January 21, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

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

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it received a shipment Sunday from the Egyptian Red Crescent, consisting of a total of 80 trucks that arrived at the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza.

The trucks carried essential humanitarian aid, including food, water, relief assistance and medical supplies.

Additionally, the Palestinian aid organization said 105 more humanitarian aid trucks entered through the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing on the same day.

Benjamin Netanyahu heads the weekly cabinet meeting at the Defence Ministry in Tel Aviv on January 7.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not accept Hamas’ demand for an end to the war in exchange for the release of hostages held in Gaza, he said Sunday.

“I work on this around the clock. But to be clear: I reject outright the terms of surrender of the monsters of Hamas,” he said.

Netanyahu said Hamas has demanded an end to the war, the release of Palestinian prisoners and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza in exchange for the release of the hostages.

“If we agree to this, our soldiers fell in vain. If we agree to this, we will not be able to guarantee the security of our citizens,” the prime minister said. 

Some context: Netanyahu’s comments come amid a report in the Wall Street Journal that the US, Egypt and Qatar want Israel to join a new phase of talks with Hamas that would start with the release of hostages and lead to the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

Netanyahu said he communicated his objections to US President Joe Biden over the weekend, and reiterated comments he made last week about Israel controlling all territory west of Jordan. 

Palestinians check damaged graves at a cemetery following an Israeli raid in Khan Younis, Gaza, on January 17.

The Israeli military has desecrated at least 16 cemeteries in its ground offensive in Gaza, a CNN investigation has found, leaving gravestones ruined, soil upturned and, in some cases, bodies unearthed.

In Khan Younis, southern Gaza, where fighting escalated in recent days, Israeli forces destroyed a cemetery, removing bodies in what the Israel Defense Forces told CNN was part of a search for the remains of hostages seized by Hamas during the October 7, 2023, terror attacks.

CNN has reviewed satellite imagery and social media footage showing the destruction of cemeteries — and witnessed it firsthand while traveling with the IDF in a convoy. Together, the evidence reveals a systemic practice.

The intentional destruction of religious sites, such as cemeteries, violates international law, except under narrow circumstances relating to that site becoming a military objective, and legal experts told CNN that Israel’s acts could amount to war crimes.

A spokesperson for the IDF could not account for the destruction of the 16 cemeteries CNN provided coordinates for, but said the military sometimes has “no other choice” but to target cemeteries it claimed Hamas uses for military purposes.

The Israel Defense Forces has confirmed the death of an Israeli sergeant major whose body was taken to Gaza after he was killed during the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023.

Sgt. Maj. Shay Levinson, 19, was from the Givat Avni community in northern Israel and served in the 77th Battalion of Brigade 7, the IDF said. 

What we know about the remaining hostages: The confirmation of Levinson’s death brings the number of hostages confirmed dead since October 7 to 28.

An estimated 104 hostages taken on October 7 are still believed to be alive in Gaza, according to the latest Israeli figures, which have fluctuated at times based on new intelligence.

Four additional hostages were being held in Gaza before the latest Israel-Hamas war broke out, according to Israeli authorities. Two of those four hostages have died and two are believed to still be alive. That brings the total number of hostages in Gaza to 136, as of Israel’s latest update.

An alleged Hamas tunnel in Khan Younis, Gaza, is seen in this screengrab from video released by the Israel Defense Forces on Sunday.

The Israel Defense Forces released footage Sunday of a tunnel in the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza where it said Hamas held around 20 hostages at different times. 

The tunnel was located in the center of Khan Younis and ran about 830 meters (0.51 miles) at a depth of 20 meters (66 feet), the IDF said.

There were booby traps, explosives and various obstacles inside the tunnel, according to the IDF, which said it encountered and killed several Hamas operatives as it entered the tunnel.

The IDF found no hostages in the tunnel but said, based on testimonies from former hostages and DNA evidence, that about 20 hostages were held in there at different times, some of who have been released while others remain held in Gaza. 

