April 22, 2024 - Israel-Hamas war

Our live coverage of Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza has moved here.

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.

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.”

Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Oren Marmorstein criticized the report, saying 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.

Meanwhile, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres accepted recommendations made by the review, which is a “very important step,” the head of the review, Catherine Colonna, said. It is now up to UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini “to take this forward and to provide a clear plan on how the agency will follow up on these recommendations,” Colonna said, adding that “UNRWA plays an indispensable and irreplaceable role in the region.” Lazzarini welcomed the findings and recommendations of the review.

Here’s what else to know:

This post has been corrected to reflect that rockets were fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon 

About 35 rockets fired from southern Lebanon into the area of Ein Zeitim in northern Israel were detected Monday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.

IDF forces “attacked the source of the shooting,” it said, adding that there were no casualties from the rockets fired from Lebanon. 

The IDF also said it “attacked terrorist targets in southern Lebanon.”

Hezbollah said in a statement it “bombarded the command headquarters of the Third Infantry Brigade of the 91st Division in the Ein Zeitim base with tens of Katyusha rockets.”

Remember: There have been months of cross-border fire by both Israel and Hezbollah that have displaced tens of thousands of Lebanese and Israeli residents from their homes. Israel has fired artillery and launched jets and drones to strike targets while Hezbollah has used some of its vast arsenal of rockets and missiles.

This post has been corrected to reflect that rockets were fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon 

The US State Department’s annual report on human rights raises sharp concerns about the war between the Hamas and Israel in Gaza, citing allegations of war crimes.

The report, which covers the year 2023, noted that “human rights groups reported extensive and in many cases unprecedented conflict-related abuses and alleged the commission of war crimes by Israel, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and other Palestinian militant groups.”

Those abuses include the killings, torture, abductions and sexual violence carried out by Hamas, PIJ and others on October 7, according to the report.

They also include “reports of systemic torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment of Palestinian detainees in prison facilities after October 7,” and the forced disappearance of thousands Palestinians from Gaza.

While the report does not represent the US government’s own conclusions, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in remarks Monday that “we have processes within the department that are looking at that incidents that have been raised.”

“Those processes are ongoing,” he said. “It’s important that we take the time to do our best to get the facts, to get the information, to do the analysis. It’s very challenging to do this in real time.”

A man waits for news of his daughter as rescue workers search for survivors under the rubble of a building hit in an overnight bombing in Rafah on April 21.

Children desperately looking for food hold empty plates and saucepans in the streets and raw sewage spills in between rows of tents.

These are among the memories Melanie Ward has of Rafah, in southern Gaza, where more than 1 million people have been forced to flee Israel’s bombardment, according to the United Nations.

“Every morning you wake up to the sound of gunfire from battleships off the coast,” Ward, the CEO for the relief group Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), told CNN by phone on Wednesday. “You literally never know if something is about to hit you.” 

Displaced Palestinians who have been uprooted from their homes and packed into the tiny area of land fear they will have nowhere to escape to ahead of an anticipated bloody Israeli ground offensive, said Ward, who visited Rafah earlier this month. 

“Where over a million people are supposed to go from Rafah, I do not know. It’s impossible to see.”  

A UN expert warned on Monday that the psychological terror of Israel’s offensive in Gaza could manifest years from now in the form of increased mental health illnesses among Palestinians there.

Ward told CNN that Gazans are “completely exhausted” by more than six months of persistent bombardment, displacement and siege.  

“You can see in people’s faces… They’re staring into the distance. They can’t focus properly on conversations. They are really depressed,” she added. “The people of Gaza are being destroyed.” 

Melanie Ward still remembers the terrified mother in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, in Deir al-Balah, who begged her to expose the plight of Palestinians trying to survive Israel’s bombardment in Gaza.  

“How do you tell a mother of a child in hospital that the problem isn’t that the world doesn’t know what’s being done to them? It’s that the world has no will to stop it,” Ward, the CEO for the relief group Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), told CNN by phone on Wednesday.  

Scores of displaced patients and their relatives covered the grounds of Al-Aqsa hospital, said Ward, who visited the medical facility in central Gaza earlier this month.

Ward described scenes of injured children screaming in pain and overwhelmed doctors struggling to prevent infections among wounded patients.

Israel’s severe aid restrictions have drained water and medical supplies, Ward added.  

“Sometimes there’s no running water on the wards… They’re having to remove them (external fixators; pins and rods needed for orthopedic surgery) from limbs of dead people and try to clean them and then re-use them.” 

Local staff displaced by Israel’s military offensive are facing the grief of relatives killed by bombardment, while others shelter in homes that have been partially destroyed by Israeli missiles, Ward told CNN.

Those in the north are struggling to find food, she said.    

“Everybody is traumatized and terrified,” Ward added. “Palestinian colleagues are just trying to survive like everybody else… They’re terrified about the future for their children. How do you recover from this?”  

A member of the Iranian armed forces directs an army orchestra as a truck carries drones during a military parade in Tehran on April 17.

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.

The review also found that “UNRWA’s facilities have sometimes been misused for political or military gains, undermining its neutrality.”

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.

