The latest on Israel’s war in Gaza

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There will be no security or stability in the Middle East without the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority president said Thursday, in response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s dismissal of the idea.

Netanyahu on Thursday said the idea of creating a Palestinian state would clash with the security of Israel — remarks at odds with the stance of many countries, including the United States.

“The entire region is on the verge of a volcanic eruption,” PA spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh said, according to Palestinian news agency WAFA, adding that Netanyahu’s remarks show the Israeli government is “determined to push the entire region into the abyss.”

Rudeineh also claimed the US “bears responsibility for the deterioration of security and stability in the region due to its bias and blind support for the Israeli occupation.”

US President Joe Biden has long advocated for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. US officials said Thursday they would not allow Netanyahu’s apparent rejection of an eventual Palestinian state to stop them from pressing the matter with their Israeli counterparts.

Houthi rebels will provide safe passage to Chinese and Russian ships in the Red Sea as they maintain attacks against commercial vessels in retaliation for Israel’s war in Gaza, a spokesperson for the Iran-backed militants told Russian media Thursday.

In an interview with pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia, senior Houthi official Mohammed al-Bukhaiti said the Yemen-based militants would only attack ships linked to Israel and its allies.

“As for all other countries, including Russia and China, their shipping in the region is not threatened,” he said. “Moreover, we are ready to ensure the safe passage of their ships in the Red Sea, because the freedom of navigation plays a significant role for our country.”

The Houthis fired missiles at another US-owned commercial ship Thursday, just hours after a new round of US military strikes against the group in Yemen.

“Israeli ships or those in any way connected with Israel will not have the slightest opportunity to sail through the Red Sea,” Bukhaiti told the Russian outlet. “The attacks on them will continue.”

Ruby Chen, father of Itay Chen, who is being held hostage by Hamas, holds an hourglass while speaking a Senate Foreign Relations Committee bipartisan press conference at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on January 17.

Family members of the six remaining Israeli-American hostages believed to be held by Hamas in Gaza met with several of US President Joe Biden’s top national security advisers at the White House Thursday.

Ruby Chen, father of 19-year-old reservist Itay Chen who has been missing since October 7, told CNN the conversation was “informative,” and that officials offered the families the “broad strokes” of the ongoing efforts to secure the captives’ release. He declined to share those details. 

Officials at the meeting included National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, White House Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk and deputy homeland security adviser Jen Daskal, according to a White House official.

The official said the administration is “committed to unwavering effort to get family members home,” even as frustration mounts.

“Bottom line, it’s been 104 days and that’s a disappointment and a frustration,” Chen said. “Where’s justice? And do we want more dead US citizens? What is the administration doing about that?”

Some context: Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, four American hostages have been released before negotiations stalled. Talks between Israel and Hamas, with the US, Qatar and Egypt playing mediating roles, are continuing, but there has been no significant breakthrough recently, according to two US officials. 

Houthi rebels fired missiles at another US-owned commercial ship Thursday, just hours after a new round of US military strikes against the Iran-backed group in Yemen.

The Houthis launched two anti-ship ballistic missiles at M/V Chem Ranger, the US military said, marking the third such attack on a US-owned vessel this week.

“The crew observed the missiles impact the water near the ship. There were no reported injuries or damage to the ship,” US Central Command said. 

President Joe Biden conceded Thursday that US strikes against the Houthis are not deterring the group’s attacks in the Red Sea, which it says will only stop when Israel ends its war in Gaza.

Biden’s remarks came after the US military said the fifth US attack on Houthi assets in one week targeted a small number of anti-ship missiles that were being prepared to launch against international shipping lanes.

But Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said the US has “been able to degrade and severely disrupt and destroy a significant number” of Houthi capabilities.

Netanyahu speaks in Tel Aviv on Thursday, January 18.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the idea of creating a Palestinian state would clash with the security of Israel on Thursday.  

Many countries, including the US, have called for the establishment of a Palestinian state. US officials said they wouldn’t allow Netanyahu’s apparent rejection of Palestinian sovereignty stop them from pressing the matter with their Israeli counterparts.

Following Netanyahu’s remarks, his senior adviser Mark Regev told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that security is the “highest priority” when asked about observers who say the Israeli leader’s position is more about keeping himself in power than finding a fair solution to the conflict. 