An alleged Hamas tunnel in Khan Younis, Gaza, is seen in this image released by the IDF.

Videos shared by the IDF show long tunnels, some of which lead to rooms with mattresses, blankets and food wrappers scattered on the floor, and kitchen and bathroom areas. 

The group also released photos of a pair of child’s drawings. Five-year-old former hostage Emilia Aloni drew the pictures, the IDF said Aloni’s family told them.

Aloni and her mother were released in November during a brief truce between Hamas and Israel to allow for the exchange of hostages and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. More than 100 hostages were released during the truce.

Israel estimates that 132 hostages from the October 7, 2023, attacks remain in Gaza — 25 of whom are believed to be dead.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, speaks with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich during a cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv, Israel, on January 7.

“Not a single shekel will go to Gaza. Period,” far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich wrote after Israel’s security cabinet approved a measure that gives him the power to freeze funds intended for the Palestinian Authority, if the PA transfers those funds to Gaza.

Under existing agreements, Israel collects tax revenue on behalf of the Palestinian Authority on Palestinian imports and exports. Since Hamas launched its attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, the Israeli government has refused to disburse the full amount of taxes collected, which are primarily used by the Palestinian Authority to pay public employees and retirees.

The funds collected by Israel will now be transferred to Norway as a third party, then be sent to Ramallah — excluding the sum earmarked for Gaza — which would remain frozen in Norwegian hands, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Sunday. The United States and Norway will help oversee and facilitate the agreement.

“Any violation of the agreement allows the Minister of Finance to immediately freeze all of the Palestinians’ repayment funds,” the prime minister’s office said.

Hussein al-Sheikh, a top official with the Palestine Liberation Organization, immediately rejected the Israeli plan, calling it “piracy” and urging the international community to stop it.

Remember: Smotrich has come under fire for recent comments advocating for the voluntary migration of Palestinians from Gaza, and the reestablishment of Israeli settlements there.

Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) is reporting that one person was killed and five others were injured in what it says was an Israeli drone strike that hit a vehicle near a Lebanese military checkpoint in Kafra, southern Lebanon, on Sunday afternoon.

The incident happened roughly 8 km (4.9 miles) away from the Lebanese-Israeli border, the agency reported.

It destroyed one vehicle, while a nearby vehicle also caught fire, NNA added.

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment. The IDF said they would release a statement later on Sunday.

The European Union has sanctioned Abdelbasit Hamza, a Sudanese financier with strong ties to Hamas who was at the center of an investigation carried out by CNN with Israeli investigative platform Shomrim and the International Consortium for Investigative Journalism (ICIJ) into the militant group’s funding.

The investigation exposed the wide range of business interests Hamza had managed to maintain in Europe, despite being placed under US sanctions in the wake of the October 7 attacks.

Hamza, who has previously denied any involvement in Hamas funding, is believed to have a network of global assets previously estimated by Sudanese anti-corruption officials to be over $2 billion.

“For the first time, the EU will also be able to target persons or entities providing support to those facilitating or enabling violent action by Hamas and the PIJ (Palestinian Islamic Jihad); in other words, the sponsors of those who sponsor the two terrorist organizations,” the bloc said.

Hamza was one of six individuals, including senior Hamas financier Rida Ali Khamis and senior Hamas operative Musa Dudin, sanctioned on Friday. All six will be subjected to an asset freeze and a travel ban to the EU, according to the EU release.

UK Secretary of State for Defence Grant Shapps speaks to the media in London on January 21.

UK Secretary of State for Defense Grant Shapps has called comments from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejecting the prospect of a Palestinian state “disappointing,” reiterating the UK’s commitment toward a two-state solution. 

Netanyahu sparked controversy during a news conference in Tel Aviv on Thursday when he appeared to reject the idea of creating a Palestinian state in adherence with a two-state solution. 

“In any future arrangement… Israel needs security control of all territory west of Jordan. This clashes with the idea of (Palestinian) sovereignty. What can you do?” he said.

