December 20, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

Half of Gaza's population is starving and residents are often going entire days without eating under Israel's bombardment of the enclave of more than 2 million people, a United Nations agency said Tuesday.

Just 10% of the food required for Gaza has entered the strip over the past 70 days, Corinne Fleischer, WFP Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe, said in an interview with Canada's CBC News on Sunday.

Two weeks ago, WFP warned that 97% of Palestinian households in the north of the strip and 83% in the south reported inadequate food consumption.

Since then, tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have arrived in Gaza's southernmost governorate of Rafah in search of safety, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

On Tuesday, WFP delivered food parcels to 2,350 people and hot meals to 1,750 others in Rafah, which has become Gaza's most densely populated area, OCHA said Wednesday.

Some context: Human Rights Watch released a report Monday accusing Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza, calling it a “war crime." An Israeli government spokesperson dismissed the charge as “a lie” and blamed Hamas for the shortages. 

CNN's Kareem Khadder and Radina Gigova contributed reporting.

The UN Security Council is expected to vote Wednesday on a resolution to spur more humanitarian aid into Gaza, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The vote has been delayed since Monday to allow more time for more talks.

According to diplomats, intensive negotiations were underway for the draft resolution, which was said to have originally included a call for a “cessation of hostilities” to allow much-needed aid to enter Gaza. One diplomatic source told CNN the US was still reviewing the text on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Israel has introduced a proposal to Hamas that includes a weeklong pause in fighting in exchange for the release of about 40 hostages, according to Barak Ravid, CNN political and foreign policy analyst, citing two Israeli officials and another source with knowledge of the matter.

First reported by Axios, the proposal looks to release hostages that include women, the elderly and those in need of urgent care. Hamas has made it clear no more hostages will be released until there is a ceasefire.

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Israel has introduced a proposal to Hamas that includes a weeklong pause in fighting in exchange for the release of about 40 hostages, according to Barak Ravid, CNN political and foreign policy analyst, citing two Israeli officials and another source with knowledge of the matter.

First reported by Axios, the proposal looks to release hostages that include women, the elderly and those in need of urgent care.

The deal is being presented to Hamas through Qatari mediators, Ravid said.

Michael Herzog, Israeli Ambassador to the United States, confirmed Israel is willing to put a pause to the fighting if it means releasing as many hostages as possible, but would not confirm if a deal had been reached.

Hamas has made it clear no more hostages will be released until there is a ceasefire.

But as diplomatic efforts continue, the humanitarian crisis in the besieged strip worsens with each day. Nearly 20,000 people have been killed by Israeli military action in Gaza since October 7, and more than 52,000 wounded, according to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.

Meanwhile, much of northern Gaza has been decimated by airstrikes and, according to the United Nations, almost 1.9 million people — more than 80% of the enclave’s population — have been displaced.

US warships in the Red Sea have been battling a growing number of weapons fired by Houthi forces in Yemen over the past several weeks, including an incident on Saturday when a US destroyer shot down more than a dozen drones.

And US faceoffs with the Houthis, who say they are targeting commercial ships headed for Israel after its invasion of Gaza, could grow after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced Monday a new US-led operation focusing on protecting merchant ships operating in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

The US Navy has not said what weapon systems its ships are using against the Houthi attacks, but the experts said a US destroyer has a range of weapons systems at its disposal.

These include surface-to-air missiles, explosive shells from the destroyer’s 5-inch main gun and close-in weapons systems, the experts said. They also said US ships have electronic warfare capabilities that could sever the links between drones and their on-shore controllers.

But in its effort to protect merchant ships, the US is facing drones that can be produced and deployed in large numbers for unit prices under $100,000. This means a prolonged campaign could eventually tax US resources, the experts say.

Houthi forces are funded and trained by Iran, so they have resources for an extended fight, the experts point out. It’s also a question of to what lengths the US wants to go to protect merchant shipping, the experts said.

Why this matters: Iran-backed Houthi forces have launched numerous attacks against US interests in the region, and Israel, since the October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel, as fears ripple across the region that the Israel-Hamas war could widen.

The group has said any ship heading to Israel was a “legitimate target” as it puts pressure on Israel to stop its Gaza offensive. They have staged several drone and missile attacks on commercial shipping and even tried landing commandos by helicopter on one vessel to hijack it.

The biggest container shipping companies have paused transit through one of the world’s trade arteries, which experts say could snarl supply chains and drive up freight costs.

Read the full analysis.

Israel’s military denied responsibility for killing two women at the Holy Family Parish complex in Gaza on Saturday.

The IDF said will continue to review the incident.

As CNN previously reported, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which oversees Catholic churches across Cyprus, Jordan, Israel, Gaza and the Palestinian territories, reported an Israeli military sniper shot and killed a mother and daughter who were sheltering inside the church. 

The Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, released a video on Tuesday showing two men held hostage.

The footage shows Gadi Moses, 79, and Gadi Katzir, 47, speaking in front of a camera, asking the Israeli government to arrange their release. 

It is not clear when or where the clips were filmed.   

In the video, Moses asks Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, war cabinet member Benny Gantz and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi to make every effort to return them to their families. 

Katzir makes similar remarks, asking the government to make an exchange deal with Islamic Jihad. 

Both men speak about the dangers they are facing.

Moses was taken alongside his ex-wife, Margalit Moses, who was released during the truce on November 24. 

Katzir’s father, Rami, was killed on October 7, and his mother, Hanna, was abducted and then released as part of the truce.

Hamas' military wing, the Qassam Brigades, released a video on Monday showing three Israeli men held in captivity in Gaza.  

Children and families “are not safe in hospitals” in Gaza, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said Tuesday as the enclave’s wider health care system teeters on the edge of collapse. 

“Over the past 48 hours, the largest remaining fully functioning hospital was shelled, twice. That hospital – Al Nasser in Khan Younis – not only shelters large numbers of children who had already been badly injured in attacks on their homes, but hundreds of women and children seeking safety,” Elder said in Geneva after a recent visit to Gaza.

It comes after a 13-year-old girl, Dina Abu Mohsen, was killed by a shell that landed in part of the Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza, according to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in the strip.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told CNN on Tuesday that an “initial review” of damage to the complex did not find it possible at this stage to "determine with certainty what was the source of the damage to the hospital.”

Meanwhile, “without water and sanitation, nor shelter, these so-called safe zones have become zones of disease,” Elder said, warning that if this scenario continues, “child deaths due to disease could surpass those killed in bombardments.” 

The IDF has previously stated it does not target hospitals, only "Hamas strongholds." Hamas denies allegations that it uses hospitals in Gaza for its operations.

CNN's Kareem Khadder and Elizabeth Joseph contributed reporting to this post.