Israel's deadly attacks continue as Trump announces Gaza 'Board of Peace'

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Internet connectivity in Iran rose "very" sightly, monitoring group NetBlocks said on Saturday, more than 200 hours into a nationwide internet shutdown during protests against authorities.

"Metrics show a very slight rise in internet connectivity in Iran this morning after the 200 hour mark," Netblocks said on X, but added that connection was only around 2 percent of ordinary levels and there was no sign of "a significant return".

Protests in Iran have subsided after a crackdown that has killed thousands, monitors said Friday, a week after the start of the largest demonstrations in years challenging the country's theocratic system.

Demonstrations sparked by economic grievances started with a shutdown in the Tehran bazaar on December 28 but turned into a mass movement demanding the removal of the clerical system that has ruled Iran since the 1979 revolution.

The Palestinian committee set to govern post-war Gaza has begun its work in Cairo, a member told AFP on Friday.

Formed on Wednesday as the second phase of the US-brokered Gaza ceasefire deal came into effect, the committee is made up of 15 technocrats charged with administering the Palestinian territory after Israel's war on Gaza.

The committee's first meeting was attended by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, and Bulgarian diplomat Nickolay Mladenov, who is expected to play a key role in the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire, the member of the committee told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The committee members are scheduled to meet again on Saturday for another working session, he added.

"We hope to go to Gaza next week or the week after; our work is there, and we need to be there," he said.

"The committee's priority will be public services," the member said. "We will not be dealing with politics."

According to diplomatic sources, the committee will be based in Cairo, with members travelling to and from Gaza regularly.

Israeli forces have stormed the towns of Idhna, Beit Ummar, ad-Dhahiriya, and the al-Arroub refugee camp in Hebron, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The agency added that one person was injured by shrapnel from a live round fired by Israeli forces in the al-Arroub.

 The White House on Friday announced names of the so-called "Board of Peace" that will, under President Donald Trump's plan, supervise the temporary governance of Gaza.

The names included US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, the White House said. Trump is the chair of the board, according to his plan revealed late last year under which a fragile ceasefire was reached in Gaza.

Syrian Kurdish leader Mazlum Abdi said his forces will withdraw to the east of the Euphrates River on Saturday, following violent clashes with Syrian government forces.

In a post on X, Abdi said on Friday that "based on calls from friendly countries and mediators... we have decided to withdraw our forces tomorrow morning at 7 am (0400 GMT)" east of Aleppo "towards redeployment in areas east of the Euphrates".

New Zealand and Slovakia said Friday that they had temporarily closed their embassies in Tehran and flown out their diplomats due to worsening security in Iran.

The foreign ministry in Wellington said its diplomatic staff left Iran safely on commercial flights overnight, with the embassy's operations moved to Ankara, Turkey.

Slovakia's Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar said its decision was prompted by the "significant" deterioration in security and the "real threat of an escalation of the military conflict".

"At the moment, all diplomats and employees of the Slovakian embassy in Tehran are safe and out of danger," he said in a statement.

New Zealand advises against all travel to Iran and has urged any citizens in the country to leave immediately, as its ability to give consular help was "extremely limited".

The foreign ministry has also urged New Zealanders in the country to contact their relatives when they can, because severe communications challenges were making it hard for people to get in touch with family and friends.

The EU has called on Israel to halt the construction of its E1 settlement project in the occupied West Bank, with an EU statement saying that "the publication of the deadline offers in the tender launched for all 3,401 housing units under this plan, as well as the advancement of hte "Soveriengty Road" construction that would establish access to the E1 area, constitutes a serious provocation." 

"The Israeli government's settlement policy represents an obstacle to peace" the statement added, warning of further instability in the occupied West Bank.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued a decree on Friday making Kurdish a "national language" and granting the minority community national rights, amid tensions between the government and Kurdish forces in the northeast.

In the decree, Sharaa also made Nowruz - the Kurdish new year - an official holiday and granted nationality to Kurds who had been stripped of it under a controversial 1962 census.

