March 5, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

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

Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets into northern Israel on Tuesday, which it said were retaliation for a deadly Israeli airstrike.

About 10 of 30 rockets fired at the town of Kiryat Shmona were “successfully intercepted,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.

Earlier, at least three civilians were killed following Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.

The Israeli strikes hit a farmer’s house in the border town of Houla, killing a couple and their son, NNA said.

Some background: The violence marks the latest round of daily, deadly cross-border strikes by both Israel and Hezbollah that have displaced tens of thousands of Lebanese and Israeli residents from their homes since the outbreak of war in Gaza.

Concern is rising among US officials that Israel is planning a ground incursion into Lebanon if diplomatic efforts fail to push Hezbollah back from the northern border, according to officials familiar with the intelligence.

Israel’s war in Gaza is a disaster but nevertheless poses an opportunity for “the day after” for Palestinians, the caretaker Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority said on Tuesday.

Mohammad Shtayyeh called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and said the most promising idea for a post-war landscape included “the totality of the Palestinian issue that has to do with the creation and the manifestation of a two-state solution and Palestinian state on the border of 1967 with Jerusalem as its capital.”

“This is a door opening for the Palestinians to come together again so that a person or authority will be in charge of all Palestinian territory: Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank.”

Some context: Shtayyeh and his government submitted their resignations last week, amid pressure on the deeply unpopular Palestinian government to reform as the war in Gaza rages. Shtayyeh opened the door to a national unity government including Hamas in his resignation statement, without explicitly naming the militant group that governs Gaza and is gaining popularity in the occupied West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority is based.

Israeli forces prevented a food aid convoy from traveling to northern Gaza on Tuesday, the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) said.

UN agencies and Palestinian officials have warned that children are starving to death and others fighting for their lives in the north of the besieged enclave as critical supplies are held up from reaching those in need.

The trucks were later “stopped by a large crowd of desperate people who looted the food, taking around 200 tons,” WFP said.

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.

Some context: A group of UN experts earlier on Tuesday accused Israel of “intentionally starving the Palestinian people” in Gaza. International forces continue to airdrop food supplies into northern Gaza, but these “are a last resort and will not avert famine,” WFP said.

The babies of thousands of women “who are due to give birth in the next month in the Gaza Strip are at risk of dying,” according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) State of Palestine Humanitarian Situation report on Tuesday.

At least 5,500 pregnant women “do not have access to prenatal or postnatal check-ups because of bombings and need to flee for safety,” the report said

“Anxiety is also leading to premature births,” the report added, citing the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF).

The report also said over 90% of children “aged 6-23 months and pregnant, breastfeeding women face severe food poverty with access to two or fewer food groups per day.”

The Gaza Ministry of Health said Tuesday that 364 health workers had been killed since October 7, 2023.

The ministry also said 269 medical staff have been arrested.

The health ministry report said 155 health facilities have been destroyed, while 155 ambulances have been targeted since October 7.

CNN cannot independently confirm the numbers due to the lack of international media access to Gaza.

Large numbers of displaced people in areas across the Gaza Strip are causing “extremely challenging hygiene and sanitation conditions,” the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) reported Tuesday.

“The humanitarian community in Gaza continues to provide food and health care across the Gaza Strip, despite the ongoing fighting and other major challenges,” said Jamie McGoldrick, the humanitarian coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, during his two-day visit to Gaza.

He added that despite efforts to provide aid, the ongoing airstrikes and fighting in Gaza “continue to impede safe and efficient humanitarian operations. We reiterate the need for security assurances and unimpeded passage to distribute aid, at scale, across Gaza.”

Hamas has responded to a proposal from Egypt and Qatar as negotiators scramble to reach a deal within the next few days that would pair a pause in fighting with the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

Meanwhile, Gazans are facing a harrowing threat of hunger, and eyewitnesses told CNN that Israeli forces opened fire on people waiting for aid on Monday night in northern Gaza.

These are the top headlines from today:

A large group of protesters outside of the US Embassy in Tel Aviv Tuesday called for US President Joe Biden to help with securing a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza that would see Israeli hostages freed.

