Iranian commander killed in Damascus strike

Al Jazeera news network has condemned Israeli action to shutter the media network.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to shut down operations of the media network, after Parliament passed a law clearing the way for closure.

Israel has long had a rocky relationship with Al Jazeera, accusing it of unfair bias against Israel. Netanyahu called it a "terror channel" that spreads incitement on Monday.

Al Jazeera said the statements were "nothing but a dangerous ludicrous lie." The media network said that the "latest measure comes as part of a series of systematic Israeli attacks to silence" it.

The Israeli decision threatens to heighten tensions with Qatar, which owns the channel, at a time when the Doha government is playing a key role in mediation efforts to halt the war in Gaza.

Israel will take into account US concerns over a planned Israeli offensive in the southern city Gaza city of Rafah, the White House said in a statement.

Top American and Israeli officials held "constructive engagement on Rafah" during a  two-hour video conference, it said in the statement.

"The US side expressed its concerns with various courses of action in Rafah. The Israeli side agreed to take these concerns into account and to have follow up discussions," the statement added.

US and Israel held virtual talks Monday as the US pushed alternatives to the ground assault against Hamas under consideration by Israelis in Rafah.

The US opposes the move on humanitarian grounds and that has frayed relations between the two allies. 

Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by many governments including US, Israel and Germany.

The Britain-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that the death toll from the attack on the Iranian diplomatic building in Damascus has risen to 11. 

Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the SOHR, told AFP news agency that the nationalities of the dead include eight Iranians, two Syrians, and one Lebanese.

Rahman said all of the people who died in the strike were fighters, rather than civilians.      

The SOHR uses sources within Syria in order to make its claims. The SOHR has been criticized for being in favor of Syrian rebels and biased against the Syrian government, which is aligned with Iran.   

Russia, following earlier accusations from Syria and Iran, alleged Israel carried out the airstrike on the Iranian diplomatic facility in Damascus.

"We strongly condemn this unacceptable attack against the Iranian consular mission in Syria," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.    

"We call on the Israeli leadership to stop provocative acts of armed violence against the territory of Syria and neighboring countries," the ministry statement added. 

Israel has so far not commented or claimed responsibility for the attack in the Syrian capital.

Russia is a close ally with the Syrian government, having backed Syrian President Bashar Assad's government amid the Syrian civil war. Russia has also fostered warm relations with Iran, with Iran accused of supplying Russia with Shahed drones for its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.  

Russia's relationship with Israel, meanwhile, has deteriorated amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Russia has criticized Israel's war strategy in Gaza, while Israel has condemned Russia for hosting Hamas delegations for meetings in Moscow.  

The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said seven of its members were killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike on an Iranian diplomatic facility in Damascus. 

Iran said two were generals and that five officers also died in the attack. The generals include the aforementioned Ali Reza Zahdi along with his deputy, Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi.  

Zahdi led the Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria until 2016. 

The press freedom organization, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it was "deeply concerned" by Israel's plans to shutter Qatari state broadcaster Al Jazeera.

The Israeli parliament on Monday passed legislation that would allow Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to shut down the news organization's activities in Israel. 

"CPJ is deeply concerned by new legislation authorizing the Netanyahu government to shutter Al Jazeera in Israel," CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna said.

He added: "The law grants the government the power to close any foreign media outlets operating in Israel, posing a significant threat to international media within the country. This contributes to a climate of self-censorship and hostility towards the press, a trend that has escalated since the Israel-Gaza war began."    

Under the law, the government can order the closure of a television broadcaster, the confiscation of equipment, the removal of the channel from cable and satellite providers and the blocking of its website, the Israeli Ynet news site reported.

US and Israeli officials held virtual talks on Israel's wartime plans regarding the southern Gaza city of Rafah. 

Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have said the country's military intends to carry out a ground operation in Rafah to root out Hamas. The Gaza-based militant group Hamas launched a terror attack on Israel on October 7, that resulted in the deaths of 1,200 people. They also took about 250 hostages.

The attacks led to the Israel military's campaign in Gaza against Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and several other nations.

Currently, over a million Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah, having fled the war in other parts of the enclave. The conflict will soon be entering its sixth month. The Hamas-led Health Ministry said over 32,800 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7.

The US, France, Germany and others have expressed concerns that a potential Israeli ground operation in Rafah could lead to further loss of civilian life and exacerbate Gaza's humanitarian crisis. Israel's Western allies also have said that Palestinians in Rafah have nowhere else to go, as buildings in the rest of Gaza has been massively damaged or destroyed.

Last week, an Israeli delegation canceled a visit to Washington for talks on Rafah after the UN Security Council voted for a cease-fire resolution in Gaza. The US abstained in the vote on the resolution, allowing it to be adopted. In the past,the US has vetoed decisions that might imperil its close ally Israel.

Iranian Ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, said the Iranian response to the alleged Israeli attack will be "harsh."

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani, in other comments reported by Iranian state media, said Tehran will choose "the type of response and punishment against the aggressor."

In remarks, carried by Iranian state news outlet Mehr News, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told his Syrian counterpart, Faisal Mekdad, that he considered the attack "a violation of international obligations and conventions."

Israel has not commented on the incident. 

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, said he wants the UN Security Council to vote on full membership status for the State of Palestine this month. 

"The intention is to put the application to a vote in the Security Council this month," Mansour told Reuters news agency on Monday. A 2011 Palestinian application for full membership in the UN has not yet been formally voted on. 

The State of Palestine has been a non-member observer state in the UN since November 2012. 

If the 15-member UN Security Council votes on member status for the State of Palestine, the United States could veto the application. The US is a key ally of Israel, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the idea of Palestinian sovereignty over security concerns.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government will ban Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera.

Israeli lawmakers on Monday passed a law, known as the Al Jazeera law, in the Israeli parliament that grants Netanyahu the ability to stop foreign broadcasters if they are seen to pose a national security risk.

"The terrorist channel Al Jazeera will no longer broadcast from Israel. I intend to act immediately in accordance with the new law to stop the channel's activities," Netanyahu wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Israel not to ban Al Jazeera, saying in an October statement that a "plurality of media voices is essential in order to hold power to account, especially in times of war."  

Iranian state media reported Monday that Ali Reza Zahdi, a commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was killed in an attack on the Iranian Embassy grounds in Damascus. 

Zahdi had previously led the Quds Force, a branch of the IRGC which is specialized in foreign special operations. The Quds Force was once helmed by Qassem Soleimani, who died in a US airstrike in Baghdad in 2020. 

Britain-based monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) also said the commander was killed, along with seven others.      

Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad, in comments carried by the official Syrian SANA news agency, said the Syrian government strongly condemns the "heinous terrorist attack" in Damascus.

Both Iran and Syria accused Israel of carrying out the airstrike.

Israel has not officially commented on the attack, saying it would not comment on reports in foreign media.

Israel frequently targets what it calls Iranian-affiliated sites in Syria that it views as a threat to its security. Syria, along with its allies Russia and Iran, has accused Israel of violating international law with the strikes. 

Iran and Syria have close ties, with the Iranian government firmly backing Syrian President Bashar Assad during the Syrian civil war.    

wd/sms (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)