April 7, 2024 - Israel-Hamas war

An Israeli delegation is expected to travel to Cairo on Sunday to join talks on a ceasefire and hostage deal, an Israeli official told CNN on Sunday.

On Saturday, Hamas said its delegation, headed by senior Hamas official Khalil Al Hayya, would also travel to Cairo on Sunday to reinforce its previous demands.

Earlier in the day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas' "extreme demands were intended to bring about an end to the war" while leaving the group intact. He made the comments at the beginning of a cabinet meeting Sunday, adding that there would be no truce without the return of hostages.

"It will not happen. Israel is ready for a deal, Israel is not ready to surrender," the Israeli prime minister said, adding that Hamas hoped that domestic and international pressure would force the Israeli government to meet its demands. 

Netanyahu said that victory in the Gaza Strip was "one step" away and that Israel had destroyed 19 out of 24 of Hamas' battalions.

The Israeli military said it has withdrawn its ground forces from Khan Younis in southern Gaza after months of fighting but a "significant force" remains in other areas of the strip.

A "significant force led by the 162nd division and the Nahal brigade continues to operate in the Gaza strip," the IDF said.

When asked by CNN about the reasons for the withdrawal, the IDF declined to comment. The move raises questions over Israel's much-touted plan to invade Rafah, the heavily populated area of southern Gaza that has so far escaped on the ground fighting.

Israeli public broadcaster and CNN affiliate Channel 11 on Sunday reported that the remaining forces would be located along the so-called Netzarim Corridor, a route that splits the Gaza Strip in two. The corridor intersects one of Gaza’s two main north-south roads, Salaheddin Street, to create a strategic, central junction.

The IDF on Sunday said that commando units had raided and searched more than a hundred locations in the Al-Amal neighborhood of Khan Younis. It claimed that “terrorist infrastructure” had been found in every location searched, including a tunnel about 900 meters long. The Israeli military said it “eliminated terrorists” during its operation. CNN cannot independently verify those claims. 

The United Kingdom's backing for Israel is "not unconditional," British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Sunday. In an op-ed published in the Sunday Times six months after the attacks by Hamas on October 7, Cameron said Israel “must abide” by humanitarian laws in Gaza, adding that Hamas is the “barrier to ending” the brutal conflict.

"Israel has a right to self-defense that we should support. Of course our backing is not unconditional: we expect such a proud and successful democracy to abide by international humanitarian law, even when challenged in this way," Cameron wrote.

“As an occupying power, Israel has a responsibility to the people of Gaza. But it also means that the international community must work with Israel on humanitarian efforts to keep people safe and provide them with what they need,” the foreign minister continued.

Cameron added the UK was pushing “as hard as we can” on getting aid to Palestinian civilians. “Ashdod port and Erez crossing will soon reopen. Water will be turned back on. And more aid will flow through Kerem Shalom,” he wrote, welcoming the news but warning that “words must turn into action.”

Cameron also called the killing of the World Central Kitchen aid workers, including three British ex-servicemen, “a terrible reminder of the cost of the Gaza conflict” that “must never happen again.”

The Gaza Ministry of Health reported on Sunday that the death toll in the Gaza Strip since October 7 has risen to 33,175.

The ministry added that 75,886 people have been injured in this time frame.

CNN cannot independently verify these numbers.

Three people were injured when an Israeli man drove into a crowd of anti-government protesters blocking a road in Tel Aviv Saturday night, according to police.

“A car driver hit three civilians while driving and continued driving until he was stopped by the police,” a police spokesperson said.

A video of the incident shows the driver and three passengers driving slowly through the crowd of protesters yelling profanities. At one point the driver begins to get out of the car but is stopped by a police officer. The car then speeds up and multiple individuals are hit.

The injured citizens received medical treatment and were released from hospital, with the exception of one person who is in moderate condition, Ichilov Hospital, where the injured were treated, said on Sunday.

In an update on Sunday morning, police said they had arrested the driver and questioned him under "suspicion of endangering human lives on a public road,” the police spokesperson said, adding that the suspect was still in custody.

CNN affiliate Channel 11 (Kan News) interviewed the driver's lawyer, Roey Keren, who said the incident had not been intentional. "This is not a deliberate run over and it seems that a mechanical malfunction caused the electric vehicle to accelerate without the driver being able to stop it immediately, all the while doing everything possible to avoid running over protesters," he said.

