Paul Brown
BBC Verify senior journalist

Our page is closing soon, but BBC Verify’s work continues.

This evening our late team will be keeping a close eye on Syria following Israeli air strikes on the capital, which were aired live on TV.

Our UK fact-check team unpacked the key claims made at PMQs and looked at the details and numbers behind the Afghan data breach.

We've also investigated reports of the deaths of at least 20 people at an aid distribution site run by the controversial "Gaza Humanitarian Foundation" (GHF).

And you can catch up with more of BBC Verify’s fact-checks, open-source investigations and data journalism in our section of the BBC News website.

Israeli airstrikes on the Syrian capital were aired live on Syrian TV during a news broadcast.

The first strike hit the defence ministry building in central Damascus which was shown as a live background during the news headlines.

Later, cameras trained on the same building captured another strike.

The Israel military statement released afterwards said: "A short while ago, the IDF struck the Syrian regime's military headquarters in the area of Damascus in Syria.”

Sebastian Vandermeersch
BBC Verify

Image source, Telegram

Footage filmed earlier today shows hundreds of Druze civilians from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights crossing into Syria through a breached section of fence by Majdal Shams.

Majdal Shams is the largest Druze town in the Israeli-occupied Golan.

The Druze are a religious minority, living mainly between Syria, Lebanon, and Israel.

The footage shows Israeli soldiers trying to disperse the crowds with tear gas, but struggling to control the situation. Another, later video, shows hundreds of people passing through the open gate.

The location was verified using recent satellite imagery showing the same road, while reverse image searches confirmed the footage was uploaded today.

This comes after days of clashes in southwestern Syria between Druze and Bedouin militias, with Syrian government forces now advancing into the region - heightening fears of sectarian violence.

The crossings follow a statement from the spiritual leadership of Israel’s Druze community, urging its members to prepare to cross the border to assist their “slaughtered brethren in Syria.”

Lucy Gilder
BBC Verify journalist

Throughout our coverage of the Afghan data leak story, we’ve tried to get answers to several questions.

For example, we had seen some reporting that 18,500 Afghans affected by the leak had been brought to the UK.

Yesterday, however, Defence Secretary John Healey only mentioned about 5,100 - who had either arrived or were due to arrive, along with family members. He was talking about a specific scheme - the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR) - set up by the previous Conservative government in response to the leak.

We put the discrepancy between the two figures, to the Ministry of Defence (MOD) who told us that some Afghans named in the leak had been eligible for a different resettlement scheme known as the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP).

But the MOD did not say how many arrived under this scheme.

Another point we asked the MOD about was how many affected Afghans could still come to the UK after the government confirmed it would “honour” 600 invitations already made to people - and their immediate families - still in Afghanistan, despite closing the ARR scheme.

It said the 600 people invited would be expected to bring 1,800 family members. If all of them come, this would bring the total number of Afghans using the ARR scheme to around 6,900.

Peter Mwai
BBC Verify

Image source, Syria TV

A series of Israeli air strikes on the Syrian capital Damascus were captured live by one of the country’s main TV channels during a news broadcast.

One strike took place as a news anchor read out headlines from a nearby studio, forcing her to flee. Another clip showed at least four major strikes, with debris thrown through the air and plumes of smoke rising in the aftermath.

The main building we see in the footage matches with the ministry of defence building which is next to the Umayyad Square in the heart of the capital Damascus as seen on satellite imagery.

We can also match the other buildings, roads and a monument seen in the footage to satellite imagery.

The strikes follow recent sectarian clashes in southwestern Syria, which prompted air strikes from Israel.

The Israeli army, external has today confirmed striking what it described as “the entrance of the Syrian regime's military headquarters in the area of Damascus”.

Image source, Syria TV

Lucy Gilder
BBC Verify journalist

Image source, Getty Images

As usual on a Wednesday afternoon, the fact check team followed the exchanges between the prime minister and the leader of the opposition during Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs).

We fact checked these two claims about the economy:

• Is business confidence is at a nine-year high? This claim by PM Sir Keir Starmer is correct - according to one survey - but needs context. The latest Lloyds release, external shows 64% of 1,200 businesses surveyed in June 2025 reported confidence was higher and 13% said it was lower. This gave a net "balance of confidence" figure of 51% for the month - the highest since 2015. However, there are other indicators of UK business confidence which show a gloomier picture, which you can read about here.

• Does the UK have the highest inflation in the G7? Kemi Badenoch said "inflation is up again, the worst in the G7, we [the Conservatives] left him [Keir Starmer] with 2% inflation". It’s true that the annual Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation rose to 3.6% in June 2025, up from 3.4% in May and that CPI was 2% year-on-year in June 2024, shortly before Labour came to power. And the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) thinktank reported that in May 2025 inflation in the UK was 4% year-on-year, higher than any of the other G7 nations.

Today was the last PMQs before the summer recess but we’ll continue to fact check politicians’ statements on social media and elsewhere throughout the summer months.

Lucy Gilder
BBC Verify journalist

We’re continuing to look at the Afghan data leak story.

We’ve seen claims that some of the Afghans on the leaked list may have had criminal backgrounds.

The Daily Mail reported yesterday , externalthat “several Afghans on [the] list had previously been rejected [from resettlement schemes] for violent or sexual assaults”.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, external, Reform UK’s Richard Tice said: “With no vetting procedure in place, we are letting in sex offenders, potential terrorists and criminals. It has been revealed that several Afghans on this list had previously been rejected for violent or sexual assaults”.