Here’s what else you should know:

Dr. Deborah Harrington appears on CNN on Wednesday, January 17.

A British obstetrician who spent two weeks volunteering at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza says she feels “desperate … ashamed, and shocked that we’re doing this to fellow humans.” 

Dr. Deborah Harrington told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour she traveled to the strip at the end of December as part of a team led by the International Rescue Committee and Medical Aid for Palestine. Most of the patients Harrington attended to in the emergency department were children. 

Every day she saw “a horrendous mix of [children with] open fractures, partial amputations, open chest wounds, horrendous lacerations from shrapnel to the sort of chest.” 

Harrington, who has visited Gaza since 2016, also painted a dire picture for pregnant women and babies in the enclave. 

At least 20 out of 22 hospitals identified by CNN in northern Gaza were damaged or destroyed in the first two months of Israel’s war against Hamas, from October 7 to December 7, according to a review of 45 satellite images and around 400 videos from the ground, as well as interviews with doctors, eyewitnesses and humanitarian organizations. Fourteen were directly hit, based on the evidence collected and verified by CNN and analyzed by experts. 

The Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza says Israel “has deliberately targeted 150 health institutions, putting 30 hospitals and 53 health centers out of service, and targeting 122 ambulances.” CNN cannot independently verify these numbers and CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment.

Mexico and Chile are asking the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate whether crimes have been committed in the Palestinian territories, either by “agents of the occupying power or the occupied power,” Mexico’s foreign ministry said in a statement Thursday.

“The action by Mexico and Chile is due to growing concern over the latest escalation of violence, particularly against civilian targets, and the alleged continued commission of crimes under the jurisdiction of the Court, specifically since the attack on October 7, 2023, carried out by Hamas militants and the subsequent hostilities in Gaza,” the statement read, without directly mentioning Israel — which has been accused of striking civilian populations.

Israel has repeatedly stated that it is targeting Hamas, not civilians.

The referral by Mexico and Chile comes two months after South Africa, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Comoros and Djibouti submitted a similar referral to the ICC, and a week after South Africa also accused Israel of genocide in a different case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Israel and the US have rejected South Africa’s claims.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a weekly cabinet meeting at the the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv on December 31.

US officials said on Thursday they would not allow Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s apparent rejection of an eventual Palestinian state to stop them from pressing the matter with their Israeli counterparts.

The statement — at direct odds with President Joe Biden’s stated position — is another example of the growing rift between Israel and its top international ally.

Even as Biden offers staunch support for Israel publicly, behind the scenes, he and top officials have grown frustrated that Netanyahu appears to be rejecting advice and pressure on the campaign in Gaza.

A senior administration official noted after Netanyahu’s comments that the prime minister had reversed himself on hardline positions before — and that his statement Thursday was not necessarily the final word. 

“If we took such statements as the final word, there would be no humanitarian assistance going into Gaza and no hostages released,” a senior US administration official said. “As with those and many other issues, we will continue to work toward the right outcome, particularly on issues where we strongly disagree.”

One person familiar with the matter said it wasn’t clear whether Netanyahu had, in fact, relayed his views directly to American officials, as he stated during his news conference. The person said that inside the administration, his comments aren’t being viewed as a major departure from what he’s said previously.

 An unidentified cargo ship transits the Suez Canal in Egypt on January 10.

Houthi spokesperson Mohammad Abdul Salam described strikes in Yemen by the US and the UK as a “persistent act of aggression” aimed at safeguarding Israel, during an interview with the Houthis’ Al-Masirah TV. 

Despite the recent attacks, Abdul Salam emphasized that the Houthis will not be deterred from launching attacks on what he claims are “Israeli-linked” vessels.

The US carried out more strikes against the Houthis in Yemen on Thursday, according to United States Central Command, targeting a small number of anti-ship missiles that were preparing to launch. The strikes are the latest in a series of actions against the Iranian-backed group, following significant US-led strikes last week with the UK and support from a handful of other allies. 

It comes amid heightened tensions in the Middle East and fears that the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza could further spill out into the region. Hours before a US strike on Wednesday, the Houthis struck a US-owned and operated vessel. 

Following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks dismissing Palestinian sovereignty, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour asked his senior adviser Mark Regev about observers who say the Israeli leader’s position is more about keeping himself in power than finding a fair solution to the conflict.  

