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Hamas has said that none of the 21 people killed in an Israeli attack on Nasser Hospital was a member of the Palestinian movement, after the Israeli military claimed it had targeted a Hamas surveillance camera and killed six fighters in its attack on the medical facility.

In a statement reported by the Reuters news agency on Wednesday, Hamas challenged the Israeli government’s account that claimed to name six fighters killed in the attack, which has drawn global condemnation for targeting journalists, medics, rescue workers and civilians.

Hamas said that at least two of the six Palestinians named by the Israeli military were not killed in the shocking double strike on the hospital, but at other times and locations, including one who was killed in al-Mawasi, some distance from the hospital in Khan Younis.

Earlier, the Israeli military claimed that its “initial investigation” into its own attack on the southern Gaza hospital showed that the target was a camera positioned in the area and used by Hamas to monitor Israeli troop movements.

“In light of this, the force acted to destroy the camera,” the Israeli army said.

At the moment of the initial Israeli strike on Monday, a Reuters news agency live video feed, which cameraman Hussam al-Masri had been operating, suddenly shut down. Al-Masri was killed in the attack.

Minutes later, a second strike was filmed live as it killed rescue workers and four more journalists who had run to the scene to help the victims of the initial Israeli strike.

The other four journalists killed in the attack were Ahmed Abu Aziz, Mariam Abu Daqqa, Mohammad Salama and Moaz Abu Taha.

The attack was a double-tap strike, in which Israeli forces bombed the facility, then waited for emergency responders and journalists to arrive on the scene, before bombing it a second time in order to maximise casualties.

Israel routinely justifies its deadly attacks on civilians across Gaza by saying it was targeting Hamas.

Human rights groups have accused the Israeli military of committing war crimes in its indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza, with a recent report finding that 83 percent of all those killed since Israel began its war on the enclave have been civilians.

Australia has dismissed a claim that Israeli interventions prompted the government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to expel Iran’s ambassador to Canberra, after the premier blamed Tehran for directing anti-Semitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne.

“Complete nonsense,” Australian Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke told ABC Radio on Wednesday, when asked about Israel claiming credit for Australia’s decision to order Tehran’s ambassador, Ahmad Sadeghi, to leave the country.

Albanese said on Tuesday that Australia had reached “the deeply disturbing conclusion” through “credible intelligence” that found Iran’s government had “directed” at least two attacks against Australia’s Jewish community.

Responding to a question from the ABC about Australia’s allegations against Iran, Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer had commended Australia for taking “threats seriously” against the Jewish community, which he said had come after a “forthright intervention” from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mencer said Netanyahu had “made very forthright comments about the [Australian] prime minister himself”, which spurred Albanese to action.

“He made those comments because he did not believe that the actions of the Australian government had gone anywhere near far enough to address the issues of anti-Semitism,” Mencer added.

The ABC included Mencer’s comments in an article titled: “Israeli government claims credit for pushing Albanese to expel Iranian diplomats.”

Netanyahu last week accused Albanese of being “a weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews”, days after Albanese announced Australia would move to formally recognise a Palestinian state in September.

Iran said it “absolutely rejected” Australia’s accusations regarding the attacks and noted that the claims had come after Australia had directed “limited criticism” at Israel.

“It seems that this action is taken in order to compensate for the limited criticism the Australian side has directed at the Zionist regime [Israel],” Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said.

“Any inappropriate and unjustified action on a diplomatic level will have a reciprocal reaction,” Baghaei said.

Ilana Lenk, the spokesperson and head of public diplomacy at Israel’s embassy in Canberra, shared Australian newspaper front pages with headlines including, ‘Iran attacks us’ and ‘Iran targets Bondi deli’, in a post on social media.

“We warned Iran wouldn’t stop with Israel or the Jewish people. The West is next isn’t just a slogan, and today Australia sees it,” she wrote.

In a statement, the Jewish Council of Australia said it was “shocked to learn of the Iranian government involvement in coordinating antisemitic attacks”.

“The fact that a foreign government appears to be responsible shows how irresponsible it was for the attacks to be used to demonise the Palestine solidarity protest movement ,” the council said in a statement.

“We call on politicians and the media to exercise caution and to avoid politicisation of these attacks in a way that could further harm the Jewish community,” the statement added.

A top US diplomat has triggered outrage and calls for an apology in Lebanon after telling a group of local journalists to “act civilised”.

Tom Barrack, the United States ambassador to Turkiye and the special envoy for Syria, made the comments on Tuesday after meeting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in Beirut to discuss plans for the disarmament of Hezbollah.

Briefing local media after the meeting, Barrack, who is of Lebanese descent, chided reporters for shouting out questions all at once, and appeared to draw a link between their behaviour and conflict in the Middle East.

“We’re going to have a different set of rules… please be quiet for a moment,” Barrack said.

“And I want to tell you something, the moment this starts becoming chaotic, like animalistic, we’re gone. So, you want to know what’s happening? Act civilised, act kind, act tolerant, because this is the problem with what is happening in the region.”

“In cadence with your kindness, your interest and your thoughtful questions, we’ll give you responses,” Barrack added. “If that’s not how you’d like to operate, we’re gone.”

Barrack’s remarks prompted a swift backlash in Lebanon and farther afield, with commentators accusing the diplomat of displaying arrogance and a colonial mentality.

The Lebanese Presidency expressed regret over the comments, saying in a statement on X that the government has “full appreciation for all journalists” and “extends to them its highest regards for their efforts and dedication in fulfilling their professional and national duties”.

