March 17, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

US Central Command conducted another airdrop of humanitarian aid into Gaza on Sunday “to provide essential relief to civilians affected by the ongoing conflict.”

This is the 12th humanitarian airdrop conducted by the US into Gaza in recent weeks.

More on aid drops: The US has joined several other countries in airdropping aid into Gaza, which is grappling with a humanitarian crisis.

With aid deliveries on land falling far short of the numbers needed to ward off famine in the enclave, it is hoped these airdrops will provide a lifeline to people in Gaza.

But the United Nations and aid agencies have questioned how effective they will be at alleviating the situation, and their risks were shown starkly earlier this month when malfunctioning parachutes caused aid pallets to hurtle from the sky at breakneck speed, killing unsuspecting civilians.

Critics have called on the US to pressure its ally Israel to lift its tight siege on the enclave before more Palestinians starve.

CNN's Niamh Kennedy contributed reporting to this post.

The White House said on Sunday that it still has not seen a "credible" plan from the Israeli government on how it would protect the hundreds of thousands of civilians in southern Gaza if it moves forward with an extensive military operation in the city of Rafah.  

Kirby said the Israeli government has said they have an evacuation plan called "humanitarian islands," but the US is only open "any credible plan plan to take care of them. But we haven't seen it yet."

The comments come after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier on Sunday the operational plans for Rafah had been approved.  

When asked on ABC’s "This Week" what the US response would be if Israeli moved into Rafah in the same way it has elsewhere in Gaza, Kirby said: "I don’t want to get ahead of where we are."

International concern: The head of the World Health Organization and other aid agencies have raised alarm about a potential Rafah incursion, saying the Palestinians sheltering there have already been displaced from elsewhere in the enclave and do not have anywhere safe to move to.

CNN has previously reported on Gazans who followed evacuation orders being killed by Israeli strikes, underscoring the reality that evacuation zones and warnings from the Israeli military haven’t guaranteed safety for civilians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says comments from US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that described him as an obstacle to peace in the Middle East, were “totally inappropriate.”

On Thursday, Schumer criticized Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, calling for new elections in a speech on the Senate floor on the Israel-Hamas war.

Speaking to CNN's Dana Bash about Schumer’s calls for elections, Netanyahu said whether elections were held or not in Israel was something "the Israeli government does on its own."

He said the decision to hold elections was ultimately up to the Israeli public.

But, when pressed by CNN's Dana Bash if he would commit to holding them, Netanyahu replied: “we’ll see when we win the war.”

“If we were to have elections now, before the war is won, resoundingly won, we would have at least six months of national paralysis which means we would lose the war."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will keep trying to secure a deal that would see the release of 100 hostages in exchange for a six week pause in fighting in an interview with CNN's Dana Bash.

When asked if he was open to the potential deal, Netanyahu replied:

“Time will tell but Hamas’ outlandish demands… makes that deal a lot more difficult. But we’re going to keep on trying because we want those hostages back.”

He said continued military pressure is the "one thing that gets Hamas to give them", so Israeli is going to "continue military pressure and we are going to continue to try to get those hostages out."

An Israeli operation in Rafah, southern Gaza, will take "several weeks," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday, saying he will push ahead with an offensive that has sparked international alarm.

"I reiterate: We will operate in Rafah. This will take several weeks, and it will happen," Netanyahu said at the beginning of a government meeting. 

"To our friends in the international community, I say: Are your memories that short? Have you so quickly forgotten October 7, the most horrific massacre of Jews since the Holocaust?"

His comments come ahead of a Sunday interview on CNN's State of the Union – we'll bring you that as it happens.

Netanyahu said "the operational plans for action in Rafah, including advancing the steps to evacuate the civilian population from the combat zones," have been approved. "This is an essential stage ahead of the military action."

Netanyahu went on to say that in the international community, "there are those who are trying to stop the war" by "hurling false accusations at the IDF, the Government of Israel and the Prime Minister of Israel."

"They are doing so by means of an effort to bring about elections now, at the height of the war. They are doing this because they know that elections now will halt the war and paralyze the country for at least six months," he said. 

Remember: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday criticized Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, calling for new elections in a speech on the Senate floor on the Israel-Hamas war.

Separately, the World Health Organization head, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he is "gravely concerned" about an offensive in Rafah, where 1.4 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering.

The first aid ship into Gaza carrying 200 tons of much-needed food has been fully offloaded as part of new efforts to ease a dire humanitarian crisis.

A second boat of 240 tonnes of humanitarian food aid is being prepared, according to nonprofit World Central Kitchen (WCK).

However, maritime shipments cannot stop what aid agencies warn is a looming famine in Gaza on their own.

Here's why.

There are no functioning ports left in Gaza, with UN Special Rapporteur for food Michael Fakhr saying last week that Israel decimated the enclave's main port.

For the ship that arrived Friday, workers had to assemble a jetty to which the vessel could be connected before being offloaded.

While US President Joe Biden has announced plans to establish a separate port in Gaza to receive large aid shipments, that floating pier could take up to two months and some 1,000 US military personnel to complete, according to the Pentagon.

Ships carrying aid are also subject to the same Israeli inspections that have been accused by aid agencies of denying access for arbitrary reasons, or no reason at all.

A 200-ton shipment also does not match up to the daily average of about 94.5 trucks crossing into Gaza via land as of last month, each carry about 20 tons of aid -- and even that’s far below the estimated 500 trucks the UN says are needed daily in order to alleviate the suffering of Gazans.

Read more about the challenges aid deliveries in Gaza are encountering here.

Ninety-two people have been killed in Gaza over the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll since October 7 to 31,645 Palestinians, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

A total of 130 people were injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added, bringing the number of injured to 73,676. 

Many of the victims remain trapped under rubble and on the roads, with ambulance and civil defense crews unable to reach them, the ministry said. 

The ministry does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its data.

CNN cannot independently verify these numbers due to the challenges of reporting from the war zone.

Eleven Palestinians were killed in an Israeli bombardment of a house in Deir al Balah in central Gaza early on Sunday, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, who received casualties and treated others who were injured.

Eyewitnesses told hospital staff the bombardment was caused by an Israeli airstrike.

Casualties included women and children, according to the hospital.

The Israeli military says it struck a Hezbollah military compound in the Khiam area in southern Lebanon, saying in a statement the action was in response to launches fired toward the city of Acre.

It said its fighter jets also struck a Hezbollah observation post in the area of Kfarkela and "artillery struck to remove a threat in the area of Maisat."

An explosion was reported by a merchant ship traversing the Red Sea in the early hours of Saturday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) organization said in a warning note. 

“The master of a merchant vessel has reported an explosion in close proximity to the vessel,” read the note, published on X on Saturday, adding that no damage was reported and the crew are safe. 

UKMTO said the incident took place 85 nautical miles east of Aden, Yemen. It did not specify the nationality or flag of the merchant vessel.

Authorities are investigating the incident with the vessel continuing to proceed to its next port of call.

In recent weeks, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have been stepping up their strikes on ships in the Red Sea, which they say comes as retaliation against Israel for its military campaign in Gaza.