March 11, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

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

US strikes destroyed an uncrewed underwater vessel and 18 anti-ship missiles on Monday in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, according to US Central Command.

The Houthis have been targeting ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since shortly after Israel’s war with Hamas began, with the group trying to pressure Israel and its allies to stop its offensive in Gaza.

CENTCOM said Monday that it struck after determining that the Houthi weapons “presented a threat to merchant vessels and US Navy ships,” according to a statement. 

Earlier on Monday, Houthis fired two anti-ship missiles toward a Singaporean-owned, Liberian-flagged merchant vessel named Pinocchio, CENTCOM said. The ship was not hit and there were no injuries reported.

Last week, a ballistic missile by the Iran-backed militant group struck a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden, killing three crew members in its first fatal attack since October.

Riyad Mansour speaks during a Security Council meeting at United Nations Headquarters on March 11, in New York City.

The United Nations Security Council has never convened to discuss sexual violence against Palestinian men and women, said Dr. Riyad H. Mansour, Palestinian ambassador to the UN.

During a briefing on sexual violence on Monday, Mansour said for years and decades, “reports and investigations regarding sexual assault against Palestinian women and men, boys and girls, have not led to the convening of a single council meeting on the matter.”

In the briefing, Pramila Patten, the UN special envoy on sexual violence, discussed her report where her team found “reasonable grounds to believe that conflict related sexual violence, including rape and gang rape occurred” during the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. The team also received reports of violence against Palestinian men and women in the occupied West Bank.

A World Health Organization (WHO) team and its partners reached Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a Monday post on X.

The team delivered food, 24,050 liters of fuel and medical supplies for 42,000 patients, which included anesthetic drugs, surgical materials and medicine, Ghebreyesus’ post read.

“The hospital continues to be minimally functional, with an urgent need for specialized health workers,” he said.

The team also reached Al-Helou hospital, which has limited services and dire needs, the WHO chief said. “The hospital urgently needs medical staff, fuel, surgical equipment, food,” he said.

Israeli fighter jets struck two Hezbollah compounds in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley in response to aircraft attacks launched toward the Golan Heights in recent days, the Israel Defense Forces said Monday.

“The sites belong to Hezbollah’s aerial forces that planned and carried out various attacks against the State of Israel,” the IDF said in a statement. 

Bachir Khodr, the governor of the Baalbek-Hermel Governorate, said the strikes hit the towns of Duris, Taraya, and Shmustar.

In a post on X, Khodr said there is “no accurate information so far” regarding casualties from the strikes. 

The Bekaa Valley, which is considered a stronghold of Hezbollah, was last targeted by the IDF on February 26. The valley is located more than 100 kilometers (about 62 miles) from the Israel-Lebanon border — the farthest north Israel has struck in the country since October 7.

The US ambassador to the United Nations on Monday urged UN Security Council members to avoid “drawing false equivalency” between allegations of sexual assaults by Hamas on October 7 and claims of sexual violence against Palestinians detained by Israel.

All parties to “this conflict must uphold their obligations under international law” regarding the treatment of detainees, the ambassador said at a Security Council meeting. “We expect Israel to hold all of those who have committed these acts accountable for such acts.”

Pramila Patten, the UN special envoy on sexual violence, briefed the council on her team’s report that found “reasonable grounds to believe that conflict related sexual violence, including rape and gang rape occurred” during Hamas’ attack on October 7, as well as reports of Israeli violence against Palestinian men and women in the occupied West Bank.

Thomas-Greenfield thanked Patten for her report and asked why the council won’t “finally condemn Hamas’ sexual violence.”

US President Joe Biden walks to speak to the press near Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Monday, March 11.

US President Joe Biden said Monday there are no plans “at this moment” for a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or for him to address the Israeli parliament.  

Biden was caught on a hot mic during Thursday’s State of the Union telling Sen. Michael Bennet that he told the Israeli prime minister: “You and I are gonna have a come to Jesus meeting.”

On Saturday, Biden told MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart he was open to addressing Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, but declined to offer more details on if he’d do so at the invitation of Netanyahu or Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

Pressed Monday on if he plans to meet with Netanyahu, Biden left the door open, telling reporters “we’ll see what happens.” 

Some background: Divisions between Biden and Netanyahu burst out into the open over the weekend as the two traded barbs in interviews over Israel’s war against Hamas.

In the MSNBC interview, Biden also said Netanyahu was “hurting Israel more than helping Israel” in his war on Gaza, adding that he wants “to see a ceasefire” in the context of a deal that also brings back Israeli hostages held there by Hamas.

Palestinians inspect the debris of a houses destroyed by Israeli bombardment in Rafah, Gaza on Monday, March 11.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “viability as a leader” is “in jeopardy,” according to an annual unclassified threat assessment from the US intelligence community.

