December 20, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

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:

The UN’s World Food Programme [WFP] said Wednesday it had been able to organize a convoy of aid from Jordan to cross into Gaza via Israeli territory — the first time an aid convoy has reached the besieged strip via that route since October 7. 

The joint WFP and Jordanian Hashemite Charity Organization convoy comprised of 46 trucks and delivered 750 metric tons of food assistance Wednesday through the Kerem Shalom crossing, according to the WFP press release. 

The WFP has said its operations have been able to reach 800,000 people in Gaza but the amount of aid meets “a fraction of the needs” in the besieged enclave, and half the population is starving.

If you are just joining us, hopes are rising that Israel and Hamas could be moving towards another pause in fighting to allow hostages to be freed.

Hamas' political chief is visiting key mediator Egypt soon after Israel said it had proposed a weeklong truce in fighting in exchange for the release of 40 hostages. But at the same time an Israel official talked down the prospects of a quick deal.

Here are other headlines you should know:

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.