Protesters were seen waving American flags and holding signs with “Hostage Deal Now” and “All of Them Home Now” written on them.  

Another group of protesters gathered outside the US consulate in Jerusalem, holding signs that read “In Biden We Trust” and “Leaving No One Behind.” 

The protest organizers put out a statement on Tuesday, saying:

“The hostage families and supporters will express their gratitude for the support of President Joe Biden and call on him to help secure the hostage release deal that’s currently on the table and take advantage of a small window of opportunity before Ramadan to bring them home.”

Biden has urged for a ceasefire as negotiations continue over an agreement that would pair a pause in fighting with the release of hostages. “It’s in the hands of Hamas right now,” Biden told reporters on Tuesday.

The US and its international partners are considering a maritime corridor to get aid into Gaza, Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said Tuesday.  

“In coordination with the US interagency and international partners, we are actively reviewing options for a maritime corridor for humanitarian assistance into Gaza, including potential commercial and contracted options,” Ryder said. “I don’t have more to announce at this time regarding what that would be.” 

Ryder added that the US military would be “only in a supporting role” and that the US Agency for International Development is leading coordination efforts for the US government. 

The White House said last week that there are discussions with Israel and other stakeholders about a potential maritime corridor for humanitarian aid into Gaza.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was “quite direct and quite frank” about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza during his meeting with Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.

Blinked also pressed for Israel to open another crossing for humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, Miller added.

Gantz, a political rival of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is in the US visiting top Biden administration officials, though an Israeli official has said Gantz does not represent Israel on his trip.

Blinken and Gantz also discussed the current talks to get Hamas to release hostages in exchange for “a six-week ceasefire,” Miller said at a press briefing. “The talks to secure a temporary ceasefire and achieve the release of all hostages are ongoing, and we will continue to push to reach an agreement.” 

Hamas said it has presented a response to the proposals given to them by Egyptian and Qatari mediators but blamed Israel for stalling to reach an agreement. 

“We have affirmed our conditions for a ceasefire, complete withdrawal from the sector, the return of displaced persons to the areas they left, especially in the north, and the provision of sufficient aid, relief, and reconstruction,” Hamas senior leader Osama Hamdan told a news conference in Beirut.  

Hamdan reiterated Hamas’ requirement for a permanent ceasefire, and said no prisoner exchange would be completed until after Israeli troops had withdrawn from Gaza and aid was allowed in.

“The security and safety of our people will not be achieved except through a permanent ceasefire, the end of the aggression, (Israel’s) withdrawal from every inch in Gaza … and the entry of aid to our people in Gaza is our utmost priority,” he said.

Hamdan warned that the negotiations will not be “open-ended” as Israel continues its offensive in Gaza.  

He added that Hamas presented its “vision and position” to a proposal presented by Egypt and Qatar last week. 

US President Joe Biden said a potential ceasefire “is in the hands of Hamas” as negotiations continue over an agreement that would pair a pause in fighting with the release of hostages.

“It’s in the hands of Hamas right now,” Biden told reporters as he boarded Air Force One at Hagerstown airport. He said the “Israelis have been cooperating” and that a ceasefire is necessary.

He called the deal on the table a “rational offer” and said the Israelis had agreed to it.

“We have to see what Hamas does,” Biden said.

He said without a deal by Ramadan, the situation in Israel and specifically Jerusalem would be “very, very dangerous.”

Asked about his relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden said it was “like it’s always been.” He repeated his assertion there were “no excuses” for Israel not to allow more aid into Gaza. 

The senior deputy director of the main United Nations relief agency in Gaza, Scott Anderson, said on Tuesday that the key problem is whether or not the UN will be able to pay its staff so “they can actually deliver the food to the people” in Gaza.  

After Israel in January accused United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) staff of taking part in the October 7 attack by Hamas militants, the United States and a growing list of countries — including the UK, Canada and Australia — paused funding for the agency. 

Speaking during the UN General Assembly meeting on Monday, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said 16 countries paused their funding, totaling $450 million, despite “the unsubstantiated nature of the allegations.”

