January 31, 2024 - Israel-Hamas war

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed the importance of the United Nation’s humanitarian work inside Gaza, saying it is “absolutely vital,” while also calling again for allegations made against UN staffers in the enclave to be addressed.

In remarks alongside UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza Sigrid Kaag, Blinken noted that “her mission now could not be more vital."

Blinken went on to say that the UN must “work through the terrible allegations” made against its aid agency, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

“That's absolutely essential, and we'll be looking at to see that the necessary work is done to deal with and address that situation,” Blinken said.

The US suspended approximately $300,000 in aid to UNRWA as the agency investigates Israeli allegations that 13 of its personnel were involved in the October 7 Hamas attacks. The US is among a growing list of countries who have suspended some or all funding to the agency.

Kaag did not mention the UNRWA situation in her remarks. She spoke of the “common objective” of “getting humanitarian aid, assistance to the innocent civilians of Gaza.”

“They need it. We need to help them sustain. We need to give them prospects,” she said. 

The United States destroyed a Houthi surface-to-air missile in Yemen early Wednesday Eastern time, according to a statement from Central Command.

The missile was prepared to launch and posed “an imminent threat to US aircraft operating in the region,” it said.

The US has carried out a series of strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, some along with the United Kingdom, to go after Houthi weaponry and disrupt the rebel group’s ability to target international shipping lanes.

The United States believes an umbrella group of militants called Islamic Resistance in Iraq was behind the drone attack in Jordan that killed three American service members, the White House said Wednesday, its first formal attribution for the incident.

He stopped short of assigning exact blame on Kata'ib Hezbollah, saying it was not the only group responsible for previous attacks on US bases.

"This certainly has the earmarks of the kinds of things that Kata'ib Hezbollah does," he said, adding, "The attribution that our intelligence community is comfortable with is that this was done by the umbrella group called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq."

Kirby said as the US was preparing to respond to the attack, there would likely be multiple phases of a counterattack.

The United States said the main United Nations aid agency in Gaza needs to make changes to "restore donor confidence" before it will resume giving money to the agency, the US ambassador to the UN said.

The US has long been a leading donor for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA), but the US and several other countries paused funding after Israel alleged 13 employees were associated with Hamas' October 7 attacks.

Even though humanitarian aid is desperately needed in Gaza, the US will continue its pause until there are "fundamental changes to UNRWA to prevent this from happening again," US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said Wednesday that he was "personally horrified" by the allegations and that the UN acted immediately after hearing them. Thomas-Greenfield said the US appreciates the allegations are being taken seriously.

Both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are demanding an investigation after the reported discovery of about thirty bodies in bags buried under rubble and sand in a school in northern Gaza.

Video and images that emerged Tuesday showed dozens of body bags being uncovered at a school in Beit Lahia that had been used as a shelter during the fighting by hundreds of people. Some of the body bags had tags in Hebrew along with bar codes. CNN has geolocated the video to the Hamad bin Khalifa Secondary School, which along with other schools and shelters in the area was in the middle of intensive combat in early December.

The identity of the victims is unknown, as are the circumstances and date of their deaths. The area was the scene of heavy fighting in December, and two schools in Beit Lahia, including Hamad bin Khalifa, were surrounded by the Israeli military for a time. Satellite imagery from January 13 shows a number of craters in the immediate area and the tracks of bulldozers.

The Palestinian Prisoners' Society reported Wednesday “the discovery of the bodies of 30 martyrs inside one of the schools that was besieged by the occupation,” and alleged that those killed had been “handcuffed and blindfolded.”

The accusation was later repeated by Hamas in a statement, which demanded human rights organizations “document this horrific crime.”

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry in the occupied West Bank also called “for the formation of an international field investigation team” into what it described as “the massacres committed by the occupation.” It alleged that “according to testimonies from Palestinian citizens, more than 30 decomposing bodies…have been discovered buried in the north of the Gaza Strip. They were killed, seemingly executed, while blindfolded and their hand shackled.”

CNN cannot independently verify that any of the victims had been handcuffed or blindfolded.

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment on the allegations made, providing the video and geographic co-ordinates. 

Israel's prime minister is assuring the families of Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza that he is "making every effort" to get them back. It comes as hostage talks, mediated by Qatar, are still ongoing.

In terms of an agreement to release hostages, Netanyahu said he could only share limited information and that it was "too early to say how it will take place." Still, United States National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said that "talks surrounding the subject have been constructive."

Netanyahu has said he would not agree with Hamas' demands to release thousands of Palestinian prisoners and withdraw from Gaza to secure the release of the hostages. And his far-right coalition partners, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich have sharply criticized the potential deal.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel back to the Middle East at the end of the week, the White House said Wednesday.

The trip, which has not been publicly announced by the State Department, was announced at a Jewish Federation event in Washington by National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby.

CIA Director Bill Burns met with leaders in Europe last week and White House coordinator for the Middle East, Brett McGurk, returned from Doha over the weekend, Kirby said.

“Our Secretary of State will be heading back over to the region at the end of this week,” Kirby added in response to a question about the hostages being held by Hamas. 

Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza is “still standing,” but “barely functional,” the head of medical activities in Gaza for Médecins sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors without Borders, Aurélie Godard said Wednesday.

Godard visited Al-Shifa — the largest health facility in Gaza — on January 22 for the first time since MSF evacuated its staff from the hospital in November.

Since November, Al Shifa has gradually “transformed into a camp for displaced people,” accommodating around 50,000 people seeking safety, according to MSF. 

It said the lack of fuel for generators has made it “impossible to properly treat people in desperate need of medical care.” Godard visited the hospital with a UN convoy to deliver 19,000 liters (5,000 gallons) of fuel. “This fuel is essential because it is used to run the generators that supply the hospital with electricity,” she said.

Around 3,000 liters (793 gallons) of fuel per day are required for Al Shifa to be functional, meaning the convoy's 19,000 liters (5,000 gallons) of fuel will supply the hospital for "barely a week," according to Godard.

The US Treasury Department on Wednesday imposed sanctions on “three entities and one individual located in Lebanon and Türkiye for providing critical financial support to an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) and Hizballah financial network.”

A notice from the Treasury Department said the entities had generated hundreds of millions of dollars by selling Iranian commodities, "including to the Syrian government."

The latest round of sanctions comes amid a continued uptick of attacks on US troops in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militias. 

The latest attack on a US base in Jordan, which President Joe Biden said was tied to Iran, killed three US service members and injured more than 40 others. Biden has promised a response for the deadly strike.