January 9, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

Our live coverage of Israel’s war against Hamas has moved here.

The US Navy shot down 21 Houthi missiles and drones launched from Yemen, according to a statement from US Central Command, in one of the largest Houthi attacks to take place in the Red Sea in recent months.

The military called it a “complex attack” carried out by the Iran-backed militants.

The barrage, launched at about 9:15 p.m. Tuesday in Yemen, included 18 one-way attack drones, two anti-ship cruise missiles and one anti-ship ballistic missile, Central Command said.

The attack was launched toward international shipping lanes in the southern Red Sea where “dozens” of merchant vessels were traveling, according to the statement.

Two defense officials had earlier told CNN that the barrage included a total of 24 drones and missiles.

There were no ships damaged in the attacks and no injuries as a result of the massive drone and missile launch, CENTCOM said.

This post have been updated with additional reporting.

Read more about the Houthi attacks.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials in Tel Aviv on Tuesday. The top US diplomat said he had arrived in Israel at “an incredibly challenging time” after making stops in countries around the Middle East. 

Against the backdrop of heavy fighting and civilian casualties in central and southern Gaza, Israel is facing a genocide case before the International Court of Justice this week.

During his meetings, Blinken reiterated the importance of avoiding further civilian harm and “protecting civilian infrastructure in Gaza” at a time when global health organizations are warning about the enclave’s collapsing health care sector. Also, in some of his most direct comments on the matter, Blinken said Netanyahu must rein in the far-right tendencies of his government to achieve any progress in the future.

Here’s what to know:

Israel’s military said it has killed a regional commander of Hezbollah’s air force who it claimed was responsible for an attack on an Israeli command center earlier Tuesday. 

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said Ali Hussein Burji commanded the Southern Lebanon Region of Hezbollah’s Aerial Unit and “led dozens of terror activities against Israel using explosive UAVs and surveillance UAVs against Israel and IDF soldiers.”

“Before his elimination, a launch cell belonging to Hezbollah’s Aerial Unit which was on its way to launch explosive UAVs toward different locations in Israel was eliminated,” the statement said.

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in his regular press conference on Tuesday, “we eliminated him [Burji] in a drone.” 

Hezbollah also announced Burji’s death on its social media channels but denied he was in charge of its drone program or air force. 

“Hezbollah’s press office vehemently denies these false and completely baseless claims and confirms that the mujahid brother who is responsible for Hezbollah’s drones has not been subjected to an assassination attempt,” Hezbollah said in a statement late on Tuesday.

This post has been updated with additional comments from Hezbollah.

The Israeli government must move toward a two-state solution if it wants the help of Arab partners in the region with lasting security, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a news conference in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

In some of his most direct comments on the matter, Blinken noted that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must rein in the far-right tendencies of his government to achieve any progress in the future.

“Israel must stop taking steps that undercut Palestinians ability to govern themselves effectively. Extremists settler violence carried out with impunity, settlement expansion, demolitions, evictions all make it harder – not easier – for Israel to achieve lasting peace and security,” he said.
“Israel must be a partner to Palestinian leaders who are willing to lead their people are living side by side in peace with Israel as neighbors,” Blinken added.

The top US diplomat met with Netanyahu following meetings with leaders in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Jordan.

“As I told the prime minister, every partner that I met on this trip said that they’re ready to support a lasting solution that ends the long-running cycle of violence and ensures Israel’s security. But they underscored that this can only come through a regional approach that includes a pathway to a Palestinian state,” Blinken said.

“If Israel wants its Arab neighbors to make the tough decisions necessary to help ensures lasting security, Israeli leaders will have to make hard decisions themselves,” he said. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Israel’s referral to the International Court of Justice for alleged genocide during its war in Gaza “meritless” and said it distracts from efforts to address the humanitarian crisis and prevent the war from spreading. 

“The charge of genocide is meritless,” said Blinken at a press conference in Tel Aviv on Tuesday. “It’s particularly galling given that those who are attacking Israel, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, as well as their supporter of Iran, continue to openly call for the annihilation of Israel and the mass murder of Jews.” 

