April 16: UNSC committee says unable to agree on Palestinian bid for full membership

US CENTCOM forces successfully engage two Houthi UAVs, statement says

The US Central Command says its forces successfully engaged two unmanned aerial (UAV) vehicles in areas controlled by Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen on April 16.

“There were no injuries or damage reported by US, coalition, or commercial ships,” CENTCOM says in a statement.

UN says it still faces obstacles in bid to fend off famine in Gaza

The United Nations is still struggling to prevent famine in the Gaza Strip and while there has been some improvement in coordination with Israel, aid deliveries in the enclave still face difficulties, a senior UN aid official says.

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

“We’re dealing with this dance where we do one step forward, two steps backward, or two steps forward, one step backward, which leaves us basically always at the same point,” De Domenico tells reporters.

“For every new opportunity that we’ve been given, we will find yet another challenge to deal with,” he says. “So it’s really, really difficult for us to scale up to where we would like to be.”

US officials have noted steady progress in the amount of aid that goes into Gaza, the US State Department said on Tuesday, but it is still not at the desired level and Washington is working to improve that.

University of Southern California nixes valedictorian speaker over antisemitism claims

Illustrative: People walk at the University Village area of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, March 12, 2019. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

A top US university cancels its plans for a graduation speech by a Muslim student over what it says are safety concerns, after pro-Israel groups criticized her selection.

Asna Tabassum, who has been attacked online for “antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric,” had been selected as the University of Southern California class valedictorian — an honorary role whose holder traditionally gives an address in front of up to 65,000 people.

But this week the university’s provost, Andrew Guzman, announced the May 10 ceremony would go ahead without the speech.

“Unfortunately, over the past several days, discussion relating to the selection of our valedictorian has taken on an alarming tenor,” Guzman says. “The intensity of feelings, fueled by both social media and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, has grown to include many voices outside of USC and has escalated to the point of creating substantial risks relating to security.”

Tabassum criticizes the decision, which she says is the result of the university “succumbing to a campaign of hate meant to silence my voice.”

A pro-Israel campus group, Trojans for Israel, opposed Tabassum’s selection, pointing to social media posts in which she called for the “complete abolishment” of Israel and said Zionism is a “racist settler-colonial ideology.”

Israel welcomes EU move to impose sanctions on Iran following its attack

High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell arrives for a Foreign Affairs Council meeting at the EU headquarters in Brussels, on March 18, 2024. (Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP)

Foreign Minister Israel Katz praises the outcome of the EU foreign ministers meeting earlier today, saying there is a “positive trend” toward adopting sanctions against Iran’s missile project and its proxies in the Middle East.

He also says in a tweet that a mechanism for making progress on designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organization will be established at the EU Foreign Affairs Council next week in Luxembourg.

Katz calls the development “an unprecedented achievement” for Israel at the EU.

Iraq denies any drones or missiles were launched from its territory during Iran attack

This handout picture shows Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani holding a press conference in the southern province of Basra Governorate on September 2, 2023. (Iraqi Prime Minister's Press Office/AFP)

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani says Iraq has not received any reports or indications that missiles or drones were launched from Iraq during Iran’s attack on Israel.

Iraq is a rare ally of both Washington and Tehran. Iraqi airspace was a main route for Iran’s unprecedented drone and ballistic missile attack on Israel, and Iraqi officials say Iran informed them, as well as other countries in the region, ahead of the attack.

“Our position is clear, and we will not allow Iraq to be thrown into the arena of conflict,” al-Sudani says in a statement.

Yesterday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said in an English-language statement that “over the weekend, Iran launched a large-scale attack on Israel. Over 350 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, armed drones and rockets were fired from Iranian soil — as well as Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon — towards the State of Israel.”

White House opposes passing Israel aid without Ukraine package, says US official

The exterior of the US Capitol building, March 22, 2024. (Pedro Ugarte/AFP)

WASHINGTON — White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby reiterates the Biden administration’s opposition to potential Republican efforts to pass standalone alone legislation providing security aid for Israel, insisting that such assistance should be approved through a broader supplemental package that also includes aid for Ukraine along with US interests in the Indo-Pacific.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers managed to get such legislation through the Senate last year, but it has since been stalled by House Republicans amid opposition from former US president Donald Trump.

“We don’t support a standalone bill that only funds Israel because Ukraine needs munitions too,” Kirby tells reporters in a briefing.

The White House spokesperson notes reports that House Speaker Mike Johnson appears to have heeded its call to cease trying to separate the Ukraine and Israel aid packages. Kirby urges the House to move this week on passing a supplemental aid package.

UN Security Council committee unable to agree on Palestinian bid for full membership

File: Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour speaks during a session of the United Nations Security Council, at the UN headquarters in New York, March 25, 2024. (Angela Weiss/AFP)

A United Nations Security Council committee considering an application by the Palestinian Authority to become a full UN member “was unable to make a unanimous recommendation” on whether it met the criteria, according to the committee report seen by Reuters today.

The Palestinian Authority is still expected to push the 15-member Security Council to vote — as early as this week — on a draft resolution recommending it become a full member of the world body, diplomats say.

Such membership would effectively recognize a Palestinian state. The Palestinians are currently a non-member observer state, a de facto recognition of statehood that was granted by the 193-member UN General Assembly in 2012.

But an application to become a full UN member needs to be approved by the Security Council — where Israel’s ally the United States can block it — and then at least two-thirds of the General Assembly.

The Security Council committee on the admission of new members — made up of all 15 council members — agreed to its report today after meeting twice last week to discuss the Palestinian application.

“Regarding the issue of whether the application met all the criteria for membership… the committee was unable to make a unanimous recommendation to the Security Council,” the report says, adding that “differing views were expressed.”

UN membership is open to “peace-loving states” that accept the obligations in the founding UN Charter and are able and willing to carry them out.

IDF says it killed senior commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan force

Commander in Hezbollah's Radwan force Muhammad Shahouri. (Hezbollah)

The IDF says it eliminated a senior commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force in an airstrike in southern Lebanon earlier today.

Muhammad Shahouri, according to the IDF, was the commander of Radwan’s western district rocket unit.

Shahouri was targeted while driving in the village of Kfar Dounine, adjacent to Chehabiyeh.

The IDF says Shahouri was “responsible for the planning and execution of many rocket [attacks] towards the Israeli home front,” from the western and central areas of southern Lebanon.

Alongside Shahouri, another Hezbollah commander, Mahmoud Fadlallah, was killed in the strike. The IDF says he was also a member of Hezbollah’s rocket unit.

Hezbollah announced both their deaths earlier today.

EU’s Borrell raps Israel for slow pace of aid to northern Gaza

Josep Borrell, the EU's foreign minister, speaks to the press as he arrives to attend a European Council summit at the EU headquarters in Brussels on March 21, 2024. (John Thys/AFP)

In addition to his comments condemning Iran’s attack on Israel, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell criticizes Israel over its slow pace in keeping promises to boost aid into Gaza.

Borrell urges the world not to forget about Gaza, and says there can be no regional stability until the war there ends. He calls for an “immediate and sustainable ceasefire,” and says discussions must focus on getting the hostages out and on the humanitarian situation.

He notes that the Ashdod Port and Erez Crossing have not opened, despite Israeli promises to do so. “If they wanted to make Gaza a place where human life is not possible, in the north, they managed to succeed,” he says of Israel.

Borrell does not mention Hamas.

Italy tells Israel to be ‘mature’ and avoid fueling the ‘spiral of violence’

Italy's Defense Minister Guido Crosetto in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Sept. 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Italy’s defense minister says Iran “crossed a precise red line” with its direct attack on Israel, but calls on Israel to avoid fueling a spiral of violence in the region.

Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto speaks by phone with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and expresses Italy’s continued friendship with Israel, according to a ministry statement.

According to the statement, Crosetto tells Gallant “the crossing of a precise red line with the direct attack on Israel, on its territory, is worrying but it is precisely now that we need to be mature and act according to the rules of international law to avoid fueling the spiral of violence that would see us all defeated.”

US asks Israel for clarification after report blames IDF for shooting death of Gazan child

Smoke rises during an Israeli strike in the vicinity of the Shifa hospital in Gaza City on March 28, 2024. (AFP)

WASHINGTON — The US wants answers from Israel after a Washington Post report found that the IDF was likely responsible for the death of a six-year-old girl in Gaza City earlier this year.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society accused Israel of deliberately targeting the ambulance sent to rescue Hind Rajab in late January after she had spent hours on the phone with dispatchers begging for help with the sound of shooting echoing around.

