December 17, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

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

Aid trucks on Sunday entered war-torn Gaza through the Kerem Shalom border crossing with Israel for the first time since it was closed on October 7 following Hamas’ attacks, Israeli officials said.

The Israeli office for Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said in a statement that a total of 201 aid trucks entered Gaza Sunday, including 79 through Kerem Shalom.

In an earlier statement, COGAT said the move to allow trucks into Gaza through Kerem Shalom would increase the volume of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave.

The announcement follows the Israeli government’s decision last week to allow aid trucks to be inspected at Kerem Shalom for the first time since October 7.

The US government pushed Israel to reopen the Kerem Shalom border crossing to allow humanitarian aid trucks to go directly into Gaza on an emergency basis. 

A senior Israeli Defense Ministry official said earlier Sunday that a total of 470 aid trucks went through security inspections and were sent to the Rafah crossing in Egypt.

Aid warnings: The amount of aid entering Gaza is less than half of pre-war levels, according to the United Nations.

The number of aid trucks “is well below the daily average of 500 truckloads (including fuel and private sector goods) that entered every working day prior to 7 October,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement Sunday.

CNN’s Mariya Knight and Tamar Michaelis contributed reporting.

The Israel Defense Forces claims to have discovered “the biggest Hamas tunnel” in Gaza, spanning a length of four kilometers (about 2.5 miles).

The IDF said the tunnel, secured “a few weeks ago” but revealed to the public Sunday, is wide enough to drive a large vehicle through, reaches up to 50 meters (over 160 feet) underground and is equipped with electricity, ventilation and communication systems.

It does not cross into Israel but ends 400 meters before the now-closed Erez crossing on the northern Israel-Gaza border, according to the IDF.

Military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a news conference Sunday evening that the IDF had mapped three similar tunnel locations, but has only revealed one so far.

“In the future, we will expose the additional ones that we intend to dismantle,” he added.

CNN could not independently verify the IDF’s claims.

Here are some of the other latest developments:

This post has been updated with additional information from an IDF news conference.

A total of 470 aid trucks have been sent to the Rafah crossing in Egypt to enter the Gaza Strip after having gone through security inspections, Col. Moshe Tetro, a senior official in the Israeli defense ministry, said Sunday. 

The announcement follows the Israeli government’s decision last week to allow aid trucks to be inspected at Kerem Shalom for the first time since Hamas’ October 7 attack.

The US government pushed Israel to reopen the Kerem Shalom border crossing to allow humanitarian aid trucks to go directly into the Palestinian enclave on an emergency basis. 

On Friday, the Israeli war cabinet approved a temporary measure to unload trucks carrying humanitarian aid that arrived from Egypt on the Gazan side of Kerem Shalom — instead of having the trucks go through Rafah, Tetro added.  

This decision, according to him, will “increase the amount of aid entering the Gaza Strip, where it will continue to be met by international aid organizations that will deliver it to the people of Gaza.”

Palestinians from the Ashour family mourn the death of loved ones who were killed in Israeli bombardment in Rafah, Gaza, on December 14.

Approximately 18,800 Palestinians — 70% of whom were women and children — have died in Gaza between October 7 and December 15, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah said in a statement Sunday.

More than 300 health sector workers, 86 journalists, 135 employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and approximately 35 civil defense crews are included in the death toll, the ministry said.

The ministry added that more than 51,100 people have been reportedly wounded, with scores of other people unaccounted for.

The ministry went on to say in its report that only eight out of 36 hospitals are partially functional in the enclave, and that occupancy rates have soared to 206% in inpatient departments and 250% in intensive care units.

CNN cannot independently verify these numbers. The ministry bases its figures on data received from hospitals in Hamas-controlled Gaza.

As of last week (December 10), the Israel Defense Forces stated it had struck over 22,000 targets in Gaza since Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7.

CNN has reached out to the IDF for an updated figure.

Israel Defense Forces soldiers gain access to a Hamas tunnel in Gaza in this screengrab from an undated video released by the IDF.

