Closing summary
Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
The Israeli army said Iran will not get off “scot-free” after Tehran’s missile and drone attack over the weekend. “We will respond in our time, in our place, in the way that we will choose,” Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari told reporters on Tuesday. On Monday, the Israeli military chief, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, said Israel was considering its next steps but that the Iranian strike “will be met with a response”.
The US and the EU are considering rapid new sanctions against Iran in the wake of Tehran’s large-scale air attack on Israel at the weekend. The US treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, said Washington would use its sanctions authority and work with allies to “continue disrupting the Iranian regime’s malign and destabilising activity”. Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, noted a European appetite for quickly expanding sanctions against Tehran, perhaps within days.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it has killed a Hezbollah commander in an airstrike in the southern Lebanese town of Ain Baal. The individual was named as Ismail Yousef Baz, who was described as “a senior and veteran official in the military wing of Hezbollah”. A source close to Hezbollah said the “field commander in charge of the Naqura region” was killed in an Israeli strike.
Vladimir Putin urged 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 said. Putin spoke to Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, by phone about what the Kremlin called “retaliatory measures taken by Tehran”.
Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly avoiding a call from the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, after the pair were scheduled to speak on Monday, according to a report. Sunak, addressing the House of Commons on Monday, said he would “shortly be speaking to prime minister Netanyahu” to “discuss how we can prevent further escalation” in the face of the weekend’s attack by Iran.
The Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus violated international law, a group of independent experts appointed by the UN human rights council said. In the report, special rapporteurs and independent experts said “retaliatory military attacks between Israel and Iran violate the right to life and must cease immediately.”
At least 33,843 Palestinians and 76,575 wounded in the Gaza Strip since 7 October, according to the latest figures by the territory’s health ministry on Tuesday. The ministry, which is led by Hamas, stated there had been 46 Palestinians killed and 110 injured in the past 24 hours.
Israeli tanks pushed back into some areas of the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday which they had left weeks ago, while warplanes conducted airstrikes on Rafah, the Palestinians’ last refuge in the south of the territory, killing and wounding several people, medics and residents said.
More than 10,000 women have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s war with Hamas began in October, according to a new report by UN Women. Among those women killed in the Palestinian territory are an estimated 6,000 mothers, leaving 19,000 children orphaned, the report published on Tuesday said.
The UN has voiced grave concern over escalating violence in the West Bank, demanding that Israeli security forces “immediately” stop supporting settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied territory. The statement was issued after two Palestinian men were killed by Israeli settlers in a northern village south of Nablus, in the latest violent attack involving settlers in the increasingly tense West Bank.
More than a dozen humanitarian groups have signed a letter warning that the escalating tensions in the Middle East are “unprecedented” and risk “threatening the lives of millions of civilians”.
The artists and curators of the Israeli national pavilion at the Venice Biennale have announced their decision not to open until “a ceasefire and hostage release agreement is reached” in the conflict in Gaza, on the opening preview day of the largest and most prominent global gathering in the art world.
Updated
Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly avoiding a call from the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, after the pair were scheduled to speak on Monday, according to a report by Israel’s Kann public broadcaster.
The Israeli prime minister’s office denied the report, but it did not say whether the two leaders have spoken yet.
Sunak, addressing the House of Commons yesterday, said he would “shortly be speaking to prime minister Netanyahu” to “discuss how we can prevent further escalation” in the face of the weekend’s attack by Iran.
Sunak has been seeking to speak to the Israeli leader for more than 36 hours, the Telegraph reported.
The US has made it clear to Israel that its war against Hamas should not escalate after Iran’s strikes, US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.
It has a greater impact on the region,” Thomas-Greenfield told MSNBC on Tuesday.
But again, I have to say that Israel, Israel’s war cabinet will make the decision about what Israel will do.
Israel will continue to receive the White House’s support “should they experience the kind of attack that they just experienced from Iran over the weekend,” she added.
Here’s some more information on the Israeli report that an Israeli strike inside Lebanon today killed “a senior Hezbollah field commander”.
