October 13, 2023 - Israel-Hamas war news

President Joe Biden says the US is “working like hell” to get Americans missing from Israel back to the United States.

While Biden said he can’t disclose details of the efforts, the president said his message to those holding Americans hostage is that the US is doing “everything in our power.”

When asked why he felt so strongly about speaking personally to the families of the missing Americans, Biden said it’s because “they have to know that the president of the United States of America cares deeply about what’s happening.”

Nineteen Republican governors, led by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, penned a letter to President Joe Biden Friday calling for transparency on hostages and American loss of life, as well as “unequivocal support to Israel,” and the “immediate freeze of the $6 billion ransom payment made to the terror state.”

Along with DeSantis, fellow Republican presidential candidate North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum signed the letter, as well as Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and more. 

More on hostages: Hamas, the militant group that governs Gaza, kidnapped a number of people, including both civilians and soldiers, during its October 7 attack on Israel. It’s unclear how many people are being held hostage; Israeli authorities have said as many as 150 people may have been kidnapped. The Israel Defense Forces said Friday that it had notified 120 families of those taken hostage. Biden on Friday spoke with the families of 14 Americans “who are still unaccounted for” and are thought to be possible hostages.

Judith Raanan, and her 17-year-old daughter, Natali Raanan, were kidnapped by Hamas.

The relative of a mother and daughter who were kidnapped by Hamas said families’ call with President Joe Biden on Friday was touching, as he took the time to speak with each family involved.

Biden spoke with the families of 14 Americans “who are still unaccounted for” and are thought to be possible hostages.

Saray Cohen, whose brother was on the Zoom call with Biden, spoke with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Friday evening. She said a few hours prior they received word that her sister, Judith Raanan, and 17-year-old niece, Natali Raanan, had been kidnapped and were in Gaza.

Cohen said Biden reassured the families that the US would do everything in its power to bring their family members home. 

“We are very worried about my sister and niece,” Cohen said. She added that Natali’s 18th birthday is in just a few days, on October 24. 

Cohen noted that 11 other members of her family have been kidnapped by Hamas.

Another person present described the call with the president as “emotional” and said there were no moments that could be described as contentious or heated. Biden seemed to want the call to be informal, the participant added. 

More on hostages: Hamas, the militant group that governs Gaza, kidnapped a number of people, including both civilians and soldiers, during its October 7 attack on Israel. It’s unclear how many people are being held hostage; Israeli authorities have said as many as 150 people may have been kidnapped. The IDF said Friday that it had notified 120 families of those taken hostage.

Vassily Nebenzia, Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations, comments following a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters Friday, October 13, 2023.

Vassily Nebenzia, the permanent representative of Russia to the United Nations, is circulating a draft resolution at the UN Security Council which calls for a ceasefire in the “Israel-Gaza” war.

Nebenzia called for de-escalation in the conflict and said the resolution received a mixed reaction from the other 14 member countries.

When asked why the resolution doesn’t mention Hamas, the militant group that governs Gaza and staged the deadly October 7th attacks on Israel, the diplomat said it’s because his proposal is a humanitarian resolution.

The envoy said his country condemns any violence against residents of Israel and Gaza. Nebenzia said Israel has the right to defend its territory, but that the day-after-day shelling of Gaza by Israel recalls the siege of Leningrad during World War II. He also said Israel’s plan to move over a million people in northern Gaza to the south is similar to creating a ghetto.

Nebenzia blamed the US for over the years blocking action by the Quartet on the Middle East, which consists of United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia. The group was established in 2002 to help mediate the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Some context on Russia’s response: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday urged both sides in the fighting between Israel and Hamas to “minimize or reduce to zero” civilian casualties, and the foreign ministry in Moscow made similar calls for calm on Friday.

These comments come as Russia wages a ruthless war campaign against Ukraine and is being investigated by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. That case includes, among other things, allegations of targeting civilians.

Commentators on Russian state TV have mocked the US and Israel after the Hamas attack, and Putin has framed the brutal assault as a failure of US policy in the Middle East.

Canadians stuck in Gaza may be able to leave the area Saturday, said Julie Sunday, an assistant deputy minister with Global Affairs Canada.  

At least 150 Canadian citizens and residents have requested help in Gaza, Sunday said.  

 “In terms of the 150 people we’re focused on who have directly requested our assistance in Gaza, we are in contact with them to be able to validate their papers etcetera – if they have non-Canadian family members,” she said. “We are proactively working to get approval for them to be able to cross borders should the opportunity arise.”  

“We are not going to tell Canadians to move until we know that that is a possibility and we have confirmation that these individuals can get across that border. The last thing we want is Canadians getting stuck at a border,” Sunday said.  

Sunday said that the government is in contact with the families of Canadians who are missing as a result of the ongoing conflict – but it’s unclear how many are missing.  

“If we are treating this as a missing persons case, it’s because we have no evidence that they are deceased,” Sunday said.

Israel is denying claims it used white phosphorus munitions after the international advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Israeli forces of using them during military operations in Gaza and Lebanon this week.

According to a HRW report published Wednesday, the rights group said it verified one video taken on October 10 in Lebanon and another video in Gaza on October 11 that it claims shows “multiple airbursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over the Gaza City port and two rural locations along the Israel-Lebanon border.”

