December 31, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters on Saturday that he will not resign from office after facing criticism for failing to anticipate the October 7 attacks.

Netanyahu was pressed about taking accountability during a news conference.

Winds have been shifting against the prime minister as Israel’s war in Gaza drags and as Hamas continues to hold hostages.

Multiple opinion polls suggest national favor toward Netanyahu and his governing coalition is collapsing, despite continued overwhelming support in Israel for the war on Hamas.

A long war lies ahead: Netanyahu also said during the news conference on Saturday that Israel’s war against Hamas "will continue for many more months."

"My policy is clear: We are continuing to fight until the goals of the war have been achieved, especially the elimination of Hamas and the release of all our hostages," the prime minister said, according to a translated transcript of his comments released by his office.

Netanyahu also said the Israeli military is "fighting with force and new systems above and below the ground," according to Israel’s Army Radio. "We have the upper hand, we have killed more than 8,000 terrorists," he claimed.

CNN is unable to independently confirm casualty figures provided by the Israel Defense Forces or Hamas, due to restricted access to the region and the difficulty in verifying accurate numbers amid an ongoing conflict.

CNN’s Tara John, Pierre Meilhan, Michael Schwartz and Ibrahim Dahmin contributed to this report.

Palestinians displaced inside Gaza have described cramped living conditions, sky-high prices for food, children going hungry and poor sanitation. 

CNN spoke by phone with several people trying to survive in Rafah, in the south, which tens of thousands have fled to despite it already being the most densely populated part of Gaza.

Vegetables and fruit were unaffordable, he said. His children asked for oranges, but he was not able to buy them.

“We never (been) through this situation before; we were a middle-class family,” he said. “Now, since the war, we are buying dates — which we used to find everywhere for free. We want a solution to our miserable suffering.” 

Umm Omar, 50, is also displaced in Rafah, and lives in a tent. During the truce, his family had briefly returned home only to find all the windows and solar panels broken, and the kitchen destroyed.

“We are nine people in a tent of two meters by one meter,” she said. “We have bought this camping tent ourselves; no one helped us or provided it.”

Omar said the group was getting by on canned food, and estimated that most foods were at least four times as expensive as before the war. Medication is also hard to find.

In recent days, large groups of civilians desperate for food have been seen surrounding aid trucks coming into Gaza in a desperate scramble for help.

The United Nations has warned that the humanitarian situation in southern Gaza is deteriorating. It warned that the volume of aid entering the enclave “remains woefully inadequate.”

Read more on this story here

US Navy helicopters sank three Houthi boats after they attacked and attempted to board the container ship Maersk Hangzhou off the coast of Yemen, the military says.

Four small boats originating from “Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen” attacked the Maersk Hangzhou with small arms and attempted to board the merchant vessel, according to a statement from US Central Command on Sunday, which added that a security team on board had returned fire.

CENTCOM said helicopters from the USS Eisenhower and Gravely responded to the Maersk Hangzhou’s distress call, the second in less than 24 hours, and were fired on by the Houthi boats.

“The U.S. Navy helicopters returned fire in self-defense, sinking three of the four small boats, and killing the crews. The fourth boat fled the area,” the statement said, adding that there was “no damage to U.S. personnel or equipment.”

CNN has contacted Maersk for comment on the incident.

Remember: The Houthis, an Iran-backed Yemeni rebel group, have been targeting commercial ships in the Red Sea, claiming the attacks as a means of pressuring Israel to send aid to Gaza.

The spate of attacks has forced major shipping companies to pause transit through one of the world’s most important maritime trade routes.

The Houthi shipping lane attacks are among several ongoing incidents involving Iranian proxy groups that have raised global concerns of the Israel-Hamas war spilling into a broader Middle East conflict.

Israel’s war against Hamas is at its “highest level and will continue for months,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday, according to Israel’s Army Radio.

His comments come as the death toll in Gaza rose to nearly 21,700 since Israeli military operations began on October 7, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza.

At least 165 people have been killed over the past day, and 250 others wounded, ministry spokesperson Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra said Saturday.

The ministry has confirmed the deaths of at least 21,672 people, and the injury of at least 56,165, since Israel's offensive in the enclave began, according to the spokesperson. About 70% of the war's victims are children and women, Al-Qudra said.

