January 15, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

Our live coverage of Israel’s war against Hamas has moved here.

Authorities and others gather near the site where missiles hit near the US consulate in Erbil, Iraq, on January 15.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Monday launched ballistic missiles at what it said was a spy base for Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad in northern Iraq, and at “anti-Iran terror groups” in Syria, in the latest escalation of hostilities that further risks spiraling into a wider regional conflict.

The strikes were condemned by the United States as “reckless” and imprecise.

Iranian forces said the midnight missile strike in Iraq destroyed “one of the main espionage headquarters” of Israel in Erbil, capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, in response to what they said were Israeli attacks that killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard commanders and members of the Iranian resistance front.

CNN has reached out to Israel’s Prime Minister’s office for comment on the IRGC’s claim.

The IRGC also said it struck several locations in Erbil and claimed to target “sites of Iranian opposition groups.”

At least four civilians were killed and six others injured in the attack, according to a statement early Tuesday by the Security Council of the Kurdistan region.

Read the full report.

Children cry out for food relief in Rafah, Gaza on December 31, 2023. 

Israel’s war in Gaza has brought famine with “such incredible speed,” the United Nations’ relief chief told CNN on Monday, as he warned that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are starving in the besieged enclave.

The “great majority” of 400,000 Gazans characterized by UN agencies as at risk of starving “are actually in famine, not just at risk of famine,” UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.

Aid has been trickling into Gaza slowly from two border crossings in the south.

Last week, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Israel had denied critical supplies from entering northern Gaza. But Israel has accused the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency of not doing enough and “stalling” the progress.

Griffiths told CNN Monday that work to provide humanitarian aid to 300,000 Gazans who remain in the north of the strip continues to be a challenge. 

More than 24,000 people have been killed in Gaza and more than 60,000 others injured since October 7, the Hamas-run Ministry of Health said Monday. Meanwhile, nearly 90% of Gaza’s pre-war population has been displaced, according to the UN.

Griffiths warned Monday that the dire humanitarian situation in the enclave could create “generational hatred.” 

“We worry for the security of Israel as much as the security of Gaza,” he said.

Martin Griffiths speaks during a press conference on the situation in Gaza, at UN Building in Geneva, on November 15, 2023. 

US-led strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen are another “serious consequence” of the war in Gaza, United Nations’ aid chief Martin Griffiths said, as he lamented the negative impact on ordinary Yemenis following years of conflict in the country.

It was disappointing to see the prospect of peace in Yemen “snatched away,” Griffiths told CNN.  

Last week’s US-led airstrikes on Houthi rebel targets in Yemen followed repeated warnings from the coalition to the Iran-backed militants to stop their attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, which the Houthis say are retaliation for Israel’s war in Gaza.

Griffiths said he was “not blaming one side or the other.”

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian attends the Caspian Foreign Ministers Meeting in Moscow, Russia on December 5, 2023.

Iran’s foreign minister on Monday warned the United States and the United Kingdom following their recent strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen.

The remarks from Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian came before the Iran-backed Houthis claimed responsibility for a new attack on an American vessel in the Gulf of Aden on Monday.  

Senior Houthi officials have told Iran the group will continue its attacks in the Red Sea “as long as the genocide in the Gaza war continues,” he added.   

An Israeli soldier was wounded during an exchange of fire along the southern border with Egypt after about 20 unidentified people, some of them armed, approached the boundary, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Monday.

In a social media post, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the Israeli soldier was lightly wounded and treated in the hospital.

Several suspects were also hit in the incident near the border crossing at Nitzana, the IDF said. It did not provide further details.

There has been no immediate word from Egypt about the incident.

Earlier, Egyptian media reported that authorities had foiled a drug-smuggling operation at the same location, arresting six people, though it is not clear if the two incidents were linked.

Some context: Border relations between Israel and Egypt have been back in the spotlight after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he wanted to change arrangements along the border between Egypt and Gaza. After the war, Israel would control all access into Gaza to prevent weapons and other smuggling into the enclave, Netanyahu claimed.

In response, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said Cairo has maintained full control over the security of its borders.

Israel on Monday accused Hamas of “psychological torture” after the militant group released a series of videos featuring hostages in Gaza, the last of which appears to show two of the captives killed.

The first video, released Sunday, showed the three hostages — Noa Argamani, Itai Svirsky and another man, whose family have requested his name be withheld.

A subsequent clip Monday appeared to show the bodies of Svirsky and the other man. It also featured Argamani saying both men had been killed by Israeli forces.

It is not clear if Argamani was speaking under duress. The video is also highly edited, including the looping of some of her words.

CNN is not airing the videos, and it is not immediately possible to verify when and where they were filmed.

IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari denied Monday that Svirsky had been hit by Israeli forces.

The Houthis have claimed responsibility for an attack carried out on an American vessel in the Gulf of Aden on Monday.

