Author: CNN

The European Union imposed sanctions on “extremist settlers in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem,” the European Council announced on Friday, listing four people and two entities.According to the statement, the entities Lehava, a “radical right-wing Jewish supremacist group,” and Hilltop Youth, a “radical youth group consisting of members known for violent acts against Palestinians and their villages in the West Bank,” were added to the EU sanctions regime alongside two leading figures of Hilltop Youth, Meir Ettinger and Elisha Yered.Neria Ben Pazi, who the EU’s governing body said has been “accused of repeatedly attacking Palestinians,” and Yinon Levi, who the…

The attack on Iran early Friday was likely intended as both a retaliatory measure and a cautionary message, a retired US Army Major General told CNN’s Michael Holmes. For days, Israel has been weighing its response to unprecedented weekend strikes from Iran, which were launched in retaliation for a suspected Israeli strike on its embassy compound in Syria earlier this month. A US official told CNN that Friday’s attack was an Israeli strike. Israel has declined to comment on it. “Israel must maintain its vigilance” in case Iran decides to respond with another show of force, retired Major General Mark…

Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich speaks to the press on February 5, 2024, in Jerusalem. Amir Levy/Getty ImagesIsrael’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said that Israel’s response to Iran’s attack should inflict a “disproportionate toll” and “rock Tehran” to deter Iran from future strikes.Smotrich said Israel’s response to Iran’s missile and drone attack should make Tehran “regret the moment they even thought about firing” and be “fierce, severe and inflict a disproportionate toll.”Smotrich, who is technically also a minister in Israel’s defense ministry due to a deal struck in coalition agreements, told Israel’s Army Radio (GLZ) that the nature of Israel’s response…

CNN  —  Here’s a look at the life of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Birth date: May 6, 1953 Birth place: Edinburgh, Scotland Birth name: Anthony Charles Lynton Blair Father: Leo Charles Blair, lawyer Mother: Hazel (Corscadden) Blair Marriage: Cherie (Booth) Blair (1980-present) Children: Leo, Kathryn, Nicholas and Euan Education: St. John’s College, Oxford, B.A., 1975 Religion: Roman Catholic Although born in Scotland, Blair spent most of his childhood in Durham, England. His son, Leo, was the first baby born to a serving prime minister in 150 years. In his youth, acted in plays and sang in a rock…

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech on July 5, 2023. Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images/FileIsrael, 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…

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…