December 28, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

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

Israel’s military “failed in its mission” to rescue three hostages mistakenly killed by its troops in Gaza earlier this month, its chief of the general staff said Thursday, as the military published the findings of its investigation.

The findings concluded that Israeli command ranks had information that hostages were present in the area, and “even took actions to prevent strikes on locations suspected of having hostages,” the report read. 

But the investigation also concluded the Israeli forces in the field had “insufficient awareness” of the possibility that hostages would approach them or that the troops would encounter hostages in operations not specifically aimed at freeing them.

Yotam Haim, Alon Shimriz and Samer Talalka were kidnapped by Hamas militants during their attack on Israel on October 7. The three men were killed during an IDF operation around the Gaza City neighborhood of Shejaiya on December 15.

That day, according to the findings, an Israeli soldier fired toward three hostages “identified as threats,” killing two of them. The third hostage fled, and the battalion commander gave an order to hold fire to identify the third person.

After the commander heard someone screaming “help” in Hebrew, he called on the person to come toward the soldiers; the hostage emerged from a building and moved toward the troops, the report said. Two soldiers didn’t hear the commander’s orders to hold fire “due to noise from a nearby tank” and fatally shot the third hostage, according to the investigation. 

The probe also concluded that the “hostages were walking shirtless, and one of them was waving a white flag, standing at a point with limited visibility relative to the position of the soldier that fired the shot.” 

In the days before the killing of the three hostages, the report said Israeli soldiers heard cries for help in Hebrew coming from a building while Israeli soldiers fought Hamas gunmen. The soldiers thought it was an attempt to trap them, the report said.

A camera mounted on a military dog during the fight also captured the voices of the hostages crying for help. That same day, a note reading “Help” in Hebrew was found at the exit of a tunnel, the report claims, which Israeli soldiers interpreted as an attempt by Hamas to lure them.  

On December 14, Israeli drone footage identified signs reading “SOS” and “Help, 3 hostages” on a building 200 meters from where the three hostages were killed the next day, the report says.

The report claims that the Israeli military suspected this was a trap after blue barrels were spotted nearby that it said are commonly found in rigged areas. 

Halevi concluded the killing of the hostages shouldn’t have happened and didn’t match the risk of the situation.

Palestinians swarm a relief aid convoy at a United Nations center in the Al-Zeitoun neighborhood of northern Gaza on Thursday.

Thousands of desperate civilians in the Gaza Strip surrounded a relief aid convoy at a United Nations center in the Al-Zeitoun neighborhood of northern Gaza, as seen in CNN video footage on Thursday.

The aid convoy consisted of two trucks distributing aid just outside a center of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), where people were seen climbing over them in desperation to get relief aid.

Earlier this week, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) expressed “deep concerns” over the rapidly worsening food security situation in the Gaza Strip, saying approximately 2.2 million residents are facing acute hunger.

Here are the latest developments:

Sixteen Palestinians were killed east of Khan Younis in Gaza Thursday evening in an apparent Israeli airstrike, two medical sources treating civilians tell CNN. 

In the town of Al-Fukhari, eight civilians — mostly children — were killed after an apparent Israeli airstrike hit a residential building that was housing internally displaced persons, a medical source at the European Hospital in Gaza told CNN by phone.  

In the Al-Maghazi camp area in central Gaza, an Israeli airstrike killed another eight people, according to a medical source at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital who spoke to CNN Thursday. 

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment on the apparent airstrike and was unable to get an immediate response.  

A still from a video shows an ambulance arriving at the gate of Al-Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah, Gaza, on Thursday.

Twenty-one people were killed and dozens of others were injured after an apparent Israeli airstrike hit a residential building in Rafah, a director at the hospital receiving bodies told CNN over the phone Thursday. 

Another medical source at Al-Kuwaiti Hospital said that 12 children and four women were among those killed.   

CNN obtained a video filmed Thursday evening near the entrance of Al-Kuwaiti Hospital, capturing chaotic scenes as doctors hurried to treat injured people. An ambulance is seen arriving at the hospital gate where people receive first aid. Additionally, the video shows two deceased individuals covered in blankets.   

