January 8, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

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

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s delegation in Tel Aviv expects to discuss the Israeli defense minister’s plan for the next phase of the war in Gaza during key meetings on Tuesday, according to a senior US official.

Last week, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant put forward the military’s plan for the next phase of the war. Gallant’s proposal states that Palestinians not be allowed to return to their homes in northern Gaza until all the remaining hostages are freed. 

The US side is expected to push Israeli officials on an “imminent” transition of the war to a lower-intensity phase, the official said — which the US has not yet seen.

US President Joe Biden said Monday that he’s been working to persuade the Israeli government to reduce or “significantly get out of Gaza.”

He was speaking during a campaign event at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina – the scene of a horrific mass shooting in 2015 – and was interrupted by protesters calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

“If you really care about the lives lost here you should honor the lives lost and call for a ceasefire in Palestine,” a protestor shouted at the president, referring to the mass shooting that took the lives of nine churchgoers.

A group of protesters then began chanting “ceasefire now.”

They were asked to leave, as supporters began chanting, “Four more years.” The moment underscores the divisions within the Democratic Party on the issue three months after Israel’s military campaign in Gaza following the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7. 

Biden acknowledged the protest: “I understand the passion and I’ve been quietly working — been quietly working with the Israeli government to reduce — significantly get out of Gaza.”

Following the speech, Biden’s deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks told reporters: “Of course, the president is listening,”

Fulks added, “He’s listening to every part of his base. It’s why he’s here and why we’re gonna continue to take this message everywhere.”  

Fulks said that Biden was “very adamant” that “even when people have disagreements with us, from a policy perspective, that we still respect their views and understand them.” 

Asked specifically about the protestors calling for a ceasefire, communications director Michael Tyler said Biden understood the passion.

He said the president is “approaching this not as a politician, but as a human being who and a commander in chief who approaches this from the perspective of somebody who has American safety, global security, front of mind.”

In recent months, there has been growing internal frustration among staffers within the Biden administration on how the president has responded following Hamas’ October 7 attack.

In November, more than 700 staffers and political appointees signed a letter calling on the president to support a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict. The letter was signed by staffers who work in more than 30 departments and agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, FBI and NASA.

Meantime: Secretary of State Antony Blinken will be the latest in a long parade of Biden national security officials to meet face-to-face with the Israeli government on Tuesday. It will be his fifth visit since the October 7 attack by Hamas.

The stakes of Blinken’s trip are high as America’s allies stood behind Israel at the start of the war but have grown critical as the civilian toll in Gaza rises. Those partners will be looking for evidence Israel is listening to the US, and, as tensions skyrocket in the region, allies are hoping Blinken can ensure Israel has a viable plan to end the war amid concerns over a wider conflict.

In just the past month, Israeli officials have also gotten visits from national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Amos Hochstein, a special envoy who works on energy issues and who has close ties to Israel and Lebanon.

The post and headline have been updated with details on Biden’s remarks about Israel’s campaign in Gaza.

Israel is continuing to ramp up its ground offensive in central and southern Gaza, even as Israeli officials are saying forces will shift to a new phase of fighting. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have carried out strikes and pushed its ground forces into areas where it had previously urged civilians to evacuate.

About one out of every 100 people in Gaza has been killed since October 7, Palestinian statistics show. 

It comes as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken makes a flurry of stops in the Middle East and will meet with Israeli officials on Tuesday. It will be his fifth visit since the October 7 attack by Hamas.

Ahead of touching down in Tel Aviv, the top US diplomat visited other Arab nations involved in talks on another possible humanitarian ceasefire and hostage release, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Qatar.

Here’s what else to know:

Israel claimed responsibility for the death of a senior Hezbollah commander, Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 14 on Monday.

Wissam Tawil, a senior commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan forces was killed by an Israeli drone strike in his car in southern Lebanon, a Lebanese security source previously confirmed to CNN. 

“As for the hit in south Lebanon, we did take responsibility,” Katz said in the interview, “This is part of our war.”

Katz added that Israel is making Hezbollah “pay a price.”

“We did not set a goal to thwart 150,000 missiles,” he said. “We set a goal to restore security to the residents of the north, to restore security to the residents of the south and to the State of Israel.”

Katz also reiterated that Israel has not claimed responsibility for last week’s blast in southern Beirut that killed the deputy head of Hamas’ political bureau, Saleh Al-Arouri.

A British surgeon who led an emergency medical team at the Al Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza said the situation at the hospital in the past two weeks has been “beyond any doubt the worst thing” he’s ever seen in his medical career.   

Maynard described brutal situations of “multiple traumatic amputations of children, and as I said, horrific burns, the likes of which I’ve never seen before,” the doctor said. He added that often “there is no pain relief to give to these patients at all.”      

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Hamas hides terrorist infrastructure in and around civilian institutions in Gaza, such as hospitals, and that targeting them is essential as it works to eliminate Hamas from the Gaza Strip.