The European Union's aviation regulator urged the bloc's airlines to avoid flying in Iran's airspace in an advisory issued on Friday.

"The presence and possible use of a wide range of weapons and air-defence systems, combined with unpredictable state responses .... creates a high risk to civil flights operating at all altitudes and flight levels." the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said in a bulletin on potential conflict zones.

With ongoing tensions and the potential for U.S. military action, which has placed Iranian air defence forces on a heightened state of alert, there is an increased likelihood of misidentification within Iranian airspace, the advisory said.

Syria's army issued warnings on Friday ahead of strikes on Deir Hafer, east of Aleppo, saying it will target the positions of Kurdish forces and urging civilians to stay away.

In several warnings, the Syrian military announced it will target specified areas of Deir Hafer, which it said Kurdish forces were using "as a launching point for their terrorist operations towards the city of Aleppo and its eastern countryside".

Syria's army deployed reinforcements near Deir Hafer over the past days, after driving out Kurdish forces from Aleppo city last week.

US President Donald Trump thanked Iran's leadership on Friday after saying Tehran had called off the executions of hundreds of protesters arrested in a brutal crackdown.

"I greatly respect the fact that all scheduled hangings, which were to take place yesterday (Over 800 of them), have been cancelled by the leadership of Iran. Thank you!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social network.

British Airways says it has paused operations to Bahrain amid tensions between the US and Iran that could reverberate across the Gulf region and affect countries with a US military presence.

The airline halted flights to Bahrain - home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet - until 20 January according to the airline’s website. It said it did this as a precautionary measure and would monitor the situation in the region.

The United Nations Human Rights Council should hold an urgent session to discuss the "alarming violence" in Iran, several countries urged on Friday.

In a letter addressed to the council's president, Britain, Germany, Iceland, Moldova and North Macedonia requested that the UN's top rights body "hold a special session to address the deteriorating human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran".

"A special session is needed because of the importance and urgency of the situation," read the letter, seen by AFP.

It highlighted "credible reports of alarming violence, crackdowns on protesters and violations of international human rights law across the country".

The request, which requires the backing of at least a third of the council's 47 members to go through, was made as Iran reeled from some of the biggest anti-government protests in its history, and a crackdown that monitors said had left thousands dead.

A US-led coalition intervened on Friday to reduce tensions between Syria's government and Kurdish forces, with Damascus determined to expel them from an area in the country's north.

Farhad Shami, spokesman for the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, told AFP the anti-jihadist coalition had met with them in Deir Hafer on Friday.

Following the meeting, a Syrian military source said that "a delegation from the Syrian defence ministry entered the Deir Hafer area to negotiate with SDF leaders".

The US envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, posted on X that he was working "around the clock" to prevent any escalation between Kurdish fighters and government forces, both of which have US backing.

Syria's military called on members of the SDF on Friday to "hurry and defect from this organisation and return to your country and your people". The SDF in a statement said it believed these calls were intended to "create discord among the region's communities".

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) announced on Friday that an Israeli tank fired about 30 rounds at one of its positions near the town of Kfar Shuba in southern Lebanon, without causing any injuries.

This came hours after the UN force said a drone dropped a hand grenade near one of its patrols in south Lebanon, holding the Israeli army responsible for endangering its troops and civilians.

In a statement, UNIFIL said a Merkava tank fired around 30 small-calibre rounds in the morning from south of the Blue Line (unofficial border) toward a UN position near Kfar Shuba, hitting a guard post and penetrating living quarters inside the site while no personnel were present.

The UN force called on the Israeli army to immediately cease fire through established liaison mechanisms, stressing the need to ensure the safety of peacekeepers and prevent any actions that put them or their positions at risk.

UNIFIL warned that any actions endangering its soldiers constitute a serious violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 and undermine stability in southern Lebanon.

A French-Iranian woman was injured in Iran, France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told AFP and Radio France on Friday, without giving further details about the incident in the country rocked by a deadly protest crackdown.

"She is receiving care today and we are closely monitoring her situation," Barrot, who spoke to AFP during a visit to Belgrade, said.

He added that France had "made contact with each of one thousand French nationals registered with the embassy in Tehran", managing to "reach a large number of them".

The Trump administration issued fresh sanctions on Friday further targeting the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen and the transfer of oil products, weapons and other so-called dual-use equipment that it said helped fund the group.

The action targets 21 individuals and entities as well as one vessel, including some alleged front companies in Yemen, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, the U.S. Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a statement.

"The Houthis threaten the United States by committing acts of terror and attacking commercial vessels transiting the Red Sea," U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in the statement.

The move builds on previous Treasury action to pressure the Houthis "vast revenue generation and smuggling networks, which enable the group to sustain its capability to conduct destabilizing regional activities," including the Red Sea attacks, the department added.

The son of Iran's late shah said Friday he was confident the Islamic republic would fall in the face of mass protests and called for intervention.

"The Islamic Republic will fall - not if, but when," Reza Pahlavi told a news conference in Washington. "I will return to Iran.

"Iranian people are taking decisive actions on the ground. It is now time for the international community to join them fully," Pahlavi said.

He called on the international community to "protect the Iranian people by degrading the regime's repressive capacity, including targeting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard leadership and its command and control infrastructure."

He also called on all countries to expel diplomats from the Islamic republic.

The Israeli army announced on Friday that it has raised its state of alert on all fronts amid US threats to attack Iran.

Army spokesman Effie Defrin said in a statement that Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir is holding ongoing situation assessments with relevant bodies, stressing that the military is operating at "full readiness" to deal with "various scenarios."

Defrin added that the army has strengthened its capabilities in recent weeks and increased preparedness across all fronts, noting that both the defensive and offensive systems are on high alert.

In recent days, several Israeli towns — including Ashkelon, Dimona, Be'er Sheva and Gan Yavne — have announced the opening of public shelters amid expectations of a possible US strike against Iran.

On Wednesday evening, Israel’s public broadcaster Kan reported that assessments in Israel indicate the United States could launch an attack on Iran "in the coming days," prompting the Israeli army to raise its alert level in anticipation of a possible Iranian retaliatory strike.

An Iranian Kurdish separatist group in Iraq said it has launched attacks on Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in recent days in retaliation for Tehran’s violent crackdown on protests.

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Lebanon has arrested a Syrian national who was helping senior associates of ousted president Bashar al-Assad finance fighters as part of a plot to destabilise Syria's new ruling order, four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.

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There will be "no impunity for the perpetrators" of the crackdown in Iran, France's foreign minister vowed on Friday, as the European Union readies new sanctions against Tehran.

"The President of the European Commission has launched a designation process that will lead to those responsible for this repression being targeted by EU sanctions," Jean-Noel Barrot told journalists in Belgrade. "We will contribute to this work."

Barrot said France made its position clear at Thursday's UN Security Council meeting and would also continue to discuss further "consequences" at international forums.

"We stressed that the indiscriminate state violence unleashed on demonstrators was unacceptable, intolerable, and inhumane, and that there would be absolutely no impunity for the perpetrators of this repression, which is the most violent in Iran's contemporary history," he added.

According to Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR), at least 3,428 people have been killed by Iranian security forces since the start of the movement - a figure it says may be just a fraction of the real toll.

The Palestinian committee set to govern post-war Gaza held its first meeting in Cairo on Friday, Egyptian state-linked channel Al-Qahera News reported.

Formed on Wednesday as the second phase of the US-brokered Gaza ceasefire deal came into effect, the committee is made up of 15 technocrats charged with administering the Palestinian territory after the Hamas-Israel war.

The Munich Security Conference, one of the world's top security forums, said on Friday it was withdrawing an invitation to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi after the Tehran government's crackdown on protests across Iran this week.

"Several weeks ago, invitations were extended to individual government representatives from Iran. In light of current events, the Munich Security Conference will not be maintaining these invitations," it said in an emailed statement.

