February 15, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

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

President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the “ongoing hostage negotiations” and the “situation in Rafah,” according to a White House readout released Thursday.

CNN previously reported that all eyes are on Rafah, where well over a million Palestinian refugees are taking shelter in a massive tent city.

Despite international pressure, Netanyahu has continued to convey that the Israel Defense Forces will move into the Rafah area at some point. Many fear that military action in the refugee tent city could spark the exodus, but also result in the deaths of thousands of civilians.

Biden also raised the “ongoing hostage negotiations” in his call with Netanyahu as well.

The two leaders spoke last on Sunday and, in that call, discussed a deal to secure the release of hostages in Gaza at length, according to a senior administration official.

Relatives, colleagues and loved ones of Palestinian journalists Sari Mansour and Hasona Saliem, who were killed while working, attend the funeral ceremony in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on November 19, 2023.

The conflict in Gaza fueled a surge in journalist and media worker deaths in 2023, according to a report released Thursday by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ.)

More than 75% of the 99 journalists and media workers who lost their lives across the globe died in the conflict. The overall death toll is the highest recorded by CPJ since 2015.

Jones explained that the investigation was difficult to conduct because people who could have provided more information about how their colleagues or loved ones died had also been killed or fled the territory.

Almost all of the journalists killed in the war were Palestinian, according to the report, and Jones says CPJ “raised concerns about the deliberate targeting of members of the media by the Israeli military.” CPJ classifies such killings as “murder,” the report said.

Videos analyzed by CNN show journalists were wearing body armor clearly labeled as “press” when Israeli forces struck Lebanon in October.

Jones said the committee looked into evidence that suggests the Israel Defense Forces targeted around a dozen other journalists for their work.

In response to the CPJ report, the IDF said they have made efforts to mitigate harm to journalists.

An Israeli airstrike on Nuseirat refugee camp, located in central Gaza, left at least 12 people dead on Thursday, according to a spokesperson for Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

Ten of those killed were women and children, the spokesperson and a doctor at the hospital said. The other two casualties were elderly men, they said. CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment on the alleged airstrike. 

Meanwhile, Egypt is building a massive, miles-wide, buffer zone and wall along its border with Gaza, new satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies shows. The images, taken in the last five days, shows a significant section of Egyptian territory between a roadway and the Gaza border has been bulldozed. 

Here are the latest developments:

Egypt is building a massive, miles-wide, buffer zone and wall along its border with Gaza, new satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies shows. 

The images, taken in the last five days, shows a significant section of Egyptian territory between a roadway and the Gaza border has been bulldozed. 

When the buffer zone is completed — it stretches from the end of the Gaza border to the Mediterranean Sea — it will completely engulf the Egyptian-Rafah border crossing complex. At the actual border, multiple cranes were seen laying sections of wall.

Additional satellite imagery reviewed by CNN shows that bulldozers arrived on site on February 3, and that the initial excavation of the buffer zone began on February 6. There has been a significant uptick in excavation in the last five days. 

Videos released by the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights show construction of the border wall, which they claim is 5 meters (16 feet) high. The organization – which describes itself as a non-governmental human rights group made of activists, researchers and journalists – said two local contractors told them the border wall was commissioned by the Egyptian armed forces. CNN has reached out to the Egyptian government for comment on the buffer zone and wall construction. 

The construction comes as fears that the already horrific humanitarian situation in Gaza will worsen, causing thousands of deaths and an mass exodus of Palestinians over Egypt’s border. 

All eyes are on Rafah, situated along the new buffer zone, where well over a million Palestinian refugees are taking shelter in a massive tent city. Despite international pressure, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has continued to convey that the Israel Defense Forces will move into the Rafah area at some point. Many fear that military action in the refugee tent city could spark the exodus, but also result in the deaths of thousands of civilians. 

It also comes as Netanyahu continues to rail against Egypt for not closing the Philadelphi Corridor — the strip of land between Egypt and Gaza and the Strip’s only non-Israeli controlled border. In a press briefing on January 13, Netanyahu said that Israel would not consider the war over until it was closed.

Antonio Guterres speaks at a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting in New York City on January 23.

António Guterres, United Nations secretary-general, has condemned the Israeli military raid on a Khan Younis hospital, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters on Thursday.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) raided Nasser Hospital in Gaza on Thursday and said it detained several suspects.

