The latest on Israel’s war in Gaza

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The International Court of Justice said that it will deliver its ruling Friday on whether to enact provisional measures to temporarily suspend Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, according to an ICJ news release published Wednesday on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The ICJ is the main legal arm of the United Nations and its ruling will take place at at 1 p.m. local (7 a.m. ET).

The move comes in response to South Africa’s filing a legal action against Israel for what they allege are violations by Israel of its obligations under the “Genocide Convention.” 

South Africa took Israel to the ICJ, on claims that it is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and failing to prevent and punish genocide.

The hearings started on January 11. Israel has firmly rejected the accusations, calling them “false” and “grossly distorted.”

Israel, through its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that South Africa “is calling for the destruction of the State of Israel,” and that its “claim lacks both a factual and a legal basis.”

South Africa has asked the court to enforce “provisional measures” to protect the rights of Palestinians in Gaza “from imminent and irreparable loss.” 

The provisional measures would function as a kind of restraining order to stop the dispute from escalating while the full case progresses through the court, which could take years. And while the court’s rulings are final and binding, in practice it has no way of enforcing them.

A building sheltering hundreds of displaced people in southern Gaza was hit Wednesday amid intensified Israeli military attacks on Khan Younis, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Gaza, killing at least nine people and injuring 75 others. 

In a video obtained and verified by CNN showing the UNRWA facility, a building surrounded by tents and temporary shelters is seen ablaze, with plumes of thick smoke.

The White House said it is “gravely concerned” by the strike.

The Israeli military ruled out that an Israeli aerial or artillery strike hit the facility, according to a statement from the Israel Defense Forces. The IDF said a “thorough review of the operations of the forces in the vicinity is underway,”

The Israeli military continues to operate in Khan Younis and the operation there will continue for “several days,” the IDF said Wednesday.

Here are other headlines you should know:

The Israeli military has ruled out that an Israeli aerial or artillery strike hit a UN facility that was housing hundreds of displaced people in Gaza’s Khan Younis, according to a statement from the Israel Defense Forces.

“After an examination of our operational systems, the IDF has currently ruled out that this incident is a result of an aerial or artillery strike by the IDF,” the statement says.

The IDF said a “thorough review of the operations of the forces in the vicinity is underway,” adding that it is “examining the possibility that the strike was a result of Hamas fire.”

Some background: The UN relief agency for the enclave said a building sheltering the displaced people was hit Wednesday in Khan Younis, killing at least nine and injuring 75 others.

“Buildings ablaze and mass casualties. Safe access to and from the center has been denied for two days. People are trapped,” Thomas White, director of affairs for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said on X, formerly Twitter. 

The White House says it is “gravely concerned” by a strike on a United Nations facility in Gaza that the organization’s refugee agency said led to “mass casualties.”

“While we don’t yet have all the details on what happened and will continue to seek further information regarding today’s incidents, the loss of every innocent life is a tragedy,” National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said. “This conflict has already resulted in the devastating deaths and injuries of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, and we mourn every single civilian life that has been lost.”

Watson reemphasized the US’ “support for Israel’s right to defend itself, consistent with international humanitarian law” and said the US would “continue working to increase life-saving humanitarian assistance into Gaza and to bring home all of the hostages held there.”

Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeted US warships with ballistic missiles in the Gulf of Aden and Bab al-Mandab Strait on Wednesday, a Houthi spokesperson said Wednesday.

The Yemeni group “engaged” with US warships that tried to protect two American commercial vessels, spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a statement. 

As a result, one of the vessels suffered a “direct hit” and the two American commercial ships were forced to turn back from the area, Saree said.

“Several of our ballistic missiles hit their targets despite the warships’ attempts to intercept them,” Saree said.

The Iran-backed Houthis have said they won’t stop their attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea until the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza ends. 

Some context: US defense officials told CNN the Navy shot down two Houthi missiles fired Wednesday at the US-flagged, owned and operated M/V Maersk Detroit container ship.

The USS Gravely, which was nearby at the time, shot down two of the missiles, and one landed in the water, the officials said. There were no injuries or damage to the ship, CENTCOM said in a statement.

