Israel has vowed to respond to Iran’s unprecedented weekend attack, leaving the region bracing for further escalation after months of fighting in Gaza. Israel’s allies have been urging Israel to hold back on any response to the attack that could spiral.
Officials at a Group of Seven meeting in Italy on Thursday are calling for new sanctions against Iran over the attack.
The Iranian attack on Saturday marked the first time that Tehran has launched a direct military assault on Israel. Israeli authorities said Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles, 99% of which were intercepted by air defenses in tandem with the U.S., Britain, France, and Jordan. The attack took place less than two weeks after a suspected Israeli strike in Syria killed two Iranian generals in an Iranian consulate building in Damascus.
Regional tensions have increased since the start of the latest Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, when Hamas and Islamic Jihad — two militant groups backed by Iran — carried out a cross-border attack that killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others. Israel responded with an offensive in Gaza that has caused widespread devastation and killed more than 33,800 people, according to local health officials.
The U.N. Security Council is scheduled to vote Friday afternoon on a resolution that would give a green light for a Palestinian state to join the United Nations as a full member. Arab nations are pressing for a vote on Thursday.
Israel says such steps are an attempt to sidestep the negotiating process. The United States, Israel’s closest ally, had promised to veto any resolution endorsing Palestinian membership.
Currently:
- Officials at G7 meeting call for expanded Iran sanctions
- China and Indonesia call for a cease-fire in Gaza.
- Netanyahu brushes off calls for restraint, saying Israel will decide how to respond to Iran’s attack.
- UN agency helping Palestinians in Gaza seeks support against Israel’s demands for its dissolution.
- Lebanon says Israeli agents likely killed Hezbollah-linked currency exchanger near Beirut.
- Israelis grapple with how to celebrate Passover, a holiday about freedom, while many remain captive.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani opened the first working session of the Group of Seven meeting in Italy by calling for new sanctions against Iran for its weekend attack on Israel.
The Israel-Hamas war and Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine were taking center stage at the meeting of foreign ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States. On Wednesday, EU leaders meeting in Brussels vowed to ramp up sanctions on Iran to target its drone and missile deliveries to proxies in Gaza, Yemen, and Lebanon.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said at the G7 meeting that the existing EU sanctions regime would be strengthened and expanded to punish Tehran and help prevent future attacks on Israel. At the same time, he said, Israel needed to exercise restraint.
Family members of the Nepali man still being held captive by Hamas militants after the Oct. 7 attack in Israel have called for his release.
Relatives of Bipin Joshi, 23, traveled from their home in western Nepal to the capital, Kathmandu, to make a public appeal on Thursday.
“My life has been devastated since his kidnapping,” his father, Mahananda Joshi, said. “He is my only son without whom I cannot even imagine living my life. I love my son more than my life.'
“I beg of you to kindly bring my son back home safe and alive,” he said.
The Chinese and Indonesian foreign ministers called for an immediate and lasting cease-fire in Gaza after a meeting Thursday in Jakarta, condemning the humanitarian costs of the Israel-Hamas war.
Indonesia's foreign minister, Retno Marsudi, told reporters that the two countries share the same view about the importance of a cease-fire and of resolving the Palestinian problem through a two-state solution.
“I am sure that China would use its influence to prevent escalation,” Marsudi said, adding that China and Indonesia “would also fully support Palestine’s membership in the U.N.”
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi blamed the United States for holding up cease-fire resolutions at the United Nations.
The U.S. vetoed a number of proposed U.N. Security Council resolutions because they didn’t tie a cease-fire directly to the release of Israel hostages, or condemn Hamas’ attacks that prompted the war, before allowing a resolution to pass with an abstention in late March.
