February 17, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

Our live coverage of Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza has moved here.

Buildings and roads are destroyed after an Israeli attack in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on February 17.

At least 50 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on central and southern Gaza on Saturday, according to doctors at hospitals in the strip. The Israel Defense Forces said it struck a series of Hamas “command and control centers” in central Gaza.

These are the biggest headlines from the war on Saturday:

Two Israeli airstrikes on the city of Rafah in southern Gaza killed at least 13 Palestinians, Dr. Marwan Al-Homss, the general director of Abu Yousuf Al-Najjar Government Hospital, told CNN on Saturday.

According to Al-Homss, the first airstrike hit a location in northern Rafah, leading to the deaths of six members of a family, including women and children. A second strike in an open area where displaced residents had sought refuge killed at least seven people, including four children, a woman, a man and a teenager, according to Al-Homss.

Israel claims it is targeting Hamas in Rafah. On Saturday, Israel’s Coordinator for the Captives and the Missing Gal Hirsch told CNN the Israeli military is doing “everything we can to avoid possible damage.”

Looming Israeli ground offensive: Israel has been bombarding Rafah with airstrikes for weeks and says it is committed to a ground offensive in the city. The alternative “is to surrender to Hamas and to sacrifice 134 people,” military spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told CNN Tuesday, referring to the Israelis held hostage in Gaza. “That is not an option from Israel’s perspective,” he said.

The United Nations aid chief has said an offensive in Rafah could lead to “a slaughter.” Palestinians there say they have nowhere to run. Some have tried to flee north to central Deir al-Balah, where doctors also reported deadly airstrikes Saturday.

People mourn a child who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on February 17.

At least 44 Palestinians were killed and dozens more were injured due to Israeli airstrikes on multiple neighborhoods in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza on Saturday, a doctor from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital told CNN on Saturday.

Doctors from Al-Aqsa and Al-Awda hospitals earlier told CNN at least 30 people had been killed.

Video obtained by CNN from Al-Aqsa shows injured children among those being rushed in for treatment, and dead bodies wrapped in cloth on the hospital floor, including a deceased baby.

The Israel Defense Forces said it struck a series of Hamas “operational command and control centers” in central Gaza Saturday. The IDF said its jets hit Hamas targets in the Nuseirat and Deir al-Balah neighborhoods.

The number of people killed in Gaza since October 7 has risen to 28,858, with 68,291 people injured, the health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza said Saturday. Israel estimates about 10,000 Hamas militants have been killed since October 7.

CNN can’t independently verify the casualty figures in Gaza due to limited access to the area.

This post has been updated with the latest death and injury tolls from a doctor in Gaza.

Qatar’s prime minister emphasized the urgent need to end the Israel-Hamas conflict and prevent escalation while speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. 

“Now we are focused on the priority of how to end this war and how to avoid further escalation,” Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani said.

Al-Thani, who is also the foreign minister, said some countries believe “that in order to get a ceasefire, it’s conditional to have the hostage deal. It shouldn’t be conditioned.”

“What should be conditional is the humanitarian catastrophe over there; we feel for all the people. The crimes are condemned, whoever is the perpetrator,” he added.

Recent talks in Cairo between Qatar, Egypt, Israel and the US have yet to result in a deal.

US President Joe Biden said Friday that he’s had “extensive conversations” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and he has relayed his position that there should be a temporary ceasefire to secure the release of hostages still held in Gaza.

Displaced Palestinians camp in Rafah, Gaza, near the border fence with Egypt, on February 16.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that his forces have a “realistic” plan for their ground operations in the crowded southern Gaza city of Rafah, where he is facing growing international pressure to protect civilians.

Roughly 1.5 million Palestinians are seeking shelter in the southern Gaza city near the border with Egypt — many of them already displaced from elsewhere in the enclave. The United Nations aid chief has said an operation there could lead to “a slaughter.” Palestinians in the city say they have nowhere left to go.

