December 13, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

Our live coverage of Israel’s war in Gaza has moved here.

Biden administration staffers held a vigil in front of the White House on Wednesday to call on President Joe Biden to support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

More than three dozen people attended, including political appointees, administration staffers and civil service career staff, with participants wearing sunglasses and masks to conceal their identities.

Josh Paul, a former State Department official who resigned from his job in October over disagreement with the Biden administration’s approach to the Israel-Hamas war, delivered opening remarks. 

A former administration staffer also read a statement given to him by a group of Palestinian administration officials who did not want to be identified.

The United States has repeatedly blocked ceasefire calls at the United Nations Security Council. Its stance is at odds with most countries, which voted Tuesday to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire at the UN General Assembly.

The group that organized the vigil Wednesday called the violence that has unfolded in Gaza over the last few weeks “unacceptable.”

Last month, more than 700 staffers and political appointees signed a letter calling on the president to support a ceasefire.

Israel visit: US national security adviser Jake Sullivan will visit Israel on Thursday for “extremely serious conversations” about humanitarian aid and the next phase of Israel’s military campaign, a US official said. It comes as the White House struggles to square Biden’s comments about “indiscriminate bombing” in Gaza with its insistence that Israel’s “intent” is to limit civilian casualties. Nearly half of the air-to-ground munitions Israel has used in Gaza have been unguided, according to a US intelligence assessment.

An Israeli man whose wife and two daughters were freed from Hamas captivity last month on Wednesday described his joy at welcoming them home and returning to family life.

Asher’s wife, Doron, and their two young daughters were among around 240 people taken hostage during Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel on October 7. The trio remained together throughout their captivity before they were released on November 24, he said.

Asher said being able to embrace his family again is “the most amazing feeling in my entire life.”

“I was only a father and a husband for the last three weeks,” he said. 

While dozens of hostages have been freed, many more remain missing, presumed to be held by Hamas and other groups in Gaza, following the breakdown of a temporary truce last month. Formal negotiations have not resumed and Israel has canceled a planned trip to Qatar by the head of its Mossad intelligence service to restart talks, a source familiar with the negotiations confirmed to CNN.  

Asher said his children have not been able to say much to describe their experience in Gaza but that his older daughter “understands very well what they have been through.”

Doron only learned after her release that her brother was killed in the October 7 attacks, Asher said. “She’s just starting now to process this horrific news,” he said.  

Burnett previously spoke with Asher in October, when he described the torment he has enduring at the time.

“I was — like I told you many times before — in hell. And I got back from hell to my family,” he said Wednesday. 

David Barnea attends an honor guard ceremony for Israel's incoming military chief Herzi Halevi at Israel's Defence Ministry in Tel Aviv, Israel on January 16.

Israel has canceled a planned trip to Qatar by the head of its foreign intelligence service to restart talks on a possible second hostage release deal, a source familiar with the negotiations confirmed to CNN.  

Mossad director David Barnea will not travel to the Qatari capital Doha, where previous talks on the release of hostages held by Hamas militants in Gaza have taken place, the source said.  

Israel’s Channel 13 first reported Wednesday that the Israeli war cabinet, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had called off the trip and that senior Israeli officials would not go to Qatar to restart negotiations. 

CNN has reached out to the Prime Minister’s Office about Barnea’s canceled trip. The Mossad answers directly to the Prime Minister. 

Around 240 people, from infants to octogenarians, were taken hostage during Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7. Dozens have been freed but many more remain missing, presumed to be held by the Palestinian militant organization and other groups in Gaza, following the breakdown of a temporary truce last month. 

The Israeli prime minister’s office believes 135 hostages remain in Gaza, 116 of whom are alive. 

Formal negotiations have not resumed since hostage talks that had been taking place in Doha broke down earlier this month. 

But Israel, the United States and Qatar have continued to discuss ways to try to jump start the discussions, multiple sources said. “We never stopped,” one source familiar with the talks said. 

