January 16, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

Israeli forces are moving toward the largest hospital in Khan Younis, prompting patients and people taking shelter there to flee, according to international doctors working there and local journalists capturing events on camera.

Multiple videos show dozens of people carrying blankets, mattresses and other personal belongings leaving the Al Nasser Hospital compound in the southern Gaza Strip.

Women can be seen carrying children in their arms, while one man carries a boy on his shoulders. The sounds of bombardment and small arms fire can be heard in the background.

Several videos show nearly explosions from likely air strikes.

An American doctor, Thaer Ahmad, one of a team of US and British doctors from the medical humanitarian non-governmental organization MedGlobal working at the hospital, told CNN the Israeli military was getting closer.

Earlier Tuesday, the Israeli military said Hamas had recently carried out a launch toward Israel from within the Al Nasser Hospital compound. 

Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of exploiting civilians as human shields by using hospitals and nearby areas as military sites.

Two Israeli men held hostage in Gaza since October 7, and featured in recent videos released by Hamas, have died, according to short statements from their home village released on Tuesday.

Kibbutz Be’eri announced the deaths of Yossi Sharabi and Itai Svirsky in separate statements released with the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum headquarters. 

Sharabi, 53, was "a loving and devoted father and husband, a real family man with a big heart," the kibbutz statement said. "A kind soul, he was caring and known for his dedication to all those around him."

Originally from Tel Aviv, Sharabi moved to Kibbutz Be'eri 30 years ago, "following in the footsteps of his brother Eli, as he wanted to embrace the communal lifestyle there," the kibbutz said.

He leaves behind a wife and three daughters. Sharabi's brother Eli was also kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Be'eri and is still held captive by Hamas.

Eli's wife and daughters were murdered in the October 7 massacre, according to the kibbutz.  

Sharabi's body is still being held by Hamas, the kibbutz said. It called on the Israeli government to do “everything possible to bring the Sharabi family back home, as well as the other hostages." 

In a separate statement, Kibbutz Be’eri also announced the death of Itai Svirsky.  

"Our hearts go out to the family in their immense pain," the kibbutz said. "May his memory be a blessing." 

Svirsky's body is also still held by Hamas, the kibbutz said, adding "we will demand its return with the rest of our abductees."

The announcement of the two men’s deaths came a day after the Israeli military expressed grave concerns about their fate following the release of a video by Hamas claiming to show their dead bodies.

Israel’s defense minister said Hamas was practicing “psychological torment” by releasing videos of hostages.

CNN's Andrew Carey, Amir Tal and Ivana Kottasová contributed to this report.

The Biden administration is expected to re-classify the Yemeni militant group, Houthis, as a global terrorist entity amid continued attacks in the Red Sea, a source familiar told CNN on Tuesday.

The administration removed the Houthis' Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDTG) designation and de-listed it as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in February 2021, after it was designated by the Trump administration in its final weeks.

At the time, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the decision to remove the group’s designations was driven by concerns that it could imperil the ability to deliver crucial assistance to the people of Yemen.

He said it was "a recognition of the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen."

Both the SDGT and FTO designations trigger an asset freeze, but only an FTO designation imposes immigration restrictions on members, according to the State Department. 

The SDGT designation also does not impose sanctions on those who provide "material support" to the group.

As of Tuesday, the administration was not reimposing the FTO designation.

Pressure has grown on the administration to reimpose the designations as the Iranian-backed militia carries out attacks on vessels in the Red Sea. 

Last week, the United States and the United Kingdom launched strikes against Houthi targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.

At least 10,600 children have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 7, the Hamas-run Ministry of Health said Tuesday. 

“The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli aggression has exceeded 24,285, of which 75% are children, women, and elderly people. (+10,600 children, 7,200 women, and 1,049 elderly people),” the ministry said. 

At least 158 people were killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours, and 320 others were wounded, the Hamas-run Ministry of Health added Tuesday.

CNN cannot independently verify the ministry's number due to restrictions on reporting from a war zone. 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Sunday that more than 9,000 of the dead were Hamas fighters. CNN also cannot confirm this figure. 

