December 21, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

The US on Thursday raised concerns over a draft United Nations resolution calling for a suspension in fighting and an increase in humanitarian assistance for Gaza.

The US is arguing that the proposal of a UN-created monitoring mechanism for aid going into the Gaza Strip could slow down the delivery of critical assistance. 

The language over the cessation of hostilities “is not the issue of contention. There are differences but it won’t block adoption. It’s the monitoring mechanism,” a US official familiar with the discussions added.

“We are negotiating in good faith,” the official said. “UAE is deferring to Egypt. Egypt wants to distract from logistical problems in delivering aid through Rafah and get the UN to effectively secure distribution routes in Gaza, which it cannot do. It’s a mess. Fortunately, Kerem Shalom is coming online,” the official said, referring to the key border crossing.

The proposed language on the fighting was “urgent cessation,” the US official said. “We have proposed a more passive formulation, taking steps to create conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities. Israel is aware and can live with it. But, again, that’s not the stumbling block.

The remarks come as the UN Security Council has delayed a vote on the resolution three times as negotiations have been ongoing. The timing for a possible vote on the resolution today has yet to be announced.

A Hamas-linked financier, Abdelbasit Hamza, once sentenced for 10 years on corruption charges in Sudan, maintains a network of business interests in Europe despite being under US sanctions, leaked documents show.

His business dealings — linked by the US to Osama Bin Laden — span two decades and include a Cypriot firm, a Spanish real estate company, an Egyptian gold business, and a Sudan-based company sanctioned by the US less than a week after the October 7 attacks.

CNN, in conjunction with Israeli investigative platform Shomrim and the International Consortium for Investigative Journalism (ICIJ), has uncovered details of Hamza’s portfolio of businesses in Europe, part of a network of global assets previously estimated by Sudanese anti-corruption officials as worth over $2bn.

Hamza denies any involvement in Hamas financing. In a written response to CNN, he also denied any relationship to Osama Bin Laden.

Documents provided to CNN by the ICIJ from the “Cyprus Confidential” leak – a trove of more than 3.6 million documents analyzed by ICIJ and 68 media partners, including Shomrim – show Hamza is listed as owning a stake in Matz Holdings, a Cypriot firm incorporated in February 2005. Since its founding, Matz Holdings has held a lucrative concession to exploit two gold mines in Egypt.

Read more about the Hamas-linked financier who maintains a network of business interests in Europe despite being under US sanctions.

There were fresh exchanges of fire between the Israeli military and Hezbollah across the Lebanon-Israel border on Thursday.

Several attacks were launched from Lebanon toward the areas of Dovev, Avivim, and Har Dov near the border in northern Israel injuring two civilians, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.

In turn, Israel's artillery and tanks had struck several locations in Lebanon in response to incoming fire, the IDF added.

Hezbollah said in a statement Thursday that it launched five attacks toward Israel that involved rockets, drones and artillery.

An elderly woman was killed in her home as a result of an Israeli strike on Maroun al-Ras in southern Lebanon early on Thursday, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported.

A low-intensity conflict has been raging along the border following Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, which elevated fears of a wider regional conflict.

Northern Gaza no longer has a functioning hospital, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Thursday.

Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza was Al-Ahli Hospital but fuel, power, medical supply and staffing shortages have rendered it "minimally functional." 

His comments come as a grim milestone is reached in the war, with the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah announcing on Thursday that approximately 20,000 people have been killed as a result of Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 7.

Meanwhile, Hamas has said it won't agree to any talks about prisoner swaps until after Israel ends its military operation in Gaza.

Here are the latest developments:

It was one of the first, and most searing, viral videos to emerge as the October 7 attack unfolded. A cell phone video released by Hamas shows 19-year-old Naama Levy being dragged by her hair at gunpoint by a terrorist in Gaza. Her hands are bound, her ankles cut. Her pants are soaked in blood.

Her mother, Dr. Ayelet Levy Shachar, describes the video as “beyond upsetting” and says she “can’t watch it in continuity.” But she thinks it’s important for the world to see.

Despite the release of 110 hostages so far – most of whom have been women and children – Naama still remains in Hamas captivity.

