February 9, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

Our live coverage of Israel’s war in Gaza has moved here.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI), an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias in the country, says it will resume attacks on US targets and expel US troops from the country.

In a statement Friday night it said that the US, who it refers to as the occupying enemy, understands nothing but the “language of weapons” and that recent US strikes in Iraq including the killing of senior Kataib Hezbollah commander Wisam Mohammed Saber al-Saedi in Baghdad on Wednesday “violated the rules of engagement.”

The IRI will respond with “strikes and broad attacks,” it said, and called on others to join the resistance. It also said it was turning all efforts to “expelling the occupation at this historical state in Iraq and the region.”

At around the same time Friday night, the Kataib Hezbollah militia, one of the most powerful armed factions in the IRI, vowed revenge for the killing of their commander Al-Saedi in a post on Telegram.

Late last month, Kataib Hezbollah said it was suspending its military operations against US forces in the region two days after a drone attack killed three US service members and wounded dozens of others.

The US, however, vowed to respond to the US soldier deaths, and has conducted deadly retaliatory strikes in Iraq and Syria in the last week to that end.

Kataib Hezbollah is not just part of the IRI, it is also part of the Hashd al Shaabi – or Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) – a predominantly Shiite Iran-backed paramilitary force based in Iraq. Unlike other Iran-backed groups around the region, the PMU is tied to the Iraqi government and officially falls under the authority of the Iraqi military forces.

A medical doctor inside the Nasser Medical complex in Khan Younis said in a video Friday that the situation in the area is “very dangerous” and movement is restricted, adding that medical staff cannot move from one hospital building to another due to the fighting. 

Ahmed Moghrabi, the head of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Nasser Hospital, posted the video on his Instagram account. Gunfire and the sound of drones flying overhead can be heard in the video, which has been geolocated by CNN, as Moghrabi points his camera to show an empty street in the Gaza city, saying “We can’t move at all.”

In a statement Thursday, the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health warned of a “health and humanitarian crisis” as a result of what it described as an Israeli “siege and targeting,” adding that there are 300 medical staff, 450 injured people and 10,000 displaced people in the Nasser Medical complex.

The Israeli military on Friday said troops were “continuing to conduct targeted raids in western Khan Yunis.”

CNN’s Ibrahim Dahman contributed reporting.

Israeli ground forces detained eight members of the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), including four doctors, at Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis on Friday, the group said.

Four wounded individuals were also detained along with five of the patients’ companions at the hospital, PRCS said in a statement Friday.

Israeli forces were in the hospital for approximately 10 hours, PRCS said.

Asked for comment on the claims, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) responded with a statement neither confirming nor denying the detentions but said its forces “prioritize the safety of civilians, patients, medical workers, and medical facilities during the operation.” 

The Israeli military also claimed Hamas is conducting activities in the hospital and that Israeli forces began an operation to locate Hamas members and dismantle the group’s infrastructure in the vicinity.

CNN is unable to independently verify the claims made by either side at Al-Amal Hospital.

Around 220 patients and staff were at the Al-Amal hospital Friday, the PRCS said in an earlier statement.

People walk along a crowded street in Rafah, Gaza, on February 8.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned about the repercussions of forcibly evacuating displaced Palestinians in Rafah as Israel plans a military escalation in the southern Gaza city.

HRW said the Israeli military has a responsibility to protect civilians whether they evacuate or not.

“Civilians who do not evacuate following warnings are still fully protected by international humanitarian law,” HRW said. “Many civilians may be unable to heed a warning to evacuate for reasons of health, disability, fear, or lack of any place else to go.”

HRW’s statement comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directed the Israeli forces to plan for the “evacuation of the population” from Rafah, adding the Israeli military would “soon go into Rafah, Hamas’s last bastion.” 

The speaker of the Israeli parliament on Friday canceled a meeting scheduled with Secretary-General António Guterres because of the UN leader’s call for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza.

Guterres said Thursday the level of destruction and number of people killed in Gaza show that “there is something wrong in the way the military operations are being conducted.”

Responding to a reporter who said Hamas is hiding within the civilian population, Guterres reiterated his condemnation of the use of human shields, adding that the protection of civilians is a must even in those circumstances. 

