December 7, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

The Lebanon National News Agency (NNA) alleged Thursday that Israeli artillery shelled the outskirts of the town of Rmeish, in southern Lebanon, with "phosphorus."

The town is in the far south, close to the Israeli border.

Video obtained by CNN shows columns of white smoke above the outskirts of the hilltop town. CNN is unable to confirm the use of phosphorous munitions. 

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.

What is white phosphorus? It's an incendiary weapon used to set fire to military targets. Its use is restricted under international humanitarian law; it can't be fired at or near civilian areas or civilian infrastructure. 

Some context: Last month, the IDF responded to accusations about the use of white phosphorus in Lebanon, dismissing reports that the substance had been used for setting fires but acknowledging that it does use it in some circumstances.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on Thursday morning with Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, commending the Israeli security cabinet for agreeing to allow more fuel into Gaza but saying that more needs to be done to get humanitarian assistance into the war-torn strip, according to a senior State Department official. 

Blinken also told Dermer that the Israeli government must do more to protect civilians, the official said.

Israel's security cabinet on Wednesday approved a "minimal" increase in the amount of fuel entering Gaza.

In an interview on CNN's "King Charles" on Wednesday, Blinken said that Israeli is taking some “important steps” to better protect civilians, but more action is required.

Gal Meir Eisenkot, son of Israeli government minister Gadi Eisenkot, has been killed in northern Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces announced on Thursday. 

“Master sergeant (Res.) Gal Meir Eisenkot, 25 from Herlizya, combat soldier in the 699th Battalion of the 551st reserve commando Brigade, died in battle in the northern Gaza Strip,” the IDF said in a statement.

His father was chief of the General Staff of the IDF from February 2015 to January 2019 and served in the military for four decades.

In the wake of the October 7 attacks, he joined the wartime cabinet as a minister without portfolio. He is a member of Benny Gantz’s National Unity Party, and was elected to Knesset in 2022.

A total of 88 IDF soldiers have been killed in Gaza since October 7.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his condolences in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“The government of Israel and the citizens of Israel mourn together with you. Our heroes did not fall in vain. We will continue to fight until victory,” Netanyahu said. 

Israel war cabinet member and former Defense Minister Benny Gantz also paid his tribute, saying in a statement: “May the memory of Gal and the memory of all those who fell in the battle for the home of all of us be blessed. Also in his name, also in their name, we continue the mission."

Correction: This post has been updated to reflect Gal Meir Eisenkot’s rank is master sergeant, not first sergeant. It also was updated to reflect that his father served as chief of the General Staff of the IDF until January 2019.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited northern Israel on Thursday, where he gave a blunt warning to Hezbollah. 

His warning comes after an Israeli man was killed by an anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon on Thursday, according to Israeli first responders MDA. The Israeli military said an anti-tank missile was fired from Lebanese territory toward the area of Mattat in northern Israel. 

Israel and Hezbollah — an Iran-backed armed group that dominates southern Lebanon — have been engaged in daily cross-border exchanges of fire along the Lebanon-Israel border after the start of the conflict between Israel and Hamas on October 7, raising fears that the fighting could escalate into a regional war.  

Israel has received 200 cargo planes of military equipment from several countries, according to Israeli Ministry of Defense.

This comes as use of US weapons come under scrutiny.

The planes carried military equipment, including ammunition, armored vehicles and weapons, according to the Israeli Ministry of Defense, as the use of US weapons in the ongoing war in Gaza comes under increased scrutiny.

The US State Department and the Defense Department both said they are reviewing Amnesty International’s report.

The Israeli ministry said more than 10,000 tons of military equipment have been delivered since the start of the war on October 7. Pictures released by the Israeli Ministry of Defense show two different types of armored vehicles, as well as pallets of supplies. 

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense said the aid had come from several countries, but declined to say what other countries had sent aid or how much of it had come from the United States. The shipments of US military aid began soon after the war began.

On Wednesday, December 6, for the first time, the number of corpses arriving at Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza surpassed the number of injured, Doctors Without Borders reported.

The Al-Aqsa hospital is supported by Doctors Without Borders, according to the organization, which is also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

MSF reported 115 people killed in 24 hours.

