May 17, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

Our live coverage for the day has ended. Follow the latest Israel-Hamas war news or read through the updates below.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) recovered the bodies of three hostages in the Gaza Strip, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a news conference in Tel Aviv Friday. 

The hostages were identified as Shani Louk, Amit Bouskila, and Itshak Gelernter, Hagari said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed grief over the hostages, saying “the heart breaks for the great loss.” Louk’s family said they have closure now that her body has been recovered.

Here are other headlines you should know:

Developments on the ground

Humanitarian aid

Official meetings

Calls from the United Nations

Doctors leaving Gaza

Dr. Mahmoud Sabha was among the American doctors who were evacuated after being trapped in Gaza this week after Israel’s military offensive in Rafah shuttered a critical border crossing where they were planning to exit.  

Sabha, 39, a Dallas-based doctor who specializes in wound care, was on his second humanitarian trip to Gaza that was supposed to end last Monday. 

His wife, Dr. Samaiya Mushtaq, learned his plans to leave were on hold last Friday afternoon in a voicemail. 

“He said we’re not leaving on Monday and I remember listening to it and just responding, ‘No - no, no, no,’” she told CNN in a phone interview. 

She described an intensely emotional week amid the uncertainty: “I didn’t think this would be morally or legally allowed.” 

Three of the American doctors stayed behind on Friday as 17 were able to evacuate. 

Early Friday morning, her husband contacted her to say there was the possibility of an evacuation. He called again when he had reached the border and was in Jerusalem Friday evening eastern time. 

Still, she said, “I think he’d go back. I think the call to help this incredibly vulnerable population is a humanitarian call. He would go back if there were an opportunity to rebuild the hospital systems.” 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they carried out an airstrike on “an operations center” in Jenin, in the West Bank, on Friday and killed “a significant wanted” militant.

The IDF said in a statement that militant Islam Khamaysa was a senior operative in the Jenin Camp, responsible for numerous attacks in the area.

Al Quds Brigade, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, confirmed the killing of Islam Khamaysa in a statement on Friday, saying he was a leader of the Jenin Brigade.

The Jenin Brigade is a faction affiliated with the wider Islamic Jihad group.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said eight people were also injured in the airstrike and evacuated to two separate hospitals in the West Bank.

An undated photo of Shani Louk.

The family of Israeli hostage Shani Louk, whose body Israel announced on Friday was recovered from Gaza, said they have closure now that her body has been recovered.

In a statement given to CNN, the family said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) came to their house on Friday and informed them that they were able to rescue Louk’s body from a tunnel in Gaza and bring her back to Israel.

Aid organizations will face challenges getting doctors back into Gaza following the departure of 17 of the 20 American doctors who were stuck there after Israel shut the border crossing from Rafah to Egypt.

Remember: The crossing – when it was operating — was the only entry and exit point for foreign aid workers. Israeli and Egyptian officials have so far failed to reach an agreement on reopening it.

One of the doctors who decided to stay behind is Dr. Adam Hamawy, who helped save Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s life 20 years ago in Iraq, according to a source familiar with the matter. Hamawy traveled to Gaza with the Palestinian American Medical Association and did not feel right leaving without other doctors coming in to take over, the source said. 

Many members of Congress, including Duckworth, are working with the Biden administration to push Israel to do more to get aid and humanitarian workers into Gaza, and to get the protections needed for those workers. Earlier this week, a top USAID official said that Israel was not doing enough to ensure the safety of aid works.

CNN’s Jeremy Diamond and Muhammad Darwish contributed to this story.

Hamas’ military wing Al Qassam Brigades said a commander was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon’s West Bekaa area, near the Syrian border, on Friday.

Sharhabil Ali Al-Sayyid, also known as “Abu Amr” was killed “after he was targeted by Israeli occupation aircraft,” Hamas’ military wing Al Qassam Brigades said in a statement.

The Israel Defense Forces ( IDF) confirmed in a statement Friday it killed Al-Sayyid in an airstrike, but described him as “a senior commander of the Jamaa Islamiya” in Lebanon “who cooperated with Hamas against Israel.”

The IDF said Al-Sayyid “promoted numerous terror attacks from Lebanon against Israel in the eastern arena recently, as well as in cooperation with Hamas’ wing in Lebanon.”

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, on May 17.

Seventeen of the 20 American doctors who were stuck in Gaza after Israel shut the border crossing from Rafah to Egypt have safely departed the enclave, said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on Friday.

