January 19, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

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

The State Department officially confirmed the death of a US citizen in the West Bank on Friday and has asked the Israeli government for more information, a spokesperson told CNN.

“We extend our deepest condolences to the family,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson did not provide the individual’s name due to privacy considerations.

“Out of respect to the family during this difficult time, we have no further comment,” the spokesperson said.

CNN reported earlier Friday, citing Palestinian news agency WAFA, that Tawfiq Hafiz Ajjaq, 17, was fatally shot.

The Israel Defense Forces(IDF) and Israeli police told CNN it received a report that an off-duty police officer and an Israeli civilian fired toward a “Palestinian individual suspected of hurling rocks in the area of Al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya.”   

IDF says it is reviewing claims that a soldier has fired at him, while the Israeli police have also launched an investigation.

The current Israel-Hamas conflict has left nearly three times more people dead in Gaza than in the last 15 years combined, according to a report from United Nations Women, the organization’s gender equality entity.

The statistics released Friday say more than 24,620 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the latest war began with Hamas’ attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.

The UN’s death toll also reflects the number released by the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza. CNN cannot independently verify these numbers due to the challenges of reporting from the war zone.

The report specifically analyzed the war’s impact on women. According to the data:

Earlier Friday, the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund said there had been nearly 20,000 births in Gaza during the current war — with many of the mothers suffering or dying in childbirth due to a lack of resources, and newborns facing dismal conditions.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Joe Biden in a phone call Friday that public comments he made on Thursday, in which he appeared to reject the idea of creating a Palestinian state, were not meant to foreclose the possibility of a Palestinian state in any form, a person familiar with the conversation tells CNN.

Biden and Netanyahu discussed the possible attributes of a future Palestinian state in a “detailed” and “serious” conversation, the person said.

Biden administration officials have recently discussed the possibility of a future demilitarized Palestinian state, an idea Biden finds “intriguing,” the person added.

What Netanyahu said Thursday: Netanyahu said in a news conference that “Israel needs security control over all territory west of Jordan” in any future arrangement reached after the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

“This clashes with the idea of (Palestinian) sovereignty. What can you do?” he asked.

Those comments were widely understood as a rejection of the idea of creating a Palestinian state — the central component of a two-state solution to the conflict, which Biden has long supported and advocated for.

Intense Israeli bombardment and heavy fighting in the area around a large hospital in southern Gaza killed at least 29 people Friday, according to Palestinian state news agency WAFA.

Nasser Hospital, the largest remaining health facility in the city of Khan Younis, and several residential buildings came under “violent bombardment” by Israeli artillery and military vehicles, according to WAFA.

Khan Younis has been the epicenter of Israel’s ground operation in recent weeks. The fighting has forced thousands of Gazans to flee the area, many of them already displaced from northern neighborhoods where Israel first launched its offensive.

Displaced Palestinians continue to arrive in overcrowded Rafah, near the border with Egypt, by “the thousands,” a United Nations human rights official said Friday. There, they shelter in makeshift tents with little food or clean water.

A 17-year-old Palestinian American was fatally shot Friday in the town of Al-Mazra’a Al-Sharqiya in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian news agency WAFA, citing local sources.   

Tawfiq Hafiz Ajjaq was shot in the head and was taken to Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah, where he was in critical condition but later died, WAFA said, citing medical sources at the hospital.   

The Israel Defense Forces and Israeli police told CNN it received a report that an off-duty police officer and an Israeli civilian fired toward a “Palestinian individual suspected of hurling rocks in the area of Al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya.”   

An IDF soldier was also present in the area, the IDF said in a statement to CNN.

“The claim that the soldier fired at the Palestinian is under review,” the statement said.  

Israel’s police have opened an investigation into the incident, the IDF and Israeli police told CNN.  

Tawfiq had been living abroad for almost a year and a half before returning to the West Bank, according to WAFA.  

Al-Mazra’a Al-Sharqiya is a town where many Palestinian-Americans live.

The US is “seriously concerned” about reports of the shooting, though information is “scant at this time,” John Kirby, US National Security Council spokesperson, said in a Friday briefing.

CNN has reached out to the US Embassy in Jerusalem and the US Office of Palestinian Affairs in Jerusalem for comment.