“UNRWA has no capacity to absorb financial shocks, especially while a war rages in Gaza,” he said, noting that with funding from member states and donors, UNRWA operations can continue and “remain a lifeline” for Palestinian refugees across the region. However, he cautioned that without additional funding, UNRWA will be in “unchartered territory, with serious implications for global peace and security.”

Speaking from Rafah in Egypt, Anderson said UN staff remained dedicated and were still feeding 1.1 million people and vaccinating 80 percent of the children in Gaza.

“Despite the fact that we have lost 162 of our colleagues in this conflict, our staff are very resilient,” Anderson added. 

He added that the situation is deteriorating across Gaza, and said people required food, water, medicine, tents, blankets and hope — “especially as we approach the holy month of Ramadan, which is very significant for everyone in Gaza,” he added. Ramadan starts in less than a week.

Child malnutrition levels in northern Gaza are “particularly extreme” and roughly three times higher than in the south of the Palestinian enclave, the World Health Organization (WHO) representative for the territory said on Tuesday.

Screenings carried out in health centers in northern Gaza in January found that one in six children under the age of 2 years old were acutely malnourished, Richard Peeperkorn said at a briefing. He added that the figure is “likely to be greater today.”

Peeperkorn said that child malnutrition was “never an issue” in Gaza before the war, and that limits to aid deliveries have resulted in roughly 90% of children under the age of 2 experiencing severe food poverty.

Speaking at the same event, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said the disparity in child malnutrition rates in the north and south of Gaza fundamentally shows that “when that trickle of aid can come in, it does make a lifesaving difference.”

At least 15 children have died from starvation in Gaza, a Palestinian ministry of health spokesperson said on Sunday. That number could be higher, as the limited access to northern Gaza has hindered the ability of aid agencies to discover the full extent of the situation there. Peeperkorn said every single proposed WHO mission to northern Gaza in February was denied.

The WHO managed to reach some hospitals in northern Gaza in early March, Peeperkorn said. He described the scenes at one facility, the Al-Awda Hospital, as “particularly appalling.”

Israeli forces opened fire on people waiting for aid on Monday night in northern Gaza, eyewitnesses told CNN.

The shooting took place at the Kuwait Roundabout on Rasheed Street in Gaza City shortly before midnight, said one eyewitness, who had traveled there to try to get flour. CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.

 “There was sporadic fire … we could see the red tracer bullets over our heads,” a local journalist told CNN.

It’s unclear if there were any casualties. Overnight data from the Gaza health ministry did not say if anyone was killed or wounded in the incident. 

Aid making its way into Gaza has been limited by Israel. However, some trucks have been allowed into the northern part of the strip. Amid a collapse of public authority in Gaza, chaos and disorder often leaves thousands at risk of violence during the distribution.

Thousands of residents of northern Gaza often travel for miles to wait for long hours in the hopes of receiving some of the limited aid entering Gaza. Many leave with nothing.

United Nations experts accused Israel in a statement on Tuesday of “intentionally starving the Palestinian people” in Gaza.

“Israel has been intentionally starving the Palestinian people in Gaza since 8 October. Now it is targeting civilians seeking humanitarian aid and humanitarian convoys,” several UN experts said in a statement. 
“Israel must end its campaign of starvation and targeting of civilians.”

Israel has consistently denied targeting civilians, saying its war is against Hamas. Israeli authorities regularly say, “there is no limit to the amount of humanitarian aid for the civilians in Gaza.”

But a Palestinian Ministry of Health spokesperson said Sunday the number of children who have died of dehydration and malnutrition in northern Gaza has risen to 15.

CNN cannot independently confirm the deaths of the children or their causes due to the lack of international media access to Gaza, but there have been increasingly urgent warnings about hunger in the strip from international agencies who get in.

UN experts also condemned the “violence unleashed by Israeli forces” after more than 100 Palestinians were killed trying to access food aid in Gaza City on Thursday. 

More humanitarian aid was airdropped into parts of Gaza on Tuesday, videos obtained by CNN show.

It’s unclear who sent the aid seen in the videos. The United Arab Emirates and Egypt sent 42 tons of medical supplies and food into northern Gaza via airplanes on Tuesday, the Emirati Ministry of Defense said in a statement. The US military said it, alongside the Royal Jordanian Air Force, conducted an airdrop of more than 36,800 meals into northern Gaza.

