December 7, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

The humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate in Gaza as Israeli forces expand their operations throughout the Palestinian enclave.

Since Tuesday, the military has been operating in the southern city of Khan Younis, engaged in "intense battles" with Hamas fighters.

The conflict has caused "unimaginable loss, destruction and misery" and "everyone in Gaza is hungry," the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said.

Israel's security cabinet on Wednesday approved a "minimal" increase in the amount of fuel entering Gaza, but global leaders and aid groups say there needs to be much more assistance entering the enclave.

Here's what to know:

The Israeli military in the early hours of Friday local time responded to an allegation that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) deployed white phosphorus in southern Lebanon on Thursday.

The Lebanon National News Agency (NNA) alleged Thursday that Israeli artillery shelled the outskirts of the town of Rmeish, south Lebanon, with "phosphorus."

Video obtained by CNN shows columns of white smoke above the outskirts of the hilltop town. CNN is unable to confirm the use of phosphorous munitions. 

In a statement to CNN, the IDF said that it “only legal weapons and ammunition.”

Is white phosphorus illegal? Under an international protocol ratified by Israel in 1995, the use of such incendiary weapons is allowed when "not specifically designed to cause burn injury to persons," CNN previously reported.

There is no prohibition, per se, against white phosphorus in conflict. But the timing and location of its use are restricted.

For example, it is illegal under the protocol to use white phosphorus against any personnel, civilian or military. It can be directed only against military targets. International law says incendiary weapons cannot be used where civilians are concentrated.

Israel's history with white phosphorus: Israel previously faced widespread criticism for firing white phosphorus shells over densely populated areas during a Gaza offensive that began in late 2008. HRW said in a 2009 report that Israel's white phosphorus munitions had killed and injured civilians and damaged civilian structures, including a school, a market, a humanitarian aid warehouse, and a hospital. HRW claimed that Israel's use of the weapons in crowded neighborhoods "violated international humanitarian law (the laws of war), which requires taking all feasible precautions to avoid civilian harm and prohibits indiscriminate attacks."

In response, Israel pledged to limit the use of white phosphorus and make greater efforts to protect civilians during conflicts. Still, the government said that it had used white phosphorus lawfully.

Claim of recent use: In October, Human Rights Watch accused Israeli forces of using white phosphorus during military operations in Gaza and Lebanon.

According to the HRW report, the rights group said it verified one video taken on October 10 in Lebanon and another video in Gaza on October 11 that it claimed shows "multiple airbursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over the Gaza City port and two rural locations along the Israel-Lebanon border."

Israel denied the claims by Human Rights Watch.

An Israeli man presumed to have been held hostage in Gaza was killed on October 7 when Hamas launched a terror attack on Israel, his kibbutz announced in a statement Thursday.  

Kibbutz Be’eri announced the death of resident Dror Kaplun, 68, but did not specify when Israeli authorities informed the kibbutz about his death.  

It is not clear where he was killed.  

CNN has reached out to the Israeli prime minister’s office for more details.  

His wife, Marcel Frailich Kaplun, was also killed on October 7, the kibbutz said at the time.  

After the October 7 attack, the hostages’ families forum released a statement saying his children saw a video in which Kaplun and his wife were seen taken by militants and tied up toward the fence of the kibbutz.

Egypt will not let Palestinians temporarily relocate to the country while Israel carries out its military operation in the Gaza Strip because it would be a violation of international humanitarian law, the foreign minister said Thursday.

Some context: The United States has also objected to any efforts to move Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip. Vice President Kamala Harris said in a meeting Saturday with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi that Washington will not allow for the forced relocation of Palestinians or any redrawing of the current border of the Gaza Strip.

“Under no circumstances will the United States permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, the besiegement of Gaza, or the redrawing of the borders of Gaza,” Harris said, according to a statement from the vice president’s office.

More from the interview: Earlier Thursday, the Egyptian Authority for Crossings and Borders published a list of dozens of foreign nationals set to leave Gaza. Pressed on why it took so long to get those people out of the enclave, Shoukry said it's all contingent on agreements.

"It is totally up to Israelis to define and to provide the lists of those who can come out, and when they do we facilitate the repatriation. So, this is all to maintain the Rafah crossing, not to affect at all the flow of humanitarian assistance," Shoukry told CNN.

The list included more US citizens alongside nationals of Romania, the United Kingdom, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. It also includes 13 United Nations personnel intending to enter Gaza. 

Shoukry also said he thinks "it is necessary for the Palestinian people to demonstrate who they will accept as governance of the Gaza Strip."

When asked by Tapper whether Palestinian people would be better off with a group other than Hamas, the foreign minister said it would be up to the Palestinian people to decide.

Images from Gaza circulating on social media Thursday showed a mass detention by the Israeli military of men who were made to strip to their underwear, kneel on the street, wear blindfolds and pack into the cargo bed of a military vehicle.  

The exact circumstances and dates of the detentions are unclear, but some of the detainees’ identities were confirmed by colleagues or family members. 

At least some of the men are civilians with no known affiliation to militant groups, according to a conversation CNN had with one of their relatives and a statement by one of their employers, a news network.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor posted an image of one detainment and said in a statement on its website Thursday that “the Israeli army detained and severely abused dozens of Palestinian civilians.” 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not responded to CNN’s request for comment on the images. CNN has geo-located some of the images to Beit Lahia, north of Gaza City.

The Israeli media, without indicating a source, has portrayed the images as the surrender of Hamas members.

