April 16, 2024 - Israel-Hamas war

 The United States is planning to impose new sanctions targeting Iran after its attack on Israel over the weekend, according to National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

Earlier Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced the Biden administration would use sanctions “to continue disrupting the Iranian regime’s malign and destabilizing activity.” 

In addition to new sanctions, Sullivan wrote Tuesday the administration will “continue to work through the Department of Defense and U.S. Central Command to further strengthen and expand the successful integration of air and missile defense and early warning systems across the Middle East to further erode the effectiveness of Iran’s missile and UAV capabilities.”

Israel, aided by its allies, dodged a bullet Sunday.

To be more precise, 60 tons of explosives aboard more than 350 Iranian projectiles, some bigger than a family car, failed to dodge Israel’s defenses.

Yet Israel, in defiance of US President Joe Biden’s warnings to “take the win” and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s threat of a “severe, extensive and painful” response to any retaliation, is contemplating just that.

Deterrence, shorthand for “meanest S.O.B. in the room,” Israel believes, is the cornerstone of its survival. Iran is stealing that brick.

When faced with existential threats in the past, Israel has executed the most audacious raids the region has ever witnessed. The point being, Israel won’t telegraph its attack plans as Iran did at the weekend.

Aside from the core members of Israel’s war cabinet, more than a dozen other people have sat at the table deep inside the Kirya, Israel’s maximum security defense headquarters in Tel Aviv, thrashing out their next move.

Netanyahu’s next move will likely try to lock in sanctions, and strike before negative Gaza headlines dump the international good will filling his sails.

The clock is ticking. He needs two things, time to prepare a significant surprise strike, and time to coalesce international diplomacy. As both march to different beats, his legendary political acumen faces one of its stiffest tests yet.

Netanyahu is famed as a political survivor. But now he faces the biggest gamble of his career. He is betting the blood of his nation over Iran’s read of his rift with America.

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Ireland's newly appointed prime minister told CNN that Israel's sense of reason has been "replaced by revenge" as he addressed recent tensions between the Israeli and Irish governments.  

In his first television interview since being appointed last week, Taoiseach Simon Harris hit back at recent criticisms from the Israeli foreign ministry and the Israeli Ambassador to Ireland Dana Erlich, accusing the country of being "on the wrong side of history" when it comes to the war in Gaza. 

The prime minister doubled down on his call for "an immediate cessation of hostilities" in Gaza alongside his plan to convince fellow European Union leaders to formally recognize the state of Palestine. Harris laid out his belief that a peaceful solution to the war in Gaza "involves a number of countries that are like-minded coming together to recognize the state of Palestine." 

He reiterated that "Ireland stands ready to recognize the state of Palestine" and is very keen to do so alongside other EU member states to increase the "potential positive momentum."  

The Israeli foreign ministry has condemned Ireland's intention to recognize Palestinian statehood, maintaining in a press release last week that doing so would be awarding Hamas a "prize for terrorism."

The Israel Defense Forces said its airstrikes killed three Hezbollah fighters, including two commanders, in southern Lebanon on Tuesday. 

Muhammad Hussein Shahouri, "the Commander of the Rockets and Missiles Unit of Radwan Forces' Western Region," was killed in an airstrike in Kfar Dounine in south Lebanon, an IDF statement said. "As part of his role, Muhammad planned and promoted rocket and missile launches toward Israeli territory from the areas of Lebanon's central and western regions." 

Mahmoud Ibrahim Fadlallah, "an operative of Hezbollah's Rockets and Missiles Unit," was also killed in the same airstrike, the IDF added.

Earlier, the IDF said in a separate statement that its airstrike killed Ismail Youssef Bazz, "the commander of Hezbollah's coastal sector, in the area of Ain Ebel in Lebanon," in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah confirmed the deaths of its three fighters without providing details on the circumstances of their deaths or ranks. 

At least 13 people were killed, including seven children, and more than 25 people were wounded after a strike targeted the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza on Tuesday, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital officials.

Graphic video obtained exclusively by CNN from eyewitness Nihad Owdetallah shows several casualties scattered on the floor, including children, with blood streaming around the area. Dozens of people appear to be running around in panic, screaming and trying to count and carry the dead bodies. A foosball table covered in dust is seen among the dead bodies. 

Owdetallah, who lives in the camp, told CNN he heard an explosion at around 3:40 p.m. local time on Tuesday. 

Footage shot for CNN from inside Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital shows a continuous flow of causalities and injured people being ushered in, as the emergency room is crowded with patients, including several wounded children, crying out on the floor.

Video from inside a morgue at the hospital shows families trying to identify their loved ones among the deceased. Fatmeh Issa points to a white body bag with a young boy’s bloodied face exposed, telling CNN, "This is my son."

Video shows him handing a young girl’s dead body to another man, both men crying out Quranic verses and sobbing. The man who receives her body is seen placing her on the ground, and covers her body with a jacket, telling CNN she is his daughter.

A United Nations Commission of Inquiry accused Israel of actively obstructing its efforts to collect evidence from victims and first-hand witnesses of Hamas’ attacks in southern Israel on October 7.

The UN Commission of Inquiry has been collecting evidence of war crimes committed by all sides in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories since October 7, 2023.

The commissioner appealed to the Israeli government to cooperate and urged victims and witnesses to the events in southern Israel to contact the commission. “We have contact with many, but we would like to have contact with more,” Sidoti said.

CNN has reached out to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.

The United States will be going to Israel with new information from a Washington Post report that contradicts the results of an Israeli investigation into the death of 5-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who was found dead in Gaza in February.

"What we're going to do is take the information that is contained in that Washington Post story, we're going to go back to the government of Israel and ask them for further information,” Matthew Miller, State Department spokesperson, said at a briefing on Tuesday.

Miller said the report contradicts what Israel told the US, that “there were no IDF units in the area at the time of her death.”

The US called on Israel to investigate Rajab’s death in February, and Miller now says the US “would still welcome a full investigation into this matter, and how it occurred in the first place.”

More: Rajab was found dead after being trapped in a car with members of her family who were reportedly shot to death by Israeli forces weeks prior. Rescue workers dispatched to find her were also reportedly shot and killed.

The United States is continuing to review the findings of the Israeli investigation into the deadly strike on a World Central Kitchen convoy, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Tuesday. 

The United States is “not at this time” calling for an independent investigation, Miller said. He said he did not have a timetable for when its assessment will be completed.

The US will restrict the movements of Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and his delegation while they are in New York this week, a source familiar told CNN.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller had earlier indicated that the US would place additional travel restrictions on the minister, who will be in New York for a meeting at the United Nations.

According to the source familiar, Amir-Abdollahian and the Iranian delegation’s travel is restricted to the seven blocks north-south and one block west surrounding the UN headquarters in Manhattan, the Iranian Mission to the UN, the residence of their permanent representative to the UN, the six blocks surrounding Queensboro Plaza in Long Island City, and access to John F. Kennedy International Airport using a specific driving route.

Iran's response: Iran has not been notified of any additional restrictions on the movements of Amir-Abdollahian and the country's delegation while they are in New York, Iran’s Permanent Mission to the UN told CNN.

The spokesperson explained that the movements of Amir-Abdollahian and the delegation, including diplomats from the Iranian Mission to the UN, have always been restricted to a 25-mile radius surrounding UN headquarters in Manhattan.

The post was updated with a response from the Iranian mission.