This post has been updated with comments from a US national security official.

“I’m so scared for Motaz.”

“I hope Motaz is okay.”

“Pray for Motaz.”

These are some of the comments from one of Motaz Azaiza’s dispatches from Gaza, broadcast to his millions of followers: images of his once-vibrant neighborhood transformed into a gray wasteland, raw glimpses of carnage in the ashes, and reflections on his own feelings of rage and exhaustion.

Noor, a medical student in California who asked to go by her first name for safety reasons, is one of the many followers who refer to Azaiza with the familiarity of his first name. She gets notifications on her phone each time he posts and worries when too much time passes.

“For so many of us, it almost feels like he’s a brother. He’s a friend, and we’re seeing him suffer in real time,” she told CNN.

Like millions of others around the world, Noor is witnessing the war in Gaza through the eyes of Palestinians who are sharing their daily realities on social media. Through their posts on Instagram, X and other platforms, these citizen journalists are putting a face to the conflict, giving outsiders an intimate look at the human costs of war from the perspective of people who live there. In return, their followers are developing strong emotional connections with them.

Kanwal Ahmed, a filmmaker and storyteller in Toronto, has a similar opinion.

“They’ve become family to the entire world,” she said. “If (creator Bisan Owda) hasn’t posted for 12 hours, there are hundreds of tweets: ‘Where’s Bisan?’ ‘Does anybody know where Bisan is?’ ‘Is she okay?’ If (Azaiza) has posted a picture where you can tell that he’s looking extremely depressed or he’s lost weight, there’s people discussing that.”

Read the full story about the Palestinians documenting the daily realities of war.

Israeli, Palestinian and Middle Eastern foreign ministers will travel to Brussels on Monday to meet with their European Union counterparts.

Foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and the secretary general of the Arab League are also scheduled to attend what a high-ranking EU official called a “complex ballet” of meetings.

The EU official told journalists in Brussels during a background briefing on Friday that the aim of the invitation was to have “a full discussion with all the participants — the Israelis, the Palestinians, the Arabs,” adding that it could more precisely define “a policy position for the European Union.”

The official detailed that Josep Borell, the EU’s chief diplomat, has tabled a series of objectives for Monday’s discussions, which include an independent Palestinian state, ironclad guarantees for Israel, and a full normalization of relations between Israel with the Arab countries.

The official also pointed to a two-state solution as “a reasonable, legitimate and achievable objective.”

A senior EU diplomat, in a separate briefing to journalists, acknowledged there would be no concrete outcomes from the meetings but said that “going forward and in any solution, either for Gaza specifically or for the broader peace process that should lead to a two-state solution, the role of our Arab friends is crucial.”

Thousands of babies have been born “into hell” in Gaza, while mothers are forced to undergo caesarean sections without anesthetics — and in some cases have to be discharged from the hospital just a few hours after the operation, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund said Friday. 

There have been nearly 20,000 births in Gaza since the conflict began on October 7 of last year, UNICEF said. The mothers and their newborns face desperate aid shortages and the widespread Israeli bombardment in Gaza.

Some mothers have bled to death, and other women have been unable to deliver their stillborn babies because medical workers are overwhelmed, UNICEF said.

“Becoming a mother should be a time for celebration. In Gaza, it’s another child delivered into hell,” spokesperson Tess Ingram said after returning from a trip to southern Gaza.

Ingram said staff at the overwhelmed Emirati Hospital in southern Gaza were forced to discharge mothers “within three hours of a caesarean,” a situation that she said was “beyond belief and requires immediate action.”

CNN is not able to independently verify the claims made by UNICEF because of difficulties in gaining access to hospitals and other impacted areas of Gaza. 

US President Joe Biden spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, one day after the Israeli leader appeared to reject the idea of creating a Palestinian state, a comment that would put him at odds with Biden’s position. 

Biden relayed “his vision for a more durable peace and security for Israel, fully integrated within the region, and a two-state solution with Israel’s security guaranteed” during their first phone call of the year, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Friday.

Biden “reiterated his strong conviction in the viability of a two-state solution — understanding of course, that we’re not going to get there tomorrow, that there’s an active conflict going on and then we want to make sure Israel has what it needs to defend itself,” Kirby told CNN.

