February 7, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Wednesday.

Blinken’s meeting with Abbas follows meetings with top Israeli officials as the US is pushing for reforms within the Palestinian Authority, aiming for the eventual goal that the group would be able to govern a unified West Bank and Gaza.

It also comes amid a surge in violence in the West Bank following the October 7 attacks. Blinken has repeatedly pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do more to address the violence of Israeli settlers. US President Joe Biden's administration last week imposed sanctions on four Israelis for perpetrating violence in the West Bank.

Blinken has met with Abbas on all of his trips to the region.

CNN was among a small group of reporters granted a military escort by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to see two interconnected tunnel compounds in Khan Younis, including a musty chamber — which looks like a makeshift cell — where the Israeli military says Hamas held at least 12 hostages.

CNN could not independently confirm Israel’s account, but details of it tally with descriptions in Israeli media from hostages who say they were held there. The IDF has shown similar complexes to other media in eastern Khan Younis.

Entering the tunnel: A CNN journalist entered the tunnel network through the wall of a basement now entirely exposed by a giant crater, the area surrounded by blown-out, multi-story residential buildings.

What's it like in the tunnel: The stale, damp air inside the tunnel smells of sewage. The walls are slimy, and they feel like they are closing in. When the light goes off, everything is plunged into complete darkness.

In the darkness underground, minutes feel like hours, and after a few turns down different shafts, it’s impossible not to feel disoriented. The compound is hot and very humid. Its tiled walls and floors are wet with condensation. The air feels heavy, as if oxygen is running out.

As a condition to enter Gaza under IDF escort, news outlets must submit photos and raw video footage to the Israeli military for review prior to publication. The IDF did not review this written report.

International media have been blocked access to the strip since the war began. CNN agreed to the terms to provide a rare glimpse into wartime Gaza, as Israel tries to find the remaining hostages and pushes further south into areas where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have fled.

Israel says that Hamas built a vast network of compounds like this one, connected by tunnels and shafts deep underground. The southern city of Khan Younis, which Israel considers one of the “main strongholds” of the group, is the current epicenter of fighting.

Inside the subterranean complex, the shafts are cramped.

Some of the tunnels are flooded ankle-deep in mud.

Signs of use for extended periods: What was clear from CNN’s tour is that the compound was used for an extended period of time. Discarded trash, empty food and drink packaging, soiled blankets and random pieces of clothing lie scattered around. In a kitchen fitted with basic equipment, dirty dishes are discarded in a sink.

Video and witness accounts from across Gaza indicate significant combat in several areas, including in Gaza City and Khan Younis in the south of the enclave.

Injuries were reported among people in the vicinity of Nasser medical complex in Khan Younis. Local reports said several people had been shot by Israeli forces, which have surrounded the hospital. 

CNN cannot confirm the details of the shooting, but social media video showed several apparently injured people being removed from a street adjacent to the complex.

A doctor inside the hospital, Dr. Ahmad Al Moghrabi, posted a video on Instagram showing people waiting at its main gate, claiming that if anyone goes outside the gate, "they will be killed." He said Israeli snipers were standing on the roofs of some buildings. 

CNN has asked the Israeli Defense Forces about the presence and purpose of snipers in the vicinity of the hospital.    

The Hamas-run health ministry said the Nasser and Al-Amal hospitals in Khan Younis are running out of oxygen, with the Palestine Red Crescent Society also saying Al-Amal has had "a severe oxygen shortage for days." 

In Rafah: Further south, the Hamas-run Civil Defense directorate said its crews recovered a number of bodies after Israeli airstrikes targeted three properties that had been crowded with displaced people.

In Gaza City: A journalist in Gaza told CNN that crowds of people had fled after coming under fire while waiting for a distribution of humanitarian aid in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood.                                                                                                            

A meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began Wednesday at 11:50 a.m. local time (4:50 a.m. ET) in Tel Aviv and lasted for about an hour, according to a pool of reporters traveling with the secretary. 

Blinken “reiterated the United States’ support for the establishment of a Palestinian state as the best way to ensure lasting peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike and greater integration for the region,” according to the statement.

Blinken also stressed to Netanyahu “the urgent need to de-escalate tensions in the West Bank and prevent the conflict from expanding.”

The “long and in-depth meeting” was followed by an extended meeting involving Israel's defense minister, as well as security and intelligence leaders, according to the prime minister's office.

The meeting was closed to the press.

He is also expected to travel to the West Bank as part of his trip.

Blinken said Tuesday he would discuss Hamas' response to a proposal meant to secure the freedom of the remaining hostages and a sustained cessation of the fighting in Gaza with Israeli officials. 

CNN's Jennifer Hansler contributed reporting to this post.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday said, “there is a lot of work to be done” to achieve a deal that would see the release of the hostages held in Gaza, “but we are very much focused on doing that work and hopefully, being able to resume the release of hostages that was interrupted so many months ago.”

The US and Israel are looking at the Hamas response to the proposal "intensively," he said in remarks at a meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog. 

The full Hamas response proposes three phases, each lasting 45 days, including the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, a massive humanitarian effort, and freedom of movement for people throughout Gaza, according to a copy obtained by CNN. 

Herzog noted that Blinken’s visit to Tel Aviv “comes at a very critical time in the conflict.”

“We are yearning and praying for the immediate release of our hostages. We want to see them back as soon as possible,” the Israeli president said.