“On 20 April, WHO and partners could only partially complete their mission to Kamal Adwan and Al-Awda hospitals due to severe delays at checkpoints and ongoing hostilities,” Tedros wrote Monday on X.

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.

“We again call for compliance with international humanitarian law, including access to health care and humanitarian aid for civilians in desperate need of help. Once again, we call for a ceasefire!” Tedros wrote.

Jordan's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ayman Safadi speaks to members of Security Council at U.N. headquarters in New York City, on April 18.

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.

“All must weight down on Israel to prevent it from attacking Rafah. Such an attack would be another massacre,” he wrote on X on Monday.

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:

Palestinian health workers recover buried bodies from a mass grave at the Nasser Medical Hospital compound in Khan Younis, Gaza, on April 21.

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.

“We have recovered 283 bodies of martyrs from the mass grave in the courtyard of the Nasser Medical Complex since the withdrawal of the Israeli army,” Colonel Yamen Abu Suleiman, Director of Civil Defense in Khan Younis, told CNN Monday.

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.

“There were signs of field executions. We do not know if they were buried alive or executed. Most of the bodies are decomposed,” he said.

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.

“I haven’t found him yet. We had buried him over there. But we can’t find him. And we wanted to make him a decent grave.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem, on February 18.

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!”

“At a time when our soldiers are fighting the monsters of terror, the intention to impose a sanction on a unit in the IDF is the height of absurdity and a moral low,” Netanyahu said.

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 investigate the scene of a suspected ramming attack that wounded three people in Jerusalem, on April 22.

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. 

“Following their arrest, the two were taken for interrogation directed by the Jerusalem District Commander to the district’s Central Unit. The interrogation is being conducted in cooperation with the Israel Security Agency (ISA),” the police statement said. 

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.

Swedish Defence Minister Pal Jonson, left, and Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom speak to the media at the start of a European Foreign Affairs Council, in Luxembourg, on April 22.

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.” 

“I think it is not enough to sanction violent settlers, we also have to sanction those who arm and defend the violent settlers,” she said. “It is impossible to let the Palestinians be displaced, be chased out of their homes without possibility to defend themselves.”

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.” 

“The important thing right now is to see to it that the proliferation of drones manufactured in Iran can be curtailed,” Billstrom said, adding that Iranian proxies “should be included in” the sanctions.  

A man has been arrested in connection with the killing of a 14-year-old Israeli boy in the occupied West Bank, Israeli police said Monday

Hundreds of Israeli settlers surrounded Palestinian villages and attacked residents across the occupied West Bank after Binyamin Achimair, who had gone missing from a settlement on April 12, was found dead. The Israeli military said he was killed in a “terrorist attack.”

“In the last day there was a significant development in the investigation, and during the night the forces raided the village of Duma and led to the arrest of the suspect,” police said.

In a joint operation by the Shin Bet, the Israel Police and the Israel Defense Forces, 21-year-old Ahmed Duavsha was arrested.

Commander of the IDF Military Intelligence Aharon Haliva

The head of the Israeli military’s intelligence branch has resigned over his unit’s failures during the October 7 Hamas attacks.

“It was decided that MG Aharon Haliva will end his position and retire from the IDF, once his successor is appointed in an orderly and professional process,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement on Monday.

Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, who has served in the IDF for 38 years, is the first senior military figure to resign over the October 7 attacks, when Hamas fighters stormed the border into Israel.

The attack was widely seen as a major Israeli intelligence failure, with several top defense and security officials coming forward in October to take responsibility to some extent for missteps that led to the attacks.

Following the attack that caught Israel off-guard, Haliva admitted to an “intelligence failure” by his unit in not detecting Hamas’ plans.

“We didn’t fulfil our most important task, and as the head of the Intelligence Directorate, I take full responsibility for this failure,” he said at the time.

Israeli police investigate the scene of a suspected ramming attack that wounded three people on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Passover, in Jerusalem, on April 22.

Three people were mildly wounded in Jerusalem on Monday morning after a vehicle rammed into them on a street, Israeli police say. 

Police said that three pedestrians were hit by a moving vehicle in a “ramming terror attack” on Mordechai Tekhelet Street at 8 a.m. local time. 

After the incident, two people 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 Shaarey Zedek Medical Center said it admitted a 21-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy for mild injuries following the attack. 

The Israeli military has ended one of its largest offensives in the occupied West Bank since October 7, saying it killed 10 “terrorists” in the Nur al-Shams refugee camp.

At least 14 people, including a child, were killed in the raid, the Palestinian Health Ministry and Wafa news agency said.

Images from the raid — one of the IDF’s largest in the West Bank since October 7 — show concrete slabs and rubble strewn across the area.

Elsewhere in the West Bank, Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinians near Hebron on Sunday, in what the military says was an attempted attack on soldiers.

Meanwhile, an ambulance driver was killed in the West Bank on Saturday when his vehicle was hit by gunfire while transporting Palestinians wounded in an attack by Israeli settlers.

Violence by Israeli settlers and troops in the West Bank has surged during Israel’s war in Gaza. The spike has prompted more sanctions by the US and EU.

