December 20, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

Israel will oppose bringing forward the annual budget for the United Nations agency that carries out humanitarian work in Gaza, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

The Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen has instructed the Israeli delegation to the UN “to oppose bringing forward the annual budget of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees,” according to the foreign ministry.

Cohen said bringing forward the budget from 2025 to 2024 would be precedent-setting and dangerous, “especially in light of the evidence of Hamas using the organization's facilities as terrorist infrastructure.”

Cohen said that "UNRWA is part of the problem, not part of the solution. The countries of the world must put an end to UNRWA's perpetuation of the conflict, and (its) turning a blind eye for years to incitement to terrorism and Hamas' cynical use of agency facilities and Gaza residents as human shields."

Cohen instructed the Israeli delegation to the UN to oppose any move that would advance the agency's annual budget, claiming that transferring a budget to UNRWA “without substantially changing its objectives and functioning would send the wrong message of a return to the routine of before the October 7th.”

CNN is reaching out to UNRWA for a response to Cohen’s remarks.

At least 165 humanitarian aid trucks crossed into Gaza on Tuesday, Israeli authorities say. The trucks were previously inspected at Israeli crossing points, the government said.

Israel's office for Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said 75 trucks were inspected at the Kerem Shalom crossing and passed directly into Gaza.

Another 90 trucks were inspected at the Nitzana crossing and transferred into Gaza through the Rafah crossing from Egypt. 

COGAT said seven ambulances were also inspected and transferred to Gaza.

President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that the US is pushing for Israel and Hamas to reach a deal that would include a pause in fighting and the release of hostages.

Earlier, CNN reported that a general framework had emerged in talks that would entail hostages being released in phases in exchange for a cessation in fighting.

Sources stressed, however, that a deal was not imminent.

"These are very serious discussions and negotiations, and we hope they’ll lead somewhere," National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Kirby said he didn't have anything specific to announce Wednesday.

Biden was also asked to respond to reports from the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Ministry of Health that the death toll in Gaza since October 7 will likely surpass 20,000 later Wednesday, the president told reporters traveling with him in Milwaukee, “It’s tragic,” before boarding his motorcade.

CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.

The conflict between Israel and Hamas “needs to move to a lower intensity phase,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.

Blinken’s comments echo what Biden administration officials have told Israel privately, CNN previously reported, which is that the US wants Israel to shift to a lower-intensity phase of the war in the next several weeks.

Earlier this week, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav said the military will gradually transition to the next phase of the war and expects displaced Palestinians from northern Gaza to return to their homes before those from the south. 

“Soon we will be able to distinguish between different areas in Gaza. … In every area where we achieve our mission, we will be able to transition gradually to the next phase and start working on bringing back the local population. This can be achieved maybe sooner in the north rather than in the south,” the minister said.

The mother of one of the Israeli hostages killed accidentally by the IDF last week in Gaza has sent a message to the unit involved in the shooting, saying “everything that happened is completely not your fault.”

Iris Haim, the mother of Yotam Haim, addressed the battalion involved in the incident in which her son was killed along with two other Israeli men whom Hamas had kidnapped.

Haim continued: “I ask you to stay safe and always keep in your thoughts that what you're doing is the best possible thing in the world to help us, as the Jewish people, and we all need you to be safe and sound. Don't hesitate for a single moment - if you see a terrorist, don't think that you have deliberately killed a hostage, you need to protect yourselves because that's the only way you would be able to protect us.” 

Haim reiterated her belief that the actions taken by the IDF unit were "likely the right thing to do at that moment," adding her family is not "judging you or angry with you."

More on Haim: 28-year-old Haim was a gifted musician and heavy metal fan. He had played the drums for 20 years and was supposed to perform at a Metal Music Festival in Tel Aviv on October 7th with his band, Persephore. He last spoke with his family that morning. He told them his house had burned down before losing contact with them at 10:44 a.m., soon after which he was kidnapped by Hamas, according to the family forum.

CNN's Richard Allen Greene and Joshua Berlinger contributed reporting to this post.

Israel’s domestic security agency, the Shin Bet, is investigating the directors of at least two hospitals in Gaza, a source told CNN Wednesday. 

The source was responding to a question about whether either the Shin Bet or the Israel Defense Forces is holding at least four named doctors whose hospitals have said they were seized by the IDF.

The source said the Shin Bet – formally known as the Israel Security Agency – was investigating Ahmad Al-Kahlot, the head of Kamal Adwan hospital, and Mohammad Abu Salamiya, the head of Al-Shifa hospital.

