White House condemns antisemitism and violence at DC protests

Our live coverage of Netanyahu’s speech and protests in Washington, DC, has ended for the day. Follow the latest updates or read the posts below.

DC Police said they had arrested nine people during protests around Washington, DC.

According to DC Police, two people were arrested and charged with assaulting a police officer after pushing law enforcement during a protest near Union Station. Two more were arrested after crossing a police line after an officer was assaulted, DC Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith said.

At another location near the Capitol, five people were also charged with Crowding, Obstructing or Incommoding after police said they used locking devices to connect their arms together and block traffic.

“I extend my gratitude and sincere appreciation to the members of the Metropolitan Police Department for assisting our local, state, and federal partners, and especially our community for helping us keep the District of Columbia safe for everyone,” she said.

US Park Police earlier said it arrested eight people related to the protests at Union Station.

The US does not believe that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is hindering or delaying a ceasefire and hostage deal, and that progress is being made in negotiations, according to a senior administration official. 

This person noted that if the US were to draw that conclusion they would say so “very clearly” and that a month from now, if there has been little progress, they may take a different tone.

The official said Israel and Hamas need to agree on certain elements before a deal is reached, and that neither is holding up negotiations at this point. 

Crucial meeting tomorrow: President Joe Biden will meet Netanyahu on Thursday, and the leaders are expected to discuss the threats posed by Iran and its proxies, developments in Gaza, and negotiations on a ceasefire, according to this official. 

It will be the first time the leaders have met in person since Biden’s trip to Israel following the October 7 attack, though they have spoken frequently on the phone. It will be followed by a meeting with American hostage families. Vice President Kamala Harris will then meet with Netanyahu.

The senior official noted that they expected a “substantive” and “detailed” discussion, with a focus on how to work through some of the issues that remain between Israel and Hamas. 

This person also said that, while the deal is not at a point where it’s ready to be signed and implemented, they believe that further work, of which they expect there to be a lot in the coming week, will lead to securing the final details. 

Police officers detain a pro-Palestinian protester in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, July 24.

The US Park Police arrested eight people Wednesday following protests outside of Washington DC’s Union Station that included burning an American flag and destroying property. 

Following a speech before Congress by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, protesters spray painted the phrase “Hamas is comin” and climbed the Christopher Columbus statue in Columbus Circle, which is outside of Washington’s main train station. 

Protesters also flew Palestinian flags on flagpoles in front of the station and burned a papier-mâché effigy of Netanyahu.

Police said the clean-up effort will begin Thursday.

“National Park Service conservators will begin the removal of paint from the statues and fountains at Columbus Circle in the morning. It may take multiple treatments over several days to remove all of it,” the statement said. 

Police did not outline the charges. Parks Police Fraternal Order, the union representing officers, said the charges included destruction of government property, assault on police, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, statue climbing, fighting and interfering. 

Video of the incident that surfaced online showed a protester pulling a police officer off another protester who was being arrested. It’s unclear if the assault on police charge stems from that incident.

Police did not release a list of those who were charged. 

As Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered his speech to Congress Wednesday, protesters at Union Station were seen burning US flags and depictions of Netanyahu. He described protesters as “Iran’s useful idiots in his address.

The White House called the protests disgraceful. “Antisemitism and violence are never acceptable. Period,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement.

Here are scenes from Union Station:

Protesters burn an effigy depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outside Union Station in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, July 24.

A demonstrator sprays graffiti, including the word "Hamas," on the Christopher Columbus Memorial Fountain at Union Station.

Demonstrators carry a large Palestinian flag at Columbus Circle, in Washington, DC, as they protest the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Demonstrators carry signs as they protest Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s appearance before Congress.

A burned US flag and Israeli flag are seen during a pro-Palestinian protest near the US Capitol.

US Park Police officer gestures with pepper spray while other officers carry away a handcuffed demonstrator.

Demonstrators gather around the George Gordon Meade Memorial.

The White House has disavowed images outside Union Station in Washington, DC, where pro-Palestinian protesters took down and burned American flags earlier Wednesday in protest of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit, calling the protests “disgraceful.”