Blinken also said that Israel has now agreed to let the United Nations conduct an “assessment mission” to begin the process of allowing displaced Palestinians to move back home.

“As I told the prime minister, the United States unequivocally rejects any proposals advocating for the resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza, and the prime minister reaffirmed to me today that this is not the policy of Israel’s government,” said Blinken.

Blinken had meetings with Israeli officials on Tuesday, after meeting with several other leaders in the Middle East on Monday.

South Africa brought the case against Israel to the Hague-based ICJ and the first hearing is slated for Thursday. 

The International Committee of the Red Cross has responded following allegations that its officials told the families of Israeli hostages that they should think of the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.

On Monday, Dor Steinbrecher, whose 30-year-old sister Doron was kidnapped by Hamas and is still being held Gaza Strip, told CNN’s Jake Tapper that the family had been told by Red Cross officials that “we should care more about the Arab people on the other side,” and “less about our beloved one.”

Steinbrecher said his sister needed daily medication.

Tapper asked: “Your parents told this to the Red Cross in the hope that they would be able to get the medication to her wherever she is, and their response was you should be worried more about the people of Gaza? That’s what the Red Cross said to your parents?”

 “Yes,” Steinbrecher said, describing it as a “shocking” response.

The ICRC did not address the allegation directly in its response to CNN Tuesday. But it said in a statement:

“In our direct discussions with families, we listen to their concerns and the difficulties they are going through. We explain our role as a neutral intermediary and the challenges of working in Gaza, now an active conflict zone.”

The ICRC also said it explained to families that its goal was to alleviate the suffering of victims of conflict on all sides. “That, of course, includes the hostages.”

The ICRC added that it had no direct access to the hostages

“We need a solid agreement, from both parties, in order to have the necessary conditions to either facilitate a release, or access those held hostage. This includes needing to know their location, which we currently do not. We do not take part in this negotiation, but are ready to support whenever an agreement may be reached,” the statement read. “We do not have weapons, nor do we have political affiliations. What we have is trust from the parties involved that our organization is, and will remain, neutral in times of conflict.”

Watch Dor Steinbrecher’s interview with Tapper:

The World Health Organization has stressed that it “cannot afford” to lose the remaining operational hospitals in southern Gaza, warning the enclave’s health care sector is collapsing at a “rapid pace.” 

As Israeli calls for evacuations continue to push people to the south of the Gaza strip, the WHO said it has strained the region’s already stretched facilities. The region’s hospitals are now “bursting with patients” and internally displaced people (IDPs), WHO Emergency Medical Team Coordinator Sean Casey told a press briefing Tuesday.

Only 13 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza are partially functioning, and bed occupancy is at 351%, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah.

Casey, who has carried out a number of WHO missions to hospitals in Gaza, described the “intensification of hostilities” around the European Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis as “really worrying.” 

“We cannot lose the health facilities. They absolutely must be protected. This is the last line of secondary tertiary health care that Gaza has from the north to the south,” Casey stressed.

“We cannot afford to lose any hospital,” Richard Peeperkorn, a WHO representative in the occupied Palestinian Territory, said at the briefing.

The Palestinian Authority has condemned an incident in Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank on Monday night in which an Israeli military vehicle ran over the body of a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad soon after a firefight.

Surveillance video of the incident, geolocated by CNN, shows three militants, one of them armed with an assault rifle, running before they are shot repeatedly. A separate video shows a wheeled Israeli military vehicle running over the body of one of the men, dragging it for several meters.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that incident showed the “documented brutality committed by an Israeli military vehicle by running over the body of a martyr in Tulkarm.”

The Al Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, claimed that the three men killed – who were between the ages of 22 and 24 – were its members.

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

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken “stressed the importance of avoiding further civilian harm and protecting civilian infrastructure in Gaza” in his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the war cabinet in Tel Aviv Tuesday, according to a readout by the US State Department.

It suggests that the two sides discussed a proposal by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant — also a member of the war cabinet — in which Israel would not allow Palestinians to return to northern Gaza until all the remaining hostages are released. A US official told CNN Monday the matter was expected to be a part of the discussion.

