Three British aid workers have been killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza.
John Chapman, 57, James Henderson, 33, and James Kirby, 47, were among the seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) workers killed in Monday's strike.
Humanitarian aid to Gaza has been plunged into doubt after WCK, a key provider of aid to the Strip, suspended its operations in the region.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the deaths "appalled" him. Israel said the strike was "unintended".
The British nationals, all part of WCK's security team, were travelling with a convoy that had just unloaded more than 100 tonnes of much-needed food aid brought from overseas, according to the charity.
All three vehicles in the convoy were hit by an Israeli air strike while leaving a warehouse in Deir al-Balah, south of Gaza City.
Seven aid workers were killed in the strike. As well as the three Britons, Australian national Lalzawmi Frankcom, Polish national Damian Sobol, Palestinian Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutahas and US-Canadian citizen Jacob Flickinger, were also killed.
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Paying tribute to the victims, WCK chief executive Erin Gore said she was "heartbroken and appalled" at the "beautiful lives" lost in the attack.
The charity's founder, celebrity chef José Andrés, said the victims were "angels" and called on Israel to stop its "indiscriminate killing".
The strike has received international condemnation, with the UK summoning the Israeli ambassador over the deaths - the first time this has happened in 12 years.
Prime Minister Mr Sunak demanded an investigation in a call with Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mr Sunak said on the call that "far too many aid workers and ordinary civilians have lost their lives in Gaza" and that the situation is "increasingly intolerable".
The scale of the attack prompted former national security adviser Lord Peter Ricketts to tell the BBC that the UK should stop selling arms to Israel. "I think the time has come to send that signal," he said.
"I think there's abundant evidence now that Israel hasn't been taking enough care to fulfil its obligations on the safety of civilians."
Lord Ricketts said halting arms sales would send a "powerful political message" that might spark debate about the US following suit, which would be "the real game changer".
US President Joe Biden said he was "outraged and heartbroken" by the WCK workers' deaths.
He said Israel had "not done enough to protect civilians" in an emphatic shift from his previous call that Israel "must do more" to protect the lives of aid workers in Gaza.
Israeli prime minister Mr Netanyahu released a video message on Tuesday in which he said Israeli forces were behind the "tragic" attack.
"It happens in war, we check it to the end, we are in contact with the governments, and we will do everything so that this thing does not happen again," he said.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was conducting a "thorough review" into what it called a "tragic incident".
In a separate statement, IDF chief of general staff Herzi Halevi said the strike "was not carried out with the intention of harming WCK aid workers".
"It was a mistake that followed a misidentification at night during a war in very complex conditions. It shouldn't have happened," he added.
But WCK chief executive Ms Gore called the strike a "targeted attack by the IDF".
Arrangements are being made to transport the bodies of the six foreigners to Egypt via the Rafah border crossing.
US-based organisation WCK aims to provide meals in humanitarian crises. The charity said it had served 42 million meals over 175 days in Gaza - working out at roughly 240,000 per day.
Last month the charity was part of the first maritime humanitarian aid shipment mission to Gaza.
A shipment of 240 tonnes of food, which was just off the coast of Gaza, has been forced to return to Cyprus as there was no way to offload it.
An unnamed UN official told BBC News the aid worker deaths were either a "dreadful failure of deconfliction", or evidence that the existing system was not fit for purpose.
Deconfliction is a system allowing aid organisations to work in warzones. It involves notifying military powers where aid organisations are working and when they are on the move.
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Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer described the air strike as "outrageous and unacceptable", and called for humanitarian workers to be protected and international law to be upheld.
Much of the Gaza Strip has been devastated during the Israeli military operations that began after Hamas gunmen attacked southern Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages.
About 130 of the hostages remain in captivity, at least 34 of whom are presumed dead.
More than 32,916 people have been killed in Gaza since then, the Hamas-run health ministry says.