Family members found Hind’s body along with those of her uncle and aunt and their three children inside a car near a roundabout in the Tel al-Hawa suburb of Gaza City. Another of Hind’s uncles, Sameeh Hamadeh, said the car was peppered with bullet holes.

US State Department Matthew Miller says during a press briefing that Washington had asked Israel for clarification shortly after the incident and was told that the IDF has probed the matter and found that its forces had not been in the area at the time in question.

But after the Washington Post report published earlier today poked holes in the IDF claims, Miller says: “We’re going to go back to the government of Israel and ask them for further info.”

He says the US would welcome a full IDF investigation into the killing.

After war cabinet meets, Israeli official says plan is to keep Iran guessing on response

File - The Israeli war cabinet and top security officials meet in Tel Aviv on April 14, hours after Iran's missile and drone attack on Israel. (Amos Ben Gershom/ GPO)

The reduced war cabinet met over lunch today, an Israeli source tells The Times of Israel, to discuss a response to the Iranian missile and drone attack.

For now, Israel’s thinking is that there is no harm in keeping Iran guessing by delaying a potential response. “Let them be anxious,” says the Israeli source.

The response could be “within Iran or outside Iran,” the source continues.

The majority position in the cabinet is that Israel should respond forcefully to Iran’s unprecedented strike.

US: Qatar doing everything it can to free hostages; the impediment is Hamas

People walk by photographs of Israeli civilians held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, in Tel Aviv, April 9, 2023. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

WASHINGTON — The US believes that Qatar has done “everything that it can do” to secure the release of the Israeli hostages being held in Gaza.

Doha has come under increasing criticism as the war in Gaza has dragged on, for what critics say has been its failure to use its leverage as host of Hamas’s foreign leaders to pressure the terror group into agreeing to a hostage deal with Israel.

But US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller appears to reject this argument when asked whether Washington is satisfied with the role Qatar has played in mediating between Israel and Hamas.

“Qatar has played an incredibly important role in helping get hostages out already, and they have played an incredibly important role in the back-and-forth negotiations with Hamas over the past few months to try and reach a further ceasefire deal that would get the remaining hostages out,” Miller says.

“When it comes to the impediment to a hostage agreement — it’s not Qatar, it’s not Egypt, it’s not Israel, right now. It is Hamas. It is Hamas that has refused to agree to the deal that is on the table despite the fact that it would achieve much of the things that they have publicly claimed in repeated statements that they’re trying to achieve,” the State Department spokesperson asserts.

Blinken said to tell US Jewish leaders escalation with Iran is not in Israel’s interest

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a meeting at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, April 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla, Pool)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken tells American Jewish leaders that an escalation of the conflict between Israel and Iran is not in Washington or Jerusalem’s interests, reports Axios, citing meeting attendees.

At the same time, Blinken stresses the US is not telling Israel to avoid a response, and that it is ultimately Israel’s decision. “Be smart, strategic, and limited as possible,” was how one attendees describes Blinken’s message.

Another US official says that the US believes that if Iran attacks again, “it will be very hard to replicate the huge success we had on Saturday… and the Israelis know it.”

Blinken also posits that Hamas might have rejected the latest hostage deal offer because they were hoping the Iranian strike would spark a wider conflict. Hamas might feel it is under pressure again to make a deal now that it appears a regional escalation is less likely, says Blinken.

Judicial Selection Committee fails to agree on any new district court judge appointments

Judges of the Jerusalem District Court take a seat for a hearing in the criminal trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, June 25, 2023. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Pool)

The Judicial Selection Committee announces that despite convening to discuss appointments to the Tel Aviv-Jaffa and Central District Courts, no judges were appointed to those benches.

Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who chairs the committee, insists that judicial appointments be unanimously agreed upon and therefore refuses to bring to a vote candidates supported by at least five other members of the committee but opposed by himself and the two other coalition representatives on the nine-member committee.

Levin and his coalition allies have held up appointments to the Haifa and Jerusalem District Courts for the same reason in previous committee meetings.

There are currently nine open spots on the Tel Aviv-Jaffa District Court and eight open spots on the Central District Court.

The committee does, however, agree to promote eight judges on traffic courts around the country to serve as magistrate’s court judges, including in the Jerusalem, Beeersheba, Petah Tikva, Bat Yam and Ashdod Magistrate’s Courts.

Spanish PM calls to recognize Palestinian state, grant it UN membership

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez addresses parliament at the Spanish lower house, Congress of Deputies, in Madrid on April 10, 2024. (Thomas Coex/AFP)

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says that an independent Palestinian state should be recognized as soon as possible.

“Spain will strive for Palestine to become a full member of the UN,” Sanchez says during a visit to Slovenia.

He is among European leaders and government officials who have said that they could support a two-state solution in the Middle East as international frustration grows with Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territories.

Spain, Ireland, Malta and Slovenia in late March signed a joint statement saying they stand ready to recognize a Palestinian state when the move could “make a positive contribution and the circumstances are right.”

UN to launch $2.8 billion global appeal for Gaza, West Bank Palestinians

People search through the rubble of a collapsed building in the eastern side of the Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on April 15, 2024. (AFP)

The United Nations will launch a $2.8 billion appeal tomorrow for donations this year to help the war-ravaged population of the Gaza Strip as well as West Bank Palestinians, a senior agency official says.

“Of course, 90 percent of it is for Gaza,” Andrea De Domenico, head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Palestinian territories, says, noting that the original plan had been $4 billion for 2024, but budgeting was slashed given the “limited ability” of humanitarian aid distribution access.

‘Calm heads’ must prevail: UK’s Sunak tells Netanyahu regional escalation ‘in no one’s interest’

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (left) gives a statement to the media alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, October 19, 2023. (GPO/Screenshot)

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak tells Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call that escalation in the Middle East is in no one’s interest, after Britain helped Israel repel a direct aerial attack by Iran overnight Saturday.

“[Sunak] stressed that significant escalation was in no one’s interest and would only deepen insecurity in the Middle East. This was a moment for calm heads to prevail,” Sunak’s office says in a readout of the call.

A spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office confirmed the two leaders had spoken, and said that Netanyahu thanked Sunak for supporting Israel.

EU says it will begin working to expand sanctions on Iran in wake of attack on Israel

High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell speaks during a press conference in Brussels, on April 8, 2024. (Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP)

Some EU member states have asked for sanctions against Iran to be expanded in response to Tehran’s attack on Israel and the bloc’s diplomatic service will begin working on the proposal, says EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

Borrell was speaking after an emergency video conference of EU foreign ministers called to discuss the repercussions of the attack.

“Some member states proposed… adopting an expansion of restrictive measures against Iran,” Borrell tells reporters. “I will send to the External Action Service the request to start the necessary work related to these sanctions.”

Borrell says the proposal will expand a sanctions regime that seeks to curb the supply of Iranian drones to Russia so that it would also include the provision of missiles and could also cover deliveries to proxies in the Middle East.

State Department says Blinken, Gantz spoke, US urging ‘as much calm as possible’

War cabinet minister Benny Gantz, right, meets with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Tel Aviv, March 22, 2024. (Courtesy)

WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke yesterday with war cabinet minister Benny Gantz regarding ongoing tensions between Israel and Iran, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller says.

Blinken reiterated US support for Israel’s security along with Washington’s desire not to see a regional escalation, Miller says.

The Biden administration has avoided publicly telling Israel not to strike back against Iran after last weekend’s missile and drone attack, but privately has urged Israel to ensure that its response doesn’t spark a regional war, according to officials familiar with the matter.

Blinken also discussed the issue with Qatar’s prime minister, Miller says.

“As long as the war in Gaza continues, we’re not going to be back in the place we were before October 7. It is an ongoing process of trying to reduce tensions in the region and try to maintain as much calm as possible, knowing that there’s an ongoing conflict that exacerbated tensions in Israel and around the region,” Miller says.

IDF says it struck several Hezbollah sites in Lebanon, after rockets fired at Israel

Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon, April 10, 2024. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)

The IDF says it carried out additional strikes against buildings used by Hezbollah and where operatives were gathered in southern Lebanon today.

The strikes were carried out in the towns of Ain Baal, Aalma ash-Shab, Hanine and Yaroun, the military says.