“Every American has the right to peaceful protest. But shamefully, not everyone demonstrated peacefulness today,” he said.

CNN’s Brian Todd walks through protests in Washington, DC after Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the Capitol. 

In his speech to Congress Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that during his recent visit to Rafah, when he asked how many civilians were killed there, the commander told him “practically none, with the exception of a single incident where shrapnel from a bomb hit a Hamas weapons depot and unintentionally killed two dozen people.”

Facts First: Netanyahu may have been told that, but the claim itself is verifiably false: multiple strikes in Rafah have resulted in civilian casualties.

The “incident” Netanyahu referenced occurred in May and killed at least 45 people at a camp for displaced Palestinians and injured more than 200 after a fire broke out at the camp following the strike, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and Palestinian medics.

In the same week of that strike, at least 29 Palestinians were killed in two separate Israeli attacks on displacement camps in Rafah, according to Palestinian and United Nations officials.

CNN has seen firsthand video shot by stringers in Rafah, and spoken to several health officials, humanitarian workers and eyewitnesses who have reported civilian fatalities as a result of Israel’s military assault on the southern city.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health does not distinguish in its reporting between combatant and civilian deaths but has previously said that some 70% of casualties in all of Gaza have been women and children.

Open-source monitoring by watchdog group Airwars found a “high correlation” between the Palestinian Ministry of Health’s civilian casualty data and what Palestinian civilians “reported online,” according to a new report.

Airwars identified 3,259 civilians who were killed in Gaza between October 7 and 24 — 75% of them were also listed on the Palestinian Ministry of Health’s official list of victims.

To draw these conclusions, Airwars’ research team reviewed social media posts, statements from local news outlets, and news releases from non-governmental organizations to identify victims killed during the 17-day period. Analysts cross-referenced names with other biographical data and, where possible, matched these reports with specific incidents that Airwars cataloged since the Israeli offensive began.

When asked about these findings, the Israel Defense Forces told CNN “it must be noted that the Gaza Health Ministery [sic] is held and run by the Hamas terror orgiziation [sic]… [and] should not be deemed a reliable source of information.” 

The Palestinian Ministry of Health’s statistics about civilian casualties in Gaza have been disputed by some Israeli and American policymakers.

Since October 7, the Ministry of Health said 39,145 individuals have been killed and 90,257 injured as a result of Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

Kareem Khadder contributed to this report. 

Plans are in the works for another round of Gaza ceasefire and hostage talks that include CIA Director Bill Burns and his fellow mediators early next week with a location to be determined, according to an official familiar with the planning.

Burns was “prepared to re-engage” after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, DC, national security advisor Jake Sullivan said on Friday.

The so-called quad meetings include Burns, Israeli Mossad Director David Barnea, Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel and the Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al Thani. Egyptian and Qatari leaders will then engage directly with Hamas. 

Officials involved consistently warn of the fluid nature of these sensitive talks. Next week’s meeting, if it happens, would a good sign for the ceasefire and hostage deal which has been worked on since the last pause in the fighting in late November. 

An Israeli delegation that was expected to leave on Thursday to transmit the latest Israeli response to the mediators is likely to delay its trip until at least Friday as a result of Netanyahu’s meeting with President Joe Biden being postponed until Thursday afternoon, a source familiar with the negotiations told CNN Tuesday.

The Israeli prime minister wants to meet with Biden before the Israeli delegation formally transmits its response to the mediators, the source said.

CNN’s Jeremy Diamond contributed to this report.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday, July 24.

There was a little bit of something for everyone in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress today: He promised to bring home the hostages trapped in Gaza, thanked Democrats and Republicans for their support and vowed to destroy Hamas.

But by the end of his speech, it was clear the Israeli prime minister had focused far more on fighting until victory in Gaza than brokering a ceasefire deal.

While Netanyahu could simply be playing once again to his right-wing political allies, his words do not sound like those of a man on the cusp of signing a ceasefire agreement.

