April 8, 2024 - Israel-Hamas war

Our live coverage of Israel's war on Hamas in Gaza has moved here.

US forces destroyed an "air defense system with two missiles ready to launch, a ground control station in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen" and a drone launched over the Red Sea on Monday, the US Central Command said.

No injuries or damage were reported, according to CENTCOM.

In a separate incident, CENTCOM said, "an anti-ship ballistic missile was launched from a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen toward the Gulf of Aden where a coalition ship was escorting M/V Hope Island, a Marshall Islands flagged, U.K. owned, Italian operated cargo ship."

There were no injuries or damage reported, CENTCOM said, adding that this was the fifth observed missile launch against the coalition ship and M/V Hope Island.

Some background: The Iran-backed Houthis have been targeting shipping in the Red Sea since shortly after the war between Israel and Hamas began, with the group tying the attacks to its effort to pressure Israel and its allies to stop the war in Gaza. They are among several Iranian proxy groups at the center of global concerns the war could spill further through the Mideast.

A coalition of nations has committed naval assets and personnel to bolstering security in the Red Sea.

A specialized United Nations committee will review whether Palestine will be granted full state member status in the UN this month, according to Vanessa Frazier, the UN Ambassador of Malta and Security Council's president for April.

After a closed-door session Monday, the UN Security Council referred this request for Palestinian statehood to the Committee on the Admission of New Members, she said.

The committee held their first meeting on Monday to begin discussions regarding Palestine’s renewed application, she said. 

The Palestinian Mission to the UN first put in a request to be recognized as a full member state in 2011. It was granted "non-member observer state" status in November 2012.

The US is historically keen on letting the Israelis and Palestinians decide the issue between themselves. 

A disinformation war is unfolding alongside the physical conflict raging in Gaza, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres warned in a post on X Monday, calling for international journalists be allowed entry into the enclave.

Foreign media have been allowed very limited access to Gaza, either embedded with the Israeli military on condition of viewing and approving the unedited raw footage or in rare instances with humanitarian aid convoys going into the enclave.

Vice President Kamala Harris will meet on Tuesday with American families whose loved ones were taken hostage by Hamas amid ongoing negotiations for the release of remaining hostages and a ceasefire in the war.

Harris will meet with them in the afternoon, the second such meeting since Hamas' deadly attack on Israel on October 7 last year, according to an advisory from her office. The meeting is closed to the press. 

Her meeting comes after National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with the families on Monday evening.  

CIA Director Bill Burns traveled to Cairo over the weekend where he presented a new proposal to try and help broker a deal between the Israel and Hamas and bridge the gap between the two sides.

The leaders of Egypt, France and Jordan have issued a joint statement calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, highlighting the grave humanitarian crisis and the catastrophic impact of the ongoing war.

In an op-ed published Monday in Jordan and Egypt's state newspapers, as well as France's Le Monde and The Washington Post, they stressed the need for a peaceful resolution through a two-state solution, declaring that violence and warfare “have no place” in achieving peace in the Middle East.

Highlighting the critical situation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where over 1.5 million Palestinian civilians have sought refuge, the leaders warned about the "dire consequences of further military actions,” advocating for the protection of civilians as a legal and moral obligation under international law.

The three countries' leaders condemned violence, terrorism and indiscriminate targeting of civilians, reiterating the need for all parties to respect international humanitarian law.

“We condemn the killing of humanitarian aid workers, most recently the attack against World Central Kitchen’s aid convoy,” the op-ed read.

Egypt and France have played a major role as mediators between Hamas and Israel, while Jordan has been a key actor in aid delivery, contributing dozens of airdrops over Gaza.

Democratic Senators are split on whether to apply new conditions on aid to Israel.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who supports conditions, warned the Biden administration’s policy needs to change in order to boost Democratic support for President Joe Biden in November. “I think the president simply needs to do what is the right policy, and that will send a message to people around the country that he is taking the right course. So in my view, this is a case where the right policies will produce the right politics.”

“He needs to use all the levers of US policy available to him. That includes many options, but one of them is withholding, at least for now, offensive military systems – not to prevent offensive military assistance from being sent at some point, but, again, to make sure the president can enforce his own words,” he said. 

Senate Foreign Relations Chair Ben Cardin, who does not support conditions, said he believes the conditions will not help them accomplish their most immediate goal: getting humanitarian aid into Gaza. “We need to get the humanitarian assistance in, and I hope we can see some progress on it,” he said. “I don’t think conditionalities are the way to go.”

Sen. Mark Kelly, who has not committed to conditions but left the door open, said, “I think it's fair, at some point, if we don't see positive change, to make decisions on what kind of aid we're providing, and what they could use it for it.”

He criticized Israel after World Central Kitchen aid workers were killed by Israeli strikes last week. “This is reckless action by the IDF. And the IDF’s gotta do a better job at this,” Kelly said. “I want to see how they're going to make changes to this. They've got to make changes.”

Forty-six bodies of Palestinians have been brought to the European Hospital in Gaza since Monday morning, the European Hospital said in a statement on its Telegram channel on Monday.

Thirty-eight of those 46 bodies have been identified, the hospital said.

This comes after a search and recovery operation in the aftermath of the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Khan Younis announced Sunday.

Dozens of Khan Younis residents who were forcibly displaced to Rafah traveled back to their homes on Monday.

Video filmed by a CNN stringer shows people jumping over debris in search of their homes. Most of them said they were unrecognizable.

Here's what some children said:

Aseel, 12: She pointed to a pile of rubble in front of her. “There it was, it’s destroyed,” she said of her house. “We were only able to retrieve small things from our house. I wish I could’ve gotten my clothes.” 

Tamar: He was spotted carrying blocks of wood. “I’ll go sell them to make 10-20 shekels, so that I never have to extend my hand out and beg for money from people,” he said, adding he didn’t recognize his house when he first saw it. “If it wasn’t for my neighbors, I wouldn’t have known it my house. Devastation everywhere,” he said. 

Abdelkarim: “Where are we supposed to grab our stuff from? From what homes? Who will we complain to about our concerns? Who will we complain to about the Israelis? We have no life here. Where will we live?” he said, adding he spent his time in Rafah reading and writing since his school is destroyed.

Alia: She was walking with her younger brother carrying only a bag of clothes and a small toy. “Our house was bombed and bulldozed … this toy means a lot to me. It’s a memory from home.”