“Israel would have to have security control in ways that would limit the full exercise of Palestinian sovereignty,” Regev said.
“And especially after October 7, to ask the Israeli public, the Israeli people, to say, ‘We’ll light-pedal security,’ that security isn’t the highest priority, to keep our people safe — that is to ignore reality,” Regev said.  

“And if the Palestinians really want to move forward with Israel they have to be willing to understand those concerns. They are legitimate concerns,” he added.  

US reaction: Separately, US State Department spokesperson Matt Miller was asked about Netanyahu’s comments. 

“I don’t want to characterize his remarks. But I will say that there is a historic opportunity that Israel has to deal with challenges that it has faced since its founding, and we hope the country will take that opportunity,” Miller said.  

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a cabinet meeting at the Defence Ministry in Tel Aviv, Israel, on January 7.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that the idea of creating a Palestinian state would clash with the security of Israel.  

“In any future arrangement … Israel needs security control all territory west of Jordan. This clashes with the idea of (Palestinian) sovereignty. What can you do?” he told a press conference in Tel Aviv when asked about reports that he told US officials he opposes the idea of Palestinian sovereignty.  

Many countries, including the US, have called for the establishment of a Palestinian state.  

“This conflict is not about the absence of a (Palestinian) state but about the existence of a state, the Jewish state,” Netanyahu also said.  

The prime minister claimed in the press conference that the Israeli politicians asking for him to step down are essentially asking for the creation of a Palestinian state.  

“Those who talk about the day after Netanyahu are actually talking about the establishment of a Palestinian state,” he said. An Israeli prime minister needs to be “capable of saying no to our friends,” he added.  

Israeli forces severely damaged a cemetery in Khan Younis in southern Gaza earlier this week, exhuming and removing bodies in what the Israel Defense Forces told CNN was part of a search for the remains of hostages seized by Hamas during the October 7 terror attacks.

Footage of the burial ground showed the area bulldozed, with graves damaged and destroyed, and human remains left exposed after the IDF conducted operations in the area.

In response to CNN’s request for comment on the damaging of graves, the IDF told CNN on Thursday that rescuing the hostages and finding and returning their bodies is one of their key missions in Gaza, which is why the bodies were removed.

“The hostage identification process, conducted at a secure and alternative location, ensures optimal professional conditions and respect for the deceased,” an IDF spokesperson told CNN, adding that bodies that are determined not be those of hostages are “returned with dignity and respect.”

According to international law, an intentional attack on a cemetery could amount to a war crime, except under very limited circumstances relating to that site becoming a military objective.

Reports about the IDF taking corpses from gravesites have been circulating on social media, shared by people outraged by the practice. This marks the first time the IDF has admitted to the exhumations.

Read more about Israel’s exhuming of bodies.

Gaza has now faced a near-total communications blackout for one week— the longest of the war so far — with no signs of abating.

The blackout has left people unable to call for ambulances or contact loved ones, presenting significant challenges for the remaining aid workers in the region.

Israel has in the past faced accusations of deliberately severing Gaza’s communications –charges on which it has not commented. And while it is not possible to say definitively what caused this outage, signs point toward physical damage to the fiber lines connecting Gaza to Israel, according to Alp Toker, the director of internet monitoring site NetBlocks. 

In response to this latest outage, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement: “It is important to remember that the Gaza Strip is an active war zone and thus can experience temporary disruptions to internet connectivity due to the ongoing conflicts.”

Here are today’s latest headlines to bring you up to speed:

Palestinians walk among the rubble of demolished buildings after IDF attacks in Rafah, Gaza, on Thursday.

The week-long communications blackout in Gaza is preventing humanitarian and emergency services from operating effectively in the territory.

“It’s almost impossible to do the work that we’re supposed to do,” Juliette Touma, spokesperson for the largest UN’s agency operating in the Palestinian territories, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, told CNN from Jerusalem.

Some journalists and aid workers have limited communications by using international or electronic SIMs near the Israeli or Egyptian borders, although it has been difficult for CNN to reach regular contacts in Gaza over the past week.

“Without information and telecommunication, people don’t know where to go for safety,” Hisham Mhanna, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, who is in Rafah in southern Gaza, told CNN by text message.

The blackout also means that Palestinians both in and outside Gaza have no way of knowing whether family members from whom they are separated are alive or dead.