In addition to a commander killed earlier today, Hezbollah announces the deaths of two more operatives killed “on the road to Jerusalem,” its term for operatives slain in Israeli strikes.

Their deaths bring the terror group’s toll since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip to 278.

The IDF says several rockets were fired at northern Israel today, causing no injuries.

It adds that troops are shelling the launch sites with artillery.

EU’s naval mission in Red Sea was not affected by Iranian attack, says commander

Rear Adm. Vasileios Gryparis speaks during a press of the operation EUNAVFOR ASPIDES on security in the Red Sea following Houthi attacks in Larissa on April 16, 2024. (Sakis Mitrolidis/AFP)

The operations of the European Union’s naval mission to the Red Sea have not been affected by Iran’s first-ever direct attack on Israel, but the force needs more combat ships to protect merchant vessels sailing through “a vast area,” its commander tells Reuters.

The EU’s Red Sea naval mission, dubbed EUNAVFOR “Aspides,” was launched in February to protect vessels from attacks launched by Iranian-aligned Houthi terrorists as part of their stated campaign of solidarity with Hamas.

“So far, there is no evidence that… the situation has worsened,” the commander of the operation Rear Adm. Vasileios Gryparis tells Reuters at the headquarters of the mission in the Greek city of Larissa.

The mission has so far destroyed 10 drones and intercepted four ballistic missiles launched by Houthis in the Red Sea since the middle of February, its officials told reporters in Larissa. It has also escorted 79 merchant vessels to safely cross the area.

The mission’s four frigates from Greece, Germany, France and Italy have been patrolling across a vast area extending from the southern Red Sea to the northwestern Indian Ocean, twice the size of the European Union’s territory.

Gryparis said it will ask European authorities to engage more battleships in the Red Sea.

IDF chief praises Arrow operators for ‘vigilance’ which allows Israelis to go about life

File - IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi speaks to troops at an Arrow air defense system battery in Israel, April 16, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

Speaking to Israeli Air Force troops who operate the Arrow long-range missile defense system, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi says their “alertness and high vigilance” enables civilians to go about their day, following the Iranian attack on the country.

“We are just before Passover, and we are enabling a policy in the home front to allow civilians this week to live almost as usual, because we trust you very much and the level of alertness and vigilance that you maintain,” he says.

“And I tell you truly, all the citizens of the State of Israel trust you very much,” Halevi adds.

The Arrow 2 and 3 systems were used to counter most of the 120 Iranian ballistic missiles fired in the early Sunday blitz on Israel, the IDF has said.

British FM Cameron heading to Israel for one-day visit tomorrow

Britain's Foreign Secretary David Cameron arrives at the annual Commonwealth Day Service of Celebration at Westminster Abbey, in London, March 11, 2024. (Geoff Pugh/Pool Photo via AP)

British Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron is set to land in Israel overnight for a one-day visit.

He will meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Israel Katz, and possibly war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, though that has not been finalized yet.

One of Cameron’s main messages will be the need to have Israeli promises around expanded humanitarian aid routes to Gaza implemented, with a focus on opening the Ashdod Port and a new crossing from northern Gaza, a British official tells The Times of Israel. The top UK diplomat will also stress the need to improve deconfliction with humanitarian groups in Gaza.

He will also discuss the Iranian missile and drone attack, tensions in Lebanon, and the efforts to get hostages out of Gaza.

Cameron will also visit senior Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah.

After Israel, Cameron will fly to Capri, Italy, for the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting, which will focus, among other issues, on the war in Gaza and the pursuit of a meaningful and effective political approach towards the “two peoples, two States” solution, according to the Italian organizers.

Erdogan says Netanyahu solely to blame for provoking ‘regional conflict’

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a joint press conference with the Ukrainian president at the Dolmabahce Presidential office in Istanbul on March 8, 2024. (Ozan Kose/AFP)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan proclaims that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli leadership are solely responsible for the recent escalation of tensions in the Middle East.

“Israel is trying to provoke a regional conflict, and its attack on Iran’s embassy in Damascus was the last drop,” he tells a press conference in Ankara after a cabinet meeting.

He adds that new regional conflicts were possible as long as the “cruelty and genocide” in Gaza continue, and calls on all parties to act with common sense. He also slams the West for condemning Iran’s attack, but not Israel’s purported strike on an Iranian-linked consular building.

Netanyahu slated to speak with British PM Sunak this evening, says official

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, left, welcomes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at 10 Downing Street in London, March 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and British Prime Minister Rishi Runak are slated to talk in the coming minutes, a diplomatic official tells The Times of Israel.

The Kan public broadcaster reported earlier today that Netanyahu was avoiding a call from Sunak since yesterday.

Sunak told the House of Commons yesterday that he would “shortly speak to Prime Minister Netanyahu to express our solidarity with Israel… and to discuss how we can prevent further escalation,” in the wake of the massive Iranian aerial bombardment of Israel early Sunday.

Health Ministry firmly denies claim that 50 Supernova survivors took their own lives

Israelis visit the site of the Supernova music festival massacre, in Re'im, southern Israel, February 28, 2024. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

The Health Ministry firmly denies a claim made by a survivor of the Supernova massacre during a Knesset hearing that around 50 fellow survivors have taken their own lives since October 7.

In a statement, the ministry says that the widely reported “figures of the number of suicides and the number of those institutionalized among survivors of the Supernova festival are not known to the Health Ministry and the medical system and are not correct.”

Dr. Gilad Bodenheimer, head of mental health services in the Health Ministry, says in a statement that the “rumors” of such a phenomenon are “not correct, and this was also made clear during and at the end of the [Knesset] hearing.” He says the ministry checked with groups who have been treating Supernova survivors, as well as with the Tribe of Nova Foundation set up following the massacre, and found no basis for the claim.

The claim was made during a Knesset State Control meeting by a survivor of the festival, where more than 350 partygoers were murdered by Hamas.

At a hearing in November, a health official said around 10 survivors had been involuntarily committed to psychiatric hospitals after their ordeals.

Air raid sirens sound in Meron, Kiryat Shmona

Air raid sirens sound in the northern cities of Meron and Kiryat Shmona, signaling a likely missile attack from Lebanon.

Edelstein says he hopes Israeli response to Iran ‘will teach them a lesson’

Yuli Edelstein attends a Foreign Affairs and Defense committee in the Knesset on February 26, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, the chair of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, says that Israel’s response to the Iranian attack will send a message of deterrence to Tehran while drawing a line under this round of hostilities.

Edelstein says the Israeli considerations on its response include the war-wariness of Western powers, the risk to air crews from any sorties against Iran and the need to keep focus on the more than half-year-long war on Hamas in Gaza.

“We’ll have to react. Iranians will know we reacted. And I sincerely hope that it will teach them a lesson that you can’t attack a sovereign country just because you find it doable,” Edelstein tells Reuters.

But he adds: “I sincerely hope that they will understand that it’s not in their interest to continue this kind of exchange of blows. We are not interested in a full-scale war. We are not, as I have said, in the business of revenge.”

Gallant says Iranian missile and drone attack ‘failed’ to deter Israel

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant speaks to troops in northern Israel on April 16, 2024. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says Iran’s missile and drone attack on the country earlier this week “failed” and “they will fail to deter Israel.”

“The Iranians will not be able to implement a different equation of deterrence against the State of Israel,” Gallant says to troops in northern Israel.

“The Air Force planes are operating everywhere, the skies of the Middle East are open, any enemy that will fight against us, we will know how to hit it wherever they are,” he adds.

IDF shows reporters remains of massive intercepted Iranian ballistic missile

IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari next to an Iranian ballistic missile that fell in Israel over the weekend, at the Julis military base in the south, April 16, 2024. (GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP)

The Israeli military shows reporters the remains of a ballistic missile that was intercepted over Israel in the Iranian attack early Sunday.

The remains are just 70 percent of the entire missile, as the warhead and other sections were destroyed during the interception.

The massive missile, one of 120 fired at Israel, was found on Sunday morning floating in the Dead Sea.

A member of the IDF stands next to an Iranian ballistic missile that fell in Israel on Sunday, during a media tour at the Julis military base near the southern Israeli city of Kiryat Malachi on April 16, 2024. (GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP)

According to the IDF, the missile had an estimated 500-kilogram warhead.