Israel has confirmed its forces killed seven people from the World Central Kitchen charity in Gaza as they travelled in a convoy emblazoned with the charity’s logo that had coordinated its movements with the Israeli military.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the deadly attack on the aid workers as unintended and “tragic” and pledged an independent inquiry.
“Unfortunately in the past day, there was a tragic event in which our forces unintentionally harmed non-combatants in the Gaza Strip,” Netanyahu said in a video statement on Tuesday.
“This happens in war. We are conducting a thorough inquiry and are in contact with the governments. We will do everything to prevent a recurrence.”
Citizens from Australia, the United Kingdom and Poland, as well as Palestinians and a dual citizen of the United States and Canada were killed.
WCK, which was founded by celebrity chef Jose Andres, said they had been travelling in two armoured cars and another vehicle.
The convoy was hit after leaving a Deir el-Balah warehouse after unloading more than 100 tonnes of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza by sea.
The Israeli military said it was conducting a thorough review at the highest levels to understand the circumstances of the incident, and pledged an investigation by “an independent, professional and expert body”.
Several humanitarian aid organisations, including WCK, suspended operations in Gaza on Tuesday.
The groups said they need to determine whether their workers can safely provide aid in the territory.
“We are horrified and heartbroken by the tragic killing of seven innocent humanitarians in Gaza,” said Chris Skopec, executive vice president of global health at Project HOPE, which operates health clinics in Rafah and Deir al-Balah and provides medical supplies and other aid to area hospitals.
Erin Gore, chief executive of WCK, said the attack was “unforgivable”.
“This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organisations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war,” Gore. “This is unforgivable.”
Last week, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued new provisional measures as part of the genocide case brought by South Africa ordering Israel to take all necessary and effective action to ensure basic food supplies can reach the civilian population in Gaza to halt spreading famine.
In response, Israeli officials accused the United Nations and other international bodies of “failure” over the problems in getting aid to hungry people, saying they lack the logistical capacity to perform their jobs.
US urges ‘impartial investigation’
The attack on the aid convoy drew widespread outrage and criticism from some of Israel’s main allies.
The UK summoned Israel’s ambassador in London to express its “unequivocal condemnation of the appalling killing” of the WCK workers.
“Israel must urgently explain how this happened and make major changes to ensure safety of aid workers on the ground,” British Foreign Secretary David Cameron wrote on X.
The US said it was “outraged” by the Israeli airstrike and that President Joe Biden called WCK’s founder to share his condolences.
“We were outraged to learn of an IDF [Israeli army] strike that killed a number of civilian humanitarian workers yesterday from the World Central Kitchen,” White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters during a briefing in Washington.
Asked whether the US would condemn the Israeli airstrike, Kirby said of his use of the word “outraged”: “I think you can fairly characterise that as condemning the strike itself.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had urged Israel to carry out a swift, thorough and impartial investigation into the attack.
“We’ve spoken directly to the Israeli government about this particular incident. We’ve urged a swift, a thorough and impartial investigation,” he told a news conference in Paris alongside French Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Sejourne.
“These people are heroes, they run into the fire, not away from it. We shouldn’t have a situation where people who are simply trying to help their fellow human beings are themselves at grave risk,” Blinken said.
Sejourn expressed France’s “firm condemnation” of the Israeli air raid and said “nothing can justify such a tragedy.”
Calls for halt to arms shipments
Asked whether incidents like the killing of WCK staff gave the US pause in light of its recent approval of a new weapons package worth $2.5bn, Blinken argued Washington had “a longstanding commitment to Israel’s security and to help it ensure its ability to defend itself”.
Several US politicians condemned Israel’s attack. Independent Senator Bernie Sanders said the killing of the charity workers was “not an accident”. “No more aid for Netanyahu’s war machine,” he wrote on X.
Representative Pramila Jayapal, from the Democratic Party, said it was “the latest horror inflicted by Netanyahu’s air strikes on Gaza” and called for a halt to “US military aid used for indiscriminate killing.”
