December 6, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

Our live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war has moved here.

Josep Borrell is seen during a press conference in Brussels on November 29.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief on Wednesday urged EU members of the United Nations Security Council to support UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ call for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.

Guterres on Wednesday invoked a rarely used rule to refer the situation in Gaza to the Security Council, urging members to “avert a humanitarian catastrophe.”

Multiple United Nations agencies are warning of the dire situation for residents of war-torn Gaza. In separate statements Wednesday, the World Health Organization chief said Gaza’s health system is “on its knees” and nearing total collapse, while the head of the World Food Programme said the humanitarian system in the strip is collapsing and, “Everyone in #Gaza is hungry.”

Belgium on Wednesday announced a ban on “extremist Israeli settlers” in the occupied West Bank from entering the country, following a similar move by the United States.

Violence in the West Bank has intensified in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack.

It comes after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new policy Tuesday to prevent extremist settlers responsible for violence in the West Bank from coming to the United States.

An investigation by Amnesty International alleges that a US-made weapons guidance system was used in two Israeli airstrikes in Gaza in October in which 43 civilians are said to have been killed.

Fragments of the US-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions guidance system were found in the rubble of destroyed homes in the neighborhood of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, according to a report released Tuesday by the human rights organization.

Israel uses a wide variety of American weapons and munitions, but Amnesty’s report is one of the first attempts to tie an American-made weapon to a specific attack that left a significant number of civilians dead.

The JDAM is a “guidance tail kit that converts existing unguided free-fall bombs into accurate, adverse weather ‘smart’ munitions,” according to the US Air Force.

CNN cannot independently verify Amnesty’s findings.

Amnesty said its weapons experts and a “remote sensing analyst” examined satellite imagery and photos of the homes that show the “fragments of ordnance recovered from the rubble” and the destruction, the report explains. Amnesty’s fieldworkers took the photos.

As a result of these two attacks, 19 children, 14 women, and 10 men were killed, the report claims.

The human rights organization said it “did not find any indication there were any military objectives at the sites” of the airstrikes or that the individuals living in the homes were legitimate military targets.

In a statement to CNN, the Israel Defense Forces called the report “flawed, biased and premature, based on baseless assumptions regarding the IDF’s operations.”

Read more about the Amnesty report.

Smoke rises over Gaza, as seen from southern Israel, on December 6.

Israeli forces breached Hamas “defense lines” in the southern city of Khan Younis, a spokesperson for the military claimed Wednesday.

Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has referred the situation in Gaza to the UN Security Council, urging members to “avert a humanitarian catastrophe,” invoking Article 99 of the UN Charter. This gives the secretary-general the remit to “bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.”

In his letter, Guterres said the conflict has created “appalling human suffering, physical destruction and collective trauma across Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” Israel’s envoy called the move “a new moral low” and, along with the country’s foreign minister, called on Guterres to resign.

Here’s the latest on the conflict:

Palestinians fleeing the north walk along the Salaheddine road in the Zeitoun district on the southern outskirts of Gaza City on November 26.

Gaza’s health system is “on its knees” and nearing total collapse, the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement on Wednesday. 

On Tuesday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah accused the Israeli military of placing Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza under siege and bombarding it. 

CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for a response. In previous statements, Israel had maintained it targets Hamas infrastructure in the strip.

The WHO has reported at least 212 attacks on Gaza’s health sector since October 7. As a result, only 14 hospitals are partially functioning and three are minimally functioning in the strip, while 19 have gone out of service, the WHO chief added. 

The Palestinian Minister of Health Mai Al-Kaila said on Tuesday that none of the hospitals in northern Gaza can accommodate surgical operations, while the capacity has surpassed 216% in hospitals in the south.

CNN’s Kareem Khadder contributed reporting to this post.

Palestinian children collect food at a donation point provided by a charity group in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, on December 6.

The World Food Programme (WFP) Chief Cindy McCain is warning of the limited access to food and water in the Gaza strip.