At least 12 people died following an Israeli airstrike on Nuseirat refugee camp, located in central Gaza, on Thursday, according to a spokesperson for Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

Ten of those killed were women and children, the spokesperson and a doctor at the hospital said. The other two casualties were elderly men, they said. CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment on the alleged airstrike.  

CNN video from Al Aqsa hospital shows the deceased being brought from the camp to the facility in Deir Al-Balah. The bodies of small children shrouded in blankets were carried on stretchers, the video shows.

Members of the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) are seen treating shell-shocked survivors, who were covered in dust and blood as their loved ones tried to comfort them.  

In another CNN video showing the aftermath of the attack, dozens of Palestinian men and young boys could be seen standing in a landscape of crushed buildings. Civilians carried the injured while clambering over sheets of fallen concrete, upturned vehicles and barbed wire.  

Thursday’s attack came after a separate strike in Nuseirat on Wednesday evening, which killed at least 16 people and injured tens of others.

United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday and said his country is “deeply concerned” about the loss of civilian life in Gaza, according to a Downing Street spokesperson.

Sunak also expressed the UK’s concern on the “potentially devastating humanitarian impact” of an Israeli military operation in Rafah, the spokesperson said.

Sunak “reiterated that the immediate priority must be negotiating a humanitarian pause to allow the safe release of hostages and to facilitate considerably more aid going to Gaza, leading to a longer-term sustainable ceasefire,” the Downing Street spokesperson added.

The prime minister urged Israel to open “the Kerem Shalom crossing and allow the maritime delivery of international aid through Ashdod port,” the spokesperson said.

Additionally, Sunak stressed the need for Israel to abide by International Humanitarian Law and protecting civilian infrastructure like hospitals and shelters,” the spokesperson said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference with Albania's Prime Minister in Tirana on Thursday.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken offered his “deepest condolences” Thursday on two American teenagers “who reportedly were killed” in the West Bank and said that there must be an investigation into their deaths.

CNN previously reported that two 17-year-old Palestinian Americans had been reportedly killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces in less than a month.

In addition, an American woman was taken from her home in the West Bank and detained more than a week ago by Israeli forces. Her family alleges that she was beaten and denied medication in custody. A spokesperson for the Israel Prison Service told CNN that she was “being held in accordance with the law” and had been “given medical treatment for medical problems that arose even before her arrest.” 

Two other Americans were detained by Israeli forces during a raid of a home in Gaza last week, according to a family member in the US.

“With regard to detainees, there is a limit to what I can say because of the privacy laws and the requirements that flow from that,” Blinken said.  

“I can just say in general, without reference to specific cases, we insist that people be treated fairly, that they be treated with due process, and that they be treated humanely,” he said. “That’s something that, regardless of where an American citizen might be detained, we insist on. And we’ll continue to insist on.”

Some background: The US State Department said Tuesday that an American died in the West Bank on Saturday, but did not provide a name or the circumstances of their death. The group “Defense for Children – Palestine” said the American was 17-year-old Mohammad Ahmed Mohammad Khdour. The organization said he was shot in the head by Israeli forces on Saturday while traveling by car in the town of Biddu in the West Bank.

Last month, another American, 17-year-old Tawfic Abdel Jabbar was fatally shot in the head and the chest, his father told CNN. The IDF and Israeli police told CNN at the time it received a report that an off-duty police officer and an Israeli civilian fired toward a “Palestinian individual suspected of hurling rocks in the area of Al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya.”

His father, Hafiz Abdel Jabbar, pushed back on Israeli claims in an interview with CNN, saying there was no way his son could have thrown rocks at them from where he was. Abdel Jabbar added that he had video evidence of the incident, which he has sent to the United States Consulate and some senators, saying that finding answers about his son’s death has not been easy so far. 

Israeli special forces have raided Nasser Hospital, the largest functioning hospital in Gaza, after laying siege to the facility for days.

The Israel Defense Forces said it had “apprehended a number of suspects,” with spokesperson Daniel Hagari saying there was “credible intelligence from a number of sources, including from released hostages,” that Hamas had previously held hostages at the hospital. The military did not publicly release that evidence.

