January 22, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

The Israeli government’s opposition to a two-state solution is “unacceptable” and Israel cannot expect countries to drop the issue, the European Union’s foreign policy chief said Monday.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected calls from the international community for a two-state solution, but Borrell questioned what alternatives remain.

Borrell said that Hamas is part of the problem but that the way Israel has been trying to destroy the militant group was “certainly” wrong and was seeding hate “for generations.”

Israel Foreign Minister Israel Katz and his Palestinian Authority counterpart are attending the meeting in Brussels.

Communication networks have been restored across Gaza following the longest near-total blackout in the coastal enclave since the start of the war.

The outage, which lasted over a week, was the ninth communications blackout in Gaza since Israel’s war against Hamas began on October 7, according to internet monitoring site Netblocks.

The death toll in Gaza has surpassed 25,000 people since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, the Hamas-controlled health ministry in the enclave said Sunday.

The Palestinian toll includes 25,105 killed and 62,681 injured, according to the ministry. CNN cannot independently verify the figures.

Israel's military said Sunday that military activities in Gaza were continuing, with "dozens of terrorists eliminated and large quantities of weapons located."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he would not accept Hamas' demand for an end to the war in exchange for the release of hostages held in Gaza.

Here's what you need to know:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not accept Hamas' demand for an end to the war in exchange for the release of hostages held in Gaza, he said Sunday.

Netanyahu said Hamas has demanded an end to the war, the release of Palestinian prisoners and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza in exchange for the release of the hostages.

“If we agree to this, our soldiers fell in vain. If we agree to this, we will not be able to guarantee the security of our citizens,” the prime minister said. 

Some context: Netanyahu's comments come amid a report in the Wall Street Journal that the US, Egypt and Qatar want Israel to join a new phase of talks with Hamas that would start with the release of hostages and lead to the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

Netanyahu said he communicated these points to US President Joe Biden over the weekend, and reiterated comments he made last week about Israel controlling all territory west of Jordan. 

The Israeli military has desecrated at least 16 cemeteries in its ground offensive in Gaza, a CNN investigation has found, leaving gravestones ruined, soil upturned and, in some cases, bodies unearthed.

In Khan Younis, southern Gaza, where fighting escalated in recent days, Israeli forces destroyed a cemetery, removing bodies in what the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told CNN was part of a search for the remains of hostages seized by Hamas during the October 7 attacks.

CNN has reviewed satellite images and social media footage showing the destruction of cemeteries — and witnessed it firsthand while traveling with the IDF in a convoy. Together, the evidence reveals a systemic practice.

The intentional destruction of religious sites, such as cemeteries, violates international law, except under narrow circumstances relating to that site becoming a military objective, and legal experts told CNN that Israel’s acts could amount to war crimes.

A spokesperson for the IDF could not account for the destruction of the 16 cemeteries CNN provided coordinates for, but said the military sometimes has “no other choice” but to target cemeteries it claimed Hamas uses for military purposes.

Read the full report.

The Israel Defense Forces released footage Sunday of a tunnel in the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza where it said Hamas held around 20 hostages at different times. 

The tunnel was located in the center of Khan Younis and ran about 830 meters (0.51 miles) at a depth of 20 meters (66 feet), the IDF said.

There were booby traps, explosives and various obstacles inside the tunnel, according to the IDF, which said it encountered and killed several Hamas operatives as it entered the tunnel.

The IDF found no hostages in the tunnel but said, based on testimonies from former hostages and DNA evidence, that about 20 hostages were held there at different times, some of who have been released while others remain held in Gaza. 

Videos shared by the IDF show long tunnels, some of which lead to rooms with mattresses, blankets and food wrappers scattered on the floor, and kitchen and bathroom areas. 

An estimated 104 hostages are believed to be alive in Gaza, according to the latest Israeli figures, which have fluctuated at times based on intelligence.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday rejected calls for Palestinian sovereignty following talks with US President Joe Biden about Gaza’s future, suggesting Israel’s security needs would be incompatible with Palestinian statehood.

The Israeli leader did not provide any other details in his one-line post in Hebrew. The territory west of Jordan encompasses Israel, the occupied West Bank, and Hamas-run Gaza, where Israel is battling the militant group following the October 7 attacks.

Biden and his top officials — including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who visited Israel and the region last week — have said the creation of a Palestinian state with guarantees for Israel’s security is the only way to finally bring peace and stability to the Middle East.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Sunday called opposition to a two-state solution “unacceptable.”

Read more on the global calls for a Palestinian state.

Early on Christmas Day in the central Gazan city of Deir al-Balah, Motaz Azaiza shared a terrifying update on X.

A quadcopter was flying low above the door of his house, he said, and he feared he was about to be targeted in an Israeli airstrike. As a highly visible Palestinian online who had received threats before, Azaiza believed he had reason to be afraid.

Hundreds of people flooded the replies with concern for the 24-year-old photojournalist, who has been documenting Israel’s military assault on Gaza on social media since Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7.

Noor, a medical student in California who asked to go by her first name for safety reasons, was one of the people worrying. For months, she’s been following Azaiza’s dispatches from Gaza, broadcast to his millions of followers: images of his once vibrant neighborhood transformed into a gray wasteland, raw glimpses of carnage in the ashes, and reflections on his own feelings of rage and exhaustion.

Noor refers to Azaiza with the familiarity of his first name. She gets notifications on her phone each time he posts, and worries when too much time passes.

Read more.