January 6, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

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

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari speaks to the press in Tel Aviv on October 18.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed Saturday that it had completed dismantling Hamas’ command structure in northern Gaza.

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the IDF was now focused on dismantling Hamas in central and southern Gaza. 

Hagari told a press conference that around 8,000 Hamas militants had been killed in northern Gaza. 

CNN cannot independently verify the IDF claim that it has dismantled the Hamas command structure in northern Gaza or that 8,000 Hamas militants have been killed.  

At least 22,438 people have been killed in Gaza as a result of Israeli military operations that began following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.

Almost 70% of those individuals killed in Gaza are women and children, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a report released in December.

Hagari said the IDF would continue its effort to dismantle Hamas, but this would take time. 

The Israel Defense Forces dropped new flyers in neighborhoods in central Gaza on Saturday, urging Palestinians to evacuate to the nearby city of Deir al-Balah. 

The IDF said people in the neighborhoods of Al-Amal, Al-Sdera, Al-Basateen, Al-Farouq and Ain Jalout are in a dangerous war zone.

United Nations officials have previously said there is nowhere safe for civilians to go in Gaza. Many displaced residents have already fled to Deir al-Balah. Gazans told CNN this week that living conditions there are dismal, despite instructions from the Israeli military that it would be safer there.

Here are some of today’s other key updates:

Members of the Abu Jarad family, who were displaced by the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, bake bread at a makeshift tent camp in the Muwasi area of southern Gaza on January 1.

Almost 90% of Palestinians in Gaza have been forcibly displaced due to Israel’s war on Hamas, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

About two million people live in Gaza. The civilians there “lack everything,” the UNRWA said.

Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami speaks during a funeral ceremony on January 5, in Kerman, Iran.

Iran is facing an “all-out battle” with an “enemy” actor, a top Iranian commander said, as Western nations vow to tackle the recent slew of attacks from Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.

Salami did not name the enemy during the televised speech, Reuters reported.  

On January 2, the Iranian Navy dispatched a military destroyer to the Red Sea as tensions in the waterway soared. Although Iran did not officially provide a reason for the deployment, state-affiliated Tasnim News Agency said the destroyer was dispatched as part of a series of vessels taking part “in regular missions in international waters.” 

Key context: The Houthi rebels, considered to be one of Iran’s proxies, have launched several attacks against commercial and merchant vessels in the Red Sea in what the group has called a revenge campaign against Israel’s war in Gaza.   

A coalition of 11 countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, condemned the “illegal” and “profoundly destabilizing” attacks in a joint statement Wednesday. The coalition outlined their serious intention to “hold malign actors accountable” for “unlawful seizures and attacks.”    

The UK’s finance minister underlined the severity of the situation during an interview with BBC Radio 4 Saturday, acknowledging that attacks “may have an impact” on the global economy.

Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt said the UK and its partners have made it “very clear to the Houthis” that the rebel group’s actions in the Red Sea will bear “consequences.”  

“We will not just sit back and accept that, because it’s so vital for global trade,” Hunt warned.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on December 10.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Saturday that the war against Hamas “must not be stopped” until Israel achieves three main objectives: “eliminate Hamas, return our hostages and ensure that Gaza will no longer be a threat to Israel.”

In a statement released Saturday by his office, the prime minister said Israel will “not give Hamas immunity anywhere, and we are fighting to restore security in both the south and the north.”

Israel’s plans for new phase of war: Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday unveiled plans for the next phase of the war in Gaza. In the third phase, Israel Defense Forces soldiers in northern Gaza will adopt a “new combat approach” encompassing “raids, the destruction of terror tunnels, aerial and ground activities, and special operations,” according to Gallant.

In southern Gaza, the Israeli military will continue its pursuit of Hamas leaders in the region “for as long as necessary,” Gallant said. Israeli forces stationed in the south will also focus on “enabling the return of the hostages” still in captivity, he added. 

Gallant also provided details of the fourth and supposed final phase of the war, entitled the “Day After.” The post-war phase announced by Gallant envisages a Gaza Strip no longer controlled by Hamas, which would no longer “pose a security threat to the citizens of Israel.” 