Dozens of displaced women and children gathered in front of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah on Wednesday, raising their hands and chanting for a ceasefire.

Draped in scarves and winter coats, demonstrators carried posters aimed at both Israel and Hamas, with messages that read, “Stop the war” and “Release prisoners now,” referring to the Israeli hostages taken during Hamas’ murderous rampage in Israel on October 7.

Israel has fiercely responded to that attack by besieging and bombing Gaza, devastating large parts of the enclave and displacing at least 1.93 million people, according to the United Nation’s agency for Palestine refugees.

“We were forced to leave our homes. The airstrikes were on our heads, our relatives are under the rubble, they were killed in front of our eyes, so we fled,” one woman, who wished to remain anonymous, told CNN. “I am dying. I don’t want flour, I don’t want coupons, I want to go back home.”

Huge displacement camps have mushroomed across Gaza, where illnesses such as diarrhea, jaundice and Hepatitis A, are spreading due to overcrowded conditions and limited access to drinkable water or sanitation.

“We cannot feed our children or buy wood. We demand a ceasefire and to go back to our homes, even if they are struck. We will rebuild them,” said Ismail Hassouna, another civilian.
“We are against transferring and killing policies, killing children and starving people, stealing aid, keeping people inside tents without the minimum essentials for living,” Hassouna added. “We have the right to live, our children have the right to live.”

With winter winds and torrential rains lashing Gaza, Nuha Shaheen told CNN that children “are dying of cold.”

“What’s left? Enough, we want to go back home.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross issued a stark warning Thursday, saying that Gaza faces a complete medical shutdown unless immediate actions are taken to safeguard essential services.

ICRC said that the Nasser medical complex and the European Gaza Hospital, both in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, are the only referral hospitals “that provide advanced surgical and medical emergency services with large bed capacities, which is not sufficient for the current wounded and sick across Gaza.”

Over 1.5 million people living in dire conditions in the south of Gaza, according to the ICRC.

“Every functioning hospital in the Gaza Strip is over-crowded and short on medical supplies, fuel, food and water. Many are housing thousands of displaced families. And now two more facilities risk being lost due to the fighting,” said William Schomburg, the head of the ICRC’s office in Gaza. “The cumulative impact on the health system is devastating and urgent action must be taken.”

The Israel Defense Forces have insisted that Hamas systematically operates in Gaza hospitals and adjacent areas, “using the residents as human shields.” The IDF said Wednesday that it will continue to operate in Khan Younis for “several days.” 

Audio and video shows panic inside a UN shelter in Khan Younis that was hit Wednesday by Israeli tanks, according to the United Nations’ relief agency in Gaza.

In a clip obtained by CNN, a woman sheltering at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) facility said: We can’t count the martyrs, we can’t count the injured.” She said there are no Red Cross ambulances or firefighters.

In a video obtained and verified by CNN showing the UNRWA facility, a building surrounded by tents and temporary shelters is seen ablaze, with plumes of thick smoke. In another video obtained and verified by CNN, people are seen inside the facility, carrying the injured and moving in and out of crowded rooms.

“The casualties are scattered on the floor, and the building is a besieged from all directions,” according to a man behind the camera.

UNRWA earlier said at least nine people were killed and 75 injured after the shelter was struck. The US State Department has called the strike “incredibly concerning.”

CNN’s Michael Conte contributed reporting to this post.

The Israeli military operation in Khan Younis will shut down the largest operating hospital in southern Gaza, the director of affairs for the UN’s relief agency for the enclave told CNN.

Thomas White of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said the Nasser Hospital is “under threat” because it is located in an area that is being forced to evacuate. 

For several days, UNRWA has been trying to get access to western Khan Younis, where the hospital is located, but White said the agency has been denied by the Israeli military because “fighting is too heavy.”