CNN reported Thursday that US officials would not allow Netanyahu’s apparent rejection to stop them from pressing the matter with their Israeli counterparts.

Communications services in Gaza are gradually being restored following the longest near-total blackout since the start of the war, the Palestinian Telecommunications Company said in a statement Friday. 

“We announce the gradual return of communications services in various areas of the Gaza Strip, as our technical teams worked during the past days to repair many of the major malfunctions” that resulted from the military operations by the Israeli forces, the company said. 
“Despite the seriousness and difficulty of the circumstances, our crews were able to restore basic services to subscribers as they were before the recent outage,” it said. 

The latest outage, which reached a one-week mark on Thursday, was the ninth such outage since Israel’s war against Hamas began on October 7, 2023, according to the internet monitoring site NetBlocks. 

The communications company did not indicate how long it would take for full services to return in Gaza, or if that is even possible.

The company also said that two members of its technical team died during a recent repair operation, bringing the total number of company employees killed since the start of the war to 14.

A United Nations Human Rights official says he has met Palestinian men in Gaza who described being beaten, blindfolded and held for weeks in Israeli detention.

Ajith Sunghay, who runs the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, urged Israel on Friday to observe international human rights and humanitarian law norms.

Sunghay said in a news briefing that released Palestinian detainees told him they were held in “unknown locations” for 30 to 55 days, where they “described being beaten, humiliated, subjected to ill-treatment — and to what may amount to torture.”

“One man said he had access to a shower only once during his 55 days in detention,” Sunghay said. “There are reports of men who are subsequently released, but only in diapers without any adequate clothing in this cold weather,” he added.

Sunghay said it’s not clear exactly how many men Israel has detained since it began its military operation against Hamas in Gaza, but he said the number is believed to run into the thousands.

What Israel says: The Israel Defense Forces told CNN in a statement on Friday that individuals detained in Gaza by Israel are treated in accordance with international law.

The IDF said it detained and questioned people suspected of involvement in terrorist activity while operating in “Hamas strongholds,” but did not disclose a number.

The military said it takes suspects’ clothes to ensure they are not concealing explosives or weaponry, and that the clothes are not immediately returned to the detainees on suspicion they could still be used to conceal items like knives. “Detainees are given back their clothes when it’s possible to do so,” the IDF said.

When Rachel Goldberg-Polin walked into a Swiss grocery store this week, the cashier was confused by her dress.

“What’s 102?” she asked.
“It’s the amount of days since my son was stolen from me and has been held hostage,” Goldberg-Polin replied.

In an interview with CNN in Davos, Switzerland — where she has met with world leaders to push for hostages’ release — Goldberg-Polin explained how she wears a piece of tape marking each day that has passed since her son Hersh was snatched by Hamas from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023. Hersh’s left hand was blown off by a grenade, and a video obtained by CNN showed bone protruding from his wrist as he was taken to Gaza.

“Always in these conflicts it’s the innocent people who suffer. Always — throughout world history and throughout every conflict that’s happening today,” Goldberg-Polin said.

Hersh, 23, should be in India now, as part of an around-the-world trip he planned. On December 27, when he had been scheduled to leave, Goldberg-Polin went to the airport with friends and handed stickers of Hersh to passengers on his flight, asking them to send photos from places they visit.

She has since received pictures from Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, and elsewhere, with notes saying, “Come on, Hersh, we’re waiting for you!”

“I’m praying that he’ll come home and get the help that he needs and he’ll get to go take that trip,” Goldberg-Polin said.

Watch the interview:

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05:54 - Source: cnn

The US says it struck additional Houthi anti-ship missiles in Yemen on Friday, marking the sixth time in the past 10 days that the US has targeted the Iran-backed rebel group.

The latest strikes targeted three missiles “that were aimed into the Southern Red Sea and were prepared to launch,” US Central Command said in a statement.

It comes a day after the US used fighter jets to strike two Houthi anti-ship missiles, part of a growing campaign to try to disrupt the militant group’s ability to fire missiles and drones against international shipping lanes in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The increasing pace of the strikes, which US officials say are a defensive response to the Houthis’ attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, has raised questions about the overall US strategy aimed at deterring the militants and degrading their weapons capabilities.

