December 27, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

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

A resolution passed by the United Nations Security Council last week that called for increased aid to Gaza has “yet to have an impact,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday. 

The UN resolution approved last Friday calls for humanitarian pauses between Israel and Hamas, increased aid to Gaza and the creation of conditions that will allow for a sustainable end to fighting, ending days of closed-door negotiations.

But it was yet to become reality in the war-torn strip, Tedros said.

“UN Security Council members must urgently turn their recent resolution — to create pauses in hostilities and humanitarian corridors — into reality in Gaza. Actions, not words, are what Gaza’s people need today,” Tedros said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

WHO warnings: Tedros’ remarks come after WHO teams carried out “high-risk” missions to deliver supplies to two hospitals in Gaza.

In the north, UN teams brought medical items and fuel to the Al-Shifa Hospital, where a reported 50,000 people are seeking shelter, to keep essential health services running at the hospital, WHO said.

Teams in the south visited Al-Amal hospital, where WHO staff said they found it impossible to walk inside “without stepping over patients and those seeking refuge.”

While transiting through Gaza, teams also witnessed “tens of thousands of people fleeing heavy strikes in the Khan Younis and Middle Area — on foot, riding on donkeys or in cars.”

WHO representative Rik Peeperkorn said the agency was concerned the new displacement of people would strain medical facilities in the south even further. 

“This forced mass movement of people will also lead to more overcrowding, increased risk of infectious diseases and make it even harder to deliver humanitarian aid,” Peeperkorn said.

Tedros echoed his concerns. 

Palestinian militant group Hamas on Wednesday denied a claim by an elite wing of Iran’s military that its October 7 attack on Israel was carried out in revenge for the assassination of a top Iranian commander nearly four years ago.

Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) spokesperson Ramadan Sharif on Wednesday claimed the Hamas attack against Israel was a response to the 2020 killing of Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani in a US airstrike, Iranian state news agency IRNA reported.

Hamas’ October 7 attack saw militants rampage through parts of southern Israel on a murder and kidnapping spree that killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw about 240 people taken hostage, including women, elderly, and children.

Iranian officials have previously denied any direct involvement in the attack, saying that despite Tehran’s financial backing and support for Hamas and other proxy groups in the region, it does not direct any of their actions.

Some context: The IRGC spokesperson’s claim Wednesday comes after IRNA reported that another Iranian commander, Seyyed Razi Mousavi, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Syria on Monday. The Israeli military declined to comment on the report when asked by CNN.

Sharif on Wednesday echoed threats from Iranian officials of revenge against Israel.

Iran will respond appropriately to the “Israeli regime for the assassination of a senior military adviser in Syria,” and will take revenge for “the terrorist attack in different times and places,” he said, according to IRNA. 

French President Emmanuel Macron attends a press conference at the Elysée Palace in Paris on December 20.

In a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his “deepest concern” at the “very heavy civilian toll and the absolute humanitarian emergency facing the civilian population of Gaza.”

According to an Elysée Palace readout of the Wednesday call, Macron told Netanyahu of “Israel’s imperative to protect civilians” and “the urgency of delivering the necessary aid to the people of Gaza,” per the French Presidency. 

Macron also stressed “the need to work towards a lasting ceasefire, with the help of all regional and international partners,” the palace said. 

France will be working with Jordan “in the coming days” to carry out humanitarian operations in Gaza, Macron said. 

The French president also told Netanyahu that the release of all hostages in the strip, including three French nationals, was a priority for France. Netanyahu updated him on “Israel’s effort to bring about the release of the hostages” and asked the French President to “continue working for their release,” according to the Israeli government’s readout of the call.

Macron stressed the “importance of Israel taking all necessary steps to put an end to the violence committed by certain settlers against Palestinian civilians, as well as to any new settlement projects in the West Bank, which threatened the two-state solution,” the French readout said. 

Palestinians killed in the Israeli bombardment of Gaza are brought on a donkey cart to the hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Wednesday.

The French statement also called a two-state solution “the only viable solution to ensure Israel’s long-term security and meet the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians.”

