February 1, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

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

Hadja Lahbib attends an event in Brussels, Belgium on January 23.

The Gaza offices of Belgium’s development agency, Enabel, were destroyed in what Belgian officials described as a bombing.

Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hadja Lahbib shared photos of the leveled office building in a post on X on Thursday.

“Targeting civilian buildings is unacceptable,” Lahbib said, adding that she and Belgium’s Minister of Development Cooperation Caroline Gennez would summon the Israeli ambassador to “clarify everything.”

The agency’s primary mission is “to implement the policy priorities of Belgian governmental cooperation and to promote sustainable international development,” according to Enabel’s website.

Israel did not immediately comment on the minister’s statement.

A man walks past the United Nations Relief and Works Agency building in Gaza City in January 2023.

As the humanitarian situation in Gaza spirals, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) warns it will likely have to halt its work across the Middle East by the end of February.

Nearly 20 governments have suspended $440 million in funding to the organization over allegations some of its staff were involved with Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel.

“If the funding remains suspended, we will most likely be forced to shut down our operations by the end of February – not only in Gaza, but also across the region,” the agency’s Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said Thursday.

Catch up on other top headlines related to the war and tensions in the Middle East:

Smoke rises over buildings in Khan Yunis during Israeli bombardment on Thursday, February 1, as seen from from Rafah, in southern Gaza .

The Israeli military operation in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza is “progressing and yielding impressive results,” the country’s minister of defense said Thursday.

There has been intense fighting in the southern city in recent days, specifically around a hospital complex where thousands of people are sheltering, according to an aid group.

The Israeli military’s operations “targeting terrorists above and under the ground, bring us closer to enabling the return of the hostages, because Hamas only responds to pressure,” Gallant said. In the past, Israel has frequently asserted that Hamas is using hospitals and other infrastructure as cover for tunnels and military operations.

More on the operations: Israeli forces have so far killed an estimated 10,000 Hamas fighters, he said. Another 10,000 have been wounded and are “not functioning,” he said. “This is a serious blow that erodes Hamas’ abilities.”

CNN is not able to independently confirm those numbers. 

Two weeks ago, the Israel Defense Forces estimated it had killed about 9,000 Hamas fighters since the start of military operations following the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

There are currently no plans to target any Israeli officials with economic sanctions, the White House said Thursday after the administration announced a new executive order targeting four individuals accused of directly perpetrating violence or intimidation in the West Bank. 

Axios reported Thursday that the administration had considered sanctioning some ultra-conservative Israeli government ministers, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, both of whom have vocally advocated for the mass relocation of Palestinians from Gaza to make way for Israeli settlers. 

Ben Gvir has taken steps to arm Israeli civilians in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, and, according to The New York Times, has pledged 10,000 guns to towns and cities across Israel, including Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory. 

The US State Department announced the first round of sanctions under a new executive order targeting those perpetrating violence in the West Bank on Thursday.

The new sanctions — which block their financial assets and bar them from coming to the US — target four Israeli nationals. 

In a statement Thursday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that “Israel must do more to stop violence against civilians in the West Bank and hold accountable those responsible for it.”

Here are some more specifics:

Who the order will target: The order focuses on four individuals accused of directly perpetrating violence or intimidation in the West Bank, the State Department said, including people accused of initiating and leading a riot; setting buildings, fields and vehicles on fire; assaulting civilians; and damaging property. The four individuals named are David Chai Chasdai, Einan Tanjil, Shalom Zicherman and Yinon Levi.

What the order will do: The White House notified the Israeli government of its plans ahead of the order, an official said. The order will block the individuals’ property and financial transactions in the United States and prohibit Americans from funding or contributing money to them. The order is directed toward foreign nationals and not American citizens, an official said, though some dual nationals have been accused of being involved in the violence.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a statement in response to the US sanctions, saying they were not necessary.

Why this matters: President Joe Biden has faced backlash from key parts of his political coalition for his backing of Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza. While the order is not expected to address the situation in Gaza, it will mark one of the more significant actions he has taken to critique Israel since the war began, and it could be a signal from Biden toward Muslim and Arab-American voters who are upset with his refusal to call for a ceasefire.

Remember: Approximately 500,000 Jewish settlers now live in the West Bank, encroaching into land that Palestinians, along with the international community, view as territory for a future Palestinian state. While the areas around these settlements have always been prone to violence, the situation has worsened in recent months.

This post has been updated with the announcement of the order from the State Department and Netanyahu’s response.

The top US State Department official for the Middle East said Thursday that she is not aware of “any definitive response” from Hamas to a proposal crafted over the weekend that would see the release of hostages held by the group and a sustained pause in the fighting in Gaza. 

Hamas said that Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas political bureau, received the proposal at a meeting in Paris this weekend that involved officials from Israel, Egypt, Qatar and the United States. 

Leaf said the potential hostage deal is “a critical starting point” toward an end to the conflict.

Hamas said that Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas political bureau, received the proposal at a meeting in Paris this weekend that involved officials from Israel, Egypt, Qatar and the United States. 