A source close to Hezbollah has told AFP that the “field commander in charge of the Naqura region” was killed in an Israeli strike in south Lebanon.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has named the individual as Ismail Yousef Baz, who it described as “a senior and veteran official in the military wing of Hezbollah”, adding:
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.
10,000 women killed in Gaza since war began, says UN report
More than 10,000 women have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s war with Hamas began in October, according to a new report by UN Women.
Among those women killed in the Palestinian territory are an estimated 6,000 mothers, leaving 19,000 children orphaned, the report published on Tuesday says.
Women who have survived have been “displaced, widowed, and are facing starvation”, it says, adding that more than a million women and girls have “almost no food, no access to safe water, latrines, washrooms, or sanitary pads, with disease growing amidst inhumane living conditions.”
One child is injured or dies every 10 minutes, it added.
One potential target for expanded US and EU sanctions, officials have suggested, was widening the scope of those involved in Iran’s production of drones, which were used in this weekend’s attack and have also been widely used against Ukraine by Russia.
On Monday the Israeli military chief, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, said that Israel was considering its next steps but that the Iranian strike “will be met with a response”, while the army’s spokesperson, Rear Adm Daniel Hagari, said Israel would respond “at the time that we choose”.
Israeli analysts have suggested, however, that the longer Israel’s delay in responding, the less significant it was likely to be.
The US and the EU are considering rapid new sanctions against Iran in the wake of Tehran’s large-scale air attack on Israel at the weekend.
In prepared remarks on Tuesday, the US treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, said Washington would use its sanctions authority and work with allies to “continue disrupting the Iranian regime’s malign and destabilising activity”.
Yellen’s comments were echoed by the German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, who announced she was travelling to Israel for discussions on how to prevent an escalation of tensions in the region. Baerbock said she had noted a European appetite for quickly expanding sanctions against Tehran, perhaps within days.
With senior Israeli officials promising a response to the Iranian airstrikes, governments – including that of Germany – who are keen to avoid a dangerous escalation have increasingly talked up new international sanctions.
More than a dozen humanitarian groups have signed a letter warning that the escalating tensions in the Middle East are “unprecedented” and risk “threatening the lives of millions of civilians”.
All efforts should be made to ensure de-escalation through political and diplomatic means “to avoid the security situation spiraling out of control”, the 13 non-governmental organisations (NGOs), which include International Rescue Committee (IRC), Save The Children and Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), urged on Tuesday.
They said they were “deeply concerned” about the prospect of further regional escalation, that would have a “catastrophic” impact for a region where “millions are already affected by existing crises due to conflict, displacement, poverty and climate change.”
The letter continues:
Drawing on our extensive collective experience in the region, we understand that crises in the Middle East often have far-reaching consequences beyond its borders. A regional conflict would likely result in significant global ramifications, including forced displacement and migration, disruptions to global supply chains and impacts on energy supplies.
Israel says Iran won't get off 'scot-free' after missile attack
The Israeli army said Iran will not get off “scot-free” after Tehran’s missile and drone attack over the weekend.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari, speaking to reporters at Julis military base on Tuesday, said:
We cannot stand still from this kind of aggression, Iran will not get [off] scot-free with this aggression.
He added:
We will respond in our time, in our place, in the way that we will choose.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) said there has been “no significant change” in the amount of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip,
In its latest situational update published today, Unrwa said an average of 181 aid trucks have crossed into Gaza per day through land crossings from Israel and Egypt so far in April, adding:
This remains well below the operational capacity of both border crossings and the target of 500 trucks per day.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, told reporters last week that Israel planned to “flood Gaza with aid” and increase deliveries to 500 truckloads per day.
The United Nations has voiced grave concern over escalating violence in the West Bank, demanding that Israeli security forces “immediately” stop supporting settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied territory, reports Peter Beaumont.
The statement from the UN’s human rights office was issued hours after two Palestinian men were killed by Israeli settlers in a northern village south of Nablus, in the latest violent attack involving settlers in the increasingly tense West Bank.