Macron reaffirmed France’s commitment to Israel’s security and “recalled the steps taken within the framework of the European Union to establish sanctions against Hamas, as well as the measures taken with international partners against terrorist groups threatening peace and stability in the region.”

Netanyahu thanked Macron for France’s active role in safeguarding freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, as well as France’s readiness to contribute to the restoration of security along Israel’s border with Lebanon, according to the Israeli readout of the call.

The Israeli prime minister also “made it clear that the people and Government of Israel are determined to work in every way” to return Israeli residents of southern communities [near Gaza] and northern communities [near Lebanon border] to their homes.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken holds a joint press conference with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron at the State Department in Washington, DC, on December 7.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to travel to Israel and make additional stops in the Middle East next week to discuss the next steps in the Israel-Hamas war, an Israeli official told CNN. 

CNN has reached out to the US State Department for comment. 

More background: Blinken’s expected trip comes after senior Biden administration officials and a close confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met regarding the next phase of the Israel-Hamas conflict on Tuesday evening. 

Ron Dermer, a member of Israel’s war cabinet and a former ambassador to the United States, departed the White House after more than four hours following a meeting with Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

A White House official told CNN the discussions included:

CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez contributed reporting to this post.

The situation on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon demands change, Israeli War Cabinet member Benny Gantz said at a briefing Wednesday.

He warned that time is running out to reach a diplomatic solution as fighting continues between Israel and Hezbollah in the area. 

“If the world and the Lebanese government do not act to cease the fire aimed at northern communities and push Hezbollah away from the border, the IDF will do so,” Gantz warned. 

He also spoke about Israel’s military operations in Gaza, saying Israel’s achievements are accumulating and expanding. 

“We started with great force, and we should increase [the force] and continue,” he said, adding, “The campaign will continue and expand according to the need across various locations or additional arenas.”

Ninety-two trucks loaded with humanitarian aid and commercial goods entered the Rafah crossing into Gaza Wednesday, an Egyptian official told CNN.

The convoy included 12 trucks carrying commercial goods as well as 80 trucks of aid that included four trucks carrying cooking gas. 

Additionally, a total of 264 foreigners departed from the Gaza Strip Wednesday, the source said. 

The current number of trucks entering Gaza aligns with the daily average observed over the previous week. Before the conflict, the United Nations reported an average of 455 trucks carrying commercial goods each day into Gaza.

A still from a video appears to show Palestinians detained by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in a stadium in northern Gaza.

An edited video circulating on social media appears to show Palestinian men and at least two children detained and stripped by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in a stadium in northern Gaza. 

CNN is unable to verify when the video was shot. A CNN geolocation of the video shows it was filmed in Yarmouk Stadium in Gaza City.

CNN reached out to the IDF late Tuesday night for comment on the video and the children detained but has not yet heard back. In the past, the IDF has said it has stripped detainees to ensure they were not carrying explosives.

Hundreds of Palestinian men and boys have been detained by Israeli forces in recent weeks. 

Clips in the video show what appear to be two young boys in one frame, stripped down to their underwear, walking and holding both their hands up as the IDF directs them in the stadium. 

In another clip, what appears to be the same two young boys stripped of their clothing are seen with their hands above their heads as they are lined up in single file lines with other males who appear to be teens and adults.  

Throughout the video, men can be seen stripped down to their underwear. 

In some clips they are sitting on the floor with their hands tied to their backs, some blindfolded, and standing in single file lines as the IDF overlooks and inspects them.  

Clips of the video also show women and other children detained. In one shot, three fully clothed women are seen blindfolded with their hands tied behind their backs as they sit on the grass in front of a soccer goal in the stadium.

An Israeli flag is seen hanging on the soccer goal. Stripped and blindfolded Palestinian men, with their hands tied behind their backs, are seen sitting next to the women.

Military vehicles and bulldozers are throughout the stadium in the video.

The original video was uploaded on December 24 to YouTube by Yosee Gamzoo Letova, a photographer and artist according to his Facebook profile.

The non-profit Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said it received information that the Israeli army is detaining hundreds of Palestinians from the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, among them dozens of women who were taken to Yarmouk Stadium.

