December 27, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

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

A resolution passed by the United Nations Security Council last week that called for increased aid to Gaza has "yet to have an impact," World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday. 

The UN resolution approved last Friday calls for humanitarian pauses between Israel and Hamas, increased aid to Gaza and the creation of conditions that will allow for a sustainable end to fighting, ending days of closed-door negotiations.

But it was yet to become reality in the war-torn strip, Tedros said.

"UN Security Council members must urgently turn their recent resolution — to create pauses in hostilities and humanitarian corridors — into reality in Gaza. Actions, not words, are what Gaza's people need today," Tedros said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

WHO warnings: Tedros' remarks come after WHO teams carried out "high-risk" missions to deliver supplies to two hospitals in Gaza.

In the north, UN teams brought medical items and fuel to the Al-Shifa Hospital, where a reported 50,000 people are seeking shelter, to keep essential health services running at the hospital, WHO said.

Teams in the south visited Al-Amal hospital, where WHO staff said they found it impossible to walk inside "without stepping over patients and those seeking refuge."

While transiting through Gaza, teams also witnessed "tens of thousands of people fleeing heavy strikes in the Khan Younis and Middle Area — on foot, riding on donkeys or in cars."

WHO representative Rik Peeperkorn said the agency was concerned the new displacement of people would strain medical facilities in the south even further. 

"This forced mass movement of people will also lead to more overcrowding, increased risk of infectious diseases and make it even harder to deliver humanitarian aid," Peeperkorn said.

Tedros echoed his concerns. 

Palestinian militant group Hamas on Wednesday denied a claim by an elite wing of Iran's military that its October 7 attack on Israel was carried out in revenge for the assassination of a top Iranian commander nearly four years ago.

Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) spokesperson Ramadan Sharif on Wednesday claimed the Hamas attack against Israel was a response to the 2020 killing of Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani in a US airstrike, Iranian state news agency IRNA reported.

Hamas' October 7 attack saw militants rampage through parts of southern Israel on a murder and kidnapping spree that killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw about 240 people taken hostage, including women, elderly, and children.

Iranian officials have previously denied any direct involvement in the attack, saying that despite Tehran's financial backing and support for Hamas and other proxy groups in the region, it does not direct any of their actions.

Some context: The IRGC spokesperson's claim Wednesday comes after IRNA reported that another Iranian commander, Seyyed Razi Mousavi, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Syria on Monday. The Israeli military declined to comment on the report when asked by CNN.

Sharif on Wednesday echoed threats from Iranian officials of revenge against Israel.

Iran will respond appropriately to the "Israeli regime for the assassination of a senior military adviser in Syria," and will take revenge for "the terrorist attack in different times and places," he said, according to IRNA. 

In a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his “deepest concern” at the “very heavy civilian toll and the absolute humanitarian emergency facing the civilian population of Gaza."

According to an Elysée Palace readout of the Wednesday call, Macron told Netanyahu of “Israel's imperative to protect civilians” and “the urgency of delivering the necessary aid to the people of Gaza,” per the French Presidency. 

Macron also stressed “the need to work towards a lasting ceasefire, with the help of all regional and international partners,” the palace said. 

France will be working with Jordan “in the coming days” to carry out humanitarian operations in Gaza, Macron said. 

The French president also told Netanyahu that the release of all hostages in the strip, including three French nationals, was a priority for France. Netanyahu updated him on “Israel’s effort to bring about the release of the hostages” and asked the French President to “continue working for their release,” according to the Israeli government's readout of the call.

Macron stressed the “importance of Israel taking all necessary steps to put an end to the violence committed by certain settlers against Palestinian civilians, as well as to any new settlement projects in the West Bank, which threatened the two-state solution,” the French readout said. 

The French statement also called a two-state solution “the only viable solution to ensure Israel's long-term security and meet the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians.”

Macron reaffirmed France's commitment to Israel's security and “recalled the steps taken within the framework of the European Union to establish sanctions against Hamas, as well as the measures taken with international partners against terrorist groups threatening peace and stability in the region.”

Netanyahu thanked Macron for France's active role in safeguarding freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, as well as France’s readiness to contribute to the restoration of security along Israel's border with Lebanon, according to the Israeli readout of the call.

The Israeli prime minister also “made it clear that the people and Government of Israel are determined to work in every way” to return Israeli residents of southern communities [near Gaza] and northern communities [near Lebanon border] to their homes.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to travel to Israel and make additional stops in the Middle East next week to discuss the next steps in the Israel-Hamas war, an Israeli official told CNN. 

