December 6, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has formally referred the situation in Gaza to the UN Security Council, urging its members to "avert a humanitarian catastrophe" in the besieged enclave.

Guterres delivered a letter to the president of the Security Council, José De La Gasca, on Wednesday, invoking Article 99 of the UN Charter, his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

Article 99 gives the secretary general the remit to "bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security."

In his letter, Guterres said the conflict has created "appalling human suffering, physical destruction and collective trauma across Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory."

The UN chief highlighted the plight of Gazan civilians, who he said are facing "grave danger" on a daily basis.

"Amid constant bombardment by the Israel Defence Forces, and without shelter or the essentials to survive, I expect public order to break down soon due to the desperate situation, rendering even limited humanitarian assistance impossible," he said, warning the situation could worsen if the spread of disease reaches epidemic proportions and mass displacement creates "pressure" on neighboring countries. 

In the closing paragraph of his letter, Guterres urged Security Council members to "press to avert a humanitarian catastrophe" and support his call for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is “underground” in Gaza, the Israeli military on Wednesday asserted, but did not say where they believe he is.

The statement from Israel Defense Forces spokesperson came shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the IDF had surrounded Sinwar’s house in southern Gaza.

“Sinwar’s house is the area of Khan Younis,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said during a press briefing. “There is terror infrastructure and headquarters there. Sinwar is not above ground. He’s underground. I do not want to mention where, and what intelligence we acquired.”

“Our role is to reach Sinwar and kill him. We need to do that as soon as possible,” he added.

A senior adviser to Netanyahu on Wednesday told CNN that the encirclement of Sinwar’s house is a “symbolic victory.”

“It will be a real victory very soon,” Mark Regev said. “It’s only a matter of time before we get the man.”

The United States understands that there will be a "transition period" in which Israeli forces remain in Gaza after the end of combat operations against Hamas, but that cannot be permanent, State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said Wednesday. 

It would not be "in anyone's interest ... for Israel to just leave — and leave a security vacuum in place where there could be rampant lawlessness inside Gaza, innocent civilians exploited," Miller said at a press briefing.

"We understand there will need to be some transition period at the end of combat operations," he added.

The US would not accept a reoccupation of Gaza by Israel, nor would it accept a buffer zone established within Gaza because it would violate the principle of no reduction of territory, Miller said.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement Wednesday that a surface-to-surface missile was detected heading toward Israel, specifically the city of Eilat. The IDF added that it successfully intercepted the missile in the Red Sea area using the Arrow aerial defense system.

The Houthi-run Yemeni Armed Forces said it launched a “batch of ballistic missiles” aimed at military targets in the Eilat area.

According to the IDF, the “target did not cross into Israeli territory, did not pose a threat to civilians and the sirens that sounded were according to protocol.”

The Yemeni Armed Forces added in its statement that it will continue to carry out military operations against the “Israeli enemy, as well as implementing the decision to prevent Israeli ships from navigating the Arab and Red Seas in support of the oppressed Palestinian people and until the aggression against our brothers in Gaza stops.”

Separately, a US warship shot down an unmanned aerial vehicle from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on Wednesday in the southern Red Sea, a US military official said.

There was no damage to the USS Mason, a guided-missile destroyer, or injuries to any personnel in the incident, the official said. The drone was flying in the direction of the ship; as with other recent instances of drones being shot down, the official said it came close enough to the Mason that the commander of the ship felt it was a threat and needed to be shot down.

At least three Houthi drones were shot down by the USS Carney on Sunday, during a series of attacks on three commercial vessels.

Some context: Since Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, the Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen have launched numerous cruise missiles and attack drones toward Israel and US assets in the region, heightening concerns that the Israel-Hamas war could expand further.

CNN's Haley Britzky contributed reporting to this post.

The Israeli military on Wednesday dropped leaflets over Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, with a Quranic verse about the great flood during the time of Noah.

“The flood overtook them, while they persisted in wrongdoing,” the leaflet reads in Arabic.

The verse comes from a surah in the Quran in which Noah is sent as a prophet to preach for 950 years and warn the people before the deluge. Those who are wrongdoers are swept away in the flood.

The paper bears the logo of the Israel Defense Forces. Video shot by AFP shows the leaflets falling from the sky over Khan Younis.

The leaflet also uses the word “tufan,” or flood — the same word Hamas used to describe its October 7 attack on Israel, the “Al-Aqsa Flood.”

The IDF has said it is now operating in “the heart” of Gaza's second-largest city and warned residents earlier this week that “the fighting and military advance of the IDF in the Khan Yunis area do not allow the movement of civilians through the Salah al-Din axis in the sections north and east of the city of Khan Yunis.”

This post has been updated with comments from the IDF.