Israel has also said some hospitals are being used as command centers but has provided limited evidence to support that claim. The IDF’s operations are contentious, with humanitarian organizations saying medical facilities in Gaza are unable to provide basic services.   

“I’ve been going to Gaza for nearly 15 years now, I’ve many friends who work in hospitals there. There are many examples of hospitals being attacked. In the last two days since I left Al Aqsa hospital, there have been attacks on the hospital,” the doctor said. 

Maynard told CNN that he and his team found themselves with no choice but to withdraw from the hospital, in light of the increasing Israeli military activity at the hospital.

The British surgeon had been in Gaza for two weeks, an experience he described as “frightening.” 

“Multiple children being brought in, some only a few months old, with horrific burns. Many of them dead. We see a large number of bomb victims, affecting predominantly the limbs, many amputations. But also, many thoracic and many abdominal injuries,” he said.

Speaking from the Egyptian capital of Cairo, Maynard said he found it difficult to leave the hospital on Monday. 

“There was an attack on the intensive care unit,” he said. “We were due to leave it about that time anyways but the following morning, the whole area was taken out of the de-confliction, and we were told by the Israeli Defense Forces that we would not be able to go.” 

CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment but has not heard heard back.

The doctor said his organization, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), and Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), were both operating at the hospital but “both sets of foreign doctors had to leave.”

As Maynard and his team left Gaza for their safety, he now fears the lack of personnel left at the hospital.

“In the surgery department, on one of the days last week, there was one local surgeon and two of us. And we hear, subsequently, that the majority of those have gone. So, I fear there are not enough staff to run the hospital in any form at all now,” he said.  

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Sunday that while Israel is not looking for war with Hezbollah, if necessary, his country could “copy-paste” its military actions in Gaza to Beirut, Lebanon. 

Gallant said “the priority isn’t to get into a war” with Hezbollah but “eighty-thousand people need to be able to go back to their homes safely,”  the WSJ reported. 

Gallant also stated that if no agreement is negotiated to make that possible, then, Israel wouldn’t shrink from military action, adding “we are willing to sacrifice.” 

Gallant also said he believes Israel is “fighting an axis, not a single enemy,” and “Iran is building up military power around Israel in order to use it,” according to the report.

Israel is determined to destroy Iran-backed Hamas, but also to act with enough force to deter other potential adversaries allied with Tehran, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Gallant said in the WSJ interview.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Friday during a speech that the group’s attacks on Israel aim “to mount pressure on the enemy government and to stop the assault on Gaza” and reiterated that the death of Saleh Al-Arouri, a senior figure in Hamas, in Beirut will “not go unpunished.” 

The Hezbollah leader also warned that people in northern Israel would be the first to suffer consequences in the event of a broader conflict. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Tel Aviv ahead of key meetings with Israeli officials on Tuesday.

The top US diplomat landed in Israel on Monday afternoon after a flurry of stops throughout the region. He is expected to push Israeli officials on the need to do more to protect civilians as the staggering humanitarian toll in Gaza continues to mount. 

This is his fourth trip to the region since the October 7 Hamas attack and his fifth visit to Israel. On his first trip following the attack, he visited Israel twice.

Blinken will push Israeli officials on the need to do more to protect civilians as the staggering humanitarian toll in Gaza continues to mount. 

Meetings on Monday: Blinken discussed efforts being made to achieve security and stability in Gaza with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), according to the government-run Saudi Press Agency.

The crown prince “stressed the importance of stopping military operations, intensifying humanitarian efforts, and working to create conditions for the return of stability,” the news agency reported.

In addition to Saudi Arabia, Blinken has already visited other Arab nations involved in talks on another possible humanitarian ceasefire and hostage release, including Jordan and Qatar. After meetings in Israel, he will also stop in the West Bank and Egypt. 

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken is reiterating that it is “clearly not in the interest” of any countries in the region for the war in Gaza to expand. It comes after an Israeli strike killed a Hezbollah commander in Lebanon, according to a Lebanese security source.

“It’s clearly not in the interest of anyone — Israel, Lebanon, Hezbollah, for that matter — to see this… to see this escalate and to see an actual conflict,” Blinken said to reporters in Saudi Arabia before departing for Israel.

“The Israelis have been very clear with us that they want to find a diplomatic way forward that creates the kind of security that allows Israelis to return home,” the top US diplomat said, noting that “nearly 100,000 Israelis have been forced to leave their homes in northern Israel because of the threat coming from Hezbollah in Lebanon.”

“We’re working intensely on that effort,” Blinken said.

He said the US is also working on a diplomatic solution that would allow Lebanese people to return to their homes in southern Lebanon.

Some background: A senior Hezbollah commander, Wissam Tawil, was killed by an Israeli drone strike on his car in southern Lebanon, a Lebanese security source told CNN on Monday. 

Tawil is the most senior Hezbollah commander to be killed in an Israeli strike since the onset of daily crossfire between the Lebanon-based group and Israeli forces in October.

On Saturday, Hezbollah launched a rocket barrage on an Israeli airbase in northern Israel, in an attack the group said was a “preliminary response” to the suspected Israeli attack that killed Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in southern Beirut last week.

