December 29, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

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

Dispatch of aid into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing has resumed after it was suspended for several days due to “security incidents,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Friday.

A total of 81 trucks carrying food and medicine entered Gaza on Friday through both the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel and the Rafah crossing from Egypt, the UN agency reported.

But OCHA also warned the volume of aid entering the ravaged Palestinian enclave “remains woefully inadequate.” Before October 7, the UN reported an average daily delivery of 455 trucks carrying commercial goods into Gaza.

Some background: The Kerem Shalom crossing was closed from December 25 to 28 due to “security incidents” that had been reported in its vicinity since it was opened on December 17, according to OCHA.

Those incidents included a deadly drone strike on December 25, the seizing of aid from food convoys by desperate local communities and “unannounced and uncoordinated prisoner and casualty transfers from Israel which rendered the crossing unusable for hours at a time,” the agency said.

Earlier on Friday, Tal Heinrich, spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister, said the UN requested the closure of the crossing on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday “for aid inspections, due to congestion on the Gaza side.”

Heinrich also insisted that Israel was not limiting the amount of humanitarian aid that can enter the enclave, saying that suggesting otherwise is a “fallacy.”

The United Nations relief chief Martin Griffiths issued a statement on X (formerly Twitter) Friday condemning a UN aid convoy being fired upon the previous day in Gaza. 

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza has said the convoy was fired on by Israeli soldiers, according to the organization’s director Thomas White.

The Israeli military told CNN it is investigating the incident.

The convoy was made up of seven UN vehicles, including two armored vehicles, with their exteriors marked with the letters “UN,” UNRWA Communications Director Juliette Touma told CNN on Friday.

Touma also said the convoy had been asked to change its route.

It is not yet clear why the convoy was asked to make the change, and how much time elapsed between the reported request to change the convoy’s route and the reported firing by Israeli soldiers.

Philippe Lazzarini, chief of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) chief, speaks during a news conference in Rafah, Gaza, on November 1.

The chief of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is urging media organizations to verify information, including from government officials, before publishing.

In a statement Friday, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini responded to claims from Israeli officials blaming UNRWA for aid delivery gaps in Gaza. 

On Friday, Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy accused UNRWA of covering up for Hamas’ alleged hijacking of aid in Gaza, describing the UN’s aid mechanism as “woefully unsuccessful.” 

Earlier in December, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) appeared to blame the UN for aid delay, saying it “must do better.” 

A humanitarian aid truck sent by UNRWA passes through Rafah border crossing in Rafah, Gaza, on December 18.

Lazzarini said even after the opening of Kerem Shalom border crossing for aid delivery, Israeli authorities have severely restricted humanitarian access through constant bombardment, regular disruptions of phone and internet services, long delays at the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings as well as restricted access to the northern part of the strip.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it is very concerned over the spread of infectious diseases in Gaza as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians remain displaced, with many in overcrowded shelters and health facilities.

In a statement Friday, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the following diseases and conditions were documented in shelters across the strip from mid-October to mid-December:

So far, 1.9 million Palestinians, constituting around 85% of Gaza’s population, have been displaced since October 7, according to UNRWA. 

Meanwhile, only 13 out of 36 hospitals remain partially functioning across Gaza, with another two minimally functioning, the WHO said in a statement Wednesday. 

The Peace Palace, which houses the seat of the the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, is pictured on September 19.

South Africa has filed an application at the International Court of Justice to begin proceedings over allegations of genocide against Israel for its war against Hamas in Gaza, the court said.

Israel, through its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, rejected South Africa’s claims and application to the World Court, saying South Africa “is calling for the destruction of the State of Israel,” and that its “claim lacks both a factual and a legal basis.”

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed South Africa’s move to begin proceedings over the genocide allegations.

Some background: South Africa and Israel are both parties to the Genocide Convention, according to the ICJ, which is also known as the World Court and is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations.

The role of the International Court of Justice is to handle disputes between member states, whereas the International Criminal Court tries individuals.

This post has been updated with comments from the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Israel’s military said it was “extending operations” and dismantling Hamas infrastructure in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza on Friday, while also claiming to have destroyed a network of tunnels near Gaza City along with one of the “hideout apartments” belonging to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

While the Israel Defense Forces reported its progress on the ground, officials with the United Nations are again raising the alarm about the consequences for Gaza’s civilians.

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said in a post on X Thursday that over 150,000 people “have nowhere to go” after the latest IDF warning to evacuate large portions of central Gaza.

Even civilians who have reached shelters have not always been able to escape harm. The UNRWA said Friday that at least 308 people taking refuge in its shelters had been killed — and at least 1,095 others wounded — since the most recent fighting began in the enclave on October 7.