“Palestinian males, including children as young as 10 years old and elderly people over the age of 70, were forced to take off all of their clothes except their underwear and line up in a humiliating manner in front of the women detained in the same stadium,” the human rights organization said in a statement.

The organization is calling on the international community to investigate the images of detainment. 

Jordan's King Abdullah II, left, and Egypt's President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi pose for photos in Cairo on Wednesday.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and King Abdullah II of Jordan said in a statement they oppose any efforts to end the Palestinian cause or displace Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank either externally or internally within their territories.

“The two leaders affirmed their complete rejection of all attempts to end the Palestinian cause or to displace the Palestinians outside their lands or internally displace them, stressing that the only solution that the international community must push towards its implementation is an immediate ceasefire and the entry into force of relief aid,” the Egyptian Presidency statement reads.

The leaders convened at Al-Ittihadiya Palace on Wednesday to discuss the situation in Gaza, according to a statement from Egypt’s presidency, which added they also called for an urgent ceasefire to allow in critically needed humanitarian aid.

They also called for a “fair and comprehensive solution” to the conflict, which they said should include the creation of an independent Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, the statement said.

The meeting came just days after Egypt floated a new peace plan, which was rejected by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, according to Reuters citing Egyptian security sources.

In November, Egypt and Qatar played a pivotal role in establishing a temporary ceasefire deal that led to the release of Israeli hostages previously held by Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip. 

The appointment of Sigrid Kaag as United Nations senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza an “important step as we continue to work with the UN as a critical partner in the delivery and distribution of life-saving humanitarian assistance in Gaza,” the White House said Tuesday.

The position was created through a UN Security Council vote last week. Kaag was finance minister and deputy prime minister of the Netherlands before resigning her position to join the UN effort in Gaza.

Dozens of people died following Israeli shelling near Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis on Wednesday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) on Wednesday said.

At least 20 people were killed in the air strikes, Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza reported.

CNN has requested had requested comment from the IDF.

This comes after IDF Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi had said Tuesday that the war against Hamas “will continue for many more months,” and that the IDF is concentrating its efforts “in the southern Gaza Strip – Khan Younis, the central camps, and further.”

Over the past 24 hours, 195 people were killed and 325 others were injured, the ministry reports, adding that 21,110 Palestinians have been killed across Gaza since October 7.

CNN is unable to independently confirm the figures provided by the Gaza ministry due to restricted access to the region and the difficulty in verifying accurate numbers amidst the ongoing conflict.

Israeli officials have warned that its war on Hamas will continue deep into the new year.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi said Tuesday that as the war is being fought in a “complex area” it “will continue for many more months, and we will operate in various ways — so that the achievement will be preserved over time,” according to an IDF translation of his comments. 

Defense minister Yoav Gallant had earlier stressed a long fight ahead, and said Israel is in a “multi-arena war,” with the country being attacked from multiple directions. 

And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that the war is far from over, after the Israeli leader visited Gaza for the second time since October 7. 

But those signals have alarmed the international community, as the death toll in the besieged enclave continues to rise.

Here’s what you need to know on Wednesday.

People check rubble from the damage of an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon on Wednesday.

Three people have died overnight in southern Lebanon’s eastern sector during an Israeli airstrike, the Lebanese national news agency said Wednesday.

Hezbollah social media named one of its fighters as killed in that incident. It is an Iran-backed Islamist movement with one of the most powerful paramilitary forces in the Middle East. The group, which has its main base on the Israel-Lebanon border, could become a wildcard player in the Hamas-Israel war, and spark a wider regional conflict.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said overnight a fighter jet struck a Hezbollah site in Lebanon. Wednesday morning, the IDF says it struck further areas in Lebanon.

The IDF also said it targeted sources of fire coming from Lebanon after sirens sounded in kibbutz Rosh HaNikra, on the Mediterranean Sea in northwestern Israel.

Trucks carrying aid are seen en route to Gaza at the Kerem Shalom crossing in Israel on December 22.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has claimed there are “logistical limitations” to getting aid into Gaza, and has urged “the international community to find additional solutions,” as global bodies warn of the spiraling humanitarian crisis in the region.

