April 9, 2024 - Israel-Hamas war

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

On Tuesday, US forces “conducted an air drop of humanitarian assistance into Northern Gaza,” according to US Central Command.

“The joint operation included four C-130 U.S. Air Force aircraft, and U.S. Army Soldiers specialized in aerial delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance supplies,” CENTCOM said in a statement.

The aircraft in the mission dropped more than 50,600 US meal equivalents, CENTCOM said.

To date, the US has dropped approximately 797 tons of humanitarian assistance supplies, CENTCOM said.

Remember: Humanitarian organizations have warned that airdrops are “good photo opportunities but a lousy way to deliver aid.”

US Democratic Sen. Chris Coons said “far too many civilians have died” in response to a CNN investigation into Israeli forces opening fire on a group of people as they waited for aid in Gaza on February 29.

“What’s clear both from the reporting I just saw on CNN and from dozens of previous incidents is that far too many civilians have died in the (last) six months of this conflict against Hamas,” Coons said in an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett on Tuesday. 

CNN analyzed dozens of videos and testimonies from 22 eyewitnesses, casting doubt on Israel’s timeline of what happened that night when more than 100 people were killed and 700 others were injured.

The evidence, which was reviewed by forensic and ballistic experts, indicated that automatic gunfire began before the Israel Defense Forces said the convoy had started crossing through the checkpoint, and that shots were fired within close range of crowds that had gathered for food.

Coons said CNN’s investigation highlights the “chaos in Gaza” and how “difficult” delivering humanitarian aid in the strip has become, calling for change.

The senator added he had raised the urgency of addressing deconfliction amid a rising number of people being killed while attempting to deliver aid when he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in person six weeks ago.

“That deconfliction clearly did not get fixed,” he said.

An Israeli airstrike on a residential building in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip killed 14 people Tuesday evening, according to Dr. Khalil Al-Dikran, the spokesperson of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

He told CNN most of those killed were women and children, and 30 others were seriously injured. The information was also confirmed by the Civil Defense in Gaza.

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

In a video posted on social media, several children are seen being rushed into the hospital, where doctors inspect them on the floor — their bodies dusty and covered in blood. Another video shows the uncovered bodies of three dead children next to other bodies wrapped in blankets. 

“Our hospital is very catastrophic as it’s on brink of collapse, our reception area is full of injured, and people are on floor, and we tried to do triage tents outside the hospital entrance, but that’s also full of injured people, and capacity is already beyond 100 percent capacity, as well as lack of all medical supplies and medicine and anesthetics”, the doctor told CNN.

The attack happened on the last night before Eid al-Fitr, one of the most important holidays of the Islamic calendar, marking the end of Ramadan.

US President Joe Biden described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s approach to the war in Gaza as “a mistake” in one of his sharpest critiques of how the Israeli government is prosecuting the conflict against Hamas. 

Biden made the comments in an interview with Univision that was taped just days after Israeli military strikes killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers, which sparked anger and frustration throughout the White House. 

“Well, I will tell you, I think what he’s doing is a mistake. I don’t agree with his approach. I think it’s outrageous that those four, three vehicles were hit by drones and taken out on a highway where it wasn’t like it was along the shore, it wasn’t like there was a convoy moving there,” Biden said, according to a Univision transcript of the interview that is set to air Tuesday evening. 

The president added that he’s calling for Israel to agree to a ceasefire and that there is “no excuse” for not sending in humanitarian aid. 

“What I’m calling for is for the Israelis to just call for a ceasefire, allow for the next six, eight weeks total access to all food and medicine going into the country. I’ve spoken with everyone from the Saudis to the Jordanians to the Egyptians. They’re prepared to move in. They’re prepared to move this food in. And I think there’s no excuse to not provide for the medical and the food needs of those people. It should be done now,” Biden said in the interview. 

The comments came in the lead up to CIA Director Burns delivering a new proposal over the weekend to negotiators in Cairo as they work to secure a ceasefire and hostage deal. 

The families of American hostages who are being held by Hamas in Gaza said they had a productive meeting Tuesday with Vice President Kamala Harris.

“One of the things we talked about is that there is a possibility to holding two truths: You can believe, as we do, that it is horrible innocent civilians in Gaza are suffering and at the same time you can also know that it is horrible and against international law for hostages to be held against their will,” parent Rachel Goldberg-Polin told reporters at the White House Tuesday. 

Goldberg-Polin, whose son Hersh is one of the eight Americans held in captivity, said that the families are thinking about all the hostages as she said they are demanding results – not progress.  

“We want results,” she said. “And we are so grateful and thankful to the American administration and Congress to all of the support, but we need results. We need our people home.”