Here are the latest developments:

Iraq’s Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said Tuesday that no Mossad-affiliated centers are operating in Erbil in Iraq’s Kurdistan region. Mossad is Israel's intelligence agency.

This comes a day after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched ballistic missiles to strike several locations in Erbil, targeting what it claims was a “spy headquarters and the gathering of anti-Iranian terrorist groups."

Hussein told CNN’s Becky Anderson the IRGC attacked “civilian areas” in Erbil, including a house, and that all those killed and injured in the attack were Iraqi Kurds.

Hussein, who is also Iraq’s deputy prime minister for international relations, condemned the attacks and said he considers it “an aggression, and violation of international law.”

Iraq's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it has submitted a complaint in the form of two identical letters to the UN Security Council and the UN secretary-general in regards to "the Iranian missile aggression that targeted the city of Erbil and led to innocent civilian casualties, injury to others, and damage to public and private property."

"This aggression is a flagrant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the security of the Iraqi people," the statement read.

Hussein said the tension between Iran and Israel is playing out on Iraqi soil.

Hussein said Iraqis “are paying the price” for Iran’s tension with Israel, as well as with the United States.

At least four civilians were killed and six others injured in the IRGC’s attacks on locations in Erbil Monday, the Security Council of the Kurdistan Region said Tuesday.

Qatar announced it brokered a deal between Israel and Hamas for the delivery of medicine to Israeli hostages in Gaza in exchange for the delivery of medicine and humanitarian aid to civilians in the most affected areas of the enclave, the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted to its X account on Tuesday. 

The agreement was reached in cooperation with France, according to the statement, adding that the medications and aid will depart from "Doha tomorrow for the city of Al-Arish in the sisterly Arab Republic of Egypt, on board two Qatari Armed Forces aircraft, in preparation for their transport into the Gaza Strip,” the ministry added.

It is unclear when the medicine is expected to reach Gaza.

A near-total internet blackout in the Gaza Strip has now passed 96 hours, according to the internet monitoring site Netblocks. 

It is the longest sustained telecoms internet disruption on record in Gaza since the onset of the conflict, Netblocks reports, with most residents unable to contact the outside world since January 12.

The Hamas-run government office in Gaza said the communications disruption makes it harder for the emergency services still functioning to reach people wounded in airstrikes. 

At least 80% of the communications sector has been destroyed already and technical crews who carry out reparation work are constantly targeted “despite prior coordination through international institutions,” the official Palestinian news agency WAFA said Monday.

On Friday, mobile network Ooredoo Palestine said its main telecommunication and internet lines had sustained damage in Israeli attacks, leading to the complete shutdown of services in the southern and central areas of Gaza. Another large Palestinian telecommunications company, Paltel, also announced Friday that all telecom services in Gaza Strip were cut off due to the “ongoing aggression.”

Israel did not respond to CNN’s multiple requests for comment on the communications blackout.

The US military launched new strikes against Houthi targets inside Yemen on Tuesday, targeting anti-ship ballistic missiles controlled by the Iran-backed rebel group, a defense official told CNN on Tuesday.

US forces struck and destroyed four Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles that were preparing to launch from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, the official said, and presented an imminent threat to merchant and US Navy vessels in the area.

Houthi missile strikes: A few hours later, however, the Houthis launched an anti-ship ballistic missile into international shipping lanes in the Southern Red Sea, hitting the M/V Zografia, a Maltese flagged bulk carrier, the official said. The ship did not suffer significant damage and was able to continue its journey.

The strikes are at least the third round of attacks the US military has launched against the Houthis’ infrastructure since last Thursday, when the US and UK conducted a joint operation that targeted command and control nodes and weapons depots used by the Houthis to launch missile and drone attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has, for the first time, publicly acknowledged that he has received complaints through the State Department's dissent channel about the Biden administration's handling of the war in Gaza.

"We have something called the dissent channel that allows anyone in the department to raise a concern. We've had a number of those. I read every single one," he said.

Dissent over US policy in Israel-Hamas war: CNN has reported on the anger from personnel within the Biden administration about their policies toward Israel's war in Gaza, particularly as the humanitarian toll has continued to mount. At least one State Department official publicly resigned in protest.