November 19, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

Israel says a cargo ship carrying 25 crew members was hijacked in the Red Sea on Sunday.

The Israel Defense Forces claimed Yemen’s Houthi rebels captured the ship. The ship is owned by a British company and operated by a Japanese firm, according to the Israeli prime minister's office, which did not provide details of the companies.

“The hijacking of a cargo ship by the Houthis near Yemen in the southern Red Sea is a very grave incident of global consequence. The ship departed Turkey on its way to India, staffed by civilians of various nationalities, not including Israelis. It is not an Israeli ship,” the IDF said in a statement.

CNN has reached out to a Houthi spokesperson for comment regarding Israeli claim, but is yet to hear back.

The Houthis are a Shia political and military organization in Yemen that have been fighting a civil war in the country against a coalition backed by Saudi Arabia. They have voiced support for the Palestinians and organized protests in Yemen, against Israel’s assault on Gaza.

CNN's Jessie Yeung, Hamdi Alkhshali and Kyle Blaine contributed reporting.

Negotiations to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas are close, and disagreements among parties have been narrowed amid intensive talks, deputy national security adviser Jon Finer said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.

Finer declined to dive into the details of the talks, but said officials are working around the clock and that it remains a priority for US President Joe Biden.

Asked about how many hostages the US believes are still alive, Finer responded that they do not have exact numbers.

“One of the challenges associated with this is, we're not on the ground in Gaza, the United States. We are not in direct contact with Hamas. We do that only through intermediaries. And so, we don't have perfect fidelity about exact numbers of hostages, including numbers who are still alive,” Finer said.

Some background: Finer's comments came soon after Qatar's prime minister — whose country is involved in the talks — also touted progress.

“The sticking points honestly at this stage are more practical, logistical, not really something that represents the core of the deal,” Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said.

Hamas abducted about 240 people during the October 7 attacks, according to Israeli officials, though official accounts have varied as intelligence about the situation in Gaza develops.

Qatar's prime minister said "good progress" has been made during discussions for the release of hostages taken by Hamas, following the militant group's deadly incursion into southern Israel last month.

“The sticking points honestly at this stage are more practical, logistical, not really something that represents the core of the deal,” according to Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, who has been mediating negotiations between Hamas and Israel.

“It is a long way. When you come closer to the goal, you feel your confidence levels are increasing, and we hope that we are reaching to that point,” the prime minister told reporters in a joint press conference with the European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, in Doha.

“We’ve been focused in the past four to five weeks now in these negotiations, we’ve tried every way — all possible ways — in order to ensure that civilians are released, and we think all human beings are the same,” the Qatari leader said. 

Some context: Pressure is growing on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a deal for the safe return of about 240 people abducted by Hamas on October 7, when at least 1,200 people were killed.

On Saturday, the Israeli leader denied reports that Israel was considering a proposal for the release of at least 50 abductees, saying that when the government had something to say, they would report it. 

CNN’s Michael Rios contributed reporting.

The Israeli military announced a brief suspension on Sunday of “military activities” in the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, for "humanitarian purposes." 

The pause took place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. local time (3 a.m. to 7 a.m. ET) Sunday, according to an IDF spokesperson. 

At the southern part of Rafah city is the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt– the only crossing in and out of Gaza that is not controlled by Israel, making it the sole option for foreigners trying to leave the besieged enclave.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army says it carried out military operations at two neighborhoods in Gaza City’s to “identify and destroy Hamas infrastructure and assets.”

“During the operations, the soldiers located approximately 35 tunnel shafts as well as a large number of weapons and eliminated terrorists,” the IDF said in a statement Sunday. 

The military also said that it carried out a raid on the homes of senior Hamas officials in al-Rimal, the city’s once vibrant business district and social epicenter.

“Embedded in the Rimal area are the residences of senior Hamas officials, who took control of the buildings in the area to conduct and direct terrorist activities,” the IDF said.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society has said 31 neo-natal babies have been evacuated from Al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza.