Hamas rejected those claims, denying to CNN that it was operating at the hospital. Dr. Ashraf Al-Qidra, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, said Israeli bulldozers were digging up mass graves within the complex walls.

If you’re just joining us, here’s what to know:

Lebanon strikes: Israel says it killed a senior Hezbollah commander and a number of operatives in an airstrike in Lebanon late on Wednesday. Hezbollah said Thursday that a number of its fighters had been killed, but did not specify how, where and when they were killed. Israel has continued its strikes in Lebanon throughout Thursday on what it called “Hezbollah terror targets.”

Panic in Rafah: Rajaa Musleh, the Gaza representative for the non-profit organization MedGlobal, currently based in Rafah, says that health workers who are still alive “may still be breathing, but we are dying inside.” The city is the last remaining refuge in Gaza for displaced Palestinians, and panic is soaring as many decide whether to stay or leave ahead of a planned Israeli offensive.

Yemen strikes: The United States conducted four “self-defense strikes” on several targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, including on missiles prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea, according to a statement from US Central Command. An explosion was reported on a ship off the Yemen coast on Thursday afternoon, though it is not clear what nationality the ship is.

Politicians reject Palestinian state: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, as well as other Israeli politicians have publicly rejected a purported plan to provide a pathway for a Palestinian state, taking to social media to argue against a two-state solution.

Charity request: Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), has called for Israeli forces to “immediately” stop the attack on the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza, after MSF staff reported “an undetermined number of people” were killed and injured. It said the hospital was shelled “despite Israeli forces having told medical staff and patients they could remain in the facility.”

Hamas response: Israel earlier this week gave feedback on a proposed Gaza ceasefire deal, which would see the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and Qatar is waiting for a response from Hamas, a source familiar with the negotiations tells CNN. Israel’s negotiating team on Tuesday left Cairo, where indirect talks between Israel and Hamas are being mediated by Qatar and Egypt.

Israel soldiers: The number of Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war has risen to 233, the Israel Defense Forces said Thursday.

The number of Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war has risen to 233, the Israel Defense Forces said Thursday.

It comes weeks after the military experienced the deadliest day for its troops in the war so far when 24 Israeli soldiers were killed.

Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Younis in Gaza, on December 22, 2020.

Israeli special forces raided Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza on Thursday, the largest functioning hospital in the enclave, after laying siege to the facility for days.

The IDF said they “apprehended a number of suspects” in the hospital, adding that the operation was ongoing.

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said they had “credible intelligence from a number of sources, including from released hostages,” that Hamas had previously held hostages at the hospital, and that the bodies of deceased hostages may be at the hospital. The military did not publicly release that evidence.

He claimed that “Hamas terrorists are likely hiding behind injured civilians inside Nasser hospital right now,” and said the operation would be “precise and limited.”

Hamas has denied to CNN that it is operating at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

“Hamas has no business in the hospital,” Muhammad Nazzal, a member of the Hamas Political Bureau, told CNN on Thursday.

Israeli military bulldozers are digging up the mass graves that had been dug inside the complex walls, Dr. Al-Qidra said.

He said Israeli forces had forced nearly 200 patients to be housed under “harsh and terrifying conditions, without food, without infant formula, and with severe water shortages.”

IDF forces also destroyed two ambulances, the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-controlled enclave alleged on Thursday. They claimed the forces “stormed the maternity building and conducted a search operation inside.” 

CNN has asked the Israel Defense Forces for its response to those allegations. The IDF has not so far responded to any allegations by the ministry.

It comes a day after hundreds of civilians were forced by Israeli forces to leave the hospital, which they had been using as a shelter. 

Palestinian patients arrive in Rafah, Gaza, after they were evacuated from Nasser hospital in Khan Younis due to the Israeli ground operation, on February 15.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin attends the Ash Wednesday mass at the Santa Sabina Basilica in Rome, Italy, on February 14.

Israel has lashed out at the Vatican over comments made by a senior official, in which he referred to Israel’s war in Gaza as “carnage” and “disproportionate.”

Holy See Secretary of State Pietro Parolin made the remarks Tuesday at a reception celebrating the anniversary of the recognition of Vatican City as a sovereign city state. He condemned the October 7 attacks and “all forms of antisemitism” but then questioned whether Israel’s reaction was appropriate. 

