April 2, 2024 - Israel-Hamas war

The Israeli military's top general apologized for an Israeli strike on a World Central Kitchen convoy that killed seven aid workers, calling it “a mistake that followed a misidentification.”

Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said in a video statement Tuesday that the military completed a preliminary debrief and determined it did not intend to kill the aid workers.

He called the strike "a grave mistake," and vowed that the Israel Defense Forces "will continue taking immediate actions to ensure that more is done to protect humanitarian aid workers.

"This incident was a grave mistake. Israel is at war with Hamas, not with the people of Gaza," Halevi added.

The United States conducted another airdrop of food into Northern Gaza on Tuesday, US Central Command said.

Remember: Human rights groups have repeatedly criticized airdrops as an inefficient and degrading way of getting aid to Gazans, instead urging Israeli authorities to lift controls on land crossings into the enclave.

Just last week at least 12 Palestinians drowned off the northern Gaza coast near Beit Lahia on Monday while trying to reach airdropped parcels that had landed in the sea, according to local paramedics. And last month, at least five people were killed and 10 others injured when airdropped aid packages fell on them in Al Shati camp west of Gaza City, according to a journalist on the scene.

The Palestinian Authority sent the UN secretary-general a letter renewing its request for UN membership, according to a post on social media from the Palestinian permanent observer mission to the UN on Tuesday.

The post included a letter, signed by UN Ambassador of the Palestinian Territories Riyad Mansour, which referenced the initial September 2011 application for membership status and requested renewed consideration this month.

Remember: In September 2011, the Palestinian Authority failed to win UN recognition as an independent member state. A year later, the UN decided that the Palestinian Authority's "non-member observer entity" status would be changed to "non-member observer state," similar to the Vatican.

A friend of one of the aid workers with World Central Kitchen who was killed in Gaza on Monday was remembered Tuesday as someone who met people with a smile when they were experiencing the darkest time of their lives.

"She met them with a smile, she met them with humanity, and the world is a darker place without somebody like that today," Bryan Weaver, a friend of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom, told CNN's Jake Tapper.

Weaver said Frankcom saw the children she fed as part of her family.

The White House has shifted plans for President Joe Biden to host iftar — a dinner to break the Ramadan fast — Tuesday night after Muslim community leaders expressed frustration with the administration’s support of Israel amid the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Biden will still host a small dinner with senior Muslim administration officials, a White House official said. But outside attendees will instead go to a meeting "to discuss issues of importance to the community," the official said.

CNN previously reported that several people who were invited to attend declined, sources said.

“Basically the sentiment we heard over and over again was that anybody going to the iftar while Palestinians are being killed and starved should be ashamed of themselves,” another source told CNN.

Vice President Kamala Harris, senior Muslim administration officials, senior members of Biden’s national security team and fewer than a dozen invited guests are expected to attend the meeting, per a senior administration official. 

Some anti-government protesters Tuesday breached security barriers near the Jerusalem residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to social media videos.

Israeli police said most of the demonstrators behaved lawfully, but noted that some were "disorderly" as they tried to approach Netanyahu's residence. Israeli media reported several arrests.

One video shows a confrontation between police and Ayala Metzger — the daughter-in-law of one of the hostages held in Gaza. Metzger can be seen being wrestled to the ground as police tried to confiscate a megaphone she was carrying.

Another video showed protesters and police struggling over steel barricades. One man crawled beneath a police water cannon vehicle to prevent it from moving.

National Security Minister Ben Gvir criticized the Israeli security services for allowing protesters to get so close to Netanyahus’ residence.

Other protesters marched toward Israeli President Isaac Herzog's residence. 

This post was updated with a response from the Israeli police.

The United States assesses that Israel carried out the airstrike Monday in Damascus on what Iran has said was a consulate building, deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said on Tuesday.

The Israeli government has not acknowledged carrying out the strike. 

Singh said the Pentagon was "not notified by the Israelis about their strike, or the intended target of their strike, in Damascus." Israel denied the claim that the building hit was a consulate, saying Monday that it was a "military building of Quds forces," which is a unit of the IRGC.

Singh said that she couldn’t confirm what type of building was hit in the strike.  "Again this was not a US strike so I don’t have a lot of details on what type of building that was. But no, we don’t support attacks on diplomatic facilities," she said. 

During a phone call with Israel's prime minister, Britain’s Rishi Sunak “demanded a thorough and transparent independent investigation" into an Israeli strike on an aid convoy in Gaza. 

Sunak told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he was appalled by the attack, which killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers, including three British nationals," according to an official Downing Street readout.

The top US diplomat marked the start of National Arab American Heritage Month in a statement Tuesday by noting that it comes “at a time of immense pain.”

The Biden administration has come under immense scrutiny domestically, and from members of the US government workforce, for its policy on Israel and the Gaza war.

Blinken said the US is committed to pursuing a deal that would secure the release of hostages still being held in Gaza and allow more humanitarian aid to enter the enclave.

“I value the conversations I have participated in with my Arab American colleagues and with members of the larger Arab American community on US policy in the region. I will continue to seek their counsel as we pursue lasting peace and security in the Middle East,” he said.