The Israeli military has encircled the house of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in southern Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday.

Sinwar is the highest-ranking leader of Hamas based in Gaza.

Netanyahu did not explicitly say where in Gaza the house is located. Sinwar is originally from Khan Younis.

The Israel Defense Forces in a statement on Tuesday said that troops were operating “in the heart” of Khan Younis, the territory’s second-largest city.   

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that the Palestinian Authority (PA) assuming power in Gaza will not happen as long as he is prime minister, underscoring the difference between the Israeli and US governments about governance of the enclave after the Israel-Hamas war. 

“As long as I am Prime Minister — this will not happen. Whoever educates their children for terror, funds terror and supports families of terrorists, could not control Gaza after we eradicate Hamas,” Netanyahu wrote on X, the social media platform formerly called Twitter. 

His comment came after Sky News Arabia reported on Wednesday that Mahmoud Abbas, president of the PA, has expressed the body’s readiness to assume power in Gaza and the West Bank. 

US President Joe Biden said last month that the PA should govern the Gaza Strip and the West Bank following the war. "As we strive for peace, Gaza and the West Bank should be reunited under a single governance structure, ultimately under a revitalized Palestinian Authority, as we all work toward a two-state solution," Biden said in an op-ed published in the Washington Post. 

However, Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected the idea of a PA-led government in Gaza after the war. "I think that the Palestinian Authority in its current forms is not competent to take responsibility over Gaza," Netanyahu said at a news conference on November 18.

Some background: The Palestinian Authority is a government body with limited self-rule in the West Bank. It was established in the 1993 Oslo Accords, a peace pact between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization that saw the PLO give up armed resistance against Israel in return for promises of an independent Palestinian state. It has recognized Israel and engaged in multiple failed peace initiatives with it. Hamas controls Gaza and presents itself as an alternative to the PA.

There is a “heightened risk of atrocity crimes” in Gaza, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said at a news conference on Wednesday. 

The “catastrophic situation” in Gaza was both “entirely foreseeable and preventable,” Türk said in Geneva. “My humanitarian colleagues have described the situation as apocalyptic. In these circumstances, there is a heightened risk of atrocity crimes.”

All parties involved and “those with influence” should take measures to prevent such crimes, he added.

Türk also said he was gravely concerned about the “dehumanizing” statements made by political figures in both Israel and in the Hamas ranks.

“History has shown us where this kind of language can lead. This is not just unacceptable, but a competent court may view such statements, in the circumstances in which they are made, an incitement to atrocity crimes,” he said.

Leaked audio recordings of Tuesday's meeting between freed Israeli hostages, relatives of some still being held and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reveals considerable anger at the government’s conduct, as well as the enduring terror of captivity by Hamas in Gaza. Some of the leaked audio was published on Israeli website ynet.

It comes amid building pressure on Netanyahu to secure the release of the remaining captives, and scrutiny of Israel’s intensifying military campaign in Gaza.

A female abductee freed with her children — but without her husband, who remains in captivity — said she was in a "hiding place that was shelled and we had to be smuggled out and we were wounded. That’s besides the helicopter that shot at us on the way to Gaza."

“You have no information. You have no information," she added. "The fact that we were shelled, the fact that no one knew anything about where we were. … You claim that there is intelligence. But the fact is that we are being shelled. My husband was separated from us three days before we returned to Israel and taken to the (Hamas) tunnels” under Gaza.

"You want to topple the Hamas government, to show that you have bigger balls? There is no life here that is more important than others. None of us there deserve any less treatment than any resident of Israel. Return them all and not in a month, two months or a year," she said. 

According to the ynet account of the meeting, one man related what his family members had told him after being freed.

Another woman who had been a hostage said those remaining in captivity were living “on borrowed time. All day, they lie on a mattresses, most of them need glasses and hearing aids that were taken from them when they were kidnapped, they have difficulty seeing and hearing, which affects their functioning even more,” the woman said, according to the audio released.

She issued an appeal to Israel's war cabinet to release all Palestinian prisoners and bring back the hostages. "Release them all and bring them back. They live on borrowed time. Their lives are in your hands,” she said.

At one point, some of the people present in the meeting heckled at Netanyahu and others from the war cabinet by saying "shame."

What Netanyahu said, according to the report: Comments at the meeting by Netanyahu have not been released but were reported by ynet. CNN cannot verify they are accurate.

According to ynet, Netanyahu said it was only when Israel launched its ground operations when the pressure was built on Hamas to release hostages. When Netanyahu said Hamas was to blame for the end of the truce, an individual identified by ynet as a family member of a released hostage replied, "Nonsense."

Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on the leaked recordings.

Read more about the tense meeting between Israeli officials and hostages.