And, the UN relief chief on Thursday described the frustrations of getting aid into the enclave, where an acute hunger crisis is impacting millions. UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths described “constant bombardments. Poor communications. Damaged roads. Convoys shot at. Delays at checkpoints.” He added that “this is an impossible situation for people of Gaza and those trying to help them.”

Here are some of the other key updates Friday:

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to the media prior to departure from Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai on December 1.

The Biden administration bypassed Congress to approve a nearly $150 million sale of military equipment to Israel for the second time this month.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken informed Congress that he has made an emergency determination to immediately approve the transfer of “155mm ancillary items including fuzes, charges, and primers that make 155mm shells functional,” a State Department spokesperson said Friday.

The spokesperson said the additional items were added to previous sales, which “increased the total value of the sale to $147.5 million.”

Earlier this month, the administration rushed forward a sale of thousands of munitions to Israel, bypassing the standard 20-day period that congressional committees are typically afforded to review such a sale. The State Department sent an emergency declaration to the oversight committees that more than 13,000 tank shells would be delivered to Israel without any “further information, details or assurances.”

“We continue to be clear with the government of Israel that they must comply with [international humanitarian law] and must take every feasible step to avoid harm to civilians,” a State Department spokesperson said at the time.

The $106 million transaction was part of a larger request to sell a total of 45,000 tank shells to Israel.

Yahya Sinwar, Hamas' leader in Gaza, attends a meeting in Gaza City on April 13, 2022.

The Israel Defense Forces claimed Friday to have destroyed a network of tunnels and one of the “hideout apartments” belonging to Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ leader in Gaza. 

The IDF’s 14th Reserve Brigade Combat Team located and destroyed the apartment near Gaza City “in recent weeks,” the IDF said. 

The IDF said the apartment was part of “a long and branching tunnel network” that was used by senior Hamas officials. During an inspection of the apartment, soldiers with the IDF’s Yahalom Unit discovered a 20-meter-deep (about 66 feet) tunnel shaft in the basement floor. The shaft led to a 218-meter-long (about 715 feet) tunnel that contained an electrical network, ventilation and sewage infrastructure, as well as prayer rooms, the IDF said. 

The tunnel was subsequently destroyed by the IDF’s Yahalom Unit.

CNN cannot independently verify the IDF’s claims. 

Some background: Earlier in December, Israeli forces said they had surrounded Sinwar’s house. The IDF said Sinwar was not in the house and was believed to be hiding underground in Gaza, but a senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that it was “only a matter of time before we get him.”

Israel has publicly accused Sinwar of being the “mastermind” behind Hamas’ terror attack against Israel on October 7 – though experts say he is likely one of several – making him one of the key targets of its war in Gaza.

He was elected to Hamas’ main decision-making body, the Politburo, in 2017 as the political leader of Hamas in Gaza branch. However, he has since become the Politburo’s de facto leader, according to research by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). He has been designated a global terrorist by the US Department of State since 2015, and has been recently sanctioned by the United Kingdom and France.

People inspect the damage at the Maghazi refugee camp on December 25.

At least 308 people sheltering in shelters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) have been killed and at least 1,095 have been injured since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, the agency said Friday on X, formerly known as Twitter.  

The UNRWA also noted that “initial reports indicate on 25 December, 2 people sheltering in @UNRWA Maghazi Prep School were killed & 1 injured, result of a direct strike.”

CNN cannot independently verify these numbers.

In a statement sent to CNN on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that during “operations in the Gaza Strip against Hamas terrorist targets, IAF fighter jets struck two targets adjacent to which Hamas operatives were located on December 24, 2023.” 

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

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

An aerial photo shows people mourning their relatives who were killed in the Israeli strike on the Maghazi refugee camp on December 25.

“Before the strikes were carried out, steps were taken by the IDF to mitigate harm to uninvolved civilians in the area. A preliminary investigation revealed that additional buildings located near the targets were also hit during the strikes, which likely caused unintended harm to additional uninvolved civilians,” the statement said. 

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.

More on the situation on the ground: Nearly 1.4 million displaced people are sheltering in 156 UNRWA installations with another 500,000 registered and accessing services from UNRWA, according to the agency’s statement on its official website on Wednesday. 

The average number of internally displaced people in UNRWA shelters located in the middle and southern areas is over 12,000, UNRWA also said, adding, “This is more than four times their capacity.”

The IDF warned residents on Thursday 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.”

Israel’s military is “extending operations” in the area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement on Friday.

The IDF said its troops began dismantling Hamas infrastructure in Khan Younis on Thursday, where a Hamas militant was identified retrieving a rocket-propelling grenade from a shaft.

Humanitarian actors in Gaza describe a dire situation, with the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) cautioning Thursday that over 150,000 people “have nowhere to go” after the IDF warned residents in many parts of central Gaza that they must urgently leave.