Here are the latest developments in the region:

Containers of humanitarian aid are airdropped to Palestinians in Gaza from a US C-17 Air Force plane on March 29.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) conducted another round of aid airdrops in northern Gaza on Sunday,

CENTCOM said the operation brings the total amount of aid delivered by air in Gaza to nearly 1,001 tons since March 2.

The latest operation, which included four US Air Force C-13 aircraft, airdropped 50,688 meals.

One bundle landed in the sea during the operation.

Some context: The United Nations and aid agencies have questioned the effectiveness of airdrops from several countries, saying that land crossings are the best means of aid delivery to the enclave.

Israeli troops stand guard near the scene of a shooting near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on April 21.

Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinians at Beit Einun Junction, near Hebron, in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, in what the military says was an attempted attack on soldiers.

The Israel Defense Forces said that two men arrived at the junction, and one of them “attempted to stab IDF soldiers that were in the area, who responded with live fire and neutralized him.”

Another man then “opened fire at the soldiers, who responded with live fire and neutralized him too,” the military said.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in the West Bank named the two men as 19-year-old Muhammad Jabarin and 18-year-old Musa Jabarin.

A video believed to be of the incident, which CNN cannot independently verify, shows one man ducking behind a large concrete block — often placed by the Israeli military at checkpoints and junctions to create barriers and block roads.

The man does not appear to move from his location and it is not immediately clear in the video if he is holding anything in his hands. After about 30 seconds, gunfire is heard and the man falls to the ground.

There was only one man in the video.

Violence by Israeli settlers and troops in the occupied West Bank has surged during Israel’s war in Gaza. 

 U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken holds a news conference at the State Department Harry S. Truman headquarters on March 13, 2024, in Washington, DC.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday, according to State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller.

Blinken and Gallant discussed efforts to protect Israel’s security, enable hostage negotiations, and increase humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza, the readout said.

Blinken also “underscored the importance of measures to de-escalate tensions in the region.”

People inspect damage after a raid by Israeli forces in the Nur al-Shams refugee camp near Tulkarm, in the occupied West Bank, on Sunday.

Israeli troops have ended a two-day operation in the Nur al-Shams refugee camp near Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank, the military told CNN on Sunday.

Images from the offensive on the camp, which appears to be one of the largest in the West Bank since October 7, show concrete slabs and rubble strewn across the area.

At least 14 people, including one child, were killed in the raid, the Palestinian Ministry of Health and official news agency Wafa said Saturday.

The Israel Defense Forces said security forces killed 10 “terrorists” and arrested “eight wanted suspects” during its “extensive counterterrorism” operation, which started on Thursday. 

Attacks on Palestinians: Violence in the occupied West Bank has spiked during Israel’s war in Gaza.

On Saturday, an ambulance driver from the Palestine Red Crescent Society was killed when his vehicle was hit by gunfire while transporting Palestinians wounded in an attack by settlers in the West Bank, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.

Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied territory increased in 2023 to their highest level since the UN began recording data in 2006, Human Rights Watch reported Wednesday.

At least 483 Palestinians have been killed by settlers or Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since October 7, according to the health ministry.

The spike in violence by extremist settlers has led to more sanctions by the US and EU.

Israeli strikes hit four sites in southern Lebanon over the weekend, Lebanese state-owned National News Agency reported, as regional tensions intensify over Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

The strikes hit the villages of Khiam, Tayr Harfa, Kfarkella near Odaisseh, and an area between Ramieh and Beit Leif.

The Israeli military confirmed bombardment on three of the four locations, hitting what it said were Hezbollah targets. Hezbollah is an Iran-backed Lebanese militant group with one of the most powerful paramilitary forces in the Middle East.

In Tayr Harfa, Israeli forces said “a terrorist was identified operating inside a Hezbollah military structure” that fighter jets struck. Elsewhere, Israeli troops hit “an observation post” in Odaisseh and “two military structures” in Khiam.

Israel-Lebanon relations: Israeli and Hezbollah forces have engaged in cross-border fire and tit-for-tat exchanges since October 7, when Hamas launched an attack on Israel.

Hezbollah’s political stance has unambiguously supported the Palestinian militants. It has roundly condemned Israel’s relentless airstrikes on Gaza.

CNN’s Tamara Qiblawi and Abeer Salman contributed reporting.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a conference in Jerusalem, on February 18.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said Israel would soon land “additional and painful blows” and increase “military and political pressure” on Hamas to free Israeli hostages held in Gaza, according to a video statement released by the government.

His vow comes despite pressure from the United States and other countries to limit civilian casualties and increase aid to Gaza.

“This night, 133 of our dear brothers and sisters do not sit at the Seder table and are still imprisoned in the hell of Hamas,” Netanyahu said in a message to mark Passover.

Talks on a ceasefire and hostage deal facilitated by international mediators for weeks have yielded no apparent breakthroughs of late. Hamas had rejected proposals for a hostage deal “outright,” Netanyahu said.

War cabinet meets: Also on Sunday, the Israeli war cabinet met to discuss efforts to free the remaining hostages held in Gaza, according to an Israeli official. The war cabinet is made up of Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Benny Gantz, chairman of the National Unity Party.