Blinken and Netanyahu “discussed ongoing efforts to secure the release of all remaining hostages and the importance of increasing the level of humanitarian assistance reaching civilians in Gaza,” according to a readout State Department.

His meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog also addressed the same issues, while reiterating US support for Israel’s”right to ensure the terrorist attacks of October 7 cannot be repeated,” according to another readout.

Prior to his meeting with Israeli officials, the top US diplomat, who is on a multi-nation trip to the Middle East, also spoke with Sigrid Kaag, the UN’s Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza, “pledging close cooperation with her in this new capacity,” the State Department said.

Israel is set to appear before the International Court of Justice this week in a high stakes case that could determine the course of the brutal war in Gaza.

It is an unprecedented case. Experts say it is the first time that the Jewish state is being tried under the United Nations’ Genocide Convention, which was drawn up after the Second World War in light of the atrocities committed against the Jewish people during the Holocaust.

The South African government, a successor to the apartheid regime that was made a pariah on the international stage three decades ago, brought the case against Israel, accusing it of being in breach of its obligations under the convention in its war on Hamas in Gaza.

Israel has firmly rejected the accusation, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling it a “false accusation.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on Tuesday that his country will present a case “using self-defense” to show that it is doing its “utmost” under “extremely complicated circumstances” to avert civilian casualties in Gaza.

Eliav Lieblich, a professor of international law at Tel Aviv University, told CNN the case is significant politically and legally.

“An allegation of genocide is the gravest international legal allegation that can be made against a state,” he said.

Read more about the international court case.

 A hospital in central Gaza reports receiving dozens of casualties from several parts of central Gaza due to heavy overnight air strikes.

Video shot for CNN shows multiple casualties in the yard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza. The hospital says 57 people were killed and nearly 70 injured. At least 10 of those killed were children, the hospital said.

The video shows people praying for the dead, who had been brought there from Deir Al-Balah, Al-Maghazi and Al-Nuseirat — all areas of central Gaza where there has been heavy fighting and extensive air strikes.

Jamal Naim said he lost his mother, three daughters and three grandchildren.

“We were asleep in a shelter house in Deir Al-Balah. We had evacuated from Nuseirat as we were told it’s safe here. Suddenly at 11 at night, the house was struck. We don’t know why. They struck the room that my daughters slept in. My mother was martyred, [as well as] my three daughters and three grandchildren,” he told CNN.

One of his daughters, 27-year-old Shaymaa, had graduated as a dentist. He had found only fragments of her body.

“It is a crime,” Naim said, “An unjust world. I don’t know where humanity is going. This is a dentist, she was the first in her college with a grade of 95%, one of the best dentists in Gaza.”

The Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza said Tuesday that in the previous 24 hours, a total of 126 people had been killed and 241 injured. On most days recently, the Ministry has reported between 100 and 200 people killed. The Ministry said the number killed by Israeli military operations since October 7 had risen to 23,210 with 59,167 people injured.

Some of the heaviest combat is in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, where there is fighting on the ground as well as regular airstrikes. Video and images reviewed by CNN show that a 16-story residential block – the Al-Fara residential tower — in Khan Younis had been destroyed in an overnight strike. The streets in the immediate area are strewn with wreckage and rubble.

CNN has asked the IDF whether the tower was targeted in strikes overnight.

One of Israel’s best known actors and entertainers, Idan Amedi, has been badly wounded during combat in the Gaza Strip, according to his family and the hospital where he is being treated.

Amedi, who is of Kurdish origin, is a well-known singer and was one of the stars of the hit Netflix series Fauda, in which he plays one of a special forces unit in the Israeli military.

Amedi is in critical condition in the ICU at the Sheba Tel Hashomer Medical Center, in central Israel, a spokesperson for the facility said.

“There is no danger to his life,” his father is quoted by the Israeli website Walla!. 

Shortly before being wounded, Amedi spoke to an Israeli television channel about the war in Gaza.

“It’s crazy, what they (Hamas) built here,” he told Channel 12. “The operation here is on a very central (Hamas tunnel) route. We found kilometers of tunnels here, weaponry, even special weaponry. We’ve been busy the past two days trying to destroy it.”