“When a bombing happens, especially in the night, you cannot reach ambulances,” Jamal al Rozzi, an aid worker near Khan Younis, said in a voice message to CNN.
“My brothers and sisters are not so far away from me, but I cannot reach them,” al Rozzi said. “I cannot reach them to know if they are well or not.”

The US carried out further strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, according to United States Central Command.

The attack on Thursday targeted a small number of anti-ship missiles that were preparing to launch, according to a CENTCOM statement.

“U.S. forces identified the missiles in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen at approximately 3:40 p.m. (Sanaa time) and determined they were an imminent threat to merchant vessels and U.S. Navy ships in the region. U.S. forces subsequently struck and destroyed the missiles in self-defense,” according to the statement.

The latest strike is the fifth time in a week the US has carried out operations against the Iran-backed rebel group, beginning with US and UK strikes against approximately 30 targets last Thursday. 

US President Joe Biden said that strikes on the Houthis will continue in the Red Sea – even as he acknowledges so far they aren’t deterring the group from aggression in the region. 

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that continued strikes are “taking away capability” from the Houthis.

CNN’s Nikki Carvajal, Arlette Saenz and Donald Judd contributed reporting to this post.

This post has been updated with a statement from CENTCOM.

Israel has risen to the sixth most-prolific jailer of journalists in the world – tied with Iran – according to a new report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

“Israel has appeared several times on CPJ’s annual census, but this is the highest number of arrests of Palestinian journalists since CPJ began documenting arrests in 1992 and the first time Israel has ranked among the top six offenders,” the CPJ report says.

“All those known to be held by Israel as of CPJ’s December 1 census date were arrested in the Palestinian territory of the occupied West Bank after the start of the Israel-Gaza war on October 7.”

CNN has asked the Israeli government for comment on the report.

As of December 1, the date up to which the report tracks, 17 journalists were held by the Israeli government. That is the same number as are held by Iran. The top five jailers of journalists as of December 1 were China (44), Myanmar (43), Belarus (28), Russia (22), and Vietnam (19).

CPJ says that most of the journalists held by Israeli authorities were in administrative detention, by which the government can hold suspects indefinitely without public charge.

Israeli forces raid the Tulkarm refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday.

Eleven Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces during operations in the Israeli-occupied West Bank overnight, Palestinian officials said Thursday, the latest in a surge of violence in the West Bank since Hamas’ attack on Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that security forces killed “at least eight terrorists” during a “counter-terrorism operation” in the Tulkarem refugee camp that saw exchanges of fire with militants.

What Palestinian agencies say: Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that a large contingent of Israeli security forces entered Tulkarem on Wednesday. The forces searched homes, positioned snipers on rooftops, and closed streets to the free movement of residents, according to WAFA. At least two people were killed in a drone strike in Nur El-Shams camp near Tulkarem, WAFA said.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said that two of its crew members were injured in an Israeli drone strike near its ambulance during the raid and five paramedics were arrested. Some Palestinians as young as 16 years old were arrested in Tulkarem, according to WAFA, adding that many of those detained and later freed said they were “severely beaten, abused, and threatened” by Israeli soldiers.

What the Israeli military says: The IDF said that “throughout the operation, the fighters engaged in exchanges of fire and clashes with armed terrorists who shot and threw explosives. At least eight terrorists have been eliminated, some of them through an airstrike.” 

The Israeli military said that throughout the West Bank, security forces arrested 21 “wanted individuals” Wednesday night. The Palestinian Prisoner Society on Thursday put the number of people arrested at 60.

Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat to the US, has repeated her call for a ceasefire in Gaza and warned that wider escalation could take the region back to “the stone age.”

Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud said there is “trauma and pain on both sides, can’t take that back, but what we can do is ceasefire now. How many more children need to die? How many more limbs need to be lost? How many more parents need to lose their livelihoods? It can’t happen anymore.”

Speaking to CNN’s Becky Anderson at the World Economic Forum in Davos, she added that Saudi Arabia “fully recognises need for Israel to feel safe, can not be at expense of Palestinian people.”

Talking about the wider region, Princess Reema said “the longer this goes on, it is inevitable either a rogue entity or a mistake will happen that will take us back, and I hate to say it, to the stone age. It is a hot and volatile area my part of the world.”