This year's gathering of security experts and policymakers takes place on February 13-15. The organisers said they aimed to invite participants who could provide significant policy insights, but always considered political developments before finalising the list.

The Berlin foreign ministry said Germany was against inviting Iranian officials given the events in Iran, where thousands have been reported killed in a crackdown on demonstrations against clerical rule.

Five pro-Palestinian activists pleaded not guilty on Friday to breaking into a British military air base and damaging two planes in protest against Britain's support for Israel.

The five are accused of breaking into the Brize Norton Royal Air Force base in central England in June and spraying red paint over two Voyager aircraft used for re-fuelling and transport.

Campaign group Palestine Action, which has since been banned by the government, said it was behind the incident.

Lewie Chiaramello, Jon Cink, Amy Gardiner-Gibson – also known as Amu Gib, Daniel Jeronymides-Norie and Muhammad Umer Khalid appeared at London's Old Bailey court by videolink from prison.

They pleaded not guilty to damaging property and entering a prohibited place for a purpose prejudicial to the interests or safety of the UK.

Their trial is due to start in January 2027. 

Iranian media says 3,000 people have been arrested in recent protests across the country.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian thanked his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Friday for Moscow's support at the United Nations in the wake of recent protests, his office said.

In a phone call with the Russian leader on the day after the protests were discussed at the UN Security Council, Pezeshkian thanked Putin for "Russia's position", adding that "the role and direct involvement of the United States and the Zionist regime in recent events in Iran is evident", his office said, referring to Israel.

At Thursday's UN Security Council session in New York, Russia's UN ambassador accused the United States of "stoking tensions and fuelling hysteria" in relation to the recent protests in Iran.

The Israeli army killed a Palestinian boy on Friday during a raid on the village of Al-Mughayyir in the occupied West Bank, and attacked worshippers after Friday prayers, according to an official source.

Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that Israeli forces stormed Al-Mughayyir from the Khalayil area and opened heavy live fire on residents, killing a 14-year-old boy who was later laid to rest.

#متابعة| ارتقاء الطفل محمد سعد نعسان (14 عامًا) برصاص الاحتلال عقب اقتحام قرية المغير شمال شرق رام الله. pic.twitter.com/yaWd2Xmuxu

— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) January 16, 2026

The agency added that occupation forces assaulted worshippers as they left Al-Mughayyir's Western Mosque, firing stun grenades and tear gas at them.

It also confirmed that the village has been under continuous attacks by settlers under army protection, with settlers raiding the Khalayil area south of the village since early morning, firing shots around the area in repeated assaults targeting residents and their property.

At least 463 Palestinians have been killed  in Gaza since a ceasefire went into effect in October last year, bringing the total number of people killed since the start of the war on 7 October 2023 to 71,455, the enclave's health ministry said Friday.

The ministry says 1,269 people have been wounded since the ceasefire, bringing the total number of injuries since the start of the war to 171,347.

A man who was injured earlier Friday in an Israeli airstrike on his vehicle in south Lebanon has died, the Lebanese health ministry said.

The ministry said in a statement that "an Israeli enemy airstrike this morning on a small truck in the town of Mansouri in the Tyre district resulted in the death of a civilian."

Israel continues to carry out strikes in parts of Lebanon despite a November 2024 ceasefire deal, claiming that it is hitting Hezbollah members and military infrastructure. 

استهدفت مسيّرة اسرائيلية سيارة في بلدة المنصوري قضاء صور.

كما نقلت اسعاف تابعة لـ"كشافة الرسالة الاسلامية"، جريحًا في الغارة التي استهدفت سيارة "بيك اب" في المنصوري الى احد مستشفيات صور.#بيروت_تايم pic.twitter.com/kgYN16jFQi

— Beirut Time (@beiruttime_leb) January 16, 2026

The Israeli army killed a Palestinian girl in a drone strike in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday.

News agencies cited medical reports as saying the strike killed the girl at a centre sheltering displaced Palestinians in the town of Beit Lahia.

South Africa's defence ministry said on Friday that Minister Angie Motshekga had launched an inquiry into Iran's participation in the BRICS+ naval exercises held in South African waters over the past week.

