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A US-based rights group said Tuesday it had confirmed the deaths of over 6,000 people in protests in Iran suppressed by security forces, adding it was investigating over 17,000 more potential deaths and warning a wave of arrests was ongoing.The protests started in late December sparked by economic grievances but turned into a mass movement against the Islamic republic, with huge street rallies on January 8 and 9 that were the biggest in recent years.Rights groups have accused authorities of an unprecedented crackdown by shooting directly at protesters. The demonstrations have petered out for now.NGOs tracking the toll have said their task has been impeded by an almost three-week internet shutdown, warning that confirmed figures are likely to be far lower than the actual toll.The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said it had confirmed that 6,126 people had been killed, including 5,777 protesters, 86 minors, 214 members of the security forces and 49 bystanders.But the group, which has an extensive network of sources inside Iran and has tracked the protests on a daily basis since they began, added it was still investigating another 17,091 possible fatalities. At least 41,880 people have been arrested, it said.The group condemned “the continuation of communication control policies, the ongoing wave of arrests, and growing concerns over the safety of medical centres for the injured”.Activists have accused authorities of raiding hospitals to find injured protesters and then arresting them. The health ministry has said all people should present themselves at hospital without worry and not treat themselves at home.”Security agencies continue to pursue an approach centred on mass arrests, intimidation, and control of the narrative,” HRANA said.It said the reports of arrests inside hospitals “have generated new human rights concerns regarding the right to access medical care”.Giving their first official toll from the protests, Iranian authorities last week said 3,117 people were killed, the majority members of the security forces and innocent bystanders who authorities claim were killed by “rioters”.Over the weekend, Persian-language TV channel Iran International, which is based outside Iran, said more than 36,500 Iranians were killed by security forces between January 8 and 9, citing reports, documents and sources. It was not immediately possible to verify the report.`Another NGO, Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR), says it has documented at least 3,428 killings of protesters by the security forces and warned that the final toll risks reaching 25,000.

Journalists at the Persian-language TV station Iran International in London have been working flat out, vowing to “show the truth” about the protests in Iran, despite threats against them and their families.The private broadcaster, housed in a heavily-secured building in west London, was labelled a “terrorist” organisation by Tehran in 2022 along with the BBC’s Persian-language channel.But Iranians can still access it via satellite and private VPN codes, and have continued to tune in even after authorities imposed an unprecedented nationwide communications blackout on January 8.Thousands of Iranians managed to send the channel videos of the crackdown, broadcast after verification. Many also sent audio or written testimonies describing atrocities they had witnessed.Farnoosh Faraji, a senior journalist, scrolled through images of piles of bodies, a man killed by a bullet in his back, and armed forces firing on fleeing protesters.”Honestly, it’s horrible. At the beginning I couldn’t believe it. I thought maybe the images were made with AI,” said the journalist, who fled Iran in 2012.- ‘Shocked by brutality’ -Part of the digital team, she spends her days analysing footage of the bloodshed.”I promised myself to be strong. I must help my people, this is part of my job,” she said.Presenter Reza Mohaddes said: “We were shocked by the brutality of the regime. How can you do this sort of things to your own people?”On Sunday, the channel reported that at least 36,500 people had been killed by security forces during the January 8-9 crackdown, citing newly obtained classified documents and accounts from medical sources and families.The anti-government demos were sparked by economic grievances in late December, but soon turned into mass street rallies against the Islamic republic.The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said Monday it had confirmed that 5,848 people had been killed, adding it was still investigating another 17,091 possible fatalities.Launched in 2017, Iran International “was created to be the voice of truth, the voice of the people of Iran,” Mohaddes said.The channel estimates its weekly audience is “probably now over 40 million,” said spokesman Adam Baillie.It is one of several Persian‑language outlets critical of Iran’s clerical leadership operating from abroad, including the London‑based station Manoto.According to Baillie, Iran International is the most-watched television channel inside Iran and is also followed by the large Iranian diaspora.The newsroom employs about 200 journalists, with correspondents in Washington, Paris, Berlin and Tel Aviv. Iran International is regularly accused of receiving backing from Saudi Arabia — claims the station denies.”Our investor is a British-Saudi national. But it is not … controlled by Saudi Arabia. It’s nothing to do with the Saudi Arabian state,” said Baillie.- Anonymous threats -He insisted the station is independent and supports neither Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s former shah who has backed the sweeping protests, nor Israel, contrary to allegations from Tehran.Working at Iran International “you need a lot of courage … You have to be quite tough,” said Baillie.”The threats against the channel have grown exponentially since we began. We’ve never been free of them … but it has reached another level”.Faraji recalled how her best friend, who is still in Iran, was arrested and forced by police to send her a message urging her to resign.Mohaddes recently received an anonymous email threatening to kill him and also to blow up the building.Like previous threats, the message was reported to London police.In 2023, on the advice of British counter-terrorism police, Iran International was forced to shut down and temporarily broadcast from Washington for seven months. In March 2024, one of the channel’s reporters was stabbed near his London home, spurring an investigation by Scotland Yard.Britain’s foreign ministry has also summoned Iran’s most senior diplomat to protest “serious threats” against journalists living in the UK.”I’m not afraid at all,” insisted Mohaddes. “We’re all fighting to get rid of this brutal regime.” 