The drops come amid reports of malnutrition and starvation throughout Gaza. A limited amount of ground aid is being allowed in by Israel, though humanitarian workers and government officials working say a clear pattern has emerged of Israeli obstruction, a CNN investigation found. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that “it is on Hamas” to accept an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza amid the “unacceptable” humanitarian situation in the war-torn strip. 

“It is on Hamas to make decisions about whether it is prepared to engage in that ceasefire,” Blinken said ahead of a meeting with his Qatari counterpart on Tuesday.

“We have an opportunity for an immediate ceasefire that can bring hostages home and dramatically increase the amount of humanitarian assistance getting into Palestinians are so desperately need it, and then also set the conditions for an enduring resolution,” Blinken said.

Blinken is set to meet with Israel war cabinet member Benny Gantz to discuss this matter later on Tuesday. Gantz’s trip has stoked tensions with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as he is not representing the government.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that while Israel is committed to trying for a diplomatic solution with Lebanon, ongoing clashes with Hezbollah could lead to a “dangerous escalation” on Israel’s northern front.

Gallant also said that Israel is closer to making a “critical” decision on military activities in Lebanon, the Israeli defense ministry said in a statement. His comments were made during a meeting with US special envoy Amos Hochstein on Tuesday.

 “We are committed to the diplomatic process; however, Hezbollah’s aggression is bringing us closer to a critical point in the decision-making regarding our military activities in Lebanon,” Gallant said.

Gallant’s comments come as Western efforts have so far failed to stop the fighting along the Lebanese-Israeli border. American administration and intelligence officials are concerned that Israel is planning a ground incursion into Lebanon that could be launched in the late spring or early summer if diplomatic efforts fail to push Hezbollah back from the northern border with Israel, senior administrations officials and officials familiar with the intelligence say.

Gallant and Hochstein met Tuesday at the Israeli Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv, where they discussed “the ongoing threat posed by Hezbollah and the need to change the security situation in the arena in order to safely return Israel’s displaced communities to their homes in the north,” the statement said.

Talks between mediators and Hamas are continuing in Cairo but there are “difficulties,” Egyptian state-run Al Qahera News reported, citing what it called a senior source. The source denied that talks had broken down, as some media organizations had earlier reported.

Mediators from the US, Qatar and Egypt have been in days-long talks with Hamas as the war closes in on its five-month anniversary Thursday, and a mounting food crisis caused by Israeli aid restrictions on Gaza has left hundreds of thousands of people there on the brink of famine, according to the UN.

Talks have failed to make significant headway, and it’s unclear how much progress can be made at all, as Israel has not sent a delegation there.

An Israeli official told CNN on Sunday that the country would not be participating because Hamas had not responded to two Israeli demands: to supply a list of hostages specifying who is alive and who is dead; and confirmation of the ratio of Palestinian prisoners to be released from Israeli prisons in exchange for hostages.

In Washington, Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz is scheduled to meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, even though an Israeli official said he is not representing the government. The trip has stoked tensions between Gantz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is also scheduled to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it conducted another airdrop on northern Gaza on Tuesday, along with the Royal Jordanian Air Force, providing more than 36,800 meals as a food crisis in the area mounts.

“The combined, joint operation included US Air Force C-130 aircraft and US Army soldiers specialized in aerial delivery of US and Jordanian humanitarian assistance supplies,” CENTCOM said on X. “US C-130s dropped over 36,800 US and Jordanian meal equivalents in Northern Gaza, an area of great need, allowing for civilian access to the critical aid.” 

Israel has imposed restrictions on aid entering Gaza, prompting the United Nations to warn that hundreds of thousands of Gazans are on the brink of famine.

The US carried out an airdrop earlier, over the weekend, of 38,000 meals along the Gaza coastline. The CENTCOM post said the drops are “part of a sustained effort to get more aid into Gaza, including by expanding the flow of aid through land corridors,” and that CENTCOM is planning for “follow-on aid delivery missions.” 

President Joe Biden posted on X on Saturday, saying that the US would “continue to pull out every stop we can to get more aid in.”

