January 23, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

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

The US military conducted strikes in Yemen against two Houthi anti-ship missiles aimed to launch at the southern Red Sea, US Central Command said Tuesday evening.

The Houthi missiles posed an “imminent threat to merchant vessels and the US Navy ships in the region,” CENTCOM said.

It comes after the US and the UK carried out additional strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen on Monday.

The Iran-backed Houthis have said they won’t stop their attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea until the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza ends. 

Thousands of displaced Palestinians are fleeing Khan Younis in southern Gaza as the Israeli military said it has surrounded the city amid further operations west of the area.

CNN video shows displaced people sitting on the side of streets and in the vicinity of the seashore. The video shows cars, trucks, and tractors transporting families and their essential belongings, and crowds of people walking.

Many of those fleeing described terrifying scenes.

“There are dead people on the ground. We left them behind. There are people killed inside the houses,” said displaced Gazan Hisham Sayegh. “We were expecting to die at any minute.”

Meanwhile, Israel is reeling from the deaths of at least 24 of its soldiers in Gaza, in what is the biggest single loss of life for Israeli troops in the enclave since the war with Hamas began. More than 25,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry.

Here’s what you need to know:

US strikes on Iran-backed militias in Iraq killed at least one person and injured two others, an Iraqi security source told CNN on Tuesday.

The strikes targeted three facilities used by Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah and other Tehran-affiliated groups following repeated attacks on US forces, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

The person killed was a Kataib Hezbollah fighter, according to a post on the group’s Telegram channel.

This post has been updated with additional information.

Read more about the US strikes.

Israel’s “clear and repeated rejection” of a two-state solution is “unacceptable” and threatens to prolong the conflict with Palestinians that has become a global threat to peace, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at a UN Security Council meeting Tuesday.

The UN chief called a two-state solution the only way to address the aspirations of both sides, saying any refusal to accept it must be firmly rejected.

Guterres also repeated his call for more aid deliveries into Gaza, saying the quantities that are entering the enclave are highly insufficient. “It is fantasy to think that 2.2 million people can survive on aid alone,” he said.

Guterres called for more crossing points into Gaza and for access to the north, saying only seven of 29 planned humanitarian missions to the north of Wadi Gaza in early January were fully or partially accomplished.

He also appealed again for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, saying, “this will ensure sufficient aid gets to where it is needed, facilitate the release of hostages, and help lower tensions around the Middle East.”

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron will travel to Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Qatar and Turkey to hold “high level talks” with regional leaders to end what he described as a “desperate” situation in Gaza.

Cameron will focus discussions on getting more aid into Gaza, releasing more hostages, and reaching a “sustainable and permanent ceasefire,” according to a statement from the British Foreign Office.

“No-one wants to see this conflict go on a moment longer than necessary. An immediate pause is now necessary to get aid in and hostages out,’’ Cameron said in the statement.

Cameron will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, to speak about humanitarian aid and civilian casualties in Gaza, the foreign office outlined.

The foreign secretary will also meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to reiterate the UK’s support for a two-state solution “so that Israelis and Palestinians can live side-by-side in peace,” the statement read.

Doctors Without Borders staff said they are unable to follow Israel’s evacuation orders for the area around Al-Nasser Hospital in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis, as the sounds of “bombs and heavy gunfire” go off nearby.

Staff members and 850 patients cannot leave the hospital due to the “roads to and from the building being either inaccessible or too dangerous,” according to a thread of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, from the organization, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

“With heavy bombing and fighting moving closer to the areas surrounding Nasser Hospital, injured civilians will not be able to access immediate or urgent care,” MSF said. “Nasser Hospital is one of two remaining hospitals in southern Gaza still able to treat critically injured patients.”

Dr. Ahmed Al-Moghrabi, who is inside the hospital, spoke to CNN midday local time on Tuesday and said the hospital received evacuation orders from the IDF. But it is a “very difficult situation as there (is) fierce fighting by the hospital.”

“(People) don’t know how to evacuate the place. We are surrounded now and the situation is really dire,” Al-Moghrabi told CNN. 

Amro Abu Raydeh, one of the few remaining journalists inside the medical complex, told CNN that there is “ongoing artillery fire and drones (quadcopters) that are opening fire” around the hospital, and unidentified bodies are being buried in the hospital grounds or inside the hospital’s morgue.

The US military conducted airstrikes Tuesday on three facilities used by Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah and other Iran-affiliated groups in Iraq, the Pentagon announced. 