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment and was unable to get an immediate response on claims it struck a residential building in Rafah, which killed civilians.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said it is working with the Egyptian Red Crescent to establish the “first organized camp” for displaced people in Khan Younis, Gaza, where tens of thousands of Palestinians are crowded in makeshift camps. 

The first phase of the new camp will include 300 tents and will accommodate displaced families from “medical, ambulance, and relief teams” at PRCS, the group said. It will also provide water, sanitation services, lunch, nutrition, energy and fuel supplies, PRCS added. 

In the final stages, the group aims to expand the camp to 1,000 tents, providing shelter for “hundreds” of displaced families in southern Gaza. 

PRCS did not specify when the camp would open. CNN has reached out to the group for details.

Shelling along the Lebanon-Israel border continued Thursday, as Lebanese officials spent the day in meetings with foreign counterparts from France and Britain about the growing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed paramilitary group.

Hezbollah claimed it carried out simultaneous attacks around 4 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET) — targeting multiple “barracks” across northern Israel. 

The Israel Defense Forces told CNN that approximately 20 launches were detected on Thursday that were aimed at Kiryat Shmona, a northern Israeli municipality that has been the target of Hezbollah strikes over the last several days. 

The municipality claimed two anti-tank missiles were fired at the town earlier in the day.

Hezbollah made six direct missile hits on Kiryat Shmona on Wednesday.

Diplomatic efforts: Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati met with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron in Beirut on Thursday and also spoke with French Foreign and European Affairs Minister Catherine Colonna on a call to discuss the growing clashes in southern Lebanon and northern Israel. 

Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati attends the COP28 climate conference in Dubai on December 2.

Mikati called for “maximum pressure to stop the Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon” during his meeting with Cameron, according to a social media post from the Lebanese government.

Cameron said in a post on X that an “escalation of the conflict in Gaza to Lebanon, the Red Sea or across the wider region, would add to the extremely high level of danger and insecurity in the world.”

The fighting is among various incidents involving Iran and its proxies that have raised global concerns that Israel’s war in Gaza could widen into a greater regional conflict.

Peacekeeper wounded: As the threat of greater violence between Hezbollah and Israel rises, evidence of the growing tensions on the ground in Lebanon is appearing.  

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNFIL) on Thursday called on Lebanese authorities to investigate after an attack on a patrol unit.

The UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon says the attack “by a group of young men” in the southern city of Taybeh left a peacekeeper wounded and a vehicle damaged, according to an X account run by UNIFIL.

People climbed over trucks and surrounded a relief aid convoy at a UN center in the Al-Zeitoun neighborhood of northern Gaza on Thursday.

Thousands of desperate civilians in the Gaza Strip surrounded a relief aid convoy at a UN center in the Al-Zeitoun neighborhood of northern Gaza, as seen in CNN video footage on Thursday.

The aid convoy consisted of two trucks distributing aid just outside a center of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), where people were seen climbing over them in desperation to get relief aid.

An elderly man named Abu Hassan told CNN that he came to get some flour, which he has had no access to for the last month, subsisting instead on just “bits of rice”.

Earlier this week, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) expressed “deep concerns” over the rapidly worsening food security situation in the Gaza Strip saying approximately 2.2 million residents are facing acute hunger.

Judi Weinstein is seen in an undated photo.

Judi Weinstein, an Israeli-American who was abducted by Hamas, was killed on October 7, a kibbutz in southern Israel has announced Thursday.

Weinstein, who was 70 years old, is dead and her body is still held by Hamas, Kibbutz Nir Oz said.

Weinstein held Israeli, US and Canadian citizenship. It was known that she had been injured while being taken hostage on October 7.

Her husband Gad Haggai, who was 73 years old, was pronounced dead on December 22, and his body is also still held by Hamas, according to the kibbutz.