Israeli forces brought home on Monday the remains of Ran Gvili, the last hostage held in Gaza, finally closing the chapter on a painful saga that has haunted Israeli society since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.Militants took 251 hostages to Gaza that day, and the process of returning them has dragged over the course of the ensuing war in a series of ceasefire and prisoner-swap deals as well as efforts to rescue them militarily.The most recent set of hostage handovers was part of the US-backed Gaza ceasefire deal that took effect on October 10, aiming to halt more than two years of fighting that has devastated the Palestinian territory.The return of Gvili’s remains paves the way for a limited reopening of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, a key entry point for aid into Gaza.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had signalled pedestrian crossings would resume at Rafah, subject to Israeli inspections, once every hostage had been recovered.Gvili’s coffin was accompanied by a convoy of cars with blaring sirens and flashing lights, passing civilians waving Israeli flags on the side of the road.At a ceremony held at a military base near Gaza, the slain police officer’s father, Ytzik Gvili, addressed his son’s coffin, saying: “You should see the honours we’re giving you here.””I’m proud of you my son,” he added.Netanyahu lauded Gvili as “a hero of Israel”.Hamas said it provided information on the location of Gvili’s body, and spokesman Hazem Qassem said Monday that his recovery “confirms Hamas’s commitment to all the requirements of the ceasefire agreement”.The first phase of the US-backed deal stipulated the return of every hostage, and Gvili’s family had opposed moving on to the second phase before they had received his remains.Reopening Rafah forms part of the truce framework announced by US President Donald Trump.- Killed in action -Gvili’s mother Talik called her son’s return “amazing”.”He’s finally coming home, we can’t believe it,” she told Israel’s public broadcaster KAN. “They found him intact, dressed in his uniform.”Footage released by the military showed Gvili’s coffin draped in an Israeli flag and surrounded by soldiers singing the national anthem.”With this, all hostages have been returned from the Gaza Strip to the State of Israel,” the Israeli military said in a statement announcing it had definitively identified Gvili’s remains.The 24-year-old Israeli police officer in the elite Yassam unit was on medical leave ahead of shoulder surgery when Hamas launched its deadly 2023 attack in southern Israel, but grabbed his gun and raced towards the area.Nicknamed the “Defender of Alumim” by his family and the kibbutz of that name, Gvili was killed in combat and Hamas militants took his body to Gaza.- ‘Many difficult years’ -Israeli President Isaac Herzog celebrated Gvili’s return, saying that “for the first time since 2014, there are no Israeli citizens held hostage in Gaza. An entire nation prayed and waited for this moment.”Prior to October 2023, two civilian hostages and the bodies of two Israeli soldiers killed in previous wars were being held in the territory.US President Donald Trump offered his congratulations on his Truth Social platform, adding: “Most thought of it as an impossible thing to do.”Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel was now “at the doorstep of the next phase” of the deal, which involves “disarming Hamas and demilitarising the Gaza Strip”.While the ceasefire plan demands the group’s disarmament in the second phase, Hamas has so far refused to commit.- ‘True friend’ -The Israeli group representing the families of hostages held in Gaza described Gvili as “a true friend, loved by everyone”.The Hostages and Missing Families Forum has worked throughout the war to keep the plight of the captives in the public eye, organising regular rallies at a plaza in Tel Aviv now known as Hostages Square, where supporters gathered again on Monday evening.”I’m very emotional,” said Orna Cheled, 70, who was wearing a pendant shaped like a yellow ribbon, a symbol of the hostages. “I’ve been wearing this with me throughout this whole period and tomorrow I’m removing it, because (Gvili) will be laid to rest with dignity, in the country he loved so much.”Central Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital said on Monday it had received nine living Palestinian detainees released by Israel after Gvili’s recovery.Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.Israel’s retaliation has left at least 71,660 people dead in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.