“Our ability to enter Rafah has been proven as realistic,” Netanyahu said in a news conference Saturday, claiming there is room for the displaced to move north, but “we have to do it in an orderly way.”

He said he told US President Joe Biden this week that, “Israel is going to fight until we reach total victory, and that includes also ground offensive in Rafah — of course after we let citizens there to evacuate to other safe places.”

When Biden spoke with Netanyahu Thursday, he urged him not to proceed with operations without a “credible and executable plan for ensuring the safety of and support for the civilians,” according to the White House.

On hostage talks: Netanyahu also echoed the remarks of his hostage coordinator, who told CNN on Saturday that Hamas’ demands for a ceasefire and hostage release — such as stopping the war and releasing thousands of Palestinian prisoners — are “delusional.”

Pressure at home: The prime minister’s comments came as thousands took to the streets of Tel Aviv and Caesarea on Saturday, calling for the dismissal of Netanyahu and his government. The prime minister called for “unity,” saying, “The last thing we need now is a new election.”

The US says it made two successful strikes on Houthi rebel targets in the Red Sea out of self-defense on Friday.

The targets included one mobile anti-ship cruise missile and one mobile unmanned surface vessel belonging to the Iranian-backed group in Yemen, according to US Central Command. The US identified the missile as an “imminent threat” to US Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region.

Remember: The Houthis have frequently targeted shipping in the Red Sea in response to Israel’s war on Gaza. The rebels have maintained that attacks will continue until the “aggression stops” on Gaza.

Israel’s Coordinator for the Captives and the Missing, Gal Hirsch, speaks at a press conference in Tel Aviv, Israel in October 2023.

Hamas’ demands for a hostage deal are “delusional” and need to be “close to reality,” Israel’s Coordinator for the Captives and the Missing Gal Hirsch told CNN on Saturday.

“We want a deal very much, and we know we need to pay prices. But Hamas’ demands are disconnected from reality — delusional,” the former Israel Defense Forces commander said in an interview with CNN’s Alex Marquardt at the Munich Security Conference in Germany.

Hamas’ proposal for a ceasefire and hostage deal envisaged a three-stage process over four-and-a-half months, during which Israeli troops would gradually withdraw from Gaza, hostages would be released and Palestinian prisoners in Israel would be freed, according to a copy of the group’s counteroffer obtained by CNN. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed this proposal as “delusional.”

The Israeli leader has repeatedly said the war in Gaza will continue until Israel destroys Hamas leadership and rescues the hostages.

There were further talks this week, but a number of sticking points emerged. CNN previously reported that US officials are increasingly concerned whether Netanyahu is genuinely interested in reaching a hostage deal at the present time, given the opposition to any form of compromise with Hamas from within his government.

Palestinians walk next to damaged buildings in Gaza City, on February 11.

After being trapped in a building for more than a week in a neighborhood of Gaza City besieged by Israeli troops, a group of Palestinian women told CNN they were forced to flee south with their children, leaving other family members behind, and some walking barefoot for more than 12 miles along a stretch of coastline to escape.

One woman said she had no choice but to abandon her elderly stepmother on the beach, and feared she’d since been attacked by dogs that were roaming the area.

CNN spoke with the four women at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, where they arrived on February 3 with their 16 children — ages 9 months to 12 years — after walking for about eight hours in the cold rain from Gaza City. The group of relatives and neighbors, who are from Abu Eskandar, a neighborhood in northern Gaza, said they had sought shelter in Gaza City on their journey south, holing up in an apartment building in the Al-Rimal neighborhood.

In extensive interviews, the women alleged that Israeli forces abducted their husbands and sons, older relatives, and one sister, a female doctor, from the apartment building where they were sheltering in Gaza City. They accused the Israeli military of blowing up the building, as well as others nearby.

Read the full story here.

The world is once again talking about a Palestinian state.