Weinstein’s death in Hamas custody means there are no remaining female Americans held by Hamas. Now, six Americans — all men — are believed to still be in captivity. In total, four American women have been released.

It was initially believed Judi could be part of the hostage deal for Hamas to free at least 50 women and children that was struck last month. While two Americans were released under the agreement, Judi was not.

In a statement, US President Joe Biden said he and first lady Jill Biden are “devastated” to hear the news. Haggai and Weinstein’s family “have been living through hell for weeks. No family should have to endure such an ordeal. And I reaffirm the pledge we have made to all the families of those still held hostage: we will not stop working to bring them home,” the statement said.

A total of 31 Palestinians were killed and 25 others injured in Israeli shelling in the vicinity of the Al-Amal hospital in southern Gaza on Wednesday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said.

This is in addition to the casualties caused by Israeli strikes on Thursday close to that hospital, where 10 people had been killed and 21 were injured. The toll from Wednesday raises the number of fatalities due to Israeli strikes in the vicinity of the hospital over the past two days to 41.

The hospital is in Khan Younis, which has seen several weeks of heavy fighting and air strikes.

“Among the casualties are individuals present in front of the hospital and displaced persons seeking shelter” the PRCS said.

CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment on the nature of targets in the area of the hospital.

Fifteen US citizens were among 748 foreign nationals who left the Gaza Strip for Egypt via the Rafah crossing on Thursday, according to an Egyptian official. 

Heading in the opposite direction, 103 trucks entered Gaza through Rafah today, including 80 aid trucks — four of which carried cooking gas — and 23 trucks carrying commercial goods, the official said.

The number of trucks crossing was marginally higher than on Wednesday, and in line with the daily average.

Before the conflict, the United Nations reported an average daily delivery of 455 trucks carrying commercial goods to Gaza.

Remember: Rafah is the only Gazan border crossing that isn’t controlled by Israel, which has kept its crossings largely shut since Hamas’ October 7 attacks and the ensuing Israeli offensive in Gaza.

Rafah has therefore emerged as a crucial location where evacuees get out of Gaza and desperately needed humanitarian supplies get into the enclave.

Ninety-two trucks loaded with humanitarian aid and commercial goods entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing on Wednesday, according to an Egyptian official.

The convoy included 80 trucks of aid, four trucks carrying cooking gas, and 12 trucks carrying commercial goods.

Additionally, a total of 264 foreigners departed from the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.

The number of trucks entering Gaza on Wednesday is in line with the daily average observed over the previous week. UN agencies and aid organizations have said that the number is insufficient to meet basic needs in Gaza.

Before the conflict, the United Nations reported an average daily delivery of 455 trucks carrying commercial goods to Gaza. 

More than 80 children have been killed in the last 12 weeks in the occupied West Bank, amidst intensified military activities, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

That number is “more than double the number of children killed in all of 2022, amid increased military and law enforcement operations. More than 576 have been injured and others have reportedly been detained.” UNICEF said in a report issued Thursday.

Since the beginning of the year, the violence has claimed the lives of 124 Palestinian children and six Israeli children, UNICEF added.

Israeli War Cabinet member Benny Gantz warned if Lebanon’s government is unable to “push Hezbollah away from the border,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will take matters into its own hands.

His comments come amid continued cross-border skirmishes between the IDF and Hezbollah, the militant group that dominates southern Lebanon, which have been near-constant since Hamas launched its October 7 attack on Israel.

Three people died overnight in southern Lebanon during an Israeli airstrike, Lebanese media reported; the IDF said it was responding to fire after sirens sounded in a kibbutz near the border.

Gantz said the situation on the border demands change, as fears are rising of a widened Middle East war.

Here are the latest developments.

The aftermath of an overnight Israeli strike at Al-Maghazi refugee camp is seen on December 25.

The Israel Defense Forces has acknowledged that there was what it calls “unintended harm” to civilians as a result of air strikes in central Gaza on December 24. 

The strikes were against targets in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp. About 70 people were killed in the strikes, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry.