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that the strikes “are in direct response to a series of escalatory attacks against US and coalition personnel in Iraq and Syria” by Iranian-backed militia groups. 

The strikes come just days after US personnel at Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq were injured in a ballistic missile and rocket attack on the base. While most missiles and rockets were intercepted by the base’s air defenses, some projectiles made impact, US Central Command said over the weekend.

Tensions in the region: The strikes on Tuesday are the first in Iraq since the beginning of the month, when the US targeted a member of an Iranian proxy group operating in the country who one US official said had “US blood on his hands.” They also come after multiple strikes against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen over the last week and a half, as the US looks to reign in the aggressive actions of Iranian-backed groups in the Middle East amid heightened tensions in the region.

US forces in Iraq and Syria have been targeted at least 151 times since attacks began on October 17, 2023, according to a US official — 10 days after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US will not support Israel creating so-called “buffer zones” permanently in Gaza that would effectively reduce the size of the Palestinian territory.

“When it comes to the permanent status of Gaza going forward, we’ve been clear, we remain clear, about not encroaching on its territory,” said Blinken reiterated at a news conference in Abuja, Nigeria.

However, Blinken said that there may need to be “transitional arrangements” that provide “necessary security arrangements” to allow Israelis who fled areas adjacent to Gaza after October 7 to return.  

Blinken also maintained that Gazans who fled their homes must be allowed to return and that Palestinians be able to govern themselves.

Ongoing talks to secure the release of all hostages held in Gaza have not yet reached the level of “negotiations,” the White House said Tuesday, describing them instead as “sober and serious” discussions about what might be acceptable to all sides.

“I don’t know that it’s time now to be talking about holdups. These are ongoing discussions. I wouldn’t even classify them as negotiations quite at this point,” John Kirby, the strategic communications coordinator at the National Security Council, said. 

He wasn’t able to confirm reports about some of the options being discussed, including a lengthy pause in fighting for two months.

But he did say the US would “absolutely” be supportive of a break in fighting longer than the one-week pause agreed to last year in exchange for the release of some captives.

“That would give us the opportunity to get all hostages out and more aid in, we would absolutely support a humanitarian pause of longer length than the week we were able to accomplish,” he said.

Brett McGurk, the White House Middle East coordinator, is in Cairo on Tuesday to continue discussions on a potential hostage deal, Kirby said.

Motaz Azaiza, a Palestinian journalist and photographer who has diligently documented life in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war, evacuated the enclave and landed in Doha on Tuesday via a Qatari Air Force plane, according to his social media.

“I had to evacuate for a lot of reasons you all know some of it but not all of it,” he wrote on his Instagram account, adding: “pray for Gaza.”  

In a video posted Tuesday, Azaiza told his 18 million followers: “This is the last time you’ll see me with this heavy, stinky vest,” as friends gather around him and help him take off his press flak jacket.

Azaiza has built an international following for his reporting of Israel’s assault on Gaza since October 7, becoming one of the few sources of independent media in the war zone.

Most global news organizations have been unable to cover the conflict with their own correspondents on the ground. Israel, along with Egypt, has largely blocked international journalists from Gaza, saying they cannot cannot guarantee their safety.

The few foreign journalists who have been allowed to enter the enclave have primarily embedded with the Israel Defense Forces and may have had to submit their footage to the military for security review.

Read more about the journalists documenting the war on the ground.

Israeli fighter jets have carried out strikes on targets in Lebanon, including a “military asset” used by Hezbollah and operated by Iranian forces, the Israel Defense Forces said.

The IDF said it also struck several additional areas in Lebanon, including a military compound that Hezbollah operated in.

“Hezbollah’s military activity south of the Litani River in Lebanon, including the use and storage of armaments, is a clear violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. The IDF will continue to defend Israel’s borders from any threat,” it added. 

Resolution 1701, passed in 2006, stipulated that the area south of the Litani should become a demilitarized zone. 

Earlier, the IDF said there had been a number of launches from Lebanon into Israeli territory. Some launches caused minor damage at an Israeli Air Force base, and some were successfully intercepted, it said. No injuries were reported. 

Thousands of people are leaving Khan Younis, as the Israel Defense Forces said it has surrounded the city amid further operations west of the area.

A CNN video recorded Monday shows displaced people sitting on the side of streets and in the vicinity of the seashore as they head west and south. The IDF had instructed civilians to leave several districts in and around the city and head toward the coast, which it described to CNN as “safer.”

The video shows cars, trucks, and tractors transporting families and their essential belongings, such as blankets, mattresses and food. Many, however, are walking.

