Iran, NGO: 'At least 27 protesters killed by authorities, including five children'

Iran: NGOs, 'killed by authorities at least 27 protesters, including 5 children'

Iranian security forces killed at least 27 protesters, including five minors, in a crackdown on demonstrations that began in late December, according to Iran Human Rights, a non-governmental organisation based in Norway. "At least 27 protesters were killed by gunfire or other forms of violence carried out by security forces in eight provinces. It was established that five of those killed were children,' the NGO said on the tenth day of protests, adding that over a thousand people were arrested.

The escalation comes as US President Donald Trump warned Tehran that Washington could intervene if peaceful protesters were "violently killed". The protests, the most significant since 2022 after the death of Mahsa Amini, have erupted against the backdrop of the collapse of the rial and economic difficulties following new sanctions and the recent war with Israel.

Meanwhile, there has been an Israeli military operation at Birzeit University in the West Bank: the Palestinian Wafa news agency reports that 11 Palestinian students, five of whom were hit by live bullets, were injured, while dozens suffocated from tear gas inhalation. All were transferred to hospital.

Other students sustained bruises when they fell during the raid. Israeli forces also fired stun grenades inside the campus. According to the university's communications officer Nirdin Al-Mimi, about 8,000 students were present at the university at the time of the raid.

Israeli soldiers, he reports, broke through and damaged the main gate of the university, raided several buildings and faculties, and seized equipment belonging to the student movement. During the raid, Israeli forces also arrested the university's Vice President for Academic Affairs Assem Khalil. The Ministry of Education and Higher Education condemned the raid, saying that these attacks blatantly violate all international norms and conventions that criminalise the violation of the sanctity of universities and educational institutions in general. He reiterated his call on the International Association of Universities, the Arab Universities Association, and all international, human rights and media organisations to denounce and curb these continuing violations against Palestinian higher education and to take a firm stance against them.

Somalia condemns Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar's visit to Somaliland today, calling it an 'unauthorised incursion', less than two weeks after Israel officially recognised the separatist region, which has had an independent 'government' for 34 years. The Times of Israel writes that. 'Somalia condemns in the strongest terms the unauthorised incursion of the Israeli foreign minister into Hargheisa,' the Somali foreign ministry said in a note, adding that such a visit without the 'explicit consent and authorisation of the federal government of Somalia is illegal, null and void'.

According to a government tender, Israel has cleared the last hurdle before starting construction of a controversial settlement project near Jerusalem that would effectively divide the West Bank in two. The announcement would pave the way for the start of construction of the E1 project. The anti-settlement monitoring group Peace Now first broke the news of the ban. Yoni Mizrahi, who heads the group's settlement monitoring division, said construction could begin by the end of January.

The US has proposed a demilitarised zone on the Syrian-Israeli border as part of negotiations for a security agreement between the two countries. This was reported by Axios citing sources, according to which the proposal is similar to the one put forward by the Trump administration for the Donbass in Ukraine.