Report: Netanyahu avoiding call from British PM Sunak over Iran

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) meets British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Jerusalem, October 19, 2023. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly avoiding a call from British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who was supposed to speak with the Israeli leader yesterday, the Kan public broadcaster claims in an unsourced report.

The Prime Minister’s Office says the report is not true, but would not say whether the two leaders have spoken yet.

Sunak told the House of Commons yesterday that he would “shortly speak to Prime Minister Netanyahu to express our solidarity with Israel… and to discuss how we can prevent further escalation,” in the wake of the massive Iranian aerial bombardment of Israel early Sunday, but the call is yet to happen.

The UK’s Sky News also reported earlier today that Sunak was set to speak with Netanyahu later today.

The Israeli war cabinet is currently considering how it will respond to the attack, with numerous nations, including those who helped thwart the assault — the UK among them — calling for Jerusalem to show restraint and avoid further escalating the situation. Britain’s Royal Air Force was one of several foreign air forces that participated in shooting down Iranian drones during the huge barrage on Saturday night.

Yesterday, Kan reported that the PMO had refused to schedule calls of several foreign leaders with Netanyahu since Sunday.

Saudi Arabia calls for ceasefire in Gaza, says ‘de-escalation’ in region is top priority

Visiting Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, left, listens to Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during a meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan, April 16, 2024. (Prime Minister Office via AP)

Saudi Arabia issues a renewed call for an immediate ceasefire and uninterrupted delivery of humanitarian aid in Gaza.

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, on a visit to Islamabad, says international efforts toward a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have been “wholly insufficient.”

“We are now actively discussing the potential for famine in Gaza, and it means people are starving to death because humanitarian assistance is not getting to them,” he says. “This is an unacceptable situation.”

Without directly mentioning an Iranian attack on Israel over the weekend, he says “we are already in an unstable region, and the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is already inflaming the region. We do not need more conflict in our region, we do not need more confrontation in our region, so it is our position that the de-escalation must be everybody’s priority.”

Portugal says it summoned Iranian ambassador to demand it release seized ship

This image grab taken from a UGC video posted on social media on April 13, 2024, shows Iran's Revolutionary Guards rappelling down onto a container ship, MSC Aries, near the Strait of Hormuz. (Video screenshot)

Portugal says it summoned Iran’s ambassador to condemn Tehran’s attack on Israel and to demand the release of a Portuguese-flagged ship seized in the Gulf over the weekend.

“The Portuguese government expressed its profound concern over the escalation of conflict in the region, calling for maximum restraint” and “reiterated in a vehement and categorical manner the recent attack against the state of Israel,” the foreign ministry says in a statement.

“The meeting also allowed a renewed call to immediately release the MSC Aries ship,” a container vessel operated by the Italian-Swiss group MSC that was seized by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Saturday over alleged links to Israel.

On Monday, Iran said the ship had violated international maritime law and was undergoing “necessary investigations.”

IDF says it eliminated Hezbollah commander in Lebanon airstrike

Footage of IDF jets striking targets in southern Lebanon on April 15, 2024. (Screen capture/X)

The IDF says it eliminated the commander of Hezbollah’s coastal region in an airstrike today.

Ismail Yousef Baz, whose rank is equivalent to a brigade commander, was targeted in a drone strike in the town of Ain Baal, near Tyre.

The IDF says he was “a senior and veteran official in the military wing of Hezbollah,” holding several positions, the latest being the commander of the coastal region.

“As part of his position, he was involved in advancing and planning rocket and anti-tank missile launches towards the State of Israel from the coastal area in Lebanon,” the military says.

It publishes footage of the strike.

IAG’s Iberia Express to resume Madrid-Tel Aviv flights tomorrow

Passengers at the departure hall in the Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv on April 14, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

IAG’s Iberia Express will resume its flights between Madrid and Tel Aviv tomorrow, a company spokesperson says.

The Spanish airline halted its services to Tel Aviv on Sunday amid the massive Iranian drone and missile attack on Israel, which was largely intercepted.

Iberia Express has four flights a week to Israel.

Second Israeli strike on vehicle in Lebanon reported within hours in local media

Lebanese media outlets report a second Israeli drone strike on a vehicle in southern Lebanon within hours.

The latest strike reportedly takes place in the town of Chehabiyeh.

There is no immediate comment from the IDF.

Hezbollah source says Israeli strike in Lebanon killed local commander

Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese village of Majdel Zoun, on April 15, 2024. (AFP)

A source close to Hezbollah says a local commander within the Iran-backed terror group was killed today in an Israeli airstrike on the country’s south.

“The field commander in charge of the Naqura region has been martyred in an Israeli strike,” the source tells AFP, with the official National News Agency reporting one dead in an Israeli strike on a car in Ain Baal, about 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the border.

Two rockets fired from Gaza toward Nir Am land in open areas, says IDF

Smoke trails from rockets fired by Gaza terror groups as seen from the Israeli side of the border, April 7, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Two rockets were fired from the northern Gaza Strip at southern Israel a short while ago.

The attack set off sirens at the Nir Am shooting range, close to the Gaza border.

According to the IDF, both rockets struck open areas, causing no injuries or damage.

Military releases footage of Israeli Air Force control room amid Iranian attack

Air defense fire interceptors during a drone and missile attack by Iran as seen over Jerusalem, April 14, 2024. (Jamal Awad/Flash90)

The military releases footage from the Israeli Air Force’s control room at the IDF’s underground headquarters, as the first interceptions of the Iranian missiles and drones were carried out early Sunday.

According to the IDF, Iran’s attack comprised 170 drones, 30 cruise missiles and 120 ballistic missiles — 99% of which were intercepted by air defenses.

All the drones and cruise missiles were downed outside of the country’s airspace by the Israeli Air Force and its allies, including the United States, United Kingdom, Jordan, France and others.

Four ballistic missiles hit an airbase in southern Israel, causing minor damage to infrastructure, the IDF has said.

Putin calls on ‘all sides’ in Middle East to show ‘reasonable restraint’

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives to attend talks with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, December 7, 2023. (Sergei Bobylev/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin urges all sides in the Middle East to refrain from action that would trigger a new confrontation, which he warned would be fraught with catastrophic consequences for the region, the Kremlin says.

Putin, in his first publicly aired comments on Iran’s attack, says the root cause of the current instability in the Middle East is the unresolved conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

“Vladimir Putin expressed hope that all sides would show reasonable restraint and prevent a new round of confrontation fraught with catastrophic consequences for the entire region,” the Kremlin says.

In a phone conversation with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, “both sides stated that the root cause of the current events in the Middle East is the unresolved Palestinian-Israeli conflict,” the Kremlin says.

“In this regard, the principled approaches of Russia and Iran in favor of an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, easing the difficult humanitarian situation, and creating conditions for a political and diplomatic settlement of the crisis were confirmed.”

Police demolish Jerusalem home of Palestinian attacker who shot cops last year

A police officer stands outside the demolished home of a Palestinian terrorist in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, April 16, 2024. (Israel Police)

Police have demolished the East Jerusalem home of a Palestinian terrorist who shot and critically wounded an officer in an attack last year.

In the shooting outside the Shalem police station in Jerusalem on October 12, Khaled al-Muhtasib opened fire with a makeshift submachine gun at two cops, before being shot dead.

This morning, some 350 officers entered the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina to demolish al-Muhtasib’s home, police say.

It marks the first time a house demolition has been carried out over an incident in which the victim of a Palestinian terror attack was not killed.

The demolition order was signed by the head of the IDF Home Front Command, Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo, as he is the relevant officer within Israeli territory, including East Jerusalem. Last month, the High Court upheld a decision to demolish the home.

Gantz says Israel will respond to Iran ‘in the place, time and manner it chooses’

Head of the National Unity party Minister Benny Gantz holds a press conference at the Knesset, April 3, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Israel will choose the time and place to respond to this weekend’s Iranian drone and missile attack while working with the United States to build a global and regional alliance against Tehran, says war cabinet Minister Benny Gantz.

“Iran is a global and regional problem, and also a threat to Israel. Therefore the world should act against it militarily and impose sanctions on it in order to stop its aggression,” the former IDF chief of staff says on stage at a conference organized by the Israel Hayom daily newspaper.

“I discussed this with senior officials in the American administration in the last day, and Israel will work together with them to promote this,” he continues.