Families of some of the Israeli hostages were outraged by the decision to cancel Barnea’s trip and demanded answers. “We are fed up with the indifference and deadlock,” they said in a statement. 

Tamar Michaelis, Kaitlan Collins, and Katie Bo Lillis contributed to this report.

Nearly half of the air-to-ground munitions that Israel has used in Gaza in its war with Hamas since October 7 have been unguided, otherwise known as “dumb bombs,” according to a new US intelligence assessment.

The assessment, compiled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and described to CNN by three sources who have seen it, says that about 40-45% of the 29,000 air-to-ground munitions Israel has used have been unguided. The rest have been precision-guided munitions, the assessment says.

Unguided munitions are typically less precise and can pose a greater threat to civilians, especially in such a densely populated area like Gaza. The rate at which Israel is using the dumb bombs may be contributing to the soaring civilian death toll.

On Tuesday, President Joe Biden said Israel has been engaged in “indiscriminate bombing” in Gaza.

Maj. Keren Hajioff, an Israeli spokesperson, said on Wednesday that “as a military committed to international law and a moral code of conduct, we are devoting vast resources to minimizing harm to the civilians that Hamas has forced into the role of human shields. Our war is against Hamas, not against the people of Gaza.”

But experts told CNN that if Israel is using unguided munitions at the rate the US believes they are, that undercuts the Israeli claim that they are trying to minimize civilian casualties.

Read the full story.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan will conduct “extremely serious conversations” with Israeli officials during his visit this week, the White House said, as the US looks to press Israel to conduct a more “surgical” campaign against Hamas.

Sullivan is expected to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu along with the Israeli war cabinet during the trip, which begins Thursday. He also plans to meet Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

The visit comes as the White House struggles to square President Joe Biden’s comments about Israel’s “indiscriminate bombing” in Gaza with the administration’s insistence that Israel’s “intent” is to limit civilian casualties.

Sullivan also held talks in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

Here are the latest developments:

A doctor at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza told CNN on Wednesday that he and dozens of staff were taken from the premises by Israeli soldiers to a military screening center nearby.

The doctor, who declined to be named out of fear for his safety, said in a telephone interview that men at the hospital had complied with an order from the Israel military on Tuesday to form a line outside the hospital.

They were then led about 500 meters away to a what he called a “filtration military camp” in Al-Birawi area on the outskirts of Beit Lahiya. 

At that location, he told CNN, they were ordered to remove their clothes and were given blue overalls. They were handcuffed and sorted into groups based on their perceived threat level, the doctor claimed.  

He claimed the detainees were physically and verbally abused while handcuffed. At one point, the doctor said, when clashes broke out, Israeli soldiers had taken cover behind the detainees. 

The doctor’s claims cannot be verified. CNN has asked the Israel Defense Forces for comment on how staff, patients and others at Kamal Adwan were processed after leaving the hospital. 

The doctor said that after several hours, the detainees — numbering about 1,000 people —were released and instructed to head toward specific areas in southern Gaza.  

Gunfire injured several of the group, he said, as they walked south.

CNN received the same response from the IDF regarding several and separate instances about their operations in Gaza.

Palestinians check the destruction following Israeli bombardment in Rafah, southern Gaza, on December 12.

The Israeli military continues to fight in the Shejaiya neighborhood in northern Gaza following the deaths of nine soldiers in a battle on Tuesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said.

Tuesday’s casualties in Shejaiya are among the largest loss of life in a single incident for Israeli forces since their ground offensive began in Gaza.

The war “also comes with prices, but we will win,” the defense minister said.

Gallant echoed the remarks of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who vowed earlier on Wednesday to continue the fight “until the end.”

“I say this also in view of the great pain but also in the face of international pressures. Nothing will stop us. We go to the end, to victory,” Netanyahu said.

Gallant also said he was convinced that the continuation of Israel’s military operation in Gaza will “pressure” Hamas to agree to another hostage release deal. 