The IDF said the strikes would be further investigated by the General Staff’s Fact Finding and Assessment Mechanism. It said the IDF regretted the harm caused to uninvolved civilians and is acting to draw conclusions and learn lessons from this event.

Palestinians walk through the aftermath of an Israeli military raid on Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank on Wednesday.

At least 25 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including former prisoners, were arrested by Israeli forces on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning according to a statement published by the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society.

The arrests spanned several districts, including Ramallah, Hebron, Jericho, Tulkarm, Nablus, Jenin, Tubas, and Qalqilya.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Thursday said on X, formerly Twitter, that it had launched a significant security operation in the West Bank aimed at dismantling “Hamas funding networks.”

It said the operation resulted in the arrest of 21 individuals alleged to have financial ties to Hamas.

Relations between Israel and Turkey have sunk to a new low after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan likened Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

According to the state news agency Anadolu, Erdogan said during a speech in Turkey’s capital Ankara that there was “no difference” between the actions of the two men.

Netanyahu responded on X, formerly Twitter, saying Erdogan, “who is committing genocide against the Kurds and who holds the world record for imprisoning journalists who oppose his regime, is the last person who can preach morality to us.”

A member of Israel’s war cabinet, Benny Gantz, on Wednesday, wrote on X that Erdogan’s remarks were “blatant distortions of reality and a desecration of the Holocaust’s memory.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who made a state visit to Turkey in 2022, said that “in human history, there was no event like the terrible Holocaust,” and Erdogan’s “words deeply hurt the soul of every Jew, regardless of who he is, and the memory of the millions of Jews who perished in the Holocaust.”

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which monitors antisemitism, said “once again, Turkish President Erdogan uses false Nazi analogies to criticize the Israeli government as he did in 2014, 2018 and 2019, while again failing to condemn Hamas and the Oct. 7 attack.”

Some background: Turkey’s diplomatic and economic ties to Israel stretch back to 1949. Through the decades, economic ties have continued despite major ups and downs in diplomatic relations. After a decade of hostility, Turkey and Israel restored diplomatic relations last year.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has warned residents in many parts of central Gaza that they must urgently leave while its operations against Hamas continue. 

The IDF issued a message in Arabic on X, formerly Twitter, instructing people in 15 identified blocks south of Wadi Gaza to move to shelters. The areas include the Al-Bureij refugee camp.

The lack of communications and internet access in Gaza, which have been degraded by Israeli air strikes, make it difficult to assess how many residents would be aware of what the IDF calls “urgent instructions.”

The IDF posting said people in the identified blocks “must immediately move to the shelters in Deir al-Balah. A temporary tactical local suspension of military activities will be imposed for humanitarian purposes in the southern neighbourhood of Deir al-Balah from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm for provisions purposes.”

It instructed people not to move along the central axis — the Salah Al-Din road — because of fighting in the southern city of Khan Younis.

A Palestinian man was killed overnight in the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank following an Israeli incursion, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said Thursday.

The victim, named as Hazem Al Qattawi, was shot by Israeli soldiers, the ministry said.

Four other Palestinians were injured in the incursion, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

In response to a CNN request for comment, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had responded with live fire after “assailants” shot at Israeli forces.

Judea and Samaria are the Biblical names for what is now the occupied West Bank.

The Israel-Hamas war in Gaza has increasingly spilled over into the West Bank with settler attacks and clashes killing more than 300 Palestinians since October 7, according to the ministry.

An explosion in Gaza is seen from Israel on Thursday.

Israeli air strikes on Thursday have killed at least 50 people across Gaza, according to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in the enclave.

Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said that the air strikes – which struck Beit Lahia in the north of the Strip, Khan Younis in the south and Al-Maghazi in the center – had also injured dozens, and that the number of casualties was likely to increase.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said 10 people had been killed and 12 injured in strikes near Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, with three strikes targeting the vicinity within an hour.

The PRCS published video and images of several civilian casualties, including children, being brought to the hospital.

CNN has asked the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for a response on the targets being struck in the area around Al-Amal hospital.