December 11, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

Our live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war has moved here.

Biden gives remarks in Las Vegas, Nevada on December 8.

US President Joe Biden on Monday night touted his unshakeable support for “the safety of the Jewish people and the security of Israel and its right to exist” in the wake of the Hamas terror attacks of October 7.

The president pointed to his support for Israel, while acknowledging daylight on issues between himself and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, joking that he had once told the Israeli leader: “I love you, but I don’t agree with a damn thing you have to say.” He added: “It’s about the same today.” 

Still, Biden said in remarks marking the fifth night of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah that Israel was in “a tough spot,” following the Hamas attack and subsequent war in Gaza.

The president also hailed the work his administration has done to secure the release of hostages still held in Gaza and the delivery of humanitarian aid to the region.

“We’re working relentlessly for the safe return of the hostages. I personally spent countless hours – and I mean it, probably up to 20 hours with the Qataris and Egyptians, the Israelis – to secure the freedom of hostages, to get the trucks in, to get the humanitarian aid flowing, to convince them to open the gate, to have [Egyptian President Abdel Fattah] El-Sisi — make sure he opened the gate into Egypt,” Biden said. “And there’s a whole range of things going on now that are really very, very difficult. We’ve gotten more than 100 hostages out and we’re not going to stop till we get every one of them home.”

Biden was joined by second gentleman Doug Emhoff and a group of White House officials descended from Holocaust survivors who lit the White House menorah.

Trucks with aid destined for the Gaza are parked on the side of the road in Rafah, Egypt, on Monday, December 11.

Hamas battalions in two areas of northern Gaza are “on the verge of dismantling,” according to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have also intensified its operation in the central part of the enclave.

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) will resume its emergency session on Tuesday, days after the United States vetoed a resolution that included a ceasefire. At the same time, four European Union countries are calling for a discussion at an upcoming EU summit on the necessity of a ceasefire in Gaza.  

Here’s what else to know:

The European Union’s foreign policy chief says the EU will work on introducing sanctions against Jewish settlers who commit acts of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Josep Borrell’s comments come amid growing concern that Israel is not doing enough to prevent hardcore settlers from launching attacks on Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank.

“We will work on imposing sanctions against extremist settlers in the West Bank,” Borrell told reporters in Brussels, saying he is alarmed by recent violence in the occupied territory.

United Nations data has shown a sharp increase in attacks by settlers against Palestinians since October 7 — though European and US diplomats working in the region have been expressing concern for years about such violence and the sense that it frequently goes unpunished by Israel.

Borrell’s remarks also follow the announcement of a new visa policy by the United States targeting the same violent individuals.

Last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new visa restriction policy targeting “individuals believed to have been involved in undermining peace, security, or stability in the West Bank, including through committing acts of violence or taking other actions that unduly restrict civilians’ access to essential services and basic necessities.”

The State Department will be able to apply the policy to both Israelis and Palestinians who are responsible for attacks in the West Bank, Blinken said.

According to the Reuters news agency, Borrell did not give details of possible EU sanctions, but the news agency said officials believed it would also involve travel bans to the EU. 

Another challenge for Borrell will be to convince all EU members to support any new sanctions policy. Several states, among them Hungary and Austria, are among Israel’s strongest international supporters.

What Israel is saying: Israel itself is reluctant to accept any criticism of its policy toward West Bank settlers, especially at a time when it is still dealing with the aftermath of the October 7 attack by Hamas.

War cabinet member Benny Gantz, seen previously as particularly mindful of the need to get a grip on the sense of lawlessness in some Jewish communities in the West Bank, has recently been seeking to convince international colleagues not to use the term “settler violence” because, he argues, it unfairly characterizes all those Israelis living in the territory.

Borrell also said Monday he would look to introduce a new sanctions package against Hamas, the Reuters news agency reported.  The EU already considers Hamas a terrorist organization.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke Monday with Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz about efforts to ” facilitate the safe return of all remaining hostages” in Gaza and also increasing levels of humanitarian assistance.