“In this context, promoting the normalization processes, which will create the strategic reversal in the region against the Iranian axis, will serve that purpose. Israel will act out of strategic wisdom, and will respond in the place, time and manner it chooses. And this is not the place to elaborate,” he says.

Turning to the issue of the war in Gaza, Gantz says that the return of the hostages “is not only moral duty of the first order, but a leading strategic objective in the war,” and promises to continue working to bring them home.

On the matter of ultra-Orthodox enlistment, he says that talks are ongoing and rejects the idea of a “political compromise” that would protect yeshiva students’ exemptions as harming Israeli security.

“We need a comprehensive and broad [military] service plan,” he declares.

7-year-old wounded in Iranian attack still in critical condition, says hospital

Mohamad Hassouna points to a hole in the roof of a building caused by a projectile that injured his 7-year-old daughter Amina at their Bedouin village, in the southern Negev desert, on April 14, 2024. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)

Amina Hassouna, the 7-year-old girl severely injured by shrapnel from an intercepted ballistic missile continues to be in extremely serious condition at Soroka Medical Center.

The shrapnel fell directly on her home in the Negev desert during the Iranian attack in the early hours of Sunday morning.

According to pediatric intensive care director Dr. Isaac Lazar, she is still on artificial ventilation and in life-threatening condition.

“The interdisciplinary team of intensive care specialists, anesthesiologists, neurosurgeons and others continues to care for her around the clock,” Lazar says.

“We all hope that her condition will quickly improve and that she will soon be healthy and able to return home with her family,” he says.

German FM says she will fly to Israel today in effort to prevent ‘escalation’

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock gives a statement on the situation in the Middle East on April 14, 2024 at the Foreign Ministry in Berlin (Odd ANDERSEN / AFP)

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock says she will fly to Israel today to help deescalate the tense situation after Iran’s weekend attack and express Germany’s support for Israel.

She calls on all sides to prevent the conflict from spreading to other countries in the region and for new sanctions against Iran.

“I will assure our Israeli partners of Germany’s full solidarity,” she says. “And we will discuss how a further escalation with more and more violence can be prevented. Because what matters now is to put a stop to Iran without encouraging further escalation.”

Referring to Iran’s attack, the German minister says that “of course, this further military escalation now also has further consequences.”

Speaking to reporters in Berlin after a meeting with her Jordanian counterpart, Ayman Safadi, she says she will push for further European Union sanctions against Iran, specifically pointing out the country’s drone program.

Baerbock also says she will use her visit to again demand that more humanitarian aid be let into Gaza, and condemns the latest violence in the West Bank.

Standing alongside an intercepted missile, IDF spokesman says Iran won’t get off ‘scot-free’ after attack

IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari poses next to an Iranian ballistic missile which fell in Israel, during a media tour at the Julis IDF base near Kiryat Malachi on April 16, 2024. (GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP)

The chief IDF spokesman says that Iran will not get off “scot-free” after the Islamic Republic launched an unprecedented wave of missiles and drones at Israel over the weekend.

“We cannot stand still from this kind of aggression, Iran will not get [off] scot-free with this aggression,” IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari tells reporters at Julis military base while displaying the remains of an intercepted missile.

“We will respond in our time, in our place, in the way that we will choose,” he adds.

Hezbollah takes responsibility for drone attack on north, claims to hit Iron Dome battery

Illustrative - The Iron Dome air defense system intercepts rockets fired from Lebanon, as seen over the Hula Valley, April 12, 2024. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)

The Hezbollah terror group claims responsibility for launching explosive-laden drones at northern Israel earlier. Three people were lightly wounded in the attack.

In a statement, Hezbollah claims that it targeted an Iron Dome battery near Beit Hillel, a small farming community, and that members of its crew were killed and wounded.

Hezbollah has made similar claims in recent months, which have been dismissed by the IDF as empty boasts.

The IDF said it was investigating why sirens didn’t sound during the attack.

Raisi tells Putin that Iran does not want an escalation, says Kremlin

File - Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) shakes hands with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during their meeting in the Kremlin on December 7, 2023, in Moscow. (Sergei Bobylyov/Pool/AFP)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi tells Vladimir Putin by telephone that Tehran’s strikes on Israel were limited and that the Islamic Republic is not interested in escalating, the Kremlin says.

Putin expresses hope that all sides will show reasonable restraint and so prevent a fall towards a confrontation that could have “catastrophic consequences for the entire region,” the Kremlin says.

Iranian deputy FM: Tehran would respond in ‘seconds’ to Israeli counterattack

Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani listens to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, June 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

An Iranian official says his country will respond within “seconds” if Israel seeks to retaliate for its attack over the weekend.

Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani says Israel will face a “resolute and hard response” if it takes further action against Iran.

Bagheri Kani says unlike Iran’s response to the purported Israeli attack on a building next to the Iranian consulate in Damascus, “there will not be a 12- or 13-day gap between a Zionist regime move and Iran’s powerful response anymore. The Zionists must now reckon in seconds, not hours.”

Rocket warning sirens sound in northern Israel, close to the Lebanon border

Rocket warning sirens sound in northern Israel communities close to the Lebanon border.

The sirens can be heard in multiple locations including Idmit, Hanita and Shlomi.

Jordan foreign minister: Netanyahu must be stopped from ‘stealing’ attention from Gaza by escalating further with Iran

Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi briefs the media in Berlin, April 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi says the international community should stop Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from “stealing” attention away from Gaza by escalating his confrontation with Iran.

In remarks during a press conference with his German counterpart in Berlin, Safadi says Iran had responded to the attack against its consulate and had announced that it “did not want to escalate further.”

“We are against escalating. Netanyahu wants to draw attention away from Gaza and focus on his confrontation with Iran,” Safadi adds.

Jordan’s air force intercepted dozens of Iranian drones that violated its airspace during the attack on Israel early on Sunday morning, saying that it did so to ensure the safety of its citizens.

According to an NBC report, Jordan also allowed Israeli fighter jets into its airspace to shoot down the incoming projectiles, and the two countries’ fighters were coordinated by the US military, in what is thought to be the first time Israel and Jordan have fought side by side.

Lebanese media reports Israeli drone strike on vehicle in Ain Baal

Lebanese media report an Israeli drone strike on a vehicle in the town of Ain Baal, near Tyre.

No further details are immediately available.

German FM says several European countries looking at extending sanctions against Iran

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock says she has noticed that a number of players at the European level have said they would take another look at extending an existing EU sanctions regime against Iran that targets drone production.

Baerbock had campaigned with France and other EU partners last autumn to extend the European Union sanctions regime.

“I hope that we can now finally take this step together as the EU,” says Baerbock in Berlin at a news conference with her Jordanian counterpart, Ayman Safadi.

A virtual meeting of EU foreign ministers on the tensions in the Middle East is planned for today.

Two explosive-laden drones from Lebanon strike close to Kiryat Shmona, IDF says

Two explosive-laden drones from Lebanon struck areas near the northern community of Beit Hillel, close to Kiryat Shmona, the military says.

According to media reports, three people were lightly hurt in one of the strikes.

No sirens had sounded. The IDF says that the incident is under investigation.

Footage circulating on social media purports to show one of the drones flying over the Galilee Panhandle.

Qatar denies Iranian report that its emir said Israel was escalating against Iran to divert attention from Gaza

Qatar forcefully denies an Iran state-run news agency report that its emir told Iran’s president that Israel is trying to divert the world’s attention from its “crimes in Gaza” by escalating tensions against Tehran.

A senior Qatari official tells The Times of Israel that Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani never made such comments during the call with Ibrahim Raisi.

“Contrary to the interpretations suggested, the main focus of his highness’s message was an earnest appeal for de-escalation and the promotion of peace in the region,” the official says.

Jewish Australian falsely identified as Sydney mall attacker secures services of leading defamation litigator

Police enter the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping mall after a stabbing incident in Sydney on April 13, 2024 (David GRAY / AFP)

A Jewish Australian university student falsely identified as the perpetrator of Saturday’s stabbing attack in a Sydney mall has secured the services of a leading Australian defamation litigator.

The Australian Financial Review reports that Ben Cohen, 20, will engage with attorney Rebeka Giles to sue for damages after Australia’s 7 News briefly named Cohen as the assailant in the stabbing attack at the Westfield shopping center near east Sydney’s Bondi junction.

