Middle East crisis: Iran accuses Israel of ‘criminal’ attack after 18 reportedly killed in Syria | Syria

The UN human rights chief has said that ending the war in Gaza is a priority and asked countries to act on what he called Israel’s “blatant disregard” for international law in the occupied Palestinian territories.

“States must not – cannot – accept blatant disregard for international law, including binding decisions of the (UN) security council and orders of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), neither in this nor any other situation,” the UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, said in a speech at the opening of the UN human rights council in Geneva.

He cited an opinion released by the UN top court in July that called Israel’s occupation illegal and said this situation must be “comprehensively addressed”. Israel rejected the opinion and said a political settlement can only be reached through negotiations.

Reading the court’s historic, albeit non-binding, opinion at the time, the president of the ICJ, Nawaf Salam, said:

The court considers that the violations by Israel of the prohibition of the acquisition of territory by force and of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination have a direct impact on the legality of the continued presence of Israel, as an occupying power, in the occupied Palestinian territory.

The sustained abuse by Israel of its position as an occupying power, through annexation and an assertion of permanent control over the occupied Palestinian territory and continued frustration of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, violates fundamental principles of international law and renders Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful.

Breaches of international law identified by the court included:

• Forcible evictions, extensive house demolitions and restrictions on residence and movement.

• The transfer by Israel of settlers to the West Bank and East Jerusalem and maintenance of their presence.

• Its failure to prevent or to punish attacks by settlers.

• Restricting the access of the Palestinian population to water.

• Israel’s use of the natural resources in the occupied Palestinian territory.

• The extension of Israel’s law to the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Iran has accused Israel of carrying out what it called a “criminal” attack in central Syria, where 18 people were reported to have been killed

“We strongly condemn this criminal attack by the Zionist regime on Syrian soil,” foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanani told a news conference in Tehran, calling on Israel’s backers to “stop supporting and arming it”, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Since the 7 October attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians and soldiers, Israel has escalated its strikes on Iranian-backed militia targets in Syria and has also struck its army air defences and some forces.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts Syria in recent years, but it rarely acknowledges or discusses the operations.

The strikes often target Syrian forces or Iranian-backed groups. Israel has vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment in Syria, particularly since Syria is a key route for Iran to send weapons to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, has given an updated death toll resulting from the “intense Israeli strikes” overnight across central Syria.

It is now saying 18 people, including eight Syrian fighters, were killed and 32 others injured. The war monitor said previously that seven people were killed in the strikes that destroyed military and scientific facilities where Iran-backed armed groups were said to have been present (you can read more details here).

Benny Gantz, the centre-right National Unity party leader and former defence minister, has reportedly said that Israel should shift its focus toward Hezbollah and the Lebanese border.

Speaking in Washington DC at a Middle East forum, he was quoted by the Times of Israel as having said:

We have enough forces to deal with Gaza and we should concentrate on what is going on in the north.

The time of the north has come and actually I think we are late on this.

In Gaza, we have crossed a decisive point of the campaign. We can conduct anything we want in Gaza. We should seek to have a deal to get out our hostages but if we cannot in the coming time, a few days or few weeks, or whatever it is, we should go up north.

We are capable of … hitting the state of Lebanon if needed.

“The story of Hamas is old news,” Gantz, the former army chief added, saying instead that “the story of Iran and its proxies all around the area and what they are trying to do is the real issue.”

Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have been trading near-daily cross-border fire since last October, with Hezbollah saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians affected by Israel’s war in Gaza.

Gantz, a major rival to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, joined the now disbanded three-man war cabinet as a minister without portfolio in the aftermath of Hamas’s 7 October attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 hostages taken.

But as Israel’s war in Gaza dragged on, disagreements over strategy emerged, culminating in Gantz accusing Netanyahu of pushing strategic considerations such as a hostage deal aside for his own political survival. He resigned from his position in June.