Representative Jim McGovern said in a post on X that “Netanyahu needs to stop bombing civilians, stop restricting aid, and stop weaponizing food.”
Iran and Hezbollah vowed Tuesday to respond to a strike widely attributed to Israel that demolished Tehran’s consulate in Damascus and killed seven people, including two Iranian generals.
Iran’s state TV reported Tuesday that the country’s Supreme National Security Council, a key decision-making body, met late Monday and decided on a “required” response to the strike. The report said the meeting was chaired by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, but provided no further details.
In an online statement, Raisi blamed Israel for the attack, saying the “cowardly crime will not go unanswered.”
“After repeated defeats and failures against the faith and will of the Resistance Front fighters, the Zionist regime has put blind assassinations on its agenda in the struggle to save itself,” his statement added.
It was not clear if Iran would respond itself, risking a dangerous confrontation with Israel and its ally the United States, or if it would continue to rely on proxies, including the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terror group and Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
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While Israel does not, as a rule, comment on specific strikes in Syria, it has admitted to conducting hundreds of sorties against Iran-backed terror groups attempting to gain a foothold in the country over the last decade. The Israel Defense Forces says it attacks arms shipments believed to be bound for those groups, chief among them Hezbollah. Additionally, airstrikes attributed to Israel have repeatedly targeted Syrian air defense systems.
Emergency and security personnel search the rubble at the site of strikes which hit a building annexed to the Iranian embassy in Syria’s capital Damascus, on April 1, 2024. (LOUAI BESHARA/ AFP)
The airstrike in Syria killed Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who led the elite Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria until 2016, according to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. It also killed Zahedi’s deputy, Gen. Mohammad Hadi Hajriahimi, and five other officers.
Zahedi was reportedly responsible for the IRGC’s operations in Syria and Lebanon, for Iranian militias there, and for ties with Hezbollah, and thus the most senior commander of Iranian forces in the two countries.
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Hezbollah said Tuesday that Zahedi played a crucial role in helping “develop and advance the work” of the group in Lebanon. “This crime will certainly not pass without the enemy receiving punishment and revenge,” the terror group said in a statement.
Israel said it had no comment on the attack in Syria, although a military spokesman blamed Iran for a drone attack early Monday against a naval base in Eilat in southern Israel.
Faced with ongoing attacks by the Iran-backed Hezbollah and Shiite militias throughout the Middle East in the wake of Hamas’s brutal October 7 massacre, which sparked the war in Gaza, Israel has escalated its strikes on Iran-linked terror targets in Syria, killing numerous IRGC operatives, as well as members of Hezbollah and other Iranian proxy groups.
Israel has grown increasingly impatient with the daily exchanges of fire with Hezbollah, which have escalated in recent days, and warned of the possibility of a full-fledged war. Houthi rebels have also been launching long-range missiles toward Israel, including on Monday.
Iranian protesters chant slogans as they hold up posters of the late Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone attack in 2020, during an anti-Israeli gathering to condemn killing members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Syria, at the Felestin (Palestine) Sq. in downtown Tehran, April 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iran’s official news agency IRNA said Tuesday that Iran relayed an important message to the United States late Monday and that it called for a meeting of the UN Security Council. The message to Washington was delivered through a Swiss envoy in Tehran; Switzerland looks after US interests in Iran.
IRNA said Iran holds the United States responsible for the strike, though Axios reported Tuesday that the US had told Tehran that it “had no involvement” in or prior knowledge of the attack on the consulate in Syria. A senior US official quoted in the report said the message had been “communicated directly” to Iran.
Israeli military spokesperson, Rear Adm Daniel Hagari, said the incident would be investigated in the “Fact Finding and Assessment Mechanism”, which his statement called an “independent, professional, and expert body”, without giving further details.
He said he had spoken to the WCK founder, chef José Andrés, and expressed his deepest condolences.