“The Israeli army intend to undertake a major operation in the west of Khan Younis, despite all of the assurances that we receive that people would be safe there,” White said. 
“Now, tens of thousands of people are on the road again, many of them displaced multiple times,” White said, adding that many are making their way to the southern city of Rafah, where “there is no more open ground for people.” 
“Nobody imagined the level of death, destruction and displacement that we’ve seen in the last three months,” White added.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Wednesday and “agreed on the importance of avoiding steps that would further threaten the security and stability” of the region, according to Erdogan.

It is not clear, though, what that might look like in practice.

Raisi and Erdogan’s meeting in Ankara comes as tensions escalate across the Middle East.

Erdogan said they discussed the need to end the war in Gaza and “take urgent steps towards the establishment of a just and lasting peace.” Raisi added that “the primary issue of the Islamic world is the Palestine issue,” and called on Muslim countries to do more.

“Those who claim to defend human rights have unfortunately lost their functions,” Raisi said, referring to Israeli allies.

The two leaders have been united in their harsh criticism of Israel during its war against Hamas in Gaza. But while Turkey has outwardly expressed a focus on ending the war and preventing conflict from spreading, Iran has taken a different course of action.

More details: Since the war began in October, Iran’s proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen have used the opportunity to take aim at Israeli and American targets in the region. The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen have targeted commercial vessels in the Red Sea with ties to Israel its allies.

The meeting between the two men comes as Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei publicly called on Muslim countries to cut political and economic ties with Israel. 

The US Navy shot down two missiles that the Iran-backed Houthis fired on Wednesday at the US-flagged, owned and operated M/V Maersk Detroit container ship, which was operating in the Gulf of Aden at the time, according to two US defense officials and US Central Command.

The USS Gravely, which was nearby at the time, shot down two of the missiles, and one landed in the water, the officials said. There were no injuries or damage to the ship, CENTCOM said in a statement.

The missile attack is the Houthis’ first successful launch since January 18, and comes just days after the US and the UK launched strikes against eight Houthi targets in Yemen. The US has also been trying to destroy Houthi missiles on the ground in Yemen as it sees the Iran-backed militant group preparing to launch them and has successfully targeted several in recent weeks. The Houthis say they are taking revenge against Israel for its military campaign in Gaza against Hamas.

The M/V Maersk Detroit was traveling along with the Maersk Chesapeake at the time of the missile attacks on Wednesday, according to a statement from Maersk. The ships turned back from their planned voyage after seeing “explosions” on their way toward the Red Sea on Wednesday, according to the company.

The vessels are enrolled in the US Maritime Security Program and VISA (Voluntary Intermodal Sealift) and were set to transit the Bab el-Mandeb strait as part of a scheduled US Navy accompaniment.

US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby declined to weigh in on reports of a mass casualty event at a United Nations shelter in Khan Younis Wednesday, but said Israeli forces have “taken steps to transition their operations,” including moving toward more “targeted” operations. 

“Low-intensity operations doesn’t mean no-intensity operations, and even in a low-intensity environment — again, I won’t speak for them — but from our own experience, even in low-intensity operations, you’re still going to be in combat; there is still going to be fighting, and there’s still going to be casualties,” he told CNN.

The UN relief agency in Gaza, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, said earlier Wednesday that nine people died after a shelter in the southern Gaza city was struck.  

Several Gaza residents told CNN about the painful challenges of displacement, cramped living and miserable weather as fighting between Israel and Hamas continues.

Mohammed Al-Jaro, who is displaced in Nuseirat in central Gaza, said:

“The basic problem is that you are cramped with a large number of people in one place. Movement is hard when it is raining, especially for the children who are used to running, jumping, and playing, not to mention that clothes take long to dry and there is not enough change of clothes.”

Wajih Ajjour, from the al-Rimal area, is now displaced in a United Nations agency shelter in Khan Younis. He described the harsh impact of rain on makeshift shelters:

“Yesterday, we got drenched in the rain. There was heavy rain and bitter cold. We don’t know what to do for the children, no medicine, no blankets, no clothes, you can’t even change clothes.”

Hani Qalja in Rafah said most of the tents have water dripping through the middle as strong winds gust through:

“The situation is worse than you can imagine; even last night, the tent flew from the weather and the strong winds, and the nylon flew; it was chaotic for us, and the covers were soaked.”