Palestinians said the incident followed a clash when settlers entered Palestinian-owned land and assaulted residents, while settlers said it began with an assault on a Jewish person.
Tensions in the West Bank have escalated sharply since the killing of a 14-year-old boy from a settler family at the weekend.
Monday’s violence brought to eight the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces or armed settlers since Friday, as Palestinian authorities reported increased settler rampages across the West Bank. Palestinian eyewitnesses and video suggested that Israeli security forces had been present, standing by at some of the incidents.
Salah Bani Jaber, the mayor of Aqraba, a town near the northern city of Nablus, witnessed Monday’s settler attack. He said about 50 settlers, many of them armed, attacked members of his community and fired at Palestinian youths, killing two of them and wounding others.
“There were Israeli soldiers at the scene who stood idly by watching the settlers,” he said.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said soldiers blocked its ambulances from reaching the area and tending to the wounded. The Israeli military said it was looking into the incident.
Vladimir Putin urged 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 said.
Putin, who has forged close ties with Iran since sending troops into Ukraine in 2022, spoke to its president, Ebrahim Raisi, by phone about what the Kremlin called “retaliatory measures taken by Iran. Putin, in his first publicly aired comments on Iran’s attack, said that the root cause of the current instability in the Middle East was the unresolved conflict between Palestinians and Israel.
“Ebrahim Raisi noted that Iran’s actions were forced and limited in nature,” the Kremlin said. “At the same time, he stressed Tehran’s disinterest in further escalation of tensions.
“Both sides stated that the root cause of the current events in the Middle East is the unresolved Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In this regard, the principled approaches of Russia and Iran in favour 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.”
Israeli tanks pushed back into some areas of the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday which they had left weeks ago, while warplanes conducted air strikes on Rafah, the Palestinians’ last refuge in the south of the territory, killing and wounding several people, medics and residents said.
Reuters reports that residents said there had been an internet outage in the areas of Beit Hanoun and Jabalia in northern Gaza. Tanks advanced into Beit Hanoun and surrounded some schools where displaced families have taken refuge, said the residents and media outlets of the militant Palestinian group Hamas.
“Occupation soldiers ordered all families inside the schools and the nearby houses where the tanks had advanced to evacuate. The soldiers detained many men,” one resident of northern Gaza told Reuters via a chat app.
Beit Hanoun, home to 60,000 people, was one of the first areas targeted by Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza last October. Many families who had returned to Beit Hanoun and Jabalia in recent weeks after Israeli forces withdrew, began moving out again on Tuesday because of the new raid, some residents said.
Palestinian health officials said in one strike, Israel killed four people and wounded several others in Rafah, where over half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are sheltering and bracing for a planned Israeli ground offensive into the city, which borders Egypt.
The Israeli military said its forces continued to operate in the central Gaza Strip and that they had killed several gunmen who attempted to attack them. “Furthermore, over the past day, IDF fighter jets and aircraft destroyed a missile launcher along with dozens of terrorist infrastructure, terror tunnels, and military compounds where armed Hamas terrorists were located,” it added.
In Al-Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, residents said Israeli planes had bombed and destroyed four multi-storey residential buildings on Tuesday.
Zeina Khodr, a senior correspondent at Al Jazeera English television, has posted to social media to report that Israel’s army radio has claimed the target of a strike inside Lebanon by Israel’s military in the last hour or so was “a senior Hezbollah field commander”.
Israel army radio says the "target of the assassination was a senior #Hezbollah field commander" https://t.co/aqAA4Upyiz
— Zeina Khodr (@ZeinakhodrAljaz) April 16, 2024
The strike appears to have come as a rapid retaliation for a drone strike inside Israel which Hezbollah has claimed, saying it was targeting missile defence systems. Three Israelis are reported wounded in that incident today.
Yesterday Israel’s military said four Israeli soldiers were wounded by an explosion when they were operating inside Lebanon. Hezbollah claimed it set off the explosion.
Updated
Kremlin says in a call with Putin, Iran's president Raisi played down interest in escalation with Israel
The state-owned RIA news agency in Russia has posted to its Telegram channel a read-out via the Kremlin of a call between Russia’s president Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi.
