April 16, 2024 - Israel-Hamas war

President Ebrahim Raisi has warned that the “smallest action against Iran’s interests” will be met with a “severe, extensive and painful” response.

In a call with Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Monday, the president said that Iran's attack on Israel this weekend was an act of “legitimate defense.”

"Honest Promise" was the name given to Iran’s unprecedented attack, which saw drones and missiles launched at Israel over a five-hour period — almost entirely intercepted by the Israeli military and its allies. Israel has vowed to respond and is weighing its options to do so.

In the call, Qatar “stressed the need to reduce all forms of escalation and avoid expanding the conflict in the region,” according to a statement run by state news agency Sheikh Tamim.

Artist Ruth Patir, Israel’s representative at the Venice Biennale in Italy, has said she won’t open her exhibit until a hostage and ceasefire deal has been reached.

She said the Israeli pavilion at the international cultural exhibition “will only open when the release of hostages and ceasefire agreement happens” in a statement shared on Instagram on Tuesday.

A petition signed by more than 23,000 people recently called for Israel to be excluded from the Venice Biennale.

Patir on Tuesday said that she and commissioners Mira Lapidot and Tamar Margalit had made headlines in recent weeks rather than the art and the exhibition titled "(M)otherland."

Protests against Israel's war in Gaza have taken place at various cultural events, including this year's Oscars and the Grammy's.

Israel has yet to agree on how to respond to the Iranian attack that saw more than 300 projectiles fired at its territory in the first direct military confrontation between the Islamic Republic and the Jewish state.

Israel must balance international pressure to show restraint on the one hand while searching for an appropriate response to an unprecedented attack.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now has to weigh his right-wing coalition’s call for a strong reaction against the risk of further international isolation for Israel by widening the war without international support.

Despite pressure from allies not to escalate, Israel’s war cabinet is now debating the timing and scope of the response, two Israeli officials familiar with the deliberations told CNN.

Analysts say that Israel has few options, and each of those options comes with a price, especially as it is already embroiled in a brutal six-month war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip and is confronting various Iran-backed militants in the region.

A direct attack on Iran would set yet another precedent. While Israel is believed to have conducted covert operations in Iran over the years, often targeting individuals or facilities seen as a threat to its security, it has never launched a direct military assault on Iranian territory.

Read the full analysis.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke to his Israeli counterpart Monday and “reaffirmed the strategic goal of regional stability,” according to a readout of the call.

Austin and Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant discussed the aftermath of Iran’s unprecedented attack on Israel over the weekend, the readout said.

The secretary also reiterated “steadfast” US support for Israel’s defense.

Some context: Israel's war cabinet is weighing a response to Iran's attack, which saw more than 300 projectiles fired at its territory — most of which were intercepted.

Austin previously asked Gallant to notify the US ahead of any potential response to the Iranian attack, according to a US official.

The two had spoken hours after Iran had launched a barrage of drones and missiles at Israel.

Israel was set to take its first steps toward a ground offensive in Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah this week but has delayed those plans as it mulls a response to Iran’s unprecedented aerial attacks over the weekend, two Israeli sources have told CNN.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long stressed the importance of invading Rafah to dismantle Hamas’s remaining battalions, despite international pressure to call off an all-out ground offensive.

But a military response to Iran could pull Israel's attention and resources away from Gaza.

Here are the latest developments in the region:

Hamas has slashed the number of hostages it is willing to release during the first phase of a proposed ceasefire deal by more than half, an Israeli source close to the negotiations said.

In its latest counterproposal, Hamas offered to release fewer than 20 hostages in exchange for a six-week ceasefire, more than halving the number of 40 hostages that has been the basis of negotiations for months — a significant step backward in the talks.

A senior Biden administration official confirmed that Hamas is focused on those 20 for the first phase of a potential deal. The official also confirmed Hamas is telling mediators that it only has around 20 remaining hostages who are women or sick, wounded and elderly men.

Hamas also called for the release of more Palestinian prisoners in exchange for fewer hostages, the source said, as well as a higher number of prisoners serving life sentences.

The Israeli source said the latest Hamas counterproposal signals that Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza, does not want a deal, seeking to exploit fissures between the US and Israel over Israeli military operations in Gaza and domestic pressure on the Israeli government.

Hamas spokesperson Basem Naim said the group had proposed “releasing (three) captured Israelis each week,” but said “no one is talking about final numbers.”

Beyond the ratio of Palestinian prisoners, Hamas is continuing to demand assurances about a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, and unrestricted access for Palestinians to return to northern Gaza.

China said it noted Iran’s statement that the actions against Israel were an “exercise of the right of self-defense” during a phone call between the foreign ministers of the two nations on Monday, and did not condemn the weekend strikes.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian that China condemned the attack on a consulate building in the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus, according to a statement issued by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Chinese foreign minister added the incident “seriously violates international law and is unacceptable.”

Separately, China’s Special Envoy on the Middle East, Zhai Jun, met with Irit Ben-Abba Vitale, Israel’s Ambassador to China, on Monday, in which the latter expressed Israel's position and concerns on the conflict in Gaza.

Zhai said China was “deeply concerned about the current escalation of regional tensions, and conflicts and bloodshed serve the interests of no one.”

Fifteen more bodies were recovered on Monday from around Al-Shifa Hospital following the withdrawal of the Israeli military from the area two weeks ago, Gaza residents and medical crews told CNN.

Health workers and residents in northern Gaza have been searching and digging for what they believe are mass graves and looking for their loved ones, after they said Israeli forces killed hundreds of Palestinians and left their bodies to decompose during their two-week siege of the complex.

Hundreds of bodies have been recovered from areas around the hospital complex since the siege ended on April 1, a Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson told CNN last week.

Video filmed by CNN Monday shows medical workers, some wearing UN-marked vests, walking around the site over mounds of sand, digging up bodies. White body bags can be seen lying on the side of the excavation site, some marked with text reading “unidentified body” and some with names of people on them.

CNN has contacted the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment on these allegations but has not received a response.

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White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby reiterated Monday morning that President Joe Biden is focused on preventing Iran’s attack against Israel from spiraling into a wider regional conflict. 

Pressed on whether it’s the White House position that Israel should not retaliate, Kirby said that’s ultimately up to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government but that the US wants to see tensions de-escalate. 

“We respect their sovereign decision-making process. What we want to see is de-escalation of the tensions. We don't want to see a wider war," Kirby said.