December 13, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

Several hospitals in Gaza have reported receiving a high number of civilian casualties on Wednesday. 

Al-Nasser hospital in southern Gaza issued a list of 45 people who had been killed, whose bodies had been brought to the hospital. The hospital frequently receives casualties from the city of Khan Younis, where fighting and air strikes have been heavy.

Medical staff at Al-Kuwaiti hospital in Rafah — also in southern Gaza — said 19 bodies were recovered after two houses in the area were hit by airstrikes. Some were taken to another hospital — Abu Youssef Al-Najjah — in eastern Rafah, along with many injured. 

Videos shot for CNN at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza on Wednesday showed many casualties being brought in after a reported strike in Deir al Balah.

The videos show ambulances bringing in men and women on stretchers, as well as body bags at the entrance of the hospital.

Inside the hospital, most of the injured are seen being treated on the floors amid chaotic scenes. Several of the injured have severe injuries to their limbs, while efforts are made by medical staff to resuscitate others.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that it is trying to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza while it carries out ground and air operations against Hamas throughout Gaza.

"There is a clear intent by the Israelis, an intent that they have admitted to publicly, that they are doing everything they can to reduce civilian casualties. And we're still seeing some civilian casualties. So we're still going to talk to them about doing everything they can to reduce that," US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told CNN Wednesday.

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday said that Israel was beginning to lose global support in its war against Hamas because of "indiscriminate bombing" in Gaza.

The war's impact on Gaza: As tens of thousands more people converge in southern Gaza, the United Nations has said on X (formerly Twitter) that "amid overcrowded conditions, the spread of diseases is surging, and people’s immense needs are escalating. UNICEF (the UN Children’s Fund) says a humanitarian ceasefire is desperately needed to allow the delivery of life-saving support to children & families."

United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said nearly 1.3 million displaced people are now sheltering in 155 UNRWA installations. The average number of internally displaced persons in UNRWA shelters located in middle and southern areas in Gaza is 11,480 — more than four times their capacity. 

UNRWA said that eight out of 22 UNRWA health centers are still operational in the middle and southern areas.

The agency added in its Wednesday update that “there are an estimated 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza, with more than 180 giving birth every day. A total of 188 post-natal and high-risk pregnancy cases were attended to at health centres.” 

The White House on Wednesday struggled to square President Joe Biden’s comments to donors on Tuesday that Israel’s offensive in Gaza was "indiscriminate" with the administration’s continued insistence that Israel’s “intent” is to limit civilian casualties.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby was asked multiple times by reporters about the president’s blunt claim that Israel was beginning to lose global support in its war against Hamas because of the “indiscriminate bombing” in Gaza.

Kirby repeatedly emphasized that the Biden administration sees Israel’s “intent” to minimize civilian deaths, despite Biden himself saying Israel was not being deliberate and careful. 

Asked by CNN’s MJ Lee why the White House insists on saying Israel has the “intent” to minimize civilian casualties, Kirby responded that “sometimes in war… the best-laid plans don’t get executed exactly the way you want.”

He added that there was “a clear intent by the Israelis — an intent that they have admitted to publicly — that they are doing everything they can to reduce civilian casualties.”

 Pressed if the White House was trying to argue that Israel was both trying to be deliberate and careful but at the same time bombing indiscriminately in other situations, Kirby repeated his previous talking points. 

“We know they have the intent. We know they're acting on the intent. Civilian casualties continue to happen. And again, we're going to keep urging them to reduce those,” Kirby said.

The spokesperson was also asked about Biden's remarks that he believed Netanyahu had to “change… with this government.” 

 “The president realizes that Israel is a powerful, vibrant democracy and any change in the government is going to have to be determined by the Israeli people,” Kirby responded. He did not elaborate on what Biden meant by his comment.

About Biden's comments: At a campaign reception on Tuesday, Biden said that Israel had most of the world supporting it, but it was “starting to lose that support by the indiscriminate bombing that takes place.” He also seemed to admit that Netanyahu acknowledged the bombings.

“It was pointed out to me – I’m being very blunt with you all – it was pointed out to me that – by Bibi – that ‘Well, you carpet-bombed Germany. You dropped the atom bomb. A lot of civilians died.’ I said, ‘Yeah, that’s why all these institutions were set up after World War Two to see to it that it didn’t happen again – it didn’t happen again,’” Biden said, according to the official White House transcript of the event.

He also called Netanyahu “a good friend” but said he “has to change and – with this government.”

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan is in Saudi Arabia for talks on preventing the Israel-Hamas conflict from spreading, a US official said Wednesday.

He is visiting the kingdom ahead of his trip Thursday to Israel. While there he met the country's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a person familiar with the matter said.

In Saudi Arabia, he plans to discuss the broader diplomatic efforts undertaken by the Biden administration to maintain stability in the region, the official said, including efforts to deter Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.

He'll also attempt to build on work that had been underway before the October 7 attacks on normalizing relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, which had included steps toward building peace with the Palestinians.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan will conduct “extremely serious conversations” with Israeli officials during his visit this week, the White House says, as the US looks to press Israel to conduct a more “surgical” campaign against Hamas.

Sullivan is expected to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu along with the Israeli war cabinet during the trip, which begins Thursday. He also plans to meet Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

The national security adviser will address the issue of aid flowing into Gaza and the “next phase of the military campaign,” according to John Kirby, the Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council.

Sullivan will discuss with the Israelis “efforts to be more surgical and more precise and to reduce harm to civilians.”

