April 17, 2024 - Israel-Hamas war

French President Emmanuel Macron called for widening sanctions against Iran that can also target industries supporting missiles and drones production.

His comments comes after more than 300 projectiles – including around 170 drones and over 120 ballistic missiles – were fired toward Israel in a retaliatory aerial attack by Iran on Saturday.

Iranian drones have been widely used in other conflicts, including by Russia against Ukrainian infrastructure targets.

Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said that Israel’s response to Iran’s attack should inflict a “disproportionate toll” and “rock Tehran” to deter Iran from future strikes.

Smotrich said Israel’s response to Iran’s missile and drone attack should make Tehran “regret the moment they even thought about firing” and be “fierce, severe and inflict a disproportionate toll.”

Smotrich, who is technically also a minister in Israel’s defense ministry due to a deal struck in coalition agreements, told Israel’s Army Radio (GLZ) that the nature of Israel’s response would “shape [Israel’s] position in the Middle East.

The response, he said, “should rock Tehran, so everyone there will realize they shouldn’t mess with us,” he said, adding that “this is the language spoken in the Middle East.” The minister, who is head of the far-right Religious Zionism party, also said that Israel should maintain its strategic ties with the United States and other partners but must prevent itself from finding itself in a “bear-hug, which will limit and make us incapable.”

Key context: Smotrich is not a member of Israel’s war cabinet, which the security cabinet has authorized to decide on how to respond to the Iranian attack.

As tensions in the region intensify, many world leaders have urged restraint as Israel weighs the size and scope of its response to Iran.

Israeli fighter jets have struck alleged Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon after 18 Israelis were injured when the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group attacked a village in northern Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they struck Hezbollah military compounds and terror infrastructure in the areas of Naqoura and Yarine in southern Lebanon in response hours after Wednesday’s attack.

The IDF said that three civilians were among the 18 people injured in the attack, the rest being soldiers.

Israel is weighing up how to respond to Iran's unprecedented strikes on the country during the weekend, as the British and German foreign ministers visited the country to urge restraint.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli President Isaac Herzog both met with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Wednesday.

Their meeting happened as 18 people were injured by a Hezbollah strike in northern Lebanon, according to a hospital in the region. Hezbollah said in a statement on Wednesday that its missiles and drones hit the military headquarters in northern Israel in response to deaths of its fighters on Tuesday.

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Israel has accused members of a United Nations fact-finding commission into war crimes in the region of having "a track record of antisemitic and anti-Israel statements" after a UN commissioner accused Israel of actively obstructing efforts to collect evidence from victims and firsthand witnesses of Hamas’ October 7 attacks.

“The 1200 people murdered (in Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7), the women and girls raped, the hostages taken into Gaza, know too well that they will never get any justice or the dignified treatment they deserve from the Commission of Inquiry and its members, who have a track record of antisemitic and anti-Israel statements,” Israel’s mission to the UN in Geneva told CNN.

The Israeli mission to the UN did not provide any evidence or further information to support its claims.

Accusations of obstruction: The UN Commission of Inquiry has been collecting evidence of war crimes committed by all sides since October 7.

Its commissioner, Chris Sidoti, said Tuesday that the Israeli government was actively obstructing “efforts to receive evidence from Israeli witnesses and victims to the events that occurred in southern Israel.”

Israel’s UN mission told CNN that Israel had been conducting “thorough internal investigations” into the crimes committed by Hamas during its attack on Israel and that it was “meticulously collecting evidence and testimonies in order to render justice to the victims.”

“Moreover, independent mechanisms and institutions, including United Nations Representatives, have been to Israel and met with survivors and victims of the terrorist attack,” Israel’s UN mission added.

At least 18 people were injured, including one critically, after a Hezbollah drone hit a village in northern Israel on Wednesday, according to a hospital in the region.

Among the 18 injured was one person in critical condition, two in serious condition and four moderately injured. The other eleven people injured sustained minor injuries, a spokesperson for the Galilee Medical Center in the northern Israeli city of Nahariya said. Most were injured by shrapnel, the spokesperson added.

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group Hezbollah said in a statement on Wednesday that its missiles and drones hit the military headquarters in northern Israel in response to Tuesday's assassination of its fighters.

A US Navy ship en route to the eastern Mediterranean to help the US military set up a pier for aid to Gaza had to turn back last week after experiencing a fire, a Navy spokesperson told CNN.

The ship, the USNS 2nd LT John P. Bobo, reported last Thursday that it had experienced a fire in the engine room while in transit to the eastern Mediterranean to deliver equipment and personnel, the spokesperson said. 

It is not clear how the delay will affect the construction of the floating pier and causeway, which the Pentagon has said is expected to be operational by late April or early May. 

“The ship returned under its own power using one engine to Jacksonville, Fla., for further assessment. The cause of the fire is under investigation.”

The ship is one of several US Navy ships and Army watercraft that are en route to the waters off of Gaza to help build the pier, and is a support vessel rather than a key component of the construction of the system, called Joint Logistics over the Shore, or JLOTS.

The Pentagon said on March 8 that the pier would be built and operational within 60 days, and Pentagon Press Secretary Major General Pat Ryder says that timeline is still on track.

The war of words between Israeli agencies approving humanitarian aid for Gaza and the UN agencies receiving and delivering it continues unabated.

On Wednesday Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) posted video of aid sitting at Kerem Shalom crossing on X, adding: “This is what the content of 700 aid trucks looks like. It is waiting on the Gazan side of Kerem Shalom to be picked up by @UN agencies.” 

COGAT added: “We scaled up our capabilities. All the UN did was make up excuses. Aid needs to be collected and delivered. The UN needs to do its job.”

On Tuesday, the UN official in charge of coordinating the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza said there had been some progress in dealing with Israeli authorities but added that “for every new opportunity that we're being given, we will find yet another challenge to deal with.”

Andrea De Domenico, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said aid deliveries within Gaza were facing significant checkpoint delays and that last week 41% of UN requests to deliver aid to northern Gaza were denied. 

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock stressed “prudence and restraint” before flying out of Israel to a G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Italy.

"I felt here exactly what I felt last weekend in Berlin, where none of us could sleep on Saturday night. It has become clear that this region desires peace."

Baerbock’s visit came in a surprise announcement Tuesday. It was her seventh trip to Israel since October 7 and her eighth visit to the region.

"At a time like this, when Iran is not only attacking Israel without precedent, but has brought the entire region to the brink of a regional conflict, everyone is standing together,” she said.

Baerbock said possible new sanctions against Iran would be a key discussion point during the G7 foreign affairs ministers’ meeting in Capri, Italy, which begins later Wednesday.