CNN is unable to verify independently the operational details reported by the Israeli military.

The numbers: On Monday, nine Israeli soldiers were killed in central and southern Gaza, in one of the deadliest days for Israeli forces since the start of Israel’s military offensive in the enclave, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.

According to the official count, 185 IDF soldiers have been killed in combat in Gaza since October 7.

The number is dwarfed by the colossal death toll of Palestinians in Gaza, where Israeli attacks have killed at least 22,835 people since October 7, according to a statement issued Monday by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, which draws figures from sources in the Hamas-controlled enclave.

According to the ministry, an additional 58,416 people have been wounded, which means more than one in 40 Palestinians in Gaza have now been injured in the war.

CNN’s Ivana Kottasová, Kareem Khadder and Richard Allen Greene contributed reporting to this post.

Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, has reiterated the militant group’s stance that Hamas will only release Israeli hostages from Gaza after all Palestinian prisoners are released from Israel’s prisons.

“They will absolutely not retrieve their captives except after all our prisoners in occupation prisons are released,” Haniyeh said on Tuesday, speaking at an International Union of Muslim Scholars conference in Doha, Qatar.  

Haniyeh said that Israel “was not able to retrieve a single captive, except only after the resistance accepted the truce agreement.” 

However, Israel said that one of its soldiers abducted on October 7 had been rescued by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in late October, before the temporary truce agreement came into place.

In total, 105 people were released by Hamas during a temporary truce with Israel, which started on November 24 and ended early December 1. In exchange, 240 Palestinians were freed from Israeli prisons, mainly women and minors, and many of whom had been detained but never charged.

Israel believes 25 hostages are dead and still being held by in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office told CNN on Friday. That leaves 107 hostages from the Hamas attack last year who are still thought to be alive.

Earlier on Tuesday, Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken Tuesday that his nation’s military needs to “finish the war” with Hamas, in order to secure the return of Israeli hostages and achieve the “security of our people.”

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock denounced Israeli settlers’ violence towards Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, against the backdrop of rising number of settler attacks.

“It is the responsibility of the Israeli government to implement and enforce the rule of law when people who live here legitimately and are being attacked illegally,” Baerbock told reporters during a visit to the occupied West Bank on Monday. 

Israeli settlers or soldiers have killed at least 340 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said last month that 2023 was the deadliest year for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since 2005, when it began keeping records, according to a report from the organization.

CNN previously reported on the violence, including one attack in the town of Huwara, where the assault was so brutal that the Israeli military commander for the West Bank called it a “pogrom.”

Remember: Israel has occupied the West Bank since seizing the territory from Jordanian military occupation in 1967. It later agreed to transfer limited control over parts of the territory to the Palestinian Authority, after agreements signed in the 1990s.

Israel has continued to build settlements in the occupied West Bank. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, encroaching into land that Palestinians and the international community view as territory for a future Palestinian state. Israel views the West Bank as “disputed territory,” and contends its settlement policy is legal.

Berlin speaks up: Germany is one of Israel’s closest allies and its government has repeatedly stressed Israel has the right to defend itself. When the United Nations General Assembly voted to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza last month, Germany abstained in the non-binding vote for the ceasefire resolution.

But Baerbock has on Monday joined a growing chorus of leaders have warned Israel to limit the civilian death toll in Gaza, where Israeli attacks have killed at least 22,835 Palestinians since October 7 – about 1% of the enclave’s total pre-war population of 2.27 million people.

After a meeting with her Israeli counterpart Israel Katz and Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Baerbock said Israel has to “protect Palestinian civilians much better in its military action“ in Gaza. 

It came after Baerbock on Sunday called on Israel to carry out a “less intensive” military offensive in the Palestinian enclave, while stressing a post-war Gaza “must no longer pose a threat to Israel’s existence.”

She reiterated Germany’s position that the two-state solution is the “only chance for Israelis and Palestinians to live side by side in peace.”   

CNN’s Nima Elbagir, Abeer Salman, Eyad Kourdi, Sugam Pokharel, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Celine Alkhaldi, Tara John and Kareem Khadder contributed reporting to this post.

