January 19, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

When Rachel Goldberg-Polin walked into a Swiss grocery store this week, the cashier was confused by her dress.

In an interview with CNN in Davos, Switzerland — where she has met with world leaders to push for hostages' release — Goldberg-Polin explained how she wears a piece of tape marking each day that has passed since her son Hersh was snatched by Hamas from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023. Hersh's left hand was blown off by a grenade, and a video obtained by CNN showed bone protruding from his wrist as he was taken to Gaza.

Hersh, 23, should be in India now, as part of an around-the-world trip he planned. On December 27, when he had been scheduled to leave, Goldberg-Polin went to the airport with friends and handed stickers of Hersh to passengers on his flight, asking them to send photos from places they visit.

She has since received pictures from Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, and elsewhere, with notes saying, “Come on, Hersh, we’re waiting for you!”

Watch the interview:

The US says it struck additional Houthi anti-ship missiles in Yemen on Friday, marking the sixth time in the past 10 days that the US has targeted the Iran-backed rebel group.

The latest strikes targeted three missiles "that were aimed into the Southern Red Sea and were prepared to launch," US Central Command said in a statement.

It comes a day after the US used fighter jets to strike two Houthi anti-ship missiles, part of a growing campaign to try to disrupt the militant group’s ability to fire missiles and drones against international shipping lanes in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The increasing pace of the strikes, which US officials say are a defensive response to the Houthis’ attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, has raised questions about the overall US strategy aimed at deterring the militants and degrading their weapons capabilities.

This post has been updated with official US confirmation of the latest strikes.

Israeli war cabinet minister Gadi Eisenkot believes his country won’t be able to bring the hostages taken by Hamas back alive through military means, saying their release needs to be negotiated. 

Eisenkot also said a deal to secure the release of the hostages would likely include a longer ceasefire than the previous one in late November 2023. 

“There was a short ceasefire of a week and a half, so there will be a ceasefire three to four times longer, and after that the goals of the war are still valid; this is how I see it,” Eisenkot said.

Eisenkot also appeared to criticize Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, saying those who claim Hamas was fully defeated in northern Gaza “are not telling the truth.”

Intense Israeli bombardment and heavy fighting in the area around a large hospital in southern Gaza killed nearly 30 people on Friday, Palestinian state news agency WAFA said.

Nasser Hospital — the largest remaining health facility in Gaza's southern city of Khan Younis — came under "violent bombardment" by Israeli artillery and military vehicles, according to WAFA. Several residential buildings near the hospital were reportedly shelled, including one where a family of eight was killed, WAFA said.

Ambulance and rescue crews recovered 29 bodies from under the rubble of destroyed homes and in surrounding streets, WAFA reported.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society also said Friday that several displaced people were injured in Israeli drone attacks targeting the organization’s headquarters and Al-Amal Hospital, which is close to Nasser Hospital. The United Nations estimated Wednesday that around 7,000 people have sought shelter in and around the Nasser Hospital grounds.

What the Israeli military says: The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement Friday that Israeli forces "raided a Hamas military post which served as a training camp for the Khan Younis Brigade and was a meeting place for senior Hamas officials," locating weapons, tunnel shafts, "and a device containing models of IDF armored vehicles."

The IDF statement did not clarify where in Khan Younis that Israeli forces were operating.

South Africa’s genocide case against Israel that was presented in the International Court of Justice last week has put the spotlight on a deeper fault line in global geopolitics. Beyond the courtroom drama, experts say divisions over the war in Gaza symbolize a widening gap between Israel and its traditional Western allies — notably the United States and Europe — and a group of nations known as the Global South, countries located primarily in the southern hemisphere, often characterized by lower income levels and developing economies.

Mixed reactions to ICJ case: While some nations have maintained a cautious diplomatic stance, others — particularly Israel’s staunchest allies in the West — have criticized South Africa’s move. The US has stood by Israel through the war by continuing to ship arms to it, opposing a ceasefire, and vetoing many UN Security Council resolutions that aimed to bring a halt to the fighting.

For many in the developing world, the ICJ case has become a focal point for questioning the moral authority of the West and what is seen as the hypocrisy of the world’s most powerful nations and their unwillingness to hold Israel to account.

Read the full analysis on how the war has exposed a deepening global divide.

A former Israeli prime minister and an Israeli war cabinet minister are calling for fresh elections in the country, criticizing Benjamin Netanyahu's leadership.

Israeli war cabinet minister Gadi Eisenkot said the public no longer has trust in Netanyahu’s leadership, while former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak warned about the risks of Netanyahu's strategy.

Meanwhile, a near-total communications blackout in Gaza, the longest of the war, has now surpassed the one-week mark with no signs of abating, preventing humanitarian and emergency services from operating effectively in the territory.

Here's what you should know:

Israel needs fresh elections because the public no longer has trust in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership, Israeli war cabinet minister Gadi Eisenkot said.

“We need to go to the polls and have an election in the next few months, in order to renew the trust as currently there is no trust,” Eisenkot told Israeli television news on Thursday evening. “The state of Israel is a democracy and needs to ask itself, after such a serious event, how do we go forward with a leadership that is responsible for such an absolute failure?”

He also dismissed concerns over holding elections in the country while it’s at war. “Lack of trust among the public in its government is no less severe than lack of unity during a war,” he explained.

The near-total telecommunications blackout in the Gaza Strip has now lasted more than a full week, the internet monitoring site NetBlocks said on Friday afternoon.

"At 168 hours, the disruption is the longest on record since the start of the Israel-Hamas war and continues to severely limit visibility into events on the ground," NetBlocks said in its latest update.

Israeli war cabinet minister Gadi Eisenkot appeared to criticize Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, saying those who claim Hamas was fully defeated in northern Gaza “are not telling the truth.”

“Those who say that there was a major blow and demolition of the capabilities in the north of the strip are telling the truth. Those who talk about an absolute defeat (of Hamas) and lack of will and ability, are not telling the truth,” Eisenkot told Israeli television news on Thursday evening, just hours after Netanyahu said Israel’s military campaign would continue until it achieved “complete victory” over Hamas.

Eisenkot said the government had failed to achieve what he says should be its highest priority — securing the release of the hostages. He added that he also sees himself as part of this failure. Israel has said that 253 people were taken hostage during the Hamas attack and believes 132 hostages are still in Gaza – 105 of them alive and 27 dead.