The director of Northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital, Hussam Abu Safia, has described the dire conditions at the health facility amid continuing Israeli airstrikes.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, he warned that the hospital will be out of service within 48 hours due to fuel shortages and a lack of critical medical supplies. Safia also said fuel shortages in the intensive care unit could lead to the deaths of dozens of children.

Conditions are dire across Gaza, with severe shortages of water, medicine and fuel. Few hospitals are functional. Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza has decimated the territory’s healthcare system, with 31 of 36 hospitals damaged or destroyed, according to the World Health Organization It has left those with chronic conditions unable to access basic care.

As we mentioned in the opening summary, a series of Israeli strikes were reported to have hit multiple areas in central Syria on Sunday.

Syrian state media said on Monday that the overnight Israeli strikes killed at least 14 people in central Hama province, raising the earlier death toll of seven.

Two regional intelligence sources told Reuters that a major military research centre for chemical arms production located near Masyaf had been hit several times. It is believed to house a team of Iranian military experts involved in weapons production.

“The number of martyrs resulting from the Israeli aggression on a number of sites in the vicinity of Masyaf has risen to 14 martyrs and 43 wounded including six critically,” official news agency Sana reported citing a medical source. These figures are yet to be independently verified by the Guardian.

“At around 23:20 on Sunday evening, the Israeli enemy launched an air aggression from the direction of northwestern Lebanon, targeting a number of military sites in the central region (of Syria),” a military source told the news agency.

“Our air defence systems confronted the aggression’s missiles and shot down some of them,” the source added, without providing further details.

The strike in Syria reportedly targeted several sites near the cities of Homs, Hama and Tartus.

Welcome to our live coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza and the wider crisis in the Middle East.

Israeli airstrikes in central Syria have killed at least seven people, including three civilians, a UK-based war monitor has said, in an attack believed to be targeting a military scientific research centre.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said:

The number of dead in the Israeli strikes on the Masyaf region stands at seven, namely three civilians, including a man and his son who were in a car, and four unidentified soldiers.

Thirteen violent explosions rang out in the zone housing scientific research centres in Masyaf where pro-Iranian groups and weapons development experts are present.

Reuters sources reported that a major military research centre for chemical arms production believed to house Iranian military experts was hit several times.

Since the start of the civil war in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes there, targeting pro-Iranian groups in particular.

Here is a summary of the latest developments:

• Jordan’s foreign ministry has said it believes the killing of three Israeli civilians at a border crossing in the occupied West Bank was an individual act. A gunman crossing from Jordan carried out the shooting before security forces shot him dead on Sunday, Israeli authorities said earlier. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the victims were private security guards. The Jordanian ministry said the attack was being investigated and that it “rejected and condemned violence and targeting civilians for any reason”. Israel announced the closure of its land crossings with Jordan, and later said all would reopen on Monday.

• Speaking after the attack, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was “a difficult day”, adding: “A loathsome terrorist murdered in cold blood three of our civilians.” Israeli President Isaac Herzog, whose role is largely ceremonial, urged all parties to investigate the incident to prevent repeats.

• An Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza has killed a senior aid official and four members of his family. Gaza’s civil defence group, which fights fires and rescues people trapped in rubble, said its deputy director for northern Gaza, Mohammed Morsi, had been killed in an airstrike. The organisation said four members of his family also died in the bombing of Morsi’s house in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp, north-east of Gaza City.

• Huge numbers of Israelis again poured into the streets on Sunday to protest against the government’s failure to secure the return of remaining hostages in Gaza. The new protest came a week after one of the largest demonstrations of the war after the discovery of another six dead hostages in Gaza, and after Netanyahu pushed back against pressure for a ceasefire deal and declared that “no one will preach to me”.

• The Qatar Red Crescent and the UN agency for Palestinians (Unrwa) signed an agreement on Sunday, with $4.5m from a Qatari state development fund, to aid more than 4,400 stranded Palestinian workers and patients from Gaza in the West Bank.