CNN is unable to independently confirm the figures provided by the Gaza ministry, due to restricted access to the region and the difficulty in verifying accurate numbers amid the ongoing conflict.

Here are other headlines you should know:

Israel’s war against Hamas is at its “highest level and will continue for months,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday, according to Israel’s Army Radio.

Addressing reporters in Tel Aviv, the prime minister also said the Israeli military is "fighting with force and new systems above and below the ground."

"We have the upper hand, we have killed more than 8,000 terrorists," he claimed, according to Army Radio.

CNN is unable to independently confirm casualty figures provided by the Israel Defense Forces or Hamas, due to restricted access to the region and the difficulty in verifying accurate numbers amid an ongoing conflict.

A US Navy warship, the USS Gravely, shot down two anti-ship ballistic missiles from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen on Saturday night, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement. 

Earlier on Saturday, a Singapore-flagged and Denmark owned and operated container ship named the Maersk Hangzhou was struck by a missile while transiting the Southern Red Sea, prompting USS Gravely and another vessel, the USS Laboon, to respond, CENTCOM said.

It is the 23rd recorded illegal attack by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels on international shipping, CENCOM says, since November 19 when the group began carrying out strikes on ships in the Red Sea, which they say are revenge against Israel for its military campaign in Gaza.

No injuries were reported and the vessel was reportedly able to sail on, CENTCOM said.

Some context: The Houthis are believed to have been armed and trained by Iran, and there are fears that their attacks could escalate Israel’s war against Hamas into a wider regional conflict.

Their attacks have so far forced some of the world’s biggest shipping and oil companies to suspend transit through one of the world’s most important maritime trade routes, which could potentially cause a shock to the global economy.

Palestinians displaced inside Gaza have described cramped living conditions, sky-high prices for food, children going hungry and poor sanitation. 

CNN spoke by phone with several people trying to survive in Rafah, in the south, which tens of thousands have fled to despite it already being the most densely populated part of Gaza.

Vegetables and fruit were unaffordable, he said. His children asked for oranges, but he was not able to buy them.

“We never (been) through this situation before; we were a middle-class family,” he said. “Now, since the war, we are buying dates — which we used to find everywhere for free. We want a solution to our miserable suffering.” 

Umm Omar, 50, is also displaced in Rafah, and lives in a tent. During the truce, his family had briefly returned home only to find all the windows and solar panels broken, and the kitchen destroyed.

“We are nine people in a tent of two meters by one meter,” she said. “We have bought this camping tent ourselves; no one helped us or provided it.”

Omar said the group was getting by on canned food, and estimated that most foods were at least four times as expensive as before the war. Medication is also hard to find.

In recent days, large groups of civilians desperate for food have been seen surrounding aid trucks coming into Gaza in a desperate scramble for help.

The United Nations has warned that the humanitarian situation in southern Gaza is deteriorating. It warned that the volume of aid entering the enclave “remains woefully inadequate.”

The Israel Defense Forces reported "numerous launches" coming from Lebanon toward Israeli territory Saturday.

The IDF said its defenses also intercepted a "suspicious aerial target that crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory."

The fresh attacks come after Israel said earlier Saturday that its aircraft had targeted three "terrorist" squads in Lebanon, as well as Hezbollah infrastructure in the neighboring country.

Hezbollah announced that it had carried out three attacks on Israeli forces, including one drone attack. It also acknowledged the deaths of four fighters, without saying where they were killed.

Remember: This fighting is centered on northern Israel and southern Lebanon — separate from Israel's battles with Hamas further south in Gaza.

But clashes between Israel and Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed paramilitary group operating across Israel's northern border, are among various factors raising concerns that the war in Gaza could evolve into a widened Middle East conflict.

The Israel Defense Forces struck a centuries-old Ottoman-era bathhouse when it targeted a claimed “Hamas terrorist squad” in mid-December, the IDF confirmed Sunday. 

The Hamam al-Samra, in the Al-Zeitoun neighborhood of northern Gaza, was said to have been built in the 14th century and was the only public bathhouse in the Gaza Strip. It was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike on December 15, its owner, Salim Al-Wazeer, told CNN.

The bathhouse had seen annual renovations during the month of Ramadan since 1999, the owner told CNN, adding that he hopes to one day rebuild the hammam.