January 20, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

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

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv, Israel, on January 7.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday his desire for security control over all territory west of Jordan is contrary to the existence of a Palestinian state.

He did not provide any other details in his one-line post, which came a day after he had a phone call with US President Joe Biden which included discussions on the matter. 

Netanyahu’s social media post echoes a statement he made in a press conference on Thursday where he said Israel “must control security of all the land which is west of the Jordan River.” 

In a separate post, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir also reasserted his rejection of a Palestinian state.

“I do deny a Palestinian state. Always!” Ben Gvir said on X.

Iran’s president has vowed to retaliate after five Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members who were serving on a military advisory mission in Syria were killed in an airstrike on a residential building in Damascus, according to the IRGC. Both Iran and Syria said Israel launched the strike. The Israel Defense Forces has declined to comment on the allegations, telling CNN, “We do not comment on foreign reports.”

The reported strike comes as fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East continue to grow.

Here’s what else you should know:

Mark Regev, the senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that Israel intends for Palestinians to govern themselves but without the capability to threaten Israel. 

Regev responded to statements made by Netanyahu in a press conference on Thursday where he said Israel “must control security of all the land which is west of the Jordan River.” Netanyahu’s apparent rejection of a post-war Palestinian state in that press conference was followed by a phone call with US President Joe Biden on Friday. A person familiar with the conversation told CNN that Netanyahu explained to Biden his comments on Thursday were not meant to foreclose a Palestinian state in any form. Netanyahu’s office on Saturday said the prime minister told Biden that Israel must retain security control over Gaza following the war against Hamas. 

Regev said Netanyahu “has repeatedly said that Palestinians should have all the powers to rule themselves, that none of the powers threaten Israel.”

Regev maintained that Israel has always prioritized security and discussed demilitarization, even more so following the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023.

CNN’s MJ Lee and Kevin Liptak contributed reporting to this post.

A 2019 file photo of Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq.

US personnel were injured in a ballistic missile attack on Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq, according to two US officials. US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed that multiple ballistic missiles and rockets targeted the base and, while most were intercepted, some did make impact.

The attack resulted in minor injuries, the two officials said, though it was not immediately clear how many personnel had been injured. In a statement, CENTCOM said some personnel “are undergoing evaluation for traumatic brain injuries.”

Attacks since October 7: The Saturday attack appears to be the second time ballistic missiles have been used to target US and coalition forces in Iraq since October 7, 2023, when Iran-backed Shia militias began launching attacks on coalition bases after the beginning of the war in Gaza. The US and coalition forces have come under attack more than 140 times in Iraq and Syria since then, as Iranian-backed Shia militias have launched repeated drone and rockets. The use of more powerful ballistic missiles — far rarer than rockets or one-way attack drones — comes at a time of increased tension in the region as the war passes 100 days.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an Iran-backed militia group, claimed responsibility for the missile attack. The group emphasized in a statement Saturday its commitment to resisting American “occupation forces” in the region and cited the attack as a response to what they referred to as the “Zionist entity’s massacres” against the Palestinian people in Gaza. US forces in Iraq and Syria operate as part of the coalition to defeat ISIS. 

In a statement, the United Nations secretary-general’s special representative for Iraq warned that the region is at a “critical juncture” stemming from the war in Gaza that risks drawing Iraq further into the conflict.

On Monday, northern Iraq was the target of ballistic missile strikes by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for having what the organization said was a spy base for Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad. The US condemned the strikes as “reckless” and imprecise.

Learn more about this attack and others in the region.

The Israel Defense Forces said troops uncovered a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis where Hamas allegedly held hostages, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in a news conference on Saturday.

After IDF troops fought and killed several Hamas fighters at the entrance, they proceeded down the tunnel, which contained explosives and blast-proof doors, Hagari said.

About 20 meters (about 66 feet) underground, the IDF claims it found a central space. Hagari said hostages who have since returned to Israel said this is where they spent a majority of their time. 

Though no hostages were in the tunnel during the IDF’s operation, Hagari said they found evidence of their presence, including a drawing made by 5-year-old Emilia Aloni. The IDF released several images they said show the underground cells and the drawings they retrieved from inside the tunnels.

Further down, they found five prison cells, each equipped with a toilet and a mattress. Hagari said the IDF has evidence that about 20 hostages were held in the tunnel at different times.

The IDF allowed foreign journalists to access the tunnels before they were destroyed Friday, Hagari said.

People gather in front of a building destroyed in a reported Israeli strike in Damascus, Syria, on Saturday. 