The issue has caused a deep rift between Israel and its closest ally, the United States. US President Joe Biden keeps pressing for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects any talk of an independent Palestine. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom said it would consider recognizing a Palestinian state, while Saudi Arabia insists that without a resolution to the statehood question, there can be no normalization of ties with Israel.

In all that back and forth about their future, the voice of the Palestinian people has been largely missing. Watching world leaders debate their fate, many Palestinians are not holding their breath. They’ve heard it all before.

Khalil Shikaki, the director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR), said that most Palestinians are beyond the point of putting their hopes into statements made by foreign leaders, regardless of how friendly they might sound.

“No rhetoric, no matter from where, is going to be helpful at all to convince the Palestinians that there is a viable political process that could end the Israeli occupation and give them statehood in their own country,” he told CNN in an interview in Ramallah, the administrative center of the Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

“What they need to see is action on the ground,” he said. “They want to see Israeli occupation ending – and the two most important signs of Israeli occupation are the settlement construction and the control over land.”

Read the full story here.

A “large number” of medical personnel, patients and displaced people remain trapped inside southern Gaza’s Nasser Medical Complex, the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health said in a statement on Friday night local time.

It said those trapped in the maternity building of the enclave’s largest functioning medical center had been subjected to “interrogation in harsh and inhumane conditions” by Israeli forces.

Electricity also remains cut off to the complex as a result of generators not working, increasing the chances of death for cases requiring oxygen.

Five medical personnel and 120 patients remain in the old building of the compound without food or water, it said.

The statement also claimed Israeli forces had prevented the evacuation of serious cases to other hospitals.

About 100 people detained: In a statement issued Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces said operations were still underway in Khan Younis, where Nasser Hospital is located, with “approximately 100 individuals suspected of terrorist activity being apprehended.”

“In parallel to the searches, IDF troops killed terrorists around the area of the hospital,” it said.

Israeli special forces entered the hospital complex on Thursday, with the IDF saying, “Hamas terrorists are likely hiding behind injured civilians inside Nasser hospital.”

The IDF also claimed there was “credible intelligence from a number of sources, including from released hostages” that bodies of deceased hostages may be present there. The military did not publicly release evidence to back up its claim.

Hamas said it had “no business” in the hospital. 

A woman reacts as she stands before a vehicle loaded with items secured by rope as people flee from Rafah, Gaza on February 13.

Displaced Palestinians in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah are fleeing toward northern Deir al-Balah as Israeli airstrikes intensify and the prospect of ground operations in the city approaches, according to a UN body.

“Intensified airstrikes on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population are crammed into less than 20 per cent of the Gaza Strip, and statements by Israeli officials about a ground operation in Gaza have reportedly led to the movement of people out of Gaza’s southernmost governorate toward Deir al Balah,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs wrote Thursday in a flash update.

What Israel is saying: On Friday, former Israeli alternate prime minister and current war cabinet minister Benny Gantz said Israel “won’t stop” until all hostages are returned, even if that means continuing hostilities during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. 

He added that Israel is preparing for a military incursion into Rafah, and will act “in dialogue” with its partners, including Egypt, and “direct the population to protected areas.”

In a separate statement on Friday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told reporters Israel had “no intention” of sending Palestinians into Egypt as part of an evacuation of Rafah. Gallant provided no further details about a potential evacuation.

This post has been updated to specify Gantz’s former role in an Israeli emergency government.

Five patients at Nasser Hospital, Gaza’s largest functioning medical facility, died on Friday after power was lost at the hospital, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

The death comes as Israeli special forces raided the hospital on Thursday after laying siege to the facility for days. Israel’s military claimed it apprehended more than 20 suspects from the October 7 attack by Hamas and found weapons amid their continued raid of the hospital in Khan Younis. António Guterres, the United Nation’s secretary-general, condemned the raid.

Here are the latest developments in the conflict:

Palestinians residents examines the rubbles of destroyed buildings following Israeli attacks in Rafah, Gaza on February 16.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) decided on Friday that the “perilous situation” in the Gaza strip does not demand further provisional measures beyond those already in place.

