March 14, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks during a press conference following the weekly Senate caucus luncheons on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C, on March 12.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has criticized Israel’s government and called for new elections in a speech about the Israel-Hamas war on the Senate floor.

Schumer said he respected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “extraordinary bravery for Israel on the battlefield as a younger man” and believed his “highest priority is the security of Israel.”

“However, I also believe Prime Minister Netanyahu has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel,” Schumer said.  

In his speech, Schumer said Israelis needed to consider whether they should change course on how Israel is waging its war on Hamas and suggested new elections were the way to do so.

Members of the U.S. Air Force check the containers before loading an airplane with humanitarian aid to be dropped over Gaza at an area in Jordan, on March 14.

The US and Jordanian militaries dropped more aid into northern Gaza on Thursday morning local time, US Central Command announced. 

So far, US and Jordanian forces have performed 10 airdrops of aid into the enclave as many face extreme food shortages.

More context: Levels of critical hunger are compounded in the north of the enclave, where Israel concentrated its military offensive in the early days of the war. Palestinians told CNN they resort to eating water-based soup mixed with herbs, custard, or finger-sized biscuits because they have no access to nutrient-rich foods.

Humanitarian officials have warned that airdropping aid into the enclave falls far short of addressing the need in Gaza. While airdrops evade the rigorous examinations carried out at land crossings, they are costly and have limited delivery capacity. They can also create chaos on the ground as they drift unpredictably from the sky.

Critics have called on the US to instead pressure ally Israel to lift its severe restrictions on aid entry by ground.

CNN’s Niamh Kennedy contributed reporting to this post.

At the start of this month, Hazem Saeed Al-Naizi’s family in northern Gaza was surviving by eating bread made from animal feed. Two weeks later, even the animal feed has run out.

His comments follow warnings from the Red Cross of other Palestinian families in Gaza resorting to eating animal fodder, something experts say brings risks of infection and gastrointestinal issues. 

Al-Naizi was separated from his family in November, when he fled to Khan Younis with one of his sons, age 6, and the children he cares for as director of an orphanage in Gaza City.

His wife and other children tried to flee together but he says they were prevented from crossing by Israeli soldiers. His wife did not want to attempt crossing again, due to the difficulty of the journey and because she suffers from thalassemia, a genetic blood disorder.

Since then, they have stayed in the north while he cares for the orphans in the south.

He added that ever since the animal feed ran out in the markets, they have had to resort to eating plants like hibiscus.

“There are only a few wild plants left to eat, and they may be running out.”

Here are photos shared with CNN showing how the family turned the feed into a form of bread:

Mourners carry the body of one of two Palestinians who were killed at a yard outside a hospital during an Israeli raid in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on March 13.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told CNN that a number of armed individuals emerged from an alley in the occupied West Bank near the Jenin government hospital area and fired at its forces on Wednesday.

“Our forces responded by firing, and hits were detected,” the IDF added.

On Wednesday, two Palestinian men were killed, and four others injured in an Israeli military raid on the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

The men were killed after Israeli soldiers shot at a group of civilians standing in front of the Jenin government hospital’s emergency department, the hospital director said.

Humanitarian aid for Gaza is loaded on a cargo ship in the port of Larnaca, Cyprus, on March 14.

Food aid group World Central Kitchen (WCK) hopes to load pallets containing over 300 tons of food aid onto a second Gaza-bound ship by the end of Thursday, the organization confirmed to CNN.

A spokesperson said they were expecting to have the pallets screened and loaded onto the ship docked at the Cypriot port of Larnaca by the end of Thursday.

If successful, the ship would be loaded with 50% more aid than the first ship, the Open Arms, which set off towards Gaza with 200 tons of aid on Tuesday morning. 

It is unclear when this second ship will set off towards the besieged enclave. 

The focus for the moment remains on the Open Arms which is expected to land in Gaza late Thursday or early Friday.

A huge team of volunteers and contractors has been engaged by WCK to build a jetty to receive the shipment. The jetty is being constructed using rubble from Gaza, the WCK spokesperson told CNN. 

Clarification: This post has been updated to clarify a comment from World Central Kitchen about the construction of the jetty.