Hisham Sayegh said he saw four people killed, which forced him to leave with his family as shelling in the area intensifies.

“There are dead people on the ground. We left them behind. There are people killed inside the houses,” Sayegh said. “We were expecting to die at any minute.”

Amer Hijjo, from northern Gaza, said he was on the move for a third time. “Now, we are displaced again to the unknown. The bombardment was all night. We woke up with a tank at the entrance of the house this (Monday) morning, so we left.”

Um Mohammad, a woman from Khan Younis, said she and her family are on the street until they figure out where to go — and they can not afford transport south to Rafah. “Vegetables, flour, and water are all expensive. There are no toilets. No one cares about us as if we are not human beings.”

“We have been in the streets for more than 100 days. Every place we go to, they tell us to leave, and here we are again and again in the streets,” she said.

Um Adel, a woman from Gaza City, told CNN that her family had been in Khan Younis, and her granddaughter died because “there was no oxygen or medication for her.”

Qatar said it’s engaged in “serious discussions” with Israel and Hamas and is receiving “constant replies” from both sides, but statements made by Israeli officials “leads to a harder mediation process,” Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said in a news conference on Tuesday. 

“Obviously when one side says they don’t accept the two state-solution and that they won’t stop this war eventually … obviously leads to a harder mediation process,” Al-Ansari added. 

Recently, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected calls for Palestinian sovereignty following talks with US President Joe Biden about Gaza’s future, suggesting Israel’s security needs would be incompatible with Palestinian statehood.

Communication cuts and the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza also has an impact on the talks, but mediation efforts are in “full force” with Qatar exchanging ideas between both sides, Al-Ansari said. 

 “Our negotiators are working around the clock to exchange these ideas, a lot of these media reports are either missing elements or completely false,” he said in response to media reports that Israel offered a two-month ceasefire to Hamas as part of a prospective hostage deal.

Some context: CNN has reported that two officials familiar with the talks said that Israel has proposed allowing senior Hamas leaders to leave Gaza as part of a broader ceasefire deal.

The United Nations says that the situation at hospitals in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza has deteriorated as Israeli military operations in the area have expanded.

“Reportedly, Israeli forces struck the vicinity of Al Amal hospital and the ambulance headquarters, as intense fighting continued in the area, including dozens of casualties,” the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Tuesday, adding that it estimated that “13,000 displaced people who have taken shelter in Al Amal Hospital and the PRCS [Palestinian Red Crescent Society] headquarters were unable to leave.”

OCHA cited humanitarian partners as saying that people in the vicinity and in the Al Kheir area east of Al Mawasi had lost access to the health facility.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it has surrounded Khan Younis and instructed civilians to leave several districts and move toward the coast, which it described to CNN as “safer.”

Roads leading to al-Amal hospital were closed due to ongoing shooting by IDF in Khan Younis, the PRCS said later Tuesday. Social media video geolocated by CNN indicated that roads to Nasser hospital — some 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) away — had also been blocked since early Tuesday.

Separately, the UN relief agency in Gaza said that one of its shelters in the Khan Younis area had been hit. “At least 6 displaced people were killed and many more injured during intense fighting around the shelter. Terrified staff, patients and displaced people are now trapped inside the few remaining hospitals in Khan Younis as heavy fighting continues,” the agency’s director, Phillipe Lazzarini said on X (formerly Twitter).

CNN is seeking a response from the IDF on the reported strike close to or at the UNRWA shelter.

The United Kingdom and United States will be announcing new sanctions on the Houthis “in the coming days,” UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Tuesday.

“We’re going to use the most effective means at our disposal to cut off the Houthis’ financial resources, where they are used to fund these attacks [on commercial ships in the Red Sea],” Sunak told the House of Commons — the UK’s Parliament.

“We are working closely with the United States on this and plan to announce new sanctions measures in the coming days.”

The news comes following another US and UK airstrike on Houthi targets in Yemen, which Sunak said were “limited to carefully selected targets, with maximum caretaking to protect civilian lives.” He also stressed that the strikes were “fully in line with international law, in self-defense, and in response to a persistent threat.”

The prime minister said that the sanctions were part of a wider UK response to the Houthi attacks on commercial vessels. He added that the UK will continue to deliver humanitarian aid to Yemen and help to negotiate peace in the country, Sunak said.