Once the “goals of the war have achieved” there would be “no Israeli civilian presence in the Gaza Strip,” according to his plan. Israel would, however, maintain its “operational freedom of action in the Gaza strip” and continue to “carry out the inspection of goods entering the Gaza strip,” the plan stated. 

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna addresses a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon, on December 18.

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna says she gave Iran a “very clear message” that it must stop its “destabilizing actions” in the Middle East during a call with her Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Saturday.

France’s conversation with Iran comes amid concerns about a broader conflict breaking out in the Middle East following recent attacks across the region. Houthi rebels, based in Yemen and backed by Iran, have been attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea over recent months in what the group has called a revenge campaign against Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.    

Tensions have also flared between Israel and Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah this week, following the killing of a senior Hamas leader in Beirut on Tuesday. 

Israel has not taken responsibility for Tuesday’s attack, with Mark Regev, a senior adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, telling MSNBC that whoever masterminded the attack “has a gripe with Hamas” itself.   

The European Union has also stressed that regional escalation in the Middle East must be avoided. 

The head of Hamas’ political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, says he hopes US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will be “more focused” on ending Israeli “aggression” in Gaza during the top diplomat’s multi-country visit to the region.

Blinken is undertaking another shuttle diplomacy tour amid heightened fears that the Israel-Hamas war may spill over into a wider regional conflict. Attacks in Lebanon, Iran and Iraq this week have spiked tensions in the region as Iranian proxy groups Hezbollah and the Houthis increase their threats against Israel.  

In a video message shared by Hamas on Saturday, the Doha-based Hamas political leader said he hopes the US has “realized the extent” of its “mistakes” in supporting Israel.   

Haniyeh said Hamas hopes Blinken — in his fourth trip to the region since Hamas’ attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023 — will be “more focused this time to end the aggression” being carried out by Israel in the Gaza Strip.  

Earlier this week, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant unveiled the third phase of the war campaign in Gaza, which includes a new combat approach in the north and a commitment to keep pursuing Hamas leaders in southern Gaza for “for as long as necessary.”  

Haniyeh also said that leaders of Arab nations who meet Blinken should “stress to the US administration that the future and stability” of the region is linked to the “Palestinian cause.”   

He reiterated Hamas’ view that the Palestinian people should have a “completely independent state” with “complete sovereignty.”  

More on Blinken’s trip: Indirect back-channeling to Iran will also be a key focus of Blinken’s trip, a senior State Department official said Friday.nThe top US diplomat will make clear to the leaders with whom he meets that the US does not want to see the conflict escalate nor do they intend to escalate it. The US expects that message to then be conveyed to Iran and Iranian proxies through the countries that have a relationship with them, the official said.

The secretary of state met with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. After going to Greece, he will travel to Jordan, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank, and Egypt. 

The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, stressed that it is “absolutely necessary” to avoid Lebanon “being dragged into a regional conflict” as the paramilitary group Hezbollah engages in intensifying clashes with Israeli forces across the Lebanese border.

Tensions between Israel and Hezbollah were further inflamed this week by the killing of a senior Hamas leader in Beirut. 

Borrell also said the entire international community needs to work toward “change in the Middle East,” adding that “we cannot continue with the deplorable, awful track record of the last year or the last decade” in the region. 

Bou Habib also spoke at the news conference, telling reporters that he “strongly reaffirm(s) that peace for Lebanon is essential and that all Lebanese (people) are attached to peace.” 

“The Lebanese government is actively seeking to de-escalate” the situation at the border, he said.

Borrell will travel to Saudi Arabia on Sunday, he said at Saturday’s news conference, where he will be discussing “concrete steps that could galvanize a serious international peace effort.” 

“Nobody will win from a regional conflict,” he said, referencing growing fears that the Israel-Hamas war could spill into a wider conflict involving Iranian proxy groups like Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Palestinians leave their homes in Deir-al-Balah, Gaza, on January 6.

The Israel Defense Forces dropped new flyers on neighborhoods in central Gaza on Saturday, urging Palestinians to evacuate to the nearby city of Deir al-Balah. 

The IDF said people in the neighborhoods Al-Amal, Al-Sdera, Al-Basateen, Al-Farouq and Ain Jalout are in a dangerous war zone.  