On the war in Gaza: Heading next to Israel, the top US diplomat said he will push the Israeli government “on the absolute imperative to do more to protect civilians” in Gaza. 

Blinken said is also planning to press Israeli officials on the need for more humanitarian aid to enter the war-torn strip “and also to talk to them about the future direction of their military campaign in Gaza.”

He said in meetings with key Arab leaders on Monday, there was “broad agreement” that Israel “should be able to live in peace and security,” which would mean the West Bank and Gaza should be unified under a Palestinian-led government with an independent Palestinian state.

Israel’s military said it has killed a Hamas militant in Syria who it says was a central figure in firing rockets from Syria toward Israel in recent weeks.

Hassan Hakashah was killed in the southern town of Beit Jinn on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.

“We will not allow terrorism from Syrian territory and hold Syria responsible for all activity emanating from its territory. The IDF will continue to act against any threat posed to the State of Israel,” the statement said.

Hamas has so far not publicly commented on Hakashah’s death. 

Some buildings are flattened or partially collapsed. Others are riddled with bullets or scarred by smoke. Civilians are nowhere to be found. 

This is the scene CNN found on the outskirts of Al-Bureij in central Gaza after three months of war.

CNN embedded with the Israeli military on Monday, getting a glimpse of the destruction inside Gaza and a rare look inside the alleged Hamas underground and weapons manufacturing infrastructure uncovered by the Israeli military.

Alongside now-bulldozed farmlands and inside a nondescript building, the Israeli military took reporters inside the opening of what it said was a tunnel system leading to a weapons manufacturing facility both above and below ground.

“We are standing in one of the main entrances to the manufacturing terror center,” said an officer identified only as Maj. Ariel of the 188th Brigade, which uncovered the tunnel entrance.

Under a nearby shed, the Israeli military showed another shaft leading into the same tunnel.

The Israeli military also showed reporters the above-ground manufacturing facility, where CNN saw mortar shells which Israeli commanders said were made there. Another tunnel shaft lay in the corner of the factory, leading to what the Israeli military said was an underground facility where explosive material – made in some cases from dual-use materials like fertilizer – was packed into the shells.

The Israeli military did not allow reporters underground, saying the chemicals made it too dangerous, but provided a video it said was filmed inside that underground facility in which large vats and industrial material could be seen.

“What we’re seeing is using the embedded civilian industries to build a rocket industry,” IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari told CNN inside the weapons facility, a point he repeatedly raised throughout the day.

Pressed whether he was stressing the connection between Hamas infrastructure and civilian buildings to justify the heavy civilian death toll in Gaza, Hagari said: “We are focusing on Hamas, not, not – we’re focusing on a war on Hamas, we’re not fighting the people of Gaza.”

Israel expanded its ground offensive into central Gaza in late December and over the last two weeks, it has carried out strikes and pushed its ground forces into areas where it had previously urged civilians to evacuate.

But there are indications that it is slowing its offensive in parts of Gaza, moving to a lower-intensity phase of the war following significant American pressure.

“There’s big change because it’s a different level of intensity. Now, it’s not in the same intensity, high intensity that we worked in the north (of Gaza),” Hagari said. “It’s more continuous effort in the center of gravity so we can make sure that the population is being distinguished from the terrorists and focusing on Hamas frameworks,” he added.

Experts at the United Nations say crimes committed against civilians during Hamas’ October 7 attacks on Israel amounted to war crimes and could qualify as crimes against humanity.

In a statement from Geneva, the experts — Alice Jill Edwards, a special rapporteur on torture and other punishment, and Morris Tidball-Binz, a special rapporteur on “extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions” — called for full accountability for the widespread killings and alleged sexual torture.

“As armed Palestinian groups rampaged through communities in Israel bordering the Gaza strip, thousands of people were subjected to targeted and brutal attacks, the vast majority of whom were civilians,” the statement said. “The growing body of evidence about reported sexual violence is particularly harrowing.” 

The UN experts said that allegations of sexual torture included rape and gang rapes and that there were mutilations and gunshot wounds to genital areas of victims as well as other signs of sexual violence.   

“These acts constitute gross violations of international law, amounting to war crimes which, given the number of victims and the extensive premeditation and planning of the attacks, may also qualify as crimes against humanity,” the experts said.

Hamas has repeatedly denied allegations that its fighters committed sexual violence during the attack despite the evidence.

The armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad Monday released a video showing an Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

Elad Katzir, 47, speaks for about three-and-a-half minutes in the video published by the Quds brigade. In the video, he stands in front of the group’s banner. 

It’s the second time he has appeared in one of the group’s videos. The first was in mid-December.

In the new video, Katzir speaks in both English and Hebrew and mentions the name of another man who had been held hostage, Tamir Adar.

The Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum in Israel announced last week that Adar, 38, had died, without providing further details. 

Like Adar, Katzir is from Kibbutz Nir Oz, the community in southern Israel from which some 40 people were abducted on October 7.

It is not clear if he is speaking under duress.

