🔴 Live: Despite 'neutrality-related issues', UN agency for Palestinians is ‘irreplaceable’: review

Displaced Palestinian people wait outside a clinic of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on January 28, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. © AFP

An independent review group on the UN agency for Palestinians found "neutrality-related issues" but noted Israel had provided no evidence to support allegations that a significant number of its staff were members of terrorist organisations. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) remains "irreplaceable and indispensable to Palestinians' human and economic development," added the report, which was headed by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna. Read our liveblog to follow today's developments in the Middle East.

Summary:

• The head of Israeli military intelligence, Major General Aharon Haliva, has resigned and will leave once a successor is appointed, the military said in a statement on Monday. Haliva is the first senior figure to step down over Hamas's attack on October 7.
• Israeli leaders on Sunday harshly criticised an expected decision by the US to impose sanctions on a unit of ultra-Orthodox soldiers in the Israeli military.
• Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday said Israel will increase "military pressure" on the Palestinian militant group Hamas in a bid to secure the release of hostages held in Gaza.
• Gaza's civil defence said Sunday dozens of bodies had been found buried at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis that was previously raided by Israel. 
• At least 34,151 Palestinians have been killed and an estimated 77,084 have been injured in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Some 1,170 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks that sparked the war and 250 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli figures, with 132 still missing.

10:43pm: Pro-Palestinian protests sweep US college campuses following mass arrests at Columbia

Columbia canceled in-person classes, dozens of protesters were arrested at Yale and the gates to Harvard Yard were closed to the public on Monday as some of the most prestigious US universities sought to diffuse campus tensions over Israel's war with Hamas.

The various actions followed the arrest last week of more than 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had camped out on Columbia's green, as schools struggle with where to draw the line between allowing free expression while maintaining a safe and inclusive campus.

In addition to the demonstrations at the Ivy League schools, pro-Palestinian encampments have sprouted up on other campuses, including the University of Michigan, New York University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The protests have pitted students against one another, with pro-Palestinian students demanding that their schools condemn Israel's assault on Gaza and divest from companies that sell weapons to Israel. Some Jewish students, meanwhile, say much of the criticism of Israel has veered into anti-Semitism and made them feel unsafe, and point out that Hamas is still holding hostages taken during the group's October 7 attack.

9:14pm: Hamas has 'moved goal post' on hostage talks, says State Department

Palestinian militant group Hamas has "moved the goal post" and changed its demands in the hostage negotiations with Israel mediated by Egypt and Qatar, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday.

Speaking at a daily press briefing, Miller said the United States would continue to push for an agreement that would see hostages taken on October 7 released and a pause in fighting in Gaza.

Separately, Miller said the United States had received a report by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna into the UN aid agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, and is reviewing it.

9:06pm: Gaza official says about 200 bodies exhumed at hospital since Saturday

Gaza's Civil Defence agency said Monday that health workers had uncovered around 200 bodies over the past three days of people killed and buried by Israeli forces at a hospital in Khan Younis. 

When asked for comment, the Israeli military said: "We will come back to you on the matter."

Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza's Civil Defence, told AFP that "civil defence crews are still recovering bodies from inside Nasser Medical Complex, and since Saturday bodies of nearly 200 martyrs have been retrieved". 

Bassal said several of the recovered bodies had decomposed.

"There is difficulty in the process of identifying them but civil defence efforts are ongoing," he said.

9:03pm: Hezbollah fires dozens of rockets into northern Israel, drawing retaliatory strikes

Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel on Monday, drawing retaliatory strikes. The Israeli military said 35 projectiles were launched at one of its bases, striking the sources of the rocket fire, without causing any casualties. 

Hezbollah said its attack was in response to recent Israeli strikes on towns and villages in southern Lebanon.

The two sides have traded fire on a near-daily basis along the border since the start of the war in Gaza. Hezbollah says it is acting in solidarity with the Palestinian Hamas militant group, which triggered the war with its October 7 attack into southern Israel.

The low-intensity fighting has repeatedly threatened to boil over as Israel has targeted senior Hezbollah militants in recent months.

8:51pm: Drone and rocket attacks targeted US forces in Iraq, US officials say

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.

8:42pm: Blinken says US looking into alleged Israeli human rights abuses in Gaza

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday said that the United States is looking into allegations of human rights abuses by Israel in its operations against Hamas in Gaza.

Unveiling the State Department's annual human rights report, Blinken denied the United States has a double standard when it comes to Israel and human rights.

"Do we have a double standard? The answer is no," Blinken told reporters.

"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," Blinken said.

