WORLD BRIEFING: April 2, 2024

Seven aid workers, including an Australian and a British national, have been killed in Gaza. They were working for World Central Kitchen (WCK) and had just dropped off aid at a warehouse. WCK says it is pausing its operations and will make a decision about the future of its work soon. The charity's founder José Andrés blames Israel for the strike, as does the Gaza's Hamas-run media office. A Palestinian medical source told the BBC the workers had been wearing bullet-proof vests bearing the charity's logo. Israel's military says it is conducting a "thorough review" into the incident - BBC

The senior commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps reportedly killed in a strike on Tehran's consulate in Damascus has been named as Mohammad Reza Zahedi, according to Iranian state TV. Smoke was seen rising from rubble of a building that had been flattened, and emergency vehicles were parked outside the scene in the Mezzeh district of the Syrian capital. An Israeli military spokesperson said: "We do not comment on reports in the foreign media." Syrian state television confirmed the consulate building had been attacked. Iranian state TV later said that several diplomats had also been killed in the strike. Iran's foreign minister says Tehran holds Israel responsible for the consequences of the attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus. Hossein Amirabdollahian  said in a call with his Syrian counterpart  the strike was "a breach of all international conventions".  In a post on X he added: "With extreme brutality, contrary to all international conventions, they targeted my place of residence and the consular section of the embassy...We will reciprocate when we want." Sky News

Russia has used five hypersonic Zircon missiles to attack Kyiv since the start of the year, the city's military administration said on April 1. It added that Moscow had in total launched 180 weapons of various types, including missiles and drones, at the Ukrainian capital in the first three months of the year. The news comes as Russia has escalated its attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in recent days, causing significant damage in several regions. On March 22, Moscow's troops carried out what was described as the largest strike on grid infrastructure in the two-year-old full-scale invasion, causing major damage and resulting in massive power outages. It continued targeting Ukraine's thermal and hydropower plants last week. In the latest attacks, the Ukrainian Air Force shot down two out of three Russia-launched Shahed drones overnight, the Ukrainian military said on April 1. The General Staff did not provide additional details on the attack in its report. It was unclear whether the drone that was not intercepted reached its target - RFE/RL

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to enroll 150,000 conscripts into the military, a document posted on the Kremlin's website showed on Sunday. All men in Russia are required to serve one year of compulsory military service. According to Statista, Russia has approximately 1.32 million active military personnel and two million reserve military personnel. Compulsory military service has long been a sensitive issue in Russia. Many men try to avoid conscription during the twice-yearly call-up periods. The Defense Ministry had previously assured conscripts they would not be sent to the front in Ukraine as they cannot legally be deployed to fight outside Russia. However, on Sunday, the ministry also published a document releasing soldiers who had completed their basic training from service. These trained soldiers have the option to volunteer for service in Ukraine, but many feel pressured to sign up.

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre says that if reports are true that Israel is trying to stop Al Jazeera operating in the country, it would be "concerning." Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has revived moves on Monday to shut down the Qatari television station in Israel, saying that the Knesset would be convened in the evening to ratify the necessary law. The Jewish state has previously accused the station of agitating against Israel among Arab viewers - Sky News

Close to 100,000 Israeli citizens gathered in front of the Knesset for the largest protest since the public response to the October 7 massacre. The protesters intend to construct a tent city in the area, and plan to return every night this week, to increase pressure on the governing coalition. They are timed for the arrival of the latest Israeli delegation in Egypt, to negotiate a hostage-prisoner exchange deal. Protesters demanded the dissolution of the Knesset, the removal of PM Netanyahu accompanied by new elections, along with the immediate release of the 134 hostages. The Prime Minister, meanwhile, was fully sedated and receiving a hernia operation, his second operation under sedation this year.  Even as Netanyahu claims full transparency regarding his health, accusations have arisen that over the past few years there have been unexplained emergency room visits and other medical procedures which have been kept away from the voting public - Leora Leder Blog

A yearlong investigation by The Insider has uncovered evidence suggesting that unexplained health incidents known as Havana Syndrome may be linked to Russian intelligence operatives.

The sickness is reportedly connected to the use of directed energy weapons wielded by members of Russian GRU Unit 29155.

Adam, a pseudonym adopted by Patient Zero, the first CIA officer to be stricken with Havana Syndrome in Cuba, told The Insider, “What this long-term investigation has shown is that either the intelligence community is incapable of carrying out its most basic function, or it has worked to cover up the facts and gaslight injured employees and the public.”

“Unit 29155’s scope is global for conducting lethal operations and acts of sabotage. Their mission is to find, fix, and finish, all in support of Vladimir Putin’s imperial dreams”

— a former high-ranking CIA officer with subject matter expertise in Russia

The mysterious medical condition has to date affected over a hundred far-flung U.S. spies and diplomats, as well as several Canadian officials. Many are seasoned subject matter specialists on Russia, fluent in the language; others have expertise in different fields, such as the Middle East or Latin America, but were assigned after the takeover of Crimea to sensitive U.S. government roles aimed at countermanning Russian aggression and intelligence operations across Europe and North America.

Members of the Kremlin’s infamous military intelligence sabotage squad have been placed at the scene of suspected attacks on overseas U.S. government personnel and their family members, leading victims to question what Washington knows about the origins of Havana Syndrome, and what an appropriate Western response might entail. Among this investigation’s core findings is the fact that senior members of the unit received awards and political promotions for work related to the development of “non-lethal acoustic weapons,” a term used in Russian military-scientific literature to describe both sound- and radiofrequency-based directed energy devices, as both would result in acoustic artifacts in the victim’s brain. These and other operatives attached to Unit 29155, traveling undercover, have been geolocated to places around the world just before or at the time of reported anomalous health incidents.

Unit 29155 is infamous within the U.S. intelligence community. “Their scope is global for conducting lethal operations and acts of sabotage,” a former high-ranking CIA officer with subject matter expertise in Russia told The Insider. “Their mission is to find, fix, and finish, all in support of Vladimir Putin’s imperial dreams.”

Two CIA officers posted to Kyiv during a period of intense collaboration between U.S. and Ukrainian intelligence later experienced AHIs after being posted to new missions overseas.

One, the incoming chief of station in Hanoi, Vietnam, was hit while domiciled in temporary housing at the Oakwood Residence Suites hotel in the Vietnamese capital in August 2021, amid lockdown conditions connected to the COVID-19 pandemic. Another officer, who became deputy chief of station in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, was hit in his apartment in that city in December 2020, along with his wife and child. He and his family had to be medevaced out of Tashkent. The incoming Hanoi chief of station was also medevaced out of Vietnam. Additionally, the wife of a third CIA officer who had served in Kyiv during the same critical time frame — roughly 2014 to 2017 — was hit in October 2021 in a cafe in London. She was treated locally in London and is also in the CIA.

The cluster of Havana Syndrome cases that emerged from veterans of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv was so worrisome to one of its number that he opted to resign from the CIA altogether rather than risk becoming a fourth victim.

The investigation was conducted by The Insider, in collaboration with 60 Minutes and Der Spiegel.