She called for unity in the region, saying “the only path to prosperity for the Middle East is unity, its economic prosperity, it is a balanced, stable region.”

On the issue of normalization of relations with Israel, Princess Reema said it was something Saudi Arabia was putting on the table but “the critical point is, not without the Palestinian people.”

A press member is seen sitting next to a tent as he tries to connect to the internet in Rafah, Gaza, on January 14.

Gaza has now faced a near-total communications blackout for one week— the longest of the war so far — with no signs of abating.

The blackout is the ninth such outage since Israel’s war on Hamas began following the group’s attacks in Israel on October 7, according to the internet monitoring site Netblocks.

Thursday is the seventh day of the blackout, which began on January 12. It affects both physical and wireless data connections, as well as mobile phone usage.

Israel has in the past faced accusations of deliberately severing Gaza’s communications –charges on which it has not commented. And while it is not possible to say definitively what caused this outage, signs point toward physical damage to the fiber lines connecting Gaza to Israel, Alp Toker, the director of Netblocks, told CNN. 

Ooredoo, one of the main telecoms providers in Gaza, at the beginning of this outage said that “the main lines feeding telecommunications and internet companies have been repeatedly damaged. This has resulted in the cessation of all our services in the south and center of the Gaza Strip.”

In response to this latest outage, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement: “It is important to remember that the Gaza Strip is an active war zone and thus can experience temporary disruptions to internet connectivity due to the ongoing conflicts.”

There is every “likelihood” that lifesaving medication has reached Israeli hostages in Gaza, but confirming that is difficult due to a communications blackout in Gaza, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Majed Al-Ansari, told CNN’s Becky Anderson Thursday.

Eleven tons of medical supplies were delivered to Palestinian health authorities in Gaza through Egypt, Ansari said. He added that Palestinian health authorities were the ones mandated to deliver the medical aid, because the situation in the strip is volatile. 

“The security situation is certainly not easy. It would be very difficult to involve the Red Cross or any other organization at the moment,” he said. 

On Wednesday, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the IDF does “not have the ability to guarantee” that medicine will reach Israeli hostages in Gaza. Israel believes there are 132 hostages still held in Gaza after being captured in Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attacks — 105 of them alive and 27 dead. About a third of those surviving need regular medication, according to officials.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog, left, speaks with WEF president Borge Brende during a session of the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on January 18.

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog Thursday outlined a broad vision for the region after the Gaza war, including rebuilding the enclave, a dialogue between Israel and Palestinians, and normalizing relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

“We should see on the horizon a coalition of nations who are willing to commit to rebuilding Gaza in a way that, number one, enables the safety and well-being of Israel. Number two, enables the safety and well-being of the Palestinians and brings a future - a different future - to Gaza,” he said at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

He also said he believed normalization with Saudi Arabia was key to exiting the war into a new geopolitical environment.

“It’s delicate, it’s fragile, it will take a long time, but I think it will provide the opportunity to move forward in the region towards a better future,” Herzog said.

“It is a game-changer.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Thursday that an interceptor missile that was fired toward the Red Sea was launched due to “false identification.”

It had earlier said in a statement on Thursday that it detected a “suspicious aerial target” approaching its territory over the Red Sea, and launched an interceptor at the object.

“A short while ago, following the sirens that sounded in the city of Eilat, southern Israel, an interceptor was launched in the area of the Red Sea toward a suspicious aerial target that was approaching Israeli territory,” the statement released Thursday morning read.

The IDF later clarified that it was found to be a “false identification,” it said, and that the sirens in Eilat went off because the interceptor was launched.

Iron Dome missiles self-destruct when there is no target to intercept.

Ofri Bibas Levy, sister of Yarden Bibas held hostage in Gaza with his wife Shiri and two children Kfir and Ariel, during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on November 14.

An Israeli family will hold a public event on Thursday marking the first birthday of Kfir Bibas, the youngest hostage taken from Israel on October 7.

The Hostage and Missing Families Forum said that the Bibas family “will make an impassioned plea for Kfir’s release, as well as the release of his parents Yarden and Shiri and his young brother Ariel.” The event will be held at what has come to be known as Hostages Plaza, in Tel Aviv, at 3:30 p.m. local (8:30 a.m. ET).