Katzir says: “Tamir Adar, my dear friend, may you rest in peace, may your memory be blessed, I share your family’s grief.”

Katzir goes on to say:

He adds: “I want them [the government] to get me back, as well as all other hostages, and end this damn war…..With each day of the war, more soldiers and more hostages are being killed. Stop the war and bring us hostages home in peace. Make a deal to exchange prisoners of war, together with the Hamas, and bring us home.”

Katzir’s mother, Hana, was in the first group of hostages to be released during a short-lived truce in November. Her release was a surprise to many Israelis because Islamic Jihad had announced days earlier that she had died. Hana’s husband was killed on October 7, their daughter Karmit told CNN.

It’s unclear when the latest video was shot, but Adar’s death was announced publicly on January 5. 

A barrage of rockets was fired from the Gaza Strip on Monday evening local time, with Israel’s Iron Dome system making at least several interceptions. 

CNN teams in Tel Aviv counted at least half a dozen interceptions south of the city.

A large area of southern Israel from Ashdod northward to Tel Aviv received warnings of the rocket attack.

Hamas’ military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, said on Telegram: “We hit “Tel Aviv” with a rocket barrage in response to the massacres against civilians.”

There are no reports of casualties.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited troops stationed close to Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, telling them that the militant Lebanese group Hezbollah “underestimated us big-time in 2006, and is underestimating us again.”

Netanyahu visited the 769 Brigade, telling them: “I chose to come to Kiryat Shmona on the day of anti-tank fire upon us.”

In July 2006, after the ambush of an Israeli military patrol, Israeli forces crossed the border into Lebanon to destroy Hezbollah positions, while air strikes also targeted Hezbollah infrastructure and commanders.

Netanyahu said that Hezbollah had thought “we were like spiders’ cobwebs. Suddenly it sees what kind of spider.” Hezbollah faced “tremendous power, the unification of a people, a determination to do whatever is necessary to restore security to the north.”

Netanyahu said: “We will do everything to restore security to the north and allow your families, because many of you are local, to return home safely and know that we cannot be messed with. We will do whatever it takes. Of course, we prefer that this be done without a wide campaign, but that will not stop us.”

He added: “We gave them an example of what is happening to their friends in the south, this is what will happen here in the north. We will do everything to restore security.”

About one out of every 100 people in Gaza has been killed since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted on October 7, Palestinian statistics show. 

At least 22,835 people have been killed, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah announced in its daily update on Monday. That’s 1% of Gaza’s total population of 2.27 million people, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. 

The Ministry generates its data from hospitals in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

It said 58,416 people had been injured. That is more than 2.6% of the population, or more than one in 40 people. 

The Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza, which tends to have slightly higher numbers than the ministry in Ramallah due to delays in transmitting information to the West Bank, put the total at 23,084 dead on Monday. It said 58,926 people had been injured. 

Israel has said more than 8,000 of the dead are militants it is targeting in its war on Hamas. 

The Ministry of Health in Ramallah says more than 5,300 of the dead are women and more than 9,000 of them are children. Together that would make up nearly two-thirds of the dead.  

The conflict in Gaza has created “an entire generation of orphans,” King Abdullah II of Jordan said in a statement Monday. 

The statement comes after King Abdullah II of Jordan met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Amman on Sunday, where the two “agreed to continue close coordination for sustained humanitarian assistance” in Gaza, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Sunday.

King Abdullah II also warned Blinken of the “catastrophic consequences of the continuing war in Gaza,” according to a palace statement released after their meeting.

“Without a just peace, on the basis of the two-state solution, the world will continue to pay a heavy price for failing to resolve this conflict, and we will never know true peace and stability in the Middle East,” the king added.

In the three months since the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas began, at least 79 journalists have been killed in Gaza, Israel, and Lebanon, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Monday.

As of January 8, the deaths include 72 Palestinians, four Israelis, and three Lebanese, according to CPJ’s data.

The CPJ statement listed the names of all journalists killed since October 7, saying thye reporting was “based on information obtained from CPJ’s sources in the region and media reports.” It includes Al Jazeera photojournalist Hamza Al-Dahdouh and Palestinian freelance videographer Mustafa Thuraya, who were killed in Gaza on Sunday.

“Journalists in Gaza face particularly high risks as they try to cover the conflict during the Israeli ground assault, including devastating Israeli airstrikes, disrupted communications, supply shortages, and extensive power outages,” CPJ said in the statement.

“CPJ is investigating all reports of journalists and media workers killed, injured, or missing in the war, which has led to the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992,” the journalism advocacy group said.

A senior Hezbollah commander, Wissam Tawil, was killed by an Israeli drone strike on his car in southern Lebanon, a Lebanese security source told CNN on Monday. 

In a statement this afternoon, Hezbollah also acknowledged the death of Tawil, known as Hajj Jawad, in an Israeli attack. 

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment. 

Tawil is the most senior Hezbollah commander to be killed in an Israeli strike since the onset of daily crossfire between the Lebanon-based group and Israeli forces in October.