A doctor at a field hospital for detained Palestinians at an Israeli army base has described “deplorable conditions” and “routine” amputations due to handcuff injuries, according to an exclusive report from the newspaper Haaretz.

In a letter to Israel’s attorney general and defense and health ministers, obtained by Haaretz, the doctor said the conditions at Sde Teiman field hospital compromise inmates’ health and violate medical ethics. He reported violations such as feeding inmates through straws, keeping them in constant restraints, blindfolding them, and making them defecate in diapers.

In its response to these allegations, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that it "operates according to the law and within the framework of the law when it comes to the treatment of detainees."

The IDF stated that the handcuffing of detainees is done "in accordance with the procedures, their health condition and the level of danger posed by them" to ensure staff safety, adding that "any allegation of violence or humiliation for which concrete details will be provided will be examined and dealt with individually."

CNN spoke to a source who has a medical background and previously visited the Sde Teiman field hospital. They confirmed seeing detainees held in constant restraints.

The Israeli military said that it has struck Hezbollah targets in eastern Lebanon after the group shot down an Israeli drone over the country’s airspace the previous day, according to a statement released on Sunday.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it struck four sites of Hezbollah's air defense unit in the Baalbek area, northeast of the capital Beirut, in the early hours of Sunday.

“In response to the attack in which an IDF UAV was shot down last night (Saturday), IDF fighter jets struck a military complex and three additional terrorist infrastructure sites belonging to Hezbollah’s Aerial Defense Array,” the IDF said.

Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) reported that no one was injured or killed in the Israeli strikes on Sunday.

Hezbollah on Saturday said that the group had shot down the armed drone, which it claimed was an Israeli-made Hermes 900, in "support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip." 

Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Islamist movement with one of the most powerful paramilitary forces in the Middle East, is allied with Hamas. Since October 7, Hezbollah and Israel have traded regular fire, prompting fears of a full-blown conflict between the two.

The courtyard of Um Ihab’s family home in Jabalya, northern Gaza, once bloomed with citrus trees.

On most weekends, dozens of relatives would gather for a birthday party or a university graduation. The Palestinian grandmother would decorate the house with gold streamers and multi-colored balloons, as white confetti poured from the ceiling.

But when an Israeli airstrike demolished the house last winter, at least 30 members of the Ihab family were forced to flee the neighborhood where three generations had lived. Now, they are staying in a cramped tent in the yard of a displacement shelter in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, Um Ihab said.

“The land was swept away,” Um Ihab told CNN in February. “Not even one tree stayed up.”

Over six months of war in Gaza, Israel’s military offensive has decimated neighborhoods, drained essential supplies and caused severe hunger and thirst. Many Palestinians have been forced to seek refuge in outdoor tent camps, where they struggle to find enough food or water.

For elderly Gazans whose lifetimes have been punctuated by war, the latest fighting has compounded years of suffering under partial blockade. These days, many find themselves marking death instead of celebrating life. 

Some, like Um Ihab, are desperately trying to hold their families together. But their age and poor health make daily survival even more of a struggle.

Read her full story here.

President Joe Biden ticked through several things that he needed to see Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu do immediately: open up the Erez crossing into northern Gaza and the port of Ashdod in southern Israel for humanitarian aid; significantly ramp up the supplies getting in through Kerem Shalom.

A person familiar with the Thursday call paraphrased Netanyahu as responding: “Joe, we’re gonna do it.”

But Biden wasn’t finished. The prime minister must announce the moves that evening, the president insisted.

By Thursday night, the Israeli security cabinet had approved those three measures to increase humanitarian aid entering the besieged enclave.

The relatively brief phone call between the two leaders this week marked the first time since Hamas’ attack on Israel in October that Biden threatened Netanyahu with serious consequences if Israel did not change the way it was waging its war in Gaza.

Biden, who has remained steadfast in his support of Israel’s right to defend itself — even amid growing political backlash at home — warned the prime minister that if conditions did not rapidly improve for civilians in the strip, he would reconsider how the US was backing Israel in the conflict.

The exact policy changes discussed have remained unknown, but here are a few things at stake for both the countries.

Read the full story here.