It is, however, unclear whether Kfir Bibas is still alive. 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in November that it was assessing a claim by Hamas’ military arm, the Qassam Brigades, that the infant was killed in an Israeli airstrike. The Qassam Brigades did not provide evidence for its claim.

When asked on Thursday whether the IDF had come to any conclusion in that investigation, it said it had no comment.

 Kfir was taken, alongside his brother and parents from kibbutz Nir Oz in October.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov holds an annual press conference in Moscow, Russia, on January 18.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pushed for the creation of a Palestinian state while speaking about the situation in Gaza during his annual press conference on Thursday. 

“The main direction of efforts should be the creation of a Palestinian state in full compliance with the decisions of the Security Council - a state that, as written in these decisions, would exist in security and good neighbourliness alongside Israel with other countries in the region,” Lavrov outlined.
“Without this, whatever happens, we will see relapses of the violence that is now seen in Gaza, because without the creation of a Palestinian state, the Palestinian people will continue to feel disadvantaged, will continue to live in conditions of inferior justice,” Lavrov argued, urging the need to “put an end to it.”

Lavrov said he “hopes the Israeli state will come to this conclusion eventually” but also said that he understood that was “unacceptable for Israel at the moment.”

“We can’t do anything apart from explain it to them,” Lavrov argued. 

Lavrov then urged that mediation efforts by the US would not work unless there is “direct dialogue between the Palestinians and Israelis.”

“Assume that, so to speak, ‘grown men’ will somewhere agree on how the Palestinians will continue to live, and then will present it to them. It won’t be a success. Only direct dialogue that needs to be restored,” Lavrov outlined.

The US military carried out another round of strikes against the Houthis in Yemen, US officials said, marking the fourth time the US has struck the Iran-backed rebel group in less than a week.

Hours earlier, the Houthis struck a US-owned and operated vessel for the second time this week. 

The latest US strikes come amid heightened tensions in the Middle East. Iran’s top diplomat has warned that attacks by Tehran-backed groups in the region won’t stop until Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza ends, while Israel’s military chief said the likelihood of war along the border with Lebanon is now “much higher” than in recent times.

Meanwhile, Iran is embroiled in an escalating spat with its southeastern neighbor Pakistan, which targeted locations inside Iran a day after deadly Iranian strikes on separatists in Pakistani territory. Read more about that conflict here.

Here’s what else you should know:

Members of the Egyptian Red Crescent and civil organizations work to mobilize aid in preparation for its entry into Gaza on January 17 in Rafah, Egypt.

Medicine for Israeli hostages and Palestinians has entered Gaza, Qatar said Wednesday, after the Gulf nation brokered a deal between Israel and Hamas to provide vital medication to the war-torn enclave.

The agreement mediated by Qatar Tuesday will see medication delivered to Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza in exchange for medicine and humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians.

“Over the past few hours, medicine & aid entered the Gaza Strip, in implementation of the agreement announced yesterday for the benefit of civilians in the Strip, including hostages,” Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Dr. Majed Al-Ansari wrote on X.

“Qatar, along with its regional and international partners, continues mediation efforts at the political and humanitarian levels.”

The medication left Doha on Wednesday and headed to Egypt before being transported to Gaza, the ministry previously said.

Osama Hamdan, a Lebanon-based Hamas official, said the agreement was dependent on there being enough medication for Palestinians in Gaza in addition to the Israeli hostages.

Hamas has stipulated that for every box of medication given to the hostages, Palestinians in Gaza must receive 1,000 boxes.

Read more about the deal.

Sharon Aloni Cunio speaks with CNN's Anderson Cooper on January 17.

It has been more than 50 days since Hamas militants released Sharon Aloni Cunio and her twin 3-year-old daughters, but she remains haunted by her time as a hostage — most of which she says was spent in a Gaza hospital — and longs for her husband who remains captive in the Palestinian enclave.

“I’m both mother and a father right now,” she told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Wednesday. Though when her children are out of sight, she watches videos and listens to voicemails of her husband, David Cunio, “to feel connected to him — but I’m pretty much depressed.”

Aloni Cunio’s family were among the more than 250 people kidnapped on October 7 and taken to Gaza during the Hamas attacks on Israel that killed more than 1,200 people.

She told Cooper that while her family had become separated in the chaos of the attacks, the four of them had been reunited in captivity when militants hid them alongside dozens of other hostages being held at Nasser hospital in southern Gaza.