The organization published photographs of Tawil posing with top officials, including slain Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani as well as slain Hezbollah militant leaders Imad Mughniyyeh and Mustafa Badreddine, further indicating that he was a high-ranking Hezbollah commander. 

Some background: On Saturday, Hezbollah launched a rocket barrage on an Israeli airbase in northern Israel, in an attack the group said was a “preliminary response” to the suspected Israeli attack that killed Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in southern Beirut last week.

Israel and Hezbollah have since traded strikes over the past day, three months since hostilities broke out in October. 

Overnight and into this morning, Israeli fighter jets, a helicopter and a drone struck southern Lebanon where Hezbollah operates.

Israeli fighter jets struck a Hezbollah military compound in the area of Marwahin and an Israeli helicopter targeted an area where an anti-tank missile launch was fired earlier. The IDF also said that an Israeli drone struck a launcher which was used to fire in Israeli territory. 

Hezbollah-owned Al Manar said the group had been targeting Israeli forces on the border between Lebanon and Israel. 

This morning Israeli air force struck “a series of Hezbollah terror targets in Lebanon, including military sites,” after an anti-tank missile was launched toward the city of Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel. 

Read the full story here.

The UN’s main agency in Gaza says there have been 220 incidents involving its premises, including 63 direct hits during the three-month-long war.

In a situation report published Monday, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) also said there had been 23 incidents of “military use and/or interference” at UNRWA facilities since October 7. It did not say who was responsible.

As of January 6, 146 of its employees have been killed, the UN agency added.

UNRWA has more than 30,000 staff, most of whom are Palestinian refugees, according to its website. More than 13,000 staff members are based in the Gaza Strip, according to agency statistics.

One of its two headquarter offices is located in the Gaza Strip.

The agency’s shelters are still harboring huge numbers of internally displaced Palestinians, the report said, highlighting that the average shelter is currently housing four times its capacity.

As of January 2, close to 1.4 million internally displaced people were sheltering in 155 UNRWA installations, the report said. 

The agency’s chief, Philippe Lazzarini, highlighted the devastating impact of the conflict in a recent social media post, saying Gaza is “simply becoming uninhabitable.” 

Speaking in Doha, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken criticized “irresponsible” and “inflammatory” statements made by Israeli ministers and lawmakers that called for a resettlement of Palestinians outside Gaza.

Blinken said Palestinian civilians must be allowed to “return home as soon as conditions allow.”

“They cannot and they must not be pressed to leave Gaza,” he said in a press conference alongside Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

His comments come after Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir sparked outrage when both far-right ministers made comments advocating for the resettlement of Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip.

Here are the latest developments:

The Israeli government has named its judge for the panel that will consider South Africa’s claim at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Israel is “in violation of its obligations under the Genocide Convention” because of its war in Gaza. 

Israel firmly rejected the accusation and said it would appear before the court. 

The prime minister’s office announced Monday that retired Supreme Court justice Aharon Barak will be Israel’s appointee to the 15-judge panel at ICJ in the Hague.

Barak, who is 87, was the President of Israel’s Supreme Court from 1995 to 2006.

Both parties in a case are entitled to name a judge to be part of the panel that hears evidence.

South Africa will formally present its case on Thursday.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) admitted on Monday it carried out an airstrike that killed two journalists working for Al Jazeera in Gaza on Sunday, saying forces were targeting a terrorist. 

“An IDF aircraft identified and struck a terrorist who operated an aircraft that posed a threat to IDF troops,” the military told CNN.
“We are aware of the reports that during the strike, two other suspects who were in the same vehicle as the terrorist were also hit.”

One of the people killed in the strike was a journalist and drone operator who was working for Al Jazeera, the network’s Jerusalem and Ramallah bureau chief told CNN.

“Mustafa Thuraya was a drone operator used by Al Jazeera since the beginning of the war, a freelancer. He is known as a drone operator journalist in Gaza,” Waleed al-Omari said.

He was one of several journalists, including photojournalist Hamza Al-Dahdouh, who had gone to northern Rafah “to cover the aftermath of an Israeli strike on the Abu Al-Naja family house which killed dozens,” al-Omari said.

As they were returning to Khan Younis, “drone strikes targeted two cars — the first vehicle which had Hamza and Mustafa and a driver, and a second car that had the reporter of Palestine Today and a driver.”

Thuraya and Al-Dahdouh were killed and their driver was critically injured, and both occupants of the other car were killed, al-Omari said. 

There is no indication Thuraya was operating a drone at the time of the strike, when the journalists were returning from filming. 

Accusations of “systematically targeting” journalists: Pressed by CNN as to whether they knew there was a journalist drone operator in one of the cars, the IDF said: “For now we can’t elaborate. We will let you know when we have more information.”

Al-Dahdouh, the photojournalist, was the son of Al Jazeera Gaza bureau chief Wael Al-Dahdouh. Two of his other children were killed along with his wife and a grandchild in an Israeli airstrike in October. 