White phosphorus is intended to provide illumination or to create a smokescreen in battle, but it is known to burn flesh down to the bone, according to earlier CNN reporting.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza on Friday reported the evacuation of Durra children’s hospital in eastern Gaza after they said it was targeted by “white phosphorus bombs,” according to Dr. Ashraf Alquedra, ministry spokesperson. 

Asked if Israeli forces had used white phosphorus this week in Gaza and Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces strongly denied the claims. In a live interview earlier on Friday, IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told CNN “categorically, no,” it had not.

HRW said it interviewed two individuals from the al-Mina area in Gaza City, who described seeing strikes “consistent with the use of white phosphorus” and “both described ongoing airstrikes before seeing explosions in the sky followed by what they described as white lines going earthward,” they said.

The rights group said it reviewed the video and confirmed that it was taken in the port of Gaza City and “identified that the munitions used in the strike were airburst 155mm white phosphorus artillery projectiles. Other videos posted to social media and verified by Human Rights Watch show the same location,” the group said. “Dense white smoke and a garlic smell are characteristics of white phosphorus,” the statement said. 

The rights group also reviewed two videos on October 10 that occurred near the Israel-Lebanon border. “Each show 155mm white phosphorus artillery projectiles being used, apparently as smokescreens, marking, or signaling,” the release explained. 

CNN has reached out for comment to authorities in Lebanon.

Is white phosphorus illegal? Under an international protocol ratified by Israel in 1995, the use of such incendiary weapons is allowed when “not specifically designed to cause burn injury to persons,” CNN previously reported.

There is no prohibition, per se, against white phosphorus in conflict. But the timing and location of its use are restricted.

For example, it is illegal under the protocol to use white phosphorus against any personnel, civilian or military. It can be directed only against military targets. International law says incendiary weapons cannot be used where civilians are concentrated.

Israel’s history with white phosphorus: Israel previously faced widespread criticism for firing white phosphorus shells over densely populated areas during a Gaza offensive that began in late 2008. HRW said in a 2009 report that Israel’s white phosphorus munitions had killed and injured civilians and damaged civilian structures, including including a school, a market, a humanitarian aid warehouse, and a hospital. HRW claimed that Israel’s use of the weapons in crowded neighborhoods “violated international humanitarian law (the laws of war), which requires taking all feasible precautions to avoid civilian harm and prohibits indiscriminate attacks.”

In response, the nation pledged to limit the use of white phosphorus and make greater efforts to protect civilians during conflicts. Still, the government said that it had used white phosphorus lawfully.

Ilan Kedar was in New York last Saturday, on a weekend trip with his mother, when he heard the news of the Hamas surprise attack on Israel.

His family was still “relatively safe,” he said, but only “as safe as you can possibly feel when you have sirens above you all the time.” 

Kedar was born in Jerusalem and moved to the United States with his family when he was a baby — his mother is American and his father is Israeli. He lived in Chicago through high school before returning to Israel to serve with the Israeli Defense Forces for five years and has been on reserves duty since he was released by the IDF in 2014.

Usually, he said, calls to return to Israel for reserve duty came via an automated phone call, but this time was different.

“It was literally just through WhatsApp — a message to all the reservists to come in, meet at the emergency warehouses,” he said.

By then, Kedar had already started looking for flights, preparing to join the 360,000 other reservists who have answered their country’s call to arms as unspeakable violence continues to escalate in Israel and Gaza. Of course, he said, people worried about his safety, but everyone was still supportive of his decision to serve.

Kedar will leave Saturday evening to join the war.

After nearly a week of deadly airstrikes on Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Friday: “It’s only the beginning.”

And ‏Izzat al-Risheq, a senior Hamas official, said the militant group “will not surrender our legitimate fight for freedom and self-determination.”

The situation in Gaza, according to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, “has reached a dangerous new low” while Israeli forces mass near the enclave border ahead of a possible ground assault.

Here are other headlines you should know:

Daystar Church in Cullman, Alabama, has raised tens of thousands of dollars from local businesses and neighbors to help bring home Americans stuck in Israel, according to its senior pastor. 

Lawson told CNN the church paid nearly $60,000 out of its general fund to help 47 stranded Americans, who will be returning to the United States in groups. Donations will go toward reimbursing the church for those immediate costs.

The first of the assisted groups consists of multiple Alabama church members, including one from Daystar. Lawson said the group is expected to arrive in Atlanta on Saturday.  

The group landed in Israel last Saturday “as the first rockets came in from Gaza,” Lawson said. They were in the country on an all-inclusive religious tour to visit holy sites, but when US airlines stopped flights in and out of Israel, the group was stuck. Many of them do not have the financial means to arrange alternate travel home, Lawson added.

“Having watched videos of atrocities committed by Hamas, we’re so grateful that no one in our group was attacked or injured in any way,” Lawson told CNN.

The pastor credits Alabama state Sen. Garlan Gudger with helping to raise money and US Sen. Tommy Tuberville with helping expedite visas to Jordan, to help the group make their way back home to the US.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters that he expects the first evacuation flight to bring Floridians home from Israel, in accordance with a newly signed executive order, will arrive in the state on Sunday.

The first flight will depart tomorrow and will land in Florida on Sunday, the governor’s press secretary Jeremy Redfern confirmed to CNN. 

The first charter flight evacuating Americans from Israel landed in Athens on Friday. The State Department has said more flights will depart over the coming days.