This comes after the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization warned earlier this week that almost all of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents are facing acute hunger.

The number of people killed in Gaza since Israeli military operations began has risen to 21,507, with an additional 55,915 people injured, the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza said Friday. CNN cannot independently verify the numbers.

Here are the latest developments:

This post has been updated with more of the latest news from Friday.

A United Nations aid convoy came under fire from Israeli soldiers in Gaza on Thursday, according to the Director of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza.

“Israeli soldiers fired at an aid convoy as it returned from Northern Gaza along a route designated by the Israeli Army,” Thomas White wrote in a post on X on Friday.

While no one was injured, White said “aid workers should never be a target” in his post.

The convoy was composed of seven UN vehicles, including two armored vehicles, with their exteriors marked with the letters “UN,” UNRWA Communications Director Juliette Touma told CNN on Friday.

According to Touma, the incident occurred between Gaza City and Nuseirat after aid deliveries were made in Gaza City’s Rimal neighborhood.

She stated that the incident occurred south of Wadi Gaza, located around five kilometers (or about 3.10 miles) away from Gaza City, after the convoy passed through an Israeli checkpoint.

Touma also told CNN that the convoy had been asked to change its route.

It is not yet clear why the convoy was asked to make the change, and how much time elapsed between the reported request to change the convoy’s route and the reported firing by IDF soldiers.

The IDF tells CNN it is looking into the reports.

Aid frustration: The United Nations relief chief has previously described the “impossible situation” of getting aid into Gaza, where an acute hunger crisis is impacting millions as Israel presses on with its offensive against Hamas. UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths described “constant bombardments. Poor communications. Damaged roads. Convoys shot at. Delays at checkpoints,” adding: “This is an impossible situation for people of Gaza and those trying to help them.”

“You think getting aid into Gaza is easy? Think again,” he said.

The Israeli Supreme Court is seen in Jerusalem on September 28.

Israeli government members reacted angrily to the leak of a draft document suggesting that the Supreme Court is likely to strike down a controversial change to the judiciary, with some arguing the leak threatens national unity at a time the country is at war.

The leak of a draft decision suggested that a majority of Supreme Court justices were inclined to annul the so-called “Reasonableness Law,” according to Israeli media. The documents were in draft form; CNN has not seen the documents, which have been widely reported in the Israeli media. 

The “Reasonableness Law” strips the Supreme Court of the power to declare government decisions unreasonable. It was the first major piece of the multi-pronged judicial overhaul plan to be passed by the Knesset.

Reacting to the leak, Minister of Justice Yariv Levin claimed that “citizens of Israel expect the Supreme Court not to publish during a war a ruling that is controversial even among its judges.”

“While our soldiers are fighting side by side on the various fronts, and while the entire nation is grieving the loss of many lives, the people of Israel must not be torn apart by disputes,” Levin said in a statement.

The Speaker of the Knesset Amir Ohana added that “a time of war is certainly not the time to establish a first precedent of its kind in the history of the country.”

“This is the hour of the brave soldiers of the IDF and the security forces, of the families of the fallen, the families of the murdered, the families of the kidnapped, the families of the wounded and the families of the evacuees and displaced from their homes.”

A heated topic: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to overhaul the country’s judiciary have sharply divided Israel since they were first unveiled in January, prompting mass protests and interventions from international allies.

On behalf of Justice Uzi Vogelman, acting President of the Supreme Court, the judicial authority said that “it takes very seriously the leaking of parts of draft judgments that have not been completed. The attempt to influence pending proceedings in this way and damage public trust in the judiciary and its dedicated judges and employees will not succeed.”

It added: “The judiciary will continue to carry out its work without fear and impartiality. Following the meetings that took place today with the judges, the legal teams and all the employees of the Supreme Court, it was decided that after the verdicts are given, the matter will be thoroughly examined in a format that will be determined and appropriate lessons will be drawn.”

The Supreme Court has to release its ruling by 12 January as two justices are due to retire.

Thirty-five Palestinians were killed and dozens injured after Israeli airstrikes struck residential buildings in central Gaza overnight, Dr. Khalil Al-Dikran, head of nursing at the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, told CNN Friday.

“We have received 35 bodies and dozens of injured from central Gaza from airstrikes and shelling on residential buildings in the Al-Nussiarat and Al-Maghazi and Deir Al-Balah camps since midnight until this morning,” he told CNN by phone Friday.

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

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

Israeli soldiers are seen in Khan Younis on December 24.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops are “extending operations” in the area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the IDF said in a statement on Friday.

“In several different engagements, IDF troops eliminated dozens of terrorists using aerial strikes, and sniper and tank fire” over the last day, the IDF said.