CNN has reached out to the US State Department for comment. 

More background: Blinken's expected trip comes after senior Biden administration officials and a close confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met regarding the next phase of the Israel-Hamas conflict on Tuesday evening. 

Ron Dermer, a member of Israel’s war cabinet and a former ambassador to the United States, departed the White House after more than four hours following a meeting with Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

A White House official told CNN the discussions included:

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez contributed reporting to this post.

The situation on Israel's northern border with Lebanon demands change, Israeli War Cabinet member Benny Gantz said at a briefing Wednesday.

He warned that time is running out to reach a diplomatic solution as fighting continues between Israel and Hezbollah in the area. 

“If the world and the Lebanese government do not act to cease the fire aimed at northern communities and push Hezbollah away from the border, the IDF will do so,” Gantz warned. 

He also spoke about Israel’s military operations in Gaza, saying Israel’s achievements are accumulating and expanding. 

"We started with great force, and we should increase [the force] and continue," he said, adding, “The campaign will continue and expand according to the need across various locations or additional arenas."

Ninety-two trucks loaded with humanitarian aid and commercial goods entered the Rafah crossing into Gaza Wednesday, an Egyptian official told CNN.

The convoy included 12 trucks carrying commercial goods as well as 80 trucks of aid that included four trucks carrying cooking gas. 

Additionally, a total of 264 foreigners departed from the Gaza Strip Wednesday, the source said. 

The current number of trucks entering Gaza aligns with the daily average observed over the previous week. Before the conflict, the United Nations reported an average of 455 trucks carrying commercial goods each day into Gaza.

An edited video circulating on social media appears to show Palestinian men and at least two children detained and stripped by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in a stadium in northern Gaza. 

CNN is unable to verify when the video was shot. A CNN geolocation of the video shows it was filmed in Yarmouk Stadium in Gaza City.

CNN reached out to the IDF late Tuesday night for comment on the video and the children detained but has not yet heard back. In the past, the IDF has said it has stripped detainees to ensure they were not carrying explosives.

Hundreds of Palestinian men and boys have been detained by Israeli forces in recent weeks. 

Clips in the video show what appear to be two young boys in one frame, stripped down to their underwear, walking and holding both their hands up as the IDF directs them in the stadium. 

In another clip, what appears to be the same two young boys stripped of their clothing are seen with their hands above their heads as they are lined up in single file lines with other males who appear to be teens and adults.  

Throughout the video, men can be seen stripped down to their underwear. 

In some clips they are sitting on the floor with their hands tied to their backs, some blindfolded, and standing in single file lines as the IDF overlooks and inspects them.  

Clips of the video also show women and other children detained. In one shot, three fully clothed women are seen blindfolded with their hands tied behind their backs as they sit on the grass in front of a soccer goal in the stadium.

An Israeli flag is seen hanging on the soccer goal. Stripped and blindfolded Palestinian men, with their hands tied behind their backs, are seen sitting next to the women.

Military vehicles and bulldozers are throughout the stadium in the video.

The original video was uploaded on December 24 to YouTube by Yosee Gamzoo Letova, a photographer and artist according to his Facebook profile.

The non-profit Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said it received information that the Israeli army is detaining hundreds of Palestinians from the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, among them dozens of women who were taken to Yarmouk Stadium.

“Palestinian males, including children as young as 10 years old and elderly people over the age of 70, were forced to take off all of their clothes except their underwear and line up in a humiliating manner in front of the women detained in the same stadium,” the human rights organization said in a statement.

The organization is calling on the international community to investigate the images of detainment. 

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and King Abdullah II of Jordan said in a statement they oppose any efforts to end the Palestinian cause or displace Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank either externally or internally within their territories.

“The two leaders affirmed their complete rejection of all attempts to end the Palestinian cause or to displace the Palestinians outside their lands or internally displace them, stressing that the only solution that the international community must push towards its implementation is an immediate ceasefire and the entry into force of relief aid,” the Egyptian Presidency statement reads.

The leaders convened at Al-Ittihadiya Palace on Wednesday to discuss the situation in Gaza, according to a statement from Egypt's presidency, which added they also called for an urgent ceasefire to allow in critically needed humanitarian aid.

They also called for a “fair and comprehensive solution” to the conflict, which they said should include the creation of an independent Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, the statement said.

The meeting came just days after Egypt floated a new peace plan, which was rejected by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, according to Reuters citing Egyptian security sources.

In November, Egypt and Qatar played a pivotal role in establishing a temporary ceasefire deal that led to the release of Israeli hostages previously held by Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip.