May 21, 2024 Israel-Hamas war, Iran president death news

Our live coverage of Israel's war with Hamas has moved here.

The chief of staff for the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has revealed new details about the hours after the presidential helicopter went missing.

Gholam Hossein Esmaili was in one of three helicopters returning from a dam inauguration ceremony on Iran's border with the Azerbaijan, he said in an interview with IRINN state TV, and reported by Iran's semi-official news agency Mehr News on Tuesday.

The helicopter carrying nine people ran into inclement weather on the way back and went missing, prompting an hours-long overnight search in the mountainous region.

On the return flight on Sunday, three helicopters took off at around 1 p.m. local time Sunday "while weather conditions in the area were normal," Esmaili said, as cited by Mehr News.

He said the weather conditions in the mountainous region in Varzeghan — were the crash happened — were perfect at the start of the flight. 

"After 45 minutes into the flight, the pilot of President Raisi's helicopter, who was in charge of the convoy, ordered other helicopters to increase altitude to avoid a nearby cloud," Esmaili said. 
"However, the president's helicopter, which was flying between the two others, suddenly disappeared," Esmaili added, as cited by Mher news.

Roughly 30 seconds into flying above the clouds, Esmaili said his pilot noticed the helicopter in the middle had disappeared. The pilot circled around to search for the president's helicopter, he said.

Esmaili said several attempts were made to contact the president's helicopter through radio devices before their helicopter continued its flight and landed at a nearby copper mine. Esmail said the pilot of the helicopter he was flying in was unable to decrease altitude because of the clouds. 

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian and the head of the president's protection unit, who were in the same chopper as Raisi, did not respond to repeated calls after the helicopter went missing, Esmaili said.

"Pilots of the two other helicopters had contacted Captain Mostafavi, who was in charge of the president's helicopter," he said.

One person alive for three hours: Tabriz's Friday prayer Imam, Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Alehashem, was able to answer the deceased pilot's phone and said the helicopter had crashed into a valley and he was in critical condition, Esmaili added.

Esmaili said after they found the location of the crashed helicopter, it was clear from the condition of the bodies of Raisi, Abdollahian and others that they "had died instantly." 

Alehashem was alive for at least three hours after the crash and was able to speak to officials multiple times before he died, Esmaili said.  

Israeli officials presented their latest thinking about a potential Rafah incursion during a meeting with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, in which the US side asked a lot of “hard questions," according to a senior administration official.

The official noted that the two sides will continue those discussions, but that Israelis have been incorporating US feedback and concerns as they continue to work through those plans and that both sides share the joint goal of destroying Hamas.

As part of the US discussions with the Israelis, US officials also made a series of “specific requests” with regard to humanitarian aid that they have agreed to implement, according to the official.

One of these requests included helping facilitate aid distribution by getting the Israelis to agree to allow aid scanned in Cyprus to be sent directly to the Israeli port of Ashdod, bypassing Egypt.

“I thought the the conversations were, were quite constructive and now we're looking to see some of what was agreed unfold here over the coming days,” the official said.

Just today, over 370 pallets of aid were distributed in Gaza, according to the official.

Following the discussion, it’s also clear the process is “still very much underway” to reconcile what exactly the post-conflict, two-state phase looks like once the fighting is over as the US discusses these ideas with other Arab capitals and Israel, the official said.

“How it ultimately looks, I just don't want to get ahead of it because there's so many different ideas. That's one reason this is so complex. There are different ideas in Israel there are different ideas in different Arab capitals. But I do think we are kind of homing in on the concept that appears to be viable. And that kind of meets the interests and views of many different constituencies here,” they said.

In reference to the US-Saudi deal, the official said that they’re getting to the point where the “full package is very clear” but that the ongoing conflict in Gaza needs to recede to “open up space for this.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied allegations that he was starving Palestinians in Gaza as a method of war in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday, saying an arrest warrant application currently under review in the International Criminal Court (ICC) is based on a “pack of lies.”

The ICC’s application for warrants over the war in Gaza marked the first time the international court has targeted the top leader of a close ally of the United States.

The prime minister also reaffirmed his commitment to eradicating Hamas, which governs Gaza, before considering demilitarizing the Strip.

With more than 100 hostages still believed to be held in Gaza, pressure has been growing for a deal that would see hostages released in exchange for a ceasefire.

But when asked about public polling showing that a majority of Israelis believe freeing hostages is a higher priority than military action, Netanyahu said you could not have one without the other.

Netanyahu is deeply unpopular in Israel, where he is also facing an ongoing corruption trial. Critics have accused the prime minister of being beholden to members of his far-right coalition and prolonging the war to maintain his grip on power.

Speaking to Tapper, Netanyahu likened himself to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, claiming the arrest warrants were like putting Nazi leader Adolf Hitler on the docks alongside the American wartime president who oversaw the US’s mobilization during World War II.

Read more on Tapper's interview with Netanyahu.

The Associated Press on Tuesday said Israeli authorities had shut down its live camera feed showing Gaza and seized its equipment, in what the agency called an “abusive use by the Israeli government of the country’s new foreign broadcasters law.”

The White House urged Israel to reverse its decision, telling CNN that it had "concerns" over it. Press groups and Israel’s opposition leader also denounced the decision.

Israel later said it will return the camera equipment to the AP. The move to return the broadcasting equipment came after the White House expressed concerns, a White House official told CNN.