The real attacker, who was shot dead after killing six people and injuring several others — including a baby — was on Sunday morning identified by police as Joel Cauchi, 40, from Queensland, Australia. According to the police, Cauchi appeared to have targeted women specifically, and the attack was related to unspecified mental health problems, rather than terrorism.

Neighbors of Cauchi’s parents who spoke to the British Daily Mail described the couple as “very religious” ex-Catholics. Discourse on social media had earlier run wild with speculation that the Sydney mall attacker was Jewish or Muslim.

The 7 News segment naming Cohen, which had aired earlier Sunday morning and was subsequently retracted, had relied on falsities promulgated the day before by antisemitic conspiracy theorists on social media. The channel blamed “human error” for its inaccurate reporting.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, together with disinformation expert Marc Owen Jones and the White Rose Society, an anti-fascist research group, traced the falsehood back to Simeon Boikov, who goes by “Aussie Cossack” on social media platform X.

ABC reports that Boikov, an acolyte of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has lived in Russia’s consulate in Sydney for the past year, and had asked for political asylum in Russia as he seeks to avoid an arrest warrant for alleged assault.

The lie, which Boikov began promoting about an hour after the afternoon attack, was viral by midnight with the aid of numerous antisemitic X accounts barely hiding their glee at the alleged assailant’s Jewish surname.

“It’s extremely disappointing to see thousands of people mindlessly propagating misinformation without even the slightest thought put to fact-checking or real-life consequences, and then using that information to push an agenda and spread hatred,” Cohen told ABC.

British budget airline EasyJet cancels flights to Israel until October 2024

An EasyJet flight seen taking off from Ben Gurion International Airport, on March 24, 2018. (Moshe Shai/FLASH90)

British budget airline EasyJet EZJ.L on Tuesday suspends flights to Israel until October 27, citing the security situation in the Middle East.

“As a result of the continued evolving situation in Israel, EasyJet has now taken the decision to suspend its flights to Tel Aviv for the remainder of the summer season,” a spokesperson says after the airline paused flights to the Israeli city on Sunday.

“Customers booked to fly on this route up to this date are being offered options including a full refund.”

The decision to cancel all flights until October comes just over a month after the airline resumed its flights to Israel in March for the first time since the Hamas terror onslaught on October 7 and subsequent war in Gaza.

IDF: Halevi spoke to British counterpart, thanked him for assistance during Iran attack

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi spoke yesterday with his British counterpart, Chief of the Defence Staff Adm. Sir Antony David Radakin, the Israeli military says.

Halevi thanked Radakin “for the assistance of the British Army in the joint defensive effort to thwart and intercept the Iranian attack toward Israel in the ‘Iron Shield’ operation,” the IDF says in a statement.

The IDF says the “relationship between the two militaries has strategic importance for maintaining regional stability and security in the Middle East.”

The UK was among several nations that intercepted many of the Iranian drones and cruise missiles launched at Israel in the attack early Sunday.

Two-year-old girl hospitalized in serious condition after being left in a car for several hours

A two-year-old girl has been rushed to Hadassah Medical Center – Ein Kerem in Jerusalem after she was left in a car for several hours in the Beitar Ilit settlement.

The girl is in serious condition and on artificial ventilation in the hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit.

US treasury secretary to introduce new sanctions on Iran during IMF conference later today – report

US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen gives a press conference a day ahead of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meetings in Sao Paulo, Brazil, February 27, 2024. (Andre Penner/AP)

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is preparing to impose new sanctions on Iran following its unprecedented weekend attack on Israel, Axios reports.

According to the report, Yellen will introduce the sanctions during the annual International Monetary Fund conference in Washington DC later today, and will urge her counterparts attending the conference to take similar steps in their home countries.

In a script of Yellen’s planned remarks seen by Axios, she states that the US Treasury “will not hesitate to work with our allies to use our sanctions authority to continue disrupting the Iranian regime’s malign and destabilizing activity.”

Earlier today, Foreign Minister Israel Katz said he had urged 32 countries to impose sanctions on Iran’s missile program after the Sunday morning attack in which Tehran launched some 350 attack drones and missiles at Israel.

IDF wraps up northern Israel war simulation drills, both on the ground and in cyberspace

IDF troops carry out a drill in northern Israel, in a handout image published April 16, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The Israeli military has wrapped up a series of drills, both on the ground and in cyberspace, simulating war in northern Israel.

One drill, carried out by the Northern Command and Computer Service Directorate, simulated “the deployment of forces and the use of technological means” and “combat in the digital space,” the IDF says.

The Northern Command also carried out an exercise with its reserve forces, practicing coordination between its various departments, the army says.

Another drill, carried out by the 210th “Bashan” Regional Division, simulated “a variety of scenarios in Lebanon and Syria simultaneously,” the IDF says.

The IDF says the 282nd Artillery Regiment carried out a separate drill practicing suddenly changing from routine operations to an emergency.

Israeli soldiers carry out a cyber drill at the IDF Northern Command, in a handout image published April 16, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

Additionally, reservists of the elite Alpinist Unit “practice their operational mission while preparing for complex combat in urban areas,” the military adds.

The drills are aimed at “increasing preparedness in the northern arena,” the IDF says.

The exercises come amid daily attacks by the Hezbollah terror group on northern Israel amid the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

Israel has warned it can no longer tolerate Hezbollah’s presence along its border following the October 7 atrocities and has warned that should a diplomatic solution not be reached, it will turn to military action to push Hezbollah northward.

Paris 2024 Olympic torch lit in ancient Olympia; IOC president: A symbol of hope in difficult times

Greek actress Mary Mina, playing the role of the High Priestess, lights the torch during the flame lighting ceremony for the Paris 2024 Olympics Games at the ancient temple of Hera on the Olympia archeological site, birthplace of the ancient Olympics in southern Greece, on April 16, 2024. (Aris Messinis/AFP)

The torch for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games was lit in ancient Olympia in a traditional ceremony this morning, marking the final stretch of the seven-year preparations for the Games’ start on July 26.

Greek actress Mary Mina, playing the role of high priestess, lit the torch using a backup flame instead of a parabolic mirror due to cloudy skies, for the start of a relay in Greece and France.

It will culminate with the lighting of the Olympic flame in the French capital at the opening ceremony. Paris will host the Summer Olympics for a third time after 1900 and 1924.

“In these difficult times we are living through, with wars and conflicts on the rise, people are fed up with all the hate, the aggression and negative news they are facing day in and day out,” International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach says in his speech.

“We are longing for something which brings us together, something that is unifying, something that gives us hope. The Olympic flame that we are lighting today is the symbol of this hope.”

Egypt’s foreign minister to visit Turkey to discuss Gaza, Middle East tensions

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry is expected to discuss developments in the Middle East and the situation in Gaza with his Turkish counterpart during a visit to Turkey this weekend, a Turkish diplomatic source says.

Shoukry and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will also evaluate the latest developments in negotiations to secure a truce and hostage release deal in Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.

IDF: 23 wanted Palestinians detained by troops in the West Bank overnight

IDF troops operate in the West Bank in an undated image published on April 16, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF says troops detained 23 wanted Palestinians during overnight raids across the West Bank.

No soldiers were hurt in the operations, the army says.

Since October 7, troops have arrested some 3,700 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,600 affiliated with Hamas. according to the military. The Palestinian Authority health ministry says more than 450 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time.

Corporations Authority to dissolve nonprofits associated with Ra’am party for alleged ties to terror

Ra'am party head MK Mansour Abbas leads a faction meeting, at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on June 12, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The Corporations Authority announces the pending dissolution of two nonprofits associated with MK Mansour Abbas’ United Arab List party due to alleged terror ties.

According to a statement by the Justice Ministry, the decision came after an investigation found reason to believe that the Islamic Association for Orphans and the Needy and the Association for Humanitarian Actions had “transferred funds or cooperated with organizations outside of Israel that were declared as terrorist organizations.”

Both the United Arab List, also known by its Hebrew acronym Ra’am, and the nonprofits are affiliated with Israel’s Islamic Movement.

The two charitable funds were warned of the authority’s intent to begin liquidation procedures and given until May 6 to present their case as to why the government should not request a dissolution order from the court.

According to the Kan public broadcaster, Ra’am has claimed that the allegations constitute political persecution. Kan also reports that one of the two nonprofit accounts was recently blocked by Bank Leumi.

An attorney for the bank told the network that there had been “money transfers here to associations that we know are Hamas associations.”