Jonathan Dekel-Chen, father of hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen, said they are encouraging all parties involved to reach a deal as negotiations continue in Egypt.

“We all are here, for not the first time, to work together with the Biden Administration to do everything that we can and encourage all parties to reach a deal that will result in our loved ones coming home,” he said. 

The vice president’s office said Harris “expressed her continued support for these families” as she provided an update on US efforts. 

Health workers in northern Gaza exhumed at least 381 bodies from mass graves in and around Al-Shifa Hospital Tuesday, after they said Israeli forces killed hundreds of Palestinians and left their bodies to decompose during their two-week siege of the complex.

The number of those exhumed today does not include people buried within the grounds of the hospital, according to Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, said several United Nations agencies are assisting in efforts to retrieve bodies to provide “dignified burials.”

Here are other headlines you should know:

Egyptian leaders have reaffirmed to the Palestinian Authority their commitment and efforts to resolving the conflict in Gaza.

“Egypt is making every effort and making contacts with all international and regional parties in order to stop the aggression against the Palestinian people, provide humanitarian aid and prevent displacement,” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi told Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reports. 

In a joint phone conversation on Tuesday, the two leaders discussed the need to speed up the introduction of a ceasefire and more humanitarian and medical aid. The leaders also talked about how to prevent further military escalation and displacement of civilians in Gaza and the West Bank.

Abbas thanked his Egyptian counterpart for his support in “mobilizing international consensus” toward an end to hostilities and the recognition of the Palestinian state. 

The call comes amid ongoing negotiations in Cairo between Israel and Hamas. The United States, Egypt and Qatar are mediating the talks aimed at accomplishing a prisoner exchange deal and a pause in fighting. 

 The Biden administration is dismissing Benjamin Netanyahu’s pronouncement that a date has been set for a ground offensive into Rafah as bluster that is in no small part fueled by the Israeli prime minister’s tenuous political standing at home, senior administration officials told CNN.

The prime minister has been struggling to balance his stated goal of eliminating Hamas with the tremendous pressure of reaching a ceasefire that would see Israeli hostages freed. Israeli officials argue that four Hamas battalions remain in Rafah that must be taken out.

The administration’s private view: Privately, multiple senior administration officials chalked up Netanyahu’s pronouncement to bravado.

The administration’s public statements: Top officials have been publicly questioning Netanyahu’s insistence that Israel has decided on a time to mount an offensive into the southern Gaza city. American officials have reiterated that the US has not seen anything resembling a comprehensive plan from the Israelis on how they would carry out such an operation, including first moving the majority of the estimated 1.4 million civilians out of Rafah. 

Here’s what top US officials have been saying:

Tuesday saw the highest number of aid trucks to enter Gaza since October 7, according to Israel’s agency that controls access to Gaza.

After inspection, 468 trucks carrying humanitarian aid were transferred to Gaza on Tuesday, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said.

Additionally, 303 packages carrying “thousands” of meals were airdropped over Gaza on Tuesday, Israel’s military said. Humanitarian organizations have warned that airdrops are “good photo opportunities but a lousy way to deliver aid.”

While there had been “an uptick” in the number of trucks entering in recent days, not all trucks were able to cross into Gaza at full capacity for security reasons, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday, adding that different metrics of delivering aid have to be assessed beyond counting the number of trucks.

Before the conflict, an average of 450 to 500 trucks would enter Gaza daily with supplies, according to UN figures. The previous highest number had been reached on Monday, with 419 trucks entering the Strip.

Israel has not done enough to get food into Gaza amid “famine-like conditions,” USAID Administrator Samantha Power said Tuesday.

“I think Israel has not done enough to facilitate the kind of access we need to revert the kind of food conditions that we’re seeing to avert famine,” Power said at a Senate Appropriations State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Subcommittee hearing.

Power said that there has been “a sea change” over the past few days in the amount of aid Israel is allowing into Gaza after “a series of restrictions over many, many months” from Israel.

“We have famine-like conditions in Gaza, and supermarkets filled with food within a few kilometers away. So it’s incredibly important that the food that is available get to the people,” Power said. “Especially in the case of very young children, we’re getting a growing number of reports of death by malnutrition or diseases induced by malnutrition.”

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant did not indicate to US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on a phone call Monday that a date has been set for Israel’s incursion into Rafah, multiple people familiar with the call told CNN.

He told Austin that Israel is still putting together a plan for a potential assault on the southern Gaza city and making necessary preparations, including when it comes to the protection of civilians, the sources said.

Gallant suggested that the timeline is still being worked on, in contrast to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who said on Monday “there is a date” set for a move on Rafah.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said on Tuesday that Israel has not told the US any date for a Rafah incursion, but that he expected the Biden administration to see “Israeli colleagues again next week” for discussions on the issue.

