Author: CNN

An Israeli source close to the negotiations said that Hamas has reduced the number of hostages it wishes to release during the first phase of the proposed ceasefire agreement by more than half.In its latest counterproposal, Hamas offered to release fewer than 20 hostages in exchange for a six-week ceasefire, which would mean halving the 40 hostages that had been the basis of negotiations for several months – a major step backwards in the talks.A senior Biden administration official confirmed that Hamas is focusing on these twenty in the first phase of the potential deal. The official also confirmed that…

Israel and Iran’s United Nations ambassadors condemned each other’s actions during Sunday’s UN Security Council emergency session called to address Iran’s attack on Israel.Israel’s UN ambassador Gilad Erdan said Iran “must be stopped before it drives the world to a point of no return, to a regional war that can escalate to a world war.” Erdan accused Iran of seeking world domination and that its attack proved that Tehran “cares nothing, nothing for Islam or Muslims” before pulling out a tablet to show a video of Israel intercepting Iranian drones above Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque.Erdan called on the Security Council to designate the Iranian…

 Israeli forces fire rockets from their Iron Dome defense system near the southern city of Sderot on May 13, 2023. Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images/FileAlmost all the ballistic missiles and drones Iran launched at Israel in an unprecedented attack late Saturday were intercepted and failed to meet their mark, according to Israeli and American officials, highlighting the formidable and multi-layered missile defense deployed by the two allied partners.Most of the more than 300 Iranian munitions were intercepted before they got to Israel, more than 1,100 miles (1,770 kilometers) from their launch points.The US Navy and US warplanes shot down multiple ballistic missiles, as well as…

An anti-missile system operates as seen from Ashkelon, Israel, on Sunday. Amir Cohen/ReutersIran has warned that it will respond with more force if Israel retaliates over this weekend’s strikes, which Tehran said were themselves a reply to an Israeli attack earlier this month on its embassy complex in Syria’s capital Damascus.“The Islamic Republic of Iran will not hesitate to exercise its inherent right of self-defense when required,” Iran’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN, Amir Saeid Iravani, said in a statement. Should the Israeli regime commit any military aggression again, Iran’s response will assuredly and decisively be stronger and…

A view of damaged homes and burned vehicles after a raid by Israeli settlers on a town near Ramallah in the West Bank on April 12. Essam Al-Rimawi/Anadolu/Getty ImagesHundreds of armed Israeli settlers stormed a village in the occupied West Bank on Friday, setting fire to a number of homes and cars in one of the largest settler attacks this year, according to Palestinian officials. At least a young Palestinian man was killed by Israeli settlers’ bullets in the village of Al-Mughayir, east of Ramallah, according to the head of the village council, Amin Abu Alia. He said that he…

The highest-ranking American general in the Middle East is in Israel as the region prepares for a possible Iranian response to last week’s Israeli strike in Damascus, Syria. Source link

The World Central Kitchen (WCK) said one of its aid workers was seriously injured minutes before the deadly strikes on a WCK convoy that killed seven aid workers on April 1.The Palestinian WCK staff member — named only as Amro by the organization — was “gravely injured” in a reported airstrike at the al-Bashir Mosque in Deir al-Balah, WCK said Wednesday. The strike occurred a mere 15 minutes before the aid convoy was first hit, according to the organization.CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment on this claim by the WCK.The aid worker suffered “serious head…

CNN  —  Here is a look at the life of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former International Monetary Fund (IMF) Director. Birth date: April 25, 1949 Birth place: Neuilly-sur-Seine, France Birth name: Dominique Gaston Andre Strauss-Kahn Father: Gilbert Strauss-Kahn, a legal and tax advisor Mother: Jacqueline Fellus, a journalist Marriages: Myriam L’Aouffir (October 2017-present); Anne Sinclair (1991-2013, divorced); Brigitte Guillemette (1984-date unavailable publicly, divorced); Helene Dumas (1967-date unavailable publicly, divorced) Children: with Brigitte Guillemette: Camille; with Helene Dumas: Vanessa, Marine and Laurin Education: HEC Paris (École des Hautes Études Commerciales de Paris), Public Law, 1971; Paris Institute of Political Studies (Institut d’Études Politiques…

Sen. Chris Coons listens at a Senate Appropriations Committee Hearing in Washington, DC, on April 9. Allison Bailey/AFP/Getty ImagesUS Democratic Sen. Chris Coons said “far too many civilians have died” in response to a CNN investigation into Israeli forces opening fire on a group of people as they waited for aid in Gaza on February 29. “What’s clear both from the reporting I just saw on CNN and from dozens of previous incidents is that far too many civilians have died in the (last) six months of this conflict against Hamas,” Coons said in an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett…

Democratic Senators are split on whether to apply new conditions on aid to Israel.Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who supports conditions, warned the Biden administration’s policy needs to change in order to boost Democratic support for President Joe Biden in November. “I think the president simply needs to do what is the right policy, and that will send a message to people around the country that he is taking the right course. So in my view, this is a case where the right policies will produce the right politics.”“He needs to use all the levers of US policy available to him.…