UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk expressed concern over efforts to suppress debate and peaceful demonstrations on university campuses across the US.

"I'm very concerned about attempts to limit debate and peaceful protests on several US university campuses, including the intimidation and arrest of students for exercising their legitimate rights, no matter where they are from," Turk told an event hosted by the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.

The UN rights chief emphasised the critical role universities play in fostering dialogue, activism and the protection of human rights.

Qatar condemned a deadly Israeli air strike on a school, which shelters displaced people, and a separate attack on a Saudi medical warehouse in Gaza.

In a statement, the Qatari Foreign Ministry stressed the "urgent need for the international community to act to hold Israel accountable for its repeated crimes against civilians and civilian infrastructure and to compel it to comply with international laws".

The statement reaffirmed Qatar's "firm and unwavering position in support of the Palestinian cause and the steadfastness of the Palestinian people, based on international legitimacy and the two-state solution".

Yemen's Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi announced that his group's operations against American naval vessels will "continue with high effectiveness".

In a televised speech, Al-Houthi said the American aircraft carrier USS Truman "is in a constant state of pursuit, fleeing to the far north of the Red Sea".

"We will continue confronting the Americans, who are complicit with the Israeli enemy, supporting, protecting and joining them in their aggression against Palestine and the peoples of our nation."

Hundreds of Algerians joined a rare demonstration in solidarity with Palestinians, authorised by the North African country's authorities, an AFP news agency correspondent said.

At least 800 people gathered in front of the Algiers headquarters of the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP) party, which had called the demonstration. They massed in the capital's Mouradia neighbourhood not far from the presidential palace just after the Friday afternoon prayers, the correspondent said.

Though Algiers has been historically known for its stance in support of the Palestinians, demonstrations are seldom authorised.

More nations must join the Hague Group, a bloc of states coordinating efforts to ensure accountability for Israeli breaches of international law and uphold decisions by the international judicial bodies, said a group of independent human rights experts.

They said the system is endangered by the general inaction of the international community "in the face of the most egregious violations of international law perpetrated by the State of Israel".

"At this historical crossroads, protecting the international human rights system requires decisive, principled and concerted action," the experts said. "If States fail to act, the multilateral system will be set back decades."

Syrian activists in southern Syria's Suwayda city, where the majority are from the Druze religious community, staged a rally to protest the Israeli ground aggression on Syria's Daraa province which left at least nine people killed.

The Suwayda governor's office said in a statement that activists in Suwayda held a vigil in solidarity wit h their people in Daraa province, condemning the Israeli aggression on the province a few days ago.

"Syrian blood is one, and the defence of the country is a must on every free Syrian," read one of the banners during the vigil.

A group of illegal Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian herders in the southern occupied West Bank, continuing their spree of violent attacks against innocent people.

Eyewitnesses told Anadolu news agency that the settlers, who were under the protection of the Israeli forces, assaulted the Palestinian herders near the Al-Maniya village, east of Bethlehem city, and tried to steal their sheep.

As a confrontation erupted between the assailant settlers and Palestinians, Israeli forces intervened in favour of the settlers and fired tear gas canisters at the Palestinians, resulting in several asphyxiation cases, witnesses said.

Britain called on Tel Aviv to respect Syria's territorial integrity and warned that Israeli strikes risk destabilising the war-torn country further.

"Israel's strikes in Syria have reportedly killed civilians and risk destabilising Syria further," Hamish Falconer, minister for the Middle East, wrote on X.

He called on Israel to "address legitimate security threats through diplomacy".

Israel's internal security chief who the government has sought to dismiss said in a letter made public Friday that Benjamin Netanyahu had requested his intervention in the prime minister's corruption trial.

"In November 2024, the prime minister repeatedly asked that I provide a security assessment that would determine that the security circumstances do not allow for his continuous testimony in his criminal trial", which could extend gaps between court appearances, Ronen Bar said in a letter to the supreme court to challenge the government decision to dismiss him.

The letter was published by the attorney general.