An UNRWA distribution centre in Rafah, Gaza, which was hit by a strike on March 13.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said it killed a Hamas commander at a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) food distribution center in Rafah, southern Gaza, in a strike that reportedly left at least five people dead including a UNRWA worker.

The IDF and Israel Security Agency named the commander as Muhammad Abu Hasna in a joint statement and claimed he was a “combat support operative in Hamas’ military wing.” Hamas also confirmed the killing of Abu Hasna on Wednesday, identifying him as deputy police operations officer. 

CNN has reached out to UNRWA about the allegations that a Hamas operative was at their facility.

UNRWA allegations: Israel in January accused 12 UNRWA workers of being involved in the October 7 Hamas attacks. UNRWA is the main UN agency in Gaza, and employs about 13,000 people in the enclave. It fired 10 of the 12 and said the other two had died. 

In late February, Lazzarini said Israel still had not provided UNRWA with evidence for its claims. As a result of Israel’s allegations, UNRWA’s main donor, the United States, and a number of countries paused funding to the organization, although two – Canada and Sweden – have since resumed.  

A vessel has reported an explosion “at a distance” from it while sailing 50 nautical miles southeast of the port of Aden in Yemen, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) organization said Thursday in an advisory note.

According to the UKMTO, the vessel “did not sustain any damage and the crew was reported safe. The vessel is proceeding to its next port of call,” it said.

“Authorities are investigating,” it added.

In recent weeks, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have been stepping up their strikes on ships in the Red Sea, which they say are retaliation against Israel for its military campaign in Gaza.

Displaced Palestinians shelter at a tent camp in Rafah, Gaza, on February 27.

Israel intends to move 1.4 million displaced Palestinians from Gaza’s southern city of Rafah to “humanitarian enclaves” before a planned military assault there, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari told reporters on Wednesday.

He said the Rafah offensive was “something we need to do” but also that the timing of the assault depends on “the conditions to allow it.”

More than half of Gaza’s population is now sheltering in Rafah, which borders Egypt, after fleeing the north and center of the enclave.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said it is necessary to advance into Rafah to destroy Hamas’ remaining military battalions.

Hagari refused to give the timing of any IDF invasion of the city, where people are living with severe shortages of food, water, medicine and shelter.

Israeli officials told CNN on Monday that an invasion was not imminent and that the cabinet had not yet approved military plans for it.

Community members and relatives carry the body of 10-year-old Amro Najjar, who was killed by Israeli forces, during a funeral procession at a mosque in Burin in the occupied West Bank on March 5.

Israeli forces and settlers have killed at least 433 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since October 7, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah.

About 4,700 more people were also wounded in that period, the ministry said.

At least 1,208 Palestinians have been displaced by settler violence and access restrictions since October, affecting at least 198 households, it said.

Another 537 Palestinians, including 238 children, have been displaced due to the destruction of 82 residential buildings in operations carried out by Israeli forces across the occupied Palestinian territories, the ministry added.

The death toll over the past five months is much higher than in 2022, when 171 Palestinians were killed in the occupied territories, according to the ministry — the highest number in a single year since 2005, during the Second Intifada.

Since October 7, 15 Israelis — including four members of Israeli forces — have been killed and 99 injured in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, and Israel, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

CNN has asked Israeli authorities for comment.

Settler violence: Even before Israel’s war with Hamas, the West Bank was boiling. About 500,000 Israeli Jewish settlers live in the West Bank and many settlements are heavily guarded, fenced-off areas that are off-limits to Palestinians. Most of the world considers these settlements illegal under international law and Israel has been criticized for allowing their expansion.

Correction: This post has been updated to clarify the occupied Palestinian territories where the health ministry says Palestinians were killed.

A Delta airlines aircraft arrives at JFK International Airport in New York on February 7.

Delta has said it will resume daily flights between Tel Aviv and New York on June 7.

The service will provide nearly 2,000 weekly seats, Delta said in a statement late on Wednesday.

The route was suspended in October last year after Hamas’ attack on Israel triggered the ongoing war.

Delta said the decision to resume the service “follows an extensive security risk assessment by the airline.”

Delta was among multiple airlines that halted services to Tel Aviv following the October 7 attack, including American Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Air Canada.

