By Heather Chen, Andrew Raine, Sophie Tanno and Antoinette Radford, CNN
From CNN's Abeer Salman
Almost 90% of Palestinians in Gaza have been forcibly displaced due to Israel’s war on Hamas, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
“Families search for safety where there is none, as famine looms. Critical for humanitarian #ceasefire to provide urgent aid & end this forced, continuous displacement,” UNWRA posted Saturday on X, formerly known as Twitter.
About two million people live in Gaza. The civilians there “lack everything," the UNRWA said.
From CNN's Niamh Kennedy and Sugam Pokharel
Iran is facing an "all-out battle" with an "enemy" actor, a top Iranian commander said, as Western nations vow to tackle the recent slew of attacks from Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.
"We need to defend our national interests to wherever they extend […] It will be harmful for the enemy to be found near and at a half distant. They should stay away from this area," Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Saturday at a ceremony unveiling a new navy ship in the coastal Gulf city of Bandar Abbas, Reuters reported.
Salami did not name the enemy during the televised speech, according to Reuters.
On January 2, the Iranian Navy dispatched a military destroyer to the Red Sea as tensions in the waterway soared. Although Iran did not officially provide a reason for the deployment, state affiliated Tasnim News Agency said the destroyer was dispatched as part of a series of vessels taking part “in regular missions in international waters.”
This comes as the UK-based maritime security group, Ambrey Analytics, said in an alert Saturday that it had received a report of "a maritime security event in the Bab al Mandab area" in the Red Sea.
“Crews are advised to minimize deck movements and only essential crew should be on the bridge,” it said.
This is just one of several similar events to take place in the Red Sea in recent weeks. The Houthi rebels, considered to be one of Iran's proxies, have launched several attacks against commercial and merchant vessels in the Red Sea in what the group have called a revenge campaign against Israel's war in Gaza.
A coalition of 11 countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, condemned the "illegal" and "profoundly destabilizing" attacks in a joint statement Wednesday. The coalition outlined their serious intention to "hold malign actors accountable" for "unlawful seizures and attacks."
The UK's finance minister underlined the severity of the situation during an interview with BBC Radio 4 Saturday, acknowledging that attacks "may have an impact" on prices in the country.
Finance minister Jeremy Hunt said the UK and its partners have made it "very clear to the Houthis" that the rebel group's actions in the Red Sea will bear "consequences."
"We will not just sit back and accept that because it’s so vital for global trade," Hunt warned.
From CNN’s Amir Tal and Larry Register
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Saturday that the war against Hamas “must not be stopped” until Israel achieves three main objectives: “eliminate Hamas, return our hostages and ensure that Gaza will no longer be a threat to Israel.”
In a statement released Saturday by his office, the prime minister said Israel will “not give Hamas immunity anywhere, and we are fighting to restore security in both the south and the north.”
“Until then and for that purpose, you have to put everything aside and continue with joint forces until the complete victory is achieved,” he concluded.
Israel's plans for new phase of war: Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday unveiled plans for the next phase of the war in Gaza. In the third phase, Israel Defense Forces soldiers in northern Gaza will adopt a “new combat approach” encompassing “raids, the destruction of terror tunnels, aerial and ground activities, and special operations,” according to Gallant.
In southern Gaza, the Israeli military will continue its pursuit of Hamas leaders in the region “for as long as necessary,” Gallant said. Israeli forces stationed in the south will also focus on “enabling the return of the hostages” still in captivity, he added.
Gallant also provided details of the fourth and supposed final phase of the war, entitled the "Day After." The post-war phase announced by Gallant envisages a Gaza Strip no longer controlled by Hamas, which would no longer “pose a security threat to the citizens of Israel.”
Once the "goals of the war have been achieved" there would be "no Israeli civilian presence in the Gaza Strip," according to his plan. Israel would, however, maintain its “operational freedom of action in the Gaza strip” and continue to "carry out the inspection of goods entering the Gaza strip," the plan stated.
From CNN’s Catherine Nicholls
The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, stressed that it is “absolutely necessary” to avoid Lebanon “being dragged into a regional conflict” as the paramilitary group Hezbollah engages in intensifying clashes with Israeli forces across the Lebanese border.
Tensions between Israel and Hezbollah were further inflamed this week by the killing of a senior Hamas leader in Beirut.
“I am here when we are seeing a worrying intensification of exchange of fire across the blue line in the border between Lebanon and Israel,” Borrell said at a news conference in Beirut on Saturday, speaking alongside Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib. “It is imperative to avoid regional escalation in the Middle East.”
Borrell also said the entire international community needs to work toward “change in the Middle East,” adding that “we cannot continue with the deplorable, awful track record of the last year or the last decade” in the region.
Bou Habib also spoke at the news conference, telling reporters that he “strongly reaffirm(s) that peace for Lebanon is essential and that all Lebanese (people) are attached to peace.”