The Israel Defense Forces appears to continue its focus on Khan Younis, as people try to flee the southern Gaza city. The main United Nations relief agency in Gaza said there have been “mass casualties” after a strike at a shelter there, and Palestinian health care workers and officials say the Israeli military is firing near two main hospitals in the area.

Meanwhile, while indirect talks between Israel and Hamas are happening, according to an Israeli official, no proposal has reached the negotiating table.

Here’s what to know:

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Wednesday rejected claims that Egypt is delaying the delivery of aid to the Gaza Strip. Instead, he pointed a finger at Israel, accusing it of squeezing the civilian population to secure the release of captives in Gaza. 

“If I am the reason for not letting a loaf of bread into Gaza, how could I face God? No, I swear. Egypt’s Rafah crossing is open 24/7 every day of the month. But the procedures taking place on the Israeli side for us to send in the aid without it being blocked by anyone, they are the reason (for holdups),” Sisi said.

Sisi asserted that before the conflict, Egypt would allow approximately 600 trucks daily into Gaza. The United Nations has put the daily average at around 500, including both aid and commercial goods.

What Israel is saying: On Wednesday, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) emphasized its role in getting aid to Gaza, saying on X, formerly Twitter, that “Israel’s role in the humanitarian aid operation for Gaza is one: Inspecting the aid for security reasons. Our inspection process is efficient, with us scaling up our capacities to maximize inspection capabilities. There is no limit to the amount of aid that can enter Gaza.”

Some Arab countries are demanding an “unambiguous commitment” from Israel and a “guaranteed pathway” to Palestinian statehood in return for underwriting Gaza reconstruction and normalization with Israel, regional officials told CNN this week.

The United Arab Emirates, which normalized relations with Israel in 2020, conditioned their contribution to the reconstruction of Gaza post-war on a “commitment” to establishing an “independent and sovereign Palestinian state.” 

“Looking ahead, we confirm that our contribution to any reconstruction effort in Gaza will be conditional on the existence of an unambiguous commitment, backed by tangible steps, to launch a concrete plan to achieve the two-state solution with a viable, independent and sovereign Palestinian state, in line with relevant UN Security Council resolutions, and negotiated between the two parties with full international backing,” a UAE official said. 

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Arab states submitted a joint proposal to Israel via the US “for postwar Gaza that would create a pathway toward a Palestinian state in exchange for Saudi recognition of Israel.”

The proposal also includes that Arab states will train Palestinian security forces, assist with reviving and reforming the Palestinian Authority and eventually help organize elections, the WSJ said, citing unnamed Arab officials.

CNN could not immediately verify the proposal’s contents.

The initiative is still being finalized, but it has so far been rejected by Israel’s government, “with the creation of a Palestinian state the main sticking point,” the WSJ said.

CNN has reached out to the US and Israeli governments for comment.

Palestinian health officials and paramedics have reported Israeli tanks and attack drones firing at people trying to flee the vicinity of the Al-Amal and Nasser hospitals in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said Israeli forces are “surrounding” the organization’s headquarters and the Al-Amal Hospital, and they have enforced “restrictions on movement around both the building and the hospital.” The PRCS said six people were killed in attacks in Khan Younis Wednesday, three of which had been “targeted” at the entrance of their headquarters. 

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said Israeli forces have also surrounded the Nasser medical complex, cutting off crucial medical, food, and fuel supplies.

“Hundreds of patients with infections and pregnant women are facing serious complications,” health ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qudra said.

A Geneva-based nongovernmental organization advocating for human rights in the region, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, said on Wednesday that Israeli forces conducted “numerous intense air raids” extending to the west of Khan Younis. It said shelters housing “tens of thousands” of displaced people in the western part of the city and in the neighboring coastal town of Al-Mawasi are under siege by the Israeli military. 

The Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday that it will continue to operate in Khan Younis for “several days,” maintaining there are Hamas militants located in hospitals. CNN has sought comment from the IDF on whether its forces have surrounded the Nasser and Amal hospitals. 