The PCRS said in a short statement Sunday that its ambulance crews, working alongside the World Health Organization and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), were "able to evacuate 31 premature babies from Al-Shifa Hospital.”

“They were transported by Red Crescent ambulances to the south, in preparation for their transfer to the Emirates Hospital in Rafah," the statement said.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza confirmed the evacuation.

Dr. Medhet Abbas, a spokesman for the ministry, told CNN in a message Sunday that “30 premature babies were evacuated from Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza by the United Nations team.”

It is unclear why the ministry's figure differed from that given by the PCRS – the WHO earlier said there were 32 babies remaining at Al-Shifa.

The hospital and its immediate vicinity have seen heavy shelling in the past week, and it has been unable to run incubators for the babies for lack of fuel. Several neo-natal babies in Al-Shifa have died.

Israeli airstrikes and shelling hit south Lebanon on Sunday, the country's National News Agency reported.

The network said Al-Tayba and Al-Qal’iya, in the eastern sector of the border area, as well as Al-Naqoura ad Al-Labouba in the west, were among the places shelled, and said there had been an airstrike Sunday morning near Aita Al-Shaab in the western sector.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that air defense fighters successfully intercepted a suspicious aerial target that crossed from Lebanon. It said IDF aircraft had destroyed infrastructure belonging to the militant organization Hezbollah.

“In addition, about ten launches of mortar bombs were detected towards a peaceful area that fell in an open area [near Shlomi]. The IDF is attacking the source of the shooting in Lebanese territory,” it said.

The IDF later said more suspicious “aerial targets” had crossed the border from Lebanon on Sunday, but said no injuries were reported.

Isreal's warning: Intense shelling and exchanges of fire have taken place almost daily along the border for weeks, with Hezbollah acting in solidarity with Hamas and Israeli officials pledging to repel the militant group’s strikes. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the Lebanese armed group earlier this week “not to test Israel,” saying that it would be the "mistake of their lives."   

The Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health has said there are plans to evacuate more than 30 neo-natal babies from Al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza on Sunday.

A spokesperson from the ministry told CNN that the World Health Organization, using ambulances of the Palestinian Red Crescent, planned to carry out the evacuation of the babies on Sunday, adding that they were waiting for Israeli military bulldozers to open the way.

The WHO told CNN that it could not confirm the evacuation would take place but Richard Brennan, the WHO emergency director for the Eastern Mediterranean region, said that the agency was working on a detailed plan with partners including the Palestine Red Crescent and the UN relief agency in Gaza, UNRWA, as well as UNICEF.

“I can't go into details on that plan right now but we hope to have some more encouraging news later in the day,” Brennan told CNN. He added that moving the babies was a major priority.

After an assessment mission led by WHO that visited Al-Shifa Saturday, the agency said that “over the next 24–72 hours, pending guarantees of safe passage by parties to the conflict, additional missions are being arranged to urgently transport patients from Al-Shifa to Nasser Medical Complex and European Gaza Hospital in the south of Gaza. Patients include 32 babies in extremely critical condition.”

Brennan also told CNN: "We expect to have a series of convoys over the coming days to bring patients down to two main hospitals in the south, the European hospital and Nasser hospitals."

The Israel Defense Forces has updated the number of soldiers killed in operations since October 7, when Hamas launched its attack on southern Israel.

The IDF said on Sunday two soldiers were killed in northern Gaza, adding to the six deaths it announced on Saturday.

It brings the total number of soldiers killed to 58 since Israel launched its offensive in Gaza.

Including those soldiers killed in the initial Hamas assault on October 7, the total IDF losses stand at 380.

Many women and children were among those killed when a blast rocked a United Nations school in northern Gaza on Saturday, a UN relief agency confirmed. Video from the scene shows bloodied bodies in a series of rooms on two floors of the building, which had been used as a shelter for displaced Palestinians.

Saturday’s incident was the second time in 24 hours that a school run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees had been hit, the agency said. It did not have any further details about what caused the explosion or who was responsible.

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