November 20, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

There were intense exchanges during a committee meeting in the Israeli parliament Monday as family members of some of the hostages held in Gaza clashed with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and other far-right members of the government.

Ben-Gvir, a divisive figure in Israeli politics who wants Israel to annex the Palestinian territories, is promoting legislation that would see the death penalty handed down to terrorists.

Hostage family members, holding pictures of their loved ones, vented their frustrations. One of them, Gil Dickmann, whose cousin is being held in Gaza, repeatedly shouted: “Bring them home!”

Already frustrated at the apparent lack of progress to free the hostages, the family members accused Ben-Gvir of endangering their loved ones further by putting the issue of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons back in the spotlight.

Family members worry that by suggesting that Israel might execute Palestinian prisoners, it could make Hamas less willing to release hostages or increase the likelihood of their mistreatment in Gaza. 

Almog Cohen, a colleague of Ben-Gvir in the Jewish Power party, fired back at family members.

“You don’t have a monopoly on pain. We also buried more than 50 friends," Cohen said.

The meeting was held to discuss Ben-Gvir’s proposed legislation, which is making its way through parliament. It still has several stages to pass before it becomes law and could be withdrawn.

Later in Tel Aviv, a large group of other family members met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of the war cabinet at the defense ministry.

Udi Goren, one of the family members, left early because he felt there was no new information provided by the war cabinet.

He said he was very disappointed to hear the government was not prioritizing the release of the hostages above all else, including the mission to defeat Hamas.

Asked if he had heard any information about a possible release of hostages, Goren told CNN there was nothing new.

The number of civilians killed in Gaza has been “unparalleled and unprecedented” in comparison to any conflict since 2017, when United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres took office, he said Monday.

When asked about his vision for the day-after in Gaza, Guterres rejected the possibility of a UN protectorate in the enclave, instead calling for a “multi-stakeholder approach” that will eventually lead to a two-state solution. 

“Everybody needs to come together to make the conditions for a transition, allowing for the Palestinian Authority, a strengthened Palestinian Authority, to assume responsibility in Gaza,” he said.

A Palestinian writer and poet who had been contributing to The New Yorker and other publications with reflections on his life inside Gaza during the war has been detained by the Israeli military, according to his brother.

Mosab Abu Toha was taken into custody by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) “when he reached the checkpoint while leaving from the north to the south” of Gaza, his brother Hamza Abu Toha said in a Facebook post Monday.

“His wife and children entered the south, and the army arrested my brother Mosab,” Hamza Abu Toha wrote on Facebook. “We have no information about him. It is worth mentioning that the American embassy sent him and his family to travel through the Rafah crossing.”

The circumstances of Abu Toha’s arrest are unclear. CNN has reached out to the IDF for comment. A US State Department spokesman earlier said he didn’t have information to share on the situation.

An American Book Award winner and finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for his debut poetry book, “Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear,” Mosab Abu Toha, 30, had written searingly about the Israeli airstrikes that have decimated Gaza since war broke out last month between Israel and Hamas.

In a New Yorker essay published on October 20, he described returning to his home in Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza, days after evacuating to Jabalia refugee camp, where he had stayed with relatives.

Read more about Mosab Abu Toha

The Israeli military reached the heart of Gaza City “much earlier than Hamas had expected” and the forces continue to advance according to the plan, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Monday. 

“We carried an offensive move that met the heart of Gaza City, through encirclement. It led to us getting to the city’s heart quickly, much earlier than Hamas had expected,” spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in his daily briefing. 

“The troops continue to advance according to the plan, this takes time,” he said, adding that “the war (operates) in stages.” 

The Israeli army is looking for Hamas militants in Zaytun and Jabalya in northern Gaza and is “currently encircling Jabalya and start dismantling the (Hamas) battalion there as well,” Hagari said. 

The spokesperson added that over the past few days, Israeli forces have been conducting face-to-face battles against the Zaytun battalion — one of the central battalions of Hamas operating in Zaytun in the northern Gaza Strip. 

A Doctors Without Borders clinic in Gaza City came under fire on Monday during fierce street fighting, the medical charity said.    

The organization, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), wrote on X that “our colleagues saw that a wall was torn down and part of the building was engulfed by fire, as heavy fighting took place all around it.”  

“An Israeli tank was seen in the street," it added.  

CNN is reaching out to the IDF and Hamas for comment.   

One MSF staff member and 20 relatives are currently “in extreme danger” inside the clinic, with their status unknown, the organization said.   

