March 12, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

Our live coverage of Israel’s war in Gaza has moved here.

The Houthis fired a close-range ballistic missile from Yemen toward the USS Laboon in the Red Sea on Tuesday, US Central Command said.

The missile did not hit the guided missile destroyer, which is homeported in Norfolk, Virginia, CENTCOM said. There were no injuries or damage reported.

US forces and a coalition ship also destroyed two drones launched from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, CENTCOM said.

The Iranian-backed Houthis have been targeting ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since shortly after Israel’s war with Hamas began, with the group trying to pressure Israel and its allies to stop its offensive in Gaza.

Israeli troops fatally shot two Palestinians and moderately wounded three others at Al-Jib checkpoint in the northern outskirts of Jerusalem, the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported Tuesday.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they fired at the Palestinians after they threw Molotov cocktails over a security barrier fence onto Route 436, which runs from the Ramot neighborhood in occupied east Jerusalem to the Israeli settlement Givat Ze’ev. The IDF claimed these actions were “endangering the lives of civilians and road users.”

After opening fire, the IDF said they apprehended them and transferred them for medical treatment. The health ministry reported they were transported to the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah.

The two people who died were identified as Zaid Ward Shukri Khalifa, 23, and Abdullah Mamoun Hassan Assaf, 16, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.

The Palestinian death toll since October 7 has risen to 430 people after the latest shooting, according to the ministry.

The IDF said there were no further casualties among their forces and other civilians.

Six humanitarian trucks containing aid from the United Nation’s World Food Programme entered the northern Gaza Strip using a new route, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.

The IDF tried out a pilot program by bringing in aid trucks to Gaza through the “96th” gate on the security fence Tuesday.

Government officials will assess the pilot’s results.

12-year-old Palestinian child shot and killed by Israeli border police at refugee camp in east Jerusalem.

An Israeli border police officer fatally shot a 12-year-old Palestinian boy in Shuafat refugee camp located in occupied east Jerusalem, according to hospital officials and an Israeli police spokesperson.

In a video obtained by CNN, the boy – Rami Al Halhouli – can be seen holding a lit firework above his head before the crackling sound of a single gunshot is heard. The boy falls to the ground just as the firework launches from his hand into the sky.

Rami arrived at Hadassah Mount Scopus hospital’s trauma unit in critical condition and was pronounced dead soon after, hospital officials told CNN.

No security forces are visible in the video of Rami holding the firework, but the boy appears to be standing in front of the West Bank separation barrier.

The Israeli police spokesperson said police forces responded to a “violent disturbance” at the refugee camp and a border police officer fired “towards a suspect who endangered the forces while firing aerial fireworks in their direction.”

The police spokesperson also claimed individuals on Tuesday night threw Molotov cocktails and fired fireworks directly at security forces. Israeli police said it was the second night in a row that Palestinians in Shuafat aimed Molotov cocktails and fireworks at police forces.

CNN has asked police for further evidence of the alleged disturbances they say took place in the refugee camp Tuesday.

In a Telegram post, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir applauded the soldier who fatally shot the boy.

The shooting came on the third night of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, which has been a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in previous years.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it struck “two Hezbollah military infrastructures on the Syrian front” on Tuesday, adding in a Telegram post that the strike was “conducted based on precise intelligence which incriminated the infrastructure.”

The IDF also posted a video alleging to show the strike on “Syrian Army infrastructures” used by Hezbollah. The video appears to have been taken from a drone overlooking a compound and shows an explosion in the compound, followed by black plumes of smoke.

Hezbollah and the Syrian government have not yet publicly commented on the IDF’s claim.

A ship carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza departed from Cyprus on Tuesday, according to World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit that said it was the first maritime shipment of humanitarian aid to the enclave.  

The departure comes after announcements that Cyprus, the European Union, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom were working to establish a maritime corridor to deliver aid to Gaza.

Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces announced that dual US-Israeli citizen Itay Chen was killed during the October 7 attacks on Israel. 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.

Here’s what to know:

The temporary pier being set up by the US military off the coast of Gaza is expected to be able to facilitate the delivery of two millions meals daily, Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said Tuesday. 

Ryder said four US Army vessels from the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary) departed from Joint Base Langley-Eustis on Tuesday, bound for the eastern Mediterranean to help build the pier. Ryder did not provide the location of the pier out of concern for operational security. 

US President Joe Biden announced the port plans during his State of the Union address on Thursday.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan speaks at a press briefing at the White House on March 12 in Washington, DC.

The White House on Tuesday attempted to walk back comments President Joe Biden made over the weekend saying that an Israeli offensive of Rafah would be a red line. 

In his Saturday interview on MSNBC, Biden said that an Israeli invasion of Rafah would be a red line before adding in the same breath that crossing it would not result in punitive measures against Israel.

“It is a red line, but I am never going to leave Israel,” Biden said. “The defense of Israel is still critical, so there’s no red line I’m going to cut off all weapons.”

On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would push ahead with a military offensive in Rafah, where 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering in southern Gaza. However, multiple Israeli officials said the offensive is not imminent.

When pressed by CNN’s MJ Lee, Sullivan seemed to blame the media for turning the idea of a red line into a “national security parlor game for the president.”

Sullivan added:

CIA Director Bill Burns on Tuesday offered a small measure of hope for progress in the indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel over a potential ceasefire deal. There is “still the possibility” of such a deal, Burns said, but it is “a very tough process.”

Burns has been a lead negotiator for the US side, as the United States, Qatar and Egypt have worked to broker a deal that would exchange the release of Hamas-held hostages for a pause in the fighting.

But hopes have dimmed for a potential deal — which if implemented, would lead to at least a six-week pause in the fighting — as the two sides have yet to agree on key terms. The Qatari foreign minister told CNN on Tuesday that “we are nowhere near a deal at the moment.”

The US remains committed to the process, Burns told members of the House Intelligence Committee.

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.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, attends a news conference in Brussels, Belgium, on February 12.

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.

Hagit and Ruby Chen, parents of Itay Chen, speak during a U.S. House Foreign Affairs Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia Subcommittee roundtable discussion with family members of individuals being held hostage by Hamas, on Capitol Hill in Washington, on November 29.

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. 

Humanitarian aid is airdropped over Gaza on March 12.

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.

Itay Chen

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.

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.

The Open Arms departs with humanitarian aid for Gaza from Larnaca, Cyprus, on March 12.

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.