WFP said 97% of Palestinian households in the northern areas of the strip and 83% in the south reported inadequate food consumption — with many having spent at least one day without eating. 

“Around 88 percent of the households in the Northern governorates and around 54 percent in the Southern governorates reported spending at least one full day and night without eating in the past four weeks, because there was not enough food,” WFP said in its latest report, adding that 20% in the north and 14% in the south had to do this more than 10 times. 

The lack of cooking gas in Gaza has also led many to rely on waste burning, firewood and wood rubbish, which can have negative health repercussions, including high risks of respiratory diseases, according to WFP’s data. 

Additionally, the average daily clean water consumption levels range between 1.5-1.8 liters per person across the strip, which is way below the 15 liters minimum average volume of water for drinking and hygiene per person daily. 

The Israeli Security Cabinet has approved the recommendation made by the War Cabinet to allow a “minimal” increase in the amount of fuel entering daily to prevent a “humanitarian collapse and the outbreak of epidemics” in the southern Gaza Strip, the prime minister’s office said in a statement Wednesday. 

The decision comes after US pressure to allow more fuel into Gaza, which led the cabinet to meet on Wednesday night. 

“The minimal amount will be determined from time to time” by the War Cabinet, the statement added.  

The amount of additional fuel that will now be allowed to enter Gaza is not clear — and will be subjected to the cabinet’s decision. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed Tuesday that the current limit is two fuel tankers — about 60,000 liters — per day.  

Netanyahu said Israel’s war efforts in Gaza are supported by its humanitarian effort, noting that Israel is allowing in the “bare minimum” of fuel trucks, and also aims to prevent disease outbreaks in Gaza that could halt the ground operation. 

The White House said Vice President Kamala Harris’ national security adviser, Phil Gordon, met with President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority and other Palestinian leaders on Wednesday.

The White House said along with Abbas, Gordon met with Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary general of the Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO); Head of Palestinian General Intelligence Services Majed Faraj and Palestinian business leaders while in Ramallah.

Per the White House, Gordon discussed “the situation in Gaza,” with local officials, with the official underscoring “the imperative of increased efforts to deliver humanitarian assistance to those in need and to protect civilians” while providing updates on his meetings earlier this week with Israeli officials.

Gordon emphasized that “Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people, that Hamas poses an unacceptable terrorist threat to the Israeli people, and that Hamas cannot control Gaza when the fighting ends,” the readout said.

Gordon also discussed the situation in the West Bank, including visa restrictions for Israeli and Palestinian individuals “believed to have been involved in undermining peace, security, or stability in the West Bank.”

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had reached “a new moral low” after Guterres invoked a rarely used clause on Wednesday.

Guterres used the UN charter to formally refer the situation in Gaza to the UN Security Council for discussion, urging its 15 member nations to “avert a humanitarian catastrophe” in the besieged enclave.

Israel’s UN ambassador Gilad Erdan took to social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to say the secretary-general decided to activate “this rare clause only when it allows him to put pressure on Israel.”   

The envoy reiterated his call for the secretary-general to resign immediately. 

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen also called on Guterres to resign, saying that the UN chief’s “tenure is a danger to world peace.”  

Guterres’ decision to invoke the clause is “an endorsement of the murder of the elderly, the abduction of babies and the rape of women,” Cohen wrote on X. 

A furious diplomatic spat between Israel and the UN broke out in October, with Israeli officials calling for the resignation of Guterres after he said Hamas’ October 7 attacks on the country “did not happen in a vacuum.” 

CNN’s Niamh Kennedy and Richard Roth contributed to this report.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has submitted a draft resolution to the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday urging for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.

The move comes after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres formally referred the situation in Gaza to the Security Council on Wednesday. 

The UAE says its draft resolution is supported by Arab countries and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which is comprised of 57 member states. 

CNN’s Niamh Kennedy contributed to this report.

An aid truck on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, waits to cross into southern Gaza on December 6.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said it received 80 aid trucks in Gaza through the Rafah border crossing on Wednesday. 