In a news conference held after Ohana’s statement, Guterres’ spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, told reporters the secretary general’s office knew about the cancelation first through the media before receiving an official notification, adding that Guterres’ statement on Thursday was not new.

A woman and children sit outside tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in Rafah, Gaza, on February 8.

The United Nations is “extremely worried about the fate of civilians in Rafah,” UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said Friday as Israel began drawing up an evacuation plan for the estimated 1.3 million Palestinians living in the southern Gaza city.

Speaking at his daily news briefing, Dujarric said people “need to be protected,” but added that the UN also “does not want to see any forced mass displacement, of people, which is by definition against their will.”

UN Humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths also issued a statement Friday urging for the protection of civilians.

Griffiths added that Rafah’s population of over 1 million people “have endured unthinkable suffering” and have been moving for months. 

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directed Israel’s military to plan for the “evacuation of the population” from Rafah, his office said in a statement, ahead of an anticipated ground assault.

The post was updated with the statement from Martin Griffiths.

CIA Director Bill Burns is expected to travel to Cairo for a Tuesday meeting on the ongoing Gaza hostage negotiations, according to two sources familiar with the plans. 

One of the sources said Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani and Israel’s Mossad Director David Barnea are also expected to attend.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans for a military escalation in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah.

A statement issued by the Palestinian Authority’s presidential office said the real aim of Netanyahu’s dual proposal to evacuate people from the overcrowded city of Rafah is to displace the Palestinian people from their land. 

The presidency denounced the potential forcible displacement of Palestinians from Rafah, already burdened with hundreds of thousands of displaced people from northern Gaza, as a “real threat” and “dangerous prelude” to implementing Israeli policies aimed at displacing Palestinians from their land. 

Mohammad Jamal Abu Tour speaks to CNN on February 9 in Rafah, Gaza.

Palestinians in Rafah told CNN they have nowhere to go if Israel were to enter the city in southern Gaza, located near the border with Egypt.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday directed the military to plan for the “evacuation of the population” from Rafah, his office said in a statement. On Thursday, he said the Israel Defense Forces would “soon go into Rafah, Hamas’s last bastion.” 

Mahmoud Khalil Amer, who was displaced from the Al Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza, said his staying in a tent near a cemetery in Rafah. 

“I am basically sleeping next to the dead,” he said. “It feels like hell, I feel all the pain, we are not living, the dead are better than us,” he said. “They are rested. But for us, our lives are torture, we can hardly get any water, we don’t have any money. The situation is very bad. The people who used to have stable jobs and income are now suffering and their situation is horrible.”

Abu Mohamed El-Helw, displaced from Khan Younis, said that “there is no place left” for people in Rafah to go “unless they open the borders and let us out.” 

El-Helw said people “are tired from the war” and have become “used to” threats from Israel. 

More than 1.3 million people are believed to be in Rafah, the majority displaced from other parts of Gaza, according to the United Nations. 

CNN’s Mick Krever contributed reporting.

Moody’s Investors Service warned Thursday it could downgrade Israel’s credit rating due to the severity of the military conflict with Hamas.

A downgrade could make it more expensive for Israel to borrow just as the country gears up for what could be a prolonged war.

Moody’s said its review will focus on the duration and scale of the conflict — and how it impacts Israel’s economy, institutions and public finances. The credit ratings firm said the review could take longer than the typical three-month period.

In July, before the deadly terror attacks by Hamas against Israel, Moody’s warned that a controversial overhaul of Israel’s judicial system risked plunging the country into further turmoil that could hurt its economy and security.

A Hamas delegation led by deputy leader Khalil Al-Hayya has left Cairo after talks on a potential Gaza ceasefire, a senior Hamas member told CNN.

They left as planned because discussions wrapped up, said the Hamas member, who did not reveal any details on the talks.  

Some background: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday dismissed Hamas’ proposals for a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza as “delusional,” in a setback to diplomatic efforts to pause the war.

Speaking to reporters, Netanyahu insisted that there was no alternative to “complete victory” over Hamas in Gaza.

CCTV footage of an Israeli undercover operation on Ibn Sina hospital, in the occupied West Bank, last month.

An Israeli undercover operation on a hospital in the occupied West Bank last month may amount to a war crime, according to five United Nations special rapporteurs.  