6:39pm: Review of UN agency helping Palestinian refugees found Israel did not express concern about staff

An independent review of the neutrality of the UN agency helping Palestinian refugees found that Israel never expressed concern about anyone on the staff lists it has received annually since 2011. The review was carried out after Israel alleged that a dozen employees of the agency known as UNRWA had participated in Hamas’ October 7 attacks. The review found that "Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence" for a recent claim that UNRWA employs more than 400 "terrorists."

In a wide-ranging 48-page report released Monday, the independent panel said UNRWA has “robust” procedures to uphold the UN principle of neutrality, but it cited serious gaps in implementation, including staff publicly expressing political views, textbooks with “problematic content” and staff unions disrupting operations.

From 2017 to 2022, the report said the annual number of allegations of neutrality being breached at UNRWA ranged from 7 to 55. But between January 2022 and February 2024 UN investigators received 151 allegations, most related to social media posts “made public by external sources," it said.

In a key section on the neutrality of staff, the panel, which was led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, said UNRWA shares lists of staff with host countries for its 32,000 staff, including about 13,000 in Gaza. But it said Israeli officials never expressed concern and informed panel members it did not consider the list “a screening or vetting process” but rather a procedure to register diplomats.

5:36pm: Columbia cancels in-person classes as demonstrations sprout on US campuses to protest Israel war

Columbia University canceled in-person classes on Monday and new demonstrations broke out on other U.S. college campuses as tensions continue to grow over Israel's war in Gaza.

Police arrested several dozen protesters at Yale University on Monday morning after officials at the New Haven, Connecticut, school said they defied warnings over the weekend to leave. 

And following arrests last week at Columbia, pro-Palestinian demonstrators set up encampments on other campuses around the country, including at the University of Michigan, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of North Carolina.

The developments came hours before the Monday evening start of the Jewish holiday of Passover.

4:42pm: Gaza health system 'completely obliterated', says UN expert

Israel's war in Gaza has from the start been a "war on the right to health" and has "obliterated" the Palestinian territory's health system, a UN expert said on Monday.

Tlaleng Mofokeng, the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to health, accused Israel of treating human rights as an "a la carte menu".

Just days into the war that has been raging in Gaza since Hamas's unprecedented attacks inside Israel on October 7, "the medical infrastructure was irreparably damaged", she told reporters in Geneva.

Amid the unrelenting Israeli bombardment of Gaza, healthcare providers had for months been working under dire conditions with very limited access to medical supplies, she said.

"This has been a war on the right to health from the beginning," said Mofokeng, who is an independent expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but who does not speak on behalf of the United Nations.

4:35pm: Macron held phone call with Israel's Netanyahu on Monday, says French presidency

French President Emmanuel Macron held phone calls on Monday with Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to discuss ways of avoiding an escalation in the Middle East crisis, said France and Egypt.

The French presidency said Macron, in his call with Netanyahu, had reaffirmed Paris's desire to avoid an escalation in the Middle East and to stand up to what it said were Iran's efforts to destabilise the region.

The French presidency added that Macron had also reiterated to Netanyahu that France wanted an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza and said Paris was working to ease tensions arising from clashes on the border between Israel and Lebanon.

In a separate statement, Egyptian presidential spokesperson Ahmed Fahmy said Macron had also discussed the Middle East crisis with the Egyptian leader and that both Macron and Sisi had agreed on the need to avoid further regional escalation.

3:56pm: Drone attack targeted US forces in Iraq, US official says

US forces stationed at Iraq's Ain al-Asad airbase were targeted in an armed drone attack that caused no damage or casualties, a US official said, in the second attack on US troops in the region in less than 24 hours.

The attacks follow a near-three month pause in the targeting of US forces in Iraq and Syria after months of near-daily rocket and drone strikes by Iran-backed Shi'ite Muslim armed factions over US backing of Israel's Gaza campaign.

2:49pm: UN chief accepts independent review of UNRWA

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has accepted the recommendations from an independent review of UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA's ability to ensure neutrality and respond to allegations of breaches, his spokesperson said on Monday.

"He has agreed with Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini that UNRWA, with the Secretary-General’s support, will establish an action plan to implement the recommendations," UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement. "Moving forward, the Secretary-General appeals to all stakeholders to actively support UNRWA, as it is a lifeline for Palestine refugees in the region."

The review, led by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, is due to be released later on Monday.

12:16pm: Israel says Palestinian arrested over West Bank teenager's murder

The Israeli army said Monday troops arrested overnight a Palestinian suspected of involvement in an Israeli teenager's killing that sparked settler attacks on Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank.

Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was found dead after he went missing on April 12 from Malachei Hashalom, a wildcat settler outpost near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Israeli authorities have said.

Soldiers carried out an overnight raid in connection with Achimeir's murder and arrested a resident of the nearby Palestinian village of Duma, the army said in a statement, identifying the suspect as 21-year-old Ahmed Dawabsha.

"During initial interrogation, Dawabsha implicated himself in the April 12 terror attack near the Malachei Hashalom farms, during which 14-year-old Benjamin Achimeir was murdered," the statement said.

9:24am: Head of Israeli military intelligence steps down over October 7 failures

The Israeli military said Monday the head of its intelligence corps has resigned over the failures surrounding Hamas’ unprecedented Oct. 7 attack, which broke through Israel’s vaunted defences.

Aharon Haliva, the head of Israel’s military intelligence, becomes the first senior Israeli figure to step down over Hamas’ attack, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, with roughly 250 more taken captive, and sparked the six-month long war against Hamas in Gaza.

Haliva said shortly after the attack in October that he shouldered the blame for not preventing the assault.

The Israeli military said in a statement that the military chief of staff accepted Haliva’s request to resign and thanked him for his service.

His resignation could set the stage for more of Israel’s top security brass to accept blame for not preventing the attack and step down.

8:57am: Two wounded in Jerusalem car attack

Two civilians were injured in a car ramming attack in Jerusalem on Monday morning, the Israeli police said, adding that they were searching for suspected assailants who fled on foot.

The incident occurred on Techelet Mordechai street in Jerusalem on a day when Israeli Jews marked the start of the Passover holidays.

"A short time ago, a report was received that two civilians had been run over on Techelet Mordechai Street in Jerusalem, resulting in minor injuries," the police said in a statement.

"Two terrorists fled the scene on foot and an improvised weapon... was found on their escape route," it said, adding security forces were searching for the suspects.

Medics from the Magen David Adom emergency service said the two injured were aged 18 and 22.

8:52am: Israel vows to ‘increase pressure’ on Hamas, US to sanction Israeli military unit over abuses

Israel has vowed to expand its ground offensive against the Hamas militant group to Rafah, the southern Gazan city on the border with Egypt, despite international calls for restraint. “Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu argues that, only by going into Rafah and fighting Hamas’s last standing battalions, will Israel be able to declare what he calls full victory,” ABC News correspondent Jordana Miller in Jerusalem told FRANCE 24.

This comes as the United States appears close to sanctioning an Isreali ultra-Orthodox military unit over alleged human rights violations in the West Bank, a move Netanyahu angrily denounced as "the height of absurdity."

Watch Miller’s full commentary in the video below:

6:00am: US hints at sanctioning Israeli unit over alleged abuses

The United States appears close to sanctioning an Israeli military unit over alleged human rights violations in the West Bank, a move the Israeli prime minister angrily denounced as "the height of absurdity".

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hinted at such steps when asked by a reporter in Italy about reports that his department had recommended cuts in military aid to an Israeli unit involved in violent incidents in the West Bank.

Blinken, without providing details, said his department was conducting investigations under a law that prohibits sending military aid to foreign security units that violate human rights with impunity.

5:00am: Netanyahu vows to reject any US sanctions on army battalions

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he would fight against sanctions being imposed on any Israeli military units for alleged rights violations, after media reports said Washington was planning such a step.

Axios news site on Saturday reported that Washington was planning to impose sanctions on Israel's Netzah Yehuda battalion, which has operated in the occupied West Bank.

"If anyone thinks they can impose sanctions on a unit of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) - I will fight it with all my strength," Netanyahu said in a statement.

Yesterday's key developments:

• Israeli overnight strikes in the area of the southern Gaza city of Rafah killed at least 16 people, the Palestinian territory's Civil Defence agency said Sunday. 
• Israeli forces killed at least 14 Palestinians during a multi-day raid in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent said on Saturday. An ambulance driver was also killed as he went to pick up wounded from a separate attack by Jewish settlers, the Palestinian health ministry said.
• The US House of Representatives approved a $26 billion military aid package for Israel on Saturday that includes around $9 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza. 

About casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry:

Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.

The health ministry does not report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or errant Palestinian rocket fire. It describes all casualties as victims of “Israeli aggression”.

The ministry also does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. 

Throughout four wars and numerous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, UN agencies have cited the Hamas-run health ministry’s death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.

In the aftermath of war, the UN humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records. The UN's counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza health ministry’s, with small discrepancies. 

For more on the Gaza health ministry’s tolls, click here.

(FRANCE 24 with AP) 

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)