US President Joe Biden’s top national security aide said he asked interlocutors for Hamas to press for a quick response to a proposal for Gaza ceasefire and hostage release.

National Security adviser Jake Sullivan said he made the request in a phone call Tuesday morning with Qatar’s prime minister, who has acted as a mediator in the ongoing talks to free hostages in exchange for a pause in fighting.

“He does not yet have an answer from Hamas,” Sullivan said. “I pressed him to try to secure an answer from them as soon as possible.”

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not shared his plans for an invasion of Rafah with the United States after saying Monday a date had been set for the operation. “If he has a date, he hasn’t shared it with us,” Sullivan said, repeating US concerns at over a massive ground invasion of the southern Gaza city. 

“There are better ways to go after Hamas,” he said, adding that the White House had presented those options to Israeli officials last week.

Health workers in northern Gaza exhumed the first corpses from mass graves in and around Al-Shifa Hospital on Tuesday, after they said Israeli forces killed hundreds of Palestinians and left their bodies to decompose during their two-week siege of the complex.

At least 381 bodies were recovered from the vicinity of the complex since Israeli forces withdrew on April 1, Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said on Tuesday, adding that the total figure did not include people buried within the grounds of the hospital.

Many of the decomposed remnants they discovered had been buried or were found above ground, officials told CNN on Monday. Israeli tanks crushed others to death, leaving some of those killed completely disfigured and unable to be identified, Basal said.

Witnesses and civilians who were trapped inside the hospital when it was raided say the vicinity “was full of bodies,” according to Basal. “The occupation forces have plowed these bodies and buried them in the ground,” he added. 

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

“The smell of the dead is all over the place,” Motasem Salah, an official from the Ministry of Health in Gaza leading recovery efforts, told CNN. “We try to identify the bodies of these civilians as their families are awaiting news about their loved ones – if they are alive or missing.”

Khadr Al-Za’anoun of Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, contributed to this report.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Israel still has not told the US the date of their announced invasion of Rafah, but that he expects the Biden administration will see “Israeli colleagues again next week” for discussions on the issue.

“The president’s been very clear about our concerns, our deep concerns about Israel’s ability to move civilians out of harm’s way, to care for them once they’re out of harm’s way and to have any kind of major military operation that doesn’t do real harm to civilians, to children, to women, to men,” Blinken said during a news conference at the State Department alongside UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron in Washington, DC.

When it comes to the timing of a possible Rafah operation Blinken said he does not expect “any actions being taken” before the US talks with Israel on Rafah next week, adding: “I don’t see anything imminent.”

Blinken said the US is talking to Israel about “alternatives” to an incursion into the southern Gaza city that would be more effective at “solving a problem that needs to be solved, but doing it in a way that does not endanger the innocent.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Monday that a date for an invasion into Rafah had been set, but he did not disclose it.

On aid entering the enclave, Blinken said that 400 aid trucks were cleared to enter Gaza on Monday, the highest daily number since the war began on October 7. “But what matters is results and sustained results, and this is what we will be looking at very carefully in the days ahead,” Blinken added.

In his first remarks after being elected as the new prime minister of Ireland, Simon Harris condemned Israel for slaughtering and starving Palestinians in Gaza, vowing “not to be silent” on the war.

“In Gaza, we are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe. And we are seeing innocent children, women, and men being starved and slaughtered,” Harris told lawmakers in the Irish parliament. “We have not been silent on the unforgivable terrorist actions of Hamas on October the seventh. Nor can we be silent on the disproportionate reaction of the Israeli government,” Harris continued. 

Ireland, he promised, will “play [its] part” in “helping bring about the ceasefire and the lasting peace” in the besieged enclave. 

This follows a speech last week which saw Harris make a scathing personal address to his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu. He said “the Irish people could not be clearer. We are repulsed by your actions.”

More background: Ireland has been one of the most vocal critics of Israel’s war in Gaza, with Harris’ predecessor Leo Varadkar previously describing its actions as “something approaching revenge.” 

Israel has not shied away from firing back at Ireland. Its heritage minister, Amihai Eliyahu, said in November that Palestinians in Gaza “can go to Ireland or deserts,” among other incendiary comments that Netanyahu has tried to distance himself from. In February, Israel’s ambassador to Ireland, Dana Erlich, said in an interview with radio station Newstalk that she only heard a “one-sided view, portraying Israel as the only villain.”

CNN’s Eoin McSweeney contributed reporting to this post.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told lawmakers Tuesday that to his knowledge, the United States does not have evidence of Israel committing genocide in its war in Gaza.

