Israel-Gaza news: Israeli military intelligence chief resigns as ‘mass grave found’ under Gaza hospital

Jack Straw was the first foreign secretary to visit Iran after the 1979 revolution and is used to negotiating with its leaders – even, on one occasion, from a train loo. Here, he explains why Netanyahu and Khamenei are throwing each other a lifeline to stay in power, and warns we could all pay a terrible price.

The war between Israel and Hamas that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza and resulted in a severe humanitarian crisis has had “a significant negative impact” on the human rights situation in the country, the US State Department said in its annual report on Monday.

Significant human rights issues include credible reports of arbitrary or unlawful killings, enforced disappearance, torture and unjustified arrests of journalists among others, said the State Department’s 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.

The report added that the Israeli government has taken some credible steps to identify and punish the officials who may have been involved in those abuses.

Analysts believe both Iran and Israel, regional arch rivals locked in a shadow war for years, now are trying to dial back tensions following a series of escalatory attacks between them as the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip still rages and inflames the wider region. But a strike on the most advanced air defence system Iran possesses and uses to protect its nuclear sites sends a message, experts say.

“This strike shows Israel has the ability to penetrate Iran’s air defence systems,” said Nicole Grajewski, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment’s nuclear policy program who wrote a forthcoming book on Russia and Iran. “The precision of it was quite remarkable.”

On Friday, air defences opened fire and Iran grounded commercial flights across much of the country. Officials in the aftermath sought to downplay the attack, trying to describe it as just a series of small drones flying through the sky.

“What happened … was not a strike,” Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian claimed in an interview with NBC News. “They were more like toys that our children play with – not drones.”

In the attack’s aftermath, however, Iraqis found what appeared to be remnants of surface-to-air missiles south of Baghdad. That, coupled with a suspected Israeli strike on a radar station in Syria the same day, suggests Israeli fighter jets flew over Syria into Iraq, then fired so-called “standoff missiles” into Iran for the Isfahan attack. Small, shorter-range drones may have been launched as well — Israel has been able to launch sabotage attacks and other missions inside of Iran.

Still, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani repeated Tehran’s denial yesterday.

“Relevant authorities have announced that this harassment attack has caused no damage whatsoever and Iran’s defensive system have carried out their duties,” Mr Kanaani told journalists at a briefing. “Therefore in our opinion this issue is not worthy of addressing.”

Satellite photos taken yesterday suggest an apparent Israeli retaliatory strike targeting Iran’s central city of Isfahan hit a radar system for a Russian-made air defence battery, contradicting repeated denials by officials in Tehran of any damage in the assault.

The strike on an S-300 radar in what appears to have been a very limited strike by the Israelis would represent far more damage done than in the massive drone-and-missile attack Iran unleashed against Israel on 13 April. That may be why Iranian officials up to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have been trying to dismiss discussing what the attack actually did on Iranian soil.

The satellite images by Planet Labs PBC taken near Isfahan’s dual-use airport and air base, some 320km south of Tehran, showed an area nearby that served as a deployment point for the air defence system. Burn marks sit around what analysts including Chris Biggers, a consultant former government imagery analyst, previously had identified as a “flap-lid” radar system used for the S-300.

Less-detailed satellite images taken after Friday showed similar burn marks around the area, though it wasn’t clear what was at the site. Mr Biggers said other components of the missile system appeared to have been removed from the site — even though they provide defensive cover for Iran’s underground Natanz nuclear enrichment facility.

“That’s a powerful statement, given the system, the location, and how they use it,” Mr Biggers wrote.

Ireland’s deputy premier is to travel to Egypt and Jordan to push for a ceasefire in Gaza and support efforts working towards a two-state solution.

The visit comes amid tensions in the Middle East following attacks between Israel and Iran, and after a strike on the densely populated city of Rafah in southern Gaza, in which 18 children and four adults were killed.

Israel has said it will carry out a ground offensive on the city located at the Egyptian border, despite international calls for restraint, including from the US and Ireland.

The leaders of Iran and Pakistan agreed to strengthen economic and security cooperation in a meeting yesterday that sought to smooth over a diplomatic rift.

Ties were strained between the neighbours in January when each carried out strikes in the other’s territory, targeting militants accused of attacking security forces.

Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi met with Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif and other officials on his three-day visit. Authorities deployed hundreds of additional police and paramilitary forces for security.

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant violence in recent months, mostly blamed on Pakistani Taliban and insurgents targeting security forces in Pakistan and neighbouring Iran.

According to a statement, the two leaders discussed a range of bilateral issues and vowed to cooperate to fight terrorism. They reiterated their condemnations of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

Mr Sharif praised Iran’s “strong stand on the issue of Palestine” and said “Pakistan is also with the Palestinians.”Mr Raisi said the killings by Israel in Gaza were being committed with the support of the United States and other Western countries. He criticized international organizations, including the United Nations, saying, “They say they support human rights, but they proved that they are inefficient.”

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 told Reuters on Monday, 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 said.

That followed five rockets fired from northern Iraq toward US forces at a base in Rumalyn in remote northeastern Syria on Sunday, according to US and Iraqi officials.

There were no reports of casualties or significant damage from the attacks.

A US defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the rocket attack on Sunday targeted US troops, in what appeared to be the first attack against US troops in Iraq and Syria since 4 February.

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.

Israel has yet to provide evidence that employees of the United Nations’s Palestinian refugee Agency (UNRWA) are members of terrorist organisations, according to an independent review led by the French former minister Catherine Colonna.

The UN appointed Ms Colonna to lead the UNRWA neutrality review in February after Israel alleged that 12 of its staffers took part in the Hamas-led October 7 attack, during which militants killed around 1,200 people and took another 250 hostage. The Hamas attack triggered Israel’s devastating war on Gaza, which Palestinian health officials say has killed more than 33,000 people, and UN aid agencies say sparked a man-made famine.

The Independent reviewed a copy of the 48-page report, into the neutrality of the UN agency, which found that Israel never expressed concern about anyone on the staff lists it has received annually since 2011.

Our chief international correspondent Bel Trew has the details here:

All eyes are on New York’s Columbia University as the school contends with pro-Palestinian protests and rising concerns about antisemitism.

The university’s president moved classes online on Monday due to tensions, while one rabbi called for Jewish students to leave campus over fears of antisemitic violence and harassment on Monday, the first day of Passover.

For the past week, hundreds of pro-Palestine student activists have demanded that Columbia divest its financial ties with Israel due to the country’s war in Gaza, launching street demonstrations and building a massive encampment on the college campus, leading the school to call in the New York Police Department (NYPD).

Katie Hawkinson has everything you need to know about the protests at Columbia, and other major US universities: