Arab–Israeli conflict

An independent review group on the U.N. agency for Palestinians noted Israel had yet to provide evidence for incendiary allegations that staff were members of terrorist organizations.

Israeli warplanes struck a Syrian military position overnight in response to rocket fire on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, the military said on Tuesday.

The cross-border fire came days after an air strike blamed on Israel destroyed the Iranian consulate in Damascus, killing senior military commanders and raising regional tensions.

Japan is preparing to resume funding to the U.N.'s crisis-hit Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), which coordinates nearly all aid to Gaza, the government said.

Once the sixth-largest contributor to the agency, Japan joined more than a dozen countries in pausing funding after Israel claimed that 12 of UNRWA's 13,000 Gaza employees were involved in the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Monday defended the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees as a "lifeline of hope and dignity" and called for a surge of aid into Gaza.

During a visit to Jordan's Wihdat refugee camp in the capital Amman, Guterres said it would be "cruel and incomprehensible" to halt UNRWA's vital services to Palestinian refugees across the region.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said on Sunday that Israel had definitively barred it from making aid deliveries in northern Gaza, where the threat of famine is highest.

Finland will resume funding to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, Foreign Trade and Development Minister Ville Tavio announced on Friday.

Sweden said Saturday it was resuming aid to the cash-strapped U.N. agency for Palestinians with an initial disbursement of $20 million after receiving assurances of extra checks on its spending and personnel.

The EU's two top chiefs said Friday they were "shocked" and "deeply disturbed" by the deaths of more than 100 Palestinians after Israeli troops opened fire during an aid delivery, and demanded an investigation.

French President Emmanuel Macron has signaled a significant shift in France's stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, stating that recognizing a Palestinian state is no longer off the table. Macron's comments, made on Friday, suggest that Paris may proceed with such recognition if efforts to establish two states through negotiations stall due to Israeli opposition.

Egypt's foreign ministry on Monday condemned as "disgraceful" and "irresponsible" comments by Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich who claimed Cairo has "considerable responsibility" for Hamas's Oct. 7 attack.