When asked by a reporter whether Israel had reduced the number of air strikes in Gaza recently due to growing international pressure, Gallant said:

In response to a question about rising tensions between Israel and the US over the war in Gaza, Gallant said that US government officials are “doing a lot, above and beyond” to help Israel.

“We will find the way to help the Americans support us, that’s the key. They want us to succeed,” he said.  

People mourn as they collect the bodies of Palestinians killed in an airstrike on December 13 in Khan Younis, Gaza.

Several hospitals in Gaza have reported receiving a high number of civilian casualties on Wednesday. 

Al-Nasser hospital in southern Gaza issued a list of 45 people who had been killed, whose bodies had been brought to the hospital. The hospital frequently receives casualties from the city of Khan Younis, where fighting and air strikes have been heavy.

Medical staff at Al-Kuwaiti hospital in Rafah — also in southern Gaza — said 19 bodies were recovered after two houses in the area were hit by airstrikes. Some were taken to another hospital — Abu Youssef Al-Najjah — in eastern Rafah, along with many injured. 

Videos shot for CNN at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza on Wednesday showed many casualties being brought in after a reported strike in Deir al Balah.

The videos show ambulances bringing in men and women on stretchers, as well as body bags at the entrance of the hospital.

Inside the hospital, most of the injured are seen being treated on the floors amid chaotic scenes. Several of the injured have severe injuries to their limbs, while efforts are made by medical staff to resuscitate others.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that it is trying to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza while it carries out ground and air operations against Hamas throughout Gaza.

“There is a clear intent by the Israelis, an intent that they have admitted to publicly, that they are doing everything they can to reduce civilian casualties. And we’re still seeing some civilian casualties. So we’re still going to talk to them about doing everything they can to reduce that,” US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told CNN Wednesday.

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday said that Israel was beginning to lose global support in its war against Hamas because of “indiscriminate bombing” in Gaza.

The war’s impact on Gaza: As tens of thousands more people converge in southern Gaza, the United Nations has said on X (formerly Twitter) that “amid overcrowded conditions, the spread of diseases is surging, and people’s immense needs are escalating. UNICEF (the UN Children’s Fund) says a humanitarian ceasefire is desperately needed to allow the delivery of life-saving support to children & families.”

United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said nearly 1.3 million displaced people are now sheltering in 155 UNRWA installations. The average number of internally displaced persons in UNRWA shelters located in middle and southern areas in Gaza is 11,480 — more than four times their capacity. 

UNRWA said that eight out of 22 UNRWA health centers are still operational in the middle and southern areas.

The agency added in its Wednesday update that “there are an estimated 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza, with more than 180 giving birth every day. A total of 188 post-natal and high-risk pregnancy cases were attended to at health centres.” 

White House National Security Council Coordinator For Strategic Communications John Kirby talks to reporters in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on December 13 in Washington, DC.

The White House on Wednesday struggled to square President Joe Biden’s comments to donors on Tuesday that Israel’s offensive in Gaza was “indiscriminate” with the administration’s continued insistence that Israel’s “intent” is to limit civilian casualties.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby was asked multiple times by reporters about the president’s blunt claim that Israel was beginning to lose global support in its war against Hamas because of the “indiscriminate bombing” in Gaza.

Kirby repeatedly emphasized that the Biden administration sees Israel’s “intent” to minimize civilian deaths, despite Biden himself saying Israel was not being deliberate and careful. 

Asked by CNN’s MJ Lee why the White House insists on saying Israel has the “intent” to minimize civilian casualties, Kirby responded that “sometimes in war… the best-laid plans don’t get executed exactly the way you want.”

He added that there was “a clear intent by the Israelis — an intent that they have admitted to publicly — that they are doing everything they can to reduce civilian casualties.”

 Pressed if the White House was trying to argue that Israel was both trying to be deliberate and careful but at the same time bombing indiscriminately in other situations, Kirby repeated his previous talking points. 