It reported:
Putin and Raisi discussed the situation in the Middle East in a telephone conversation after Israel’s attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus and Tehran’s retaliatory measures, the Kremlin said.
Putin expressed the hope that all parties will show reasonable restraint and not allow a new round of confrontation.
The Iranian president noted that Iran’s actions were forced and limited in nature, and emphasised his disinterest in further escalation.
Local media in Lebanon is reporting that one person has been killed in an Israeli strike on a vehicle inside Lebanon.
More details soon …
Haaretz is reporting that three people were wounded by the two drones crossing into Israel from Lebanon.
More details soon …
Israel’s military has reported that two drones from the direction of Lebanon crossed into Israeli territory “and exploded in the area of Beit Hillel”. There were no reports of damage or casualties given. The IDF said “the incident is under review”.
Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Rafah for Al Jazeera, has told the news network that the Israeli military has not stopped its bombardment of Gaza City.
He writes:
One of the latest attacks carried out by drone targeted a civilian car, causing a number of injuries. The majority of areas have also been under constant Israeli shelling over the past hours.
Reuters reports that US house speaker Mike Johnson has told Fox News that spending legislation will be released later on Tuesday, as the House prepares to vote on four separate measures providing aid to Israel and Ukraine. One of the bills will also include additional sanctions on Russia and Iran.
German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock has also said that a number of European nations have said they would take another look at extending an existing EU sanctions regime against Iran that targets drone production.
UN expert report says Israel violated international law with attack on Iranian diplomatic building in Damascus
A group of independent experts appointed by the UN human rights council has said Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus violated international law.
In the report, special rapporteurs and independent experts said “retaliatory military attacks between Israel and Iran violate the right to life and must cease immediately.”
The report said:
“All countries are prohibited from arbitrarily depriving individuals of their right to life in military operations abroad, including when countering terrorism,” said the experts. “Killings in foreign territory are arbitrary when they are not authorised under international law,” they said.
The experts said Israel does not appear to have been exercising self-defence on 1 April because it presented no evidence that Iran was directly committing an “armed attack” on Israel or sending non-state armed groups to attack it. The experts noted that Israel has not provided any legal justification for the strike or reported it to the Security Council, as required by Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.
“Israel’s attack consequently violated the prohibition on the use of armed force against another state under Article 2(4) of the Charter,” the experts said.
Tehran blamed Israel for the strike on its diplomatic building in Syria’s capital, which killed top military leaders. Israel has neither confirmed or denied it carried out the strike, and rarely comments on such operations.
This block was corrected at 13.34 BST. The original erroneously attributed the publication of the report to the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA). Apologies.
Updated
Budget airline easyJet has extended its suspension of flights to and from Israel until late October, PA Media reports.
Updated
German foreign minister Baerbock to head to Israel
German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock will travel to Israel on Tuesday for discussions on how to prevent an escalation of tensions in the region, Reuters reports she said in Berlin.
She is quoted as saying at a join news conference with her Jordanian counterpart, Ayman Safadi that “It is incredibly important for us as the German federal government in these fragile times that we all work together to contribute to de-escalation for the entire region.”
For his part, Safadi said that the international community should not allow Benjamin Netanyahu to let confrontation with Iran draw attention away from the situation in Gaza, where Israel has been conducting a military operation for six months and health authorities there report over 33,000 Palestinians have been killed.
Israel's war cabinet to meet again to discuss response to Iran's attack
Israel’s war cabinet will meet on Tuesday to discuss the response to Iran’s attack over the weekend, an Israeli official said.
Reuters reports the official said no time was set for meeting.
It will be the third time that the decision-making cabinet convenes since Iran launched more than 300 missiles and drones against Israel on Saturday night.
The Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, has given the clearest confirmation so far that Israel would strike back, saying “This launch of so many missiles, cruise missiles and drones into Israeli territory will be met with a response.”
Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi is reported to have said in a call with Qatar’s emir that “We now categorically declare that the smallest action against Iranian interests will certainly be met with a severe, widespread and painful response against all its perpetrators.”
On state TV in Iran, deputy foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani said that his country would not wait 12 days to respond to another Israeli attack, but would retaliate in “a matter of seconds.”
There have been widespread calls for calm in the international community, keen to avoid the situation escalating after Tehran launched its first ever direct state-on-state attack against Israel. Iran blames Israel for an attack on its consulate in Damascus on 1 April which killed senior military figures. Israel has neither confirmed or denied it carried out the strike inside Syria, and rarely comments on such missions.
Israel’s war cabinet consists of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, and Benny Gantz, the former defence minister and centrist Netanyahu rival.
Here are some of the latest images sent to us from Gaza over the news wires.
Israeli protesters have again been attempting to disrupt the supply of humanitarian aid into Gaza at the Kerem Shalom border crossing.
Charlotte Higgins, the Guardian’s chief culture writer, is in Venice
The artists and curators of the Israeli national pavilion at the Venice Biennale have announced their decision not to open until “a ceasefire and hostage release agreement is reached” in the conflict in Gaza, on the opening preview day of the largest and most prominent global gathering in the art world.
A sign on the front of the Israel pavilion in the Giardini, or public gardens, in Venice, one of the main venues for the Biennale, conveyed the team’s decision – while the pavilion itself is guarded by three armed Italian military personnel.
The presence of Israel at the Biennale – which this year features 88 national participations as well as the large, central curated exhibition – had been widely criticised.
In the Giardini, the Israeli artist Ruth Patir’s video work, Keening, was visible through the glass frontage of the modernist pavilion. But the rest of the fertility-themed exhibition, titled (M)otherland, “awaits inside for the moment when hearts can once again be open to art”, according to the organisers.
Patir said: “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.”
Palestinian artists are represented at the Venice Biennale in the main centrally curated exhibition as well as through a “collateral event” – an affiliated exhibition titled South West Bank, which is also showing artists from beyond the region.
One of the artists showing in South West Bank, Dima Srouji, said: “A ceasefire and the release of hostages may mean business as usual for the Israeli pavilion, but for the rest of us it is a continuation of 75 years of occupation and the status quo of apartheid. We are fighting for our liberation, not only a ceasefire in 2024.”
Read more here: Artists refuse to open Israel pavilion at Venice Biennale until ceasefire is reached
Israel’s military has announced that it has been conducting a drill to prepare for an increase in military activity in the north of the country.
The Jerusalem Post reported that as part of the drill “both combat and cyber and technology forces deployed throughout the North, on every separate front, to simulate readiness for an all-out hybrid digital and kinetic war.”
Since 7 October Israel and anti-Israeli forces including Hezbollah have repeatedly exchanged fire across the UN-drawn blue line that separates Lebanon and Israel. Israel also occupies land in the north it seized from Syria in 1967.
At least 33,843 Palestinians killed by Israeli military offensive since 7 October – ministry
Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 33,843 Palestinians and wounded 76,575 since 7 October according to the health ministry there.
Reuters reports the ministry, which is led by Hamas, stated there had been 46 Palestinians killed and 110 injured in the past 24 hours.
It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that Israel continues its aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip, killing “a score” of Palestinians. It reports strikes have taken place in multiple locations, writing:
Medical sources said that the Israeli warplanes targeted Al-Fakhoura mosque west of the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, causing several causalities. The airstrike also caused a massive destruction to the neighboring areas and homes.
In the centre of the Gaza Strip, intense artillery and missile shelling continues on the Nuseirat camp for the sixth day in a row, resulting in the at least five casualties and significant property damage.
Meanwhile, the occupation aircraft bombed multiple homes in Al-Mughraqa and the neighboring city of Al-Zahraa. The occupation artillery also fired a number of shells in the western area of Deir al-Balah.