A large menorah is seen ahead of the Annual National Menorah Lighting ceremony at the Ellipse of the White House in Washington, DC, on December 7.

Several family members of the American citizen hostages missing in Gaza had asked to attend a Hanukkah reception at the White House Monday night but never received invitations, the father of a 19-year-old missing Israeli-American told CNN. 

Ruby Chen — whose son, Itay, has been missing since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel — said a number of the families of American hostages were in Washington, DC, this week, and had reached out to the White House asking to attend Tuesday’s reception but were not invited. 

A White House spokesperson declined to comment.  

The reception, hosted by President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden, celebrates the fifth night of Hanukkah. It will feature some 800 guests, according to the White House, including Holocaust survivors, lawmakers and various Jewish leaders. 

There are still seven American men and one woman unaccounted for since the Israel-Hamas war began, according to the White House. Four Americans  — a four-year-old girl and three women — have been released so far. 

After formal hostage negotiations that had been taking place in Doha, Qatar, fell apart, the Biden administration continues to be in close contact with their Israeli, Qatari and Egyptian counterparts about ways to get more hostages out, according to officials. 

Since the start of the war, families of the missing Americans have had opportunities to speak or meet with President Biden, his national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Vice President Kamala Harris.

But as CNN has previously reported, the seeming lack of progress on this front is fueling the families’ growing anxiety.

Some of the families have called on the White House to consider making a side deal with Hamas that focuses on just the American hostages, and have even floated the idea of cutting the Israeli government out of initial negotiations altogether. 

Multiple families told CNN that while they felt supported by the Biden administration’s outreach and support so far, the Israeli government has, in stark contrast, been minimally engaged. 

As the Israeli military steps up its campaign to defeat Hamas in northern Gaza, hospitals there remain under siege, according to doctors.

Dr. Ahmed Al-Kahlot told CNN on Monday the hospital he runs in the center of Gaza City, Kamal Adwan, is surrounded by Israeli forces. 

The maternity ward was hit Monday afternoon local time by tank shelling, killing two women and leaving two more so badly wounded their legs required amputation, he said.

CNN has asked the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment.

On Friday, the IDF said clashes near Kamal Adwan were “in response to Hamas’ barbaric attacks.” The Israeli military says it only carries out operations in and around hospitals where they are being used by Hamas and other armed groups.

Separately, Dr. Munir Al-Bursh, the director general of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, told CNN that the Al Awda hospital in northern Gaza has been under siege for many days.

“There is no food, or water, or medicine there — where approximately 250 people are still trapped inside. Anyone who tries to leave the hospital is shot at,” he said.

This post was updated with the time of when the tank fire allegedly hit a maternity ward.

A surgeon with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, was injured inside Al Awda Hospital in north Gaza by a shot fired from outside the facility on Monday, the organization said.

“Our colleagues report snipers surrounding the hospital, firing on those inside,” MSF said.

Renzo Fricke, MSF’s head of mission, added in a statement, that “reports coming out of Al-Awda hospital are harrowing and we are gravely worried for safety of patients and staff inside.” 

He said Al Awda is a functioning hospital “with medical staff and many patients in vulnerable condition.” He called any targeting of medical workers “utterly reprehensible, utterly inhumane.”

MSF said two of its doctors have been among five health workers killed at Al Awda Hospital since October 7.

“The hospital building has also sustained substantial damage in the bombing and fighting, along many other hospitals in the north of the Strip, and supplies are running low, further compromising the doctors’ capacity to treat patients,” Fricke said.

CNN has asked the Israel Defense Forces for a response to the MSF allegation.

The leaders of Ireland, Spain, Belgium and Malta have written a letter to the European Council President Charles Michel calling for a discussion at an upcoming EU summit on the necessity of a ceasefire in Gaza.  

The Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Spanish President Pedro Sanchez, Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo described the death toll, the destruction and the humanitarian situation brought about by the war in Gaza as “alarming.”