“We also express sincere sorrow to our allied nations who have been doing and continue to do so much to assist those in need,” he said in the statement.
The strike hit an aid convoy, killing seven people working with World Central Kitchen (WCK), a charity spearheading efforts to alleviate looming famine in Gaza.
They were delivering desperately needed food aid that had been brought in by sea. The WCK said Israel was behind the airstrike.
Numerous western officials and ministers have demanded an explanation for the deaths after WCK said those killed were from the UK, Australia, Poland and Palestine, as well as a US-Canada dual citizen.
Cyprus’s president called for an immediate probe into the killing of seven aid workers in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, saying the US- based World Central Kitchen charity they were members of was a “crucial partner” in its initiative to get aid to the enclave by sea.
“We need to double down on efforts to get aid to Gaza,” Nikos Christodoulides said, after a meeting with the European parliament president, Roberta Metsola.
Israeli military spokesperson, Rear Adm Daniel Hagari, said the incident would be investigated in the “Fact Finding and Assessment Mechanism”, which his statement called an “independent, professional, and expert body”, without giving further details.
He said he had spoken to the WCK founder, chef José Andrés, and expressed his deepest condolences.
“We also express sincere sorrow to our allied nations who have been doing and continue to do so much to assist those in need,” he said in the statement.
The strike hit an aid convoy, killing seven people working with World Central Kitchen (WCK), a charity spearheading efforts to alleviate looming famine in Gaza.
They were delivering desperately needed food aid that had been brought in by sea. The WCK said Israel was behind the airstrike.
Numerous western officials and ministers have demanded an explanation for the deaths after WCK said those killed were from the UK, Australia, Poland and Palestine, as well as a US-Canada dual citizen.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said the destruction of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza amounted to “ripping the heart out” of the health system of the enclave.
“Destroying al-Shifa means ripping the heart out of the health system,” WHO spokesperson, Margaret Harris, was quoted by Reuters as saying.
“It was the place people go to for the kind of care that a really good health system provides, that we in all our societies expect to have should we be in need.”
The Hamas-run Gaza media office said Israeli forces killed 400 Palestinians around the hospitaland put the medical facility out of function.
The Israeli military said it had killed and detained hundreds of gunmen in clashes in the area of the hospital, and seized weaponry and intelligence documents.
The president of the city of Przemysl, in southeastern Poland, identified the Polish volunteer who was killed in the Israeli airstrike in Gaza as Damian Sobol.
“Yesterday, our colleague, resident of Przemysl, volunteer, member of the World Central Kitchen team – Damian Sobol, was killed in a rocket attack by Israeli forces on a humanitarian convoy delivering food in the Gaza Strip,” he wrote on Facebook.
“There are no words to describe what people who knew this fantastic guy feel at this moment … May he rest in peace.”
Foreign ministry spokesperson Pawel Wronski told reporters Poland was checking reports of the death of the Polish volunteer.
“We are currently urgently verifying this information,” he said. “We have asked the Israeli authorities, security forces and the Israeli armed forces for explanations.”
Deputy justice minister Arkadiusz Myrcha told state news channel TVP Info there would be an investigation into the incident.
“There is no exception here, of course every death must be explained and such proceedings should be initiated here,” he said.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, will hold talks in Paris on Tuesday after seven aid workers were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.
Blinken arrived in the French capital before heading to Brussels for a Nato ministerial meeting on Wednesday.
France on Monday proposed a draft UN security council resolution that seeks options for possible UN monitoring of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and proposals to help the Palestinian Authority assume responsibilities.
The EU has called for a “thorough investigation” into the deaths of seven aid workers in Gaza bringing food from the World’s Central Kitchen to starving Palestinians.
“We are mourning with the families and friends of the @WCKitchen humanitarian aid workers who lost their lives in Gaza,” the European Commission said in a post on X.