Al Jazeera in a statement Sunday accused Israel of “systematically targeting” Al-Dahdouh, adding: “Al Jazeera condemns, in the strongest terms, the ongoing crimes committed by Israeli occupation forces against journalists and media professionals in Gaza.”

“This alarming trend requires immediate attention and action from the international community. We urge the International Criminal Court, the governments and human rights organisations, and the United Nations to hold Israel accountable for its heinous crimes and demand an end to the targeting and killing of journalists.” 

Israel says categorically that it does not target journalists, but the Committee to Protect Journalists said 77 journalists and media workers were killed in Gaza between October 7 and December 31. Of those 70 were Palestinians, four Israeli and three Lebanese.

Israeli forces will shift from the “intense maneuvering phase of the war” toward “different types of special operations,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said.

“We’re close to the next phase in the north, including Gaza City,” where Israeli troops have largely established control, at least above ground, Gallant said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published Monday.

As tens of thousands more civilians crowd into southern parts of Gaza, Gallant acknowledged that Israel’s military offensive needs “to take into consideration the huge number of civilians” and military tactics would need to adjust.

“It will take some time,” Gallant said. “But we aren’t going to give up.”

Key context: Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed at least 22,600 people, 70% of whom are women and children, the Hamas-run health ministry said on Friday.

CNN cannot independently verify the casualty figures reported by the Gaza ministry due to limited access to the area and the challenges of confirming precise numbers during the ongoing conflict. 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it hit the southern city of Khan Younis with 30 strikes overnight into Monday, as it intensifies its military assault in central and southern Gaza.

CNN cannot independently verify operational details reported by the IDF.

Israeli troops and air force hit “underground targets, terror infrastructure, and weapons storage facilities,” the IDF said.

The IDF claimed that in Khan Younis “troops identified 10 terrorists in areas from which rockets were launched toward Israeli territory.” Forces then struck the areas with an unmanned aerial vehicle.

In an agricultural area in central Gaza, the IDF said troops located a tunnel shaft, thousands of dollars and weapons. In al-Maghazi in central Gaza, a fighter jet struck a weapons storage facility where long-range rockets were stored.

Some context: Deadly bombardment has ramped up in the southern city of Khan Younis in recent weeks, including on Saturday, when an Israeli airstrike killed at least seven family members, the Hamas-run health ministry said.

Then on Sunday, Hamza Wael Al-Dahdouh, 27, the son of Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, was killed in an apparent Israeli airstrike, alongside Al Jazeera employee Mustafa Thuraya, the network reported.

The IDF has issued several evacuation orders telling civilians to leave much of the area. Israeli bombardment and besiegement has forcibly displaced almost 90% of Gaza’s more than 2.2 million population, according to the UN’s agency for Palestine refugees.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said Palestinian civilians must be allowed to “return home as soon as conditions allow” and “must not be pressed to leave Gaza” following comments from two far-right Israeli ministers.

Blinken made the comments during a press conference on Sunday with Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Doha.

“They cannot and they must not be pressed to leave Gaza,” he said.

Blinken criticized “irresponsible” and “inflammatory” statements made by Israeli ministers and lawmakers calling for a resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza. He did not specifically name the Israeli ministers who made the comments.

Key context: Blinken’s comments come after Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir sparked outrage when both far-right ministers made comments advocating for the resettlement of Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said on Sunday the resettlement of Palestinians out of Gaza is “outright, officially and unequivocally” not Israel’s position.

Additional reporting from CNN’s Niamh Kennedy in London.

A key hospital in central Gaza “must remain functional,” the head of the World Health Organization said Sunday, after several aid organizations withdrew medical staff from the facility citing increased Israeli military activity in the area.

In a statement, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the Al-Aqsa Hospital in the city of Deir al-Balah is “the most important hospital remaining in Gaza’s Middle Area,” and demanded the facility, its staff, patients and the families located on its premises be protected from ongoing hostilities.

Aid groups Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) and the emergency medical team of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) on Sunday announced their withdrawal from Al-Aqsa Hospital after the Israeli military dropped flyers on central Gaza ordering Palestinians to evacuate to “shelters” in the area. Doctors Without Borders on Saturday said it would evacuate its staff working at Al-Aqsa due to artillery fire in the area.

No hospitals are fully functioning in northern Gaza and only “a mere handful” of health facilities elsewhere in the territory were operational, Tedros said in his statement.  

He said representatives from WHO and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs who visited Al-Aqsa Hospital on Sunday saw large numbers of wounded people being brought in for urgent treatment.

“WHO staff saw sickening scenes of people of all ages being treated on blood-streaked floors and in chaotic corridors. An unidentified child laid dead, partially covered by a sheet, on a bed. Other injured were prostrate on the floor, being stepped over by the health staff and families,” the statement said. 

Tedros said evacuation orders and lack of safety had forced most medical staff to leave. “Tonight’s reports indicate that only 5 doctors remain. Hospital management said health workers had no food,” he said.

CNN is not able to independently confirm the details of his statement. The Israel Defense Forces have said they do not generally target medical facilities but have accused Hamas of using them as cover for military activity and reserve the right to strike them if so. 