The Israel Defense Forces said nine of its soldiers were killed in the Gaza Strip on Monday, one of the deadliest says for Israeli forces since the start of the ground operation in the enclave.

Six of the nine were killed in Central Gaza, and three in Southern Gaza, bringing the IDF’s death toll since the beginning of the operation in the enclave to 185.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken Tuesday that his nation’s military needs to “finish the war” with Hamas, in order to secure the return of Israeli hostages and achieve the “security of our people.”

Speaking to Blinken in Tel Aviv, Katz also said that civilians who had been evacuated from towns in northern Israel due to cross-border fighting between the Israeli military and Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon could not yet return home. 

“So we have to find a way. A diplomatic way to put a lot of pressure on Iran and Hezbollah to withdraw them as far as we can,” he said, adding: “The thing is to put a lot of pressure now to prevent war tomorrow.”

Katz said it was important to do everything possible to prevent a war with Hezbollah, which he said would “destroy Lebanon.”

Blinken said he had arrived in Israel at “an incredibly challenging time” after making stops in countries around the Middle East. He said he looked forward to sharing some of the opinions he had heard from other countries in the region.

“I know your own efforts over many years to build much greater connectivity and integration in the Middle East and I think there are actually real opportunities there but we have to get through this very challenging moment and ensure that October 7 can never happen again,” Blinken said.

Hezbollah drones targeted a military command center in northern Israel in response to the killings of a Hamas leader and a Hezbollah commander, the militant group said.

The group said in a statement that “a number” of attack drones targeted the command center in Safed in what was Hezbollah’s deepest attack into Israeli territory since October 8, the day after Hamas launched attacks on Israel from Gaza.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that one “hostile aircraft fell at an IDF base in northern Israel” but said “no injuries or damage were reported.” Interceptors were launched towards other “hostile aircrafts,” the IDF said.  

In response to the latest Hezbollah attack, the IDF said it struck a “UAV launch squad in southern Lebanon” and that “artillery is also striking the sources of the launches fired into northern Israel.” 

Israel killed Hezbollah senior commander Wissam Tawil in a targeted attack in southern Lebanon on Monday, and last week, the deputy head of the political bureau of Hamas Saleh Al-Arouri was killed in a strike on southern Beirut. 

Top US diplomat Antony Blinken is currently meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv. 

According to a statement from the Israeli Government Press Office, the meeting is taking place in Netanyahu’s office in the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv. 

 The US Secretary of State is set to sit in on an extended meeting of the Israeli war cabinet later in the day, according to the statement.

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog has told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the legal case brought by South Africa against Israel is “atrocious and preposterous.” 

“On Thursday, a proceeding will start in the International Court of Justice in the Hague, whereby South Africa has sued Israel for supposed genocide. There’s nothing more atrocious and preposterous than this claim,” Herzog told reporters in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters after their meeting, Herzog thanked Blinken for his “steadfast commitment” to Israel’s safety.

He said Israel will present a case “using self-defense,” to show that it is doing its “utmost” under “extremely complicated circumstances” to avert civilian casualties in Gaza. 

“We are alerting, we are calling, we are showing, we are sending leaflets, we are using all the means that international law enables us in order to move out people,” Herzog maintained. 

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah announced in its daily update on Monday that at least 22,835 people have been killed in the besieged enclave since the October 7.  The ministry generates its data from hospitals in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Israel began its operation in Gaza immediately after Hamas launched a terror attack into southern Israel on October 7. Its militants killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped some 200 others. 

Some context: What is South Africa alleging? South Africa filed an application last month at the International Court of Justice to begin proceedings over allegations of genocide against Israel for its war against Hamas in Gaza.

South Africa is accusing Israel of being “in violation of its obligations under the Genocide Convention.” It says that “acts and omissions by Israel … are genocidal in character, as they are committed with the requisite specific intent … to destroy Palestinians in Gaza,” according to an ICJ statement.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah announced in its daily update on Monday that at least 22,835 people have been killed in the besieged enclave since the beginning of the war.