Moath al-Kahlout, reporting from Jabalia for Al Jazeera, states that one person has been killed and eleven injured in the Israeli strike on the Al-Fakhoura mosque, saying it is one of 600 mosques destroyed in Gaza so far by Israel’s military action there. They write for the news network:
Israeli forces continue to surround Beit Hanoon’s al-Shawa school where hundreds of Palestinians are sheltering. Israeli troops are using microphones to order people to evacuate. Communications with the school have been lost now and we don’t know what’s going on with the people there or what the Israelis will do with them.
The claims have not been independently verified by the Guardian.
US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen has said the US would continue to use sanctions and work with allies to counter the influence of Iran, warning that as escalation of instability in the Middle East would cause economic damage.
She said it was incumbent on all the nations attending IMF-World Bank meetings to end the suffering of the Palestinian people, but that Iran’s actions threaten stability in the Middle East and could cause economic spillovers.
She reiterated that the US Treasury has targeted over 500 individuals and entities the US claims is connected to terrorism by Iran and its proxies since 2021.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) and its partners in Gaza have warned again of a looming public health disaster in Gaza, saying that Palestinians are being forced to risk their lives to access what little healthcare is still available inside the territory.
Israel has subjected Gaza to six months of aerial bombardments while it also mounts a ground offensive. Dr Seema Jilani, senior health technical adviser for emergencies, said:
No hospitals in Gaza are fully functioning any longer. IRC staff and partners in Gaza continue to witness devastation in the health facilities that are left. Patients as young as four-months-old are dying from preventable or easily treatable diseases like pneumonia and gastroenteritis.
Many patients arrive either dead on arrival or too sick to warrant resuscitation due to delaying their care. When people do reach health facilities, labs are not functional, and mass casualties take priority for triage. So patients with infectious diseases may not get seen for weeks at a time because trauma patients are admitted so frequently.
With Gaza’s health system decimated by Israel, diseases once easily controlled are now spreading, and children, especially malnourished children, are the most susceptible. Projections suggest that the spread of cholera, measles, polio, and meningococcal meningitis pose a mortal threat.
Respiratory infections and other endemic infectious diseases are now widespread due to exposure, overcrowding in shelters, lack of access to proper sanitation facilities, and inability to access treatment.
Israel has been dropping leaflets on Gaza to tell residents that the area north of the Wadi Gaza is a “dangerous combat zone” and that they should stay away.
Huge swathes of the population have already been displaced to the south of the Gaza Strip where they are living in poor conditions in makeshift tent camps.
Over the last couple of days images have shown people using the coastal road to move back north to try to discover what is left of their homes.
A UN report yesterday said satellite imagery showed that Israel had destroyed over 3,000 buildings in a 1km “buffer zone” Israel was constructing next to the border wall.
Reuters has a quick snap that Egypt’s foreign minister Sameh Shoukry is to head to Turkey at the weekend to discuss the regional situation, including Gaza.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that there have been Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank in the town of Arraba, south of Jenin, and in the Balata camp, east of Nablus. Israel has occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967.
Senior figures in Iran continue to warn Israel against retaliation
A senior spokesperson for Iran’s military has warned the US, UK, France and Germany to stop supporting Israel, and said that there will be an even stronger response from Iran if Israel retaliates to the strikes at the weekend.
The official state news agency IRNA reports that Brig Gen Abolfazl Shekarchi said:
We remind the heads of state of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany to stop supporting the declining child-killing terrorist regime of Israel. The Islamic Republic of Iran has proven that it is not a warmonger and does not seek to spread the war. The response will be stronger if the regime carries out more severe aggressive act.
Overnight a senior official briefed Al Jazeera that Iran had a broad range of options to use against Israel, and said that “its bullying and madly taken behavior towards Iran will not work.”
A diplomatic read-out of a call between Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi and Qatar’s emir said that the Iranian leader had said “We now categorically declare that the smallest action against Iranian interests will certainly be met with a severe, widespread and painful response against all its perpetrators.”
Al Jazeera also reports that on state TV in Iran, deputy foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani said that his country would not wait 12 days to respond to another Israeli attack, but would retaliate in “a matter of seconds.”