Tedros said WHO was planning to facilitate the deployment of an emergency medical team to support the overstretched doctors and nurses of Al-Aqsa but that it would only be possible in a secure environment. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday said he’s focused on preventing a wider conflict during a moment of “profound tension” in the Middle East, as he shuttles between capitals on his latest visit to the region since October 7.

“We have been intensely focused on working to prevent the conflict from spreading,” Blinken said in Doha Sunday after meeting with Qatar’s prime minister.

The top US diplomat will be the latest in a long parade of Biden national security officials to meet face to face with the Israeli government when he arrives in Tel Aviv this week. It’s part of what US officials say is a constant effort to stay in touch with — and in front of — Israeli officials in an attempt to keep Israel’s war machine in check as the conflict drags on.

At least 22,835 Palestinians have been killed and 58,416 others injured in Gaza since October 7, the Hamas-run Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said on Sunday.

CNN is not able to independently verify the numbers released by the ministry.

Here are the latest updates:

The recent killing of a senior Hamas leader could affect ongoing negotiations to secure the release of hostages held by the militant group in Gaza, Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said. 

Israel carried out the strike last Tuesday in Beirut that killed senior Hamas leader Saleh Al-Arouri, a US official previously told CNN. Israel did not claim responsibility.

At a joint news conference in Doha Sunday with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Al-Thani was asked whether Arouri’s death could impact talks to free the more than 100 hostages believed to still be held in Gaza following the October 7 attacks.

Qatar has played a central role in mediating hostage negotiations. And despite the challenges, the negotiation process is continuing, Al-Thani said.

“We are not giving up; we are moving forward. We are continuing our discussions with the parties and trying to achieve as soon as possible an agreement that can bring assistance for humanitarian relief and the release of the hostages,” he said.

Two medical aid groups on Sunday announced their withdrawal from a central Gaza hospital, citing increased Israeli military activity in the area.

In a statement, the International Rescue Committee said its emergency medical team was “forced to withdraw” from Al Aqsa Hospital in the city of Deir al-Balah after the Israeli military dropped flyers on central Gaza ordering Palestinians to evacuate to “shelters” in the area.

The IRC team had provided vital services at the hospital, such as the treatment of trauma injuries, the release said. 

“The amount of injuries being brought in over the last few days has been horrific, and with a huge reduction in the number of staff able to come to the hospital there is even less capacity for treating them,” said Professor Nick Maynard, a surgeon and clinical lead for the team. “There are patients clearly dying in the emergency department who could be saved if there were enough staff.”

CNN is not able to independently confirm this statement. 

Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) also said it was withdrawing from Al Aqsa hospital. It comes after Doctors Without Borders on Saturday said it would evacuate its staff and their families from the facility.

MAP and the IRC said they were “deeply appalled” their teams had to pull out of the hospital and would work to identify alternate locations to provide health care to civilians. 

“The dismantling of health services witnessed in the north must not be repeated in the middle and south of Gaza,” the release said. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken says he’s focused on preventing a wider conflict during a moment of “profound tension” in the Middle East that could “easily metastasize.”

“We have been intensely focused on working to prevent the conflict from spreading,” Blinken said Sunday during a news conference in Doha with Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani.

Al-Thani also warned of an escalation of conflicts in the region and specifically condemned recent strikes in Beirut and Syria.

“Recent events that we have witnessed within Lebanon or Syria, unfortunately, are a violation to the sovereignty of those countries and we can see also continuous violations. Our main target or purpose is to stop this war and to avoid the bigger escalation in the region,” he said.

Al-Thani reiterated his calls for a ceasefire and said it would have a “positive implication” on the region.

Blinken skirted a question about whether Arab countries were correct in calling for a ceasefire. He said the US wanted to ensure the October 7 attacks would not happen again, which “means dealing with the threat that Hamas continues to pose.”

“But as we’ve made clear also from day one, it’s imperative that in dealing with this very, very difficult challenge, that it do so in a way that puts a premium on protecting civilians. Making sure that people get the assistance they need,” Blinken added, speaking of Israel’s war against Hamas.

In response to a question about whether the US should make providing weapons to Israel conditional, Blinken said they will continue to make sure any US military assistance is used in accordance with international law.

A 3-year-old Palestinian girl was shot and killed as Israeli forces fired at a vehicle that attacked a military checkpoint in the occupied West Bank, according to police and emergency services.

Israeli police said a man and a woman were shot and killed after they attacked border police Sunday at the Ras Bidu military checkpoint about 10 kilometers (6 miles) northwest of Jerusalem.

As police shot at the attackers, the girl was hit while traveling in a different vehicle. 

Magen David Adom, from Israel’s emergency medical service, said the unconscious child was brought to their team and pronounced dead after medical examinations. 

Two other people were injured in the incident, including a 20-year-old woman, Israel’s emergency medical service said.

CNN’s Amir Tal in Jerusalem contributed reporting to this post.