The source, asking not to be named in discussing the Israeli investigations, did not confirm that the Shin Bet was holding two other doctors CNN asked about: Ahmad Mhana the head of Al-Awda hospital, whose staff said he was detained on Monday; and Nasr Imad Eddin Madhoun from Kamal Adwan hospital, whose colleagues said he was detained on December 12. The source referred CNN to the IDF, which did not respond to questions about any of the four doctors. 

The Shin Bet released an edited video Tuesday of the interrogation of Al-Kahlot in which he said the Hamas political leadership used the hospital in the early days of the war because they felt they would not be targeted there. He also said that he, along with some other medical staff, were members of Al Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing. 

It is not clear whether Al-Kahlot was speaking under duress, nor whether he has had access to a lawyer at any time since his arrest on December 12.

Abu Salamiya was detained by the IDF in November as he accompanied a medical convoy south from the hospital. The IDF said at the time Salamiya was "apprehended and transferred" for questioning "following evidence showing that the Shifa Hospital, under his direct management, served as a Hamas command and control center."

Hamas-linked authorities in Gaza say at least 40 medical staff have been detained by the IDF across the enclave.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Wednesday to continue fighting until Hamas is “eliminated” as the UN Security Council is set to vote on a Gaza resolution that is expected to include a call for a new pause in fighting. 

The Council is expected to vote Wednesday on a resolution to spur more humanitarian aid into Gaza. Intensive negotiations were underway for the draft resolution, which was said to have originally included a call for a “cessation of hostilities." The vote has been delayed as diplomats work on language that would gain a "yes," or at least an abstention by the United States, which vetoed a previous ceasefire motion.

Several videos from the Rafah area of southern Gaza show a series of powerful explosions Wednesday, including several close to the Kuwaiti hospital.

Journalists in the area say the explosions were caused by Israeli airstrikes and that several people were killed. 

The videos, which have been geolocated by CNN, show extensive damage to what appears to be a residential building.

A mosque close to the Kuwaiti hospital in Rafah was also struck, according to geolocated video and journalists’ testimony.

Reuters video from the scene showed people running from the site of one strike through smoke and dust, and injured children being loaded into ambulances. One woman told Reuters: "We were just cooking…Nobody is in our place except for some people who were displaced from Sharqiya."

The video also showed men clambering through rubble in an effort to rescue people.

The Qatar-based network Al Jazeera was broadcasting live nearby when missiles were heard overhead. As people ducked and looked up, there followed in quick succession a sequence of powerful explosions close by. CNN has geolocated the location of the broadcast.

CNN has asked the Israeli military what the targets were of any airstrikes in the area. The Rafah area is in the south of Gaza, and it's crowded with displaced people who were asked to evacuate from different parts of the strip by Israel.

Videos published Wednesday show heavy air strikes in the Jabalya area of northern Gaza on Wednesday, and the Hamas-controlled heath ministry said at least 46 people have been killed in the area. 

The videos show thick smoke and widespread destruction, with people trying to escape the latest strikes as they picked through rubble.

The health ministry said 46 bodies and 110 injured had arrived at Jabalya Health Center since Wednesday morning, and estimated that dozens were still under the rubble.

The center was evacuated later, according to the Ministry, due to repeated bombings. A journalist in Jabalya, Abdul Qader Sabbah, confirmed that the center was “completely evacuated due to heavy shelling near and on the center. The last two artillery shells landed at the front door of the medical center before the evacuation, “Sabbah told CNN. 

Sabbah said some of the injured at the center had died due to lack of treatment and medication. “The situation is very dire; the shelling from artillery and air strikes didn’t stop since yesterday, [and] Jabalya is completely surrounded from the north east and west,” Sabbah said.

The Israel Defense Forces says it “is continuing to operate against Hamas terrorist infrastructure and operatives in the Gaza Strip.”

The Israeli Air Force said on X (formerly Twitter) that an aircraft attacked a building in the area “where terrorists were hiding. The reserve fighters of the 551st Brigade identified and directed the aircraft to attack the building and eliminate the terrorists. In the area, another building was attacked where an anti-tank position was identified from which it is suspected that shots were fired at IDF vehicles.”

In a further indication of the continuing intensity of battles in Jabalya, the IDF said that over the past day it “conducted a targeted raid in Jabalya and located a truck with long-range rockets installed by the Hamas terrorist organization.”

Here's a look at a map of the Gaza Strip: