December 5, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

Israel has revoked the visa of the United Nations humanitarian coordinator due to the "bias of the UN," according to the Israeli minister of foreign affairs.

“We will no longer be silent in the face of the bias of the UN,” Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Cohen said Lynn Hastings, who is the deputy special coordinator for the Middle East peace process and the UN resident coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, failed to speak out against Hamas for the acts committed during its October 7 attack.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary general, said Hasting had her visa revoked last week. Still, Dujarric said the UN secretary general has “full confidence” in Hastings. 

“I can only reiterate the Secretary-General's full confidence in Ms. Hastings, the way she's conducted herself, and the way she's done her work,” Dujarric said.

The Israel Defense Forces admitted Tuesday that it struck Lebanese soldiers while acting in "self defense" against Hezbollah, the IDF said on social media. 

The IDF claimed it "operated in self defense" against what they said was an imminent threat coming from Lebanon. The threat came from near the southern Lebanese village of Odaisseh in the Marjayoun district, where the IDF says a Hezbollah launch area and observation point exists.

According to the Lebanese Armed Forces, one soldier was killed and three more were injured. 

The IDF said they were notified after the strike that soldiers from the Lebanese Armed Forces had been harmed. 

The IDF added that the incident is under review.

It is believed to be the first fatality of the Lebanese Armed Forces since the escalation of the conflict this year. 

Israel's prime minister said his country's war efforts in Gaza are supported by its humanitarian effort. Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is allowing in the "bare minimum" of fuel trucks and also is aiming to prevent disease outbreaks in the enclave that could halt the ground operation.

Answering a question about Israel potentially losing leverage against Hamas if it allows more humanitarian aid into Gaza, Netanyahu said: "The war efforts are supported by the humanitarian effort … this is because we follow laws of war because we know that if there would be a collapse — diseases, pandemics, and groundwater infections — it will stop the fighting."

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Tuesday that Israel has "the right to demand certain things" concerning humanitarian aid, including allowing the Red Cross to visit Israeli hostages who remain in Gaza "or at least allow the transfer of some related elements such as medicines" to the hostages.

Meanwhile, international aid organizations have argued that the amount of aid reaching Gaza is insufficient. 

Lynn Hastings, United Nations humanitarian coordinator, said on Monday that a “more hellish scenario is about to unfold” if more aid is not allowed to enter Gaza.

Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said during a visit to Gaza on Monday that “an unimpeded and regular flow of aid must be allowed to enter Gaza." 

US officials expect the current phase of Israel’s ground operation of Gaza targeting the southern end of the strip to last several weeks before Israel transitions, possibly by January, to a lower-intensity, hyper-localized strategy that narrowly targets specific Hamas militants and leaders, multiple senior administration officials tell CNN.

But as the war enters this new ground, the White House is deeply concerned about how Israel’s operations will unfold over the next several weeks, a senior US administration official said.

The US has warned Israel firmly in “hard” and “direct” conversations, they said, that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) cannot replicate the kind of devastating tactics it used in the north and must do more to limit civilian casualties.

The US has conveyed to Israel that as global opinion has increasingly turned against its ground operation, which has killed thousands of civilians, the amount of time Israel has to continue the operation in its current form and still maintain meaningful international support is quickly waning.

In perhaps the most direct public warning to date, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin admonished Israel that it can “only win in urban warfare by protecting civilians.”

Devastating death toll: Almost 16,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its campaign in October, following Hamas’ terror attack on Israel on October 7, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. Israel believes it has killed “several thousand” Hamas militants, an Israeli official said.

Though senior Biden administration officials have publicly called on Israel to do more to minimize civilian deaths, they have been careful to avoid directly admonishing any of Israel’s tactics, believing officials believe it is more effective to quietly counsel Israel behind the scenes rather than loudly shame them.

The senior administration official told CNN that they did not feel comfortable using the word “receptive” to capture Israel’s response so far to the administration’s military advice —contrary to some public statements from senior-most members of the administration.

Both in public and in private, Israeli officials maintain that part of their end goal is to weaken Hamas to such an extent that the group can never repeat the attack that it unleashed on Israel on October 7.

That goal, one senior US official told CNN, is unlikely to be achieved by the end of the calendar year, and Israel is expected to continue pursuing that objective in the next phase of the conflict that US officials see as a “longer-term campaign.”

Read more about the US view of Israel's ground operation of Gaza.

Since October 7, 61% of homes and residential units in Gaza have been destroyed, according to the Hamas government in the enclave.

Of the 305,000 affected units, 52,000 are completely destroyed and 253,000 are partially damaged, an official from the Hamas government media office said in a news conference from Gaza on Tuesday. 

Hamas claimed that 121 government buildings and 69 schools are completely out of service, and 275 schools were partially damaged. 

Hamas demanded the immediate introduction of 1,000 trucks of daily aid and one million liters of fuel to rebuild the health care sector, especially hospitals and other vital facilities.

Some Israelis held hostage by Hamas in Gaza were given anti-anxiety medication prior to their release, an official from Israel’s health ministry told the Knesset, or parliament, on Tuesday.

Clonex is the name in Israel for Clonazepam, a benzodiazepine that has a calming effect, and is used to treat seizures and relieve anxiety.

Mizrahi did not provide evidence for the claim.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) should retain control for the disarmament of Gaza after the war, rejecting the idea that an international force could be responsible for security in the Gaza Strip. 

It's not the first time Netanyahu has called for post-war Israeli military control in Gaza.

In November, Netanyahu told CNN that Israel's security role in a post-war Gaza would be an “over-riding, over-reaching military envelope,” but did not explain what that meant.

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday decried reported sexual assaults committed by Hamas during its attack on Israel, calling on "all of us" to condemn the acts.

Speaking at a fundraiser in Boston, Biden accused Hamas of refusing to release additional women hostages and ending the pause in fighting that the US helped broker.

"Let me be crystal clear: Hamas' refusal to release the remaining young women is what broke this deal and end the pause in the fighting. Everyone still being held hostage by Hamas need to be returned to their families immediately. We're not going to stop," he said.

More context: Hamas has denied that its militants committed rape during the October 7 attack. The group's statement also rejected that Hamas targeted festival-goers at the Nova music festival. At least 260 bodies were recovered from the festival site, according to Israeli rescue service ZAKA.

Israeli police are investigating whether rape occurred during the attack, using forensic evidence, video and witness testimony, CNN first reported in November. Israel’s police acknowledge their investigation may take months.

The US military airlifted another 36,000 pounds of critical supplies to Gazans on Tuesday, Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said on Tuesday.

He said that as with previous airlifts, "the supplies were delivered via a US Air Force C-17 to Egypt to subsequently be transported via ground into Gaza and then distributed by UN agencies.” 

Ryder added that additional flights are expected “in the coming days.”