“The hostages are foremost on our minds and in our hearts,” Blinken said.

Meeting with IDF: Mossad chief David Barnea, who has led Israel’s negotiations on a hostage deal, along with other Israeli leaders, also attended a meeting with Blinken and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzei Halevi, according to a State Department spokesperson.

The top commander in charge of Israel’s military operation in southern Gaza has said that there is no plan in place yet for how to minimize civilian deaths in Rafah, as fears mount that an Israeli offensive in what is now the enclave’s most populous city could result in mass casualties.

Brig. Gen. Dan Goldfuss, who oversees the Israel Defense Forces’ 98th Division, said on Sunday he would work on such a plan “if and when” he receives the order to maneuver his forces into the area, and that as of Sunday, the order had not been issued yet.

An IDF spokesperson told CNN that as of Wednesday, the information was still accurate – an order to move into Rafah has not been issued yet.

As the IDF pushed on with its ground operation from the north, it has consistently instructed civilians across the Gaza Strip to evacuate south, first to Khan Younis and then to Rafah, creating what it calls “safer zones.” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed last week that the IDF would move into Rafah.

CNN has previously reported on Palestinian civilians who followed evacuation orders being killed by Israeli strikes, underscoring the reality that evacuation zones and warning alerts from the Israeli military haven’t guaranteed safety for civilians in the densely populated Gaza Strip, where Palestinians have no safe place to escape Israeli bombs.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated that 1.3 million people had been displaced to Rafah. But there is nowhere to go from Rafah, a city that sits right at Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, which is closed to refugees.

See how Rafah has changed with the influx of displaced civilians:

October 26, 2023

February 3, 2024

The United Nations said that a sharp increase in acute malnutrition among children, particularly in children under the age of five, and pregnant and breastfeeding women in Gaza remains “a significant concern."

The latest bulletin from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that acute malnutrition was detected in 9.6% of 3,500 children aged between 6 months and 5 years in Gaza, a twelve-fold increase in the rate prior to October 7. 

In northern Gaza, there was a 16.2% acute malnutrition rate among children, which is above the World Health Organization’s critical threshold of 15%.

More on the situation in Gaza: OCHA says that about 75% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million are displaced and facing an acute shortage of food, water, shelter and medicine.

Further escalation of hostilities in the city of Khan Younis continues to drive thousands of people further south towards Rafah, where most live in makeshift structures, tents or out in the open.

Only four out of 22 United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees health facilities are still operational in the Gaza Strip due to ongoing Israeli bombardment and access restrictions, the agency said Wednesday. Disease is spreading at an “alarming” rate, due to lack of sanitation and clean water, UNRWA added.

The Israel Defense Forces is still hunting for Yahya Sinwar — Hamas' political chief in Gaza —and other leaders of the militant group in the enclave, a top Israeli general said, adding that he is confident his troops will “get them.”

“I believe that we’re going to reach the Hamas leaders wherever they are. And I'm on their tail,” said Brig. Gen. Dan Goldfuss, the commander of the IDF's 98th Division, which is leading the fighting in southern Gaza. The unit is the biggest military division in the history of Israel.

He did not respond when asked whether he can say with confidence that Sinwar is still in Gaza.

Standing inside a vast Hamas underground tunnel compound in central Khan Younis, where Sinwar is from, the commander said he believed the militant group’s top political leader in Gaza used that particular spot as one of his hiding places during the war. CNN cannot verify that claim. Goldfuss said his belief that Sinwar was staying in the room was based on the IDF’s new understanding of the system.

CNN has obtained a copy of the Hamas response to Israel's proposal for a ceasefire and the delivery of humanitarian aid in exchange for the release of hostages held in Gaza, confirmed by Muhammad Nazzal, a senior Hamas official.

Here's a breakdown of each phase:

Phase one would include the release of Israeli hostages, including women and children (under 19 years old) “who are not enlisted, as well as the elderly and the sick, in exchange for a specific number of Palestinian prisoners,” Hamas said.

It would also include “intensifying humanitarian aid, relocating forces outside populated areas, allowing the start of reconstruction works for hospitals, houses, and facilities in all areas of the Gaza Strip, and allowing the United Nations and its agencies to provide humanitarian services and establish housing camps for the population.”

The first phase would also include a “temporary cessation of military operations and aerial reconnaissance, and the withdrawal of Israeli forces away from populated areas in the Gaza Strip to be parallel to the separation line, in order to facilitate the exchange of detainees.”

Phase two would see the “completion of (indirect) talks on the requirements necessary for the continuation of the mutual cessation of military operations and the return to a state of complete calm.”

This phase would aim for the release of all male hostages held in Gaza (civilians and enlisted personnel) “in exchange for a specified number of Palestinian prisoners, continuing the humanitarian measures of the first phase, the withdrawal of Israeli forces outside the borders of all areas of the Gaza Strip, and the comprehensive reconstruction of houses, facilities, and infrastructure that were destroyed in all areas of the Gaza Strip.”

Remember: Israel has repeatedly said it will not withdraw troops from Gaza until a complete victory over Hamas and other militant groups in the territory.

Phase three would aim “to exchange bodies and remains of the deceased on both sides after their arrival and identification,” while humanitarian aid and reconstruction continue.

Finally, Hamas proposes that the guarantors of the agreement would be Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, Russia and the United Nations. It does not include the US among the guarantors.