The Yemeni militant group “carried out a military operation targeting an American ship in the Gulf of Aden, with a number of appropriate naval missiles,” Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree announced in a live video statement on Monday, adding that the hits were “accurate and direct.”

The United States Central Command said in a statement earlier that the ship in question, the M/V Gibraltar Eagle, sustained minor damage and did not report any injuries.

The Houthis promised that any future strikes on Yemen will not go unanswered.

Israel police forensics personnel inspect a damaged car following the attack in Raanana on January 15.

At least one person — a woman in her 70s — has been killed, and 17 others injured after twin attacks in the central Israeli city of Raanana, according to statements released by the hospitals treating the victims of the attack. 

The Israeli police said two suspects in the two simultaneous terror attacks were residents of Hebron. Hebron is a city in the occupied West Bank. The police said they entered Israel illegally and are now in police custody. 

Hamas weighed in on the attacks, describing them as a “natural response to the occupation’s massacres and its continued aggression against our Palestinian people.”

Here are today’s other headlines:

This post has been updated with additional developments.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres delivered remarks on Monday to mark 100 days since the October 7 attacks and the ensuing Israel-Hamas war.

Guterres didn’t hold back on renouncing the horrific Hamas attacks, the unprecedented civilian casualties and catastrophic humanitarian conditions in Gaza since Israel launched war on Hamas, the taking of and the fate of the hostages in Gaza and the tensions spilling over across the region. 

He said the only solution is an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages in Gaza. The UN Secretary General also called for all accounts of sexual violence committed by Hamas and others on October 7 to be rigorously investigated and prosecuted. 

He went on to add that the “onslaught on Gaza by Israeli forces over these 100 days has unleashed wholesale destruction and levels of civilian killings at a rate that is unprecedented during my years as Secretary-General.” He added, “Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”  

“The longer the conflict in Gaza continues, the greater the risk of escalation and miscalculation. We cannot see in Lebanon what we are seeing in Gaza. And we cannot allow what has been happening in Gaza to continue,” Guterres finished his speech by saying.

Smoke billows over Khan Younis in southern Gaza during Israeli bombardment on January 15.

In an update, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its latest air raids killed two terrorists in Khan Younis, and that it struck two weapon storage facilities, alongside “Hamas operational infrastructure” in the area.

The IDF said that it confiscated extensive Hamas weaponry, including AK-47 rifles, handguns, grenades, RPGs, and diving gear. 

In northern Gaza, the IDF said it killed five terrorists who attempted to locate weapons in an area where Israeli forces had been operating. 

At least 132 people were killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours, and 252 others wounded, the Hamas-run Ministry of Health said Monday, putting the number of people killed there since October 7 at over 24,000.

CNN cannot independently confirm the numbers due to the difficulty of reporting from the war zone. 

The IDF said Sunday that more than 9,000 of the dead were Hamas fighters. CNN also cannot confirm that figure. 

UK-based maritime security group Ambrey has said that a total of three missiles were launched toward the Red Sea on Monday. The group said two of the three missiles did not reach the sea and the third one impacted a US-owned and operated vessel. 

The M/V Gibraltar Eagle, a Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier owned and operated by US-based Eagle Bulk, sustained minor damage and did not report any injuries when a Houthi anti-ship ballistic missile struck the vessel, the US Central Command said. The ship is continuing on its way. 

“The vessel arrived in the Gulf of Aden after the industry and military advice to avoid the southern Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb Strait,” Ambrey said.   

A statement from Eagle Bulk Shipping on Monday confirmed that the Gibraltar Eagle, which is carrying a cargo of steel products, was hit “by an unidentified projectile” roughly 100 miles offshore in the Gulf of Aden.

The Houthis have not officially claimed responsibility for the Monday attack on the ship. 

CNN’s Oren Liebermann and Haley Britzky contributed reporting to this post.

Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish lobbying for support for a college to honor his daughters and niece at the Knesset, Israel's parliament in Jerusalem, on November 10, 2021.

Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish — the first Palestinian doctor to hold a staff position at an Israeli hospital — has spent the last few days in Cairo, comforting his brother who is mourning the loss of three of his children killed in Gaza by an Israeli airstrike.

“Even if he could get back,” Abuelaish says of his brother who left Gaza for Egypt in September for health reasons, “he doesn’t have anything to go back to.”

It’s a sorrow Abuelaish knows painfully well. In 2009, he shot to fame after describing live on Israel’s Channel 10 TV the horror of discovering three of his own daughters — aged 21, 15 and 13 — and his 17-year-old niece, killed after an Israeli tank strike on their home in Gaza.

For weeks, Abuelaish had been delivering regular updates to Israeli television in his fluent Hebrew on the intense Israel-Hamas fighting happening in Gaza at the end of 2008/start of 2009.

Then on January 16, he called his friend and Channel 10 reporter Shlomi Eldar, who put his message on speakerphone, live on TV. That moment shook the presenters — and Israeli audiences — to the core.

Read more about how Abuelaish used his grief to advocate for equality and peace.

