The UN's unflinching expert on Palestinian affairs Francesca Albanese said Tuesday that Washington's sanctions following her criticism of the White House's stance on Gaza are a "violation" of her immunity.

The United Nations' Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories made the comments while visiting Bogota, nearly a week after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions, calling her work "biased and malicious."

"It's a very serious measure. It's unprecedented. And I take it very seriously," Albanese told an audience in the Colombian capital.

By Sam Tobin and Andrew MacAskill

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain set up a secret scheme to bring thousands of Afghans to the UK after their personal details were disclosed in one of the country's worst ever data breaches, putting them at risk of reprisals from the Taliban after their return to power.

Concerns that individuals could be targeted by the Taliban led the previous Conservative government to set up the relocation scheme, involving thousands of people and estimated to cost the government about 2 billion pounds ($2.7 billion).

The US ambassador to Israel on Tuesday demanded an aggressive investigation and consequences after settlers beat to death a Palestinian-American, in rare public pressure against the ally by President Donald Trump's administration.

Ambassador Mike Huckabee, an outspoken supporter for years of Jewish settlement in the Palestinian territories, spoke out after an initial muted US official reaction to the death of Saif al-Din Abdul Karim Musalat.

The mainly Druze residents of the Syrian city of Sweida had hoped the arrival of government forces on Tuesday would spell an end to deadly sectarian clashes with local Bedouin tribes.

Instead they spoke of executions, looting and arson as government troops and their allies rampaged through Druze neighbourhoods, prompting thousands from the religious minority to flee.

"Government forces entered the city on the pretext of restoring order... but unfortunately they indulged in savage practices," said Rayan Maarouf, editor in chief of the Suwayda 24 news website.

Thousands of Afghans who worked with the UK and their families were brought to Britain in a secret programme after a 2022 data breach put their lives at risk, the British government revealed on Tuesday.

Defence Minister John Healey unveiled the scheme to parliament after the UK High Court on Tuesday lifted a super-gag order banning any reports of the events.

Clerics and diplomats walked as if in a religious procession through the streets of Taybeh, a small Christian village in the occupied West Bank where residents blame Israeli settlers for a spate of recent attacks.

In cassocks and suits respectively, they answered the call from the local town hall and priests to meet residents affected by the violence and to see for themselves the arson damage on the remains of a Byzantine church.

"It became every day more clear that there is no law. The only law is power," said Jerusalem's Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa.

The Druze are a prominent religious community of more than a million people spread across Syria, Lebanon and Israel, who for centuries have sought to preserve a distinct identity.

In Syria, Druze fighters have clashed both with neighbouring Bedouin tribes and with forces loyal to the Islamist government, as they have struggled to find their place in the new order ushered in by the December overthrow of longtime president Bashar al-Assad.

Syrian authorities were accused on Tuesday of carrying out summary executions of civilians in the predominantly Druze province of Sweida, where Israel said it had launched strikes against government forces in defence of the religious minority.

Damascus deployed troops to the area after clashes between Druze fighters and Bedouin tribes killed scores of people, with Syria's defence minister declaring a ceasefire Tuesday in Sweida city, which government forces entered in the morning.

In the shadow of the Grand Egyptian Museum, souvenir shop owner Mona has been readying for the tourist boom she hoped the long-awaited opening would bring -- now once again out of reach.

"I had bet everything on this opening," she told AFP from her shop, just steps from the iconic pyramids of Giza, which the much-anticipated museum overlooks.

Originally scheduled to fully open this month, the museum was expected to attract up to five million visitors annually, fuelling optimism across Cairo's battered tourism sector.