“Humanitarian aid workers must always be protected, in line with international humanitarian law. We call for a thorough investigation into this tragedy.”
The EU, along with the US and Cyprus, were instrumental in establishing a maritime corridor to bring aid to Gaza across the Mediterranean.
A pilot delivery with a ship operated by a Spanish search and rescue group, Open Arms, taking 200 tonnes of food provided by the charity, World Central Kitchen, arrived in Gaza in the second week in March.
Another US-based charity, American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera), which helps provide emergency relief for Palestinians, has told BBC News that it is also freezing its operations in Gaza, following on from the World Central Kitchen’s (WCK) announcement earlier.
“Anera and WCK are pausing our Gaza operations. Together, Anera and WCK provide some 2 million meals a week in Gaza,” Sean Carroll, the charity’s CEO, said.
Asked about the impact the decision to suspend food provision would have on Palestinian people, whom face a looming famine, Caroll said: “The occupying power has an obligation under international law to provide for the people under occupation.”
Anera, which has been working closely with WCK in recent months, says on its website that it works on the ground with partners in Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan.
It said that its medical team helped treat hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza on Sunday and Monday, providing displaced people free medication in the process.
The seven WCK aid workers were killed by a suspected Israeli airstrike fired on their convoy south of Deir al-Balah late on Monday. Medical officials said the group had been helping to deliver food and other supplies to northern Gaza that had arrived hours earlier by ship.
While Israel has claimed it is allowing aid into Gaza, senior UN, US and other international officials, as well as NGOs, have accused the country of obstructing life-saving aid to Gaza’s population of 2.3 million.
The UN said last week that famine was “ever closer to becoming a reality in northern Gaza” and that the health system was collapsing owing to the continuing hostilities and “access constraints”.
Here is the full statement issued by Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, on the death of Lalzawmi Frankcom, the Australian aid worker killed by an Israeli military airstrike in Gaza.
The statement reads:
It is with overwhelming sadness that the Australian Government confirms the death of an Australian aid worker in Gaza.
The tributes flowing for Lalzawmi ‘Zomi’ Frankcom tell the story of a life dedicated to the service of others, including her fellow Australians during natural disasters.
Her tireless work to improve the lives of others should never have cost Ms Frankcom her own.
The government expresses its deepest sympathies to her family and loved ones, just as we mourn all civilian deaths in this conflict.
The department of foreign affairs and trade is providing consular assistance to her family in Australia. The death of any aid worker is outrageous and unacceptable.
Throughout this conflict, Australia has called for restraint, for the protection of civilians and safe and unimpeded access for humanitarian assistance.
The Australian government condemns this strike. The government has made representations to the Netanyahu government and seeks a thorough and expeditious review. We expect full accountability for these deaths.
We repeat our demands for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire leading to a sustainable ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and that international humanitarian law be upheld.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said he was “horrified” by the deaths of the seven World Central Kitchen staff members who were reported to have been killed in an Israeli airstrike.
“Horrified by the death of seven humanitarian workers from @WCKitchen in an airstrike in Gaza. I have just conveyed to @chefjoseandres my sincere condolences and all my love and support for him and his team,” he wrote on X.
“Your solidarity, altruism and commitment to those who need it most is a source of pride. The government of Spain is with you.”
Chef José Andrés, the founder of the WCK charity, was born in Spain and is a naturalised US citizen.
He said on X that the charity “lost several of our sisters and brothers in an IDF airstrike in Gaza”.
“I am heartbroken and grieving for their families and friends and our whole WCK family. These are people … angels … I served alongside in Ukraine, Gaza, Turkey, Morocco, Bahamas, Indonesia. They are not faceless … they are not nameless.
He said the Israeli government needed to “stop this indiscriminate killing”.
Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, has vowed revenge after Israeli war planes destroyed the Iranian consulate in Damascus, killing at least 11 people, including a senior commander in the al-Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps
“After repeated defeats and failures against the faith and will of the Resistance Front fighters, the Zionist regime has put blind assassinations on its agenda in the struggle to save itself,” Raisi said on his office’s website.