The Israel Defense Forces claims to have discovered “the biggest Hamas tunnel” in Gaza, spanning a length of four kilometers (about 2.5 miles).

The IDF said the tunnel, secured “a few weeks ago” but revealed to the public Sunday, is wide enough to drive a large vehicle through, reaches up to 50 meters (over 160 feet) underground and is equipped with electricity, ventilation and communication systems.

It does not cross into Israel but ends 400 meters before the now-closed Erez crossing on the northern Israel-Gaza border, according to the IDF.

The tunnel is part of Hamas’ “strategic infrastructure” and would be destroyed, the IDF said.

In a video shared by the IDF, the Israeli military claimed the tunnel was created for Hamas troop movements and as a launching point for attacks. 

Footage shared by the IDF and allegedly filmed by Hamas to show the construction of the tunnel shows a large vehicle driving into the tunnel and a makeshift railroad inside it.

CNN could not independently verify the footage or the IDF’s claims.

In a statement Sunday, the IDF alleged that the tunnel system was a project of the brother of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, Muhammad Sinwar. The IDF did not provide any evidence to support the claim.

IDF soldiers gain access to a Hamas tunnel in Gaza in this screengrab from an undated video released by the IDF.

What to know about Gaza’s tunnels: The myriad tunnels under Gaza are best known as passageways used to smuggle goods from Egypt and launch attacks into Israel.

Colloquially referred to as the “Gaza metro,” the vast labyrinth of tunnels is also used to transport people and goods, to store rockets and ammunition caches, and house Hamas command and control centers — all away from the prying eyes of the IDF’s aircraft and surveillance drones.

Hamas in 2021 claimed to have built 500 kilometers (311 miles) worth of tunnels under Gaza, though it is unclear if that figure was accurate or posturing. If true, Hamas’ underground tunnels would be a little less than half the length of the New York City subway system.

During its offensive in the territory, the IDF claims it has exposed “hundreds of terror tunnel shafts throughout the Gaza Strip,” and says it is operating “to locate and destroy dozens of attack tunnel routes.”

Recently, it has tested methods for flooding the Hamas tunnels.

CNN’s Joshua Berlinger contributed reporting to this post.

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna talks with Israeli Col. Olivier Rafowicz as she arrives at a military base in Israel on December 17.

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said Sunday she was in Tel Aviv to stress the importance of a “new humanitarian truce,” while also expressing France’s solidarity with Israel after the October 7 attacks.

“What is happening in Gaza is of the utmost concern to France. Too many civilians are being killed … and I repeat that the first truce that took place enabled the release of hostages, the delivery and distribution of more humanitarian aid, and the evacuation of the wounded.”

The Israeli foreign minister pushed back, saying “the only reason Hamas has agreed to release the hostages is because of the military pressure,” and adding, “This is the reason why the irresponsible call for a ceasefire is a mistake.”

Colonna went on to express solidarity with the Israeli people following the violence committed on October 7, including reports of sexual violence.

“Needless to say, France believes the word of these women victims, believes those who had to witness these acts, these rapes and mutilations, these desecrations. Of course, the word of Israeli women is no less valuable than that of any other victim,” she added.

On broader regional tensions: The officials also addressed the prospect of an escalation at the Israel-Lebanon border, as well as attacks on ships in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Houthis.

Colonna said no one would benefit from an escalation along the Israel-Lebanon border, where clashes have increased between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah paramilitary group, which wields significant power in southern Lebanon.

“We’re reiterating our messages to all sides, because there is still a risk of things spiraling. And if things were to spiral, if there was a conflagration, I don’t think anyone would benefit. I’m also saying this to Israel, and we’ll say it as clearly as we’ve already done on the Lebanese side,” she said. 

During the briefing earlier, Cohen told reporters that he thinks France “could play a positive and significant role to prevent a war in Lebanon.” 

“Israel has no intention to start another front on our northern border, but we will do what whatever it takes to protect our citizens,” he said.

The only way to ensure the security of citizens in northern Israel is by forcing Hezbollah to move north to the Litani River, he said. “There are two ways to do that: either by diplomacy or by force,” Cohen continued.