“We don’t have any evidence of genocide being created” by Israel, Austin said at a Senate Armed Services hearing on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, last week said that she believes international courts could interpret Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide, according to a video posted by a GBH News reporter, after noting she thinks “what Israel is doing is wrong.”

“If you want to do it as an application of law, I believe that they’ll find that it is genocide, and they have ample evidence to do so,” Warren said at the Islamic Center of Boston in response to a question from an audience member on whether she thinks “Israel is committing a genocide.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has previously called charges of genocide against Israel “meritless.”

CNN’s Morgan Rimmer contributed reporting to this post.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the US military’s pier in Gaza, for delivering aid by sea, would “probably” be ready “by the third weekend of this month,” which would be by Sunday, April 21.

“We expect that the initial operation capability will probably be there, being placed by the third weekend of this month,” said Austin in testimony at the US Capitol to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Austin also said that the protection of the US forces involved with the pier project is the Defense Department’s “number one priority.”

“We’re using a capability that we have, joint logistics over the shore, and certainly our troops search are trained to be able to put this into place,” said Austin.

The top US Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee says he is not yet ready to sign off on the sale of dozens of American-made F-15 fighter jets and related munitions to Israel as he seeks “assurances” on how the weapons would be used.

Rep. Gregory Meeks, a Democrat from New York, told CNN on Tuesday he would seek answers on the proposed sale during classified briefings in Washington, DC, this week. As one of the leading lawmakers on a key weapons-approving committee, Meeks holds an effective veto on any proposed weapons sales, making his comments to CNN notable.

“I want to make sure I know the types of weapons and what the weapons would be utilized for,” he told CNN’s Kate Bolduan on “CNN News Center.” He didn’t answer directly when asked if he would support efforts to block the sale.

“I don’t want the kinds of weapons that Israel has to be utilized to have more deaths,” he said. “I want to make sure that humanitarian aid gets in. I don’t want people starving to death, and I want Hamas to release the hostages. And I want a two-state solution,” he told CN.

Key context: Since Hamas’ attack on Israel in October, which killed over 1,200 Israelis, the US has made more than 100 foreign military sales to Israel. Most of those have fallen under the specific dollar amount that requires a notification to Congress, an official familiar with the matter previously told CNN.

But an $18 billion F-15 sale is large enough that it requires congressional notification, and the administration informally notified the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations committees of the F-15 sale in late January, according to people familiar with the matter.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert believes his successor Benjamin Netanyahu is running his governing coalition — and the war in Gaza — on the “basis of personal interest,” and in order to remain in power, Olmert told CNN Monday.

“The prioritization of the personal needs, at the expense of the national interest, which was obvious to me for a long time, became evident to anyone that dealt with him [since October 7],” Olmert told CNN’s Jeremy Diamond in an interview. “But again, [National Security Minister Itamar] Ben Gvir says that if you will not invade Rafah, then he will bring down the government.”

On Monday, Netanyahu said a date for the assault on Rafah had been set. His announcement came after Ben Gvir posted on X that if Netanyahu abandoned plans for a ground offensive in Rafah, he may lose the support of the coalition that has kept him in power.

Facing growing protests against the government, Netanyahu and his coalition have closed ranks and continue to hold on. But the former Israeli leader thinks his successor’s defiant posture — in the face of mounting international pressure, including from the United States — will be his demise. 

“The effect that he faces the pressures from America, in a way I think that he likes to appear, is the opponent of President Biden. It plays into his interest in Israeli politics. Netanyahu has this need to show that he’s the only guy that can face the world leaders and prevail,” he explained. 

The families of American-Israeli hostages in Gaza met with US National Security adviser Jake Sullivan on Monday in Washington to press for their immediate release, according to the Hostages Families Forum Headquarters.

The forum says at least eight American-Israelis were taken hostage by Hamas. Five of them are still thought to be held alive in Gaza. Another, 19-year-old Itay Chen, was confirmed dead by the Israel Defense Forces last month. 

The families shared their concerns with Sullivan that their loved ones will be next if negotiations continue to drag out, according to the forum, and told Sullivan that all hostages, “both the living and the murdered,” must be brought home immediately.

The National Security Council has not commented on the meeting, but according to the forum, Sullivan told attendees that the Biden administration is doing all it can to advance a deal that the US, Israel, Qatar, and Egypt have agreed to. CIA Director Bill Burns traveled to Cairo over the weekend where he presented a new proposal to try and help broker a deal between Israel and Hamas and bridge the gap between the two sides.

Vice President Kamala Harris is planning to meet with the families this afternoon, the second such meeting since Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel on October 7 last year, according to an advisory from her office. The meeting is closed to the press.

