February 12, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

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

A Greek-owned commercial vessel targeted by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the Red Sea on Monday was carrying corn from Brazil to Iran, according to US Central Command and the State Department.

This appears to be the first time the Houthis have targeted a ship destined for Iran, which provides backing for the rebel group that controls parts of Yemen.

The Houthis had previously claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was a US vessel.

The vessel was not subject to US sanctions because it was carrying corn, which falls under an exemption that covers food supplies, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said the vessel is owned by Star Bulk Carriers, “a Greek-based global shipping company with partial U.S. owners.”

The ship suffered minor damage and no injuries to its crew, according to the US Central Command.

The vessel, named the “Star Iris,” was sailing from the Brazilian port of Vila Do Conde to Iran’s Bandar Imam Khomeini port in the Persian Gulf, according to marine tracking company Kpler.

“At a projected 4.5 million tonnes for this year, flows from Brazil make for the majority of Iran’s corn imports,” he said.

The Houthis have been targeting vessels delivering for Israel in the Red Sea in response to what they call Israel’s “aggression” against Gaza.

Despite repeated strikes against Houthi weapons, the Iran-backed rebel group has vowed to continue targeting vessels with links to Israel, the US and the UK.

This post was updated to include State Department and CENTCOM statements.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan virtually met Monday with the families of the six Americans believed to be held hostage in Gaza, sources familiar with the meeting said.

The conversation came a day ahead of CIA Director Bill Burns’s expected travel to Egypt for further hostage release talks, two sources familiar with the plans told CNN.

In a statement, the families said they “expressed our gratitude for the Administration’s continued efforts to bring our loved ones home but made clear our frustration with the pace of negotiations.”

The hostage families participating in the call included Jonathan Dekel-Chen and Gillian Kaye; Yael and Adi Alexander; Lee Siegel and Hanna Siegel; Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg; Ruby and Hagit Chen; and Ronen and Orna Neutra, a source said. Liz Hirsh Naftali, whose niece Abigail Edan was freed as part of the November hostage deal, also participated.

Several of the families met with Sullivan in person at the White House two weeks ago and with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken while he was in Israel last week.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown Jr. cast doubt on Monday on the idea that Iran wants war with the United States, telling NBC’s Lestor Holt, “I don’t know that they do.” 

Brown’s comments come after at least 170 attacks by Iran-backed groups on US and coalition forces in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan since October 17. Brown echoed comments from other US officials saying the priories are to protect US forces while deterring further aggression in the region and avoiding a full-scale conflict in the Middle East.

Palestinians in Rafah are frantically trying to figure out whether to stay or evacuate after deadly Israeli strikes rained down Monday night on the southern Gaza city, a displaced aid worker told CNN on Monday. 

Dozens of people, including children, were killed as the “extremely intense” airstrikes and shelling pounded multiple locations, according to local officials.

The Israeli military confirmed it conducted a “series of strikes” in the Shaboura area of Rafah and that two Israeli hostages were rescued in a “special operation.”

More than 1.3 million people — more than half of Gaza’s population — are seeking refuge in Rafah, with the majority of people displaced from other parts of the besieged enclave crammed into a sprawling tent city.

On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directed the military to plan for the “evacuation of the population” ahead of an offensive against what he described as “Hamas’s last bastion.”

Here are the latest developments:

Jordan's King Abdullah delivers remarks during a press conference with US President Joe Biden at the White House on Monday, February 12.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II, the first Arab leader to visit the White House since the start of the war in Gaza in October, broke with his host President Joe Biden on key issues during a joint appearance Monday. 

Abdullah made a call for a “lasting ceasefire” in Gaza that would bring the current fighting to an end and said it was essential the main United Nations agency responsible for Gaza continue to receive funding after the US and other nations withdrew support last month.

Biden has stopped short of calling for a permanent ceasefire, and his administration pulled funding for the agency over allegations some of its staff were involved with Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel. The open rifts between Biden and Abdullah underscored the delicate diplomatic balance the president is facing as the war in Gaza enters its fifth month.

Speaking from the White House Cross Hall, Abdullah said a ground operation in Rafah, which Israel has previewed in recent days, would amount to devastation.

President Joe Biden speaks after meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah II in the Cross Hall of the White House, on Monday, February 12.