A woman and a child look out from the window of a damaged building following an Israeli bombing of Rafah, Gaza, on November 2023.

More children were killed during four months of war in Gaza than in four years of conflict worldwide, according to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini called the number “staggering” on social media and shared a graph comparing the number of children killed in global conflicts between the years of 2019 and 2022 to the number of those killed between October 2023 and February 2024 in Gaza, citing the UN and Palestinian health officials.

A total of 12,193 children were killed between 2019 and 2022 globally, and a total of 12,300 children were killed in Gaza between October 2023 and February 2024, according to those figures. 

Here are the major developments in the conflict:

US forces destroyed four drones and one surface-to-air missile in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on Wednesday, according to US Central Command, the latest in a series of repeated attempts fend off attacks launched by the Iran-backed militant group against commercial vessels in the Red Sea.

The strike on the Houthi weapons came after the group fired an anti-ship ballistic missile from Yemen into the Gulf of Aden, CENTCOM said.

The missile did not hit any ships and there were no injuries reported.

Grand Omar Mosque destroyed in Israel's bombardments is seen on March 12 in Gaza City.

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has wiped out entire neighborhoods, crushed the medical system and razed hundreds of mosques – turning religious sanctuaries into relics of war.

At least 1,000 of 1,200 mosques, including ancient sites, have been partially or completely destroyed as of February, the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs in Gaza told CNN.

Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7 have killed more than 100 preachers, including religious scholars, imams, muezzins (those who perform the call to prayer) and hafiz (Muslims who have memorized the Quran), according to the ministry.

Residents told CNN they cannot find enough space to attend nightly taraweeh prayers because places of worship have been destroyed. Taraweeh prayers are performed every night of Ramadan in a congregation.

Limited access to water means others cannot make the obligatory ablution before prayer.

Many are unable to share communal meals with relatives because forced displacement has separated families across the enclave.

Mohammed Hamouda, a displaced health worker in Rafah, told CNN he is struggling to explain to his young children why they will not be able to feast on traditional Palestinian dishes or receive gifts this Ramadan.

Read more about how Ramadan is anything but normal for Gazans this year.

Palestinians told CNN the war in Gaza has crushed hopes of observing a peaceful month of fasting, festivities and worship during Ramadan this year.

Some are grappling with the reality that they will not find enough sustenance to break their fast as Israel’s siege diminishes critical supplies, inflicting deadly hunger on Palestinians.

These days, Jihad Abu Watfa, 27, finds himself riding his bicycle along the dusty streets of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza. He watches as hungry children scavenge for food – but he cannot help them.

Children often search for food in the garbage, he said.

“There are many people who (already) fast like it’s Ramadan,” he told CNN in February, as the holy month approached.

Levels of critical hunger are compounded in the north of the enclave, where Israel concentrated its military offensive in the early days of the war.

Palestinians told CNN they resort to eating water-based soup mixed with herbs, custard or finger-sized biscuits because they have no access to nutrient-rich foods.

Read more about how Palestinians are struggling during the Muslim holy month.

Senior White House officials are planning to meet with Arab, Muslim and Palestinian-American community leaders in Chicago on Thursday, multiple sources familiar with the meeting told CNN, as President Joe Biden continues to grapple with anger and concern across the country about the Israel-Hamas war. 

Thursday’s meeting is part of the Biden White House’s efforts to hear concerns about the Gaza situation from these communities, though that is hardly expected to be the only issue discussed.

Officials are also expected to more broadly discuss concerns about Islamophobia in the US in the aftermath of October 7. 

Some context: Along with Vice President Kamala Harris, Biden and other top US officials have escalated calls for a ceasefire and more humanitarian aid in recent weeks, urging Israel to do more to protect civilians. 

But negotiations remain stalled, even as the humanitarian toll of Israel’s war in Gaza rises. Biden is confronting mounting discontent within his own party over his handling of the conflict, including young and progressive voters and voters in battleground states like Michigan that will be critical to his 2024 coalition.

The White House declined to comment.

Read more about the planned meeting.

Hassan Nasrallah speaks via a video link during an event in Lebanon, Beirut on February 13.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed to continue the fight against Israel, saying the Israeli military has been secretive about its losses in the north.