That staggering death toll means that 1% of the enclave’s total pre-war population of 2.27 million people has now has been wiped out.

According to the ministry, an additional 58,416 people have been injured, which means more than one in 40 Gazans have now been wounded in the conflict. The ministry generates its data from hospitals in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Read the whole story here.

Palestinian militant group Hamas is using North Korean weapons in its war against Israel, according to South Korea’s spy agency.

In a response to CNN Tuesday, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) confirmed an earlier report by the US government-funded Voice of America that Hamas fighters used a North Korean-made F-7 rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

A photo in the VOA report, first published on its Korea service, showed the middle part of a rocket used in the F-7, NIS said.

The F-7 is the equivalent of the Soviet/Russian RPG-7 and Chinese Type 69-1 grenade launchers, according to the Small Arms Survey, which is funded by the Netherlands.

North Korea is a major illicit exporter of small arms and light weapons despite United Nations sanctions aimed at choking off its exports, according to analysts.

The VOA report is not the first to link North Korean weaponry to Hamas. Last October, a senior official with the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul said it had evidence of Pyongyang exporting RPGs and potentially other weapons either directly or indirectly to the Islamist militant group.

North Korea’s cooperation with Hamas also likely extends to tactical doctrine and training, the South Korean official said at the time.

South Korea’s claims about Hamas using North Korean weapons come after the United States claimed last week that Russia is using North Korean-made missiles to attack Ukraine.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Israel for high-stakes talks with top government officials on Tuesday to push them to better protect civilians and allow in more desperately needed aid as the war in Gaza shifts to a new phase.

Blinken has been dispatched to the Middle East four times in the more than three months since the October 7 Hamas attack and has made five visits to Israel during those trips. On each of his prior visits, Blinken has met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet. He does so again on Tuesday.

The stakes of this latest visit couldn’t be higher as concerns about the war spilling out into the wider region increase. On its conduct of the war in Gaza, the Biden administration has sought to maintain pressure on the Netanyahu government to curb its offensive and reduce harm to civilians. However, US officials have also offered unceasing support for Israel’s decision to carry out a military campaign, even amid growing international isolation.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the Israeli offensive, millions have been displaced, and the entire population in the war-torn strip faces the risk of famine, the UN has warned. US officials have publicly acknowledged that gaps remain between Israel’s “intentions” and “results” when it comes to the staggering toll on civilians.

Blinken said Monday he would talk to Israeli officials “about the future direction of their military campaign in Gaza.” Israeli officials have said they are transitioning to a more targeted, lower-intensity phase of the war. A senior US official said Blinken is expected to push on an “imminent” transition to such a phase, which officials have yet to see.

“I will press on the absolute imperative to do more to protect civilians and to do more to make sure that humanitarian assistance is getting into the hands of those who need it,” Blinken said in Saudi Arabia Monday.

Read more about Blinken’s visit to Israel.

A British surgeon who led an emergency medical team in central Gaza says the situation at Al-Aqsa hospital has been “beyond any doubt the worst thing” he’s seen in his career, as Jordan’s monarch warned Israel’s bombardment was creating an “entire generation of orphans.”

“There’s been multiple traumatic amputations of children … horrific burns, the likes of which I’ve never seen before,” Dr. Nick Maynard told CNN’s Isa Soares on Monday after his team found themselves with no choice but to withdraw from the hospital, following increased Israeli military activity.

He said that often “there is no pain relief to give to these patients at all,” underscoring the dire humanitarian situation and lack of medical supplies in the Palestinian enclave following more than three months of Israeli bombardment.

“I think it’s fair to say I’ve never seen anything like this. And I never expect that in my life I would see such an appalling situation,” said Maynard, who was speaking from the Egyptian capital of Cairo on Monday after leaving Gaza.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has repeatedly said it is not targeting civilians. The IDF has also said that Hamas uses civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, as shields for its attacks on Israel, and that attacking those targets are essential as it works to eliminate Hamas from the enclave.

Israel has also said some hospitals are being used as command centers but has provided limited evidence to support that claim.