A building sheltering hundreds of displaced people in southern Gaza was hit Wednesday amid intensified Israeli military attacks on Khan Younis, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Gaza, killing at least nine and injuring 75 others.

“Buildings ablaze and mass casualties. Safe access to and from the center has been denied for two days. People are trapped,” Thomas White, director of affairs for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said Wednesday on X, formerly Twitter. 

White also said that a team from his agency and the World Health Organization were trying to reach the site, but that an agreed-upon route with the Israeli military is “blocked with (an) earth bank.”

White said the building shelters 800 people. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said on X that the entire Khan Younis Training Center, one of the largest UNRWA facilities in Gaza, was sheltering 30,000 people, and is clearly marked as a UN site.

Wajih Ajour, who is sheltering in the UNRWA facility, told CNN he could see tanks near the building.

“We are completely surrounded. There are Israeli military tanks just outside the walls of the building. Some people have shrapnel wounds from the fighting in the area, and the building also sustained damage,” Ajour said.

The Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday that it continues to operate in Khan Younis, where it is pursuing “military targets, outposts, infrastructure and command and control centers” and said the operation there will continue for “several days.”

CNN has sought comment from the IDF on the fire at the UNRWA shelter.

This post has been updated with more details about the UNWRA facility in Khan Younis.

No proposed deal between Israel and Hamas has reached the negotiating table, an Israeli official told CNN Wednesday, adding that any recent reports saying that an agreement is close are incorrect and that there is a long way to go before a deal is reached. 

Hamas did not reject a proposal to release Israeli hostages in exchange for a pause in fighting, because it was never offered to them, the official said.

But indirect talks are ongoing, the official added. 

There have been various proposals from parties involved in the negotiations, including several from within Israel, and they are expected to be discussed in an Israeli security cabinet meeting on Thursday, the official said.

Israel is offering different terms in exchange for the return of the hostages, including a pause in fighting, but will not offer a permanent ceasefire until Hamas is destroyed, the official said.

The official asked not to be named discussing internal government deliberations.

A Haaretz report earlier this week cited a senior Egyptian official as saying Hamas had rejected a two-month pause in fighting in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages. Additionally reports from Reuters, The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post outlined details of deals they said had reached advanced stages of negotiation.

The war between Israel and Hamas has already spilled over to the wider Middle East, with prospects of a confrontation between regional and world powers becoming ever more likely.

Across the region, the fighting has largely been confined to tit-for-tat attacks between Iran-backed militias on one side and the US, Israel and its allies on the other. But the direct intervention of both Iran and the US in recent weeks has heightened fears that the proxy conflict between the two could turn into a direct one.

So far, the US and Iran have avoided directly confronting each other. The US has attacked Iranian-backed groups in Yemen, Syria and Iraq, while Iran-linked groups have targeted American personnel in Iraq and Syria. Tehran has also struck what it said were anti-Iran groups in Iraq, Syria and Pakistan. Pakistan responded with retaliatory strikes.

The Islamic Republic, which has long opposed the presence of US forces in what it considers to be its backyard, has spent the past few decades building a network of Islamist, anti-Western and anti-Israel militias that it trains, funds and arms. Recently, certain groups, particularly Yemen’s Houthi rebels, have disrupted a vital international waterway, wreaking havoc on global trade and prompting Western states to intervene. And it has built ties with and helped fund Hamas, which launched its war on Israel on October 7.

As tensions escalate in the region, here’s where Iran or its allies are present, where US forces are stationed, and where both sides have conducted military operations since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

Read more in-depth about Iran’s presence in the region.

A group of Western countries has once again called for the end of attacks being carried out by Houthi militants on vessels in the Red Sea. 

The collective — which includes the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia — condemned the attacks in a joint statement issued Wednesday. 

“The thirty-plus attacks that the Houthis have launched on commercial and naval vessels since mid-November constitute a threat to all countries that rely on international maritime shipping,” according to the statement. 
“We condemn these attacks, and demand an end to them,” the group added. 