More than 10 children on average have lost one or both of their legs every day in Gaza since October 7, with many amputations performed without anesthesia, a charity said Sunday, underscoring the dire humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave following more than three months of Israeli bombardment.

In a statement citing United Nations statistics, Save the Children’s director for the occupied Palestinian territory, Jason Lee, said the “suffering of children in this conflict is unimaginable and even more so because it is unnecessary and completely avoidable.”

Save the Children referenced remarks from UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, who after returning from Gaza, said on December 19 that around 1,000 children had lost one or both of their legs since October 7, when Hamas launched its attack on Israel and war broke out.

The charity also cited a World Health Organization statement in which the agency said many of these operations on children were conducted without anesthesia, given the severe shortages in medical supplies and basic goods in Gaza.

Lee said he had seen “doctors and nurses completely overwhelmed” when children are brought in with blast wounds.

“The impact of seeing children in that much pain and not having the equipment, medicines to treat them or alleviate pain is too much for even experienced professionals,” he said.

Read more:

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will be the latest in a long parade of Biden national security officials to meet face to face with the Israeli government when he arrives in Tel Aviv this week for his fifth visit since the October 7 attack by Hamas.

Blinken’s meetings in Israel, one of nine stops on a frenetic, weeklong crisscrossing of the region, are part of what US officials say is a constant effort to stay in touch with — and in front of — Israeli officials in an attempt to keep Israel’s war machine in check as the conflict drags on.

“What happens is you get in a room and say, ‘This is what we need to see,’” a US official told CNN, noting that breakthroughs with Israel have typically occurred after a visit by Blinken or a call from President Joe Biden. Sometimes the Israelis agree with what the US says, the official said, and sometimes they don’t and negotiations ensue.

There are “at least a dozen live issues we are pushing for,” the official told CNN, including protecting Palestinian civilians amid a skyrocketing death toll as well as creating conditions to allow desperately needed aid to get where it is required most.

Shifts by Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have been slow and incremental, and US officials have acknowledged that “gaps” remain between what they claim are Israel’s intentions and what has played out.

“We don’t tell Israel what to do, but at the same time, as close allies, these are tough conversations that you can only have as friends where you ask the hard questions,” a second US official told CNN. “You ask, ‘Well, what is your objective? What is your angle? How do you intend to achieve it? What do you think is realistic? Have you considered this, have you considered that?’”

The stakes of Blinken’s fifth trip are high as America’s allies that stood behind Israel at the start of the war have grown critical as the civilian toll in Gaza rises. Those partners will be looking for evidence Israel is listening to the US, and, as tensions skyrocket in the region, allies are hoping Blinken can ensure Israel has a viable plan to end the war amid concerns over a wider conflict.

Read more about Blinken’s visit.

Three months ago, speaking to citizens rocked by a horrific day of attacks by Hamas, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a promise.

“The IDF will immediately use all its strength to destroy Hamas’s capabilities,” Netanyahu said. “We will destroy them.”

Now, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is shifting to a new phase of its war on Hamas in Gaza — and there are signs its objectives are changing too.

“The record is not very friendly to military campaigns seeking to eradicate political military movements that are deeply rooted,” Bilal Y. Saab, an associate fellow in the Middle East and North Africa at Chatham House, told CNN.

Israel has seen some successes in that regard; its forces claim to have killed thousands of Hamas fighters, including some high-ranking members, and have dismantled some parts of the group’s vast tunnel network under the enclave.

But challenges remain and an endgame is far from sight. Few countries at war set deadlines. Israeli officials have warned of a lengthy war that could stretch through the entirety of 2024 and beyond.

It will unfold in front of an international community that is increasingly aghast at the extraordinary humanitarian crisis and spiraling civilian deaths in Gaza.

And as international pressure increases, so too could domestic unease towards Netanyahu — an embattled prime minister eager to point to tangible victories.

“There is a race against time,” said Saab, outlining the key questions facing Israel’s leadership. “At what price is this tactical success going to come, and how much time do the Israelis have to achieve that tactical success without suffering from more significant international outrage?”

Read the full analysis.

The resettlement of Palestinians out of Gaza is “outright, officially and unequivocally” not Israel’s position, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said on Sunday.

Speaking to NBC, Herzog was asked whether recent comments made by some Israeli cabinet members, who appeared to suggest a forced displacement of Palestinians out of Gaza, reflect the Israeli government’s official position. 

Herzog said this is “absolutely not” the position of the “Israeli government or the Israeli parliament or the Israeli public,” but added, “In a society where free speech is the basis of our national DNA, people can say whatever they want.”

The Israeli president told NBC his colleagues “were speaking about the wilful leaving of the Gaza Strip, but… I’m saying outright, officially and unequivocally this is not the Israeli position.”

Herzog also spoke of Israel’s determination “to undermine the ability of Hamas to operate terror throughout the world and of course, in Israel.”

He said his country was “utterly grateful” to US President Joe Biden for his “steadfast stand” in supporting Israel, and that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s upcoming visit to Israel is “another expression of the huge impact and importance that the United States places as to the direction and the exit from this conflict.”