A Houthi anti-ship ballistic missile struck a US-owned and operated vessel on Monday, US Central Command said in a statement.

The M/V Gibraltar Eagle, a Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier owned and operated by US-based Eagle Bulk, sustained minor damage and did not report any injuries, Central Command said. The ship is continuing on its way.

The military did not give a specific location for the attack, but the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said it received a report of the incident approximately 95 nautical miles southeast of Aden.

Earlier in the day, the Houthis attempted to launch an anti-ship ballistic missile that failed in flight and crashed in Yemen, Central Command said.  

Israeli security officials respond to a suspected ramming attack in Raanana, Israel, on January 15.

An elderly woman was killed and 17 others were injured in Monday’s twin attacks in the central Israeli city of Raanana, according to statements released by the hospitals treating the victims of the attack. 

The Israeli Police said two suspects in the two simultaneous terror attacks were residents of Hebron. Hebron is a city in the occupied West Bank. The police said they entered Israel illegally and are now in police custody. 

The suspects stole vehicles to run over a number of people in several locations, the police said, adding that sweeps are still being conducted in the area to ensure there are no further threats. 

This post has been updated with additional information.

A woman in her 70s was killed and 17 others were injured in Monday’s twin attacks in the central Israeli city of Raanana, according to statements released by the hospitals treating the victims of the attack.

Hamas has issued a statement praising the twin terror attacks in the central Israeli city of Raanana that killed one person and injured 17 others earlier on Monday. 

Hamas said the attacks were “a natural response to the occupation’s massacres and its continued aggression against our Palestinian people.”

The Israel Police said two suspects from Hebron were arrested shortly after the attacks. The police said the suspects were related to each other. 

Correction: An earlier version of this post reported Hamas claimed responsibility for the attacks. The group praised the attacks but did not directly claim responsibility for them.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the country’s recent attacks on the Houthi rebels in Yemen were a “last resort,” stressing that the UK will “not hesitate” to protect the security of the British people. 

Sunak said the “limited” air strikes carried out by the UK air force last week managed to successfully destroy all 13 planned Houthi targets in Yemen, and reiterated that the UK’s main priority remains de-escalating “tensions in the region” and restoring “stability back to the area.” 

The UK teamed up with the US to strike multiple Houthi targets in Yemen last week, marking a significant response after the Biden administration and its allies warned that the Iran-backed militant group would bear the consequences of its attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

Earlier Monday, Britain’s Defense Secretary Grant Shapps did not rule out the prospect of further British strikes on Yemen, telling UK broadcaster Sky News that the government will have to “wait and see.” 

Some Israeli hostages have been granted Hungarian citizenship and issued Hungarian passports while in Gaza, a Hungarian senior government official confirms to CNN.

The official confirmed to CNN the Hungarian government is doing this to add an extra layer of protection to the hostages. 

The Israeli foreign ministry declined to comment. 

CNN has approached the Hostages and Missing Families Forum and the Prime Minister’s Office.

The unnamed Hungarian senior government official told CNN that the citizenship granting came in coordination with the Israeli government. 

The official did not say who or when the hostages were granted citizenship, or how many.

Top-tier Turkish football club Antalyaspor Deputy Chairman and press spokesperson Alkan Evren said in a statement that a legal process is ongoing to terminate the contract of 28-year-old Israeli football player Sagiv Jehezkel, who was detained and released by police, according to Turkish state broadcaster, TRT Haber.

The club announced yesterday that Jehezkel was suspended after showing his bandaged wrist with a message supporting Israeli hostages on Sunday.

TRT Haber public broadcaster confirmed he will be flying back to Israel in a private plane.

According to TRT Haber, Jehezkel gave a statement to police, in which he said:

“I am someone who has nothing to do with politics. I have never done anything related to politics since my arrival. I have never disrespected anyone since the day I arrived. The point I wanted to draw attention to was the end of the war.” 

A Turkish prosecutor is investigating Jehezkel for “inciting the public to hatred and hostility.”  

Eden Karzev of Istanbul Basaksehir gestures during the Turkish Super League match between Basaksehir and Galatasaray at Basaksehir Fatih Terim Stadyumu on September 23, in Istanbul, Turkey.

A second soccer club in Turkey has launched a disciplinary investigation against an Israeli player.

Basaksehir, a club based in the suburbs of Istanbul, said it had launched a disciplinary investigation against player Eden Karzev over a social media post.

The club did not specify the exact post in question.

According to Turkish state broadcaster TRT Haber, Karzev re-posted an image from another account marking 100 days since hostages were taken by Hamas with the hashtag “BringThemHomeNow”.

CNN has reached out to Basaksehir Football Club for clarification.

Karzev signed with Basaksehir in January 2023 and his contract doesn’t expire until 2027, according to the Turkish Football Federation. 

Separately, Israeli player Sagiv Jehezkel — who was detained after displaying a message supporting hostages held by Hamas — is returning to Israel Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said.