The head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force Intelligence unit in Syria was among those killed in the attack in Damascus on Saturday, according to Iranian state media IRNA.

Hojjatollah Omidvar — who, according to the IRGC, also goes by Sadegh Omidzadeh — was the deputy chief of the Quds Force intelligence unit in Syria, according to Iran’s semi-official Student News Network (SNN) news agency.

The IRGC’s Quds Force is one of five branches of the Revolutionary Guards unit in charge of foreign operations.

The IRGC identified the four other killed IRGC members as military advisers named Ali Aghazadeh, Hossein Mohammadi, Saeed Karimi and Mohammad Amin Samadi.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi attends a meeting in Tehran, Iran, on October 23, 2023.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Saturday strongly condemned the deaths of five members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in a suspected Israeli missile strike on the Syrian capital of Damascus, according to Iranian state media Press TV.

Reacting to the strike — in what is the latest tit-for-tat escalation of hostilities that further risks spiraling into a wider regional conflict — Raisi vowed that Iran would retaliate, saying such “cowardly” acts will not go unanswered.

Raisi also said the attack would be “another stain on the record of all governments who claim to be the advocates of human rights because it violated Syria’s airspace and trampled on human and international laws,” according to Iranian state media.

The Syrian Ministry of Defense claimed Israel “launched an air attack from the Golan Heights at 10:20 a.m. local time that targeted a residential building in the Mazzeh neighborhood in Damascus.” In a statement, the ministry said its defenses managed to intercept and shoot “down a number of the enemy’s missiles.”

The Israeli military declined to comment on the Iranian and Syrian allegations that they were behind the attack. An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson told CNN: “We do not comment on foreign reports.”

People and rescuers gather in front of a building destroyed in a reported Israeli strike in Damascus, Syria, on January 20.

At least five people have been killed in a missile strike on a building in Damascus, Iran’s English-language state media outlet Press TV reported Saturday evening.

This follows reports earlier Saturday that four Iranian military advisers and several members of Syrian forces had been killed in what was deemed an Israeli missile strike, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, which cited the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). 

Syrian state TV, which also accused Israel of the attack, said earlier that several people were killed and injured in Saturday’s missile strike in the Mazzeh neighborhood, home to several diplomatic missions including the Iranian embassy. 

The IRGC named the four military members as Hojatollah Omidvar, Ali Aghazadeh, Hossein Mohammadi and Saeed Karimi. 

“The Supreme Leader and Commander in Chief offered condolences and congratulations to the families of the great martyrs and to the fighters and commanders of the Islamic resistance front,” Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, citing the IRGC. 

Syrian civil defense teams were searching for people they believe are trapped under the rubble, state TV reported, and that a number of surrounding buildings and nearby vehicles were also damaged in the strike.

The Israel Defense Forces declined to comment on the strike, telling CNN on Saturday: “We do not comment on foreign reports.”

Escalating tensions: The reported strike comes as fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East continue to grow.

Along with northern Iraq, Syria was the target of ballistic missile strikes launched by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Monday at what the organization said was “anti-Iran terror groups.”

On Friday, the US conducted its sixth reported strike on Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

This post has been updated to reflect the latest death toll provided by officials.

European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell speaks during a news conference in Beirut, Lebanon, on January 6.

The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said Friday that Israel created and financed Hamas in order to weaken the Palestinian Authority led by the Fatah party. 

“We believe that a two-state solution [Israeli and Palestinian] must be imposed from the outside to bring peace back, even if, and I insist, Israel reaffirms its refusal [of this solution], and to prevent it they have gone so far as to create Hamas itself,” Borrell said. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under criticism over Qatar’s funding of Gaza, a deal that was approved in 2018 by Israel and which Netanyahu defended at the time, as CNN has reported. 

“We have already fought three times against Hamas. We don’t want to carry out such military operations so that they become bigger,” Netanyahu told BILD.

In his Friday speech, Borrell stressed the need to intervene in the war in Gaza, saying: “If we do not intervene firmly, the spiral of hatred and violence will continue from generation to generation, from funeral to funeral.”

US forces on Saturday struck and destroyed a Houthi anti-ship missile aimed into the Gulf of Aden, south of Yemen, US Central Command said, as efforts continue to degrade the Iran-backed group’s capabilities.

“U.S. forces determined the missile presented a threat to merchant vessels and U.S. Navy ships in the region, and subsequently struck and destroyed the missile in self-defense,” the statement read. “This action will make international waters safer and more secure for U.S. Navy and merchant vessels.”