The Americans who made their way out did so with the support of the US Embassy in Jerusalem, said a State Department spokesperson. “We have been in close contact with the groups that these US doctors are part of, and we have been in contact with the families of these US citizens,” the spokesperson added. 

The Embassy team traveled to Kerem Shalom crossing to receive the doctors at the border, the source added, without providing details about how the doctors traveled to the border crossing.

Here’s where the crossing is located:

A UNRWA personnel checks a burnt area at a school housing displaced Palestinians that was hit during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the militant group Hamas, in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on May 17.

A panel of UN experts said Friday that the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was “politically targeted” as it voiced disappointment over some countries not reinstating their funding weeks after an independent review cleared the agency.

Earlier this year, Israel accused at least 12 UNRWA staffers of being involved in Hamas’ October 7 attacks and has alleged that about 12% of the agency’s 13,000 staffers are members of Hamas or other Palestinian militant groups. Last month, the independent review found that UNRWA’s neutrality must be strengthened and that its facilities were sometimes misused, but noted that Israel did not provide supporting evidence for its allegations.

“UNRWA remains pivotal in providing life-saving humanitarian aid and essential social services, particularly in health and education, to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank,” the review said, adding that the agency is “irreplaceable and indispensable to Palestinians’ human and economic development.”

As of April 30, funding to UNRWA from nine states was still frozen, according to a UN statement.

With previous reporting from CNN’s Tim Lister

The World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that military escalation in Rafah could “bring humanitarian operations to a standstill.”

“We know we need additional entry points and every new entry point is a new artery pumping lifeblood into #Gaza,” WFP said in a statement on Friday.  

Since the Israeli military began its offensive in Rafah on May 6, over 630,000 people were forced to flee, UNRWA said on Friday, with many moving to Deir Al-Balah and Khan Younis.

On Thursday, UN emergency relief chief Martin Griffiths described the situation as “deeply tragic” as he warned about food running out in southern Gaza.

Meanwhile, trucks carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza have begun moving ashore on Friday morning via a temporary pier built by the US military, according to a statement from US Central Command (CENTCOM). 

Aid is moved on the pier to a facility in Gaza, after which WFP helps deliver the aid to other agencies or distribute it, a UN official told CNN.

This post includes reporting from CNN’s Colin McCullough and Kareem Khadder.

The Israeli military announced Friday that it has recovered the bodies of three hostages from a tunnel in the Gaza Strip.

Here’s some reaction from Israel officials:

Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant: “Appreciation to the IDF and Shin Bet forces who brought the bodies of Yitzhak Gelernter, Shani Louk and the late Amit Buskila from the Hamas captivity in Gaza to a grave in Israel. The return of all our hostages was and will remain a supreme moral duty and a war goal for us. I share the heavy sorrow of the families. May their memory be a blessing.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir: ”The heart hurts and aches. Shani, Yitzhak and Amit-may God avenge your blood.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Israel Katz: ”The heart is torn when hearing the difficult news about the death of Amit Buskila, Shani Luke and the late Yitzchak Gelernter, who were murdered at the Nova party and whose bodies were found in Gaza and returned to Israel. Sending condolences and a big hug to the families and thanks to the security forces for this complex and very important operation. May their memory be blessed.” 

President Isaac Herzog: ”My heart goes out in sympathy to the grieving and tormented families of the hostages Itzhak Gelerenter, Amit Buskila and Shani Louk, whose bodies were rescued from Gaza and will be brought for eternal rest in Israel. My thanks go to the IDF, the Shin Bet and the security forces for their tireless efforts, as we all carry the hope and prayer for the speedy return of all the other hostages. May the memory of those we have lost be blessed.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “This terrible loss is heart-breaking. My wife Sara and I grieve with the families; all of our hearts are with them in their hour of heavy sorrow. We will return all of our hostages, the living and the deceased alike. I commend our brave forces whose determined action has returned the sons and daughters to their own border.”

War Cabinet Member Benny Gantz: ”On this difficult evening, I would like to hug and send my condolences to the families of Shani Louk, Amit Buskila and Yitzhak Gelernter, may their memory be blessed, and salute the IDF soldiers and the security forces who took part in the planning and execution of the rescue operation. We do not forget for one second our supreme obligation to return all the hostages.”

Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett: “Shani, Yitzhak and Amit, may their memory be a blessing. Look at their kind eyes. What was their sin? Being Jews living in their own country? They were murdered by monsters poisoned by hatred of Jews. We are surrounded by a poisoned enemy, and only through unity and a firm outward stance, we will overcome this enemy. The people of Israel all share in the mourning with the families.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leaves the stage after speaking at a ceremony for Remembrance Day for the Fallen of Israel’s Wars and Victims of Terrorism at Yad LeBanim in Jerusalem on May 12.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed grief after the bodies of three hostages were recovered in Gaza, he said in a post on X on Friday. 

“We will return all our hostages, the dead and the alive alike. I congratulate our brave forces who, with determined action, have returned our sons and daughters home,” he said.

All three were taken hostage on October 7 and were killed while escaping the Nova music festival and their bodies were taken into Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said Friday. 

Itshak Gelernter, left, Shani Louk and Amit Bouskila.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have recovered the bodies of three hostages in the Gaza Strip, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a news conference in Tel Aviv on Friday. 

The hostages were identified as Shani Louk, Amit Bouskila, and Itshak Gelernter, Hagari said.

Nissim Louk, the father of Shani Louk, told Israeli media his daughter’s body was very well preserved because it had been kept in a “deep and very cold tunnel.” 

All three escaped from the Nova festival in southern Israel when “terrorists” arrived on October 7, 2023, Hagari said. After escaping, they went to the kibbutz of Mefalsim and were killed “brutally” there by the terrorists, he added.

“They were celebrating life in the Nova music festival and they were murdered by Hamas,” he said. 

The bodies were transferred to medical professionals for forensic examination. The families were then notified, he said. 

The Hostage and Missing Families Forum expressed deep sorrow over the deaths of the hostages. The group said the recovery of their bodies is a reminder that the remaining hostages must also be returned to Israel.

More context: Around 240 people were taken hostage and moved to Gaza during Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel that also killed more than 1,200 people. A little more than 100 were freed during a release deal in November, but the IDF believes there are still 132 hostages being held in Gaza, 128 of whom were taken on October 7.

The IDF believed that of those 132 hostages, 40 are believed to be dead, including two who were taken in 2014.

This post has been updated with a comment from the father of Shani Louk.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan speaks during a press briefing in Washington, DC, on May 13.

US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan will travel to Saudi Arabia and Israel over the weekend, according to a US official, as the ceasefire and hostages negotiations have stalled and Israel continues to threaten to intensify its military operations in Rafah.

He will meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in their respective countries, according to National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.

US officials have said that they have not yet seen Israeli forces begin a major ground incursion into southern Gaza yet, while reiterating Biden’s warning that if Israel were to make such a move, the US would hold back on additional offensive weapons shipments to its ally.

Israeli officials have assured their US counterparts that they have no intention of launching a major military operation into Rafah until more conversations have taken place between the two sides, according to this US official, including the various meetings Sullivan plans to have over the weekend while in Israel.

Sullivan’s trip to Saudi Arabia also comes as the Biden administration continues to push for a deal to normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

The post was updated with details about who Sullivan will meet during his trip.

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid into Gaza have begun moving ashore after arriving through the floating pier built by the US military, according to the US Central Command (CENTCOM).

The pier was anchored to a beach in Gaza on Thursday and will be used to funnel aid from various countries into the besieged strip, with most border crossings to the enclave closed and a catastrophic humanitarian disaster unfolding inside.

The maritime corridor is coming at a critical moment – with the Rafah border crossing to Gaza having been closed for more than a week, preventing aid from getting through. That crossing was the only one between Gaza and Egypt – with all other border points in the strip controlled by Israel.

Here are key things to know about the pier and the aid that is starting to enter Gaza:

How much aid is expected? The goal is to get about 500 tons of humanitarian assistance into Gaza through the pier daily, according to Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of CENTCOM. That means about 90 trucks worth of aid a day, and the goal is to build up to 150 trucks a day.

How was the pier built and how will it work? The US began building the floating pier in late April at a cost of $320 million and with the help of some 1,000 US soldiers and sailors. The US said that it is only a temporary measure that is “entirely humanitarian in nature.” Pieces for the pier were loaded aboard ships on the East Coast of the US and then “transported 6,000 miles across the ocean,” according to CENTCOM’s Cooper. The pieces were assembled off the coast of Gaza, with final assembly taking place in the Israeli port of Ashdod.

Why is aid being shipped this way? Most land crossings into Gaza remain either shut or congested due to lengthy inspections by Israel. That has led the US and other countries to start air-dropping aid into Gaza, which human rights organizations have criticized as insufficient. The UN has warned of famine setting in in parts of Gaza, calling on Israel to open more land crossings for aid. 