The IDF has frequently dropped warning leaflets to warn residents of Gaza to leave their neighborhoods. Given poor communication systems across Gaza, it is not clear how effective the leaflets are.

United Nations officials have previously said there is nowhere safe for civilians to go in Gaza.

Dismal conditions in Deir al-Balah: Many displaced residents have already fled to Deir al-Balah. Gazans told CNN this week that living conditions there are primitive at best, despite instructions from the Israeli military that it would be safer there.

Generations of Palestinians are camped out among the rubble of flattened buildings in the central city.

Abu Adnan, a displaced civilian who now lives on the streets of Deir al-Balah, told CNN he wishes he had “stayed at home and got shot.”

“I tried to go back home twice but my children pulled me back,” he said. “There are no toilets, no food, no water, no clothes. With all this, I prefer to go back home and die with dignity than dying this way.”

CNN’s Sana Noor Haq contributed reporting to this post.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul, Turkey, on January 6.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the country’s foreign minister as he began a whirlwind tour through the region to try to deter a wider conflict and press Israel on its military campaign in Gaza. 

According to a statement from the US State Department, Blinken and Erdogan discussed the conflict in Gaza and European security priorities.

Turkey’s foreign ministry said on X that Blinken discussed the war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as well as Sweden’s bid to join NATO in a meeting with his Turkish counterpart. 

Blinken has now departed Istanbul for the Greek island of Crete to meet Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. 

After Greece, he will travel to Jordan, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank, and Egypt. 

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah says it fired a total of 62 rockets at an Israeli observation post along the Israel-Lebanon border on Saturday as an “initial response” to the killing of a senior Hamas leader in Beirut earlier this week.   

In a statement, Hezbollah said its fighters launched an attack shortly after 8am local time (1aET) on the Meron Air Surveillance Base in northern Israel as an “initial response” to the killing of Saleh Al-Arouri in southern Beirut on Tuesday.   

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that “approximately 40 launches” from Lebanon toward the area of Meron in northern Israel were identified after sirens sounded in northern Israel on Saturday.

Red alerts - warning of potential incoming rocket fire including where intercept shrapnel may fall - were issued for over 100 locations in northern Israel on Saturday morning.   

The Israeli military then struck the Hezbollah fighters who “took part in the launches,” the statement added.   

Fears of a wider war: Earlier this week, Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib told CNN that his government hoped Hezbollah didn’t respond to the Beirut attack, stressing Lebanon did not want “any escalation in the war.”   

Israel has not taken responsibility for Tuesday’s attack, with Mark Regev, a senior adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, telling MSNBC that whoever masterminded the attack “has a gripe with Hamas” itself.   

But if Israeli involvement is confirmed, Arouri would be the most senior Hamas official killed by Israeli forces since the start of the war sparked by the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

In addition to dealing a blow to Hamas’ leadership, the apparent attack also risks further broadening the arena of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Smoke rises after an Israeli strike in Khan Younis, Gaza, on January 6.

At least 122 people have been killed overnight and 256 injured during the past 24 hours by Israeli forces, the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza said in a statement Saturday.

Earlier, the ministry confirmed to CNN that at least 22 people were killed in Khan Younis in the south overnight, and more than 30 were killed in other parts of Gaza as Israeli military operations continue.

Footage from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where casualties have been arriving, shows staff urgently trying to treat severely wounded victims and also victims’ bodies wrapped in sheets with their loved ones gathered around.

CNN cannot independently verify the casualty figures reported by the Gaza Health Ministry due to limited access to the area. 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also confirmed it had struck Khan Younis in southern Gaza over the past day, adding that “IDF troops killed numerous terrorists from the ground and the air, and destroyed a number of tunnel shafts.”

A local journalist in Deir al-Balah in southern Gaza also told CNN of the strikes overnight Saturday and added that Israeli military tanks were at Al Zawaydeh cemetery, 2km away from Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, with an ongoing exchange of gunfire. 

The number of Palestinians killed in Gaza has risen to 22,722, plus 58,166 injuries since October 7, the Hamas-controlled health ministry statement added.

The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants but has said about 70% of the dead are women and children. 

Secretary General of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Hussein al-Sheikh attends a meeting with the US Secretary of State and other foreign ministers in Amman, Jordan, on November 4, 2023.

Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee Secretary General Hussein al-Sheikh said Saturday that “the future of the Gaza Strip is determined by the Palestinian people, not Israel.”

The statement follows debates within Israel over the plan for Gaza when combat is finished.

As the main component of the Palestinian Authority, the PLO partially runs the occupied West Bank. It was ousted by Hamas from Gaza in 2007

Some context: Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant outlined plans for what might follow after the war in a three-page document entitled the “Day After.”

After the war, the Israeli military would maintain “operational freedom of action in the Gaza Strip” and Israel would continue to “carry out the inspection of goods entering” the territory.

Gallant, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s center-right Likud party, said that once the goals of the war have been achieved there would be “no Israeli civilian presence in the Gaza Strip,” appearing to rule out the re-establishment of Israeli settlements in Gaza that Israel unilaterally removed in 2005.

The plan prompted fiery discussion within the Israeli cabinet, according to a source.

Gallant’s plan was criticized Friday by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who along with far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has advocated for resettling Gazans outside the enclave. Their comments have drawn condemnation from the United States, United Nations officials and several Arab states.

Israeli troops move out of Gaza as smoke rises on January 5.

Nearly three months into Israel’s military onslaught against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, divisions within its wartime government have become increasingly public.

Some of Israel’s leading politicians publicly feuded Friday after what one source described as a “fight” in a security cabinet meeting over how to handle investigations into the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

There have also been public disagreements about the post-war plan for Gaza.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant outlined a vision Thursday that envisages no Hamas control of the enclave and no presence of Israeli citizens. The plan was criticized by the country’s far-right finance minister, who has championed the idea of a Palestinian exodus from Gaza. The minister called for renewed Israeli settlement construction in Gaza and the “voluntary migration” of its civilians.

Here’s what else you need to know today:

Military to probe “failures”: Israel’s military is expected to launch an operational investigation to learn from its “failures” and apply those lessons to future security challenges, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Friday. An internal investigation would be conducted within the chain of command, and another investigation would be carried out by former senior officials to “externally reflect on the processes and decision-making,” Hagari said.

Famine “around the corner” in Gaza: People in Gaza face the “highest levels of food insecurity ever recorded,” according to Martin Griffiths, the United Nations’ top emergency relief official. Gaza is “a place of death and despair,” Griffiths said Friday, as hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians live without access to basic necessities in the tent camps packing southern Gaza.

Satellite images taken Wednesday and published today show the extent of the crowding there.

Deadly Israeli airstrikes: Several Israeli airstrikes on Khan Younis in southern Gaza left at least 12 people dead Friday, according to a statement from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah.

Elsewhere, at least 10 Palestinians were killed in the area of the Al-Maghazi refugee camp, according to a doctor at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. The doctor added that a separate airstrike on a house in Deir al-Balah killed three people and left seven wounded. CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment on the strikes.

Major diplomatic visits: Two key visits from Western officials this weekend come as leaders in the Middle East warn of the potential for an expanded regional conflict stemming from the Israel-Hamas war.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Turkey for the first stop in a multi-country tour. His visit will focus on indirect, back-channel diplomacy with Iran, which backs the Houthi rebels in Yemen and Hezbollah paramilitary group in Lebanon — two key players in the region’s inflamed tensions.

Meanwhile, the European Union’s foreign policy chief is in Lebanon to discuss the situation at its border with Israel, which is the site of regular clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli troops.

More on the Iranian proxy groups: Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah claimed Friday that many Israeli troops have been killed or wounded during the ongoing clashes, which he says are aimed “to mount pressure on the enemy government and to stop the assault on Gaza.”  

Meanwhile, in Yemen, Houthi supporters gathered Friday to commemorate fighters killed by the US Navy in the Red Sea on December 31.

Tunnel discovery: Israel’s military released a video Friday showing one of what it says are seven tunnel shafts underneath the Blue Beach resort along the Mediterranean Sea in northern Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces accuses Hamas of using the tunnel system to carry out “attacks both above and below ground.” CNN cannot independently verify the IDF’s claims.

Israel’s military is expected to launch an operational investigation to learn from its “failures” and apply those lessons to future security challenges, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari told a news briefing on Friday, without specifying what the investigation process would focus on.

