. The controversial measure would allow authorities to detain people for extended periods of time without charge.

President Reuven Rivlin described the outbreaks of rioting in several towns and cities as “senseless civil war”.

Meanwhile, attempts by parties in Israel to form a coalition to replace Mr Netanyahu’s government following inconclusive elections in March appear to have collapsed after a key right-wing leader pulled his party out of negotiations, calling the hostilities a “reality changing event”, local media say.

Naftali Bennett is now in discussions with Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party to try to form a “broad national unity government”, according to reports.

What caused the violence?

The fighting between Israel and Hamas was triggered by days of escalating clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police at a holy hilltop compound in East Jerusalem.

The site is revered by both Muslims, who call it the Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary), and Jews, for whom it is known as the Temple Mount. Hamas demanded Israel remove police from there and the nearby predominantly Arab district of Sheikh Jarrah, where Palestinian families face eviction by Jewish settlers. Hamas launched rockets when its ultimatum went unheeded.

Palestinian anger had already been stoked by weeks of rising tension in East Jerusalem, inflamed by a series of confrontations with police since the start of Ramadan in mid-April.

It was further fuelled by Israel’s annual celebration of its capture of East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war, known as Jerusalem Day.

The fate of the city, with its deep religious and national significance to both sides, lies at the heart of the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict. Israel in effect annexed East Jerusalem in 1980 and considers the entire city its capital, though this is not recognised by the vast majority of other countries.

Palestinians claim the eastern half of Jerusalem as the capital of a hoped-for state of their own.

The dozens of pieces of parchment were written in Greek, with just the name of God appearing in Hebrew.

The scroll is believed to have belonged to Jewish rebels who fled to the hills following a failed revolt against Roman rule in the 2nd Century.

They were found during an operation to prevent caves in the area being looted.

It is the first such find of its kind since the early 1960s when similar fragments and some 40 skeletons were discovered at the site which became known as the Cave of Horror.

The newly found remnants contain verses from the books of Zechariah and Nahum, which form part of writings known as the Book of the 12 Minor Prophets.

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The parchment had been written in Greek, the language adopted after the conquest of Judea by Alexander the Great in the 4th Century BC. The name of God, though, exclusively appears in Hebrew.

Israel Antiquities Authority’s (IAA) director Israel Hasson said the scroll and other relics found there were “of immeasurable worth for mankind”.

A cache of rare coins from the period of the Jewish revolt against Roman rule, a 6,000-year-old mummified skeleton of a child and a large intact basket dating from about 10,500 years ago were also discovered at the site.

Located some 80m (260ft) beneath a cliff-top, the cave is practically inaccessible and could only be reached by teams abseiling down to it.

The expedition was part of what the IAA called a “complex and challenging” operation to protect the network of caves from antiquities looters.

Searches of the cliffs and caves in the Judean Desert have yielded a treasure trove of finds over decades, including the world famous Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest known copies of Biblical books.

Reshet TV, one of the most successful television networks in Israel, aired an 11-minute feature on Joshua in Hebrew, detailing his recent visits to Israel and meetings with government dignitaries.

According to the video’s introduction aired on Isreali Channel 2, “the man responsible for 60% of the tourism in Nigeria announced that he is moving to Israel”.

The documentary, subsequently uploaded to YouTube, was punctured with clips of Joshua ministering on Emmanuel TV, along with his recent journey around Israel.

He is often seen in the company of Rabbi Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, the Founder of Israel’s award-winning rescue agency, ZAKA, who recently presented Joshua with an award in honour of his extensive humanitarian efforts.

“How did you get your power,” an Israeli journalist questioned Joshua in an interview, intrigued by the clips of ‘deliverance from demonic possession’ he viewed on Emmanuel TV.

“From my Father, Jesus, who was born in this land,” Joshua answered with a smile. “I am an inheritance of His grace.”

Interviewing foreign pilgrims who were undergoing baptism at the historical site of the Jordan River, the film-maker questioned a lady whether she had ever heard of T.B. Joshua. “Well, I live in the US and I know him because he is popular in the US,” she responded.

News outlets and social media across Africa have been agog with news of Joshua’s move to Israel, several prominent Nigerian government figures calling on the cleric to rescind his decision.