Jihad Abu Watfa was standing in the rubble along a dark stretch of coastal road southwest of Gaza City when he saw Israeli military tanks approaching. He began recording on his phone just as a heavy barrage of gunfire flashed before his eyes.

“We are now under siege, a tank is beside us and it’s shelling,” Abu Watfa could be heard saying in the video, which he shared with CNN.

The 27-year-old was surrounded by hundreds of other Palestinians who had gathered for an aid delivery on February 29 when Israeli soldiers accompanying the humanitarian convoy opened fire. More than 100 people were killed and 700 injured, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

The tragedy, which has become known among Palestinians as the “Flour Massacre,” is one of the single deadliest mass casualty events to take place in Gaza since Israel launched its assault on the strip following Hamas’ October 7 terror attack. It came after more than a month of Israel denying aid into Gaza City and northern Gaza and followed what the United Nations has called “a pattern of Israeli attacks” on civilians desperately seeking food, amid unprecedented levels of starvation.

CNN collected testimonies and videos from 22 eyewitnesses, many of whom had traveled from other cities across Gaza in the hopes of finding something for their families to eat.

Read more of CNN’s analysis of what happened the night a Gaza aid delivery in February turned deadly.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that “no force in the world” will stop Israeli troops from entering Rafah in southern Gaza to eliminate Hamas units said to be there.

Speaking at a recruitment event at a military base, Netanyahu said: “We will complete the elimination of the Hamas battalions, including in Rafah. There is no force in the world that will stop us.”

“Many forces are trying to do this, but it will not help, because this enemy, after what it has done, will not do it again, it will cease to exist,” Netanyahu added.

Earlier this week, Netanyahu said that a date had been set for the Rafah operation, but did not specify when it would begin. 

Netanyahu also told the event: “We have three goals: one, to return the abductees. All the observers, and not only them, all together. We’ll get them all back. The second goal —eliminate Hamas. The third goal — to ensure that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel.”

Netanyahu went on: “There is a fourth goal — Hamas is part of Iran’s evil axis that aims to destroy us. When we defeat Hamas, it’s not just defeating Hamas — it’s defeating the Axis.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) killed the mayor of the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in a strike in central Gaza on Monday, the IDF and Hamas both said.

Hamas called it “a cowardly assassination of the mayor of Al-Maghazi, Mr. Hatem Saleh Al-Ghamri,” saying Israeli “warplanes directly and without warning bombed the building of the Joint Services Council of the central governorate’s municipalities.” 

Hamas said the strike was “a war crime contrary to international laws that grant immunity and protection to civilian figures.” 

The IDF said its fighter jet struck and “eliminated the terrorist,” characterizing Al-Ghamri as a “Hamas military wing operative in the field of projectile launches within the Maghazi Battalion of the Central Camps.”

Some background: The Al-Maghazi refugee camp is located in the central part of the coastal enclave south of Wadi Gaza, the waterway that divides north from south Gaza.

According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the camp is filled with narrow alleys, where 33,000 people lived before the conflict, in a relatively densely packed area no more than 0.6 square kilometers (about 0.2 square miles).

CNN’s Mohammed Tawfeeq and Kathleen Magramo contributed reporting to this post.

Vice President Kamala Harris will meet Tuesday with US families whose loved ones were taken hostage by Hamas amid ongoing negotiations for the release of remaining hostages and a ceasefire in Israel’s war in Gaza.

Harris will meet with them in the afternoon, the second such meeting since Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel on October 7 last year, according to an advisory from her office. The meeting is closed to the press. 

Her meeting comes after US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with the families on Monday evening.  

CIA Director Bill Burns traveled to Cairo over the weekend where he presented a new proposal to try and help broker a deal between Israel and Hamas and bridge the gap between the two sides.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, said that several UN agencies are assisting in the efforts to retrieve bodies in and around Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza.

Tedros said in a post on X Tuesday, that WHO, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and others were supporting Gaza’s Health Ministry “in organising dignified burials for the unidentified bodies on Al-Shifa Hospital premises.”

“The bodies were previously lying under dirt or plastic sheeting, and were given fuller burials on site or at a nearby area. When the dead are buried properly, they can be identified later with forensic examinations, giving loved ones some consolation,” the WHO chief said.

“This war is a moral failure of humanity,” Tedros added.

A video accompanying his post showed UN and Palestinian workers retrieving bodies from mounds of sand in the area of Al-Shifa.

CNN reported earlier today that the Gaza Civil Defense organization said that nearly 400 bodies have been recovered from around Al-Shifa hospital, following the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the area last week.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that for the first time, the maritime air defense system known as “C-Dome” has intercepted a drone.

The IDF said Tuesday that overnight, a Sa’ar 6-class corvette missile ship “successfully intercepted a UAV that had approached from the east and had crossed into the area of the Gulf of Eilat” in the northern Red Sea.