“Day by day, we have witnessed the strengthening of the Resistance Front and the disgust and hatred of free nations towards the illegitimate nature of (Israel). This cowardly crime will not go unanswered.”
Iran said that several long-serving diplomats were killed alongside Brig Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Zahedi’s deputy, Gen Haji Rahimi. It was also reported that Brig Gen Hossein Amirollah, the chief of general staff for the al-Quds force in Syria and Lebanon, was among the victims.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 11 people were killed in the attack.
Iran’s ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, said Iran’s response to the strike would be “at the same magnitude and harshness”.
The strike follows a marked increase in violence between Israel and Hezbollah on the Israeli-Lebanon boundary since Hamas’s 7 October attack, as well as the resumption of violent attacks by Iranian-backed militia on US and Israeli positions in Iraq.
The Polish foreign ministry has expressed its condolences to the family of the Polish volunteer who was among the seven aid workers killed in Gaza.
“We express our sincerest condolences to the family of the volunteer who provided aid to the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip,” the ministry wrote in a post on X.
“Poland does not agree to the lack of compliance with international humanitarian law and the protection of civilians, including humanitarian workers.”
The World Central Kitchen said earlier that those killed in the Israeli airstrike were “from Australia, Poland, United Kingdom, a dual citizen of the US and Canada, and Palestine” and announced that it was “pausing our operations in the region” in response.
As we reported earlier, a British national was, according to the World Central Kitchen (WCK), among the seven aid workers killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.
A spokesperson for the UK’s Foreign Office said on Tuesday morning: “We are aware of reports of the death of a British national in Gaza and are urgently seeking further information.”
The education secretary, Gillian Keegan, told the BBC that the UK government was “very concerned” over the reports and that it was “worrying” that the WCK had suspended its work in Gaza.
She said:
We haven’t had it confirmed yet, but we are very, very concerned by the situation.
We do know that we’ve urged Israel to do more to protect civilians, but also to allow aid to get into Gaza.
But we haven’t yet had this confirmed and I think the IDF are reviewing this, probably as we speak …
One of the key things is trying to ensure we get more aid into Gaza, so if one of the charities working on the ground has suspended, then that’s obviously deeply concerning.
Our thoughts would go to everybody affected.
The secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, has shared his condolences over the killing of the seven aid workers in Gaza.
He said that nowhere else are so many aid workers killed and called for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict.
Unrwa, the UN Palestinian refugee agency, which is the main UN agency in Gaza, and other aid groups have said sending truck convoys to northern Gaza has been too dangerous because of the Israeli military’s failure to ensure safe passage.
In its latest report, Unrwa said that 173 of its workers have been killed in Gaza. The figure does not include workers for other aid organisations.
The bodies of the aid workers have been taken to a hospital in the southern city of Rafah on the Egyptian border, according to an Associated Press reporter at the hospital.
The bodies of the foreign aid workers will reportedly be evacuated out of Gaza and the Palestinian driver’s body will be handed to his family in Rafah for burial.
Cyprus’ foreign ministry has offered condolences to the family and friends of the World Central Kitchen aid workers killed in an Israeli airstrike and has demanded a swift investigation into the incident.
Cypriot authorities have established, in cooperation with Israel, a maritime corridor to facilitate pre-screened cargoes arriving directly in Gaza.
A second WCK maritime aid shipment carrying 332 tonnes of food was due to arrive in Gaza early this week.
Here’s a rundown on the latest key developments:
The food aid charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) says seven of its team members were killed in what it called an Israeli military strike in central Gaza on Monday.
The seven were from Australia, Poland, the UK, a dual citizen of the US and Canada, and Palestine, WCK said.
The workers were travelling in two armoured cars branded with the charity’s logo in Deir al-Balah, according to WCK. It said it was immediately “pausing” its operations in the region.