“We investigate and check who has ties to Hamas, and who does not,” he said. “We arrest them all and question them. We will continue dismantling each one of those strongholds until we are done.”

In a statement Thursday, news outlet The New Arab, or Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, said one of its correspondents and several members of his family were among those detained as part of the incident portrayed in the images.

“Today, Thursday, the Israeli occupation army arrested the journalist and the director of ‘The New Arab’ office in Gaza, our colleague Diaa Al-Kahlot, from Market Street in Beit Lahia, along with a group of his brothers, relatives, and other civilians,” Al-Araby Al-Jadeed wrote.

“The occupation deliberately forced Gazans to take off their clothes, searched them, and humiliated them when they were arrested before taking them to an unknown destination, according to what the people there told us," he said.

Hussam Kanafani, the Al-Araby Al-Jadeed editor-in-chief, said in the statement that Al-Kahlot and his family were still missing.

“We will make every effort possible, in cooperation with international institutions and organizations concerned with the rights and freedom of journalists in the world, to determine the whereabouts of our colleague Diaa and release him as soon as possible,” Kanafani said.

CNN spoke with a relative of another detained men, Hani al-Madhoun, from his home in the United States.

“Israeli forces arrived on the street and called out all the men to come out, and they complied,” al-Madhoun told CNN. “This house was their place of refuge after our two homes were destroyed.”

Al-Madhoun said he was in contact with his sister, who is in Gaza.

He said he recognized his cousin Aboud in one of the photographs and saw his brother Mahmood in a video. He said that Mahmoud is a shopkeeper and Aboud “is not involved in any activities; he helps his father in construction.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday described how US pressure has resulted in incremental progress from Israel in protecting civilians and allowing aid into Gaza.

Blinken noted that after each of his trips to Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government shifted toward the US position.

The top US diplomat noted that on his first trip to Israel, in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 Hamas attack, "we made the case for the imperative of getting" aid into Gaza.

"After we left, that assistance started to flow," he said at a news conference at the State Department alongside UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron.

He said on his second trip, the focus was on emphasizing how "humanitarian pauses could be beneficial in getting hostages out, getting more assistance in."

"Well, shortly after we left that's also what happened," he said. 

On his most recent trip to Israel last week, Blinken stressed the need to protect civilians and pressed the Israeli government not to carry out its offensive in south Gaza in the same way it did in the north. He also stressed the need for sustained humanitarian assistance.

"What we've seen over the initial days is some important additional steps in the direction of doing just that," Blinken said.

Still, the top US diplomat reiterated that there remains a gap between the "intent to protect civilians and the actual results that we're seeing on the ground."

Israel says it will open the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and Gaza for the inspection of aid trucks in the "next few days" as the United Nation's aid chief hailed the "promising signs" pointing toward this development. 

Col. Elad Goren made the announcement during a news briefing Thursday organized by Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, more commonly known as COGAT. 

He did not specify whether the trucks will be allowed to travel to Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing itself after the inspection or whether they will need to travel through the Rafah crossing in Egypt, which is already being used to facilitate aid deliveries. 

"We will open Kerem Shalom just for inspection. It will happen in the next few days," Goren said. 

Goren, who is head of the Civil Department at COGAT, said it would be essential to open the crossing if Israel wanted to inspect more than 200 trucks a day bound for Gaza. 

A few hours later, UN aid chief Martin Griffiths told a briefing in Geneva that there are "promising signs" indicating that the much-debated crossing would "be able to open soon." 

Griffiths also did not provide any details regarding what role exactly the crossing would perform if opened. 

The UN has been calling for several weeks for the crossing to be opened, saying it would facilitate deliveries of more vital humanitarian aid to Gaza. 

US President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday to discuss the latest developments in the war between Israel and Hamas.

During the conversation, Biden reiterated the need for Israel to protect civilians, according to a readout of the call from the White House.

Biden also told Netanyahu that more aid was "urgently required across the board," according to the statement.

The president additionally relayed “deep concern” for hostages still being held in Gaza, telling Netanyahu that Hamas’ refusal to release young women civilian hostages is to blame for the breakdown in the humanitarian pause last week.

Israeli and US officials believe Hamas continues to hold hostage a number of women between the approximate ages of 20 to 30 – many of them kidnapped from the Nova music festival – CNN previously reported. Hamas insisted that some of the remaining women they were holding hostage were considered part of the Israel Defense Forces, which Israel denied. 

More on the leaders' calls: Per CNN’s count, it’s the 16th call between the two leaders since October 7, and the first since November 26.

On Wednesday, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby was asked in the White House news briefing why the two had not spoken since November, Kirby said he “wouldn’t read anything into that.” 

“I just wouldn't read anything into the fact that there hasn't been a conversation in recent days. There absolutely will be additional conversations between the two. I have no doubt about that,” Kirby told reporters.

The Israel Defense Forces on Thursday released a satellite image and video it said showed Hamas rocket launches next to a “humanitarian zone” and United Nations facility in southern Gaza.

Because the IDF satellite image of the rocket location is cropped, and the video is cropped and low resolution, it is not possible for CNN to corroborate its location.

“Hamas is the enemy of humanity and makes itself a threat to the entire world,” the IDF said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Some context: Along with the allegation, the IDF released a map showing the “Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone,” encompassing a large swath of southwestern Gaza. But in a post on X with the same allegation, the IDF posted a map showing a far smaller humanitarian zone, encompassing just a small neighborhood near the UN facility. And in a post on X earlier this week, the IDF’s Arabic language spokesperson referenced the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone without any map indicating its boundaries.