“Our war is against Hamas, not against the people of Gaza. We’re sending aid into Gaza, to the people of Gaza. We are not the bottleneck,” IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari insisted in a video statement on Wednesday.

“On the contrary. We check more aid trucks than can enter Gaza,” Hagari said. “There are logistical limitations and challenges posed by the ability of international organizations to distribute aid. Which is why we urge the international community to find additional solutions, for the distribution of aid, alongside establishing field hospitals and temporary shelters, for Gazans.”

World Health Organization officials visited several hospitals across Gaza on Monday, detailing “harrowing accounts” of suffering shared by health workers and patients as the conflict widens.

Food and health crises have also engulfed the enclave, with humanitarian workers struggling to get enough resources to displaced Gazans.

Hagari reiterated in his video statement that “defeating Hamas is the only option,” after Israeli officials warned that the war will continue for several months.

“We will continue our important mission, to defeat Hamas, and rescue our hostages. We are committed to freeing our hostage from Hamas and freeing Gaza from Hamas, for a better future for the region,” Hagari said. 

Tensions between Israel and UN: The IDF spokesperson’s comments come after Israel announced that it will stop automatically granting visas to United Nations workers, adding that the country will instead process applications on a case-by-case basis.

Characterizing the announcement as “an update on the deeply problematic involvement of the United Nations in this conflict,” Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy noted that the UN had failed to condemn Hamas for hijacking aid and for waging war out of hospitals.

Israel will stop automatically granting visas to United Nations workers, a government spokesperson on Tuesday, adding that the country will instead process applications on a case-by-case basis.

Characterizing the announcement as “an update on the deeply problematic involvement of the United Nations in this conflict,” Levy noted that the UN had failed to condemn Hamas for hijacking aid and for waging war out of hospitals.

Levy said the UN had let the world down, and that Israel would lead by example to demand greater accountability from the international body.

Context: Israeli diplomats have used their platforms at the UN to denounce the world body since the war began. In late October, UN Secretary-General António Guterres delivered an address in which he “unequivocally” condemned Hama’s attack but said it didn’t happen “in a vacuum,” and that the Palestinians had been “subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation” by Israel, escalating tensions.

Earlier this month, Israel revoked the visa of Lynn Hastings, a United Nations humanitarian coordinator, due to the “bias of the UN.” Days later, Guterres invoked a rarely used power at the Security Council in his determined push for a ceasefire in Gaza, causing outrage among Israeli diplomats.

Yahya Sare’e speaks in Sana'a, Yemen on December 15.

US warships in the Red Sea have been battling a growing number of weapons fired by Houthi forces in Yemen over the past several weeks, including 17 drones and missiles during a 10-hour period on Tuesday alone.

Yahya Sare’e, a spokesman for Houthi forces, said on X, formerly Twitter, that the latest launches were in “continued support and solidarity with the Palestinian people.” The group had previously said it was targeting ships headed for Israel following Israeli forces’ invasion of Gaza.

The Iran-backed Houthis have launched at least 100 attacks against 14 different commercial and merchant vessels in the Red Sea over the past month, a senior US military official said last week.

The strikes prompted US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to announce the formation of a coalition of at least 10 countries to focus on security in the Red Sea.

The coalition involves member ships being available near the Red Sea to respond to attacks. A goal of the initiative was to deter future Houthi attacks, but the militants have nevertheless continued targeting ships operating near Yemen.

The Red Sea is home to one of the most important maritime trade routes in the world, and the attacks have had far-reaching reverberations. At least 44 countries are connected to vessels attacked by the Houthis and the attacks have disrupted wider international trade.

The 17 drones and missiles launched by the Houthis on Tuesday were brought down with weapons carried by the guided-missile destroyer USS Laboon and by F/A-18 fighter jets flying off the aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower, the US Central Command said.

The US Navy has not said exactly what weapons its ships are using against the Houthi attacks, but analysts said a US destroyer has a range of arms systems at its disposal.

Read more about the US weapons.