US President Joe Biden discussed a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas which would include a six-week pause in fighting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House on Monday.

The US president said he’s been working “day and night,” along with Abdullah, to bring home hostages held by Hamas and ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza. He also thanked the king for conducting an airdrop of medical supplies to the region.

Speaking about reports that Israel is considering a military incursion into Rafah, Biden said the country “should not proceed without a credible plan” to ensure the safety of people sheltering in the city.

The Israeli military has released a pair of videos of what it says shows the moments two hostages were rescued from Rafah in an early morning raid Monday.

One video primarily shows aerial footage in black and white thermal imaging. It starts with a group of people walking through the street, with the voice of an unknown person saying, “The hostages are in our hands,” according to the English translation on screen.

It then appears to show an exchange of gunfire during the rescue.

Moments later, a convoy of vehicles is seen moving along a road, with someone declaring, “The forces have started to move along the route. The forces are on their way. The forces are on their way.”

The video ends with more aerial footage showing a helicopter taking off as one voice is heard saying, “They’re good and healthy,” and another voice responds: “Good. Keep going. We’re accompanying you.”

The second video was shot with the cameras of Shayetet 13 soldiers, and shows the troops meeting with the hostages for the first time inside a vehicle before boarding a helicopter to Israel, the Israel Defense Forces said.

The troops are seen chatting with both hostages, comforting them, and offering water and blankets.

Graphic images from Gaza illustrate the toll airstrikes are taking on the city of Rafah, now home to more than half of the enclave’s population.

Israeli airstrikes killed at least 94 people overnight Monday, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The Israel Defense Forces said it launched a mission against Hamas to extract two hostages, which was successful.

Two of the videos, which CNN obtained from social media groups used by Palestinian journalists, show hospitals in southern Gaza. One video shows a young child hanging lifelessly from the side of a structure. Several men are trying to bring his body down.

A second image shows another boy, who appears to be a young teen, lying on a bed and clinging to a shroud-wrapped body. According to Gaza journalists, it’s the body of his mother in the hospital mortuary.  The woman’s name is written on her shroud: Ghada Ahmad Yousef Abu al-Hanoud. Her name appears on a list of 74 victims identified and issued death certificates by the Abu Yousef Al-Najjar government hospital in Rafah.

In a third clip, a young girl wipes her eyes and cries but gathers herself to describe what she experienced, “I was going to the bathroom and the strikes were ongoing suddenly I found the fire in our house…(inaudible)…then I went to the bathroom and all the walls collapsed on me,” the girl said.

Another video shows a woman holding a dead infant baby covered in a shroud. A young girl sits next to her with a pained expression. The woman says:

The US has called on the Israeli government to investigate the death of 5-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said on Monday

“We have asked the Israeli authorities to investigate this incident on an urgent basis. We understand that they’re doing so. We expect to see those results on a timely fashion and they should include accountability measures as appropriate,” Miller said.

Rajab was found dead this weekend after being trapped in a car for Gaza City with members of her family who were reportedly shot to death by Israeli forces weeks ago.

Rescue workers dispatched to find her were also reportedly shot and killed. 

“We are devastated about reports of the death of Hind Rajab. I will tell you that I have a little girl that’s about to turn six myself, and so it’s just a devastating account, a heartbreaking account for this child,” Miller said. 

The United Nation’s relief and human rights chiefs, Martin Griffiths and Volker Turk, have called on Israel to abort its “terrifying” planned incursion into the border city of Rafah.

They warned that such an operation would likely result in scores of civilian casualties.

Turk, who is the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said an offensive risks “atrocity crimes” being committed.

The term “atrocity crimes” refers to the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes as defined by international treaties, according to the UN.

Posting on Instagram, Griffiths who is the UN under-secretary for humanitarian affairs, reiterated that Palestinians concentrated in Rafah have “endured unthinkable suffering” after being “on the move for months, braving bombs, disease and hunger.”

International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan speaks during an interview with Reuters in The Hague, Netherlands, on Monday.

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor said he is “deeply concerned by the reported bombardment and potential ground incursion by Israeli forces in Rafah,” and warned that his office is “actively investigating any crimes allegedly committed” in the war.

In a post published on X on Monday, Karim Khan outlined that his office has an “ongoing and active investigation into the situation in the State of Palestine.” Late November, Khan announced that the ICC had received referrals from five countries to investigate whether crimes had been committed by Israel in the Palestinian territories.

