Residents return to site in search of bodies of loved ones following withdrawal of Israeli forces last month. This live blog is closed Israel has yet to provide evidence of Unrwa staff terrorist links, Colonna report says Haaretz reports that Israeli security forces have arrested two people suspected of carrying out a car ramming in Jerusalem. Three people are reported to have been injured. Aharon Haliva, who was the general in command of the IDF’s military intelligence directorate on 7 October, has resigned over the failure of Israel’s military to prevent the attack inside southern Israel b ..read more

The country is on the defensive. While Israel has ironclad support from its allies, Tehran is vulnerable and isolated Tit-for-tat confrontation between Israel and Iran has sparked concerns about escalation dragging the Middle East into all-out war. Such a scenario remains unlikely because neither Israel nor Iran would benefit from full-on conflict. But while Israel is feeling emboldened, Iran is on the defensive. Iran’s main interest is self-preservation. It wants to protect its nuclear facilities inside Iran, and its assets in the Middle East, mainly the armed groups it supports, the most val ..read more

Israel launched a limited attack on Iranian soil on Friday morning, in the latest tit-for-tat between the two countries All our coverage of the Israel-Gaza war Israel launched an attack on Iranian soil on Friday, in a tit-for-tat battle between the two foes, days after Iran launched an unprecedented strike on Israel with a barrage of drones and missiles, most of which were shot down. The Iranian strike was a response to an Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus on 1 April. The strikes have brought a long shadow war between the two sides into the open and also come agai ..read more

Report says thousands of people held in little-reported facilities where authorities are violating human rights on a large scale The US and UK are complicit in the detention of thousands of people, including British nationals, in camps and facilities in north-east Syria where disease, torture and death are rife, according to Amnesty International. In a report, the charity says the western-backed region’s autonomous authorities are responsible for large-scale human rights violations against people held since the end of the ground war against Islamic State (IS) more than five years ago ..read more

UN chief tells emergency security council meeting Middle East is ‘on the brink’ as US warns Israel it will not take part in counterattack against Iran Middle East crisis – live updates Global powers have called for restraint to avoid further escalation after Iran’s unprecedented missile and drone attack on Israel. The United Nations chief, António Guterres, told an emergency meeting of the UN security council on Sunday that the Middle East was “on the brink” and the could not afford more war. “The people of the region are confronting a real danger of a devastating full-scale conflict,” he sa ..read more

A war long fought through proxies, assassinations and strikes outside Israel has spilled into the open Middle East crisis – live updates The large-scale attack by Iran on Israel may have passed with relatively little damage, but it marks a significant transformation in the conflict between the two enemies. A war that has long been fought through proxies, assassinations and strikes away from Israeli soil – often in third countries – has spilled into the open ..read more

Interior minister says island’s facilities at breaking point and calls for aid to Lebanon similar to recent Egypt pact The EU must help Cyprus deal with record numbers of Syrian migrants from Lebanon, the island’s government says. Before a visit to Beirut to discuss the emergency on Monday, Cyprus’s interior minister appealed for support from Brussels, saying the country’s reception facilities were at breaking point ..read more

Blast struck in conflict-stricken Daraa province, where dozens of incidents have claimed about 100 lives this year At least seven children were killed after a roadside bomb detonated in south-western Syria, in an area where dozens of incidents have already claimed about 100 lives in 2024, state media and a war monitor reported. It remains unclear who planted the bomb in the northern countryside of conflict-stricken Daraa province, which lies between Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Russian-backed Syrian government forces and their allies captured the city and province of Daraa f ..read more

Iranian leaders promise response to strike that killed IRGC members with attack ‘at the same magnitude’ Biden says Israel must end civilian suffering – live updates Israel has suspended leave for combat units and heightened its air defence command to deal with possible missile or drone attack from Iran following the killing this week in an airstrike of senior Revolutionary Guard commanders in Syria. The Israeli military is also considering reopening shelters in Tel Aviv as a precaution against a possible attack, according to Mehr News Agency. Guardian Newsroom: Crisis in the Middle East On T ..read more

Supreme national security council met to decide on action after strike on Damascus consulate that killed IRGC commanders Middle East crisis – live updates Iran’s supreme national security council has decided on a “required” response to the Israeli strike on Damascus on Monday night that killed three top commanders in Iran’s al-Quds force and four other officers, state TV has reported. No further details were provided about the meeting of the key decision-making body, but the president, Ebrahim Raisi, who chaired the meeting, said Iran would retaliate at the time of its own choosing – the sta ..read more