Escalating attacks on US troops and commercial shipping and incidents often involving Iran and its proxies are causing new concerns that Israel’s war in Gaza could widen into a regional conflagration with grave political and economic consequences.

With American service personnel increasingly in a dangerous firing line and with US and allied naval assets on high alert after multiple drone attacks, the deteriorating situation is leading to a tense holiday period for the White House.

The rising possibility of US combat deaths and the worsening security situation from the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea and stretching through Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Israel represents an unwelcome new foreign crisis as President Joe Biden’s reelection year dawns.

And it is becoming a petri dish for a new geopolitical trend — endless tests of America’s will and credibility by its adversaries and their proxies.

Warnings by Israel that its war against Hamas in Gaza will last for months, despite US pressure for a ratcheting down of the intensity of the conflict, threaten to heighten the chances war could spin out of control and drag the US further in.

Read Collinson’s full analysis:

France is “seriously concerned” by Israel’s announcement that fighting in Gaza would be intensified and prolonged, the French Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. 

In a statement, the ministry repeated its call for an immediate truce that would lead to a ceasefire, saying systematic bombings had resulted in numerous civilian casualties in recent days.

The statement from the French Foreign Ministry comes after Israel’s military chief on Tuesday said the war against Hamas in Gaza will continue for “many more months,” echoing comments from Israeli leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the conflict is far from ending.

Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron said that combatting “terrorist groups“ cannot mean “hitting civilian populations.”

“We can’t let the idea be accepted that fighting terrorism effectively would mean flattening Gaza or indiscriminately attacking the civilian population and to cause civilian casualties,” he said in an interview with broadcaster France 5. 

Adding that the fight against Hamas, and other “terrorist groups” in the Middle East, was one that concerned countries beyond Israel, Macron said the security response to terrorism is not, “The massive destruction, including civilian infrastructure and hitting civilian populations.”

Herzi Halevi attends a meeting at the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) headquarters near Ben Gurion Airport in Lod on March 9.

Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza will continue for “many more months,” the Israeli army chief said Tuesday, echoing similar recent comments from other Israeli leaders.

In a news briefing, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi said that as the war is being fought in a “complex area” it “will continue for many more months, and we will operate in various ways — so that the achievement will be preserved over time,” according to an IDF translation of his comments. 

The IDF was close to its goal of “dismantling” Hamas in northern Gaza, he added.

Halevi’s remarks come after Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned of a long fight ahead and that Israel is in a “multi-arena war,” with the country being attacked from multiple directions.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that the war is far from over, after he visited Gaza for the second time since October 7.

Sigrid Kaag attends an event in Utrecht, Netherlands on March 27.

Sigrid Kaag, a Dutch politician and veteran United Nations diplomat, will take charge of the international body’s effort to bring humanitarian relief to war-ravaged Gaza, the UN Secretary General announced Tuesday, filling a position created this month in a breakthrough UN Security Council resolution.

In a post on X, Kaag said she would resign her position as finance minister and deputy prime minister of the Netherlands to take on the role of UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza.

The appointment, which is set to take effect on January 8, comes as conditions in the besieged Palestinian enclave reach “nightmare” levels, as the chief of the World Health Organization put it after a recent visit. Shortages of power and medicine have stripped hospitals of most functioning, and the risk of famine looms over Gaza’s population, humanitarian organizations have said.

Since war began on October 7 following Hamas’ terror attacks, Israel has allowed a limited number of trucks to bring humanitarian aid into Gaza through Egypt’s Rafah crossing. The UN has described this amount as a trickle that fails to come close to meeting the needs of the population of over 2 million.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has also accused Israel’s tactics in Gaza, which include intensive aerial bombardment, of “creating massive obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid inside the strip.

Kaag will now be responsible for creating a mechanism to accelerate the movement of aid into Gaza and for “facilitating, coordinating, monitoring, and verifying” the relief effort, according to the UN, including the complex process of ensuring aid trucks are screened before they enter the enclave to ensure they’re not carrying non-humanitarian material.

The Security Council resolution creating the position, which called for immediate, safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance throughout Gaza, passed last week with the abstention of the US after several days of negotiations and delays.

Read more about Kaag.