The experts said that outside active hostilities, “at most Israeli forces may have been entitled to arrest or detain them,” and were only entitled to use force “if strictly necessary to prevent an imminent threat to life or serious injury.”  

Mourners react next to the body of a Palestinian killed in the raid January 30.

About the deadly raid: On January 30, undercover Israeli forces infiltrated the Ibn Sina hospital in Jenin and killed three Palestinian men, according to the hospital and the Palestinian state news agency.  

Dramatic CCTV video captured around a dozen commandos disguised as nurses, women in hijabs, and others, with one pushing a wheelchair and another carrying a baby car seat, as they stormed a hospital corridor carrying assault weapons.  

Hamas said the three men were sleeping at the time of the attack.

Last month, Israel’s Defense Forces chief of staff Herzi Halevi claimed the men who were shot and killed were involved in a terrorist cell planning to carry out a “serious attack” on Israeli civilians.  

The Israeli Security Agency, better known as Shabak, which conducted the raid was not immediately available for comment on the UN experts’ statement. 

CNN’s Abeer Salman and Richard Greene contributed reporting.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has directed the military to plan for the evacuation of the more than 1.3 million people the United Nations estimates are in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, his office said Friday.

In the statement, his office said that it was not possible to both eliminate Hamas and leave “four Hamas battalions in Rafah.”

Here’s what you need to about this and other developments in the Israel-Hamas war:

Where will the civilians go?: Rafah is the last major population center in Gaza not occupied by the Israel Defense Forces and it has rapidly become home to a huge population of displaced Palestinians. Satellite images showed this week how a tent city has swelled in size in just a few weeks. CNN has also previously reported on Palestinian civilians who followed evacuation orders being killed by Israeli strikes, underscoring the reality that evacuation zones and warning alerts from the Israeli military haven’t guaranteed safety for civilians in the densely populated Gaza Strip, where Palestinians have no safe place to escape Israeli bombs.

Here’s what the United States has said: “To conduct such an operation right now with no planning and little thought in an area where there is sheltering of a million people would be a disaster,” Deputy State Department Spokesperson Vedant Patel told a news briefing Thursday. Also, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised concerns about the expansion into Rafah during meetings with Netanyahu and other Israeli officials this week, two Israeli officials told CNN on Wednesday.

Non-governmental organizations issue warnings: Several non-governmental organizations have warned about the humanitarian consequences of Israeli operations in Rafah. For instance, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said the city, which borders Egypt, could soon turn “into a zone of bloodshed and destruction that people won’t be able to escape.”

Hostage families frustrated: With hopes for a new deal to return Israeli hostages from Gaza in doubt, many, including the families of those hostages still held by Hamas, have directed their anger at Netanyahu, who dismissed the terms of a ceasefire and hostage deal put forward by Hamas.

Half of UNRWA requests to deliver aid in Gaza denied: The UN’s main relief agency in Gaza said Friday that half of its aid mission requests to deliver aid in Gaza since the beginning of the year have been denied. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has not been able to deliver aid in Gaza since January 23, agency Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said on X, adding that people in the territory are on the verge of famine.

A crowded street in Rafah, Gaza, on February 1.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has directed the military to plan for the “evacuation of the population” from Rafah alongside the defeat of Hamas in that southern Gaza city, his office said in a statement on Friday. 

More than 1.3 million people are believed to be in Rafah, the majority displaced from other parts of Gaza, according to the United Nations. 

Netanyahu on Thursday said that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would “soon go into Rafah, Hamas’s last bastion.”

In the statement issued Friday, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said that it was not possible to both eliminate Hamas and leave “four Hamas battalions in Rafah.”

“On the other hand, it is clear that a massive operation in Rafah requires the evacuation of the civilian population from the combat zones,” it added. “That is why the Prime Minister directed the IDF and the defense establishment to bring to the Cabinet a dual plan for both the evacuation of the population and the disbanding of the battalions.”

Rafah is the last major population center in Gaza not occupied by the IDF.

Previous reporting from CNN’s Ivana Kottasova in Khan Younis, Jennifer Hansler in Washington, and Vasco Cotovio and Lauren Kent in London.

Israeli forces in Gaza on Friday entered and began to search Al Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said in a statement.

“The occupation forces stormed Al-Amal Hospital and began to search it,” the PRCS said. The organization on Thursday reported “intense and continuous gunfire” near the hospital.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not yet commented on the claim. CNN has asked the Israeli military about the operation. The IDF on Friday said that its troops were “continuing to conduct targeted raids in western Khan Yunis.”