Additionally, five MSF cars that had been used in a failed mission Saturday to evacuate staff and family members were destroyed in Monday’s exchange of fire, the group also said.   

“Four MSF cars burned down. A fifth car, parked across the street, was broken in two pieces as if crushed by a heavy-duty vehicle or a tank. All the cars and the clinic were clearly identified with the MSF logo.”   

On Saturday, a relative of one MSF staff member was killed when the convoy was attacked en route back to Gaza City after a failed attempt to evacuate south, the organization said at the time.     

MSF said on Saturday that both Hamas and the IDF were made aware of the evacuation route. The convoy of 137 people, including 65 children, was forced to turn back at the final Israeli checkpoint near Wadi Gaza when shots were heard nearby.   

 “On their way back, between 3:30 pm and 4:00 pm local time, the convoy was attacked in Al-Wehda street near the junction of Said Al-A’as Street, near the MSF office,” the group reported on Saturday.   

"Two of the MSF cars were deliberately hit, killing a family member of one MSF staff and injuring another."   

On Monday, MSF said the cars, now destroyed, were the only means to evacuate its staff and their families.  

Six American citizens who were serving in the Israeli security forces have died in Israel and Gaza since October 7, State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said Monday.

“There are a total of six American citizens who have died, not from the terrorist attacks on October 7, but in the month-plus since,” said Miller. Five of them were members of the Israel Defense Forces and the sixth was a border officer, he said.

Four of the Americans serving with the IDF died in the Gaza Strip and a fifth was killed in northern Israel, the spokesperson said.

Americans in Gaza: According to Miller, 800 American citizens, legal permanent residents and family members have now departed Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

The number of Americans who remain in the enclave — who have registered with the State Department — has increased to 1,200.

On Friday, a State Department official said there were fewer than 900.

“One of the things that happens is we continue to identify either additional American citizens or American citizens or permanent residents who have additional family members that they're reporting to us that we then try to get on the list to get out of Gaza,” Miller said, noting why the 1,200 remaining is a higher number than it had been previously.

Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak said Monday that Israel had built bunkers "decades ago" underneath Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. 

“It's probably not the only kind of command post, several others are under other hospitals or in other sensitive places, but it for sure had been used by Hamas even during this conflict,” he added.  

Israel captured Gaza from Egypt in 1967 and held the territory under full military occupation until 2005 when it withdrew its settlers and soldiers in a move known as the ‘disengagement.’ Hamas assumed full control inside the enclave two years later. 

“It was probably five or four decades ago that we helped (the Palestinians) to build these bunkers in order to enable more space for the operation of the hospital within the very limited size of this compound,” Baruk said. 

Some context: Ahead of raiding the hospital complex last week, Israel claimed that it was being used by Hamas as a command center.

The Israel Defense Forces on Saturday showed CNN what it said was “concrete evidence” that Hamas was using the complex above ground as cover for what it called terror infrastructure underneath, including a command and control hub.

The military showed what a commander described as a big tunnel. “This is a big tunnel,” he said. “I have encountered tunnels — in 2014 in [Operation] Protective Edge, I was a company commander — and this tunnel is an order of magnitude bigger than a standard tunnel.”

Read more about the tunnel shaft

The United States “would welcome China playing a constructive role in the Middle East,” State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said Monday after the Chinese Foreign Minister convened Arab counterparts in Beijing.

Speaking at a briefing, Miller noted that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had “made this clear personally” in conversations with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. 

Still, Miller stressed that “one of the things that we heard repeatedly from every party with which we engaged on our last trip is the indispensability of the United States in every aspect of this conflict, whether it comes to getting humanitarian assistance and whether it comes to preventing the conflict from widening.”

He noted that it was the US that was able to negotiate an agreement to begin delivering humanitarian assistance to Gaza after October 7, “the United States that was able to push forward and achieve humanitarian pauses” to allow civilians to move about Gaza, and the US that is “the largest humanitarian donor to the Palestinian people.”

On Monday, Wang met counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, the Palestinian National Authority and Indonesia, as well as the head of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, in Beijing for talks on “de-escalating” the Israel-Hamas conflict.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Monday that negotiators are “getting close to the end” on the release of hostages held by Hamas – but he declined to elaborate on the details of a potential deal.

He also declined to comment on CCTV footage that Israel said shows two hostages being moved through Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza on October 7. 

When asked what level of confidence the White House has that the American hostages are alive, Kirby responded, in part, saying in part: “I would say we have no indication otherwise.”