The fighting has continued since October 7 on Lebanon’s southern border with Israel between the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group and the Israeli military. As a result, Israel has ordered the evacuation of communities along the Lebanese border.

The Israeli military has said it killed numerous Hezbollah militants and commanders since October 7. On Monday, it said it struck two Hezbollah compounds in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, the farthest north Israel has struck in Lebanon since the latest Israel-Hamas conflict began. 

Nasrallah said the Israeli prime minister has “lost the war” in Gaza, and that an Israeli invasion of Rafah would not change that.

“After five months of fighting, [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] was unable of presenting any spectacle of victory,” he said, adding that Hamas has not been defeated and is still able to impose its conditions on the negotiations.

The Hezbollah leader also decried the US stance on the Israel-Gaza conflict, labeling it as “hypocritical.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at a news conference following a virtual meeting with other foreign ministers about the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza on March 13, in Washington, DC.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on Tuesday with the parents of Itay Chen — an Israeli-American hostage killed on October 7.

Blinken said that there is a “very strong proposal on the table right now,” but said the ball is in Hamas’ court to accept it.

The top US diplomat also said that ensuring Israel can “effectively defend itself” is “an enduring commitment that’s not going to go away.” Blinken said the US remains focused on trying “to make sure that October 7 never happens again.”

He also reiterated that Israel must take steps to protect civilians and get humanitarian aid to those who need it.

A UNRWA distribution center is seen in Rafah, Gaza, which was partially hit by a strike on March 13.

The head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) called for an investigation into attacks against UN facilities, emphasizing “the need for accountability.”

Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini’s call follows an Israeli strike that killed five Palestinians and wounded another 22 people at a UNRWA food distribution center in Rafah, the agency said.

At least one UNRWA staff was among those killed, the agency said.

He said the coordinates of all UNRWA facilities across Gaza are shared “with parties to the conflict.”

“The Israeli Army received the coordinates including of this facility yesterday,” Lazzarini said.

CNN has reached out to the IDF for comment.

A Palestinian girl carries a child through the rubble of houses destroyed by Israeli bombardment in Gaza City on March 3.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that the “very survival” of the population in Gaza is at stake now, as he met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the State Department. 

“We need to act. The very survival of the population in Gaza is at the stake today,” Borrell said.

Borrell thanked Blinken for his “personal efforts” to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza, but also pressed that routes into Gaza by land must be opened. 

For context: While airdrops evade the often rigorous and lengthy examinations carried out at land checkpoints, aid agencies say their drawbacks overwhelmingly outweigh their benefits. They are more expensive, have limited delivery capacity and may culminate in chaos.

The US is moving forward with a plan to establish a temporary pier off Gaza’s coast for aid delivery, but the Pentagon said it will take about 60 days for it to be completed and operational. 

More children were killed during four months of war in Gaza than in four years of conflict worldwide, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini called the number “staggering” in a post Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter.

Lazzarini shared a graph comparing the number of children killed in conflicts around the world between the years of 2019 and 2022 to the number of those killed between October 2023 and February 2024 in Gaza, citing the UN and the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

According to the figures, a total of 12,193 children were killed between 2019 and 2022 globally, and a total of 12,300 children were killed in Gaza between October 2023 and February 2024. 

Death toll: According to numbers published by Palestinian health officials, the amount of children killed in Gaza since October 7 is greater than that shared by Lazzarini. The Ministry of Health in Ramallah in a report Wednesday said the number of children killed has reached 13,450. And the health ministry in Gaza said Wednesday that 72% of a total of 31,272 deaths are women and children.

CNN cannot independently confirm the numbers due to the lack of international media access to Gaza.

Hamas operative Hadi Ali Mustafa was killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

The IDF said Mustafa was responsible for “Hamas’ international terrorist activities, directing terrorist cells and activities in the field, and advancing terror attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets in various countries around the world.”

Hamas’ military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, confirmed Mustafa’s death, saying he was killed in southern Lebanon on Wednesday.

The Lebanese National News Agency reported on Wednesday a “hostile drone” strike in Sur Al-Hosh in southern Lebanon, resulting in the deaths of a Palestinian and a Syrian who happened to be riding a motorcycle nearby.