“We know they have the intent. We know they’re acting on the intent. Civilian casualties continue to happen. And again, we’re going to keep urging them to reduce those,” Kirby said.

The spokesperson was also asked about Biden’s remarks that he believed Netanyahu had to “change… with this government.” 

 “The president realizes that Israel is a powerful, vibrant democracy and any change in the government is going to have to be determined by the Israeli people,” Kirby responded. He did not elaborate on what Biden meant by his comment.

About Biden’s comments: At a campaign reception on Tuesday, Biden said that Israel had most of the world supporting it, but it was “starting to lose that support by the indiscriminate bombing that takes place.” He also seemed to admit that Netanyahu acknowledged the bombings.

“It was pointed out to me – I’m being very blunt with you all – it was pointed out to me that – by Bibi – that ‘Well, you carpet-bombed Germany. You dropped the atom bomb. A lot of civilians died.’ I said, ‘Yeah, that’s why all these institutions were set up after World War Two to see to it that it didn’t happen again – it didn’t happen again,’” Biden said, according to the official White House transcript of the event.

He also called Netanyahu “a good friend” but said he “has to change and – with this government.”

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan is in Saudi Arabia for talks on preventing the Israel-Hamas conflict from spreading, a US official said Wednesday.

He is visiting the kingdom ahead of his trip Thursday to Israel. While there he met the country’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a person familiar with the matter said.

In Saudi Arabia, he plans to discuss the broader diplomatic efforts undertaken by the Biden administration to maintain stability in the region, the official said, including efforts to deter Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.

He’ll also attempt to build on work that had been underway before the October 7 attacks on normalizing relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, which had included steps toward building peace with the Palestinians.

A picture taken in southern Israel near the border with Gaza on December 12 shows Israeli artillery firing towards Gaza.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan will conduct “extremely serious conversations” with Israeli officials during his visit this week, the White House says, as the US looks to press Israel to conduct a more “surgical” campaign against Hamas.

Sullivan is expected to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu along with the Israeli war cabinet during the trip, which begins Thursday. He also plans to meet Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

The national security adviser will address the issue of aid flowing into Gaza and the “next phase of the military campaign,” according to John Kirby, the Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council.

Sullivan will discuss with the Israelis “efforts to be more surgical and more precise and to reduce harm to civilians.”

“That is an aim of ours. And the Israelis say it is an aim of theirs,” Kirby said. “But it’s the results that count.”

He said the US has concerns about Israel’s prosecution of its offensive against Hamas — as demonstrated by President Biden’s remarks to Democratic donors Tuesday — and has raised those with Israeli officials.

“I’m not going to get ahead of the conversations that Jake will be having,” Kirby went on. “But I would like to just say that these are extremely serious conversations and we hope there’ll be constructive as well.”

Sullivan is likely to make additional stops in the region, though Kirby declined to say where.

A hostage who was thought still to be alive in Gaza has now been pronounced dead, the Israeli prime minister’s office said.

Tal Chimi, 41, was taken hostage on October 7, the office said. 

Chimi was the grandson of the founders of kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, where he lived, according to a joint statement on behalf of the Chimi family, the kibbutz and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum headquarters.

“He was connected in every fiber of his soul to the kibbutz, and was one of the pillars of the community,” the statement said.

The kibbutz was one of several communities in southern Israel attacked in the early morning of October 7 by Hamas militants.

Chimi leaves behind his wife, three children — 9-year-old twins and a 6-year-old son — his father Zohar and his sister Or, the statement said.

Israeli officials told the US that, going forward, they will give detainees their clothes back “immediately” if strip-searches are conducted, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Wednesday.

The remark comes after images emerged last week of men in Gaza who were detained by Israeli forces, blindfolded, and stripped down to their underwear. 

Images from Gaza circulating on social media showed a mass detention by the Israeli military of men who were made to strip to their underwear, kneel on the street, wear blindfolds and pack into the cargo bed of a military vehicle.

