March 17, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

At least 25 Palestinians were detained in the occupied West Bank between Saturday evening and Sunday morning, according to the Palestinian Prisoner Society.

Those arrested included a woman originally from Gaza, a child, and a wounded person, in addition to former prisoners, the group said Sunday. The majority of arrests were made in the Hebron region, with further arrests throughout the occupied West Bank and in Jerusalem.

The group, an NGO promoting prisoners’ rights, said a cancer patient from Gaza was detained while on her way to receive cancer treatment in Jerusalem.

Israel denies claims: The Israel Defense Forces said Sunday that it conducted overnight “counterterrorism activity,” in which it says it arrested wanted suspects and confiscated weapons.

CNN reached out to the IDF regarding the accusations that it mistreated detainees and arrested a woman on her way to receive cancer treatment. In response, an IDF spokesperson said only six people were arrested last night in Dehisha, a Bethlehem refugee camp. 

"They did not arrest a woman and certainly not a child, there was no destruction of houses and the other claims are far from reality," the spokesperson said. 

Some context: Since Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, more than 7,630 Palestinians have been arrested on the West Bank and Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Prisoner Society.

For its part, the IDF says it has arrested more than 3,500 wanted suspects during that time period, including some 1,500 members of Hamas.

Violence against Palestinians by both Israeli troops and settlers in the West Bank has sharply increased during the war, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah.

RELATED

In the West Bank, an independent Palestine remains a distant dream | CNN

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s warning that Israel risks becoming a “pariah” for its war in Gaza, and his call for new elections in the country, sent shockwaves from Washington to Jerusalem.

President Joe Biden called it a "good speech" and said Schumer had expressed a "serious concern" shared by many Americans. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, slammed the address as "totally inappropriate" in an interview with CNN this morning.

Here's some of the latest reaction to the comments by Washington's highest-ranking Jewish official:

Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has defended Schumer’s recent comments on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday.

The Maryland senator said Schumer was simply calling for Israelis to be able to vote for who they want as leader, and that this will only happen once Israel has gotten "past Hamas."

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised Schumer's remarks as an "act of courage" and an "act of love for Israel" in an interview on CNN's "State of the Union."

“The prime minister’s presentation proved the necessity of Chuck Schumer’s speech,” Pelosi said.

The California Democrat added that Netanyahu must “be unaware or ill-informed” of the humanitarian situation in Gaza after the prime minister claimed Israel was letting in enough aid to Gaza.

Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, slammed Schumer's comments as "inappropriate" and "embarrassing" Sunday.

“There’s a way to talk about your differences – not to topple a democratic country,” the Texas Republican said on “Fox News Sunday.” McCaul characterized the speech as indicative of a "split in the Democratic party" between what he called a "pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel faction" and those who support Israel.

McCaul said a Rafah offensive would allow Israel to take out "high-value targets" in Hamas.

Meanwhile, on the campaign trail: Former President Donald Trump has criticized Schumer, suggesting Israel is loyal to the Democratic Party "to a fault." Asked on Fox News today if the majority leader's words amounted to the US telling a sovereign ally how to run its government, Trump answered, "100%. There's no question about it and they don't know where to go. They're very bad for Israel."

The former president has repeatedly been criticized for parroting the antisemitic trope that US Jews, a population that historically has voted for Democrats by wide margins, have dual loyalties to the US and Israel.

An Israeli offensive in Rafah could hinder peace deal negotiations between Israel and Hamas, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Sunday.

There are an estimated 1.4 million people in the southernmost Gaza city, many of whom have already been displaced several times from other parts of the enclave.

Scholz made the comments while on a whirlwind trip to the region Sunday, first meeting with the King Abdullah II of Jordan in Aqaba, and then meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

Speaking alongside Netanyahu, Scholz also questioned whether there are other ways for Israel to achieve its goal of eradicating Hamas.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, said "we cannot have a future for Gaza, a future for peace" if Hamas "remains intact." Israel has repeatedly said it must launch military operations in Rafah to root out the remaining portion of Hamas' forces.

More background: The German chancellor's comments come just days after Netanyahu said he approved a plan for a mass evacuation and Israel Defense Forces operation in Rafah.

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 nowhere safe to move to. CNN has previously reported on Gazans who heeded evacuation warnings being killed by Israeli strikes in areas deemed safe by the IDF.

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.