Iran launched over 300 strikes against Israel at the weekend in response, it said, to the destruction of its consulate in Damascus on 1 April, which it blames on Israel. The vast majority of the launches failed to reach their targets or were taken down by Israel’s air defence, aided by a coalition of partners including the UK and France.
We reported earlier the comments from IAEA chief Rafael Grossi about his concerns that Israel might mount an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Grossi said that even when the sites reopen, inspectors will stay away for at least a day “until we see that the situation is completely calm”.
News agency AFP have made a list of previous times that Israel is believed to have attacked nuclear facilities belonging to other states in the region.
In 1981, it bombed the Osirak nuclear reactor in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. And in 2018, it admitted to having launched a top-secret air raid against a reactor in Syria 11 years prior.
In 2010, a cyberattack using the Stuxnet virus, attributed by Tehran to Israel and the US, led to a series of breakdowns in Iranian centrifuges used for uranium enrichment. Israel is also accused by Tehran of having assassinated two Iranian nuclear physicists in 2010, and of having kidnapped another the previous year.
Israel has never declared that it possesses nuclear weapons itself, but is generally believed to do so. In 2021, the Federation of American Scientists estimated that Israel has about 90 warheads.
Overnight NBC News in the US has reported that government officials there have told it that they expect to see a limited response from Israel to the weekend’s attack from Iran. The news network reports:
Because the Iranian attack did not result in Israeli deaths or widespread destruction, the US officials said, Israel could respond with one of its less aggressive options – strikes outside Iran.
The options could include striking inside Syria, three US officials said. The officials do not expect the response to target senior Iranian officials but to instead strike shipments or storage facilities with advanced missile parts, weapons or components that are sent from Iran to Hezbollah.
The US does not intend to take part in the military response, the officials added. They do expect Israel to share information about the actions with Washington in advance, specifically if it could have negative repercussions for Americans in the region.
Israel’s military has issued its daily operational briefing about its activity in Gaza.
In a short statement, the IDF said:
Over the past day, IDF troops continued to operate in the central Gaza Strip, during which IDF tanks killed a number of terrorists identified advancing towards them.
IDF troops also directed IAF aircraft that struck terrorist infrastructure.
Furthermore, over the past day, IDF fighter jets and aircraft destroyed a missile launcher along with dozens of terrorist infrastructure, terror tunnels, and military compounds where armed Hamas terrorists were located.
The claims have not been independently verified. The health ministry in Gaza has said that over 33,000 people have been killed by Israeli military action in Gaza since 7 October.
UK government minister: there is value in retaining direct diplomatic relations with Tehran
In the UK, junior government minister Laura Farris has said there is some value in continuing to talk to the government in Iran when asked about the prospect of the UK proscribing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation.
The minister for victims and safeguarding told viewers of Sky News:
No one is denying that they are a malign force. We have repeatedly sanctioned both individual commanders and the IRGC more generally, so that puts very severe restrictions on their ability to move. And we’re not suggesting that they’re not a problem.
[But] one of the things [foreign secretary David Cameron] has been saying more widely is at the moment we have a direct diplomatic channel, a direct line of communication to Tehran. Even though relations are difficult, and those conversations are not always easy, there is actually something positive about being able to have face-to-face diplomatic relations.
This is a unique moment of tension in the Middle East and for the wider region. Everything is focused on cool heads, avoiding escalation.
Israel’s foreign minister has said he is “leading a political attack against Iran” and has written to 32 countries “demanding that sanctions be imposed on the Iranian missile project and that the Revolutionary Guards be declared a terrorist organization.”
Israel Katz has said this was “alongside the military response to the firing of the missiles and the UAVs”
לצד התגובה הצבאית על ירי הטילים והכטב"מים, אני מוביל מתקפה מדינית נגד איראן. שיגרתי הבוקר מכתבים ל-32 מדינות ושוחחתי עם עשרות שרי חוץ וגורמים מובילים בעולם בדרישה להטיל סנקציות על פרויקט הטילים האיראני ולהכריז על משמרות המהפכה כארגון טרור, כדרך לבלימת והחלשת איראן.