American and Israeli officials have indicated to CNN in recent days that a deal is very much within reach – and depends on whether or not the prime minister wants a deal.  

Netanyahu sought to strike a largely bipartisan tone as he sought to shore up support for Israel in the US, thanking both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

Questionable claims

He also made several claims that attempted to defend the Israeli military’s conduct in Gaza and the enormous number of civilian casualties caused by Israel’s war in Gaza. Many of his claims flew in the face of facts on the ground.

He said the International Criminal Court’s allegation that Israel is starving people of Gaza is “nonsense” and a “complete fabrication,” but humanitarian aid groups say there is clear evidence that Israel has not allowed enough aid in and has not done enough to deconflict its military operations to allow aid groups to safely distribute that aid inside Gaza. Israel has also shown at various points in the war that it can turn on and off the spigot of aid entering Gaza. Members of Netanyahu’s own government have also called for cutting off all aid to Gaza.

Netanyahu also claimed there were “practically” no civilian casualties during Israeli military operations in Rafah. That is unquestionably false: Multiple strikes in Rafah have resulted in civilian casualties.

Netanyahu also repeated his claim that Israel has one of the lowest rates of civilian casualty in warfare, a claim that has been repeatedly rebuffed and debunked by numerous military experts – including former US generals – who say Israel takes insufficient precautions to avoid civilian casualties.

Hamas condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to US Congress, calling it “baseless propaganda and lies” that are “used as an excuse to commit atrocious crimes against women, children, and the elderly in Gaza.”

The statement said Netanyahu has failed to secure a deal to release the hostages despite Egypt and Qatar’s mediation efforts and the “flexibility and positivity” that Hamas says it has shown.

The US continues to push for a ceasefire and hostage deal, with US officials publicly calling on Hamas to accept previous ceasefire proposals amid months of back-and-forth negotiations between the group and Israel. 

Normalization of relations between Israel and Arab states will remain an “aspiration” unless Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lays out a credible pathway for Palestinian statehood, according to Ghaith al-Omari, former advisor to Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas.

Arab states like Saudi Arabia want to normalize relations with Israel, but they want Israel to lay out the pathway, said al-Omari, who is also a Senior Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

During his address to Congress earlier Wednesday, Netanyahu said he wants to create a new alliance called the “Abraham Alliance” which would be a “natural extension of the groundbreaking Abraham Accords.”

Al-Omari told CNN’s Dana Bash that Saudi officials he spoke to “want to get into not only security alliances, but also civilian, diplomatic.”

Netanyahu did not speak about a pathway to Palestinian statehood during his speech on Wednesday, al-Omari noted.

Some context: For years, Netanyahu has tried push normalization with countries like Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations. In September 2020, Israel normalized relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain with the signing of the Abraham Accords.

“Unless he does kind of the necessary heavy political lifting … to deal with his own politics about it. This will simply remain rather an ad hoc notion or a pie in the sky,” al-Omari said.

At least 33 people were killed as a result of airstrikes and shelling in several areas east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza since Wednesday morning, according to Nasser Hospital. 

The dead were brought to the hospital from nearby towns, including Bani Suhaila, Jorat Al-Lot and Abbassan Al-Jadida, hospital spokesperson Dr. Mohammad Saqer said earlier.

Journalists in Khan Younis reported heavy gunfire from quadcopters east of the city on Wednesday. 

The Israeli military is continuing operational activity in the area of Khan Yunis, according to a statement from the Israel Defense Forces.

CNN has reached out to the IDF for more details on the airstrike. 

CNN is unable independently to confirm the death toll, partly because Gaza is inaccessible to the international media.

This post has been updated with an increase in the death toll.

Oren Goldin

The body of Israeli hostage Oren Goldin has been recovered following an operation, the kibbutz where he lived confirmed on Wednesday.

Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak said in a statement Goldin was part of the kibbutz’s civilian emergency squad and was killed on October 7.

There have been no details released regarding how his body was recovered. 

REp. Rashida Tlaib protests during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday, July 24

Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the lone Palestinian-American congresswoman, is holding up a black-and-white sign during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech that on one side says: “War criminal” and the other side says: “Guilty of genocide.”