The Rome Statute is the founding treaty of the ICC, which tries four types of crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, crimes of aggression and war crimes. While Israel is not a member of the ICC and rejects the court’s jurisdiction, that has not stopped the court from previously investigating its actions in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Khan said this investigation is “being taken forward as a matter of the utmost urgency, with a view to bringing to justice those responsible for Rome Statute crimes.” He warned that “those who are in breach of the law will be held accountable.”

Khan also called for the immediate release of all hostages, writing: “This also represents an important focus of our investigations.”

White House national security communications adviser John Kirby speaks during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, on Monday.

US President Joe Biden will reiterate his support for a humanitarian pause — not a general ceasefire in Gaza — during his upcoming meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan, a White House spokesperson said on Monday.

Jordan’s king has long called for a ceasefire in Gaza and Kirby’s comments come days after Biden called Israel’s military conduct “over the top.” Biden and Jordan’s king are meeting at the White House on Monday.

Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the phone on Sunday to discuss a deal to secure the further release of hostages in Gaza, according to a senior administration official. 

Meanwhile, the US administration has relayed, “privately and publicly about what our expectations are,” for the protection of civilians in Rafah, the southern Gaza city where an estimated 1.4 million Palestinians are seeking shelter, Kirby said.

 The post was updated with more comments from Kirby.

The United States does not see the recent Israeli strikes in the city of Rafah in Gaza as “the launch of a full-scale offensive,” according to a State Department spokesperson — something the US won’t support until a plan is in place to minimize harm to displaced people there.

“They have conducted airstrikes against Rafah really since going back to the original days of the campaign,” spokesperson Matthew Miller said Monday.

Miller said the casualty rate is “still way too high” in Gaza, but he claimed the number of civilians killed has come down over the past month and that the US has used its leverage to influence the Israeli government.

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directed the country’s military to plan for the “evacuation of the population” from Rafah, according to his office. Miller said the US looks forward to reviewing and being briefed on that strategy.

“Without such a plan that is credible, and that they can execute, we do not support a full-scale military operation there going ahead,” Miller said.

The Biden administration is deeply concerned about an Israeli operation that rescued two hostages out of Rafah but may have also resulted in some one hundred Palestinians being killed as part of that operation, according to a senior administration official.

The hostages — 60-year-old Fernando Simon Marman and 70-year-old Louis Har — were rescued Monday morning after spending 128 days in captivity. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that more than 100 people were killed in strikes that the Israeli military carried out in Rafah overnight. It did not specify how many of those were militants. 

For now, United States officials are still gathering information on details of the rescue operation, including how exactly the operation unfolded and how many civilians may have been killed, that official said. But such a high rate of Palestinian deaths would be deeply worrisome, according to the official, and comes as US President Joe Biden and US officials have been warning Israel about their preparation to make a ground incursion into Rafah. 

More background: Tension between Biden’s administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has intensified in recent days as Israel has said that it is preparing to go into Rafah. US officials have expressed strong concerns to their Israeli counterparts about the feasibility of safely moving the large civilian population out of the area, many of whom were forced to flee there since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war. 

Displaced Palestinians receive food aid at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees center in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on January 28.

Just weeks after it warned that it would have to “most likely” halt its work by the end of the month, the main UN relief agency in Gaza says it is becoming difficult to operate in Rafah, where 1.5 million civilians are seeking refuge.

Addressing EU development ministers in Brussels on Monday, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said in addition to funding cuts, other restrictions are also hindering operations, including the “local bank” freezing UNRWA’s account and visas for staff members only being granted on a month-to-month basis instead of once per year.

Remember: In January, Israel alleged that 13 UNRWA employees in Gaza were associated with the Hamas’ October 7 attacks, which resulted in some donor countries cutting $440 million of funding. 

Lazzarini also said the situation on the ground was becoming more complex, describing “a deep sense of panic and anxiety regarding the prospect of an unfolding military operation” in Rafah. He also outlined the agency had to operate without police support for the first time on Sunday, as some local police are reluctant to be seen with the agency.