The defence ministry said in a statement that the inquiry would seek to determine whether South African President Cyril Ramaphosa's instructions regarding Iran's involvement were misrepresented and/or ignored.

US envoy Steve Witkoff said that holding a meeting with Hamas is necessary and that he would do so again if needed, as he suggested that Hamas is likely to agree to disarm.

He also stressed the importance of reopening the Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip, which remains closed by Israel.

Asked about reopening the Rafah crossing, he said: "We have to open it — we promised." Israel has conditioned the move on the return of the remains of its last captive in Gaza.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday held phone calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, the Kremlin said, offering mediation amid large-scale protests in Iran.

"Vladimir Putin held a telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu," the Kremlin announced in a statement, asserting "Russia's readiness to continue its mediation efforts."

The Kremlin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists that Moscow would announce "the results of our telephone conversation with the Iranian President very soon," adding that Putin "continues his efforts to facilitate de-escalation."

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a phone call on Friday where the two discussed developments in Iran, Russia's TASS news agency said.

Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa will be visiting Berlin next Tuesday and meet his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German presidency said.

The office of Chancellor Friedrich Merz has yet to announce whether they would also hold talks during the visit, which comes at a time when the German government is seeking to step up repatriations of Syrians to their homeland.

Civilians fled a Kurdish-held region of northern Syria on Friday before a deadline set by the army, which seeks to expand its control over the area after driving Kurdish forces from Aleppo.

The army has massed significant reinforcements in Deir Hafer, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of Aleppo, and ordered the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to evacuate an area between this region and the River Euphrates to the east.

Civilians have been fleeing the area since Thursday on back roads. AFP correspondents saw some using a rickety bridge to cross a branch of the Euphrates.

An army statement said they have up to 5 pm on Friday (1400 GMT) to leave. The military used the same tactic in the city of Aleppo last week, telling civilians to depart before shelling Kurdish-held districts.

In a statement on Friday, the Kurdish forces said the army had shelled Deir Hafer overnight "to put pressure on residents and force them to leave".

Several US allies in the Middle East have urged President Donald Trump's administration to delay launching strikes against Iran, according to an Arab diplomat familiar with the matter.

The diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said senior officials from Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar raised concerns over the past 48 hours that US military intervention could shake the global economy and further destabilise the already volatile region, according to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

One man was injured when his pickup was targeted in an Israeli strike in south Lebanon on Friday, the National News Agency reported.

Paramedics transported the man to a hospital in Tyre after his vehicle was struck in the village of Mansouri.

On Thursday night, a strike on a car in the village of Maifadoun killed one person.

Israel conducted large-scale airstrikes on several areas in south and east Lebanon on Thursday, claiming to target Hezbollah sites. Some of these strikes including evacuation warnings in two West Beqaa towns.

A UN official has warned that clearing the vast amount of debris in Gaza could take more than seven years.

The enclave is estimated to contain over 60 million tonnes of rubble following more than two years of Israel's offensive.

UNOPS chief Jorge Moreira da Silva said residents are exhausted and traumatized, with winter conditions worsening the humanitarian crisis.

He stressed the urgent need for shelter, fuel and large-scale debris removal to support nearly two million people.

The United Nations estimates that more than $53 billion will be needed for early recovery and reconstruction.

New Zealand said Friday it has temporarily closed its embassy in Tehran and flown out its diplomats because of worsening security in Iran.

Diplomatic staff left Iran safely on commercial flights overnight, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry said. The Tehran embassy's operations were moved to Ankara because of the "deteriorating security situation" in Iran.

"We continue to advise against all travel to Iran. Any New Zealanders currently in the country should leave now," the spokesperson said.

The foreign ministry said it had an "extremely limited" ability to give consular help to New Zealanders in Iran.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said Thursday his country was "appalled" by Tehran's violent reaction to huge anti-government protests and condemned "the brutal crackdown being carried out by Iran's security forces, including the killing of protesters."