On Tuesday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned of the lacking access to humanitarian aid in the strip after the end of the seven-day truce between Hamas and Israel. 

The number of aid trucks “is well below the daily average of 170 trucks and 110,000 litres of fuel that had entered during the humanitarian pause implemented between 24 and 30 November,” OCHA added. 

An Egyptian official said 50 aid trucks entered the strip through the Rafah crossing on Tuesday, and OCHA said 100 trucks went in on Monday. 

Asma Khalil and Eyad Kourdi contributing reporting to this post.

A man carries a child injured in an Israeli strike on Rafah, in southern Gaza, on November 20, 2023.

The civilian casualties in Gaza is too high, US State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said Wednesday.

Speaking several days into the renewed offensive by Israeli forces in southern Gaza, Miller said the US wants “to see the civilian death toll lower than it has been.”

“A good component of this is the problem presented by Hamas embedding in civilian sites in Khan Younis just as it did in Gaza City, but that doesn’t lessen the burden that’s on Israel to do everything it can to reduce civilian harm,” he said during a news briefing.

Miller noted the conflict in southern Gaza was “still at an early stage,” and would not say whether the US believes Israeli forces are carrying out this part of their offensive differently than in the north. 

Miller said that the State Department had “some very frank conversations with the government of Israel about that when we were there last week,” when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was visiting Israel.

“We continue to have very frank discussions with them about this question, and I think I’ll leave it at that,” he said.

Last week, Blinken said Israel must prosecute the war differently in the south than it did in the north.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) is stopping its ambulance operations in northern Gaza after the lack of fuel and the closure of hospitals in the area made it impossible to evacuate civilians, the organization said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Yesterday evening, operations at the PRCS ambulance center in the northern governorate of Gaza came to a halt,” the PRCS said.

In the northern area of Jabalya, the PCRS’ operations are still ongoing to handle minor and moderate cases, where it receives at least 250 injured patients daily, the organization said.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Ministry of Health said at least 80,000 residents in northern Gaza are now without health coverage.

Israeli forces have breached Hamas “defense lines” in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, where the military has been involved in a fierce battle with Hamas militants since Tuesday, an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said on Wednesday.  

“Over the last 48 hours, these three divisions (98, 36, 162) along with another division in the east, are fighting with high intensity against terrorists. We have breached the defense lines of Jabalya, Shuja’iyya and the Khan Younis area,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said during his daily press conference.  

It comes after the IDF said the Israeli military has begun carrying out raids against “Hamas strongholds” in the center of Khan Younis, the territory’s second-largest city.  

Within a few hours after the IDF forces surrounded the city, “the soldiers pierced through the defensive lines of the Khan Younis Brigade, encircling it and for the first time began to operate in the heart of the area,” the military said.  

The Khan Younis Brigade is one of the two most significant brigades of Hamas, according to the Israeli military.  

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier on Wednesday said that the IDF forces have encircled the house of Hamas’ leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar. The IDF would not say where it believes Sinwar is, but that he was “underground.” Sinwar is originally from Khan Younis but it is unclear if he is currently there.

Palestinians mourn the death of loved ones following Israeli bombardment in southern Gaza on December 5.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has formally referred the situation in Gaza to the UN Security Council, urging its members to “avert a humanitarian catastrophe” in the besieged enclave.

Guterres delivered a letter to the president of the Security Council, José De La Gasca, on Wednesday, invoking Article 99 of the UN Charter, his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

Article 99 gives the secretary general the remit to “bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.”

In his letter, Guterres said the conflict has created “appalling human suffering, physical destruction and collective trauma across Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

The UN chief highlighted the plight of Gazan civilians, who he said are facing “grave danger” on a daily basis.

“Amid constant bombardment by the Israel Defence Forces, and without shelter or the essentials to survive, I expect public order to break down soon due to the desperate situation, rendering even limited humanitarian assistance impossible,” he said, warning the situation could worsen if the spread of disease reaches epidemic proportions and mass displacement creates “pressure” on neighboring countries. 