On January 26, the ICJ ordered Israel to “take all measures” to limit the death and destruction caused by its military campaign, prevent and punish incitement to genocide, and ensure access to humanitarian aid. This was in response to South Africa previously accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, which Israel has denied.

The ICJ’s Friday decision is in response to an urgent request from South Africa asking the court to consider whether the escalating situation in Rafah — where millions of Palestinians have sought shelter from nonstop bombardment across the territory — calls for additional provisional measures.

Subsequently, Israel’s lawyers filed a series of statements in which they argued that “the provisional measures already indicated by the Court cover the situation of hostilities in Gaza as a whole.”

The ICJ decided the measures were sufficient, noting their decision accounted for the recent developments in Rafah.

“This perilous situation demands immediate and effective implementation of the provisional measures indicated by the Court in its Order of 26 January 2024, which are applicable throughout the Gaza Strip, including in Rafah, and does not demand the indication of additional provisional measures,” the court’s decision reads.
“The Court emphasizes that the State of Israel remains bound to fully comply with its obligations under the Genocide Convention and with the said Order, including by ensuring the safety and security of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip,” the ICJ said.

Reacting to the latest urgent request at the ICJ, Israel accused South Africa of trying to deny Israel’s right to defend itself and its citizens.

“South Africa’s legally and factually unfounded submission proves once again that it is the legal arm of the Hamas terrorist organization,” Lior Haiat, Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson, said Wednesday.

Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Younis, Gaza, on December 22, 2020.

A doctor trapped inside Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza said the wards and corridors “are still flooded with beds” as Israeli forces continued to raid what was the largest remaining functioning hospital in the enclave.

“The situation is still the same. All of the medical staff and patients are still trapped in the medical department,” he said in a voice note late Thursday. His testimony was shared with CNN by his colleague.
“Most of the patients do not have the chance to get the medicine and their health care … We cannot make rounds on patients. We cannot move between beds,” added the surgeon, who asked not to be named for security reasons. “No one can reach the ICU … the army is inside it,” he wrote in a message. “All the ICU patients will die.”

On Friday, details emerged of the grim conditions faced by those left inside the facility. At least five patients died after Israel’s attack caused the complex to lose power, the ministry said, adding that Nasser Hospital was “without electricity, water, food, and heating.”

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they did not target the hospital’s power supply, but a generator malfunction had caused the power outage. Despite the outage, the IDF said that “all vital systems” remained functional due to a backup power system. The IDF said troops with the Israeli military also supplied alternative generators, food for infants, water and diesel fuel to the hospital.

On Thursday, Israeli special forces entered Nasser. The Israeli military has since said they’ve found weapons inside the facility and that they have detained over 20 suspects from the October 7 attack amid the raid.

CNN’s Abeer Salman contributed reporting.

US President Joe Biden speaks at the White House in Washington, DC, on February 16.

US President Joe Biden told reporters at the White House Friday that he’s had “extensive conversations” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the last several days, where he relayed his position “that there has to be a temporary ceasefire” to secure the safe release of hostages still held by Hamas.

“I’m still hopeful that can be done, and in the meantime … I’m hoping that Israelis will not make any massive land invasion in the meantime,” Biden said. “So, it’s my expectation that’s not going to happen. There has to be a ceasefire to get those hostages out.”

Biden also said his “hope and expectation” is that a hostage and ceasefire deal will be reached. “The deal is being negotiated now, and we’re gonna see where it takes us,” he said.

US conversations with Israel: CNN reported earlier this week that US officials have been direct in their talks with Israeli counterparts that the estimated 1.3 million people currently in the southernmost city of Rafah simply “have nowhere to go” ahead of an expected ground offensive, according to a senior administration official.

The Biden administration is highly skeptical about whether Netanyahu’s direction to Israel’s military for an “evacuation of the population” out of Rafah before Israel forces enter is even remotely feasible.