“Distrust of Netanyahu’s ability to rule has deepened and broadened across the public from its already high levels before the war, and we expect large protests demanding his resignation and new elections,” according to the report released today. “A different, more moderate government is a possibility.”

This comes as Netanyahu said he would push ahead with a military offensive in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, where 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering. But multiple Israel officials said the offensive is not imminent.

Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues. Here’s what to know:

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz Israel Katz attends a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the conflict between Israel and Hamas, at U.N. headquarters in New York, on Monday, March 11.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz blasted United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres over his ”unacceptable” response to Hamas’ actions against the Israeli people.

In a letter shared by the Israeli foreign ministry, Katz criticized Guterres for “dismissing” the October 7 terror attack in the latest UN reports.

Katz said that rather than declaring Hamas a terrorist group and focusing efforts on imposing “severe sanctions similar to those placed on Al Qaeda and Daesh, [ISIS]” the United Nations was instead fixated on condemning Israel.

Katz claimed Guterres’ office ensured UN organizations didn’t provide the right medicare care to the hostages, as well as deliberately burying Hamas’ terrible deeds in a UN report.

Israel is working to determine whether a Hamas senior official was killed in an airstrike in central Gaza, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a news conference on Monday. 

“We are still examining the results of the attack and have not yet received a final verification regarding it,” Hagari said.

Hagari said on Saturday night, the IDF and Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, attacked an underground compound used by Hamas’ deputy military leader Marwan Issa and other senior Hamas officials in the Nazirat area of central Gaza.

Because the compound is underground, the IDF has not been able to verify whether Issa was killed, Hagari said. 

“There is also complexity in aspects of verification for all kinds of intelligence reasons. When we know for sure we will say and update the public,” he said.

The operation was based on “high-quality intelligence” which also indicated that no Israeli hostages were present in the compound, Hagari said. 

Hagari said Issa is the deputy of Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas’ military division, and is one of the planners of the October 7 attack against Israel.

Famine is imminent in northern Gaza if the size of aid entering the enclave does not increase “exponentially,” Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) Cindy McCain said on Monday.

“Right now, WFP is gravely concerned about humanitarian conditions across Gaza, particularly the north which is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe,” McCain said at a news conference in Rome for the launch of the initiative “Food for Gaza.”

The WFP was “forced” to temporarily pause aid deliveries to the north on February 20 due to safety concerns and a breakdown of law and order, McCain said. But the program is “leaving no stone unturned in our efforts to get sufficient food aid to people,” she added.

 A ship carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza that was expected to depart Sunday from Larnaca, Cyprus, is delayed due to “practical issues,” the Cypriot government spokesperson Konstantinos Letymbiotis said in a briefing Monday.

The spokesperson said all protocols have been followed and checks done to ensure the ship was ready for deployment.

“You realize that this is an initiative, the complexity of which requires both due diligence and attention, so that, precisely, the ship can depart and the cargo can safely reach the civilian population of Gaza,” he said.

The US intelligence community assesses Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “viability as a leader” to be “in jeopardy,” according to an annual unclassified threat assessment from the US intelligence community.

In an interview over the weekend, President Joe Biden said that Netanyahu is “hurting Israel more than helping Israel” as a result of the high death toll in Gaza. The Biden administration has been pushing Israel to allow more aid into Gaza, and has said that an Israeli operation in the Rafah region would be “a red line.” 

More background: In an interview in January, war cabinet minister Gadi Eisenkot said Israel needed fresh elections because the public no longer trusts Netanyahu’s leadership. His remarks were a symptom of rifts within Israel’s coalition government, as well as growing discontent with Netanyahu’s war plans. Established shortly after Hamas’ brutal October 7 attack, the Israeli war cabinet includes some ministers already at odds with one another.

Dr. Samer Libd, pediatrician at the Kamal Adwan Hospital, speaks with CNN on Monday, March 11.  

As Israel continues its military operations across the Gaza Strip, the number of children dying due to malnutrition and dehydration is increasing. 

Two newborn baby girls, Wala’ Zeyara and Wala’ Samour, died due to malnutrition and dehydration in northern Gaza on Monday, Dr. Samer Libd, a pediatrician at the Kamal Adwan Hospital, told CNN. 

The Kamal Adwan Hospital is under immense pressure because it is the only hospital covering northern Gaza, Libd said, adding that it “urgently needs humanitarian aid, food and medical supplies.”

Journalist Khader Al-Za’anoun of Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, contributed to this report.

Civil Defense crews work recover victims from under the rubble of the Abu Shamala family home in Gaza City on Monday, March 11.

At least 67 people were killed and 106 injured in overnight Israeli attacks on Gaza, the Ministry of Health in the enclave said Monday.  