In the closing paragraph of his letter, Guterres urged Security Council members to “press to avert a humanitarian catastrophe” and support his call for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is “underground” in Gaza, the Israeli military on Wednesday asserted, but did not say where they believe he is.

The statement from Israel Defense Forces spokesperson came shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the IDF had surrounded Sinwar’s house in southern Gaza.

“Sinwar’s house is the area of Khan Younis,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said during a press briefing. “There is terror infrastructure and headquarters there. Sinwar is not above ground. He’s underground. I do not want to mention where, and what intelligence we acquired.”

“Our role is to reach Sinwar and kill him. We need to do that as soon as possible,” he added.

A senior adviser to Netanyahu on Wednesday told CNN that the encirclement of Sinwar’s house is a “symbolic victory.”

“It will be a real victory very soon,” Mark Regev said. “It’s only a matter of time before we get the man.”

An Israeli military tank rolls near the border with Gaza on December 5.

The United States understands that there will be a “transition period” in which Israeli forces remain in Gaza after the end of combat operations against Hamas, but that cannot be permanent, State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said Wednesday. 

It would not be “in anyone’s interest … for Israel to just leave — and leave a security vacuum in place where there could be rampant lawlessness inside Gaza, innocent civilians exploited,” Miller said at a press briefing.

“We understand there will need to be some transition period at the end of combat operations,” he added.

The US would not accept a reoccupation of Gaza by Israel, nor would it accept a buffer zone established within Gaza because it would violate the principle of no reduction of territory, Miller said.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement Wednesday that a surface-to-surface missile was detected heading toward Israel, specifically the city of Eilat. The IDF added that it successfully intercepted the missile in the Red Sea area using the Arrow aerial defense system.

The Houthi-run Yemeni Armed Forces said it launched a “batch of ballistic missiles” aimed at military targets in the Eilat area.

According to the IDF, the “target did not cross into Israeli territory, did not pose a threat to civilians and the sirens that sounded were according to protocol.”

The Yemeni Armed Forces added in its statement that it will continue to carry out military operations against the “Israeli enemy, as well as implementing the decision to prevent Israeli ships from navigating the Arab and Red Seas in support of the oppressed Palestinian people and until the aggression against our brothers in Gaza stops.”

Separately, a US warship shot down an unmanned aerial vehicle from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on Wednesday in the southern Red Sea, a US military official said.

There was no damage to the USS Mason, a guided-missile destroyer, or injuries to any personnel in the incident, the official said. The drone was flying in the direction of the ship; as with other recent instances of drones being shot down, the official said it came close enough to the Mason that the commander of the ship felt it was a threat and needed to be shot down.

At least three Houthi drones were shot down by the USS Carney on Sunday, during a series of attacks on three commercial vessels.

Some context: Since Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, the Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen have launched numerous cruise missiles and attack drones toward Israel and US assets in the region, heightening concerns that the Israel-Hamas war could expand further.

CNN’s Haley Britzky contributed reporting to this post.

The Israeli military on Wednesday dropped leaflets over Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, with a Quranic verse about the great flood during the time of Noah.

“The flood overtook them, while they persisted in wrongdoing,” the leaflet reads in Arabic.

The verse comes from a surah in the Quran in which Noah is sent as a prophet to preach for 950 years and warn the people before the deluge. Those who are wrongdoers are swept away in the flood.

The paper bears the logo of the Israel Defense Forces. Video shot by AFP shows the leaflets falling from the sky over Khan Younis.

The leaflet also uses the word “tufan,” or flood — the same word Hamas used to describe its October 7 attack on Israel, the “Al-Aqsa Flood.”

The IDF has said it is now operating in “the heart” of Gaza’s second-largest city and warned residents earlier this week that “the fighting and military advance of the IDF in the Khan Yunis area do not allow the movement of civilians through the Salah al-Din axis in the sections north and east of the city of Khan Yunis.”

This post has been updated with comments from the IDF.