In recent weeks, the Houthis have launched near-daily attacks on commercial and merchant vessels in the Red Sea as part of their revenge campaign against Israel’s war in Gaza.  

In response to the “continued illegal and reckless Houthi attacks,” the Wednesday statement said that the US and UK armed forces, with support from their counterparts, decided to carry out further strikes against eight targets in Houthi-controlled parts of Yemen.  

The Houthis have so far proven undeterred by this Western campaign of strikes, vowing last week that any future strikes on Yemen would “not go unanswered.” 

Nowara Diab was trying to drown out the sounds of airstrikes by listening to music, but it was not enough to shake the unsettled feeling in her gut.

Then her phone rang. It was a friend, who said they had heard that Maimana Jarada — Diab’s best friend — and her family had been killed by Israeli bombardment.

Her stomach was in knots as she felt herself panicking. Diab called Jarada’s number repeatedly but when there was no answer, it dawned on her that it was true: Jarada had been killed. The 20-year-old says she broke down in tears as she felt the walls close in around her. The pain was even more intense for Diab because she had learned only 10 days earlier that another friend, Abraham Saidam, had also been killed by Israeli airstrikes.

“Living without them is the worst thing I’ve ever felt,” Diab said. “My heart aches every single day thinking that they’re not here and they’re not going to be here for me anymore, it pains me.”

Diab says she longs for the kind of problems she had before the war, like missing the bus for college or being bored in lectures. “I’m not able to do this anymore because my college was bombed, my house was bombed and I lost my best friend,” she said.

Read more about how her life has changed.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is calling on Muslim countries to sever their political and economic ties with Israel, according to Iran’s state-run Press TV.

On Tuesday, Khamenei told a group of his supporters that a ceasefire is something Israel has to decide on, so instead of calling for one, leaders can take action by cutting ties with Israel.

“The issue that is in the hands of the officials of the Muslim countries is to cut off the vital lifelines of the Zionist regime,” Khamenei said according to Press TV, adding, “The Muslim countries should severe their political and economic contact with the Zionist regime and not help this regime.”

Meanwhile, ongoing talks to secure the release of hostages held in Gaza have not yet reached the level of “negotiations,” the White House said Tuesday, describing them instead as “sober and serious” discussions about what might be acceptable to all sides.

Thousands of displaced Palestinians are fleeing Khan Younis in southern Gaza as the Israeli military said it has surrounded the city amid further operations west of the area.

CNN video shows displaced people sitting on the side of streets and in the vicinity of the seashore. The video shows cars, trucks, and tractors transporting families and their essential belongings, and crowds of people walking.

Many of those fleeing described terrifying scenes.

“There are dead people on the ground. We left them behind. There are people killed inside the houses,” said displaced Gazan Hisham Sayegh. “We were expecting to die at any minute.”

Meanwhile, Israel is reeling from the deaths of at least 24 of its soldiers in Gaza, in what is the biggest single loss of life for Israeli troops in the enclave since the war with Hamas began. More than 25,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry.

Here’s what you need to know:

Palestine’s soccer team reached the knockout stages of the AFC Asian Cup for the first time after beating Hong Kong 3-0 on Tuesday in a Group C match filled with emotion from the players and the roars of a sympathetic crowd.

The victory, the team’s first ever at the Asian Cup, confirmed their spot in the round of 16 as one of the four best third-placed teams at the tournament in Qatar.

Forward Oday Dabbagh was the hero at the Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium in Doha, grabbing two goals either side of a header from fellow attacker Zeid Qunbar.

The historic sporting moment for Palestinians comes as Israel’s war against Hamas rages in Gaza, causing widespread destruction and a catastrophic humanitarian crisis. Deaths of Palestinians in the West Bank have also surged at the same time.

Throughout the game, the 6,500-strong crowd roared for the Palestinian side and at the final whistle players broke down in tears of joy. Defender Mohammed Saleh, who was born in Gaza, could be seen sobbing and kneeling on the ground, his face buried in the grass.

Read more about Palestine’s historic victory.

The US military conducted strikes in Yemen against two Houthi anti-ship missiles aimed to launch at the southern Red Sea, US Central Command said Tuesday evening.

The Houthi missiles posed an “imminent threat to merchant vessels and the US Navy ships in the region,” CENTCOM said.

It comes after the US and the UK carried out additional strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen on Monday.

The Iran-backed Houthis have said they won’t stop their attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea until the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza ends. 

US strikes on Iran-backed militias in Iraq killed at least one person and injured two others, an Iraqi security source told CNN on Tuesday.

The strikes targeted three facilities used by Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah and other Tehran-affiliated groups following repeated attacks on US forces, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

The person killed was a Kataib Hezbollah fighter, according to a post on the group’s Telegram channel.

Regional tensions: The strikes on Tuesday are the first in Iraq since the beginning of the month, when the US targeted a member of an Iranian proxy group operating in the country who one US official said had “US blood on his hands.”

They also come after multiple strikes against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen over the past week and a half, as the US looks to reign in the aggressive actions of Iran-backed groups in the Middle East amid heightened tensions in the region.

US forces in Iraq and Syria have been targeted at least 151 times since attacks began on October 17, according to a US official — 10 days after Hamas attacked Israel.

Read more about the US strikes.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US will not support Israel creating so-called “buffer zones” permanently in Gaza that would effectively reduce the size of the Palestinian territory.

However, Blinken said there may need to be “transitional arrangements” that provide “necessary security arrangements” to allow Israelis who fled areas adjacent to Gaza after October 7 to return.  

Blinken also maintained that Gazans who fled their homes must be allowed to return and that Palestinians be able to govern themselves.

Ongoing talks to secure the release of all hostages held in Gaza have not yet reached the level of “negotiations,” the White House said Tuesday, describing them instead as “sober and serious” discussions about what might be acceptable to all sides.

He wasn’t able to confirm reports about some of the options being discussed, including a pause in fighting for two months.

But he did say the US would “absolutely” be supportive of a break in fighting longer than the one-week pause agreed to last year in exchange for the release of some captives.

“That would give us the opportunity to get all hostages out and more aid in, we would absolutely support a humanitarian pause of longer length than the week we were able to accomplish,” he said.

Israeli fighter jets have carried out strikes on targets in Lebanon, including a “military asset” used by Hezbollah and operated by Iranian forces, the Israel Defense Forces said.

The IDF said it also struck several additional areas in Lebanon, including a military compound that Hezbollah operated in.

“Hezbollah’s military activity south of the Litani River in Lebanon, including the use and storage of armaments, is a clear violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. The IDF will continue to defend Israel’s borders from any threat,” the IDF said. 

Resolution 1701, passed in 2006, stipulates that the area south of the Litani should become a demilitarized zone. 

Earlier, the IDF said there had been a number of launches from Lebanon into Israeli territory. Some launches caused minor damage at an Israeli Air Force base, and some were successfully intercepted, it said. No injuries were reported. 

Thousands of people are leaving Khan Younis, as the Israel Defense Forces said it has surrounded the city amid further operations west of the area.

A CNN video recorded Monday shows displaced people sitting on the side of streets and in the vicinity of the seashore as they head west and south. The IDF had instructed civilians to leave several districts in and around the city and head toward the coast, which it described to CNN as “safer.”

The video shows cars, trucks, and tractors transporting families and their essential belongings, such as blankets, mattresses and food. Many, however, are walking.

Hisham Sayegh said he saw four people killed, which forced him to leave with his family as shelling in the area intensifies.

Amer Hijjo, from northern Gaza, said he was on the move for a third time. “Now, we are displaced again to the unknown. The bombardment was all night. We woke up with a tank at the entrance of the house this (Monday) morning, so we left.”

Um Mohammad, a woman from Khan Younis, said she and her family are on the street until they figure out where to go — and they can not afford transport south to Rafah. “Vegetables, flour, and water are all expensive. There are no toilets. No one cares about us as if we are not human beings.”

Um Adel, a woman from Gaza City, told CNN her family had been in Khan Younis, and her granddaughter died because “there was no oxygen or medication for her.”