Several aid agencies have criticized the US’ airdrop as ineffective and inadequate.

Anwar Abdul Nabi sits on the edge of a bed at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. The young mother tenderly holds the fingers of her daughter, Mila. Just a minutes ago, she died of starvation.

“My daughter moved to God’s mercy, because of the lack of calcium, potassium and oxygen,” she told CNN on Monday, crying into the arms of an elderly relative. “Suddenly, everything dropped, because she was not eating anything with iron, or eggs.” 

She added: “She used to eat eggs every day before the war. Now nothing. She passed away.”

Israel’s severe restrictions on aid entering the enclave have exposed the population of more than 2.2 million people to malnutrition, dehydration and deadly disease. At least 15 children in northern Gaza have died from dehydration and malnutrition, a Palestinian Ministry of Health spokesperson said Sunday.

Parents in Gaza previously told CNN the stress of being unable to protect their children from bombardment is compounded by their inability to provide their families with food.

Nearby, Ahmad Salem, a doctor in Kamal Adwan hospital, nursed a small baby sleeping with an oxygen mask. The medical worker told CNN that patients in the intensive care and neonatal units were dying from malnutrition and a lack of oxygen, which are difficult to administer amid fuel shortages. 

Mother’s who are unable to access enough food are also struggling to breastfeed, Salem said.

“We suffer from starvation of mothers,” he said. “We cannot find an alternative to mother’s milk, which leads to the death of those children.”

Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed at least 97 people and injured 123 others in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health reported Tuesday, bringing the total number of Palestinians killed in the enclave to at least 30,631 since October 7.

Israel’s military campaign in the strip has also left 72,043 Palestinians wounded in Gaza since the Hamas-led October 7 attacks into southern Israel, the ministry added. Some of those killed remain buried under rubble, according to the ministry.

Iran-backed Houthis fired two anti-ship ballistic missiles from Yemen on Monday, striking and damaging a Swiss-owned container ship in the Gulf of Aden, according to US Central Command.

One of the missiles hit the M/V MSC Sky II and damaged the vessel, but initial reports indicate there were no injuries and the ship continued on its way, CENTCOM said.

Several hours later, the US “conducted self-defense strikes against two anti-ship cruise missiles that presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and U.S. Navy ships in the region,” CENTCOM said in a statement.

Remember: The Houthis, which control most of northern Yemen including the capital Sanaa, say their attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden are intended to pressure Israel and its allies to stop the war in Gaza. The group has repeatedly said its operations in the Red Sea will cease once Israel stops the war and lifts its siege on the Palestinian territory.

The Biden administration is continuing to call for more humanitarian aid to enter Gaza while it faces backlash for its ongoing military support to the Israeli government in the face of human rights abuse allegations. Still, the US reaffirmed Monday it will continue to provide military assistance to Israel, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

Negotiations continue for an agreement on a temporary ceasefire to release hostages from Gaza — but Israel is absent from the talks.

Meantime, more children have died of dehydration and malnutrition in Gaza as conditions in the enclave deteriorate further, a Palestinian Ministry of Health spokesperson said.

Here are the top headlines:

A growing number of children in Gaza are dying of starvation and dehydration, according to the World Health Organization and Palestinian officials, amid desperate conditions due to Israel’s throttling of aid and destruction of the besieged enclave — reinforcing the urgency of this week’s ceasefire talks.

A WHO team found “severe levels of malnutrition, children dying of starvation, serious shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies, hospital buildings destroyed,” during a recent visit to the Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals in northern Gaza, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X Monday.

Tedros appealed to Israel to ensure the safe and regular delivery of humanitarian aid and for a halt to the fighting.

A Palestinian Ministry of Health spokesperson said Sunday the number of children who have died of dehydration and malnutrition in northern Gaza has risen to 15.

A WHO team visiting Kamal Adwan Hospital at the weekend corroborated the dire conditions, saying the lack of food resulted in the deaths of 10 children at the hospital.

Keep reading about the urgency for a ceasefire deal.

There is “no way to know the fate” of Israeli hostages held in Gaza until a ceasefire deal is reached and implemented, a member of Hamas’ political bureau told CNN on Monday.