Miller also said that Israeli officials told the US that the photos should not have been taken or released, “and they made it clear going forward that that will not be their practice.”

“Those are obviously the appropriate steps to take,” Miller said at a press briefing.

“They have informed us is that they conduct searches on detained individuals in Gaza to ensure that they are not wearing suicide vests, that they don’t have other weapons, and that they pose no danger to (Israel Defense Forces) forces,” he said.

Asked if the US is OK with the continued strip-searching of detainees, Miller said:

Additional inspections points for humanitarian aid bound for Gaza are helping accelerate shipments through the Rafah border crossing – with the amount of fuel being allowed in to rise by about one-third, Egypt said.

On Tuesday, Israeli authorities began inspecting humanitarian aid trucks at two crossings between Israel and Gaza, but the trucks must still cross from Egypt through Rafah into Gaza.

The additional inspections should allow 60 to 80 more trucks to enter Gaza every day, said Diaa Rashwan, chair of Egypt’s State Information Service. He added that there was also agreement on increasing the amount of fuel entering the strip daily from 129,000 liters (about 34,000 gallons) to 189,000 liters (about 49,900 gallons), in addition to two domestic cooking gas trucks. 

The amounts are still far lower than what international aid agencies say is required amid a growing humanitarian crisis exacerbated by overcrowding in makeshift encampments and cold, wet weather.

Since aid began crossing into Gaza, 3,866 tonnes of medical help had been sent in, as well as 22,799 tonnes of food; 13,936 tonnes of water; 48 ambulances; and 2,678 tonnes of fuel, Rashwan said.

Family members of Americans who were taken hostage by Hamas during the attacks in Israel on October 7, including (L-R) Orna Neutra, Adi Alexander, Liz Naftali, Jonathan Dekel-Chen, Ruby Chen, Ronen Neutra, and Yael Alexander, talk to reporters outside the West Wing of the White House on December 13 in Washington, DC. The families were invited to a private meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The families of American hostages held by Hamas offered effusive praise for President Joe Biden’s administration after meeting at the White House with the president Wednesday.

“It was a terrific, terrific meeting, conversation,” Jonathan Dekel-Chen, whose son, Sagui Dekel-Chen, was captured by Hamas on October 7. “I think we all came away feeling that, as families of hostages of American Israeli hostages, which are eight out of a total of 138 hostages, we felt — we felt before, and we were only reinforced, seeing and believing, that we could have no better friend in Washington or in the White House than the president himself.”

Liz Naftali, the great-aunt of Abigail Edan, the 4-year-old Israeli American hostage released by Hamas last month, called her great-niece “a miracle, a light in this very dark time,” adding Biden and his administration “have been bringing out light in this dark time.”

She also thanked Pope Francis for calling for the safe release of all hostages in Gaza.

Dekel-Chen said the administration has been in “frequent, very transparent contact” with the families of hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, but told reporters the families are “going to keep the content of the conversation private.” 

While he declined to weigh in on calls for a ceasefire, Dekel-Chen said the meeting with the president “only reinforced that they are willing and ready to do all that they possibly can, by any number of means, to get the hostages out.”

Naftali, for her part, thanked members of the administration for centering the humanity of those still being held hostage.

“And that is what the president and (US Secretary of State Antony) Blinken understand — is that they are just not numbers and they’re just not faces, they are sons,” she said. “They are sons. They are grandparents, they are mothers, and that is what the president and his team understand.”

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that the overwhelming vote at the UN General Assembly in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza makes clear “that the world wants this conflict to end, which is a goal that we share.”

The US vetoed the resolution, as well as a resolution in the Security Council last week calling for a ceasefire.

“We don’t want to see it go on a day longer than is necessary,” Miller said at a press briefing Wednesday, but added that the US does not believe stopping Israel’s military campaign now “is in the long-term security interests of anyone in the region.”