In one incident, an aircraft identified “a terrorist carrying an RPG [rocket-propelling grenade] who was running towards IDF troops,” the IDF said, adding tanks were used to kill him before he was able to fire.

The IDF said its troops began dismantling Hamas infrastructure in Khan Younis on Thursday, where a Hamas militant was identified retrieving a rocket-propelling grenade from a shaft.

“Nowhere to go”: The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said in a post on X on Thursday that over 150,000 people “have nowhere to go” after the IDF warned residents in many parts of central Gaza that they must urgently leave.

“Evacuation order by Israeli authorities of middle #Gaza causes ongoing forced displacement,” UNRWA said. “Over 150,000 people- young children, women carrying babies, people with disabilities & the elderly- have nowhere to go.”

At least 100,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have arrived in Rafah over the past few days, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in an update on Friday.  

The figures are based on preliminary estimates by humanitarian actors on the ground, and this follows an “intensification of hostilities in Khan Younis and Deir al Balah, and the Israeli arm’s evacuation orders,” OCHA said.

OCHA said Rafah was already estimated to be the most densely populated area in Gaza on December 20, exceeding 12,000 people per square kilometer.

Earlier this week, IDF Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi said that the war against Hamas “will continue for many more months” and that the IDF is concentrating its efforts “in the southern Gaza Strip.”

The number of people killed in Gaza since Israeli military operations began on October 7 is 21,320, with an additional 55,603 people injured, according to Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza Thursday.

A Palestinian child holding empty pot waits near rubbles to receive food distributed by volunteers for Palestinian families in Rafah, Gaza on December 22.

The United Nations relief chief on Thursday described the frustrations of getting aid into Gaza, where an acute hunger crisis is impacting millions as Israel presses on with its offensive against Hamas.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said: “this is an impossible situation for people of Gaza and those trying to help them.”

Griffiths named a number of challenges, listing “constant bombardments. Poor communications. Damaged roads. Convoys shot at. Delays at checkpoints.”

“Three layers of inspections before trucks can even enter,” he added, also citing “confusion and long queues” alongside a “growing list of rejected items.”

A total of 103 trucks entered Gaza from Egypt through the Rafah crossing on Thursday, including 80 aid trucks and 23 trucks carrying commercial goods.

UN agencies and aid organizations have said the number of trucks entering Gaza is insufficient to meet basic needs. Before the conflict, the UN reported an average daily delivery of 455 trucks carrying commercial goods to Gaza.

The Israeli military on Thursday urged more residents to evacuate parts of central Gaza while its operations against Hamas continue. 

“A traumatized and exhausted population crammed into a smaller and smaller sliver of land,” Griffiths said on X. “The fighting must stop.”

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 surrounded a relief convoy in northern Gaza, seeking food amid an acute hunger crisis.

Almost all of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents are facing acute hunger, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization warned earlier this week.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military has urged more residents to evacuate parts of central Gaza as it presses on with its offensive against Hamas.

Twenty-one people were killed, and dozens injured after an apparent Israeli airstrike hit a residential building in Rafah, a director at the hospital receiving the bodies told CNN over the phone on Thursday. A medical source at Al-Kuwaiti Hospital said 12 children and four women were among the dead. 

In another apparent Israeli airstrike, 16 people were killed east of Khan Younis in Gaza on Thursday, two medical sources treating civilians told CNN. 

Catch up on the latest developments:

Israeli military publishes findings of an investigation into the deaths of three Israeli hostages.

Israel’s army chief said troops failed in their mission to rescue three hostages mistakenly killed in Gaza earlier this month as the military on Thursday published its report into the incident.

Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz and Samer Talalka were captured by Hamas on October 7 and taken to Gaza. The three men were accidentally killed during an IDF operation around the Gaza City neighborhood of Shejaiya on December 15 in an incident that shocked Israeli society.

The report into their deaths concluded that Israeli command ranks had information about the presence of hostages in the area where they were killed and “even took actions to prevent strikes on locations suspected of having hostages.”

But the investigation also found that Israeli forces in the field had “insufficient awareness ” of the possibility that hostages would approach them or that they would encounter them other than as part of a special operation to free the Israelis held.

Read more of the report’s findings.

People check the rubble of a building in Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel, following Israeli bombardment the previous night, on December 27.

Shelling along the Lebanon-Israel border continued Thursday, as Lebanese officials spent the day in meetings with 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 past 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. 

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 said 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.

Desperate civilians swarm relief aid convoy for food on Thursday in Gaza.

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

The video shows people climbing over two trucks distributing aid just outside a center of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in a desperate attempt to take food.

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

Earlier this week, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization expressed “deep concerns” over the rapidly worsening food security situation in Gaza, saying approximately 2.2 million residents are facing acute hunger.