This post has been updated with official US confirmation of the latest strikes.

Israeli war cabinet minister Gadi Eisenkot believes his country won’t be able to bring the hostages taken by Hamas back alive through military means, saying their release needs to be negotiated. 

“I think we need to say it bravely, that we cannot bring the hostages alive now if it’s not as part of a deal,” Eisenkot told an Israeli broadcaster during an interview on Thursday evening local time, saying that those who suggest otherwise are “selling lies.” 

Eisenkot also said a deal to secure the release of the hostages would likely include a longer ceasefire than the previous one in late November 2023. 

“There was a short ceasefire of a week and a half, so there will be a ceasefire three to four times longer, and after that the goals of the war are still valid; this is how I see it,” Eisenkot said.

Eisenkot also appeared to criticize Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, saying those who claim Hamas was fully defeated in northern Gaza “are not telling the truth.”

Intense Israeli bombardment and heavy fighting in the area around a large hospital in southern Gaza killed nearly 30 people on Friday, Palestinian state news agency WAFA said.

Nasser Hospital — the largest remaining health facility in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis — came under “violent bombardment” by Israeli artillery and military vehicles, according to WAFA. Several residential buildings near the hospital were reportedly shelled, including one where a family of eight was killed, WAFA said.

Ambulance and rescue crews recovered 29 bodies from under the rubble of destroyed homes and in surrounding streets, WAFA reported.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society also said Friday that several displaced people were injured in Israeli drone attacks targeting the organization’s headquarters and Al-Amal Hospital, which is close to Nasser Hospital. The United Nations estimated Wednesday that around 7,000 people have sought shelter in and around the Nasser Hospital grounds.

What the Israeli military says: The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement Friday that Israeli forces “raided a Hamas military post which served as a training camp for the Khan Younis Brigade and was a meeting place for senior Hamas officials,” locating weapons, tunnel shafts, “and a device containing models of IDF armored vehicles.”

The IDF statement did not clarify where in Khan Younis that Israeli forces were operating.

South Africa’s genocide case against Israel that was presented in the International Court of Justice last week has put the spotlight on a deeper fault line in global geopolitics. Beyond the courtroom drama, experts say divisions over the war in Gaza symbolize a widening gap between Israel and its traditional Western allies — notably the United States and Europe — and a group of nations known as the Global South, countries located primarily in the southern hemisphere, often characterized by lower income levels and developing economies.

Mixed reactions to ICJ case: While some nations have maintained a cautious diplomatic stance, others — particularly Israel’s staunchest allies in the West — have criticized South Africa’s move. The US has stood by Israel through the war by continuing to ship arms to it, opposing a ceasefire, and vetoing many UN Security Council resolutions that aimed to bring a halt to the fighting.

For many in the developing world, the ICJ case has become a focal point for questioning the moral authority of the West and what is seen as the hypocrisy of the world’s most powerful nations and their unwillingness to hold Israel to account.

“The Israel-Gaza war and its subsequent events like this case are highlighting growing fissures between the once dominant West and its key allies like Israel and emerging powers gathered around BRICS states like South Africa,” Remi Adekoya, a political lecturer at the University of York in England, told CNN.

Read the full analysis on how the war has exposed a deepening global divide.

A former Israeli prime minister and an Israeli war cabinet minister are calling for fresh elections in the country, criticizing Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership.

Israeli war cabinet minister Gadi Eisenkot said the public no longer has trust in Netanyahu’s leadership, while former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak warned about the risks of Netanyahu’s strategy.

Meanwhile, a near-total communications blackout in Gaza, the longest of the war, has now surpassed the one-week mark with no signs of abating, preventing humanitarian and emergency services from operating effectively in the territory.

Here’s what you should know:

Israel needs fresh elections because the public no longer has trust in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership, Israeli war cabinet minister Gadi Eisenkot said.

“We need to go to the polls and have an election in the next few months, in order to renew the trust as currently there is no trust,” Eisenkot told Israeli television news on Thursday evening. “The state of Israel is a democracy and needs to ask itself, after such a serious event, how do we go forward with a leadership that is responsible for such an absolute failure?”