Some context: The US and its partners have sought to deter Houthi attacks on shipping and merchant vessels in the Red Sea, including intercepting missiles and drones aimed toward commercial ships.

The US has said the pattern of strikes is likely to continue as it works to degrade the Houthis’ military capabilities.

So far, however, the strikes have failed to deter the Houthi attacks on ships passing through the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea on the critical shipping route toward the Suez Canal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads a cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv, Israel, on January 7.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office on Saturday responded to CNN reporting from Friday that Benjamin Netanyahu, in a private phone call with US President Joe Biden, said he was not foreclosing the possibility of a future Palestinian state in any form. Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister told Biden that Israel must retain security control over Gaza following the war against Hamas. 

CNN previously reported that Netanyahu told Biden in a phone call Friday that public comments he made a day earlier — in which he appeared to reject the idea of creating a Palestinian state — were not meant to foreclose that outcome in any form, a person familiar with the conversation told CNN.

Hours after getting off the phone with Netanyahu, Biden told reporters at the White House that he believed Netanyahu could ultimately be convinced of a two-state solution. 

Biden and Netanyahu remain publicly at odds over the fundamental question of what will happen to Gaza once the war against Hamas concludes, despite intense American efforts over the past several months to engage officials in Israel and the wider region on a plan they hope can finally resolve the decades-long conflict.

Kevin Liptak and MJ Lee contributed reporting.

The Jordanian military has accused Israeli forces of deliberately targeting its field hospital in Gaza on Wednesday, saying Israeli tanks fired on the hospital where personnel were sheltering.

The Israel Defense Forces have denied the claim, saying they did not strike the Jordanian field hospital and that the hospital remains “unharmed, fully functioning and continues to provide medical care to those in need.”

The armed forces said the attack involved heavy firepower, including direct fire from tanks and vehicles, and that one tank blocked the entrance to the hospital

It said one Jordanian officer and one person from Gaza who was receiving treatment were injured in the attack, which also caused “substantial material damage” to the facility. The injured Jordanian officer will be evacuated to Jordan, the statement said.

The Jordanian Army provided video they say shows damage to the hospital following attacks in the area Wednesday. The video shows what appear to be shell or bullet holes in the walls of the hospital, as well as damage to the roof.

The IDF acknowledged a member of the medical staff was injured, but said the source of the gunfire “has not been determined.”

People stand near to a car destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in al-Bazouriya, Lebanon, on Saturday, January 20.

Two people were killed after an Israeli airstrike on Saturday hit a vehicle in Lebanon in the town of al-Bazouriya near the border, the Lebanese state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported.

A separate drone strike hit a house in Marwahin, Lebanon, that had previously been targeted by Israel, according to NNA. The agency also said two Israeli airstrikes hit different locations in and around al-Adisa while Israeli artillery hit towns on the eastern and western sectors of the border.

Hezbollah said it launched three attacks on Israeli military sites on Saturday, targeting soldiers’ gatherings near the Zareit barracks, al-Dhuhaira and Honein.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not commented on the two reported deaths in Lebanon, but released a statement regarding strikes in other areas.

The IDF statement added that overnight, Israeli tanks fired to “remove a threat” in the Har Dov area, also known as the Shebaa Farms – a common flashpoint along the border.

The IDF also said it identified two launches from Lebanese territory on Saturday and responded with fire.

Some context: Israel has exchanged cross-border fire with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah since the outbreak of the conflict.

Fear is growing that what were once tit-for-tat strikes between the two forces in a four-kilometer range of the northern border region could spiral further.

The United Kingdom’s shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy said Saturday that a future Labour government would support a Palestinian state and a two-state solution with Israel.

The Labour party is currently polling far ahead of the ruling Conservative party – which has also reiterated its appeal for a two-state solution – and analysts predict it will defeat the sitting government in a general election expected later this year. Lammy would become the UK’s foreign secretary should he remain in his assumed role. 

On Thursday, Netanyahu appeared to reject the idea of a Palestinian state after saying that “Israel needs security control over all territory west of Jordan” after the war. However, he told Biden on Friday that his comments were not meant to foreclose the outcome of one, a person familiar with the conversation told CNN.

“Of course, the Palestinian people deserve a state,” Lammy added. “And if they don’t, the consequences of that are either one state in which Benjamin Netanyahu would have to explain how Palestinians and Israelis live side-by-side with equal rights, or no state, in which what he’s really saying is: occupation and siege continues.” 

Palestinians check damaged graves at a cemetery following an Israeli raid in Khan Younis, Gaza, on January 17.