“The hospital is full, the morgue is full,” it said on X, the social media platform formerly called Twitter.

The Israel Defense Forces has released a photo of a group of senior Hamas officials it claims to have killed in its military operation in Gaza.

The photo shows 11 men from the Northern Gaza Brigade — the second largest unit in Hamas, according to the IDF, seated around a table, five of which have been circled in red and labeled as "eliminated." 

The men indicated to have been killed are:

In a statement, the IDF said the fighters were killed in an attack on a Hamas tunnel where they were "hiding under civilian homes and close to the Indonesian hospital." 

According to the IDF, Al-Ghandour was "head of the military formation and responsible for the observations in the north of the Gaza Strip."  

The brigade was hard hit in the attack, according to the IDF, and its functioning has been significantly compromised due to damage to its command center and infrastructure in the tunnels below Gaza. 

The IDF also claims to have killed four battalion commanders in the Gaza Brigade who are not pictured, destroying its battalion headquarters and infrastructure as well as taking control of central Gaza strongholds.

CNN has reached out to Hamas for comment. 

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that work has stopped at its ambulance center in the northern Gaza governorate, because there is no fuel for vehicles and hospitals are out of service.

In a statement issued Thursday, the PRCS said that minor and moderate injuries were being handled at a medical point set up by the PRCS' ambulance team in the area.

It said that the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza faced “very great challenges” in treating the wounded, again accusing the Israel military of targeting the hospital. 

Work in all hospitals in Gaza City, especially Al-Quds and Al-Shifa hospitals, had stopped because the Israeli military prevented crews from providing services, and many workers had been forced to flee to the south, “creating hundreds of victims due to the impossibility of providing emergency and medical service to the injured.”

The Israel Defense Forces has persistently denied targeting hospitals as such, but accuses Hamas of operating from within and under hospitals. Israel says it will strike Hamas wherever it sees the militant group.

On Wednesday, the PRCS said it was stopping its ambulance operations in northern Gaza.

In southern Gaza, the PRCS said the fuel crisis continued at the Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis governorate, “where the consumption of services provided has been reduced to minimum.”

Recovery efforts: The PRCS also said that bodies continue to be retrieved from the streets and from under rubble but operations to recover the dead were difficult because of the lack of fuel.

It estimated the number of those unaccounted for — either under the rubble or lying in the streets — at 7,500, of which more than 4,700 are children and women.

The PRCS said that 286 medical staff had been killed in Gaza since October 7 and 56 ambulances destroyed.

CNN is unable to verify the society’s figures, but ambulances have been unable to operate in parts of northern Gaza because of air strikes and impassable roads. Anecdotal evidence suggests many bodies have not been recovered from destroyed buildings. 

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron has told CNN that Israel should “behave differently” in the south of Gaza than it has in the north, as its military campaign in the embattled enclave spreads.

Cameron, a former British Prime Minister, reiterated British support for Israel in the wake of Hamas’ October 7 attacks, but urged the country to abide by international law in its response.

“We have to give Israel that basic support of saying, ‘You are right to try to get rid of Hamas’ leadership and its armed personnel’,” Cameron told CNN during a trip to Washington, D.C.

He resisted calls for an immediate ceasefire, saying: “If we leave Hamas in charge of even a part of Gaza, there will never be a two-state solution because you can’t expect Israel to live next to a group of people that want to do October 7 all over again.”

But Cameron supported remarks by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who told CNN on Wednesday that Israel is taking some “important steps” to better protect civilians during its offensive in southern Gaza.

A humanitarian crisis has unfolded in Gaza, where Israeli air and ground assaults have left Palestinians displaced and in dire need of food, supplies and medical care.

Cameron said that Blinken, whom he will meet on Thursday, made “a series of points about how Israel is trying to behave differently in the south of Gaza to the north of Gaza, and I think that is right, and we should continue to make those points to them.”

“Ultimately the long-term security of Israel does depend not only on their own armed strength and fortitude, but also on having Palestinians able to live in peace and security as well,” Cameron said.

More than 16,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 7, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah, which compiles its reports with data from hospitals in Hamas-run Gaza.