On Saturday, Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister “reiterated his policy” on this during a private phone call with US President Joe Biden.

Speaking to British broadcaster Sky News on Sunday, Shapps said it was “disappointing to hear that from the Israeli Prime Minister.” 

Shapps said a Palestinian state “needs to be sovereign on the Palestinian side” and to also “provide security guarantees on the Israeli side.” 

On Saturday, UK shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy said “Biden is right” in calling for a two-state solution, and described Netanyahu’s comments as “unacceptable,” adding: “Of course, the Palestinian people deserve a state.”

The father of a Palestinian American teenager shot dead in the occupied West Bank has blamed the United States for his son’s death, citing long-standing US military support.

Hafiz Abdel Jabbar said his son Tawfic Abdel Jabbar – who was born and raised in Gretna, Louisiana, near New Orleans, but had been living with his father in the West Bank since May 2023 – was driving to have a picnic on their family farm with his friends, about 10 miles north of Ramallah, near the town of Al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya, on Friday.

A Palestinian state media report earlier said the teen was transported in critical condition to the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah, where he later died.

Police said the shooting would be investigated.   

More than 360 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops and settlers in the West Bank since October 7, the Palestinian Ministry of Health says.

Palestinians mourn relatives who were killed in an Israeli strike in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza, on January 5.

More than 25,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7, the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health said Sunday.

The latest Palestinian toll includes 178 people killed and 293 injured in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 25,105 killed and 62,681 injured across the strip during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

CNN cannot independently verify these numbers due to the challenges of reporting from the war zone.

According to an operational update, IDF snipers in cooperation with the Israeli Air Force (IAF) “eliminated a number of terrorists” in Khan Younis in the south of Gaza while troops also “eliminated 15 terrorists” in Daraj Tuffah in the northern part of the territory.

In an update Sunday morning, the IDF said one additional soldier had been killed in combat, bringing Israel’s military death toll to 195 since Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza began.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv, Israel, on January 7.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday his desire for security control over all territory west of Jordan is contrary to the existence of a Palestinian state.

He did not provide any other details in his one-line post, which came a day after he had a phone call with US President Joe Biden which included discussions on the matter. 

Netanyahu’s post echoes a statement he made on Thursday where he said Israel “must control security of all the land which is west of the Jordan River.” 

In a separate post, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir also reasserted his rejection of a Palestinian state. “I do deny a Palestinian state. Always!” Ben Gvir said on X.

Some background: It remains unclear what post-war Gaza will look like, but Netanyahu is under competing pressures from the international community to allow a viable Palestinian state and domestically to guarantee Israel’s security in the wake of the October 7 attacks.

Following their call, Biden told reporters he believed Netanyahu could ultimately be convinced of a two-state solution. 

“There are a number of types of two-state solutions,” he said.

“There’s a number of countries that are members of the UN that are still – don’t have their own military; a number of states that have limitations, and so I think there’s ways in which this can work,” Biden added.

Motaz Azaiza, a 24-year-old photojournalist who has been documenting the war on social media, now has millions of Instagram followers.

Early on Christmas Day in the central Gazan city of Deir al-Balah, Motaz Azaiza shared a terrifying update on X.

A quadcopter was flying low above the door of his house, he said, and he feared he was about to be targeted in an Israeli airstrike. As a highly visible Palestinian online who had received threats before, Azaiza believed he had reason to be afraid.

Hundreds of people flooded the replies with concern for the 24-year-old Palestinian photojournalist, who has been documenting Israel’s military assault on Gaza on social media since Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7.

Noor, a medical student in California who asked to go by her first name for safety reasons, was one of the people worrying. For months, she’s been following Azaiza’s dispatches from Gaza, broadcast to his millions of followers: images of his once vibrant neighborhood transformed into a gray wasteland, raw glimpses of carnage in the ashes, and reflections on his own feelings of rage and exhaustion.