An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said it was “conducting a thorough review at the highest levels to understand the circumstances of this tragic incident”.
Footage showed the bodies of five of the WCK workers at Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah. Several of them wore protective body armour with the charity’s logo.
Medical officials said the group had been helping to deliver food and other supplies to northern Gaza that had arrived hours early by ship.
Australia’s prime minister said the death of an Australian aid worker among those killed was “completely unacceptable” and the governmentdemanded “full accountability”. Lalzawmi Frankcom died “doing the work she loves”, her grieving family said.
The White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, plans to travel to Saudi Arabia this week for talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman amid a US push for progress toward normalising relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Talks on normalisation had been put on ice in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’s 7 October attack and Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza, but conversations have resumed in recent months.
Reuters reports a US official said Sullivan planned talks with the crown prince to check in on the issue but did not expect a major breakthrough. Sullivan would consult broadly on a number of matters, a second US official said, adding:
He has not been to Saudi Arabia in some time and there’s lots to discuss.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said almost two weeks ago that the US and Saudi Arabia had made “good progress” in talks on normalising ties between the kingdom and Israel, without providing a timeline for concluding a deal.
As part of a normalisation deal, Saudi Arabia wants to secure a mutual defence pact with Washington and get US support for its civil nuclear program.
Three students have been shot and wounded in a shooting at a school in Finland, police say.
All those involved were aged 12, police said - including the suspected attacker, who has been detained and taken into custody.
Officers were called to the incident at Viertola school in Vantaa just after 7am UK time.
The victims were taken to hospital, a police spokesperson told Reuters news agency. No further details were given.
Image:The shooting took place at Viertola school in Vantaa, a
suburb of the Finnish capital Helsinki
The school has two sites, Liljatie and Jokiranta. The shooting took place at the Jokiranta campus.
Finnish broadcaster MTV Uutiset reported emergency services - including armed police officers - were at the scene.
Some of the children reportedly hid during the attack, while others who had been contacted by their parents on mobile phones said they saw what happened.
"The immediate danger is over," said the school's principal Sari Laasila.
Image:The pupils injured in the attack were taken to hospital. Pic: Markku Ulander/Lehtikuva via Reuters
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said the shooting was deeply shocking.
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"My thoughts are with the victims, their loved ones and the other students and staff," he said on X.
"The day started in a horrifying way. There has been a shooting incident at the Viertola school in Vantaa. I can only imagine the pain and worry that many families are experiencing at the moment. The suspected perpetrator has been caught," interior minister Mari Rantanen posted on the social media platform.
A witness told MTV Uutiset the suspect was arrested just before 10am in an area of Helsinki called Siltakylantie - a 50-minute walk from the school.
They said police stopped a young person - who dropped an object that looked like a weapon on the ground and knelt down.
Image:Parents gather outside the school. Pic: Markku Ulander/Lehtikuva via Reuters
The school, situated on the outskirts of the Finnish capital Helsinki, has around 800 students from first to ninth grade - aged seven to 16.
Local residents have been asked to stay away from the school which has been cordoned off by police.
Previous school shootings in Finland have led to the country tightening its gun legislation.
In 2007, Pekka-Eric Auvinen shot and killed six students, the school nurse, the principal, and himself using a handgun at Jokela High School, near Helsinki.
Matti Saari, another student, opened fire at a school in Kauhajoki, in northwest Finland, in 2008. He killed nine students and one male staff member before turning the gun on himself.
In 2010, Finland introduced an aptitude test for all firearms licence applicants - and set a new minimum age of 20, up from 18.
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By Jeremy Bowen, International Editor, and David Gritten
BBC News in northern Israel and London
Iran's Revolutionary Guards says seven officers have been killed in an Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate building in Syria's capital, Damascus.