And party leader Nigel Farage said in a video on X, external that “among the number that have come are convicted sex offenders”.

Defence Secretary John Healey said in Parliament yesterday that “I want to provide assurance to the House and the British public that all individuals relocated under the Afghanistan response route, ARAP or the Home Office’s Afghan citizens resettlement scheme undergo strict national security checks before being able to enter our country.”

He did not mention whether anyone on the list, including those who have arrived in the UK, had been vetted for criminal convictions.

We contacted the Ministry of Defence which says robust security and immigration checks take place on all those arriving in the UK and law enforcement have the powers to deal with them appropriately.

Paul Brown
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, Planet Labs PBC

Reports of killings at or near Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid sites have been frequent since the scheme was launched in late May, with a series of eyewitness accounts describing Israeli forces firing on groups of people waiting for aid.

The GHF has typically denied that incidents happened near its sites while the Israel Defense Forces have issued denials around some incidents but sometimes admitted firing “warning shots”.

The GHF aid distribution scheme was established after Israel partially lifted its blockade of aid supplies into Gaza. It established four sites - called "Safe Distribution Centres (SDS)" - on the strip. Three were located in the south, near Rafah, and one in central Gaza.

Footage from within the sites has been scarce, but what we have seen shows scenes of chaos and violence. This morning's incident reportedly occurred at SDS3, which is situated between Rafah and Khan Younis. Yesterday, the GHF said SDS3 would close for the day due to "crowds at the site".

We previously reported on verified footage filmed on 12 July less than 1km from SDS2, which showed gunfire close to a large crowd of people awaiting aid.

Satellite imagery from the following day showed large crowds gathered at the same point again.

The United Nations said yesterday that as of 13 July, 674 people had been killed "in the vicinity of GHF sites" since they were established.

Lucy Gilder
BBC Verify journalist

We’re looking into the Afghan data leak story, which was revealed yesterday after a court ruling was lifted.

The previous Conservative government set up a resettlement scheme - the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR) for Afghans affected by the data breach and its existence was kept secret until yesterday, when it was closed by the government.

There have been various claims about how much it could end up costing the government, with figures as high as £7bn. We’ve been trying to get to the bottom of them.

Defence Secretary John Healey told the Commons yesterday that the £7bn figure “was a previous estimate”, covering not only the ARR, but the “total cost of all government Afghan schemes for the entire period in which they may operate”.

He gave a lower overall figure of “between £5.5 billion and £6 billion” because of “policy decisions”. He didn’t specify what those were but earlier in July two other Afghan schemes were closed.

The specific cost of bringing 900 people and 3,600 family members to the UK under the ARR scheme is about £400m, with similar additional costs for those who still to arrive, Healey said.

But this does not include the legal costs of keeping the case out of the media, nor does it include potential compensation claims by Afghans whose lives may have been put at risk by the data leak.

Lucy Gilder
BBC Verify journalist

Defence Secretary John Healey said yesterday that 4,500 people and their families are in the UK or on their way under a hitherto secret Afghanistan Response Route (ARR), set up for people affected by a massive data leak.

The 2022 leak - which emerged yesterday after a court ruling was lifted - accidentally revealed names, contact details and some family information of people potentially at risk of harm from the Taliban

Healey said the scheme had been closed but the government “will honour the 600 invitations already made to any named persons still in Afghanistan and their immediate family”.

It isn’t clear from his statement whether the 600 figure includes immediate family members and we are asking the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Home Office for more detail on these figures.

So what we know so far - from Healey’s statement - is that if all of the invitations are accepted - there will be at least 5,100 ARR arrivals.

This is significantly lower than the 18,714 names of Afghan applicants on the data leak. We’ve asked the MoD to explain the discrepancy between the figures.

Peter Mwai
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, X

We are following up on the incident this morning where the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) says 20 people died at one of its aid distribution sites in the Gaza Strip.

The GHF statement said 19 of those were killed when “trampled”, while another was stabbed.

We have verified two videos filmed at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis showing at least six young men reported to be casualties of the incident. Some of them appear lifeless.

In one clip, a man accompanying the victims was says: “They opened the gates, with fences on both sides, and people stampeded over them.”

We can tell the clips were filmed at the hospital by matching details from previously verified footage. The two clips are filmed from different angles but we can see the same individuals - responders and victims - at the scene. Reverse image search shows no versions of the clips, other than from today, are available online.

Matt Murphy
BBC Verify senior journalist

Good morning from BBC Verify Live.

It’s a busy morning here. Our fact-checkers, data journalists and verification specialists are working on these stories today:

• We are investigating the aftermath of a deadly incident at an aid distribution site in Gaza, in which 20 people have been killed
• Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) officials say that 19 people were trampled in a crush at the site, while another person was stabbed
• We will be looking into the broader situation at the controversial aid centres, where satellite images have shown dense crowds in recent days
• And our fact-checkers are digging into the figures behind the news that the UK has resettled thousands of Afghan nationals after a data breach exposed their identities to the Taliban

All that to come, and later our fact-check team will be gearing up for Prime Minister’s Questions, where Sir Keir Starmer will be grilled by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch in the final clash before summer recess.