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) April 16, 2024
חייבים לעצור… pic.twitter.com/QYGeAuuqRl
Reuters reports that US national security adviser Jake Sullivan has postponed a visit to India scheduled for this week due to “ongoing events in the Middle East”. It cited the US embassy in New Delhi.
Helen Davidson is a Guardian correspondent based in Taipei
China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, has spoken to his Iranian and Saudi counterparts about the fears of tensions in the Middle East escalating. According to Chinese readouts of the calls, Wang told Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, that China was confident Iran could “handle the situation well and spare the region further turmoil while safeguarding its own sovereignty and dignity.”
The readout summary of the call, published on China’s official state media outlet Xinhua, said Wang told Amir-Abdollahian that China noted Iran’s description of its actions as limited and carried out in self-defence. Wang and Amir-Abdollahian both repeated calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
In a separate call with Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, Wang said Beijing was willing to work with Riyahd to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East, according to Xinhua. It added that Saudi Arabia “highly expects” China to play an active and important role in that regard, and that his country is willing to strengthen communication and coordination with China to promote an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza.
The calls followed statements by China’s UN representative to an extraordinary meeting of the security council yesterday, which condemned Israel’s airstrike on Iran’s Syria consulate, which he suggested had significantly escalated the conflict as many international parties had warned.
Speaking after that meeting, the deputy chief of the Israeli mission in China told reporters: “We were hoping for stronger condemnation and clear acknowledgment of Israel’s right to defend itself.”
UN watchdog ‘concerned’ by possibility of Israel strike on Iran nuclear facilities
The UN nuclear watchdog chief has said he is concerned about Israel possibly targeting Iranian nuclear facilities, in retaliation for the weekends attacks on its territory.
Israel’s military chief said on Monday his country would respond to the missile and drone attack by Iran, launched in retaliation for a suspected Israeli airstrike on its embassy compound in Damascus on 1 April.
IAEA director general, Rafael Grossi, said Iran closed its nuclear facilities on Sunday over “security considerations” and that while they reopened on Monday, he kept IAEA inspectors away “until we see that the situation is completely calm.”
When asked about the possibility of an Israel strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, Grossi said: “We are always concerned about this possibility.” He urged “extreme restraint.”
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the Middle East crisis. Here are the headlines …
The UN nuclear watchdog chief has said he is concerned about Israel possibly targeting Iranian nuclear facilities, in retaliation for the weekends attacks on its territory.
Israel will respond to Iran’s weekend missile and drone attack on its territory, the IDF’s chief of staff said on Monday. “This launch of so many missiles, cruise missiles, and drones into Israeli territory will be met with a response,” chief of staff Herzi Halevi said, speaking from the Nevatim air force base in southern Israel, which sustained some damage in the attack.
Iran does not want increased tensions but will respond immediately and more strongly than before if Israel retaliates, Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told his British counterpart on Monday, according to Iranian state media.
Israeli settlers killed two Palestinians on Monday in the occupied West Bank province of Nablus, Salah Bani Jaber, the mayor of Aqraba, told Reuters.
Israel has moved in a “significant way” but Hamas is the barrier to a deal that would see fighting in Gaza paused and hostages released, state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said. Hamas rejected the latest proposed deal and has said any new hostage deal must bring about an end to the Gaza war and withdrawal of all Israeli forces, Reuters reports.
A UN report said that Israel has destroyed over 3,000 buildings within a 1km “buffer zone” that it is creating inside the Gaza Strip along the territory’s border with Israel.
Emmanuel Macron has said that France will do everything to avoid an escalation in the Middle East. He told the BFMTV news channel “We need to be by Israel’s side to ensure its protection to the maximum, but also to call for a limit to avoid an escalation.”
The Netherlands said it will reopen its embassy in Tehran on Tuesday after closing it for two days for safety reasons. It added in the statement that it does not exclude a new closure of its embassy.
It is Martin Belam with you here today for the next few hours, and you can reach me at martin.belam@theguardian.com
