December 19, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

Our live coverage of Israel's war in Gaza has moved here.

A total of 127 humanitarian aid trucks were inspected and transferred to the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, according to Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).

A total of 67 trucks were inspected at the Nitzana crossing before entering Gaza through the Rafah crossing. 

Another 60 trucks were inspected and entered Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing, COGAT said in a statement. 

Israel has introduced a proposal to Hamas that includes a weeklong pause in fighting in exchange for the release of about 40 hostages, according to Barak Ravid, CNN political and foreign policy analyst, citing two Israeli officials and another source with knowledge of the matter.

Firest reported by Axios, the proposal looks to release hostages that include women, the elderly and those in need of urgent care.

The deal is being presented to Hamas through Qatari mediators, Ravid said.

Michael Herzog, Israeli Ambassador to the US, confirmed Israel is willing to put a pause to the fighting if it means releasing as many hostages as possible, but would not confirm if a deal had been reached.

With international opinion apparently hardening against Israel’s prosecution of its war in Gaza, the country’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, has released a video of an interrogation of the director of the Kamal Adwan hospital.

In the video, Ahmed Al-Kahlot said the Hamas political leadership used the hospital in the early days of the war, because they felt they would not be targeted there. He also said that he, along with some other medical staff, were members of Al Qassam Brigades, the Hamas military wing.

The interrogation is filmed in what appears to be a small room, painted white with an Israeli flag draped on one wall. It is not clear whether Al-Kahlot was speaking freely, or whether he has had access to a lawyer at any time since his arrest on December 12.

CNN has not had any access to Al-Kahlot since his arrest, which took place during a heavy Israeli military presence around the hospital lasting almost two weeks.

Unlike most hospitals in the enclave that are under the administration of the Ministry of Health, the Kamal Adwan hospital falls under the General Directorate of Military Medical Services, which is a part of the Interior Ministry in Gaza, as the hospital’s Facebook page makes clear.

Speaking to CNN before the release of the interrogation video, the hospital’s head of pediatric services, Dr. Hossam Abu-Safia, and the head of nursing, Eid Sabbah, said the hospital only provided medical services and that the dozens of people arrested at the hospital over the last week were civilians and medical workers. The two medics further allege that Israeli troops’ conduct at the hospital was both dangerous and cruel, even after nearly every male Palestinian in the building had been arrested and taken away.

Israel has focused a huge amount of attention on Gaza’s hospitals since it began its ground offensive at the end of October. It has sought to present what it said is proof of Hamas’ use of medical facilities as military centers and has invited news media to film tunnels with underground rooms located beneath Gaza’s largest hospital, Shifa. It has also shown journalists weapons it said were found at other hospitals.

A key argument from Israel’s political and military leaders has been that any such misuse of Gaza’s hospitals by Hamas provides justification under international humanitarian law for Israeli military attacks.

The UN Security Council is expected to now vote on a resolution to spur more humanitarian aid into Gaza on Wednesday, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The vote was originally scheduled for Monday before it was then delayed until Tuesday evening to allow more time for negotiations.

According to diplomats, intensive negotiations were underway for the draft resolution, which was said to have originally included a call for a “cessation of hostilities” to allow much-needed aid to enter Gaza. One diplomatic source told CNN the US was still reviewing the text on Tuesday.

Here are other headlines you should know:

US warships in the Red Sea have been battling a growing number of weapons fired by Houthi forces in Yemen over the past several weeks, including an incident on Saturday when a US destroyer shot down more than a dozen drones.

And US faceoffs with the Houthis, who say they are targeting commercial ships headed for Israel after its invasion of Gaza, could grow after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced Monday a new US-led operation focusing on protecting merchant ships operating in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

The US Navy has not said what weapon systems its ships are using against the Houthi attacks, but the experts said a US destroyer has a range of weapons systems at its disposal.

These include surface-to-air missiles, explosive shells from the destroyer’s 5-inch main gun and close-in weapons systems, the experts said. They also said US ships have electronic warfare capabilities that could sever the links between drones and their on-shore controllers.

But in its effort to protect merchant ships, the US is facing drones that can be produced and deployed in large numbers for unit prices under $100,000. This means a prolonged campaign could eventually tax US resources, the experts say.

“These are advanced air intercept capabilities with an average cost of around $2 million — making the intercept of drones not … cost-effective,” said Alessio Patalano, professor of war and strategy at King’s College in London.

Houthi forces are funded and trained by Iran, so they have resources for an extended fight, the experts point out. It’s also a question of to what lengths the US wants to go to protect merchant shipping, the experts said.

Why this matters: Iran-backed Houthi forces have launched numerous attacks against US interests in the region, and Israel, since the October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel, as fears continue to ripple across the region that the Israel-Hamas war could widen.

The group has said any ship heading to Israel was a “legitimate target” as it puts pressure on Israel to stop its Gaza offensive. They have staged several drone and missile attacks on commercial shipping and even tried landing commandos by helicopter on one vessel to hijack it.

The world’s biggest container shipping companies have paused transit through one of the world’s trade arteries, which experts say could snarl supply chains and drive up freight costs.

Read more about how US warships are shooting down Houthi drones in the Red Sea.

Israel’s military denied responsibility for the deaths of two women at the Holy Family Parish complex in Gaza on Saturday.

In an updated statement Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it fired in the direction of three individuals they identified as “spotters for Hamas” in the same area “where the two women were reportedly killed,” but said reports of the women’s deaths “do not match the conclusion of our initial review which found that the IDF troops were targeting spotters in enemy lookouts.”

The IDF said will continue to review the incident.

As CNN previously reported, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which oversees Catholic Churches across Cyprus, Jordan, Israel, Gaza and the Palestinian territories, reported an Israeli military sniper shot and killed a mother and daughter who were sheltering inside the church. 

The Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, released a video on Tuesday showing two male hostages in captivity.  

The footage shows Gadi Moses, 79, and Gadi Katzir, 47, speaking in front of a camera, asking the Israeli government to arrange their release. 

It is not clear when or where the clips were filmed.   

In the video, Moses asks Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, war cabinet member Benny Gantz and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi to make every effort to return them to their families. 

Katzir makes similar remarks, asking the government to make an exchange deal with Islamic Jihad. 

Both men speak about the dangers they are facing.

Moses was taken alongside his ex-wife Margalit Moses, who was released during the truce on November 24. 

Katzir’s father, Rami, was killed on October 7, and his mother, Hanna, was abducted and then released as part of the truce.

Hamas' military wing, the Qassam Brigades, released a video on Monday showing three Israeli male hostages in captivity in Gaza.  

Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, also known as Al-Ahli Al-Arabi Hospital — one of the few partially functioning medical facilities in Gaza — has ceased operations, Dr. Ashraf Al-Qidra, the Palestinian Ministry of Health spokesperson, said in a statement on Tuesday.

Only 11 out of 36 hospitals are partially functioning inside the Gaza Strip, Dr. Al-Qidra said earlier this week.