Levy Shachar, a doctor for the Israeli women’s national soccer team, is desperately worried about her daughter going without the medical attention she needs. “She’s injured on her legs… The days are passing and every day that passes, it’s even harder.”

“For her, time is running out,” Levy Shachar tells CNN.

Read the full story here.

Hamas won't agree to any talks about prisoner swaps until after Israel ends its military operation in Gaza, the group said Thursday.

“There is a Palestinian national decision that there should be no talks about prisoners or exchange deals except after a full cessation of aggression,” Hamas said in a statement, claiming to speak on behalf of all Palestinians. 

This comes as the head of Hamas’ political bureau Ismail Haniyeh arrived in Cairo on Wednesday for talks with Egyptian officials.

His visit came 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.  

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

Israel is currently asking for all remaining hostages to be released as part of any deal, while a temporary ceasefire as part of the deal could last for a week or two weeks, the official said.

Northern Gaza no longer has a functioning hospital, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday, detailing "unbearable" scenes teams observed during a recent mission. 

"There are actually no functional hospitals left in the north," Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, told a press briefing. 

According to Peeperkorn, the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza was Al-Ahli Hospital but fuel, power, medical supply and staffing shortages have rendered it "minimally functional." 

Only nine of the 36 hospitals in Gaza are now functioning, Peeperkorn said, adding that all nine are located in southern Gaza.

The WHO representative spoke to journalists in the wake of WHO missions carried out in recent days to Al-Ahli and Al-Shifa Hospital, a hospital located in Gaza City. 

Sean Casey, who led the missions to the two hospitals, recounted the "unbearable" scenes WHO workers witnessed at a church in the Al-Ahli compound which had been converted into a makeshift ward.

"A church with 30 or so patients, almost none of them ambulatory. So bedridden patients, some of them with serious trauma wounds... We saw many patients who had said they hadn't bathed or changed their clothes in weeks," Casey recounted.

Casey said describing Al-Ahli as a hospice implied a "level of care" that the five doctors and five nurses working there are "simply unable to provide" in light of the virtually non-existent resources.

He said Al-Ahli is rather now a "place where people are waiting to die" unless they can be moved to a "safer location" capable of providing care. 

The remaining medical staff at Al-Ahli are junior doctors who are unable to perform surgery, Casey said, adding that the WHO is now working to try and transfer these patients to a facility in southern Gaza.

He also provided an update on the Al-Shifa Hospital, describing its emergency department as a "bloodbath."

"It's got so few staff, almost the same number as Al-Ahli Hospital caring for hundreds of patients. And the hospital grounds are sheltering thousands of internally displaced persons."

Casey highlighted the need to get more fuel supplies into Al-Shifa, saying that it requires 10,000 liters of fuel a day - a figure he called a "huge uplift of fuel."

"We need urgent action. We need to stop these children and women and elderly people from dying in a place where they should be safe and where they should be cared for," Casey stressed in his concluding remarks. 

A woman who survived the October 7th Hamas attack on the Nova Music Festival returned to the site of that massacre and reunited with the man who saved her life.

Watch Will Ripley's report below.

A flurry of new analysis by US intelligence agencies has warned that Hamas’ credibility and influence has grown dramatically in the two months since the October 7 terror attack and the onset of Israel’s military response in the Middle East and beyond.

As Israel’s relentless air campaign has killed thousands of civilians inside Gaza, Hamas – which is designated as a terrorist group by the United States and Europe – has been able to cast itself as the lone armed group fighting back against a brutal oppressor killing women and children. 

Officials familiar with the different assessments say the group has successfully positioned itself across some parts of the Arab and Muslim world as a defender of the Palestinian cause and an effective fighter against Israel.

Hamas’ growing influence comes in the wake of its ghastly October attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 men, women and children. The US has staunchly defended Israel’s right to defend itself in the wake of the attack, including its campaign to eliminate Hamas entirely.

From Hamas’ perspective, the October 7 attack on southern Israel was a stunning operational success.

Meanwhile, Hamas propaganda videos casting the group as highly moral fighters who follow the teachings of Islam – despite the horrific details of the October 7 attack and the descriptions of sexual violence against Israeli women reported by eyewitnesses from that day – coupled with a flood of devastating images of civilian suffering inside Gaza, have gone viral on Arab social media.

Read the full story here.