During the briefing, Colonna also talked about the attacks on ships in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Houthis, saying they “cannot go unanswered.” 

Asked by a journalist if such “options” include military options, Colonna said only: “We’re studying several options with our partners.”

Pope Francis leads the Angelus prayer from his window at the Vatican, on December 17.

Pope Francis on Sunday addressed the deaths of a mother and daughter who were sheltering inside the Holy Family Parish in Gaza, where church leaders say they were killed by an Israel Defense Forces sniper.

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem — which oversees Catholic churches across Cyprus, Jordan, Israel, Gaza and the Palestinian territories — made the claim in a statement Saturday. CNN reached out to the IDF for comment when news of the deaths were first announced, and on Sunday renewed the request for comment.

“I continue receiving very serious and sad news about Gaza,” Francis said during his weekly Angelus prayer.

The majority of Christian families inside Gaza have taken refuge inside the parish since the start of the war, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said, adding that IDF tanks have also targeted the Convent of the Sisters of Mother Theresa, which houses 54 disabled people and is part of the church’s compound.

“Some are saying, ‘This is terrorism and war.’ Yes, it is war; it is terrorism. That is why Scripture says that ‘God puts an end to war … the bow he breaks and the spear he snaps.’ Let us pray to the Lord for peace,” Francis said.

A communication blackout in Gaza has now continued for four days, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said Sunday, making it the longest since the start of the Israeli operation in October. 

The internet monitoring organization NetBlocks said on social media Saturday that the disruption was already “the longest sustained telecoms blackout on record since the onset of the conflict with Israel, and is likely to significantly limit visibility into events on the ground.” 

In a video accompanying the social media post on X, formerly known as Twitter, supervisor of the PRCS emergency operations room in Gaza, Osama Kahlut, said the organization will resort to VHF radio communication as an alternative plan, but added this type of communication “limits the space available for communication” and “poses a challenge to our work.” 

Kahlut went on to say the power outage has affected the main aerial communication service provider located at the association’s headquarters in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. 

PRCS added on X that its emergency medical teams are “encountering significant challenges in reaching the wounded amidst the ongoing shelling.” 

Destroyed buildings are seen in Jabalya, Gaza, on December 17.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is heading to Israel next week, where he will push Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to define its milestones for the war with Hamas, according to a senior US defense official.

During the visit, which follows a similar trip from national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Austin will press Israeli officials on “what metrics they’re looking at in order to transition to the next phase of their campaign in Gaza,” the official said.

The US has offered firm support for Israel, but there are signs of divisions as the civilian toll mounts in Gaza. US President Joe Biden this week said Israel was losing global support over its “indiscriminate bombing” of the Palestinian enclave.

Below are some other key updates from this Sunday so far:

The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday claimed it had gained “operational control” over parts of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, including the city’s Bani Suheila Square, just east of the center.

The IDF further claimed it had struck Hamas’ Khan Younis brigade commander’s office and “terrorist infrastructure.”

CNN could not independently verify the IDF’s claims.

Intense fighting: Khan Younis has seen intense combat on the ground and heavy airstrikes over the past week, with dozens of people reported killed.

Among those killed on Friday was Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa.

The IDF had on Thursday called on residents to move from parts of Khan Younis to displacement shelters to “ensure safety,” but with communications hit by the fighting, it is not clear how widely the messags were received.

The director of the Israeli spy agency Mossad met the Qatari prime minister on Friday for talks on resuming indirect negotiations on the release of hostages, diplomatic sources told CNN.

The sources said the meeting – between David Barnea and Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani – was positive, the sources said. Israel and Hamas do not speak directly to each other. 

The meeting comes after another trip Barnea was meant to make to Doha was canceledearlier in the week by the Israeli government. 

This latest meeting was planned before the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) accidentally killed three Israeli hostages in Gaza on Friday, but that incident has added urgency to the conversations, the source said. The source requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive deliberations.

On Thursday an Israeli official told CNN that the war cabinet felt “conditions are not right” to try to restart the talks. 

Qatar and the US have been working to try to resurrect the negotiations, with new proposals made to free more of the more than 100 hostages in Gaza.

A truce last month brought the first pause in fighting after weeks of conflict, and saw Israeli hostages – mostly women and children – exchanged for Palestinian prisoners.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin testifies at a hearing on Capitol Hill on October 31, in Washington, DC. 

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will push Israeli officials to define milestones for its war against Hamas in Gaza, a senior US defense official tells CNN, marking the second visit of a top US official aimed at communicating US expectations to Israel as civilian casualties mount. 

During his visit on Monday, the senior defense official said Austin will “receive specific updates on how the war cabinet Minister of Defense (Yoav) Gallant and the Israel Defense Forces assess their progress in the current phase of the campaign in Gaza to dismantle the military infrastructure of Hamas.”

The trip comes days after US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters in Tel Aviv that Israel intends to transition to a new phase of war that is focused on “more precise ways” of targeting Hamas leadership. 

Austin will specifically press Israeli leaders on how to move through the different phases of its campaign in Gaza.

Monday’s trip marks Austin’s second visit to Israel since the October 7 attacks.

The secretary will also make stops in Bahrain and Qatar this week, continuing efforts to shore up US relationships in the region.

Among the topics of discussion in Bahrain, the officials said, is continued aggression in the Red Sea from Iran-backed Houthis rebels, who have carried out a spate of attacks on shipping in the area.

People stand next to ambulances and trucks with aid as they wait to enter Gaza from Rafah, Egypt on December 11.

UN aid trucks will be entering Gaza directly from Israeli territory starting on Sunday for the first time since the attack by Hamas on October 7, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said that UN aid trucks will undergo security checks and be transferred directly to Gaza via the Kerem Shalom goods crossing.

Kerem Shalom is one of two Israeli crossings where humanitarian aid trucks had been inspected this week but not allowed to enter Gaza directly. Instead, they had been sent back to enter Gaza via the Rafah crossing from Egypt.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office first announced on Friday that aid would be allowed through the Kerem Shalom crossing, saying that the cabinet “temporarily approved the unloading of the trucks on the Gaza side of the ‘Kerem Shalom’ crossing instead of returning them to Rafah.”

Destroyed buildings are seen following Israeli airstrikes on Jabalaya Camp in Gaza on Sunday

An air strike Sunday morning killed at least 24 people in a northern area of the territory, the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza said.

Dr. Munir Al-Bursh, director-general of the Ministry of Health, told CNN that the casualties were the result of an air strike in Jabalaya in northern Gaza.

Video of Gaza’s skyline on Sunday showed plumes of thick dark smoke rising over Gaza, as seen from southern Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment on whether it struck any targets in the Jabalya area Sunday morning.

Israel has been bombarding targets across Gaza following the October 7 attacks. Nearly 19,000 people have died in the strikes, Hamas-run authorities say – CNN cannot independently verify the figure.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron and German counterpart Annalena Baerbock have called for a “sustainable ceasefire” in Gaza, but fell short of demanding an “immediate ceasefire.”

“We must do all we can to pave the way to a sustainable ceasefire, leading to a sustainable peace. The sooner it comes, the better — the need is urgent,” two ministers wrote in a joint UK Sunday Times article published on Saturday, adding that “too many civilians have been killed.”

In the article, neither Cameron nor Baerbock believes that calling for a “general and immediate ceasefire” is “the way forward.” An immediate ceasefire “ignores why Israel is forced to defend itself,” the politicians added.

“Hamas barbarically attacked Israel and still fires rockets to kill Israeli citizens every day. Hamas must lay down its arms,” they said.

“An unsustainable ceasefire, quickly collapsing into further violence, would only make it harder to build the confidence needed for peace,” they added.

Speaking to CNN during a trip to Washington, DC on December 7, Cameron said: “If we leave Hamas in charge of even a part of Gaza, there will never be a two-state solution because you can’t expect Israel to live next to a group of people that want to do October 7 all over again.”