Noor refers to Azaiza with the familiarity of his first name. She gets notifications on her phone each time he posts, and worries when too much time passes.

Read more.

Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres delivers his speech during the closing session of the 19th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Kampala, Uganda, on January 20.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called opposition to a two-state solution “unacceptable” on Sunday.

Guterres added that “the right of the Palestinian people to build their own state must be recognized by all.”

On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his desire for security control over all territory west of Jordan is contrary to the existence of a Palestinian state.

In a separate post, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir also reasserted his rejection of a Palestinian state. 

“I do deny a Palestinian state. Always!” Ben Gvir said on X.

Iran’s president has vowed to retaliate after five Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members who were serving on a military advisory mission in Syria were killed in an airstrike on a residential building in Damascus, according to the IRGC. Both Iran and Syria said Israel launched the strike. The Israel Defense Forces has declined to comment on the allegations, telling CNN, “We do not comment on foreign reports.”

The reported strike comes as fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East continue to grow.

Here’s what else you should know:

A 2019 file photo of Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq.

US personnel were injured in a ballistic missile attack on Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq, according to two US officials. US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed that multiple ballistic missiles and rockets targeted the base and, while most were intercepted, some did make impact.

The attack resulted in minor injuries, the two officials said, though it was not immediately clear how many personnel had been injured. In a statement, CENTCOM said some personnel “are undergoing evaluation for traumatic brain injuries.”

Attacks since October 7: The Saturday attack appears to be the second time ballistic missiles have been used to target US and coalition forces in Iraq since October 7, 2023, when Iran-backed Shia militias began launching attacks on coalition bases after the beginning of the war in Gaza. The US and coalition forces have come under attack more than 140 times in Iraq and Syria since then, as Iranian-backed Shia militias have launched repeated drone and rockets. The use of more powerful ballistic missiles — far rarer than rockets or one-way attack drones — comes at a time of increased tension in the region as the war passes 100 days.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an Iran-backed militia group, claimed responsibility for the missile attack. The group emphasized in a statement Saturday its commitment to resisting American “occupation forces” in the region and cited the attack as a response to what they referred to as the “Zionist entity’s massacres” against the Palestinian people in Gaza. US forces in Iraq and Syria operate as part of the coalition to defeat ISIS. 

In a statement, the United Nations secretary-general’s special representative for Iraq warned that the region is at a “critical juncture” stemming from the war in Gaza that risks drawing Iraq further into the conflict.

On Monday, northern Iraq was the target of ballistic missile strikes by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for having what the organization said was a spy base for Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad. The US condemned the strikes as “reckless” and imprecise.

Learn more about this attack and others in the region.

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a funeral ceremony in Kerman, Iran, on January 5.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Saturday strongly condemned the deaths of five members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in a suspected Israeli missile strike on the Syrian capital of Damascus, according to Iranian state media Press TV.

Reacting to the strike — in what is the latest tit-for-tat escalation of hostilities that further risks spiraling into a wider regional conflict — Raisi vowed that Iran would retaliate, saying such “cowardly” acts will not go unanswered.

Raisi also said the attack would be “another stain on the record of all governments who claim to be the advocates of human rights because it violated Syria’s airspace and trampled on human and international laws,” according to Iranian state media.

The Syrian Ministry of Defense claimed Israel “launched an air attack from the Golan Heights at 10:20 a.m. local time that targeted a residential building in the Mazzeh neighborhood in Damascus.” In a statement, the ministry said its defenses managed to intercept and shoot “down a number of the enemy’s missiles.”

The Israeli military declined to comment on the Iranian and Syrian allegations that they were behind the attack. An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson told CNN: “We do not comment on foreign reports.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a cabinet meeting at the Defence Ministry in Tel Aviv, Israel, on January 7.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office on Saturday responded to CNN reporting from Friday that Benjamin Netanyahu, in a private phone call with US President Joe Biden, said he was not foreclosing the possibility of a future Palestinian state in any form. Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister told Biden that Israel must retain security control over Gaza following the war against Hamas. 