Israel’s military said its troops have surrounded Khan Younis in southern Gaza, as hundreds of people displaced on hospital grounds in the city try to flee the area.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said people at its headquarters, as well as at the nearby Al-Amal Hospital, are “in a state of panic and trying to escape ongoing Israeli bombardment.”

A major Israeli military offensive underway in the west of the city is expected to last several more days, according to a source familiar with the operation.

Meanwhile, Israel is reeling from the deaths of at least 24 of its soldiers in Gaza, in what is the biggest single loss of life for Israeli troops in the enclave since the war with Hamas began.

Here are the latest developments:

Hundreds of people displaced on hospital grounds in Khan Younis are reportedly trying to flee the area as Israel ramps up its military activity in and around the southern city.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said people at its headquarters, as well as at the Al-Amal Hospital, are “in a state of panic and trying to escape ongoing Israeli bombardment.”

“We are getting ready to evacuate, but there are intense clashes all around us. People are leaving their homes and then turning back. It’s very dangerous in the area,” Ahmad Nassem, a resident of Al-Amal neighborhood in Khan Younis, told CNN Tuesday.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said both the Al-Amal and Nasser hospitals in Khan Younis are “in grave danger,” with buildings “exposed to shrapnel, which puts the lives of patients, staff and displaced people at risk.”

Dr. Ahmad Al-Moghrabi from Nasser Hospital told CNN Tuesday there was “fierce fighting” around the medical facility.

“We are being asked to evacuate but there is fierce fighting and snipers surrounding the hospital,” he said. “It’s really difficult, all the roads are blocked. We don’t know how to evacuate.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its troops have surrounded Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

A major Israeli military offensive underway in the west of the city is expected to last several more days, a source familiar with the matter told CNN Monday. The source said Israeli troops had encircled the Khan Younis refugee camp and are conducting raids to try to dismantle Hamas’ military capabilities in the area.

In a statement Tuesday, the IDF said “dozens of terrorists” had been killed in the past 24 hours by its ground troops in coordination with Israel’s air force.

The Hamas-controlled health ministry in the enclave said Tuesday that 195 people had been killed and 354 injured in Gaza during the past 24 hours. It said “a number of victims are still under the rubble and on the roads, and ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them.”

Dr. Ashraf al-Qidra, a spokesperson for the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza, accused the IDF of committing massacres west of Khan Younis and preventing the movement of ambulances. Intense combat has been reported in the area in recent days as Israeli ground operations extend further south in the enclave.

In a post on X, the IDF’s Arabic spokesman warned civilians in parts of western Khan Younis to evacuate towards the coast.

Airstrikes overnight by the United States and United Kingdom “will not go unanswered,” a spokesperson for Yemen’s Houthi rebel group said on X.

The Houthi spokesperson said four governorates were targeted, with the US and UK launching 18 airstrikes. Twelve raids targeted Yemen’s capital Sana’a, three targeted Hodeidah, two targeted Taiz and one struck Al Bayda, the spokesperson said.

The additional strikes carried out by the US and UK on Monday marked the eighth round of attacks by the US military on the rebels’ infrastructure in just over 10 days, according to a joint statement.

The US and UK said in the statement that eight sites were struck in Yemen. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that the deaths of 21 Israeli soldiers on Monday was “one of the most difficult days” since the outbreak of war.

“I mourn for our fallen heroic soldiers. I hug the families in their time of need and we all pray for the peace of our wounded,” Netanyahu wrote on X.

After a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) struck a tank that was protecting Israeli troops, two two-story buildings collapsed on soldiers following the explosion, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a statement Tuesday. The incident was the biggest single loss of life for Israeli troops in Gaza since the war with Hamas began.

He added Israel “will not stop fighting until the absolute victory.”

The campaign to degrade the Houthi’s military capability will continue, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Tuesday, after the United States and the United Kingdom carried out another round of strikes on Monday.

“Since we last took action 10 days ago there have been over 12 attacks on shipping by the Houthis in the Red Sea. These attacks are illegal, are unacceptable, and what we’ve done, again, is send the clearest possible message that we will continue to degrade their ability to carry out these attacks whilst sending the clearest possible message that we back our words and our warnings with action,” Cameron told broadcasters Tuesday.

Cameron added that alongside the latest air strikes, the UK will use a “whole set of measures,” including the Royal Navy in the Red Sea and sanctions, to increase pressure on the Houthis. 

On Monday, four Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4s, supported by a pair of Voyager tankers, joined US forces in a deliberate strike against Houthi sites in Yemen, the UK Ministry of Defence said in a press release.

