ASIO's annual holiday threat assessment, which was issued to police and government agencies before the Bondi terrorist attack, warned religious events could be targeted but did not specifically identify elevated risks to Hanukkah celebrations.

The ABC has learned the assessment on the 2nd of December found violent protests were more likely than a terrorist attack against Jewish targets.

ASIO director-general Mike Burgess is expected to face questions at royal commission hearings next week about security preparations.

Australia has joined the UK, France and other nations in pressing Israel to stop its takeover of the occupied West Bank.

Israel has accelerated its takeover recently through increased settler violence, land seizures, and new laws on ownership and archaeology

Australia has joined eight other nations in condemning these actions as serious breaches of international law.

Australians detained by Israel as part of a flotilla of aid to Gaza are vowing to fight on.

The 11 Australians are now in Turkiye awaiting to return home after the Global Sumud Flotilla was intercepted by Israeli authorities.

Some of the protesters allege they received unacceptable treatment from their captors but Israel insists they were handled sensitively.

Conflicting accounts have emerged about a Ukrainian attack on a building in a Russian occupied part of eastern Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin says the strike on a university dormitory has killed six people and injured another 39, while Ukraine says the building was being used by the Russian military.

President Putin insists there had been no military or intelligence service facilities near the building.

And the U-S Director of National Intelligence has joined the growing list of departures from Donald Trump's cabinet, after announcing her resignation to support her husband who is battling cancer.

In her ​resignation letter, Tulsi Gabbard told ​Mr Trump she was "deeply ‌grateful for the trust he placed in her" since being sworn in, in February last year.

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