Failure to hit Israel with missiles 'does not matter', Iran's supreme leader says (2024)

Today’s live coverage has ended. Here is a roundup of the day’s main events:

• Gazan health workers discovered the bodies of at least 50 people allegedly “killed and buried” by Israeli forces at a hospital in Khan Younis.
• Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to fight any attempt to impose sanctions on Israeli military units, after media reported that the US was poised to sanction an IDF battalion for alleged human rights violations.
• Iran’s supreme leader said that Tehran’s failure to hit Israel with missiles “does not matter”.
• The US House of Representatives passed a major security assistance package to US allies, which includes $26 billion for Israel.
• The Israeli military concluded a 50-hour West Bank raid, in which heavy fighting and 14 Palestinian deaths were reported.

The bodies of at least 50 people “killed and buried” by Israeli forces have been discovered at a hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, Gaza’s civil defence agency has said.

In a statement, the agency said the remains were discovered in the courtyard of the Nasser Medical Complex.

“There are mass graves dug by the Israeli occupation … we were shocked by the presence of bodies of 50 martyrs in one of the pits yesterday,” a spokesman said.

The Israeli military said it was checking the reports.

Israeli forces withdrew from Khan Younis on April 8 after months of fierce fighting in the area.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has vowed to fight any attempt to impose sanctions on Israeli military units.

The move comes after media reported that the US was poised to take action against Israel’s Netzah Yehuda battalion for alleged human rights violations.

“If anyone thinks they can impose sanctions on a unit of the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) — I will fight it with all my strength,” Mr Netanyahu said in a statement

The IDF said the Netzah Yehuda battalion, a unit made up of ultra-Orthodox fighters, operates according to the principles of international law.

If confirmed, Joe Biden’s White House would ban the Netzah Yehuda battalion from receiving US military supplies or training.

Read the full report by Melanie Swan here.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has said it is unaware of US plans to sanction one of its combat battalions, amid reports that Washington is poised to take action over alleged abuses of Palestinians.

The Netzah Yehuda battalion, a unit composed of hard-Right and ultra-Orthodox recruits, has faced allegations of violating Palestinian human rights in the occupied West Bank.

The IDF said the battalion is an active combat unit that operates according to the principles of international law.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said sanctioning the unit would be “the height of absurdity and a moral low”.

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said on Friday that he will soon reveal the results of an investigation using the Leahy Law, which prohibits military assistance to foreign security forces that violate human rights.

Israel has charged the sister of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh with inciting terrorism after she allegedly praised the October 7 attacks on southern Israel.

According to the indictment, in the days after Hamas’ Oct 7 rampage across southern Israel, Haniyeh sent messages to dozens of contacts, including her brother, that praised the cross-border assault and called for further slaughter.

One of her messages reportedly include the line: “Oh God, count them and kill them and don’t leave any of them, Oh God.”

Sabah al-Salem Haniyeh, 57, lives in the southern Israeli town of Tel Sheva. Her brother is based in Qatar, along with other senior Hamas officials.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a Hamas spokesman, has condemned the approval by the US House of Representatives of a security assistance package for US allies that includes $26 billion for Israel.

Abu Rudeineh said the package would give Israel “the green light to expand the scope of war” to other countries in the region.

The $95 billion legislative package was passed on Saturday and is intended to provide security assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

Israel’s share of the support includes $5.2 billion for spending on air defences, $1 billion for the production of artillery, as well as billions of dollars for other weapons systems and for US military operations undertaken in the region in response to recent attacks.

The package also includes $9 billion for humanitarian assistance, some of which would help Gaza residents.

Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, has urged Tehran’s military to “ceaselessly pursue military innovation and learn the enemy’s tactics”, Iran’s state-run news agency announced on Sunday.

The move came as Khamenei thanked the Iranian armed forces for their operations against Israel, the agency added.

Iran attacked Israel with more than 300 drones and missiles on April 13 in what it said was retaliation for Israel’s suspected attack on the Iranian embassy in Damascus on April 1.

On Friday, Israel was reported to have responded by attacking an Iranian air force installation in central Iran in what a US official described as a “limited strike”.

Ebrahim Raisi, the Iranian president, will make an official visit to Pakistan from Monday to Wednesday, Pakistan’s ministry of foreign affairs said.

The visit will see the two Muslim countries try to mend ties after they exchanged tit-for-tat missile strikes in January.

In a statement, the foreign affairs ministry said Raisi will meet Pakistan’s president and prime minister, the chairman of the senate and speaker of the national assembly.

“They will also discuss regional and global developments and bilateral cooperation to combat the common threat of terrorism,” the statement added.

An Israeli politician has urged the Israeli government to disband a notorious Israel Defence Forces (IDF) battalion, amid reports that the US is preparing to sanction the unit.

The Netzah Yehuda Battalion, which is mainly composed of hard-Right and ultra-Orthodox recruits, has a history of alleged abuses against Palestinians.

Merav Michaeli, the Israeli Labor Party leader, said the expected sanctions are “an acknowledgment of the reality and an understanding that Israel’s conduct in the territories cannot continue”.

“The violent and corrupt conduct of the Netzah Yehuda Battalion and those around it has been known for years, and nothing has been done to stop it,” she added.

At least 34,097 Palestinians have been killed and 76,980 injured in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip since Oct 7, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said on Sunday.

48 Palestinians were killed and 79 others injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.

The figures cannot be verified by The Telegraph. The UK’s statistics watchdog has recently announced it is to examine whether casualty data provided by the Gaza health ministry can be relied upon — you can read the full report by Camilla Tominey here.

Overnight Israeli strikes on southern Gaza city of Rafah killed 18 people, including 14 children, health officials said on Sunday.

The first strike killed a man, his wife and their 3-year-old child, according to a local hospital that received the bodies. The woman was pregnant, and the doctors managed to save the baby, the hospital said.

Israel has carried out near-daily air raids on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has sought refuge from Israeli bombardment elsewhere.

Israel is understood to have planned ground operations in the Rafah area, despite US warnings that it would not support such an offensive.

The US House of Representatives has passed a major security assistance package to US allies, which includes $26 billion for Israel.

Of the $26 billion, $5.2 billion is reversed for spending on air defences, $1 billion for the production of artillery, as well as billions of dollars for other weapons systems and for US military operations undertaken in the region in response to recent attacks.

The package also includes $9 billion for humanitarian assistance, some of which would help Gaza residents.

The US is also considering a separate proposal of more than $1 billion in weapons deals for Israel, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Israeli forces killed at least 14 Palestinians during a raid on the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.

The raid began in the early hours of Friday morning, when bursts of gunfire were heard as Israeli military vehicles massed for an assault.

Clashes between Israeli troops and armed fighters continued well into Saturday, according to reports.

Residents said that there is no electricity in the area and food is running short, but nobody is being allowed to enter or leave.

The Israeli military said a number of militants were killed or arrested during the raid, and at least four soldiers were wounded in exchanges of fire.

The Nur Shams refugee camp is located near the flashpoint city of Tulkarm – home to the Tulkarem Brigades, an umbrella organisation composed of several armed Palestinian groups with different political affiliations.