Read the full story:

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s delegation in Tel Aviv expects to discuss the Israeli defense minister’s plan for the next phase of the war in Gaza during key meetings on Tuesday, according to a senior US official.

Last week, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant put forward the military’s plan for the next phase of the war. Gallant’s proposal states that Palestinians should not be allowed to return to their homes in northern Gaza until all the remaining hostages are freed. 

The US side is expected to push Israeli officials on an “imminent” transition of the war to a lower-intensity phase, the official said — which the US has not yet seen.

On Monday, Blinken said Palestinians “must not be pressed to leave Gaza” and criticized “irresponsible” comments by some Israeli ministers calling for people’s resettlement outside the enclave.

It will be Blinken’s fifth visit to Israel since the October 7 attack by Hamas. Ahead of touching down in Tel Aviv, the top US diplomat visited Arab nations involved in talks on another possible humanitarian ceasefire and hostage releases, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Qatar.

Back in the US, President Joe Biden said Monday that he’s been quietly working to persuade the Israeli government to “reduce — significantly get out of Gaza.”

Here’s what else you need to know:

US President Joe Biden said Monday that he’s been working to persuade the Israeli government to reduce or “significantly get out of Gaza.”

Speaking during a campaign event at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina — the scene of a horrific mass shooting in 2015 — Biden was interrupted by protesters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

“If you really care about the lives lost here you should honor the lives lost and call for a ceasefire in Palestine,” a protester shouted at Biden, referring to the mass shooting that took the lives of nine churchgoers.

A group of protesters then began chanting “ceasefire now.”

They were asked to leave, as supporters began chanting, “Four more years.” The moment underscores the divisions within the Democratic Party on the issue three months after Israel’s military campaign in Gaza began following Hamas’ October 7 attacks. 

Biden acknowledged the protest: “I understand the passion and I’ve been quietly working — been quietly working with the Israeli government to reduce — significantly get out of Gaza.”

Top diplomat in Israel: Secretary of State Antony Blinken will be the latest in a long parade of Biden national security officials to meet face-to-face with the Israeli government on Tuesday. It will be his fifth visit since the October 7 attack by Hamas.

The stakes of Blinken’s trip are high as America’s allies stood behind Israel at the start of the war but have grown critical as the civilian toll in Gaza rises. Those partners will be looking for evidence Israel is listening to the US, and, as tensions skyrocket in the region, allies are hoping Blinken can ensure Israel has a viable plan to end the war amid concerns over a wider conflict.

In just the past month, Israeli officials have also gotten visits from national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Amos Hochstein, a special envoy who works on energy issues and who has close ties to Israel and Lebanon.

Israel claimed responsibility for the death of a senior Hezbollah commander, Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 14 on Monday.

Wissam Tawil, a senior commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan forces was killed by an Israeli drone strike in his car in southern Lebanon, a Lebanese security source previously confirmed to CNN. 

“As for the hit in south Lebanon, we did take responsibility. This is part of our war,” Katz said in the interview.

Katz added that Israel is making Hezbollah “pay a price.”

“We did not set a goal to thwart 150,000 missiles,” he said. “We set a goal to restore security to the residents of the north, to restore security to the residents of the south and to the State of Israel.”

Katz also reiterated that Israel has not claimed responsibility for last week’s blast in southern Beirut that killed the deputy head of Hamas’ political bureau, Saleh Al-Arouri.

Hamas operative killed in Syria: Meanwhile, Israel’s military said it killed a Hamas militant in Syria, who it says was a central figure in firing rockets from Syria toward Israel in recent weeks.

Hassan Hakashah was killed in the southern town of Beit Jinn on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.

“We will not allow terrorism from Syrian territory and hold Syria responsible for all activity emanating from its territory. The IDF will continue to act against any threat posed to the State of Israel,” the statement said.

Hamas has so far not publicly commented on Hakashah’s death. 

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Sunday that while Israel is not looking for war with Hezbollah, if necessary, his country could “copy-paste” its military actions in Gaza to Beirut, Lebanon. 

Gallant said “the priority isn’t to get into a war” with Hezbollah but 80,000 Israelis displaced by cross-border exchanges “need to be able to go back to their homes safely,” the WSJ reported. 