Responding to the news, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich writes on X, formerly Twitter, that he had “warned and cried out about the connection between the Ra’am party and Mansour Abbas and terrorism, a connection that today receives official confirmation.”

“We knew about it for sure and based our opposition to the establishment of a government that relies on them,” he states, referring to Ra’am’s presence in the short-lived Bennett-Lapid government.

IDF says it struck dozens of Hamas targets in Gaza over past day

The IDF says it carried out airstrikes against dozens of targets in the Gaza Strip over the past day, including a rocket launcher, tunnels, buildings where Hamas operatives were gathered, and other infrastructure.

The strikes come as the IDF’s 162nd Division continues to carry out an operation in the central Gaza Strip, on the outskirts of Nuseirat.

The IDF says troops killed several gunmen over the past day in central Gaza.

Released hostage Noralin Agojo says she was held in room with photo of Gilad Shalit on the wall

Freed hostage Noralin Agojo, 60, who was released on November 28, 2023, as part of a temporary ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. (Courtesy)

During her time in captivity, released hostage Noralin Agojo was kept in a room with a picture of Gilad Shalit on the wall, she tells the Kan public broadcaster.

Agojo was taken hostage from Kibbutz Nirim during the Hamas terror assault on October 7 and was released from captivity after 53 days, during the weeklong November truce deal.

In an excerpt from an interview with Kan, which will be released in full during the Passover holiday, Agojo says that upon being abducted to Gaza,  she was initially held in a small room in Gaza in which a picture of Gilad Shalit was mounted on the wall.

Shalit, an IDF soldier, was captured by Hamas in a 2006 cross-border attack and held in Gaza for five years until he was released in 2011 in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian security prisoners.

After a day or so, Agojo was moved to a different location, along with since-freed hostages Irena Tati and Karina Engel-Bart, where she was held until her release.

“Every day was like hell,” she says recalling her time in captivity. “On the first day, there was electricity and a fan, and then there was none.”

As time went on, the three women received less and less food and water, she tells Kan.

They managed to keep track of the passing days, she says, as they would roll up a small piece of toilet paper each day and store it in a cup.

“We talked among ourselves in whispers — when will we be released, what would happen to our husbands and families, whether they would kill us — all kinds of things,” she says. “I thought every day that someone would come in and kill us.”

Despite sharing intelligence, Saudi Arabia, UAE denied US request to use their airspace during Iran’s attack – report

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, left, arrives in Abu Dhabi to offer condolences to Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the UAE and ruler of Abu Dhabi, third, right, on the passing of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the late president of the UAE, at the Presidential Airport in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, May 16, 2022. (Saudi Press Agency via AP)

While Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates cooperated extensively with the US by passing on intelligence information that was vital to the success of the air defense measures that thwarted the massive assault, they stopped short of agreeing to open their airspace for Israel and the US, the Wall Street Journal reports, indicating that the two countries are attempting to maintain a delicate balance in an increasingly tense region.

According to the report, the balance struck by Saudi Arabia and the UAE is a result of recently improved ties with Iran, which both countries are said to have used to their advantage in recent months as they try to prevent Iran from turning the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza into an all-out regional war.

Emirati political scientist Abdulkhaleq Abdulla tells the Wall Street Journal that the UAE is trying to stay as uninvolved as possible in any direct conflict, feeling that it needs to focus on its own national interests and security, but will strive to maintain relations with both Israel and Iran.

“We don’t want to get entangled in this one way or another,” he says, assessing that fellow Gulf states feel the same way.

IDF: Contrary to report, no cargo plane was damaged in Iranian attack on Nevatim Airbase

Contrary to a report by a major American media outlet, no cargo plane was damaged in the Iranian missile attack on Nevatim Airbase, military sources tell The Times of Israel.

The ABC report, citing a senior US official, claimed that five Iranian ballistic missiles hit Nevatim in the early Sunday attack, damaging a C-130 cargo plane, an unused runway, and empty storage facilities.

The report further claimed that another four ballistic missiles hit “the Negev Air Base.” There is no airbase in Israel with that name, and according to the IDF, no other bases in Israel were hit in the attack.

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said four missiles hit Nevatim, not five as ABC reported. One hit close to a runway, causing slight damage to a taxiway, two struck open areas in the base, and another hit close to a building that was under construction, causing slight damage to it, he said. Hagari made no mention of a damaged C-130 plane, and said that there was only minor damage to infrastructure.

Military sources confirmed to The Times of Israel that the ABC report is false, and no planes were damaged in the Iranian attack.

Days before opening, Israeli artist shutters her Venice Biennale exhibition in solidarity with hostages

The Israel Pavilion with an exhibit by Israeli artist Ruth Patir at the Venice Biennale on April 16, 2024 (Courtesy Tal Nisim)

After months of pro-Palestinian activists trying to convince the Venice Biennale to ban Israel from the international art exhibition, participating Israeli artist Ruth Patir today turns the tables and locks the doors to her own exhibition, on the first preview day for media and art world professionals. The event opens officially on April 20.

“The artist and curators of the Israeli pavilion will open the exhibition when a cease-fire and hostage release agreement is reached,” reads a sign the Israeli team says it plans to tape to the door of the pavilion, taking a stance in solidarity with the hostages. The team is made up of Israeli artist Patir, along with her curators, Mira Lapidot and Tamar Margalit.

“As an artist and educator, I firmly object to cultural boycott, but I have a significant difficulty in presenting a project that speaks about the vulnerability of life in a time of unfathomed disregard for it,” says Patir.

Iran’s Raisi tells Qatar’s emir that any Israeli action will be met with ‘severe, extensive’ response

File: In this photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian Presidency, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, right, shakes hands with President Ebrahim Raisi during an official arrival ceremony at the Saadabad Palace in Tehran, Iran, on May 12, 2022. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP)

Any action by Israel or its allies that is deemed to be against Iran’s interests will be met with a “severe, extensive and painful response,” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi tells Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani in a call a day after Israel said it will response to Tehran’s unprecedented drone and missile attack over the weekend.

The state-run Iranian Students News Agency reports that the call between the two focused on the war in Gaza, as well as the April 1 strike on an Iranian consulate building in Damascus — which Tehran has blamed on Jerusalem — and the subsequent Iranian attack on Israel.

Israel’s alleged strike in Damascus was a “sign of desperation” as a result of its “failure to achieve its goals in attacking Gaza,” Raisi is quoted as having told al-Thani, claiming that as a result, the retaliatory attack on Israel was a “legitimate” act of defense.

Al-Thani, in response, noted the “high mutual trust” shared by the two countries and pledged that Qatar remains supportive of Iran and the Palestinian cause in all circumstances, ISNA reports, claiming al-Thani told Raisi that “the Zionist regime is trying to divert the world’s public opinion from its crimes in Gaza by making the situation tense.”

Qatar forcefully denies the Iran state-run news agency report of its emir’s comments about Gaza, with a senior Qatari official telling The Times of Israel that he never made such comments during the call with Raisi.

“Contrary to the interpretations suggested, the main focus of his highness’s message was an earnest appeal for de-escalation and the promotion of peace in the region,” the official says.

Foreign Minister Katz writes to 32 countries urging them to sanction Iran’s missile program

Foreign Minister Israel Katz writes to 32 countries worldwide urging them to impose sanctions on Iran’s missile program and to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization after Tehran’s weekend attack on Israel.

In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, Katz declares that he is “leading a political attack against Iran.”

Sanctioning the missile program and moving to declare the IRGC a terror group will help to “contain and weaken Iran,” Katz writes, adding that it “must be stopped now — before it is too late.”

Israel tells Arab countries that its response to Iran won’t endanger them – report

Israel has reassured Arab countries in the region that its response to Iran’s attack will not place them in danger, the Kan public broadcaster reports, amid concerns from several countries that they would be held accountable by Tehran in the event of an Israeli retaliatory strike.

According to the report, Israel has informed allied countries such as Jordan, Egypt and the Gulf states that its response, when it comes, will be carried out in such a way that Iran cannot implicate them in the retaliation.

The reported reassurance from Israel to its neighboring countries comes after top Iranian commanders warned on Sunday that Israel and its allies would face a bigger attack if it retaliated against the more than 300 drones and missiles launched by Tehran over the weekend.

In particular, Tehran’s comments have sparked concern in Jordan after Iran’s official media warned that Jordan would be the next target in the event it cooperated with Israel in a showdown with Iran.