The Israel embassy to the Holy See called Parolin’s comments “regrettable“ in a statement issued on Thursday in English. In an earlier Italian version, the embassy used the term “deplorable,” but softened the language in the English version to “regrettable.”

“Judging the legitimacy of a war without taking into account ALL relevant circumstances and data inevitably leads to wrong conclusions,” the unsigned statement reads.

It then lists what it refers to as “relevant data,” saying that “Gaza was transformed by Hamas into the biggest terrorist base ever.” 

“There was hardly any civilian infrastructure that was not used by Hamas for its criminal plans. This includes hospitals, schools, places of worship and many others,” it says. 

The statement goes on to say that the Israeli response has been “in full compliance with international law” and that “three civilians lost their lives for every Hamas militant killed.”

Rescuers check a building targeted overnight by an Israeli air strike in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh on February 15.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it killed a senior commander and two operatives belonging to Hezbollah’s Radwan Forces in an airstrike conducted late Wednesday in Lebanese territory.

The airstrike, carried out on a Hezbollah military structure in Nabatieh, resulted in the deaths of all three individuals, according to the IDF. Ali Muhammad al-Debs, whom they describe as a senior Hezbollah commander, his deputy, Ibrahim Issa and a third unnamed “terror operative” were killed in the airstrike, it said.

“Al-Debs was amongst those who directed the terrorist attack at the Megiddo Junction in Israel in March 2023. He led, planned, and carried out terrorist activity toward the State of Israel, especially during this war,” the IDF said.

Hezbollah said Thursday that a number of its fighters were killed without specifying how, where and when they were killed. One of those killed is Ali Muhammad al-Debs, Hezbollah said. They did not identify him as a “commander.”

“With greater pride and honor, the Islamic Resistance mourns the martyr, the Mujahid Ali Muhammad al-Debs, born in 1976 from the town of Balat and resident of the town of Zabdin in southern Lebanon, who rose as a martyr on the road to Al-Quds,” a Hezbollah statement read.

Hezbollah also claimed that it carried out additional strikes on Israeli army positions on Thursday.

Hezbollah has exchanged near-daily fire with the Israeli military along the Lebanon-Israel border since October, which it says is to support its Palestinian ally Hamas amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

An explosion near a ship 85 nautical miles east of Yemen’s port city of Aden was reported on Thursday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said in its latest advisory note.

“The Master reports an explosion in close proximity to the vessel. The crew and the vessel are reported safe and the vessel is proceeding to its next port of call,” the UKMTO said.

It is unclear what nationality the ship is.

In recent weeks, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have been stepping up their strikes on ships in the Red Sea, which they say are retaliation against Israel for its military campaign in Gaza.

On Monday, Houthi rebels fired on a Greek-owned commercial vessel headed for Iran, according to US Central Command and the US State Department.

Earlier on Thursday, the US said it had struck targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen that “presented an imminent threat,” iincluding on missiles prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea.

Israel earlier this week gave feedback on a proposed Gaza ceasefire deal, which would see the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and Qatar is waiting for a response from Hamas, a source familiar with the negotiations tells CNN.

“Qatar are talking to Hamas in Doha and waiting for their response to the Israeli feedback from the Cairo meeting,” the source said, adding that “the major sticking point remains the Israeli withdrawal of troops from Gaza.”

Israel’s negotiating team on Tuesday left Cairo, where indirect talks between Israel and Hamas are being mediated by Qatar and Egypt.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said Hamas must change its negotiating position before talks can continue in Cairo.

A diplomat familiar with the discussions told CNN Wednesday that Israel had told mediators they will continue to engage in talks but have so far rejected a counterproposal made by Hamas that demanded a large release of Palestinian prisoners.

Palestinian medics stand outside a Red Crescent ambulance during an Israeli army military operation inside the Tulkarem Palestinian refugee camp in the occupied West bank on January 17.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has rejected Israeli military accusations against it and objected to arrests of staff at a hospital in the south Gazan city of Khan Younis earlier this month.

The IDF said that during an operation at al-Amal hospital last week, its forces “detained approximately 20 terrorists, including members of the Hamas terrorist organization who were hiding in the hospital.”

