March 12, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

A World Food Programme food convoy reached Gaza City on Tuesday, making it the first to successfully get to northern Gaza since February 20, the group said.

The UN agency delivered enough food for 25,000 people, it said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Some context: As Israel’s severe restrictions on aid entering the Gaza Strip drain essential supplies, displaced Palestinians told CNN they are struggling to feed their children. Starving mothers are unable to produce enough milk to breastfeed their babies, doctors say. Parents arrive at overwhelmed health facilities begging for infant formula.

On February 29, more than 100 Palestinians were killed while gathering around food aid trucks, trying to access food in western Gaza City.

At least three people were killed in eastern Lebanon in a series of Israeli strikes around the city of Baalbek during the early hours of Tuesday, Lebanese state news agency NNA said.

The Israel Defense Forces said it struck two Hezbollah military command centers in Baalbek, in response to earlier attacks on Israel carried out by the Iran-backed militant group.

Hezbollah said it had fired more than 100 Katyusha rockets at several targets in northern Israel, in response to overnight Israeli airstrikes on the Baalbek region. 

Attacks on Baalbek have been rare since October 7. The region is the farthest Israel has struck in the country since the beginning of the war, located about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the Israel-Lebanon border. 

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.