April 17, 2024 - Israel-Hamas war

The United States will impose new sanctions targeting Tehran after Iran's attack on Israel over the weekend.

“Following Iran’s unprecedented air attack against Israel, President Biden is coordinating with allies and partners, including the G7, and with bipartisan leaders in Congress, on a comprehensive response,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan wrote in a statement.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said earlier Tuesday that the Biden administration would use sanctions “to continue disrupting the Iranian regime’s malign and destabilizing activity.” 

“From this weekend’s attack to the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, Iran’s actions threaten the region’s stability and could cause economic spillovers," she said at a news conference.

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 and his plan to convince fellow European Union leaders to formally recognize the state of Palestine. Harris stated 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." 

The Israeli foreign ministry has condemned Ireland's intention to recognize Palestinian statehood, maintaining in a news 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.

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, 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."

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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 is that 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 goodwill 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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