Miller also said that while Hamas can be defeated, “you can’t defeat an idea on the battlefield.”

“It is incumbent upon Israel, it is incumbent upon other countries in the region, it is incumbent upon the United States and other every country around the world who wants to be the responsible player to present a better idea” than Hamas, Miller added.

The US believes that the Palestinian Authority “is the representative of the Palestinian people, and a revitalized, reformed, revamped Palestinian Authority is the proper path forward for governance of a reunited West Bank and Gaza,” Miller re-iterated with the caveat that “obviously, the Palestinian Authority is not in position to step in tomorrow and begin to administer Gaza.”

This post has been updated with additional remarks from the US State Department spokesperson.

An Israeli artillery unit fires from a position in Upper Galilee in northern Israel towards southern Lebanon on December 11.

Two people have been killed and one injured in an attack involving “enemy aircraft targeting and destroying a house” in the town of Yater in southern Lebanon, the country’s National News Agency reported on Wednesday. 

Yater is about 8 kilometers (about 5 miles) from the border with Israel.

It comes after further Israel-Hezbollah crossfire was reported between the border of Israel and Lebanon on Wednesday.

Several launches from Lebanon toward the area of Yiftah in northern Israel were identified, the Israel Defense Forces said. The rockets fell in open areas, and the IDF was targeting the sources of the fire in Lebanon.

A Hezbollah cell had been hit in Lebanon, and a fighter jet had struck a Hezbollah military compound, the IDF added.

Earlier Wednesday, the IDF said sirens sounded in kibbutz Rosh HaNikra in northwestern Israel, which is a few hundred meters away from the Blue Line — the border between Israel and Lebanon. The IDF said it detected several launches from Lebanon toward Israel, but those launches landed within Lebanon.

Hezbollah on social media said it had targeted a location near the border area on the Mediterranean Sea. 

Meanwhile, NNA said an Israeli shell had landed in Muhaybeb, Lebanon.

This post has been updated to include the number of deaths and injuries as reported by NNA.

Haraz Coffee House in Dearborn, Michigan, is usually teeming with customers eager for a taste of its delicious Yemeni coffee – but on Monday there wasn’t a single person in sight.

The popular café on Michigan Avenue was closed, as its owner and employees participated in a global strike calling for a ceasefire in the devastating war in Gaza.

“Today is the day to put everything that matters in our lives aside to focus on the lives of those in Gaza and to call for an immediate ceasefire,” owner Hamzah Nasser told CNN. He closed all 12 locations of his cafés in Michigan, Kentucky, Texas, Illinois and California.

Palestinian groups announced the global strike on Saturday, one day after the United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. The strike on Monday and Tuesday saw businesses temporarily close, employees call out of work, consumers refrain from shopping and students skip classes.

Alex Tarzikhan, a legal adviser at a human rights organization in Washington, DC, says she called out of work in solidarity with Palestinians and other people of conscience.

Tarzikhan says she regularly checks on Bisan Owda, and other Palestinian journalists, and is often left feeling helpless by the graphic and heart-wrenching images they post on social media.

CNN’s Natasha Bertrand contributed to this report.

The US government on Wednesday imposed sanctions on eight Hamas officials in its latest punitive measure following the October 7 attack on Israel.

The new round of US Treasury Department sanctions target key officials. This includes:

Wednesday’s sanctions were imposed in coordination with the United Kingdom. They are the fourth round of sanctions imposed by the US since October 7.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron emphasized that this latest batch of sanctions “will continue to cut off their access to funding and isolate them further.”

As part of this effort to clamp down on individuals who have “financed Hamas,” Algerian national, Aiman Ahmad Al Duwaik, who the UK says “helped run the organisation’s overseas investment portfolio” was also included in the list.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an Islamist militant group was also targeted in the list through the inclusion of Akram al-Ajouri who is the group’s Syria-based Deputy Secretary General and the leader of its military wing, the Al-Quds Brigades.