Hamas said in a statement Tuesday that the head of its political bureau “is in the process of studying (the proposal) and submitting its response to it on the basis that the priority is to stop the aggression, the brutal attack on Gaza and the complete withdrawal of the occupation forces from the Strip.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will head back to the region in the coming days as moving forward on the deal remains a top priority for President Joe Biden’s administration.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks during a press conference at the Pentagon in Washington D.C, on February 1.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday that it’s time to “take away even more capability” of Iran-backed groups as a result of the deadly drone attack on a US base in Jordan last weekend. 

The attack on Tower 22 in Jordan killed three US soldiers and wounded dozens more service members, the first time American troops were killed by enemy fire in the Middle East since the beginning of the Gaza war. There have been more than 160 attacks on US and coalition forces in Iraq and Syria since October 17.

The US response against Iran-backed proxies for the attack against US forces in Jordan would be “multi-tiered,” Austin said Thursday, adding that US adversaries in the region do not have “a one-and-done mindset.”

US President Joe Biden told reporters Tuesday he has made a decision about the US response but declined to provide further details.

CNN’s Michael Conte contributed to this reporting.

New video shot in the northwestern part of Gaza shows an extraordinary level of destruction in an area near the coast.

The video, shot by journalist Fadi Al-Wahidi, shows what remains of the neighborhood bisected by Al-Rashid Street, which runs northwest of the district of Beit Lahiya. It is the closest northern area to the border with Israel.

The video shows that the entire neighborhood has been leveled. There is not a single building standing. CNN is unable to geolocate the video for lack of landmarks.

Despite the devastation, people are now returning to what remains of their homes in the neighborhood, after Israeli troops withdrew from the area, Al-Wahidi told CNN.

International aid agencies say they have little access to northern Gaza and that food scarcity there has worsened. Fighting has continued there sporadically. 

Al-Wahidi, who is from nearby Jabalya, told CNN that this part of Al-Rashid Street had been resurfaced and landscaped just a few months before the war. Most of the area’s coastal resort houses have now been destroyed, the journalist added.

His visit to the area on Wednesday was the first time Al-Wahidi had seen the sea since the latest Israel-Hamas war began, he said.

US President Joe Biden plans to issue an executive order targeting violent settlers in the West Bank who, he has said, have undermined stability in the area, according to a US official.

The issue is one that Biden has personally discussed in recent months with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Politico was first to report the upcoming executive order.

What to know about settlers in West Bank: Israel has occupied the West Bank since seizing the territory from Jordanian military occupation in 1967. In the early 1990s, under the Oslo Accords peace agreements, Israel agreed to gradually transfer control over the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority, but that has not happened. Instead, dozens of Israeli settlements have been built in the West Bank, encroaching into land that Palestinians, along with the international community, view as territory for a future Palestinian state.

Approximately 500,000 Israeli Jewish settlers now live in the West Bank, according to Peace Now, an Israeli group that advocates for peace and monitors settlements. Many of these settlements are heavily guarded, fenced-off areas that are completely off limits to Palestinians.

Most of the world considers these settlements illegal under international law and Israel has been criticized for allowing their expansion – and, in some cases, supporting them with tax breaks and state-funded security. Israel views the West Bank as “disputed territory” and contends its settlement policy is legal.

The areas around these settlements have always been prone to violence, but the situation has worsened in recent months.

Watch a CNN investigation on settler violence in West Bank here.

President Joe Biden speaks at the National Prayer Breakfast at the Capitol in Washington D.C., on February 1.

US President Joe Biden acknowledged the fallen US service members in Jordan and the suffering of the citizens of Gaza and Israel in remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast on Capitol Hill Thursday morning, saying he understands the “pain and passion felt by so many here in America and around the world” in response to the “trauma, the destruction in Israel and Gaza.” 

“Not only do we pray for peace,” he continued, “we’re actively working for peace, security, dignity for the Israeli people and the Palestinian people.”

Biden said he was engaged in bringing hostages held by Hamas home “day and night,” and was also working to “ease the humanitarian crisis and to bring peace to Gaza and Israel and enduring peace with two states for two peoples.”

On the fallen service members, Biden said he had spoken with the families and would attend the dignified transfer of their bodies on Friday. 

Khan Younis in southern Gaza has been the scene of intense fighting over the past few days. On Thursday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said Israeli forces had left the Al-Amal hospital two days after entering the complex, but more than 180,000 people were forced to evacuate the town as it came under siege, and dozens were killed.

The siege of Gaza has killed more than 25,000 people, according to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health. A humanitarian crisis also grips Gaza’s population as residents are grappling with severe shortages, and power is running out as fuel dwindles.

Here’s a look at some of the devastation of the war:

An Israeli tank takes position at the western entrance of the Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza as Palestinians flee to safer areas further south on January 26. 

The bodies of Palestinians killed during the war are buried in a mass grave on January 30, in Rafah, Gaza. 

Palestinians look at their neighbor's damaged house following an Israeli strike in Rafah, Gaza, on January 27. 

After nearly 20 governments suspended $440 million in funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the colossal humanitarian needs of people in Gaza will likely get worse, the main relief agency in Gaza said.

Remember: UNRWA also assists Palestinian refugees in other parts of the Middle East.