US officials believe Israel unlikely to strike Iran directly, will focus on proxies instead – NBC

The US believes that Israel’s response to Iran’s unprecedented attack early on Sunday morning is likely to be limited, and may focus on striking key targets outside of Iran, four US officials tell NBC.

Noting that the US’s assessment is based on conversations with Israeli officials prior to the attack and that Israel’s approach may since have shifted, the officials say that the lack of serious damage caused by Tehran may lead Jerusalem to seek a less aggressive response.

Instead of directly striking Iran in response — which Israel’s allies have warned runs the risk of sending the region spiraling into an all-out war — the officials tell NBC that Israel may strike Iran’s proxies, such as its militias in Syria or the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon.

The report adds that the US expects Israel to provide updates regarding the decisions it makes, but does not intend to take part in any retaliatory reaction.

An unsourced report by Channel 12 on Monday claimed that Israel’s war cabinet decided to hit back “clearly and forcefully” against Iran with a response designed to send the message that Israel “will not allow an attack of that magnitude against it to pass without a reaction.”

However, the Channel 12 report added that Israel does not want its response to spark a regional war, or to shatter the coalition that helped it defend against Iran’s attack. It noted also that Israel intends to coordinate its action with the US.

Police say Australian church stabbing was terrorist act

Australian police say a knife attack on an Assyrian church bishop and some followers in Sydney was a terrorist act motivated by suspected religious extremism, as the country reels from a second stabbing incident in three days.

At least four people were wounded in the attack, including Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel of the Assyrian Christ The Good Shepherd Church, when a man lunged at him with a knife during a service live-streamed on Monday.

The incident at the western Sydney suburb of Wakeley triggers clashes outside the church between police and an angry crowd of the bishop’s followers who demand the attacker be handed over to them.

Police arrest a male teenager at the scene on Monday and are forced to hold him at the church for his own safety as the crowd of worshippers gathered outside.

“We believe there are elements that are satisfied in terms of religious motivated extremism,” New South Wales state Police Commissioner Karen Webb says during a press conference.

“After consideration of all the material, I declared that it was a terrorist incident.”

US defense chief Austin presses Gallant on ‘regional stability’

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin spoke by phone with Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant, the Pentagon says, to discuss the massive Iranian attack early Sunday and its aftermath, with the US urging Jerusalem not to launch a counter-strike.

Austin “reiterated steadfast US support for Israel’s defense and reaffirmed the strategic goal of regional stability,” the statement reads.

Iran tells supportive China it’s willing to exercise restraint against Israel

China says it believes Iran could “handle the situation well and spare the region further turmoil” while safeguarding its sovereignty and dignity, following a phone call between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

Amir-Abdollahian tells Wang that Iran is aware of the regional tensions, is willing to exercise restraint and has no intention of further escalations, according to Xinhua.

Wang reiterates Iran’s assertion that its launch of some 350 missiles and drones at Israel early Sunday was a “limited” action taken in self-defense. The attack came as retaliation for an alleged Israeli strike on a building in Iran’s diplomatic mission in Damascus that killed a top IRGC officer and other members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Wang condemns the Israeli attack, while thanking Iran for not targeting regional and neighboring countries as it bombarded Israel.

Xinhua says Wang also told Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud that China is willing to work with Riyadh to avoid further escalation in the Middle East.

Riyadh “highly expects” China to play an active and important role in that regard, the Saudi foreign minister is quoted as saying, adding that his country is willing to strengthen communication and coordination with China to promote an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza.

US House speaker announces plan for separate bills aiding Israel, Ukraine

The US House of Representatives will consider aid to Israel and Ukraine as separate legislation this week, Republican Speaker Mike Johnson says, rejecting pressure to simply approve a package sent over by the Senate that includes spending for both allies.

Leaving a meeting of House Republicans on Monday evening, Johnson said the narrowly divided chamber will consider four bills altogether that would also include aid to Taiwan, US allies in the Indo-Pacific and US national security priorities.

Facing an outright rebellion from conservatives fiercely opposed to aiding Ukraine, Johnson told the meeting he would push to get the package to the House floor under a single debate rule, then hold separate votes on aid for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and the other foreign policy proposals, according to Republican lawmakers.

“We know that the world is watching us to see how we react,” Johnson tells reporters. “They’re watching to see if America will stand up for its allies and in our own interest around the globe. And we will.”

The GOP meeting was filled with lawmakers at odds in their approach to Ukraine: Republican defense hawks, including the top lawmakers on national security committees, who want Johnson to finally take up the national security supplemental package as a bundle, are pitted against populist conservatives who are fiercely opposed to continued support for Kyiv’s fight at all.

“The House must rush to Israel’s aid as quickly as humanly possible, and the only way to do that is passing the Senate’s supplemental ASAP,” says Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

The White House would oppose a standalone bill that only addressed aid for Israel, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said earlier.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries pledges in a letter to lawmakers to do “everything in our legislative power to confront aggression” around the globe.

“The gravely serious events of this past weekend in the Middle East and Eastern Europe underscore the need for Congress to act immediately,” Jeffries says. “We must take up the bipartisan and comprehensive national security bill passed by the Senate forthwith. This is a Churchill or Chamberlain moment.”

Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters block Golden Gate, Brooklyn bridges, Oregon highway

Demonstrators chant slogans at an outdoor shopping mall in downtown Los Angeles during a "Strike for Gaza" protest calling for the US to stop funding Israel and for a permanent ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict, on April 15, 2024, in Los Angeles, California. (Robyn Beck / AFP)

Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel demonstrators have blocked roadways in California, New York and Oregon, after others temporarily shut down travel into Chicago O’Hare International Airport.

Traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area is snarled for hours as demonstrators shut down all vehicle, pedestrian and bike traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge and chain themselves to 55-gallon drums filled with cement across Interstate 880 in Oakland.

In New York, protesters marching into Brooklyn block Manhattan-bound traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge. In Eugene, Oregon, protesters block Interstate 5, shutting down traffic on the major highway for about 45 minutes.

In Chicago, protesters earlier linked arms and blocked lanes of Interstate 190 leading into one of the nation’s busiest airports around 7 a.m., a demonstration they said was part of a global “economic blockade to free Palestine,” according to Rifqa Falaneh, one of the organizers.

About 20 protesters were arrested at the Golden Gate Bridge demonstration and traffic resumed shortly after noon, according to the California Highway Patrol, reporting that over 300 demonstrators took part.

“Attempting to block or shut down a freeway or state highway to protest is unlawful, dangerous, and prevents motorists from safely reaching their destinations,” the agency says in a statement.

Oregon State Police say 52 protestors are arrested for disorderly conduct.

New York Police report numerous arrests, saying 150 protesters were initially involved in the march around 3:15 p.m., but that number quickly grew. The bridge has been fully reopened as of 5 p.m.

A pro-Palestinian protester tries to grab an American flag from pro-Israel supporters as a police officer tries to intervene during a demonstration outside The New York Stock Exchange on Monday, April 15, 2024, in New York. (AP/Andres Kudacki)

In Chicago, dozens of protesters were arrested, according to Falaneh. Chicago police said Monday that “multiple people” were taken into custody after a protest where people obstructed traffic but did not have a detailed count.

Hamas rejected everything in latest hostage deal offer, upped some demands — Israeli official

A senior Israeli official tells The Times of Israel that Hamas’s response to the latest hostage deal proposal rejected every single clause of the offer.

The Hamas response demands that the release of Israeli hostages in the first stage of the deal be conditioned on negotiators providing guarantees that in the second stage Israel will agree to a permanent ceasefire, a complete IDF withdrawal from Gaza and the unrestricted return of Palestinians to the northern part of the enclave the Israeli official says. The latter three demands have all been non-starters for Jerusalem.

Hamas’s response also dramatically increased the number of Palestinian security prisoners it is demanding for every hostage it releases as well as the number of murder convicts it wants freed.

The Israeli official says Hamas is now only willing to initially release roughly 20 hostages who fall under the categories of women and men over 50, as opposed to the proposal crafted by Qatari, Egyptian and American mediators, which would have seen 40 hostages freed. It is also demanding that Israel agree to a six-week truce before releasing those 20 or so hostages.

“Sinwar doesn’t want a deal. He doesn’t care if Gazans continue to suffer, even after extraordinary Israeli flexibility regarding all the parameters of the American proposal,” the Israeli official says.