Here are other headlines you should know:

President Raisi funeral:

• Funeral ceremonies began Tuesday for the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi after his death in a helicopter crash, as authorities investigate what caused the crash on a remote mountainside during foggy weather on Sunday morning. Raisi's body arrived in Tehran as part of the funeral ceremonies, according to state-run news agency IRNA. Officials from Russia, India and Turkey plan to attend. 

Developments on the ground

• Seven Palestinians were killed and nine others were wounded during an Israeli military operation in Jenin in the occupied West Bank Tuesday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the Jenin operation was aimed at countering terrorism in the area, and involved the demolition of a house belonging to a man who carried out a gun attack.
• Also, the Kuwait hospital in Rafah in southern Gaza says it received the bodies of five people killed by aerial strikes Tuesday. Elsewhere, a shell landed at the reception and emergency area of the main functioning hospital in northern Gaza, a CNN stringer reported, amid ongoing Israeli military operations there.

Ceasefire proposal

• Egyptian intelligence quietly changed the terms of a ceasefire proposal that Israel had already signed off on earlier this month, ultimately scuttling a deal that could have released Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and set a pathway to temporarily end the fighting in Gaza, according to three people familiar with the discussions.

Humanitarian aid

• There is growing alarm among United Nations officials about the difficulty of transferring aid safely within Gaza as Israeli military operations bombard areas in the north, center and south of the enclave — and the Rafah crossing remains closed.
• As of Tuesday, more than 569 metric tons of humanitarian aid have been delivered through the US military’s temporary pier off the coast of Gaza, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said. However, the Pentagon said on Tuesday that none of the aid that has been unloaded has been delivered to the broader Palestinian population, as the US works with the UN and Israel to identify safe delivery routes inside the enclave.

Arrest warrants

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted the charges  brought by the International Criminal Court against himself and his defense minister as "beyond outrageous" in an interview Tuesday with CNN's Jake Tapper. He said he is “not concerned” about traveling abroad after the arrest warrant.
• Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the ICC prosecutor's efforts will not succeed, describing them as “despicable.”
• Also, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he would be open to work with the Senate Foreign Committee's top Republican on legislation against the International Criminal Court (ICC) over its application for arrest warrants for Israeli officials.

Officials from Russia, India and Turkey plan to attend the funeral of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday. 

Here's a current list of dignitaries attending the funeral:

Russia

•  Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of the State Duma

Turkey

• Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz
• Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan

India

• Vice President Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar 

Afghanistan

• Acting Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Baradar Akhund
• Minister of Foreign Affairs Maulvi Amir Khan Muttaqi

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he has a "very clear plan" for the future in Gaza following the war there.

He told CNN's Jake Tapper Tuesday that Israel's first goal is to eliminate Hamas, before implementing "sustained demilitarization of Gaza" and finally reconstructing Gaza.

Resettling Gaza, however, was "never in the cards," Netanyahu said.

"Some of my constituents are not happy about it, but that's my position," he told Tapper.

Read more on Tapper's interview with Netanyahu.

None of the aid that has been unloaded from the temporary floating pier the US constructed off the coast of Gaza has been delivered to the broader Palestinian population, as the US works with the United Nations and Israel to identify safe delivery routes inside the enclave, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.

Several desperate Gazans intercepted trucks delivering aid from the pier over the weekend, leading the UN to suspend the delivery operations until the logistical challenges are resolved. CNN reported the group did not trust that the aid was actually meant for the Palestinian people. 

“I have doubts,” Mounir Ayad, a Gaza resident, told CNN near the pier. “I don’t understand this floating pier or what it indicates and what its purpose is. They say it’s for aid, but people are apprehensive. Is this aid or something else? We know that the US has never supported the Palestinian cause, so it’s implausible that it’s giving us aid without something in return.”

The US is working with Israel and the United Nations to establish “alternative routes” for the safe delivery of the 569 tons of aid transported to Gaza since last week, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said on Tuesday. 

Asked if any of the more than 569 tons of aid has been delivered to the people of Gaza, Ryder said “as of today, I do not believe so.” He added that aid had been held in an assembly area on shore, but as of Tuesday had begun getting moved to warehouses for distribution throughout Gaza as alternative routes have been established.  

A US official told CNN that the Defense Department and UN are still working to determine the capacity of the staging area inside Gaza, and how much aid can be held there at any given time.

The amount of aid getting to the Gaza shoreline from its initial staging area in Cyprus has also fallen short of initial Pentagon estimates. 

The last humanitarian air drop announced by US Central Command was conducted on May 9.

Read more on US aid and the pier.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has blasted the charges brought by the International Criminal Court against himself and his defense minister as "beyond outrageous" in an interview Tuesday with CNN's Jake Tapper.

The Israeli leader's comments come after the chief prosecutor of the ICC on Monday announced that he was seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and senior Hamas leaders over alleged war crimes.

ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan on Monday said the charges against Netanyahu and Gallant include “causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies, deliberately targeting civilians in conflict.”

Netanyahu described Khan as a " rogue prosecutor that has put false charges, that are both dangerous and false."

By applying for the arrest warrants against Israeli and Hamas leaders in the same action, Khan received a ferocious reaction from Israel and sharp criticism from the US, a close ally. Rights groups have hailed the decision, however.

A panel of ICC judges will now consider Khan’s application for the arrest warrants. Neither Israel nor the United States are members of the ICC.

Correction: This post has been edited to reflect that Khan's request was filed in the International Criminal Court