The Israeli military has desecrated at least 16 cemeteries in its ground offensive in Gaza, a CNN investigation has found, leaving gravestones ruined, soil upturned, and, in some cases, bodies unearthed.

In Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, where fighting escalated earlier this week, Israeli forces destroyed a cemetery, removing bodies in what the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told CNN was part of a search for the remains of hostages seized by Hamas during the October 7 terror attacks.

CNN has reviewed satellite imagery and social media footage showing the destruction of cemeteries and witnessed it firsthand while traveling with the IDF in a convoy. Together the evidence reveals a systemic practice where Israeli ground forces have advanced across the Gaza Strip.

The intentional destruction of religious sites, such as cemeteries, violates international law, except under narrow circumstances relating to that site becoming a military objective, and legal experts told CNN that Israel’s acts could amount to war crimes.

A spokesman for the IDF could not account for the destruction of the 16 cemeteries CNN provided coordinates for, but said the military sometimes has “no other choice” but to target cemeteries it claimed Hamas uses for military purposes.

The IDF said rescuing the hostages and finding and returning their bodies is one of its key missions in Gaza, which is why bodies were removed from some gravesites.

Read more.

Intense Israeli bombardment and heavy fighting in the area around a large hospital in southern Gaza killed at least 29 people Friday, according to Palestinian state news agency WAFA.

Nasser Hospital, the largest remaining health facility in the city of Khan Younis, and several residential buildings came under “violent bombardment” by Israeli artillery and military vehicles, according to WAFA.

Khan Younis has been the epicenter of Israel’s ground operation in recent weeks. The fighting has forced thousands of Gazans to flee the area, many of them already displaced from northern neighborhoods where Israel first launched its offensive.

Displaced Palestinians continue to arrive in overcrowded Rafah, near the border with Egypt, by “the thousands,” a United Nations human rights official said Friday. There, they shelter in makeshift tents with little food or clean water.

The State Department officially confirmed the death of a US citizen in the West Bank on Friday and has asked the Israeli government for more information, a spokesperson told CNN.

“We extend our deepest condolences to the family,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson did not provide the individual’s name due to privacy considerations.

“Out of respect to the family during this difficult time, we have no further comment,” the spokesperson said.

CNN reported earlier Friday, citing Palestinian news agency WAFA, that Tawfiq Hafiz Ajjaq, 17, was fatally shot.

The Israel Defense Forces(IDF) and Israeli police told CNN 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.”   

IDF says it is reviewing claims that a soldier has fired at him, while the Israeli police have also launched an investigation.

Palestinians drive a motorcycle past the destroyed building of the Islamic University in Gaza City on November 26, 2023, on the third day of a truce between Israel and Hamas.

Buildings belonging to Al-Israa University, south of Gaza City, were damaged on Wednesday when it was allegedly struck by Israeli warplanes, according to WAFA, the Palestinian news agency.  

The university condemned the incident, calling it a “barbaric aggression.”

All universities in Gaza have now been destroyed or at least damaged, WAFA said.  

CNN has asked the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for a response to these claims and has geolocated images of damage to the university that matches its location. The IDF has not yet responded.

Buildings housing the graduate and undergraduate studies were struck, the university claimed, as well as the National Museum, which the university said it had licensed with the Ministry of Antiquities containing over 3,000 rare artifacts.

The university claims the IDF looted artifacts “before blowing up the museum building to cover up the traces of their crime.” CNN has asked the IDF about this claim and is waiting for a response. CNN cannot independently verify this claim by the university.

While the US said on Thursday it does not have independent information to verify Wednesday’s alleged incident, it urged Israel to “avoid damage to critical infrastructure – that would, of course, include universities – and to ensure the protection of humanitarian and medical sites,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

People mourn as they wait to collect the bodies of friends and relatives killed in an airstrike, on January 18, in Rafah, Gaza.

The current Israel-Hamas conflict has left nearly three times more people dead in Gaza than in the last 15 years combined, according to a report from United Nations Women, the organization’s gender equality entity.

The statistics released Friday say more than 24,620 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the latest war began with Hamas’ attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.

The UN’s death toll also reflects the number released by the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza. CNN cannot independently verify these numbers due to the challenges of reporting from the war zone.

The report specifically analyzed the war’s impact on women. According to the data:

Earlier Friday, the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund said there had been nearly 20,000 births in Gaza during the current war — with many of the mothers suffering or dying in childbirth due to a lack of resources, and newborns facing dismal conditions.