It was a smaller number than the first joint operation on January 11 that struck over 30 Houthi targets.

While there is an “Israeli initiative” to offer Hamas a two-month ceasefire in exchange for all of the hostages held in Gaza, it is “far from being a proposal,” an Israeli official familiar with the idea told CNN Tuesday.

The initiative is “a way to check whether the framework will work,” the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss internal government conversations.

“Many steps need to be taken” before any deal comes to fruition, the official said.

Some context: Axios reported Monday that Israel has offered a two-month ceasefire as part of a prospective deal to release the hostages. Separately, two officials familiar with the talks told CNN Israel has proposed allowing senior Hamas leaders to leave Gaza as part of a broader ceasefire deal.

Twenty-four Israeli soldiers were killed during fighting in southern Gaza on Monday, the military said, in the deadliest single loss of life for Israeli troops inside the battered enclave since the war with Hamas began.

The IDF said in a post on X that “forces from the 261st Brigade operated to dismantle terrorist infrastructure” in the southern Gaza Strip. “It appears that RPG missiles were fired toward the forces during the operation, and as a result of this firing and the simultaneous collapse of a nearby structure, 21 reserve soldiers were killed and others were injured.”

Israeli media reported that two soldiers in the tank were killed. Most of the Israeli forces killed were in or near the buildings, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a separate televised statement.

The IDF separately said on Monday that a captain and two majors were killed, all in southern Gaza.

It brings the total number of Israeli troops killed in the Gaza ground invasion to 219, Israel’s military said.

CNN’s Lauren Izso contributed reporting to this post.

This post has been updated with additional details.

Israel has proposed allowing Hamas senior leaders to leave Gaza as part of a broader ceasefire deal, two officials familiar with the talks told CNN.

Though it would give safe passage out of Gaza for top Hamas leaders who orchestrated the October 7 attack, draining Gaza of its leaders could weaken Hamas’ grip on the war-torn strip while also allowing Israel to continue tracking down high-value targets abroad.

Separately, Axios reported that Israel has offered a two-month truce as part of a prospective hostage deal.

The reports come after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Hamas’ call for an end to the war in exchange for the release of hostages held in Gaza, as he faces increasing public pressure to bring the captives home.

Here’s what else you need to know:

The ground shook at southern Gaza’s Nasser Hospital as Israeli forces launched strikes on Khan Younis Monday, according to Médecins Sans Frontières staff on the ground.

In a social media post, the charity — also known as Doctors Without Borders — said the strikes caused “panic among staff, patients and displaced people sheltering inside the building,” adding that exit routes were blocked, preventing the evacuation of medical staff and patients.

Israel’s military has intensified attacks on Khan Younis in recent days as it targets what its says is Hamas infrastructure, with the operation expected to last for several days.

Earlier Monday, the Hamas-controlled health ministry said Nasser Hospital is receiving more patients with serious injuries than it can accommodate and intensive care units have reached capacity.

UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Michael Fakhri, said Israel is destroying Gaza’s food system, in a post on X on Monday.

Israel’s siege in Gaza has devastated swathes of the territory, diminished food, fuel and water supplies, and crushed the enclave’s medical system.

More than 1.9 million Palestinians have been forcibly displaced, many multiple times, according to the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees.

Gaza is facing its 10th near-total internet blackout, according to Paltel, the enclave’s main telecommunications provider.

“We regret to announce that telecom services in Gaza Strip have been lost. Gaza is blacked out again for the 10th time since October 7th due to the ongoing and escalating aggression,” Paltel said in a post on X.

Internet monitoring site Netblocks confirmed the outage in a post on X.

“Live metrics show that the #Gaza Strip is again in the midst of a near-total telecoms blackout; the incident is likely to severely limit most residents’ ability to communicate, in the tenth such incident since the start of the war,” Netblocks said.

Cell phone connection across Gaza was also “difficult to access,” an employee at Palestinian telecom company Jawwal told CNN on Monday.

Israel has proposed that Hamas senior leaders could leave Gaza as part of a broader ceasefire agreement, two officials familiar with the ongoing international discussions told CNN.

The extraordinary proposal, which has not been previously reported, comes as Israel has struggled to achieve its stated goal of completely destroying Hamas. Despite its nearly 4-month war in Gaza, Israel has failed to capture or kill any of Hamas’s most senior leaders in Gaza and left around 70% of Hamas’ fighting force intact, according to Israel’s own estimates.