How much aid is getting into Gaza now? The US State Department has said that “not nearly enough” trucks are getting into Gaza. The UN estimates that 500 trucks are needed per day to alleviate the suffering of Gazans, but on May 11, UN figures showed that only six trucks entered. No data is available after that date.

Keep reading about the pier and aid being delivered.

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, as seen from southern Israel, on May 17.

Israeli strikes have killed at least 31 people and injured 56 in Gaza over the past 24 hours, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the strip on Friday.

The death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7 has now surpassed 35,300, with 79,261 injuries, the ministry added. CNN cannot verify the ministry’s numbers, and it does not distinguish between casualties among fighters and civilians.

It does not include in its figures the several thousand people thought to be missing in Gaza since October 7.

Earlier Friday morning, civil defense officials and local journalists said that Israeli strikes on the enclave had killed at least 10 people and wounded others.

An airstrike on the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza killed at least six people, according to civil defense officials who arrived on the scene and evacuated a number of wounded. The Jabalya district of northern Gaza has seen intense combat operations in recent days. A hospital in northern Gaza received several bodies and many injured people after Israeli strikes on Thursday, according to a CNN stringer present.

Persistent gunfire could be heard throughout the night Thursday into Friday in Jabalya, according to residents in the area.

Salama Maroof, head of the government media office in Gaza, said in a Thursday statement that the Israeli military had invaded Jabalya and cut off the northeastern settlement of Beit Hanoun.

In a separate attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, at least four people were killed when Israeli warplanes struck the Al-Jaouni School, which shelters displaced people. Local journalists witnessed the bodies arriving at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah.

This post has been updated with additional figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The aid shipment delivered to Gaza via a US-built pier included British humanitarian aid.

The shipment, which had the aid provided by the United Kingdom, will be enough to feed 11,000 people for a month, British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said Friday.

“The UK continues to play a key role in this herculean international effort,” Shapps wrote on X. 

The UK is supporting logistics coordination in Cyprus and has deployed a Navy vessel to help US personnel construct and operate the pier, he added.

How it works: The content of the aid shipments to Gaza is inspected in Cyprus. Upon reaching the Gaza shore, the aid is moved on the pier by trucks already on the ships to a facility in Gaza. The World Food Programme will then act as the logistical arm of the United Nations to deliver the aid to other agencies or distribute it, a UN official told CNN.

CNN’s Kareem Khadder and Sarah El Sirgany in Jerusalem contributed reporting to this post.

Lebanese group Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for dozens of rocket launches toward the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Friday.

In a statement, the militant group said it launched 50 Katyusha rockets targeting an Israeli military base in Golan in response to the Israeli attack on Al-Najariya in southern Lebanon earlier in the day, which Lebanon’s official National News Agency had reported killed two boys. 

In later statements, Hezbollah said it also targeted an additional Israeli site in Golan with rockets and another at the Lebanon-Israel border with artillery shells.

Rockets fired from southern Lebanon are intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome air defence system over the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights on May 17.

In additional exchanges across Israel’s northern border, as the war in Gaza rages on, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that approximately 75 launches were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory on Friday and “dozens” were intercepted.

Israeli emergency services reported that two men were slightly injured in the Galilee area and were taken to the hospital.

The IDF said that earlier Friday, “IDF soldiers identified a Hezbollah launcher in the area of Yaroun which was ready to fire launches toward Israeli territory.”

“A short while afterward, an IDF fighter jet struck and dismantled the launcher, preventing a large number of launches,” the military added.

Palestinians injured in Israeli airstrikes are brought Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, Gaza, on May 13.

The Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza has received at least 112 bodies and treated 308 injured people since the Israeli operation in the north began nearly a week ago, the hospital’s director, Dr. Husam Abu Saifya, told CNN on Friday. 

Safiya said that of the total number of bodies, 12 were killed overnight Thursday into Friday, when bombardment in the area continued throughout the night. The injuries the hospital received comprised of burns and severed limbs, he added. 

He warned of dwindling fuel and medical supplies, saying the last fuel delivery from the World Health Organization (WHO) “was five days ago.”

He said he doesn’t know when the WHO would deliver fuel and supplies or whether it would be enough.

For context: The Israeli military renewed ground operations in northern Gaza on Saturday, saying Hamas was trying to “reassemble” in the area. The north has been hit with intense Israeli shelling and gunfire, especially in and around the Jabalya refugee camp.