Israel released more details on Friday about the 12 employees of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees that it has accused of participating in the October 7 terrorist attacks and kidnappings, including their names, photos, and alleged roles with Hamas.

The additional details included screengrabs of what Israel said were two United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) employees — a social worker and math teacher — in Israel on October 7. The defense ministry also provided identification photos of 10 other alleged Hamas members, their positions and alleged involvement in the attack, but did not provide any supporting evidence to back up its claims.

CNN could not independently verify the identity of the men or Israel’s allegations about their involvement with Hamas.

An UNRWA spokesperson said the United Nations’ highest investigative authority is investigating the matter, but declined to comment on the additional details provided by Israel on Friday due to the investigation.

Some background: Israel presented the United Nations, the United States and other allies with a dossier last month that included allegations about these 12 UNRWA employees — out of 13,000 in Gaza — leading more than a dozen countries to suspend funding to the agency, which plays a central role in feeding and sheltering hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the strip.

UNRWA quickly fired 10 of the 12 staff members accused by Israel of involvement in the October 7 attacks and launched an investigation into the allegations in hopes of keeping international funding to the agency flowing at a critical time. The United Nations said two of the 12 had died.

Read more details about Israel’s allegations.

A displaced Palestinian woman walks near the border fence between Gaza and Egypt on February 16, in Rafah, Gaza.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel has “no intention” of sending Palestinians into Egypt as part of an evacuation of Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, where Israel has said it will concentrate its next military offensive.

“We respect and value our peace agreement with Egypt, which is a cornerstone of stability in the region as well as an important partner,” Gallant told reporters during a briefing Friday.

Gallant’s comments come amid reports that Egypt is building a miles-wide buffer zone along its border with Gaza as part of a contingency plan in case large numbers of Palestinian refugees flood into Egypt.

Israeli officials have said the military is working on a detailed plan to evacuate civilians from Rafah ahead of a planned offensive there, but they have yet to share any details of the plan.

Gallant provided no details about a potential evacuation on Friday, but said, “we are thoroughly planning future operations in Rafah, which is a significant Hamas stronghold.”

Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz attends a press conference in Tel Aviv, Israel in October 2023.

Israeli war cabinet minister and former Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Israel “won’t stop” until all hostages in Gaza are returned, even if that means continuing hostilities during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

“I would like to convey a message to all citizens of Israel and to the families of the hostages: We don’t stop — until they are returned,” Gantz said in a video on Friday. “There will not be a ceasefire even for one day until our hostages are returned.”

Gantz said the fighting would continue, regardless of the time of the year.

“⁠Even in the approaching month of Ramadan, the fire can continue,” he said. “Either our hostages will be returned, or we will expand the fighting to Rafah.”

Gantz added Israel is preparing for a ground offensive into Rafah and will act “in dialogue” with its partners, including Egypt, and “direct the population to protected areas.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the operation in Rafah must be completed by the start of Ramadan on March 10, an Israeli official told CNN on Saturday.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday issued a stern warning in a televised speech condemning recent Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon, which left number of civilians killed or wounded, as “unacceptable.”

Nasrallah said that the killing of civilians would not go unanswered and vowed that Hezbollah’s retaliation would be swift and decisive.

“The enemy (Israel) must know that it went too far by its targeting of civilians. The price for the blood of our civilians, particularly the women and children, is blood,” Nasrallah said.

Israeli airstrike: The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement on Thursday that it eliminated a senior commander and two operatives belonging to Hezbollah’s Radwan Forces in a precise airstrike on a Hezbollah military structure in Nabatieh that was conducted late Wednesday in Lebanese territory.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency described the structure hit in Nabatieh by the IDF as a residential building, adding that at least seven people from the same family, including a child, were killed.

Some background: Prior to October 7, Nasrallah had not spoken publicly in person since 2006, when a month-long war erupted between Lebanon and Israel. In November 2023, Nasrallah called for a ceasefire and praised Hamas’ attacks on Israel, adding that they were fully planned and executed by the militant group.