"The Lebanese government is actively seeking to de-escalate" the situation at the border, he said.
Borrell will travel to Saudi Arabia on Sunday, he said at Saturday’s news conference, where he will be discussing “concrete steps that could galvanize a serious international peace effort.”
“Nobody will win from a regional conflict,” he said, referencing growing fears that the Israel-Hamas war could spill into a wider conflict involving Iranian proxy groups like Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
From CNN's Niamh Kennedy
The head of Hamas' political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, says he hopes US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will be "more focused" on ending Israeli "aggression" in Gaza during the top diplomat's multi-country visit to the region.
Blinken is undertaking another shuttle diplomacy tour amid heightened fears that the Israel-Hamas war may spill over into a wider regional conflict. Attacks in Lebanon, Iran and Iraq this week have spiked tensions in the region as Iranian proxy groups Hezbollah and the Houthis increase their threats against Israel.
In a video message shared by Hamas on Saturday, the Doha-based Hamas political leader said he hopes the US has "realized the extent" of its "mistakes" in supporting Israel.
Haniyeh said Hamas hopes Blinken — in his fourth trip to the region since Hamas' attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023 — will be "more focused this time to end the aggression" being carried out by Israel in the Gaza Strip.
Earlier this week, Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant unveiled the third phase of the war campaign in Gaza, which includes a new combat approach in the north and a commitment to keep pursuing Hamas leaders in southern Gaza for "for as long as necessary."
Haniyeh also said that leaders of Arab nations who meet Blinken should "stress to the US administration that the future and stability" of the region is linked to the "Palestinian cause."
He reiterated Hamas' view that the Palestinian people should have a "completely independent state" with "complete sovereignty."
More on Blinken's trip: Indirect back-channeling to Iran will also be a key focus of Blinken's trip, a senior State Department official said Friday. The top US diplomat will make clear to the leaders with whom he meets that the US does not want to see the conflict escalate nor do they intend to escalate it. The US expects that message to then be conveyed to Iran and Iranian proxies through the countries that have a relationship with them, the official said.
The secretary of state met with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. After going to Greece, he will travel to Jordan, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank, and Egypt.
From CNN’s Abeer Salman
The Israel Defense Forces dropped new flyers on neighborhoods in central Gaza on Saturday, urging Palestinians to evacuate to the nearby city of Deir al-Balah.
The IDF said people in the neighborhoods Al-Amal, Al-Sdera, Al-Basateen, Al-Farouq and Ain Jalout are in a dangerous war zone.
"The IDF will inform you when you can return to your homes. This is a warning, so as not to be blamed," the flyer said.
The IDF has frequently dropped leaflets to warn residents of Gaza to leave their neighborhoods. Given poor communication systems across Gaza, it is not clear how effective the leaflets are.
United Nations officials have previously said there is nowhere safe for civilians to go in Gaza.
Dismal conditions in Deir al-Balah: Many displaced residents have already fled to Deir al-Balah. Gazans told CNN this week that living conditions there are primitive at best, despite instructions from the Israeli military that it would be safer there.
Generations of Palestinians are camped out among the rubble of flattened buildings in the central city.
Abu Adnan, a displaced civilian who now lives on the streets of Deir al-Balah, told CNN he wishes he had "stayed at home and got shot."
"I tried to go back home twice but my children pulled me back," he said. "There are no toilets, no food, no water, no clothes. With all this, I prefer to go back home and die with dignity than dying this way."
CNN's Sana Noor Haq contributed reporting to this post.
Lebanese militant group Hezbollah says it fired a total of 62 rockets at an Israeli observation post along the Israel-Lebanon border on Saturday as an "initial response" to the killing of a senior Hamas leader in Beirut earlier this week.
In a statement, Hezbollah said its fighters launched an attack shortly after 8 a.m. local time (1 a.m. ET) on the Meron Air Surveillance Base in northern Israel as an "initial response" to the killing of Saleh Al-Arouri in southern Beirut on Tuesday.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that "approximately 40 launches” from Lebanon toward the area of Meron in northern Israel were identified after sirens sounded in northern Israel on Saturday.
Red alerts - warning of potential incoming rocket fire including where intercept shrapnel may fall - were issued for over 100 locations in northern Israel on Saturday morning.
The Israeli military then struck the Hezbollah fighters who "took part in the launches," the statement added.
Fears of a wider war: Earlier this week, Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib told CNN that his government hoped Hezbollah wouldn't respond to the Beirut attack, stressing Lebanon did not want "any escalation in the war."
Israel has not taken responsibility for Tuesday's attack, with Mark Regev, a senior adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, telling MSNBC that whoever masterminded the attack "has a gripe with Hamas" itself.
But if Israeli involvement is confirmed, Arouri would be the most senior Hamas official killed by Israeli forces since the start of the war sparked by the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
In addition to dealing a blow to Hamas’ leadership, the apparent attack also risks further broadening the arena of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