In Gaza City, at least 21 people were killed, and dozens of others injured after Israeli strikes on a residential neighborhood, the head of the Emergency Department at the Shifa Medical Complex, Amjad Alaiwa told CNN. 

In Rafah, at least three people were killed after an Israeli airstrike on the Al-Jeneina neighborhood, east of the city, journalist Ahmad Hijazi told CNN.  

The strike took place at 3:30 a.m. local time when people had been gathered in the neighborhood for suhoor, the pre-dawn meal Muslims eat during Ramadan, Hijazi said.

Three women from the Al Barakat family were buried at 6:30 a.m., Hijazi said.

In a video shared by photographer Mahmoud Bassam, the building reportedly housing the Al Barakat family can be seen ablaze. 

The Israel Defense Forces said Monday it had been operating on the ground and with airstrikes in central Gaza, with special forces in the Hamad area of southern Gaza, and with aerial forces, sniper fire and tanks in the Al-Qarara area of Khan Younis.

In each area, the IDF claimed that the people it killed were terrorists. 

Journalist Khader Al-Za’anoun of Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, contributed to this report.

Humanitarian aid is needed immediately in Gaza, a spokesperson for Secretary-General António Guterres said Monday, when asked to comment on a US timeline for building a floating pier to deliver aid by sea.

US officials said that the pier will take one or two months to build and make fully operational..

“There is no alternative for a rapid land-based increase of humanitarian aid coming into Gaza from other crossing points using the Ashdod port, which already exists,” Dujarric said.

More about the pier: The extended timeline reflects the complicated nature of the project, which is the second such extraordinary measure the Biden administration has announced in just under a week to try to alleviate the desperate humanitarian situation caused by Israel’s refusal to open additional land crossings or surge more aid by land into the enclave as it continues to fight Hamas.

The initiative will aim to augment a maritime corridor that the US, the European Commission, the United Arab Emirates, Cyprus, and the UK, have been working to open to deliver assistance directly.

Queen Rania of Jordan appears on CNN during an interview on Monday, March 11.

Queen Rania of Jordan on Monday condemned Israel’s war tactics, calling out what she described as the bombing of aid convoys and the starvation of vulnerable people, and urged allied countries to use “political leverage” to push for a ceasefire.

Rania went on to say that despite the efforts to provide aid in Gaza via airdrops, there is still an urgent need to help vulnerable people who are trying to survive the “Israeli-made” strategy of enforcing what she described as “deprivation by design.”

The queen stressed that the solution to the conflict must rely on the end of the occupation by finding “a way to share these holy lands in peace.”

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller speaks during a briefing on Monday, March 11.

The Israeli government has not presented the United States with a humanitarian or military plan for Rafah, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday.

Miller said he would not speak to conversations the US has had with the Israeli government, “but we have made clear both in the private conversations” and publicly “that it is our judgment that they cannot or should not go into Rafah without a humanitarian assistance plan that is credible.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated on Sunday that he intends to move forward with an operation in Rafah, where more than 1 million displaced people have fled.

President Joe Biden said in an MSNBC interview Saturday that an operation into Rafah “is a red line,” but added that he would continue to support Israel. 

The Biden administration is currently not anticipating that Israeli forces will imminently expand their military operations into Rafah, two US officials told CNN on Sunday.

CNN’s MJ Lee and Alex Marquardt contributed to this report.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres attends a press conference at U.N. headquarters in New York City, on February 8.

The head of the United Nation’s called for ceasefire in Gaza and for the removal of all obstacles to ensure aid deliveries into the enclave, in honor of the month of Ramadan.

Monday marks the first day of the holy month of Ramadan for Muslims globally, but “the killing, bombing and bloodshed continue in Gaza.”

“I call on political, religious and community leaders everywhere to do everything in their power to make this holy period a time for empathy, action and peace,” Guterres said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem, on February 18.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he and US President Joe Biden agreed that Israel has to destroy Hamas, and that there is no “middle way,” during an interview with Fox Channel on Monday. 

Netanyahu also said that Israel should first enable the safe departure of the civilian population from Rafah before going in.

“We agree with that,” he said, adding, “that’s what we intend to do.”

Divisions between the leaders of the two countries burst into the open at the weekend, when Biden said Netanyahu was “hurting Israel more than helping Israel” by disregarding the “innocent lives being lost” in Gaza during an interview with MSNBC.

Biden warned Netanyahu risked losing the support of the international community over mounting civilian casualties in Gaza, where the death toll has passed 31,000.

Following Biden’s comments, Netanyahu gave interviews to many news outlets and said he would push ahead with a military offensive in Rafah, where 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering.

Israeli officials have cautioned that a Rafah offensive during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan has not been ruled out.

Ramadan began on Sunday night throughout the Middle East and will last for four weeks.