December 20, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

Israel has begun to put proposals on the table for a cessation in fighting in exchange for hostages that are still held captive in Gaza, a source familiar tells CNN, in what could mark a significant shift since Israel’s military operations resumed in the war and formal hostage negotiations came to a halt.

The general framework that Israel is proposing would once again entail hostages — women included — being released in phases, with the ultimate goal of all hostages in Gaza getting out. 

A proposal Israel has made to Hamas via Qatar, the mediator, is that fighting be paused for a week to allow for the release of hostages, another source familiar with the discussions said.

An Israeli official has also told CNN that a temporary ceasefire as part of the deal could last for a week or two weeks, the official said. Axios was the first to report that Israel is offering a weeklong pause in the fighting as part of the negotiations.

But the source stressed that a deal at this moment is not imminent, and that the discussion of proposals marks, at most, the beginning of negotiations. Still, Israel appearing to return to the negotiating table is notable. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government confront tremendous pressure on the hostages front, particularly after the Israel Defense Forces mistakenly killed three Israeli hostages.

Hamas, too, is under significant pressure, and both US and Israeli officials have said they believe the resumption of fighting, and particularly the IDF targeting southern Gaza, would ramp up the pressure on Hamas to accept another temporary ceasefire.

Hamas is asking for “more heavy-duty prisoners than before,” the Israeli official said, a reference to the release of Palestinian women and teenage prisoners from Israeli jails in exchange for hostages in the last deal between the two sides. The majority of Palestinians released were detained and hadn't been charged, put on trial or given an opportunity to defend themselves. Some say they weren't even told why they were being detained.

During the first seven-day pause in fighting, each day, Hamas had to release at least 10 Israeli hostages kidnapped on October 7. The truce came to an end when Hamas refused to release the remaining female hostages. Since then, US and Qatari officials have continued to discuss ways to secure the release of additional hostages.

Children in Gaza are getting only about 10% of the water they would normally use, leaving them with “barely a drop to drink,” UNICEF said in a statement on Wednesday. 

“Recently displaced children in the southern Gaza Strip are accessing only 1.5 to 2 litres of water each day,” the statement said.

It added that 15 liters are the minimum standard per day for drinking, washing, and cooking, while three liters are the minimum for survival alone.

UNICEF says water and sanitation services in Gaza are “at the point of collapse,” which could have severe repercussions on children.

“The impact of this on children is particularly dramatic because children are also more susceptible to dehydration, diarrhea, disease and malnutrition, all of which can compound to present a threat to their survival,” UNICEF said.

“Concerns of waterborne diseases such as cholera and chronic diarrhea are particularly heightened given the lack of safe water, especially following this week’s rains and flooding," added the statement.

Last week, the World Health Organization said it had recorded about 165,000 cases of diarrhea amongst children under the age of five, which it described as “much more” than normal.

“Without safe water, many more children will die from deprivation and disease in the coming days” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said. 

Israel has previously said it is "facilitating various humanitarian aid initiatives" in Gaza, including "the supply of water directly from Israel."

At least 20 people were killed and 25 people injured in Israeli attacks on the Jabalya refugee camp Wednesday morning, the director-general of Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza, Munir Al-Bursh, said in a statement on X.

Al-Bursh added that dozens remain under the rubble.

CNN cannot independently verify the numbers.

In a statement earlier on Wednesday, the IDF said it continues "to operate against terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip, conducting close-quarters combat with terrorists on the ground and directing aircraft to strike armed terrorist cells and weapons."

"In joint ground, aerial and naval operations, strikes were carried out on dozens of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure. More than 300 terror targets were struck over the last day," the statement added, without giving more details on the targeted locations.

Israeli military officials have said they believe they are close to defeating Hamas militants in Jabalya and Gaza City’s Shujaiya neighborhood, Hamas’s last remaining strongholds in northern Gaza.

Three Palestinian telecoms firms announced Wednesday that communications and internet services in the Gaza Strip are down again, according to statements posted on their social media accounts.

“We regret to announce a complete disruption of all communication and Internet services with the Gaza Strip, due to continuous aggression,” read a statement issued by the Paltel Group on their Facebook page.

Ooredoo and Jawwal posted similar statements on their Facebook pages, with both citing ongoing fighting in Gaza.

Internet and telecommunications services have been repeatedly impacted in Gaza since the start of the conflict. 

In the past the Israel Defense Forces have declined to comment on whether they are actively disrupting communications there.

Internet monitoring site NetBlocks posted an update on X on Wednesday, saying network data indicated a new collapse in connectivity in the Gaza Strip.

“The incident affects areas in the south where telecoms had been partially restored over the last few days, while other areas have remained offline since the previous blackout,” read the post.

Israel and Hamas are not “near a final deal at the moment” on a release of hostages in Gaza, an Israeli official told CNN Wednesday.

“For the time being, it’s still negotiations. There is nothing final," said the official.

Hamas is asking for “more heavy-duty prisoners than before,” the official said, a reference to the release of Palestinian women and teenaged prisoners from Israeli jails in exchange for hostages in the last deal between the two sides.

Israel is currently asking for all remaining hostages to be released as part of any deal, the official said.

The Prime Minister’s office believes 129 hostages from the October 7 terror attack on Israel are being held in Gaza, of whom 108 are alive and 21 are dead.

A temporary ceasefire as part of the deal could last for a week or two weeks, the official said.

The official asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the negotiations.

The head of Hamas' political bureau Ismail Haniyeh has arrived in Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials on the latest developments in the Israel-Gaza conflict, Hamas said in a statement on Telegram Wednesday.

Haniyeh lives in Qatar and has previously made frequent visits to Turkey.

Haniyeh was first elected leader of Hamas in May 2017 and won reelection in August 2021.

In January 2018 the US designated Haniyeh as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.

His visit comes after Israel said it had proposed a weeklong pause in fighting in exchange for the release of 40 hostages, a similar deal to the one last month that brought a temporary truce.

From the United Nations to NGOs and even influencers, critics of the way Israel is waging war against Hamas in Gaza are not in short supply; even US President Joe Biden has decried its “indiscriminate bombing.” But if there’s one area where Israel is arguably beyond reproach, it’s in the consistency of its stated war aims:

• Destroy Hamas so it can’t fulfil its goal of repeating the October 7 massacre. 

• Bring back the remaining hostages held by Hamas.

There are other aims, such as reestablishing deterrence to Israel’s foes, and reassuring Israelis the state can still protect them. But those were the main ones – until last week.

In recent days, a third objective has unashamedly wormed its way into the open: getting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reelected.

It began in earnest about a week ago, when US calls were growing for the Palestinian Authority (PA), which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to take control of post-war Gaza. Netanyahu’s response: Not on my watch.

Read the full analysis:

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Analysis: Netanyahu's mission - destroy Hamas, bring hostages home ... and get reelected | CNN

Malaysia on Wednesday announced a ban on all Israeli owned and flagged ships, as well as any vessels headed to Israel, from docking at its ports.

The announcement by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s office said the ban would take place with immediate effect and was in response to Israel’s conduct in its conflict with Hamas.

Muslim–majority Malaysia has long championed Palestinian rights and causes. Like nearby Indonesia, Brunei, Bangladesh, Maldives and Pakistan, it does not recognize Israel.

Read more about the ban.

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.