He also dismissed concerns over holding elections in the country while it’s at war. “Lack of trust among the public in its government is no less severe than lack of unity during a war,” he explained.

“The situation in Gaza is such that the goals of the war have not been achieved, but the war is no longer happening. There is a relatively limited Order of battle, there’s a different order of operation,” he added.

The near-total telecommunications blackout in the Gaza Strip has now lasted more than a full week, the internet monitoring site NetBlocks said on Friday afternoon.

“At 168 hours, the disruption is the longest on record since the start of the Israel-Hamas war and continues to severely limit visibility into events on the ground,” NetBlocks said in its latest update.

“The disruption is still ongoing at the present time with no sign of restoration in our telemetry,” NetBlocks Director of Research Isik Mater told CNN.

Israeli war cabinet minister Gadi Eisenkot appeared to criticize Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, saying those who claim Hamas was fully defeated in northern Gaza “are not telling the truth.”

“Those who say that there was a major blow and demolition of the capabilities in the north of the strip are telling the truth. Those who talk about an absolute defeat (of Hamas) and lack of will and ability, are not telling the truth,” Eisenkot told Israeli television news on Thursday evening, just hours after Netanyahu said Israel’s military campaign would continue until it achieved “complete victory” over Hamas.

“A strategic achievement was not reached. Partially reached. We did not demolish the Hamas organization,” he added.

Eisenkot said the government had failed to achieve what he says should be its highest priority — securing the release of the hostages. He added that he also sees himself as part of this failure. Israel has said that 253 people were taken hostage during the Hamas attack and believes 132 hostages are still in Gaza – 105 of them alive and 27 dead.

Hundreds of women marched through Tel Aviv on Friday calling on the Israeli government and the international community to do more to help secure the release of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. 

Videos shared on social media showed women holding signs saying “no more time,” as well as chanting “me too, unless you’re a Jew” and “wake up world.”

According to witnesses, more than 1,500 people were present at the protest. Israeli authorities have yet to release an official count. The protest was called for by a women’s rights organization but some men could also be seen marching.

“The government is taking its time, but their time has run out,” organizers said in a release ahead of the protest.
“We’ll distribute signs and embark on a protest march for our kidnapped ones held captive for over 100 days in Gaza, enduring abuse by Hamas with no prospect of release.”

Hamas and other groups took around 240 hostages into Gaza on October 7. More than 100 Israeli and foreign hostages were freed during a weeklong truce in late November, with Palestinians held in Israeli prisons being released in exchange for the Israelis. Israel believes 132 hostages remain in Gaza, with around 107 thought to still be alive.

The network in most of Gaza is “still down,” director of Palestinian telecommunication provider Ooredoo, Samer Fares, told CNN on Friday. 

In southern and central Gaza, there is a communications blackout because the underground fiber-optic line connecting internet and cellphone towers in Gaza to Israel and the West Bank has been severed by Israeli military activity, Fares said. This infrastructure is operated by Gaza’s main telecommunications provider Palestinian Telecommunications Company (Paltel).

Paltel have been trying to fix the cut in the line, but have not yet been able to, Fares said. “We were told by Paltel that communications would be restored on Thursday, but they have not come back yet,” he added.

Ooredoo has partial services in northern Gaza because it has a backup microwave link with Cellecom, an Israeli telecom provider, Fares said. 

Paltel has been unable to access the southern areas of Gaza “due to the lack of secure routes and the difficulty of movement due to the massive destruction of roads, and due to a shortage of spare parts,” the Palestinian state news agency (WAFA) said, citing Ihab Sbeih, an official at the Palestinian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

The communications blackout has now entered its eighth day, WAFA said, adding that it is “the longest outage” since October 7. CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces to inquire about the restoration of the network in Gaza.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has called for fresh elections to restore confidence in the country’s leadership and warned that Benjamin Netanyahu’s current strategy risks alienating the United States and leaving Israel “mired in the Gaza quagmire.” 

Calling Netanyahu’s refusal to publicly discuss plans for “the day after” period following the end of combat in Gaza “unconscionable,” Barak said a lack of planning was damaging the war effort and the country’s future diplomatic relations.