Where things stand: Around 220 patients and staff remain at the hospital following an evacuation last week, according to the PRCS.

Around 8,000 displaced people were last week evacuated from Al Amal Hospital and PRCS’ Khan Younis headquarters, according to the PRCS.

Palestinians form a dense crowd on the streets of Rafah, Gaza, on February 8.

As civilians brace themselves for a potentially imminent Israeli incursion into the border city of Rafah, several non-governmental organizations have issued warnings about the humanitarian consequences for the city.

The Israel Defense Forces will “soon go into Rafah, Hamas’s last bastion,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday. The US would not support an Israeli military operation in Rafah “without serious planning,” US State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said Thursday.

An estimated 1.3 million people are currently in Rafah, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has estimated.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC): Rafah could soon turn “into a zone of bloodshed and destruction that people won’t be able to escape,” it said in a press release Thursday. “Attacks in areas where they provide food, water and shelter means this life-saving support will be impeded, if not entirely stopped,” cautioned Angelita Caredda, an NRC regional director.

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF): The UN agency also shared its fears for the over 600,000 children sheltering in Rafah, many of whom have “been displaced from other parts of Gaza.”

As months of heavy fighting in the north have practically wiped out healthcare and humanitarian facilities in the north, officials are calling for the scant services that remain in the south to be protected.

“We need Gaza’s last remaining hospitals, shelters, markets and water systems to stay functional. Without them, hunger and disease will skyrocket, taking more child lives,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell implored in a statement published Thursday.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in New Delhi, India, on September 9.

Israel had bombed Rafah four times and damaged the crossing, therefore preventing the entry of aid into Gaza, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.

The statement was issued in response to US President Joe Biden’s remarks on Thursday, saying that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi Sisi did not want to “open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in” but he “talked to him.”

The presidency said that once the Israeli bombing stopped, it repaired the crossing to allow the entry of aid into Gaza.

Families of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas and other protesters take part in a demonstration outside the Israeli cabinet meeting on February 8, in Tel Aviv, Israel.

The deadly Hamas attacks of October 7 united a shocked, grieving Israel behind its leaders, burying at a stroke the divisions that had riven the country for years. Four months into the war and with hopes for a new deal to return Israeli hostages from Gaza in doubt, those divisions are re-emerging – and Israelis are increasingly ready to speak their mind.

Many, including the families of those hostages still held by Hamas, direct their anger toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who dismissed the terms of a ceasefire and hostage deal put forward by Hamas in forthright terms.

Survivors of the October 7 terror attack and the families of hostages were furious at the uncompromising repudiation of a deal that – ultimately – could have resulted in the return of all the remaining hostages in Gaza.

Adina Moshe, 72, who was released during a ceasefire deal agreed in November, was among five former hostages who spoke out against Netanyahu on Wednesday.

“Mr. Netanyahu, I’m turning to you. It’s all in your hands. You are the one. And I’m really afraid that if you continue the way you do, the destruction of Hamas, there won’t be any hostages to release,” Moshe said at a news conference for the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

Read more about how families of hostages held by Hamas are speaking out against Israel’s handling of negotiations.

Palestinians line up for food aid in Khan Younis, Gaza, on February 2.

The UN’s main relief agency in Gaza said Friday that half of its aid mission requests to deliver aid in Gaza since the beginning of the year have been denied.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has not been able to deliver aid in Gaza since January 23, agency Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said on X, adding that people in the territory are on the verge of famine.

The UN’s World Food Program (WFP) warned Thursday on X that “2.2 million people in Gaza live in inhumane conditions, facing starvation, famine, disease” and “the winter cold is adding to their suffering.”

Remember: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that the UNRWA mission “has to end” following allegations by Israel that some of its staff were involved in Hamas’ October 7 attack.

The UN Secretary General has appointed a group to conduct an independent review of UNRWA, which will be done alongside a current investigation by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services into the allegations. A spokesperson for Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Friday welcomed the review, but said that the probe was “long overdue” and questioned its scope.

CNN has reached out to Israel’s Coordinator of the Government Activities in the Territories and Israeli Defense Forces for comment on Lazzarini’s statement.