“That is an aim of ours. And the Israelis say it is an aim of theirs,” Kirby said. “But it's the results that count.”

He said the US has concerns about Israel’s prosecution of its offensive against Hamas — as demonstrated by President Biden’s remarks to Democratic donors Tuesday — and has raised those with Israeli officials.

“I’m not going to get ahead of the conversations that Jake will be having,” Kirby went on. “But I would like to just say that these are extremely serious conversations and we hope there'll be constructive as well.”

Sullivan is likely to make additional stops in the region, though Kirby declined to say where.

A hostage who was thought still to be alive in Gaza has now been pronounced dead, the Israeli prime minister’s office said.

Tal Chimi, 41, was taken hostage on October 7, the office said. 

Chimi was the grandson of the founders of kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, where he lived, according to a joint statement on behalf of the Chimi family, the kibbutz and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum headquarters.

“He was connected in every fiber of his soul to the kibbutz, and was one of the pillars of the community,” the statement said.

The kibbutz was one of several communities in southern Israel attacked in the early morning of October 7 by Hamas militants.

Chimi leaves behind his wife, three children — 9-year-old twins and a 6-year-old son — his father Zohar and his sister Or, the statement said.

Israeli officials told the US that, going forward, they will give detainees their clothes back "immediately" if strip-searches are conducted, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Wednesday.

The remark comes after images emerged last week of men in Gaza who were detained by Israeli forces, blindfolded, and stripped down to their underwear. 

Miller also said that Israeli officials told the US that the photos should not have been taken or released, "and they made it clear going forward that that will not be their practice."

"Those are obviously the appropriate steps to take," Miller said at a press briefing.

"They have informed us is that they conduct searches on detained individuals in Gaza to ensure that they are not wearing suicide vests, that they don't have other weapons, and that they pose no danger to (Israel Defense Forces) forces," he said.

Asked if the US is OK with the continued strip-searching of detainees, Miller said:

Additional inspections points for humanitarian aid bound for Gaza are helping accelerate shipments through the Rafah border crossing – with the amount of fuel being allowed in to rise by about one-third, Egypt said.

On Tuesday, Israeli authorities began inspecting humanitarian aid trucks at two crossings between Israel and Gaza, but the trucks must still cross from Egypt through Rafah into Gaza.

The additional inspections should allow 60 to 80 more trucks to enter Gaza every day, said Diaa Rashwan, chair of Egypt's State Information Service. He added that there was also agreement on increasing the amount of fuel entering the strip daily from 129,000 liters (about 34,000 gallons) to 189,000 liters (about 49,900 gallons), in addition to two domestic cooking gas trucks. 

The amounts are still far lower than what international aid agencies say is required amid a growing humanitarian crisis exacerbated by overcrowding in makeshift encampments and cold, wet weather.

Since aid began crossing into Gaza, 3,866 tonnes of medical help had been sent in, as well as 22,799 tonnes of food; 13,936 tonnes of water; 48 ambulances; and 2,678 tonnes of fuel, Rashwan said.

The families of American hostages held by Hamas offered effusive praise for President Joe Biden's administration after meeting at the White House with the president Wednesday.

“It was a terrific, terrific meeting, conversation,” Jonathan Dekel-Chen, whose son, Sagui Dekel-Chen, was captured by Hamas on October 7. “I think we all came away feeling that, as families of hostages of American Israeli hostages, which are eight out of a total of 138 hostages, we felt — we felt before, and we were only reinforced, seeing and believing, that we could have no better friend in Washington or in the White House than the president himself.”

Liz Naftali, the great-aunt of Abigail Edan, the 4-year-old Israeli American hostage released by Hamas last month, called her great-niece “a miracle, a light in this very dark time,” adding Biden and his administration “have been bringing out light in this dark time.”

She also thanked Pope Francis for calling for the safe release of all hostages in Gaza.

Dekel-Chen said the administration has been in “frequent, very transparent contact” with the families of hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, but told reporters the families are “going to keep the content of the conversation private.” 

While he declined to weigh in on calls for a ceasefire, Dekel-Chen said the meeting with the president “only reinforced that they are willing and ready to do all that they possibly can, by any number of means, to get the hostages out.”

Naftali, for her part, thanked members of the administration for centering the humanity of those still being held hostage.

“And that is what the president and (US Secretary of State Antony) Blinken understand — is that they are just not numbers and they're just not faces, they are sons,” she said. “They are sons. They are grandparents, they are mothers, and that is what the president and his team understand.”

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that the overwhelming vote at the UN General Assembly in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza makes clear "that the world wants this conflict to end, which is a goal that we share."

The US vetoed the resolution, as well as a resolution in the Security Council last week calling for a ceasefire.

"We don't want to see it go on a day longer than is necessary," Miller said at a press briefing Wednesday, but added that the US does not believe stopping Israel's military campaign now "is in the long-term security interests of anyone in the region."

Miller also said that while Hamas can be defeated, "you can't defeat an idea on the battlefield."

"It is incumbent upon Israel, it is incumbent upon other countries in the region, it is incumbent upon the United States and other every country around the world who wants to be the responsible player to present a better idea" than Hamas, Miller added.

The US believes that the Palestinian Authority "is the representative of the Palestinian people, and a revitalized, reformed, revamped Palestinian Authority is the proper path forward for governance of a reunited West Bank and Gaza," Miller re-iterated with the caveat that "obviously, the Palestinian Authority is not in position to step in tomorrow and begin to administer Gaza."

This post has been updated with additional remarks from the US State Department spokesperson.