It was, the IDF alleged, “further evidence of Hamas’ cynical exploitation of the Gazan civilian population, with Hamas’ use of hospitals and civilian infrastructure as shields for its terrorist operatives and activities.”

The PRCS said nine of its medical and administrative staff were arrested, along with several patients and their companions.

But, the organization said its employees “do not carry out any work outside the scope of their humanitarian mission.”

“The occupation forces’ methods of defaming medical teams and accusing them of performing actions that fall outside the scope of their humanitarian mission are nothing but a poor attempt to justify their commission of war crimes by killing medical personnel in addition to bombing and destroying hospitals,” the PRCS said in a statement Thursday.

“The PRCS believes that these accusations are only part of a series of excuses fabricated by the occupation forces to justify the siege, bombing, storming of hospitals, and killing of PRCS medical staff and others in the Gaza Strip.”

Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), has called for Israeli forces “immediately” to stop the attack on the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza, after MSF staff reported “an undetermined number of people” were killed and injured.

The hospital “was shelled in the early hours of this morning, despite Israeli Forces having told medical staff and patients they could remain in the facility,” the charity said Thursday on social media, adding that thousands of displaced people were ordered to evacuate the hospital on February 13.

“Following shelling this morning, our staff reported a chaotic situation, with an undetermined number of people killed and injured,” MSF said, adding that since the attack, one of their colleagues remains unaccounted for.

MSF called on the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to “immediately stop this attack, as it endangers medical staff and patients who are still stuck inside the facility.”

“Our medical staff have had to flee the hospital, leaving patients behind. Israeli Forces set up a checkpoint to screen people leaving the compound; one of our colleagues was detained at this checkpoint. We call for his safety and the protection of his dignity,” MSF also said.

Earlier on Thursday, Israeli special forces entered Nasser Hospital. The IDF spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, on Thursday said that “Hamas terrorists are likely hiding behind injured civilians inside Nasser hospital right now.” Hamas has denied to CNN that it is operating at the hospital. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pictured at the Chancellery on March 16, 2023 in Berlin, Germany.

A spokesperson in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Thursday has rejected any discussion, for the moment, about a Palestinian state.

“Now is not the time to be speaking about gifts for the Palestinian people,” Avi Hyman, spokesperson for the National Public Diplomacy Directorate in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, told CNN during a press briefing.

CNN had asked Hyman about reporting by The Washington Post that the Biden Administration and “a small group of Middle East partners” are working to formulate a comprehensive peace plan, which “could be announced as early as the next several weeks.”

“Here is Israel, we’re still in the aftermath of the October 7th massacre,” Hyman said.

“Now is the time for victory – total victory against Hamas. And we will continue on the path to victory. All discussions about the day after Hamas will be had the day after Hamas.”

US President Joe Biden has made clear that he hopes that a ceasefire deal, which would see the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, could lead to a more lasting peace “on the basis of the two-state solution.” 

An aerial view of the Knesset building, Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem, on October 23 2018.

Israeli politicians, including far-right ministers in government, have publicly rejected a purported plan to provide a pathway for a Palestinian state, taking to social media to argue against a two-state solution.

The Washington Post on Wednesday reported that the Biden Administration and “a small group of Middle East partners” are working to formulate a “comprehensive plan” for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, which would include a pathway to a Palestinian state.

CNN cannot confirm The Washington Post’s reporting.

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called it “a reward for the terrible massacre they [Hamas] did to us” on October 7. “The message is that it pays very well to massacre Israeli citizens,” Smotrich – who also holds a position within the Defense Ministry – said on X.

Additionally, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right Israeli Security Minister, expressed his rejection of the plan on X, saying “1,400 are murdered and the world wants to give them a state. Not going to happen!”

But, it is not only far-right ministers rejecting the purported plan.

Gideon Sa’ar, a center-right politician who left Likud and is now part of Benny Gantz’s National Unity party, said that the reported plan would “not only not resolve the conflict but will make it intractable.”

“The Palestinians will receive recognition in the state without paying the price of compromise and will continue the conflict from an upgraded position that will harm Israel’s right to self-defense,” Saar said on X.

Ze’ev Elkin, who is also a member of National Unity, said it was “not going to happen!” and that creating the state would lead to the “risk of a repeat of the events of 7.10 for the entire country” on X.