Brig-Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander of the elite Quds Force, and Brig-Gen Mohammad Hadi Haji-Rahimi, his deputy, were named among the dead.
Iran and Syria's governments condemned the attack, which destroyed a building next door to the Iranian embassy.
The Israeli military said it did not comment on foreign media reports.
However, it has acknowledged carrying out hundreds of strikes in recent years on targets in Syria that it says are linked to Iran and allied armed groups which are armed, funded and trained by the Revolutionary Guards.
The Israeli strikes have reportedly been stepped up since the start of the war in Gaza in October last year, in response to cross-border attacks on northern Israel by Hezbollah and other Iran-backed groups in Lebanon and Syria.
But Monday's attack will be seen as a serious escalation.
The Israelis appear to be testing the resolve of the Iranians and their allies and signalling that they are serious about increasing pressure on their enemies.
The Israelis are looking at the fact that both Iran and Hezbollah have not been pushing as hard as some might expect. Now they will see if Iran and Hezbollah are going to push back.
There will be a response, but it may not be the one people expect. Rather than missiles, it may be some sort of cyber-attack.
Reuters
Syria's defence ministry said Israeli aircraft targeted the Iranian consulate building, which was on a highway in the western Mezzeh district of Damascus, from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights at about 17:00 local time (14:00 GMT) on Monday.
Syrian air defences shot down some of the missiles they launched, but others made it through and "destroyed the entire building, killing and injuring everyone inside", the ministry added.
The ministry said work was under way to recover the bodies and rescue the wounded from beneath the rubble, without saying how many casualties there were or naming any of them.
Photos and videos from the scene showed smoke and dust rising from the remains of the collapsed multi-storey building. The Iranian embassy next door did not appear to have sustained any significant damage.
The Iranian ambassador, Hossein Akbari, said Israeli F-35 fighter jets "brutally targeted my place of residence and the consular section of the embassy, along with Iran's military attaches". He told Iranian state TV that between five and seven people were killed, including some diplomats.
Later, the Revolutionary Guards put out a statement saying that seven of its officers were killed, including Brig-Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Brig-Gen Mohammad Hadi Haji-Rahimi, whom it described as commanders and "senior military advisers".
Iranian media said Zahedi, 63, was a senior figure in the Quds Force - the Revolutionary Guards' overseas operations arm - and served as commander in Lebanon and Syria between 2008 and 2016. Haji-Rahimi was meanwhile identified as Zahedi's deputy.
Zahedi is one of the most high-profile Iranian figures believed to have been killed by Israel in the country's long campaign of targeted assassinations.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of sources on the ground in Syria, reported that eight people were killed - a high-ranking leader of the Quds Force, two Iranian advisers and five members of the Revolutionary Guards.
Syria's Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said he strongly condemned what he called "this heinous terrorist attack", adding that it had killed "a number of innocent people".
In a telephone conversation with Mr Mekdad, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian described the strike as "a violation of all international obligations and conventions" and "blamed the consequences of this action on the Zionist regime", the Iranian foreign ministry said.
He also "stressed the need for a serious response by the international community".
A White House spokeswoman said US President Joe Biden was aware of the reports.
In a briefing to journalists on Monday, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said an apparent drone attack on a naval base in the southern Israeli city of Eilat was "a very serious incident". The drone was "made and directed by Iran", he said.
This attack followed suspected Israeli strikes on Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo last Friday, which the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said killed 53 people, including 38 Syrian soldiers and seven members of the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
In January, another strike in Mezzeh that was blamed on Israel killed five senior Revolutionary Guards and several Syrian security personnel.
Israel has previously acknowledged carrying out strikes in Syria to combat what it calls Iran's "military entrenchment", as well as shipments of Iranian weapons to allied groups which it proscribes as terrorist organisations.
Iran has said Revolutionary Guards have been sent to Syria to "advise" President Bashar al-Assad's forces in the country's civil war, but it has denied they have been involved in combat or established bases.