She has remained seated the whole speech. 

Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a hard-right congresswoman, went over and sat next to Tlaib and had a brief interaction with her during the speech.  

Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer called Tlaib’s use of the sign “unfortunate.”

Hoyer, a longtime supporter of Israel, called Netanyahu’s address to Congress good, but admitted he thought some parts were not necessary.

“I think he’s correct in his basic premise that the United States and (Israel) are very close allies … His premise that we need to defeat Hamas is absolutely correct,” Hoyer said, not elaborating on which of Netanyahu’s points were dispensable. 

CNN’s Danya Gainor, Lauren Fox and Haley Talbot contributed reporting.

This post has been updated with comments from Rep. Hoyer.

\Protestors burn a representation of Benjamin Netanyahu outside of Union Station on Wednesday, July 24

Pro-Palestinian protesters outside of Union Station in Washington, DC, have taken down and burned US flags in protest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit.

The protesters have also put Palestinian flags on flag poles outside of Union Station. 

CNN crews on the scene saw at least three people detained by police. The crowd followed them as they were taken away chanting, “Let them Go!”

Protesters also burned a paper mâché puppet of Netanyahu with a US missile coming out of his private parts. 

A protestor carries a Hamas flag during the protests on Wednesday.

Many of the protesters have now begun to dissipate.

Maya Goren

The body of Israeli hostage Maya Goren has been recovered by security forces, the kibbutz where she lived confirmed on Wednesday.

The 56-year-old mother of four was killed on October 7, and her body taken to Gaza, Kibbutz Nir Oz announced on December 1, 2023. Goren was a preschool teacher and was abducted from the kibbutz’s nursery on October 7.

“She worked as a devoted preschool teacher who took care of the kibbutz’s children for many years,” Wednesday’s kibbutz statement read.

Goren will be buried next to her husband who was also killed on October 7, according to the kibbutz.

There have been no details released regarding how her body was recovered. 

Rep. Brad Schneider speaks during a news conference outside the US Capitol on January 10.

Democratic Rep. Brad Schneider, a Jewish lawmaker, told CNN he made a direct pitch to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bring the hostages home when they were taking a picture together and Netanyahu said “we are getting closer.” 

Schneider declined to react to Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s sign that said “war criminal and “guilty of genocide.”

“I saw it. I’m not going to comment” Schneider said. “I have lots of thoughts. I’m going to keep them to myself.”

Schneider said he went into the speech with “lots of concerns of how it could go” but was pleasantly surprised by the overall tone of Netanyahu’s speech.

Schneider said he wished Netanyahu talked about the security supplemental that Congress passed that included appropriations for Israel. Instead, Netanyahu said to Congress: “give us the tools faster, and we’ll finish the job faster.”

 “I would have liked to see a nod to that and recognition” Schneider said.

Schneider also said he disagreed with Netanyahu’s characterization of Israel as only being the home of the Jewish people.

Schneider said he plans to judge Netanyahu on “actions as well as words.”  

The Hostage and Missing Families Forum in Israel has responded to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to US Congress on Wednesday.  

People gathered at the so-called Hostages Square in Tel Aviv to watch Netanyahu’s speech.

“They came to watch the broadcast of the speech and hear addresses from family members of the hostages, hoping to hear the Prime Minister utter the two crucial words: ‘There’s a deal,’” the statement read.

During his nearly 52-minute address, Netanyahu did not touch on the status of the ceasefire negotiations despite months of international pressure to find a deal.

Noam Peri, daughter of Chaim Peri, who the Israeli government last month said died in Hamas captivity, said: “You can no longer save my father, but you must return to our shared values and restore the basic contract between us - before it’s too late.” 

“Sign the deal, save the hostages who are alive and fighting for their lives every moment,” she urged. 

Eli Albaz, father of Liri Albaz, who is currently being held hostage in Gaza, said: “My Prime Minister, we’re tired of hearing stories. There will be no forgiveness if there’s no deal, there will be no revival.”