The commissioner-general reiterated that UNRWA has launched an investigation into the allegations, which he said would be completed in the “near future.” He said that UNRWA has asked for the full cooperation from the Israeli authorities to share with the organization any proof or indication of evidence “about this horrible allegation.”

People inspect the damage to their homes following Israeli air strikes in Rafah, Gaza, on February 12.

Palestinians in Rafah are frantically trying to figure out whether to stay or evacuate after deadly Israeli strikes rained down on the southern city overnight, a displaced aid worker in the city told CNN on Monday. 

“It was one of the most terrible nights,” Jamal al Rozzi said. “Not because of the number of martyrs of the number of injuries, but also because everybody was just asking themselves what to do.” 

Israel’s bombardment since October 7 has forcibly displaced 1.7 million people in Gaza, according to the UN’s agency for Palestine refugees, which says nearly 1.5 million civilians are crammed into the tiny territory of Rafah alone. 

The attacks on Monday, carried out during a raid to rescue two Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas, killed dozens of Palestinians and reignited fears that a looming Israeli ground offensive in Rafah would cause a devastating bloodbath, with those trapped there having no remaining escape route. 

“This is the question that nobody answers for the other. If you ask your brother or your father or your son or your daughter … they cannot tell you because they don’t want to feel guilty if anything happens to you,” added al Rozzi.  “I look at the faces of the people in the street. Of course, after 120 days or more of war, they are really sad, angry and so on. But today they are … totally confused.” 

 CNN’s Helen Regan and Abeer Salman contributed reporting.

President Joe Biden speaks in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, in Washington D.C., on February 8.

US President Joe Biden is growing increasingly frustrated behind the scenes with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, telling advisers and others that the prime minister is ignoring his advice and obstructing efforts to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, according to people familiar with the matter. 

So far, Biden has stopped short of directly criticizing Netanyahu in public. But he has become increasingly critical of Israel’s tactics, saying last week he believes the campaign in Gaza is “over the top,” one of his sharpest condemnations to date of the military campaign against Hamas.

In private, Biden has been more willing to offer unvarnished thoughts on Netanyahu, including his deep irritation that Netanyahu has not followed through on American recommendations to de-intensify military tactics in Gaza. Some officials now wonder how much longer Biden will withhold public criticism of Netanyahu as the war in Gaza rages.

The tension between the Biden administration and Netanyahu’s government has only intensified in recent days over Israel’s preparations for a ground incursion into Rafah, where thousands upon thousands of Palestinians have fled to over the course of the war.

US officials have been direct in their conversations with Israeli counterparts that the estimated 1.3 million people currently in Rafah simply “have nowhere to go,” according to a senior administration official. The Biden administration is highly skeptical about whether Netanyahu’s direction to Israel’s military for an “evacuation of the population” out of Rafah before Israel forces go in is even remotely feasible.

“We have made very clear that an operation under current conditions is not something that we could envision,” the official said.

CNN’s Arlette Saenz contributed reporting to this post.

UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron says it is “impossible to see” how Israel can launch an offensive in Rafah with so many civilians sheltering there.

“We are very concerned about what is happening in Rafah,” Cameron told reporters on Monday, noting that many of the people currently in the southern city of Gaza “have moved four, five, six times before getting there.”

He urged for an immediate pause in fighting.

“We want Israel to stop and think very seriously before it takes any further action. But above all, what we want is an immediate pause in the fighting, and we want that pause to lead to a ceasefire, a sustainable ceasefire without a return, to further fighting. That’s what should happen now,” he added.

Geoffrey van Leeuwen Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation at the Binnenhof, The Hague, Netherlands, on January 19.

The Dutch government has lodged an appeal after a court ruled on Monday that The Netherlands must stop the export of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel.

According to a government statement, the Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Geoffrey van Leeuwen, decided to appeal the decision made by The Hague Court of Appeal.

“The government is lodging an appeal in cassation because it believes the Court of Appeal did not take sufficient account of this.”

The Dutch government said it believes that F-35 aircraft are “crucial for Israel’s security, in particular with regard to threats emanating from the region,” which it said includes Iran, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon.

Despite lodging its appeal, the government said that it will respect the court of appeal’s judgement and will implement its decision. It stressed its appeal is “separate from the situation in Gaza,” which it called “extremely serious.”

“It is clear that international humanitarian law applies in full and Israel, too, must abide by it,” the Dutch government said.