Gallant also stated that if no agreement is negotiated to make that possible, Israel would not shrink from military action, adding “we are willing to sacrifice.” 

Gallant also said he believes Israel is “fighting an axis, not a single enemy,” and “Iran is building up military power around Israel in order to use it,” according to the report.

Israel is determined to destroy Iran-backed Hamas, but also to act with enough force to deter other potential adversaries allied with Tehran, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Gallant said in the WSJ interview.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Friday during a speech that the group’s attacks on Israel aim “to mount pressure on the enemy government and to stop the assault on Gaza” and reiterated that the death of Saleh Al-Arouri, a senior figure in Hamas, in Beirut will “not go unpunished.” 

The Hezbollah leader also warned that people in northern Israel would be the first to suffer consequences in the event of a broader conflict. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Tel Aviv ahead of key meetings with Israeli officials on Tuesday.

The top US diplomat landed in Israel on Monday afternoon after a flurry of stops throughout the region. He is expected to push Israeli officials on the need to do more to protect civilians as the staggering humanitarian toll in Gaza continues to mount. 

This is his fourth trip to the region since the October 7 Hamas attack and his fifth visit to Israel. On his first trip following the attack, he visited Israel twice.

Saudi talks: On Monday, Blinken discussed efforts being made to achieve security and stability in Gaza with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), according to the government-run Saudi Press Agency.

The crown prince “stressed the importance of stopping military operations, intensifying humanitarian efforts, and working to create conditions for the return of stability,” the agency reported.

In addition to Saudi Arabia, Blinken has visited other Arab nations involved in talks on another possible humanitarian ceasefire and hostage releases, including Jordan and Qatar. After meetings in Israel, he will also stop in the West Bank and Egypt. 

Some buildings are flattened or partially collapsed. Others are riddled with bullets or scarred by smoke. Civilians are nowhere to be found. 

This is the scene CNN found on the outskirts of Al-Bureij in central Gaza after three months of war.

CNN embedded with the Israel’s military on Monday, getting a glimpse of the destruction inside Gaza and a rare look inside the alleged Hamas underground and weapons manufacturing infrastructure uncovered by Israeli forces.

Alongside now-bulldozed farmlands and inside a nondescript building, the Israeli military took reporters inside the opening of what it said was a tunnel system leading to a weapons manufacturing facility both above and below ground.

“We are standing in one of the main entrances to the manufacturing terror center,” said an officer identified only as Maj. Ariel of the 188th Brigade, which uncovered the tunnel entrance.

Under a nearby shed, the Israeli military showed another shaft leading into the same tunnel.

The Israeli military also showed reporters the above-ground manufacturing facility, where CNN saw mortar shells that Israeli commanders said were made there. Another tunnel shaft lay in the corner of the factory, leading to what the Israeli military said was an underground facility where explosive material — made in some cases from dual-use materials like fertilizer — was packed into the shells.

The Israeli military did not allow reporters underground, saying the chemicals made it too dangerous, but provided a video it said was filmed inside that underground facility in which large vats and industrial material could be seen.

“What we’re seeing is using the embedded civilian industries to build a rocket industry,” IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari told CNN inside the weapons facility, a point he repeatedly raised throughout the day.

Pressed whether he was stressing the connection between Hamas infrastructure and civilian buildings to justify the heavy civilian death toll in Gaza, Hagari said: “We are focusing on Hamas, not, not — we’re focusing on a war on Hamas, we’re not fighting the people of Gaza.”

Lower-intensity phase: Israel expanded its ground offensive into central Gaza in late December and over the past two weeks, it has carried out strikes and pushed its ground forces into areas where it had previously urged civilians to evacuate.

But there are indications that it is slowing its offensive in parts of Gaza, moving to a lower-intensity phase of the war following significant American pressure.

“There’s big change because it’s a different level of intensity. Now, it’s not in the same intensity, high intensity that we worked in the north (of Gaza),” Hagari said. “It’s more continuous effort in the center of gravity so we can make sure that the population is being distinguished from the terrorists and focusing on Hamas frameworks,” he added.