He had previously resisted calls for an immediate ceasefire. 

“We have to give Israel that basic support of saying, ‘You are right to try to get rid of Hamas’ leadership and its armed personnel,” Cameron said.

Cameron and Baerbock said they are pushing the diplomatic effort to agree further pauses to get more aid in and more hostages out, adding that Hamas holding hostages “only delays progress towards peace.”

On Tuesday, the United Nations General Assembly voted to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, but both Britain and Germany abstained in the non-binding vote for the ceasefire resolution.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday told his nation that “we are in a war for our existence.” Speaking for the first time since the Israeli military mistakenly shot and killed three Israeli hostages in Gaza, he said the war would go on.

“The war must continue until victory, despite the international pressure and despite the unbearable cost that the war is exacting from us in our fallen sons and daughters,” Netanyahu said.

The prime minister also on Saturday appeared to suggest that new negotiations were underway to rescue Israeli hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza. He said the Israeli military’s continued use of force in Gaza was necessary to both bring the hostages back and win the war.

Here are other headlines you should know:

Palestinians mourn Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa during his funeral in Khan Younis on Saturday.

The Israel Defense Forces says an ambulance was dispatched to help Al Jazeera journalist Samer Abu Daqqa after he was badly injured during an Israeli attack in southern Gaza Friday, but it “encountered road damage” and couldn’t get to the scene before the cameraman died.

“Once we became aware of an injured individual and received a request to grant permission for an ambulance, COGAT granted permission for the ambulance to use a safe passage,” they said in a statement to CNN in response our reporting.

COGAT is Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. 

He died of wounds sustained in the Israeli attack and was forced to wait five hours for medical attention, the Qatar-based news network said in a statement to CNN Friday. 

The IDF said it was unable to provide additional detail when asked by CNN how long it took for the ambulance to be granted permission to travel to the site where Abu Daqqa required emergency medical assistance.

Hundreds gathered in southern Gaza to mourn Abu Daqqa on Saturday as his body was laid to rest.

Relatives and friends mourn Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa, who was killed while working in an air strike, on Saturday.

Al Jazeera has instructed its legal team to begin the process of referring the killing of its cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa in Gaza to the International Criminal Court, the Qatar-based network said in a statement.

Abu Daqqa died on Friday after being wounded in an Israeli attack. 

The network has condemned Israel for his death, calling it an “assassination.”

Al Jazeera also said that its legal file to the ICC would encompass what it called “recurrent attacks on the network’s crews working and operating in the occupied Palestinian territories and instances of incitement against them.”

The ICC has previously been asked to probe Israel’s actions in the region.

Last month, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said his office received a referral from five countries to investigate if crimes have been committed in the Palestinian territories as part of Israel’s response to the October 7 Hamas terror attacks.

Israel is not a member of the ICC and rejects the court’s jurisdiction.

Responding to a request for comment from CNN on Al Jazeera’s claim, the press office for the IDF said: “The IDF takes all operationally feasible measures to protect both civilians and journalists.

“The IDF has never, and will never, deliberately target journalists,” the IDF statement read. “Given the ongoing exchanges of fire, remaining in an active combat zone has inherent risks. The IDF will continue to counter threats while persisting to mitigate harm to civilians.”

Israel’s military did not have intelligence about the three hostages mistakenly killed by its soldiers Friday, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari told a news conference Saturday.

Hagari reiterated the Israel Defense Forces assumed the three hostages had either escaped or been abandoned by their captors due to the fighting in Shejaiya.

He added that soldiers in general thought they would find hostages either in a building, in a tunnel, or handcuffed, and didn’t anticipate that they would be approached.

Hagari said the military has published details of its preliminary review of the incident. Those findings have been relayed to combat troops in Gaza as well as the families of the three hostages killed.

CNN is working to obtain a copy of the initial review.

“We will continue to investigate this incident thoroughly,” he said. “We are in the midst of a war that presents us with very difficult and complex situations with unprecedented characteristics that we have not faced until now.”