Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the International Criminal Court of anti-Semitism after it issued arrest warrants against himself and his former defense minister on Thursday, calling it "a modern-day Dreyfus trial".

"The anti-Semitic decision of the International Criminal Court is comparable to the modern-day Dreyfus trial -- and it will end in the same way," Netanyahu said in a statement, referring to the 19th century Alfred Dreyfus affair in which a Jewish army captain was wrongly convicted of treason in France.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants on Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister and Hamas officials, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the war in Gaza and the October 2023 attacks that triggered Israel's offensive in the Palestinian territory.

The decision turns Netanyahu and the others into internationally wanted suspects and is likely to further isolate them and complicate efforts to negotiate a cease-fire to end the 13-month conflict. But its practical implications could be limited since Israel and its major ally, the United States, are not members of the court and several of the Hamas officials have been subsequently killed in the conflict.

The Senate on Wednesday rejected attempts by Sen. Bernie Sanders Wednesday to block sales of offensive weapons to Israel for its war in Gaza over mounting civilian deaths there.

The Vermont lawmaker and a small group of Democrats sought to put legislation up for a Senate vote that would block the sale of some tank and mortar rounds and smart-bomb kits to Israel. The first attempt to block the sales was rejected overwhelmingly, and two more efforts also went down to defeat.

Israeli strikes killed 71 pro-Iran operatives in the Syrian city of Palmyra, with more than a third of them identified as fighters from Iraq and Lebanon, a monitor said Thursday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said those killed in Wednesday's strikes included 45 fighters from pro-Iran Syrian groups, 26 foreign fighters, most of them from the Iraqi Al-Nujaba movement, and four from Lebanon's Hezbollah armed group.

The United States on Wednesday vetoed a U.N. Security Council push to call for a ceasefire in Gaza that Washington said would have emboldened Hamas.

"We made clear throughout negotiations we could not support an unconditional ceasefire that failed to release the hostages," said U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Robert Wood.

Israel has allowed an Al Jazeera journalist wounded in an airstrike in Gaza last month to be evacuated to Jordan for medical treatment.

Jordan’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that Ali al-Attar had been transferred to the kingdom with his sister in coordination with the World Health Organization. There was no immediate comment from Israel.

The Syrian defense ministry said 36 people were killed and more than 50 wounded in Israeli air strikes in the city of Palmyra on Wednesday.

"The Israeli enemy launched an air attack from the direction of the Al-Tanf area, targeting a number of buildings in the city of Palmyra," a ministry statement said, adding that it had killed 36 people and wounded more than 50, as well as causing "significant material damage".

Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson says Hamas leaders have left Doha but denied reports that Qatar has ordered a permanent closure of the Palestinian militant group’s political office or expulsion of its previously Doha-based leadership.

Qatar, which had served as a mediator in indirect cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas for a cease-fire and hostage exchange deal, has suspended its efforts after growing frustration with the lack of progress on a cease-fire deal for Gaza.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has dismissed an Israeli complaint to the U.N. Security Council about strikes by Iraq's Iran-backed Shiite militias on Israel as a “pretext and argument to attack Iraq” and to “expand the war in the region.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar had earlier posted on X a letter to the Security Council saying that “Israel has the inherent right to self-defense ... and to take all necessary measures to protect itself and its citizens against the ongoing acts of hostilities by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.”

Three Palestinians were killed on Tuesday during an Israel military operation in the occupied West Bank near Jenin, said the governor of the region, citing local authorities.

"There are three bodies of martyrs that are now with the Israeli side, after they killed them," Kamal Abu al-Rub said, citing the District Coordination Office. The Israeli military has yet to comment on the operation.