Israel believes 130 hostages remain in Gaza — 99 of whom are believed to be alive — following Hamas’ October 7 attacks that killed around 1,200 people in Israel.

“It is not possible to know any details about the fate of the Israeli prisoners because they are in different locations and with different factions, we do not know their fate under the bombardment and the starvation policy,” Hamas official Basem Naim said in Istanbul.

The United States will continue to support Israel with military assistance, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Monday — despite the government’s refusal to open more crossings for humanitarian aid into Gaza.

“We continue to support Israel’s campaign to ensure that the attacks of October 7 cannot be repeated. We have provided military assistance to Israel because it is consistent with that goal,” Miller said at a briefing.

Miller said “the leadership of Hamas that planned and plotted October 7 continue to be at large inside Gaza” and “they continue to pose a threat to innocent civilians inside Israel.” 

The Biden administration has faced backlash for its ongoing military support to the Israeli government in the face of human rights abuse allegations and for consistently suggesting that it would not use that assistance as leverage to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Miller on Monday said there is more that the Israeli government “can do and more that they should do” to address the humanitarian crisis on the ground.

A United Nations team has found “clear and convincing” information that hostages in Gaza were sexually abused, Pramila Patten, the UN special envoy on sexual violence in conflict told reporters on Monday. There are “reasonable grounds” to believe the sexual violence is ongoing, she added.

According to Patten, the team also found “reasonable grounds to believe that conflict related sexual violence, including rape and gang rape occurred” during Hamas’ October 7 terror attack in Israel, in what is the most definitive finding by the global organization on sexual assault allegations in the aftermath of the attack.

The UN team, which was led by Patten, visited Israel between January 29 to February 14 for a mission “aimed at gathering, analyzing, and verifying information on conflict-related sexual violence” during October 7 and its aftermath, according to a 24-page report.

Patten stressed on Monday that the mission “was neither intended nor mandated to be investigative in nature,” adding that the team had 33 meetings with Israeli institutions while in Israel, interviewed 34 people, including survivors and witnesses to the October 7 attack, and released hostages, as well as reviewed 50 hours of footage of the attacks.

The mission was not able to meet with any victims of sexual violence on October 7 “despite our efforts,” Patten said. “On the very first day, I made a call for survivors to come forward. But we received information that a handful of them were receiving very specialized trauma treatment and were not prepared to come forward,” she said.

Hamas has previously denied that its militants committed rape during the October 7 attack.

Read the full story.

The Biden administration defended its decision to host Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz on Monday for a meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris and national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

Israeli officials have insisted that Gantz does not represent the government during his visit this week. 

“A member of the war cabinet from Israel wants to come to the United States, wants to talk to us about the progress of that war, giving us an opportunity to talk about the importance of getting humanitarian assistance, increased opportunity to talk about the importance of this hostage deal, we’re not going to turn away that sort of opportunity,” said John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesperson. 

Gantz, one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s main political rivals, is expected to meet with senior Biden administration officials without the Israeli ambassador present, which is at odds with the standard protocol when leaders of foreign governments visit. 

Kirby noted the meeting was at the request of Gantz.

Kirby wouldn’t say if there were plans for President Joe Biden to smooth things over with Netanyahu after reports the prime minister was “enraged” over Gantz’s visit. 

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees on Monday accused Israel of detaining and torturing some of its staffers, coercing them into making false confessions about the agency’s ties to Hamas.

Israel has accused at least 12 staffers from the UN Relief and Works Agency of being involved in the October 7 terrorist attacks and has alleged that about 12% of UNRWA’s 13,000 staffers are members of Hamas or other Palestinian militant groups. Israeli officials have said some of the information about the 12 staffers involved in October 7 was obtained through cell phone data and other sources. UNRWA says it has fired 10 of the 12 accused staffers and that the other two are dead. CNN cannot confirm the allegations.

Touma said that false confessions elicited “under torture” were being used “to further spread misinformation about the Agency as part of attempts to dismantle UNRWA,” but did not tie those confessions to the allegations against the 12 staffers accused of participating in the October 7 attacks.

Read more about the allegations.