March 12, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said Tuesday that a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas is not imminent.  

Al-Ansari said issues remain, including finalizing where Israeli troops would end up, how many people would be moving in and out of Gaza, and how aid could enter the enclave.

“We are exchanging language between the parties and waiting to see if that will accomplish something in the next couple of days,” Al-Ansari added.

Remember: Qatar was integral in mediating the only pause in fighting in the five-month war back in November. Al Ansari said a new format is needed this time around. 

The Qatari official said some officials — including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — "have the keys to secure a deal right now," urging them to consider negotiations.

"Every day that goes by is a risk to the life of the hostages, a risk to the life of civilians in Gaza, and it’s not in anybody’s interest — especially the people of Israel and the security of Israel — for this war to continue," he said.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said Monday that a truck loaded with aid was turned back because it had scissors used in children's medical kits.

He asserted that the lives of 2 million people depend on the "clearance of humanitarian supplies + the delivery of basic & critical items," adding there is "no time to waste."

CNN has previously reported that humanitarian workers and government officials working to deliver urgently needed aid for Gaza say a clear pattern has emerged of Israeli obstruction, as disease and near-famine conditions grip parts of the besieged enclave.

The United Nations said it welcomes the news of the World Central Kitchen aid ship delivering food to Gaza, but stressed that it was “not a substitute” for overland assistance to Gazans on the verge of famine. 

A World Central Kitchen spokesperson told CNN the organization will distribute 200 tons of food, which equates to roughly 500,000 meals.

WCK launched the aid ship from Cyprus to Gaza on Tuesday, and says it plans to distribute aid itself once the vessel reaches Gaza.

US President Joe Biden says he was "devastated to learn" of the death of Israeli-American citizen Itay Chen, whom Israeli officials announced Tuesday was killed by Hamas on October 7. 

Biden said that at the end of their meeting, Chen’s family “gave me a menorah — a solemn reminder that light will always dispel the darkness, and evil will not win.” 

CNN earlier reported that officials in Biden's administration said they were informed of Chen's death by Israeli officials on Tuesday, according to a source.

CNN's CNN’s MJ Lee and Priscilla Alvarez contributed to this report.

Itay Chen’s father, Ruby Chen, has for months been calling on US President Joe Biden's administration to find creative ways to get the remaining dual American hostages out of Gaza. 

In an interview with CNN in December, Chen referenced that Russia President Vladimir Putin had struck a separate deal with Hamas, which saw the release of multiple Israeli-Russian hostages out of Gaza during the first pause in fighting. 

Chen said at the time that the Russian deal made him consider "there is the ability to do a separate deal on a specific nationality."

In January, after meeting at the White House with national security adviser Jake Sullivan and other top officials – one of the hostage families’ multiple meetings with White House officials since October 7 — Chen said he felt deep disappointment and frustration. 

This weekend – just days after Chen attended Biden’s State of the Union address as the guest of a lawmaker – he told CNN via text message that he wondered what, if anything, might force the Biden administration to consider what he described as a “plan B” to get the American hostages out. 

The Israeli Defense Forces announced on Tuesday that they had determined Itay Chen was killed on October 7. Israeli officials formally informed Biden administration officials of that determination, according to a White House official. 

The Royal Jordanian Air Force conducted five joint air drops with US, Egyptian and Belgium on Tuesday, targeting several sites in northern Gaza "to mitigate the effects of the war on the Strip," it said in a statement released Tuesday.

The air force said it has carried out "40 Jordanian airdrops, and 49 airdrops in cooperation with brotherly and friendly countries," since the beginning of Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.

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Dual US-Israeli citizen Itay Chen was killed on October 7 during the Hamas attacks on Israel, the Israeli military announced Tuesday.

The Israel Defense Forces said Chen's remains were taken into Gaza after he was killed.

Chen was serving on the Gaza border on October 7, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said on Tuesday. He was the middle child of three siblings, a former Boy Scout, and a fierce basketball player, his father Ruby Chen told CNN in November.

According to his father, Chen had his 20th Jewish birthday in January – a date his family marked with a small ceremony at a synagogue in New York City as they desperately waited for good news. "Each week, we know someone is going to get a bad message. We just don’t know who it is,” Ruby Chen said. “Time is running out.” 

Chen was one of six US citizens thought to have been held alive in Gaza. He is at least the fourth dual US citizen whose body is being held in Gaza, along with those of Aviv Atzili and husband and wife Gad Haggai and Judih Weinstein Haggai.

Officials in US President Joe Biden's administration said they were informed of Chen's death by Israeli officials on Tuesday, according to a source.

Thirty-two of the 130 October 7 hostages are now believed to be dead, according to CNN records. Israel continues to consider people to be hostages even after their death until their remains are returned.

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Lauren Izso and CNN’s Ivana Kottasova, MJ Lee and Priscilla Alvarez contributed reporting.

This post has been updated with additional information from Chen's father.

World Central Kitchen, the nongovernmental organization that launched an aid ship from Cyprus to Gaza on Tuesday, says it plans to distribute aid itself once the vessel reaches Gaza. 

A WCK spokesperson told CNN the organization will distribute 200 tons of food, which equates to roughly 500,000 meals. WCK is working with thousands of contractors and volunteers locally to organize and distribute the aid, the spokesperson added. 

Questions have been raised about distribution plans for the ship once it makes its much-anticipated landing in Gaza. Recent airdrops and truck deliveries in Gaza have proved dangerous as crowds of civilians have overcrowded at delivery points, fighting desperately to get their hands on aid packages amid widespread hunger in the strip. 

WCK said it had partnered with the United Arab Emirates, Cyprus and the Spanish nongovernmental organization Open Arms to coordinate the dispatch. 

The organization said it couldn't disclose the location of the jetty in Gaza where the Open Arms ship will land, but said that its teams are "working on it 24/7."

Separately, Israel's Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) told CNN Tuesday that Israel had “participated in the process of inspecting the ship.” The agency did not specify when or where. COGAT inspects aid going into Gaza and has been accused by aid agencies of denying access for arbitrary reasons or no reason at all. 

Children in Gaza are experiencing "relentless mental harm" after five months of war, hunger, displacement and years of a blockade, according to nongovernmental organization Save the Children, which talked to mental health services and four parents in the strip. 

In a report released on Tuesday, one parent told the organization:

Another said:

According to the report, the collapse of healthcare and psychological services in Gaza limits the possibility that children will get the treatment they need to recover. 

Director of Save the Children for the Occupied Palestinian Territory Jason Lee said there is hope the psychological impacts of the war could be reversed with support, but added that "none this is possible without an immediate, definitive ceasefire and safe, unfettered aid access so that humanitarians can provide the critical support needed."