Houthi rebels in Yemen said last month that they had fired 32 drones towards Israel in support of Hamas. 

French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne has suggested that imposing EU sanctions could be a way to pressure Israel into opening Gaza border crossings for humanitarian aid. 

“There must be levers of influence and there are multiple levers, going up to sanctions, to let humanitarian aid cross checkpoints,” the minister said in an interview Tuesday. The interview was recorded Monday and aired by French outlets France24 and RFI Tuesday.

“France was the first country to propose European Union sanctions on violent [Israeli] settlers in the West Bank. We will continue if needed to obtain the opening up of humanitarian aid,” Sejourne added.

The minister said that 300 trucks of aid, at a minimum, need to enter Gaza daily.

Israel has responded to Turkey’s decision to ban exports of military-related products, accusing Ankara of breaching a trade agreement.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is “once again sacrificing the economic interests of the people of Turkey for his support of Hamas,” adding that Israel will “respond accordingly.” 

In response, Katz said he:

Some context: Turkey announced new restrictions on exports to Israel on Tuesday after Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan accused Israel of denying a request to airdrop aid to Gaza.

Children in Gaza have been dying from “starvation-related complications” since Israel began using starvation as a weapon of war, which is a war crime, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report on Tuesday.

Israel denies the accusation, despite widespread evidence of malnutrition in Gaza. The report documents accounts from doctors and families in Gaza that described children, as well as pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers, suffering from severe malnutrition and dehydration and hospitals ill-equipped to treat them.

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya who heads Kamal Adwan Hospital’s pediatrics unit in northern Gaza told HRW on Thursday that 26 children had died from starvation-related complications in his hospital alone. At least 16 were under 5 months old, and at least 10 were between 1 and 8 years old, he said.

The report also cites other challenges in distributing the little aid that does make it into the enclave, including ongoing Israeli bombardment and lack of security assurances. According to the report, Israel said aid entering Gaza faced no limits apart from security concerns, and some Israeli officials have blamed the UN for distribution delays. Other Israeli officials accused Hamas of aid diversion.

What Israel says: The Israeli Defense Ministry’s body governing civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories (COGAT) denied that the Israeli government was purposely starving Gaza’s civilian population. HRW said it sought comment from COGAT on the findings of its report but did not receive a response.

CNN cannot independently verify the findings in HRW’s report, but has reported similar accounts from Gazan civilians, Palestinian officials in Gaza and international humanitarian organizations documenting the war. 

Turkey announced new restrictions on exports to Israel on Tuesday after Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan accused Israel of denying a request to airdrop aid to Gaza.

The Ministry of Trade slapped a ban on the export of 54 items, particularly products that could be used for military or construction purposes. In the statement, the ministry condemned Israel’s prevention of access to “the most basic food, medical care and supplies” for the people of Gaza. 

“This decision will remain in effect until Israel, within the framework of its obligations arising from international law, declares an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and allows a sufficient and uninterrupted flow of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip,” the statement said.

Among the specified items listed in the statement were steel and aluminium materials, cement, electrical cables and construction and metal working machinery. Speaking at a news conference in Ankara late Monday, Fidan said Turkey was taking “a series of new measures against Israel” after Israel denied its request to join the Jordanian aid operation.

“Today we learned that our request, which was welcomed by the Jordanian authorities, was rejected by Israel,” Fidan said. “There is no excuse for Israel to block our attempt to airlift aid to starving Gazans,” the foreign minister continued.

Key context: Turkey is among the top two countries delivering aid to Gaza, alongside the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Germany has hit back at accusations from Nicaragua at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that it has been “facilitating genocide” in Gaza through its support for Israel, insisting that Israeli security is at the “core” of German foreign policy.

Addressing the ICJ in The Hague on Tuesday, Germany’s lawyer Tania von Uslar-Gleichen stressed Germany “firmly rejects Nicaragua’s accusations.”

“Germany has always been an advocate for the promotion and strengthening of international humanitarian law and humanitarian principles,” said von Uslar-Gleichen, who is the Legal Director for the German Foreign Office.  

Von Uslar-Gleichen nodded to the Nazi Holocaust against Jews during World War II in explaining to the ICJ that Israeli security is at the “core” of German foreign policy, adding: “Our history is the reason why Israel’s security has been at the core of German foreign policy.”

A lawyer representing Germany, Samuel Wordsworth, argued Germany could not be found to be “facilitating genocide” because for that to be the case, the court would need to have already ruled that Israel has breached international law in Gaza. The ICJ has not however issued a ruling on whether Israel has committed any breaches of international law in Gaza.

