April 22, 2024 - Israel-Hamas war

The European Union’s foreign ministers have agreed to expand existing sanctions on Iran’s drone and missile program, the bloc’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said Monday.

Borrell said the new sanctions enlarge "the geographical area of this framework to cover drone and missile deliveries not only to Russia,” but also Iran's proxies in the region.

The sanctions will broaden the list of components blocked from being exported from the EU that are used in the production of drones and missiles.

The EU’s decision comes after Iran’s recent unprecedented attack on Israel, which came after a suspected Israeli attack on an Iranian diplomatic complex in Syria earlier this month.

The US last week announced new sanctions on 16 people and two entities associated with Iran’s drone program.

An independent review of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has said the agency's neutrality must be strengthened.

Earlier this year, Israel accused at least 12 UNRWA staffers of being involved in Hamas' October 7 terror attacks and has alleged that about 12% of the agency's 13,000 staffers are members of Hamas or other Palestinian militant groups.

The review, which was led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna and published Monday, was not tasked with addressing Israel's allegations, but had a broader mandate to "assess whether UNRWA is doing everything within its power to ensure neutrality."

Despite UNRWA adopting a "robust framework" in 2017 to address issues of neutrality, the issues persist, the review said. However, the report did note that "Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence" for their allegations that "a significant number of UNRWA employees are members of terrorist organizations."

"They include instances of staff publicly expressing political views, host-country textbooks with problematic content being used in some UNRWA schools, and politicized staff unions making threats against UNRWA management and causing operational disruptions,” it said.

Israel's response: “The Colonna report ignores the severity of the problem, and offers cosmetic solutions that do not deal with the enormous scope of Hamas' infiltration of UNRWA,” Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Oren Marmorstein alleged in a statement, adding this is not what a “genuine and thorough review looks like. This is what an effort to avoid the problem and not address it head on looks like.” Israel has longstanding issues with UNRWA, accusing it of aiding Hamas and calling for it to be entirely dismantled.

This post has been updated with additional statements from the independent review.

Efforts to reach two hospitals in northern Gaza over the weekend were only partly successful because of delays at checkpoints and ongoing fighting, according to Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization.

As a result, he said "fuel and medical supplies did not reach Kamal Adwan, for the second time in the last 7 days, and partners were also unable to assess needs at Al-Awda to support restoration of services. This is further increasing the health risks of critical patients being treated there.”

The mission was nonetheless able to evacuate four critically sick patients from Kamal Adwan, along with their caretakers, including one at possible risk of having a leg amputated, he said.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has called on countries to pressure Israel to prevent a ground invasion of Rafah in the south of Gaza.

Safadi added that “radicals in Israeli government [are] pushing an explosion in [the] West Bank”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this month that a date for a ground offensive into Rafah has been set and that "entry into Rafah" was necessary for a "complete victory over Hamas."

Rafah, in the southernmost part of the besieged enclave, is where about 1.5 million Palestinians are estimated to be sheltering after fleeing fighting in the north.

The head of Israel’s military intelligence has resigned over the failures surrounding Hamas’ October 7 attacks in southern Israel, when militants rampaged through Israeli communities for hours, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage.

Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva is the first senior military figure to step down over the Hamas attacks, which was the deadliest day for Israel since its founding.

Meanwhile, Israeli leaders have voiced barbed criticism of the United States’ reported plans to sanction a unit of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for alleged human rights abuses in the occupied West Bank.

Here are the latest developments:

A mass grave with nearly 300 bodies has been uncovered at the Nasser hospital in southern Gaza by Gaza Civil Defense workers, following the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the area on April 7.

The city of Khan Younis has been left in ruins after a months-long Israeli offensive.

Suleiman claimed that some of the bodies had been found with hands and feet tied.

CNN is unable to verify Suleiman’s claims and cannot confirm the causes of death among the bodies being unearthed. CNN has put a number of questions to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) about the discovery of the mass grave.

One man at the scene told CNN that he has yet to find the body of his 21-year-old son, who was killed in January.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other ministers have sharply criticized the reported plans of the Biden administration to sanction a unit of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for alleged human rights abuses in the occupied West Bank.

The alleged abuses precede Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7 and are said to have involved members of the Netzah Yehuda battalion in the occupied West Bank. 

Netanyahu posted on X at the weekend: “Sanctions must not be imposed on the Israel Defense Forces!”

He claimed he and his government will "act by all means" against US efforts to sanction Israeli citizens.

Last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had made determinations about whether to cut funding to certain Israeli security units for reports of pre-October 7 human rights abuses. He did not name Netzah Yehuda. On Monday, Blinken said "in the days ahead that we will have more to say, so please stay tuned on that."

This post has been updated with the latest comments from Antony Blinken.

Israeli police have arrested two suspects after three people were lightly injured in a car ramming attack in Jerusalem on Monday morning.

Police said their forces searched the area after what they described as a "ramming terror attack" on Mordechai Tekhelet Street at 8 a.m. local time (1 a.m. ET).

After the incident, two people -- whom the police called terrorists -- emerged from the car holding weapons and then discarded them as they fled the scene on foot. The police said that they had failed to open fire before running away. 

The Shaare Zedek Medical Center said earlier it had admitted a 21-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy for mild injuries following the attack.

European foreign leaders called for sanctions against Iran as well as Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank on Monday, ahead of an EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting. 

EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said ministers would discuss sanctions on Iran, explaining he hopes “all of them will agree” to “a great package of sanctions.” 

The US has already widened sanctions on Iran after it launched more than 300 missiles and drones toward Israel in a retaliatory attack for a deadly suspected Israeli airstrike on its consulate in Damascus.

Borrell said sanctions against “violent settlers” in the West Bank should also be considered. 

Violence by Israeli settlers and troops in the West Bank has surged during Israel's war in Gaza, prompting more sanctions by the US and EU.

Belgian Foreign Affairs Minister Hadja Lahbib said the ministers would preview new sanctions against Iran and that sanctions against West Bank settlers should be considered “in order not to suffer from double standards.” 

Swedish foreign minister Tobias Billstrom said the meeting provides “an opportunity to show our support for Israel, because of the Iranian attack against Israel, which we condemn.”