“The IDF cannot optimize the probability of winning when there is no defined political goal. In the absence of a realistic goal, we will end up mired in the Gaza quagmire, fighting simultaneously in Lebanon and in the West Bank, eroding the American backing and endangering the Abraham Accords and the peace agreements with Egypt and with Jordan,” Barak wrote in an op-ed published in Haaretz Thursday.

Barak added that a proposal from the Biden administration in November that would see a “revitalized” Palestinian Authority take control of Gaza after the war offered the “only practical blueprint” to move forward and would require Israel to take part in future talks “toward a two-state solution.”

Netanyahu on Thursday appeared to reject the idea of creating a Palestinian state, a statement that could contribute to growing tensions between Washington and Jerusalem.

The apparent rejection of a Palestinian state is at odds with the stated position of one of Netanyahu’s staunchest allies, US President Joe Biden, who has long advocated for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant held a call with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Thursday evening.

It comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to reject the idea of creating a Palestinian state.

“Minister Gallant emphasized the determination of the State of Israel and the defense establishment within it, to continue operating until the goals of the war are achieved, namely - the destruction of Hamas’ military and governing capabilities and the return of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza,” Gallant’s office said of the call.
“The Minister briefed the Secretary on operational developments in the war, including achievements in the ongoing military efforts to dismantle terror infrastructure and eliminate Hamas terrorists across the strip.”

The pair also discussed the rise in tensions on the border with Lebanon. 

American 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 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.

No injuries or damage were reported after the Houthis launched two anti-ship ballistic missiles at the vessel, marking the third such attack on a US-owned ship this week.

It comes after Houthi spokesperson Mohammad Abdul Salam described US-led strikes in Yemen as a “persistent act of aggression” aimed at safeguarding Israel. 

He also said the Houthis will not be deterred from launching attacks on what he claims are “Israeli-linked” vessels.

US President Joe Biden conceded Thursday that US strikes against the Houthis are not deterring the group’s attacks in the Red Sea — but said the US attacks would continue.

Here’s the latest on Israel’s war against Hamas:

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.”

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.

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.  

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.”

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 (IDF) 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.

Read more.

Not that long ago, the closure of one of the world’s most important trade routes would have pushed households’ energy and fuel bills sharply higher.

So why, then, in the midst of a crisis in the Red Sea, with tankers of oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) forced to take much longer routes to their destinations, have energy prices barely reacted — or even declined — over the past few weeks?

Europe imports most of its natural gas, but the price of the benchmark gas contract has fallen 28% since early December when Iran-backed Houthi militants began ratcheting up attacks on shipping in retaliation for Israel’s war against Hamas.

In recent days, tensions have escalated further with Iran and Pakistan conducting strikes on each other’s territory, and as Iran’s allies and proxies in the Middle East — the so-called axis of resistance — launch attacks on Israeli forces and its allies against the backdrop of the war in Gaza.

The prices of a barrel of Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, and West Texas Intermediate, the US oil benchmark, have barely moved. They’re up around 4% since early December.

“The (oil) market basically doesn’t get as excited as it used to because it knows that most of these tensions don’t really, necessarily lead a reduction in supply,” Homayoun Falakshahi, a senior oil analyst at data provider Kpler, told CNN.

Read the full analysis.

President Joe Biden conceded Thursday that strikes against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen are not deterring the groups’ attacks in the Red Sea, as the military carried out further strikes against the group in Yemen on Thursday.

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, the official said.

The US military confirmed the most recent strikes in a statement on Thursday afternoon.

On Thursday, Biden said that strikes on the Houthis will continue — even if they aren’t stopping the group from carrying out attacks.

Asked at the White House if the strikes are working, the president responded: “When you say working are they stopping the Houthis? No.”

Read more about the strikes.

A near-total communications blackout in Gaza, the longest of the war, has now lasted one week with no signs of abating, preventing humanitarian and emergency services from operating effectively in the territory.

It 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.

The blackout affects both physical and wireless data connections, as well as mobile phone usage.

“It’s almost impossible to do the work that we’re supposed to do,” Juliette Touma, director of communications for UNRWA, the largest UN agency operating in the Palestinian Territories, told CNN by phone from Jerusalem. “It’s something that is very difficult to imagine in this day and age.”

Read more about the blackout.