“Nicaragua must establish that at least prima facie, the court is able to exercise jurisdiction, and it cannot do so, given the manifest absence of an indispensable third party, namely Israel”.

In Monday’s hearing, Nicaragua accused Germany of “facilitating genocide” through its sustained political, financial, and military support for Israel and suspension of funding to the main UN agency in Gaza, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). 

This post has been updated with additional comments from Germany’s lawyer.

Gaza’s Civil Defense organization says that nearly 400 bodies have been recovered from around Al-Shifa hospital, following the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the area last week.

Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told CNN Tuesday: “We have recovered 381 bodies from Al Shifa and the surrounding area since the withdrawal of the Israeli military.”

Basal said that the total did not include people who had been buried in the grounds of the hospital.

“We are still trying to recover the buried bodies at Al Shifa; [according to] information we have there are dozens of bodies under the dirt and sand inside Al Shifa and the vicinity and we started the process yesterday.”

He added that recovery workers had also retrieved 77 bodies in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, an area that saw heavy fighting for many weeks until Israeli troops withdrew earlier this week.

Cross-border attacks between Israel and Hezbollah have forced tens of thousands of people from their homes along both sides of the Lebanon-Israel border.

In Lebanon, at least 90,000 people are now relying on food boxes to survive, including relief provided by Virginia-based non-profit Islamic Relief USA.

“Honestly, we’ve lost a lot. We’ve lost everything in our area,” one woman tells CNN.

Watch more about the impact of the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah on border towns here.

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02:48 - Source: cnn

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant met Monday and discussed the Israeli military’s withdrawal from portions of Gaza, according to a statement by the US Department of Defense. 

Gallant provided details of the IDF’s withdrawal, as well as the future of Israel’s campaign against Hamas. 

Austin expressed “the urgent need to dramatically increase humanitarian assistance delivery,” according to the statement.

Austin and Gallant also discussed Israel’s killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers on April 1. 

All but one were foreign nationals, sparking calls for accountability among those countries, including the US. Israel said the killings were a mistake, fired two senior officers and reprimanded a top commander over the incident.

Austin also “affirmed unwavering US support for Israel’s defense in light of threats posed by Iran and its proxy network,” the statement said. 

Israel’s Defense Ministry said “the Minister and Secretary raised ongoing threats posed by Iranian aggression, including via Iranian proxy Hezbollah. They discussed coordination in the face of scenarios involving regional escalation.”

Some context: The US and its allies have been bracing for a possible attack against Israeli and US assets in the region in retaliation for a deadly Israeli strike last week on Iran’s consulate in Damascus. 

In a statement published early Tuesday, Hamas said the latest deal proposed by Israel does not meet their demands. 

Hamas said it received the proposal through Egyptian, Qatari and American mediators.

While Hamas said it appreciated the effort, the group said Israel “remains stubborn and has not responded to any of the demands of our people and our resistance.”

But Hamas maintained it is “keen to reach an agreement that puts an end to the aggression against our people.”

The group said its leaders would review the proposal and inform the mediators of their response. 

Over the weekend in Cairo, CIA Director Bill Burns presented a new proposal that includes pushing Israel to release a higher number of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the expected 40 Israeli hostages who would be freed during the first phase of a three-stage ceasefire deal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the timing for a ground offensive in the Gazan city of Rafah, where an estimated 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering, has been set — but did not reveal the date.

Earlier on Monday, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said that if Netanyahu abandoned plans for a ground offensive in Rafah, he may lose the support of the coalition that has kept him in power.

After Netanyahu’s announcement, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Israel had not briefed the US on the Rafah invasion’s timing, and reiterated that the US believes a ground offensive “would have an enormously harmful effect on … civilians, and that it would ultimately hurt Israel’s security.”

Miller said the US would be having “further conversations over the coming days, coming weeks” with Israeli officials about the Rafah offensive “and how they could achieve it in a better way.”

Here are the latest developments in the region:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that a date for a ground offensive into Rafah has been set, according to a video posted on his official Telegram account.

Netanyahu didn’t say what the date was.

He also said that “entry into Rafah” was necessary for a “complete victory over Hamas.”

Rafah, in the southernmost part of the besieged enclave, is where about 1.5 million Palestinians are estimated to be sheltering after fleeing fighting in the north.

Earlier on Monday, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said that if Netanyahu abandoned plans for a ground offensive in Rafah, he may lose the support of the coalition that has kept him in power.

The State Department later said Israel had not briefed the US on the date for the announced invasion of Rafah. 

Matthew Miller, State Department spokesperson, reiterated that the US believes a ground offensive “would have an enormously harmful effect on … civilians, and that it would ultimately hurt Israel’s security.”

