Israeli military intelligence chief resigns over October 7 Hamas attack – as ‘mass grave found’ under Gaza hospital – latest

Israel has yet to provide evidence for its accusations that hundreds of staff with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) are members of terrorist groups, according to a review of the agency’s neutrality released on Monday – which could prompt some donor countries to review funding freezes.

The UN appointed former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna to lead the UNRWA review of the agency’s ability to ensure neutrality and respond to allegations of breaches in February, after Israel accused 12 UNRWA staff of taking part in the Hamas attacks which triggered the Gaza war.

A separate investigation by internal UN investigators is looking into the Israeli allegations against the 12 UNRWA staff. UNRWA provides education, health and aid to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. The review said UNRWA shares staff lists annually with the Palestinian Authority, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

The review said Israel had not raised any concerns with UNRWA, based on those staff lists, since 2011. Then in March 2024, “Israel made public claims that a significant number of UNRWA employees are members of terrorist organizations.”

“However, Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence of this,” the review said.

US forces in Iraq and Syria faced two separate rocket and explosive drone attacks in less than 24 hours, Iraqi security sources and US officials have told Reuters – in the first such incidents reported after a near three-month pause.

Two drones were shot down near Ain al-Asad air base that hosts US troops in the western Iraqi province of Anbar out of an abundance of caution, a US official told the news agency.

That followed five rockets fired from northern Iraq towards US forces at a base in Rumalyn in remote northeastern Syria on Sunday, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials. There were no reports of casualties or significant damage from the attacks.

On Saturday, a massive explosion at a military base in Iraq killed a member of an Iraqi security force that includes Iran-backed groups. The force commander said it was an attack, while the army said it was investigating and that there were no warplanes in the sky at the time. The US military denied involvement.

Near-daily rocket and drone strikes on US forces began in mid-October. A group of Iran-backed Shi’ite Muslim armed groups known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed responsibility, citing US backing for Israel’s war in Gaza. But the attacks stopped in late January under pressure from Iraqi authorities and Iran, following deadly US retaliatory airstrikes in Iraq, after three US soldiers were killed in a drone strike on a small base on the Iraqi-Jordanian border.

The power briefly went out in the House of Lords as peers continued their Monday evening sitting.

Lights in the chamber flickered before going out. Television screens and microphones also turned off as justice minister Lord Bellamy was speaking at the despatch box.

Lord Bellamy remarked on the electricity failure, telling the chamber: “Ah, I must have said something very controversial. I’ve still got a light so yes, thank you.”

US secretary of state Antony Blinken has rejected suggestions that Washington might have a “double standard” when applying US law to allegations of abuses by the Israeli military in Gaza.

“Do we have a double standard? The answer is no,” Mr Blinken told reporters while announcing the State Department’s annual human rights country reports.

“In general, as we’re looking at human rights and the condition of human rights around the world, we apply the same standard to everyone. That doesn’t change whether the country is an adversary, a competitor, a friend or an ally,” he said.

“When it comes to allegations of incidents or whether it’s violations of international humanitarian law, rights abuses…we have processes within the department that are looking at that incidents that have been raised. Those processes are ongoing,” Mr Blinken said.

But Brian Finucane, a senior adviser to the US Programme at the International Crisis Group – and formerly a State Department lawyer – pushed back on Mr Blinken’s comments, saying it was “disingenuous” to say partners and adversaries get the same treatment on the issue.

“With adversaries like Russia, there is a policy demand to make quasi-legal, public determinations about atrocity crimes. With partners like Israel, there is the opposite policy demand to avoid reaching any inconvenient legal conclusions,” said Mr Finucane.

Major General Aharon Haliva’s resignation could set the stage for more fallout from Israel’s top security brass over the attack, when Hamas blasted through Israel’s border defenses, rampaged through Israeli communities unchallenged for hours killing around 1,200 people, and took roughly 250 hostages into Gaza. That attack set off the war against Hamas in Gaza, now in its seventh month.

Below are some of the latest photos from Israel and Gaza.

Passover is a major Jewish holiday, celebrated over seven or eight days each year, commemorating the exodus of ancient Israelites from slavery in Egypt, as recounted in the Bible. To many Jews, it symbolizes freedom and the birth of a Jewish nation.

This year, for many Jews, the holiday’s mood will be somber due to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and the rise of antisemitic incidents elsewhere.

As the world holds its breath in the face of escalating violence in the Middle East, this conflict could come down to which country is best positioned to deal with sanctions, writes Mark Almond

A unit of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is expected to be sanctioned by the Biden administration this week after a ProPublica investigation claimed that the State Department sat for months on evidence of serious human rights abuses.