The Union of Journalists in Lebanon called on Lebanese and Arab media outlets to boycott future events involving the envoy until he issues a formal public apology.

“The union considers Barrack’s comments against journalists not as a mere slip of the tongue or an individual stance, but rather as a reflection of an unacceptable superiority in dealing with the media and an implicit disdain for the essence of journalistic work,” the media union said in a statement.

“Furthermore, the content of his remarks reflects ingrained colonial arrogance towards the peoples of the region and constitutes a blatant violation of basic diplomatic etiquette and the values that diplomacy should represent – chief among them respect for press freedom and the people’s right to knowledge.”

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Mohamad Hasan Sweidan, a Beirut-based columnist at The Cradle, said Barrack’s comments reflected Washington’s attitude towards the region.

“Today, Tom Barrack is reminding us how they view people of the region by defining their actions as animalistic,” Sweidan said.

The US Department of State did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Six Syrian army officers have been killed in Israeli drone strikes south of Damascus, Syria’s state-run El Ekhbariya TV reported, a day after Syria condemned a new Israeli “military incursion” outside the capital.

Israeli drones targeted Syrian army positions in the Damascus countryside near the city of al-Kiswah, the broadcaster reported early on Wednesday.

Following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime last December, Israel has launched hundreds of strikes targeting military sites and assets across Syria.

Israel also expanded its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights by seizing the demilitarised buffer zone, a move that violated a 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria.

Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday that Israel had sent 60 soldiers to take control of an area inside the Syrian border around Mount Hermon, near a strategic hilltop that overlooks Beit Jinn, close to the border with Lebanon in southern Syria. Israel did not immediately comment on the accusation.

Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs Asaad al-Shaibani accused Israel of establishing intelligence facilities and military posts in demilitarised areas to advance its “expansionist and partition plans”.

Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared his vision for a “Greater Israel“, a concept supported by ultranationalist Israelis that lays claim to the occupied West Bank, Gaza, and parts of Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordan.

A coalition of 31 Arab and Islamic countries and the Arab League said the stance was a “blatant and dangerous violation of the rules of international law and the foundations of stable international relations”.

The latest Israeli military action in Syria follows deadly clashes in the Druze-majority Syrian province of Suwayda, where a week of sectarian violence in July killed 1,400 people, before a ceasefire put an end to the bloodshed. Israel had carried out strikes on Syrian troops and bombed the heart of the capital, Damascus, under the pretext of protecting the Druze people.

Israeli protesters have taken to the streets in large numbers across the country, demanding the release of captives held in Gaza and an immediate end to Israel’s ongoing war on the besieged enclave.

Demonstrators blocked major roads on Tuesday in Tel Aviv and other cities, holding pictures of captives taken during the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack in southern Israel, and calling for an immediate ceasefire.

Hundreds gathered outside Israel’s Ministry of Defence headquarters in central Tel Aviv in what was billed as a “Day of Disruption”, organised by families of the captives, who have accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of abandoning their relatives.

“For 690 days, the government has been waging a war without a clear objective,” said Einav Zangauker, whose 25-year-old son Matan remains held in Gaza. “We could have saved hostages and soldiers, but the prime minister chose, again and again, to sacrifice civilians for the sake of his rule,” she told the Reuters news agency.

Ruby Chen, the father of 21-year-old Itay Chen, a US-Israeli soldier whose body is being held in Gaza, urged officials to resume talks. “Go back to the negotiation table. There’s a good deal on the table… We could get a deal done to bring all the hostages back,” he said.

Despite growing international condemnation and declarations of a famine from aid agencies and the United Nations-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), Israel is carrying out a new offensive on Gaza City.

The Israeli military chief reportedly said that “a deal was on the table” to free the captives, and added that the offensive to seize Gaza City would pose a “great danger” to their lives, according to Israeli media.

“Now it’s in Netanyahu’s hands,” Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Eyal Zamir was quoted as saying by Israel’s Channel 13 news during his visit to the Haifa naval base on Sunday.

The protests come as Israel intensifies its genocide in Gaza, while a new poll from an Israeli research group has revealed overwhelming support among Jewish Israelis for the claim that there are “no innocents” in the Gaza Strip

The survey, conducted by aChord, a social psychology research group based at Hebrew University, found that 76 percent of Jewish-Israeli respondents partially or fully agreed with the statement that no civilians in Gaza can be considered innocent.

Even among voters who support opposition parties, nearly half (47 percent) fully endorsed the claim. Researchers said the findings highlight a deeply entrenched public acceptance of Israel’s devastating military campaign, which has killed more than 62,000 Palestinians and levelled much of Gaza.

“These are difficult findings,” researcher Ron Gerlitz said in a post on X. “They shed light on the enormous number of Palestinian civilians killed in the war in Gaza.”

Israeli news outlet Haaretz reported that dozens of protesters demonstrated outside a restaurant in Jerusalem that was hosting an event by the Binyamin Regional Council, a body that oversees dozens of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. According to Haaretz, the protesters chanted, “They are starving, you are celebrating.”

Gaza’s Ministry of Health said that at least 64 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks since dawn, including 13 who were shot dead while seeking desperately needed aid.

Half of Gaza’s 2 million people are sheltering in Gaza City, with thousands now crammed into coastal areas or fleeing south to camps in central Gaza and al-Mawasi.