Though it would give safe passage out of Gaza for top Hamas leaders who orchestrated the October 7 attack, draining Gaza of its leaders could weaken Hamas’ grip on the war-torn area while also allowing Israel to continue tracking down high-value targets abroad.

Senior Hamas officials are known to live in Doha, Qatar, and the Lebanese capital Beirut, among other places outside the Palestinian territories. An Israeli airstrike earlier this month killed a top Hamas commander in Beirut.

Israel’s suggestion that Hamas leaders could leave Gaza, though unlikely to be accepted by Hamas, has been discussed as part of broader ceasefire negotiations at least twice in recent weeks — once last month in Warsaw by Israel’s intelligence chief, Mossad Director David Barnea, and then again this month in Doha with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, according to one official familiar with the discussions.

Read more details about the offer.

The United States and the United Kingdom carried out additional strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen on Monday, marking the eighth round of attacks by the US military on the rebels’ infrastructure in just over 10 days, according to a joint statement.

They struck eight sites, according to the statement from the US and UK, which conducted the strikes, and Canada, the Netherlands, Bahrain, and Australia, which supported the attacks.

It was a smaller number than the first joint operation on January 11 that struck over 30 Houthi targets. Monday’s strikes targeted a Houthi underground storage site and sites associates with Houthi missile and air surveillance, the statement added.

The US deployed fighter aircraft from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier as part of the strikes, a US defense official told CNN.

President Joe Biden spoke to his British counterpart UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday, the White House said earlier in the day, about a range of topics including security in the Red Sea.

“Our aim remains to de-escalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea , but let us reiterate our warning to Houthi leadership: we will not hesitate to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways in the face of continued threats,” the countries said in their statement.

Israel has offered a two-month ceasefire to Hamas as part of a prospective hostage deal, Axios reported Monday, citing two unnamed Israeli officials.

The Israeli proposal calls for the release of all remaining hostages and hostage bodies in multiple phases, in exchange for Palestinian detainees imprisoned in Israel, according to the Axios report. 

It would also see Israel move its forces out of main population centers and allow “a gradual return of Palestinian civilians to Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip.” 

The proposal comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Hamas’ call for an end to the war in exchange for the release of hostages held in Gaza, as he faces increasing public pressure to bring the captives home.

See CNN’s Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter for more details.

Medical facilities in Khan Younis in southern Gaza have been battered amid an Israeli assault in the area Monday, Palestinian health officials said, as the number of people killed in Israel’s siege on Gaza continues to rise.

Dozens of people have been killed and wounded in the latest offensive in western Khan Younis, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza. Medical facilities including the Nasser Medical Complex, Al Amal Hospital and the Palestine Red Crescent Society headquarters are located in the area.

“The situation here is completely catastrophic. We didn’t sleep last night. The hospital is entirely besieged,” Ahmad Al Moghrabi, a doctor at the Nasser Medical Complex said in a video shared to his Instagram page Monday. “There is no way for us to escape the hospital and no way for evacuation. The troops are all around, and the only roads for evacuation are filled with dead bodies.”

The Nasser Medical Complex is receiving more serious injuries than it can accommodate, the health ministry said, adding that intensive care units are at capacity.

Health officials also said Israeli forces on Monday stormed the Al Khair Hospital, west of Khan Younis, and detained a number of its medical staff, amid an ongoing “siege” of the area.

The Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas outposts, infrastructure, and command and control centers in Khan Younis and the action demanded “precise operations” due to the densely populated civilian areas.

Read more.

Mounds of solid waste and sewage openly flowing in the streets are exacerbating health hazards in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, with air pollution adding to the toxic environment, according to aid workers and civilians in the area.

“Everywhere in Rafah, if you walk, you will see a lot of solid waste and a lot of water sewage building up on the street,” said Salwa Tibi, 53, who works at the humanitarian agency CARE International. “You will find a lot of diseases in the shelters.”

Despite the hazards, children in desperate search of food can be seen picking scraps from rubbish piles, Tibi said.

Israel’s siege of the Palestinian enclave has collapsed waste collection and disposal services, according to the United Nations relief agency UNRWA, and the scarcity of clean drinking water and toilets has created an “explosively dangerous” environment for the spread of disease, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on Thursday. 

Gazans also describe air pollution caused by smoke from people burning wood instead of fuel, supplies of which have been largely cut off from the territory. 

“My father is sick because of air pollution, smoke and gas,” a displaced civilian in Rafah, who wished to remain anonymous, told CNN. “Influenza diseases are widespread due to the weather and the lack of facilities in the tents and rooms of the displaced.”