In an account that potentially backs up US and Israeli assessments that hospitals were used to shelter hostages, Aloni Cunio said there were three rooms at Nasser hospital each holding between 10 and 12 captives and that they were tended to by a male nurse every other day.

Read her account.

The United States carried out another round of strikes against the Houthis in Yemen, according to two US officials, marking the fourth time the US has struck the Iran-backed rebel group in less than a week.

The US used Tomahawk missiles to target approximately 14 Houthi missile launchers used to attack international shipping lanes, one of the officials said. The Tomahawk missiles were launched from US Navy surface vessels and the USS Florida, a guided missile submarine, another official said.

The US strikes are the latest in a series of actions against the Houthis, following significant US-led strikes last week with the UK, and support from a handful of other allies. 

They come amid heightened tensions in the Middle East and fears that the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza could further spill out into the region.

Hours earlier, the Houthis struck a US-owned and operated vessel for the second time this week. 

The Iran-backed rebel group used a one-way attack drone to target the M/V Genco Picardy in the Gulf of Aden, according to US Central Command. No one was injured on board the commercial vessel, Central Command said in a statement. The ship suffered some damage but was able to continue on its way.

Read more about the latest US strikes.

Israel does “not have the ability to guarantee” medicine will reach hostages in Gaza, a military spokesperson said Wednesday, after Qatar brokered a deal between Israel and Hamas to deliver medication to the captives and to Palestinians. 

Asked how the medicine would reach the hostages, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Israel would work with Qatar to ensure it gets to those held captive.

“What is important is that this effort happens, and currently the trucks are being checked. They will finish the checks, they will get in (to Gaza) and we need to do everything we can to ensure that the medications will indeed reach where they need to go,” Hagari said.  

The agreement says that for every box of medication given to Israeli hostages, 1,000 boxes of medication must be provided for Palestinians in Gaza.

Isael’s military chief on Wednesday said the likelihood of war on the country’s northern border with Lebanon is now “much higher” than in recent times.

Israeli Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi said his country is increasing its readiness for “fighting in Lebanon,” during a visit to a reservists’ exercise near the border. 

Attaining Israel’s goal of returning residents who have fled amid Israel-Hezbollah clashes “must come through a very significant change,” he added.

And much had been learned from the ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza, he said.

“We have a lot of lessons from the fighting in Gaza, many of which are very relevant to fighting in Lebanon, and there are some that must be adapted,” the military chief said.

US President Joe Biden’s administration on Wednesday re-designated the Houthis as a specially designated global terrorist (SDGT) entity amid continued attacks by the Yemen-based militia.

Administration officials said the designation is aimed at deterring the Houthis from their ongoing aggression in the Red Sea. It is the latest in a series of US actions targeting the Iranian-backed group, and comes as the specter of a wider regional war in the Middle East looms large amid Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

“These attacks are a clear example of terrorism and a violation of international law and a major threat to lives, global commerce, and they jeopardize the delivery of humanitarian assistance,” a US senior administration official said in a call with reporters Tuesday.

Mohammad Abdul Salam, the official spokesperson for the Houthis, said the group had anticipated the designation, which he described as being driven by political motives in a call with Al-Jazeera on Wednesday.

The Houthis said they used the attacks to try and garner “leverage” to halt the war in Gaza, underscoring that the US designation “would not weaken” their “unwavering support” for the Palestinian cause.

Keep reading about the Houthi re-designation.

Attacks by Iranian-backed groups in the Middle East won’t stop until Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza ends, Tehran’s top diplomat warned on Wednesday, as tensions across the region threaten to spiral into wider conflict.

“If the genocide in Gaza stops, then it will lead to the end of other crises and attacks in the region,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday.

Abdollahian’s comments echo the stated objectives of individual armed groups in Iran’s network of influence.

Since Hamas’ October 7 attacks on Israel and the Israeli offensive in Gaza that followed, the militant group Hezbollah has engaged in daily confrontations with Israeli forces on the Lebanon-Israel border.

Houthi rebels have launched a series of attacks on commercial ships and Western military vessels in the Red Sea, a major artery for international trade. And Iranian-backed forces in Iraq and Syria have launched dozens of attacks aimed at US military positions in those countries, leading to a number of close calls.

Read more about the wider conflict in the Middle East.