He said that an internal investigation would be conducted within the chain of command, and another investigation would be carried out alongside it by former senior officials to “externally reflect on the processes and decision-making.”

Hagari added that the IDF has not yet started the investigation process, but the General Staff of the IDF is “formulating the process of planning the investigations” and choosing the leaders of the operational investigation, according to the IDF’s English translation of his comments.

He also said the probe would be similar to another investigation the military recently conducted into the deaths of three Israeli hostages mistakenly shot by the IDF’s soldiers.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has arrived in Lebanon to discuss the situation at the country’s border with Israel, an EU spokesperson told CNN on Friday. 

Borrell will be in Lebanon through Sunday to discuss the “situation in and around Gaza, including its impact on the region, especially the situation at the Israeli-Lebanese border, as well as the importance of avoiding regional escalation and of sustaining the flow of humanitarian assistance to civilians,” the EU said in a news release.

Some context: The visit comes after top Israeli officials told a visiting US envoy Thursday that time is running low to address security on its border with Lebanon.

Tensions with Iran-backed Hezbollah were further inflamed this week by the killing of a senior Hamas leader in Beirut, raising the fear of broader conflicts in the region.

There have been near-constant skirmishes between Israel and Hezbollah, the militant group that dominates southern Lebanon, since Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel and the ensuing Israeli offensive in Gaza.

An alleged Hamas tunnel is seen under the Blue Beach resort in Gaza, in this screengrab from a video released by The Israel Defense Forces on Friday, January 5.

Israel’s military released a video Friday showing one of what it says are seven tunnel shafts underneath the Blue Beach resort along the Mediterranean in northern Gaza.

The Israel Defense Forces accuses Hamas of using the tunnel system to carry out “attacks both above and below ground.”

The tunnel shafts, which run underground near the beach, also house “terrorist quarters,” the IDF claimed in a statement.   

The military also said it discovered an array of weapons beneath the hotel, including AK-47 assault rifles, explosives and drones.

The IDF claims several Hamas militants fired anti-tank missiles at its forces from the hotel while they were battling for the tunnels.   

CNN cannot independently verify the IDF’s claims.  

About Gaza’s tunnels: One of the key challenges facing the Israeli military is the labyrinth of Hamas tunnels that it says spans the entirety of the strip.

The underground network, known as the “Gaza metro,” is used to transport people and goods, store rockets and ammunition caches, and house Hamas command and control centers — all away from the prying eyes of the IDF’s aircraft and surveillance drones.

Hamas in 2021 claimed to have built 500 kilometers (about 311 miles) worth of tunnels under Gaza, though it is unclear if that figure was accurate or posturing.

During its ongoing offensive in the enclave, the Israeli military claims it has destroyed hundreds of tunnel shafts and discovered many more.

CNN’s Nadeen Ebrahim and Joshua Berlinger contributed reporting to this post.

Palestinian children carry pots as they line up to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen in southern Gaza on December 14.

Famine is “around the corner” as people in Gaza face the “highest levels of food insecurity ever recorded,” according to Martin Griffiths, the United Nations’ top emergency relief official.

Griffiths says Gaza has become “a place of death and despair,” saying in a news release published Friday that the death toll has reached the tens of thousands, medical facilities are under attack and there is a lack of functioning hospitals.

“Hope has never been more elusive,” Griffiths wrote in the report, which was released by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs almost three months since Hamas launched its attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

A public health disaster is unfolding as sewers spill over and infectious diseases spread in overcrowded shelters, Griffiths said. Around 180 Palestinian women “are giving birth daily amidst this chaos,” the UN official added.

“Meanwhile, rocket attacks on Israel continue, more than 120 people are still held hostage in Gaza, tensions in the West Bank are boiling, and the specter of further regional spillover of the war is looming dangerously close,” he added.

Fears of a broader war in the Middle East, spurred on by incidents involving Iranian proxy groups like the Houthi rebels in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon, are a key focus of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s current trip to the region.

Griffiths urged all involved in the ongoing war to observe international law, “including to protect civilians and meet their essential needs, and to release all hostages immediately.” He called on the international community to use all its influence to help make this happen.

“This war should never have started. But it’s long past time for it to end,” Griffiths said.