CNN previously reported that Netanyahu told Biden in a phone call Friday that public comments he made a day earlier — in which he appeared to reject the idea of creating a Palestinian state — were not meant to foreclose that outcome in any form, a person familiar with the conversation told CNN.

Hours after getting off the phone with Netanyahu, Biden told reporters at the White House that he believed Netanyahu could ultimately be convinced of a two-state solution. 

Biden and Netanyahu remain publicly at odds over the fundamental question of what will happen to Gaza once the war against Hamas concludes, despite intense American efforts over the past several months to engage officials in Israel and the wider region on a plan they hope can finally resolve the decades-long conflict.

Kevin Liptak and MJ Lee contributed reporting.

People gather in front of a building destroyed in a reported Israeli strike in Damascus, Syria, on January 20.

 At least five people have been killed in a missile strike on a building in Damascus, Iran’s English-language state media outlet Press TV reported Saturday evening.

This follows reports earlier Saturday that four Iranian military advisers and several members of Syrian forces had been killed in what was deemed an Israeli missile strike, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, which cited the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). 

Syrian state TV, which also accused Israel of the attack, said earlier that several people were killed and injured in Saturday’s missile strike in the Mazzeh neighborhood, home to several diplomatic missions including the Iranian embassy. 

The IRGC named the four military members as Hojatollah Omidvar, Ali Aghazadeh, Hossein Mohammadi and Saeed Karimi. 

Syrian civil defense teams were searching for people they believe are trapped under the rubble, state TV reported, and that a number of surrounding buildings and nearby vehicles were also damaged in the strike.

The Israel Defense Forces declined to comment on the strike, telling CNN on Saturday: “We do not comment on foreign reports.”

Escalating tensions: The reported strike comes as fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East continue to grow.

Along with northern Iraq, Syria was the target of ballistic missile strikes launched by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Monday at what the organization said was “anti-Iran terror groups.”

On Friday, the US conducted its sixth reported strike on Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

This post has been updated to reflect the latest death toll provided by officials.

An alleged Hamas tunnel in Khan Younis, Gaza, is seen in this screengrab from video released by the Israel Defense Forces.

The Israel Defense Forces said troops uncovered a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis where Hamas allegedly held hostages, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in a news conference on Saturday.

After IDF troops fought and killed several Hamas fighters at the entrance, they proceeded down the tunnel, which contained explosives and blast-proof doors, Hagari said.

About 20 meters (about 66 feet) underground, the IDF claims it found a central space. Hagari said hostages who have since returned to Israel said this is where they spent a majority of their time. 

Though no hostages were in the tunnel during the IDF’s operation, Hagari said they found evidence of their presence, including a drawing made by 5-year-old Emilia Aloni. The IDF released several images they said show the underground cells and the drawings they retrieved from inside the tunnels.

Further down, they found five prison cells, each equipped with a toilet and a mattress. Hagari said the IDF has evidence that about 20 hostages were held in the tunnel at different times.

The IDF allowed foreign journalists to access the tunnels before they were destroyed Friday, Hagari said.

US forces on Saturday struck and destroyed a Houthi anti-ship missile aimed into the Gulf of Aden, south of Yemen, US Central Command said, as efforts continue to degrade the Iran-backed group’s capabilities.

“U.S. forces determined the missile presented a threat to merchant vessels and U.S. Navy ships in the region, and subsequently struck and destroyed the missile in self-defense,” the statement read. “This action will make international waters safer and more secure for U.S. Navy and merchant vessels.”

Some context: The US and its partners have sought to deter Houthi attacks on shipping and merchant vessels in the Red Sea, including intercepting missiles and drones aimed toward commercial ships.

The US has said the pattern of strikes is likely to continue as it works to degrade the Houthis’ military capabilities.

So far, however, the strikes have failed to deter the Houthi attacks on ships passing through the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea on the critical shipping route toward the Suez Canal.