“We have not yet seen them present a credible plan for dealing with the 1.4 million civilians who are in Rafah, some of whom have moved more than once, some of whom have moved more than twice,” said Miller at a press briefing.

Miller said the US would be having “further conversations over the coming days, coming weeks” with Israeli officials about a potential Rafah operation “and how they could achieve it in a better way.”

A specialized United Nations committee will review whether Palestine will be granted full state member status in the UN this month, according to Vanessa Frazier, the UN Ambassador of Malta and Security Council’s president for April.

“The council has decided that this deliberation has to take place during the month of April. That is the timeline — April 2024,” Frazier said at a news conference Monday.

After a closed-door session Monday, the UN Security Council referred this request for Palestinian statehood to the Committee on the Admission of New Members, she said.

The committee held their first meeting on Monday to begin discussions regarding Palestine’s renewed application, she said. 

The Palestinian Mission to the UN first put in a request to be recognized as a full member state in 2011. It was granted “non-member observer state” status in November 2012.

The US is historically keen on letting the Israelis and Palestinians decide the issue between themselves. 

A disinformation war is unfolding alongside the physical conflict raging in Gaza, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres warned in a post on X Monday, calling for international journalists be allowed entry into the enclave.

Foreign media have been allowed very limited access to Gaza, either embedded with the Israeli military on condition of viewing and approving the unedited raw footage or in rare instances with humanitarian aid convoys going into the enclave.

The leaders of Egypt, France and Jordan have issued a joint statement calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, highlighting the grave humanitarian crisis and the catastrophic impact of the ongoing war.

In an op-ed published Monday in Jordan and Egypt’s state newspapers, as well as France’s Le Monde and The Washington Post, they stressed the need for a peaceful resolution through a two-state solution, declaring that violence and warfare “have no place” in achieving peace in the Middle East.

“In light of the intolerable human toll, we, the leaders of Egypt, France, and Jordan, call for the immediate and unconditional implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2728. We underline the urgent need to bring about a permanent ceasefire in Gaza,” the joint op-ed read.

Highlighting the critical situation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where over 1.5 million Palestinian civilians have sought refuge, the leaders warned about the “dire consequences of further military actions,” advocating for the protection of civilians as a legal and moral obligation under international law.

The three countries’ leaders condemned violence, terrorism and indiscriminate targeting of civilians, reiterating the need for all parties to respect international humanitarian law.

“We condemn the killing of humanitarian aid workers, most recently the attack against World Central Kitchen’s aid convoy,” the op-ed read.

Egypt and France have played a major role as mediators between Hamas and Israel, while Jordan has been a key actor in aid delivery, contributing dozens of airdrops over Gaza.

The bodies of 46 Palestinians have been brought to the European Hospital in Gaza since Monday morning, the European Hospital said in a statement on its Telegram channel.

“Most of the bodies came from the east of the Khan Younis area, and the bodies are decomposed, and found dead under rubble of demolished buildings,” the statement read.

Thirty-eight of those 46 bodies have been identified, the hospital said.

This comes after a search and recovery operation in the aftermath of the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Khan Younis announced Sunday.

An Iranian attack on Israel would likely be carried out by Iranian proxy forces in the region, rather than by Iran directly, two people familiar with US intelligence on the matter told CNN. 

Tehran is wary of a dramatic escalation in the fighting, the sources said, and does not want to give the United States or its allies an excuse to attack Iran directly. 

Iran and its proxy militia groups also do not appear poised to attack US troops or other assets in the region for similar reasons, the sources said. The sources noted, however, that Iran does not have perfect command and control over all of its proxy forces, so the possibility of an attack on US assets cannot be completely ruled out. 

The US and its allies have been bracing for a possible attack against Israeli and US assets in the region in retaliation for an Israeli strike last week on Iran’s consulate in Damascus, which killed a dozen Iranian military officials. 

The sources told CNN that US intelligence assesses that Iran has urged several of its proxy militia groups to simultaneously launch a large-scale attack against Israel, using drones and missiles, and that they could attack as soon as this week. There is some debate, however, about whether they will wait until after Ramadan ends to strike, said one of the sources.

 The Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment. 

Monday witnessed the passage of 419 humanitarian aid trucks through the Kerem Shalom and Nitzana border crossings into Gaza, marking the largest single-day delivery since the conflict began on October 7, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.

In addition to the truck deliveries, approximately 258 food packages were airdropped across various locations in the Gaza Strip, the IDF said.

The World Food Programme said last week that 88% of Gaza’s population faces “emergency or worse” food insecurity, and famine in northern Gaza is “imminent.”

Before the conflict, an average of 450-500 trucks would enter Gaza daily with supplies.