January 23, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

US strikes on Iran-backed militias in Iraq killed at least one person and injured two others, an Iraqi security source told CNN on Tuesday.

The strikes targeted three facilities used by Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah and other Tehran-affiliated groups following repeated attacks on US forces, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

The person killed was a Kataib Hezbollah fighter, according to a post on the group's Telegram channel.

This post has been updated with additional information.

Read more about the US strikes.

Israel's “clear and repeated rejection” of a two-state solution is “unacceptable” and threatens to prolong the conflict with Palestinians that has become a global threat to peace, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at a UN Security Council meeting Tuesday.

The UN chief called a two-state solution the only way to address the aspirations of both sides, saying any refusal to accept it must be firmly rejected.

Guterres also repeated his call for more aid deliveries into Gaza, saying the quantities that are entering the enclave are highly insufficient. “It is fantasy to think that 2.2 million people can survive on aid alone,” he said.

Guterres called for more crossing points into Gaza and for access to the north, saying only seven of 29 planned humanitarian missions to the north of Wadi Gaza in early January were fully or partially accomplished.

He also appealed again for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, saying, “this will ensure sufficient aid gets to where it is needed, facilitate the release of hostages, and help lower tensions around the Middle East.”

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron will travel to Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Qatar and Turkey to hold "high level talks” with regional leaders to end what he described as a “desperate” situation in Gaza.

Cameron will focus discussions on getting more aid into Gaza, releasing more hostages, and reaching a “sustainable and permanent ceasefire,” according to a statement from the British Foreign Office.

Cameron will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, to speak about humanitarian aid and civilian casualties in Gaza, the foreign office outlined.

The foreign secretary will also meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to reiterate the UK’s support for a two-state solution “so that Israelis and Palestinians can live side-by-side in peace,” the statement read.

Doctors Without Borders staff said they are unable to follow Israel's evacuation orders for the area around Al-Nasser Hospital in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis, as the sounds of "bombs and heavy gunfire" go off nearby.

Staff members and 850 patients cannot leave the hospital due to the "roads to and from the building being either inaccessible or too dangerous," according to a thread of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, from the organization, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

Dr. Ahmed Al-Moghrabi, who is inside the hospital, spoke to CNN midday local time on Tuesday and said the hospital received evacuation orders from the IDF. But it is a "very difficult situation as there (is) fierce fighting by the hospital.”

Amro Abu Raydeh, one of the few remaining journalists inside the medical complex, told CNN that there is "ongoing artillery fire and drones (quadcopters) that are opening fire" around the hospital, and unidentified bodies are being buried in the hospital grounds or inside the hospital's morgue.

The US military conducted airstrikes Tuesday on three facilities used by Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah and other Iran-affiliated groups in Iraq, the Pentagon announced. 

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that the strikes “are in direct response to a series of escalatory attacks against US and coalition personnel in Iraq and Syria” by Iranian-backed militia groups. 

The strikes come just days after US personnel at Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq were injured in a ballistic missile and rocket attack on the base. While most missiles and rockets were intercepted by the base’s air defenses, some projectiles made impact, US Central Command said over the weekend.

Tensions in the region: The strikes on Tuesday are the first in Iraq since the beginning of the month, when the US targeted a member of an Iranian proxy group operating in the country who one US official said had “US blood on his hands.” They also come after multiple strikes against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen over the last week and a half, as the US looks to reign in the aggressive actions of Iranian-backed groups in the Middle East amid heightened tensions in the region.

US forces in Iraq and Syria have been targeted at least 151 times since attacks began on October 17, 2023, according to a US official — 10 days after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US will not support Israel creating so-called "buffer zones" permanently in Gaza that would effectively reduce the size of the Palestinian territory.

"When it comes to the permanent status of Gaza going forward, we've been clear, we remain clear, about not encroaching on its territory," said Blinken reiterated at a news conference in Abuja, Nigeria.

However, Blinken said that there may need to be "transitional arrangements" that provide "necessary security arrangements" to allow Israelis who fled areas adjacent to Gaza after October 7 to return.  

Blinken also maintained that Gazans who fled their homes must be allowed to return and that Palestinians be able to govern themselves.

Ongoing talks to secure the release of all hostages held in Gaza have not yet reached the level of “negotiations,” the White House said Tuesday, describing them instead as “sober and serious” discussions about what might be acceptable to all sides.

“I don’t know that it’s time now to be talking about holdups. These are ongoing discussions. I wouldn’t even classify them as negotiations quite at this point,” John Kirby, the strategic communications coordinator at the National Security Council, said. 

He wasn’t able to confirm reports about some of the options being discussed, including a lengthy pause in fighting for two months.

But he did say the US would “absolutely” be supportive of a break in fighting longer than the one-week pause agreed to last year in exchange for the release of some captives.

“That would give us the opportunity to get all hostages out and more aid in, we would absolutely support a humanitarian pause of longer length than the week we were able to accomplish,” he said.

Brett McGurk, the White House Middle East coordinator, is in Cairo on Tuesday to continue discussions on a potential hostage deal, Kirby said.

Motaz Azaiza, a Palestinian journalist and photographer who has diligently documented life in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war, evacuated the enclave and landed in Doha on Tuesday via a Qatari Air Force plane, according to his social media.

“I had to evacuate for a lot of reasons you all know some of it but not all of it,” he wrote on his Instagram account, adding: “pray for Gaza.”  

Azaiza has built an international following for his reporting of Israel’s assault on Gaza since October 7, becoming one of the few sources of independent media in the war zone.

Most global news organizations have been unable to cover the conflict with their own correspondents on the ground. Israel, along with Egypt, has largely blocked international journalists from Gaza, saying they cannot cannot guarantee their safety.

The few foreign journalists who have been allowed to enter the enclave have primarily embedded with the Israel Defense Forces and may have had to submit their footage to the military for security review.

Read more about the journalists documenting the war on the ground.

Israeli fighter jets have carried out strikes on targets in Lebanon, including a "military asset" used by Hezbollah and operated by Iranian forces, the Israel Defense Forces said.

The IDF said it also struck several additional areas in Lebanon, including a military compound that Hezbollah operated in.

“Hezbollah’s military activity south of the Litani River in Lebanon, including the use and storage of armaments, is a clear violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. The IDF will continue to defend Israel’s borders from any threat,” it added. 

Resolution 1701, passed in 2006, stipulated that the area south of the Litani should become a demilitarized zone. 

Earlier, the IDF said there had been a number of launches from Lebanon into Israeli territory. Some launches caused minor damage at an Israeli Air Force base, and some were successfully intercepted, it said. No injuries were reported.