Several countries announced their decisions to suspend their funding to the agency after Israel accused some UNRWA staffers of involvement in the October 7 attacks. UNRWA fired several employees after the allegations and launched an investigation, promising that anyone involved in the October 7 attacks will be held accountable “including through criminal prosecution” if found to be responsible. But beyond the allegations of recent days, Israel has longstanding issues with UNRWA.

The suspension of funding has raised questions about the fate of the 5.9 million refugees that the agency serves.

The United States continues to support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and “there has been no policy shift” by the administration regarding that aim, State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said Wednesday after an Axios report suggested a shift.

Miler added that the US was pursuing the development of the independent Palestinian state “with real security guarantees for Israel,” saying the Biden administration believed it was the best way to ensure peace and security for Israel, Palestinians and the wider region.

Miller noted that the State Department was looking at how to bring about an independent Palestinian state, and was assessing “any number of options” as a part of its planning to work out which would be effective and work best.

While he refused to detail the internal work, he said the US was assessing a variety of options which they will discuss with partners in the Middle East and within the US government, “but there has been no policy change,” he reiterated.

Houthi fighters stage a rally in support of the Palestinians in Sanaa, Yemen, on January 29.

A giant poster featuring Yemeni rebel leader Abdel Malek al-Houthi was hung on the ancient Walls of Constantinople in Istanbul last week, just days after his organization was designated a terror group by the United States.

“We are all Yemenis,” read the text in Turkish.

Once seen in the Middle East as a menacing Iranian proxy that wreaked havoc in the Arab world’s poorest country by overthrowing the internationally recognized government and prompting a brutal Saudi-led military intervention, the Houthi group’s fortunes have changed since Israel launched its devastating war on Gaza.

Israel’s war came after Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an October 7 attack on the Jewish state, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping more than 250 others, according to Israeli authorities. The war in Gaza has so far killed almost 27,000 people in the enclave, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the territory.

The Shiite-Muslim Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, are now seen in parts of the largely Sunni Muslim world and beyond as champions of the Palestinian cause, defending the people of Gaza against Israel and even taking on the Jewish state’s superpower ally in the fight.

Since mid-November, the rebels have been attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea and the Strait of Bab al-Mandab. The Red Sea is a vital waterway that connects to the Suez Canal, through which 10% to 15% of world trade passes. The group’s activities have effectively closed the trade route to most container ships as vessels steer clear of the waterway amid the attacks.

Read more about why Yemen’s Houthi rebels welcome conflict with the US

Israeli forces have left the grounds of Al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza two days after entering the complex, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said Thursday.

The society also said that Israeli forces had entered its nearby headquarters for a third time.

Israeli tanks were still stationed in the street outside the society’s headquarters, spokesperson Raes Al Nims told CNN.

There are 100 patients, 7,000 displaced people, and 100 doctors and crews in Al-Amal hospital and the headquarters of the PRCS, Nims said.

He said there had been no aid delivered on Wednesday but that essential oxygen supplies arrived through the International Red Cross and the United Nations.

Al-Amal staff dealt with 18 casualties on Wednesday, including 12 killed, among the thousands of displaced people at the hospital and the headquarters, according to the PRCS.

Israel has previously said that Hamas uses hospitals and other infrastructure as a cover for tunnels and military operations.

The Israel Defense Forces say operations continue in Khan Younis as well as central Gaza, where the IDF said an aircraft had struck several Hamas fighters.

More than 100 Palestinian detainees who had been held in Israel have been released and entered Gaza early on Thursday, the Gaza Crossings Authority said.

Spokesperson Hisham Adwan said the 114 detainees, which included four women, were released through the Kerem Shalom crossing. 

CNN is reaching out to Israeli authorities for further details.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro delivers a speech in Bogota, Colombia, on December 15.

Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro has proposed the creation of a peace commission to end the violence between Israelis and the Palestinians and called for the release of hostages still held in Gaza.

Petro’s proposal comes after the Colombian president said Netanyahu wrote to him on January 11 asking for assistance in freeing the hostages. 

Netanyahu’s purported initial letter asks Petro to use “any” influence he has with Iran, Turkey, and Qatar to pressure Hamas into releasing hostages, according to the letter obtained by CNNE earlier this month and verified to CNN by Colombia’s presidency.

Netanyahu’s office has not commented on the purported letter. 

Netanyahu’s letter says both countries share a “common cause” in the release of the hostages, mentioning hostage Elkana Bohbot, an Israeli citizen married to a Colombian citizen.

 CNN has contacted the Israeli Embassy in Colombia for comment on Petro’s letter.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for the end of the mission of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

His comments come after Israel alleged 13 employees were associated with Hamas’ October 7 attacks. It’s the first time Netanyahu has called for an end of the mission on camera and specifically accused UNRWA officials of being complicit in the attack.

Here are our top stories on the Israel-Hamas war and tensions in the region:

The US carried out airstrikes against an Iranian-backed Houthi drone ground control station in Yemen and 10 Houthi drones early Thursday morning, the US Central Command said. 

These strikes are the latest in a series of attacks on Houthi weapons that the US military said were set to be launched against international shipping lanes and US warships in the region.