CNN obtained a copy of the letter from an EU official. 

All four leaders have previously called publicly for a ceasefire in Gaza and provided some of the strongest condemnations of Israel’s actions in Gaza from EU leaders. 

“Given the gravity of the situation and the potential of an escalation in the West Bank and regionally, it is imperative for us to hold a serious debate on the war during the upcoming European Council that will take place on December 14 and 15,” the leaders stressed. 

The leaders also called for “effective measures” to be taken to protect the “innocent civilians” of Gaza being impacted by the conflict. Humanitarian aid must be delivered “unhindered” to the enclave, the leaders said. 

In the letter, they also highlighted the “urgent need” for a “political process on the basis of the implementation of the two-state solution.” 

The letter added, “We cannot go back to the status quo before October 7, with Hamas in control of Gaza and with the Palestinian Authority undermined by the lack of any serious political perspective,”

They suggested convening an international peace conference with Israel and Hamas “in order to implement the two-state solution.” 

The leaders ended the letter by warning that the EU’s “credibility is at stake.”  

“These are dark hours for millions of people in Palestine and Israel. Across Europe anti-Semitic incidents have resurged and this cannot be tolerated. It is time for the European Union to act,” they said. 

Israel’s military has a significant presence in Gaza’s largest refugee camp where heavy fighting and dozens of casualties have been reported, the director general of the Ministry of Health in Gaza told CNN.

Israeli tanks are spread out in the northern area of the Jabalya camp, Dr. Munir Al-Bursh said.

“I am about 700 meters away from the clashes and can hear screams from where I am,” he said.

The remarks appear to support Israel’s contention that its forces are closing in on what it claims are two Hamas strongholds in the north of Gaza — Jabalya and Shejaiya.

Al-Bursh said the signs of heavy fighting were everywhere.

He accused the Israeli military of forcing displaced people out of their shelters.

“Women and children were forced to leave five UNRWA schools where they had been taking shelter, some men there were arrested and stripped to their underwear,” Al-Bursh said.

Israel has said that dozens of men shown in unauthorized videos apparently filmed by Israeli soldiers after their surrender last week were suspected Hamas members, though many of the people in the videos have been identified as civilians. 

Al-Bursh said the Al Awda hospital in northern Gaza has been under siege for many days.

“There is no food, or water, or medicine there — where approximately 250 people are still trapped inside. Anyone who tries to leave the hospital is shot at,” he said.

Humanitarian aid trucks seen at  Nitzana crossing, Israel on November 28, in this screengrab from a handout video.

Israeli authorities said Monday that two crossings into Gaza will be used to help screen humanitarian aid destined for the territory.

However, no aid will be allowed directly into Gaza from either crossing in Israel.

 “Following a security consultation, a decision was made today (Monday), to conduct integrated security screening at the Nitzana Crossing and the Kerem Shalom Crossing,” Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said.

Beginning Tuesday, Kerem Shalom crossing will open for security checks on aid shipments from El-Arish, the Egyptian town where much of the aid for Gaza is assembled, COGAT spokesperson Shan Sasson said in a video statement released on the social media platform X,

“The simultaneous security checks at Kerem Shalom and Nitzana crossings will double the volume of aid delivered through the Rafah crossing and admitted into the Gaza Strip,” Sasson said.

“The decision was made in order to improve and upgrade the capabilities and volume of security screening of the humanitarian aid being admitted into the Gaza Strip via the Rafah Crossing in Egypt,” COGAT said.

Authorities said that trucks containing water, food, medical supplies and equipment for shelter will be screened at both crossings —”and will be forwarded from there to international aid organizations in the Gaza Strip via the Rafah Crossing in Egypt.”

The Nitzana crossing is nearly 50 kilometers (more than 31 miles) from Rafah.

In recent days, between 60 and 100 trucks have been using Rafah crossing to enter Gaza — a volume that the United Nations and other aid agencies say is far too little to mitigate the territory’s humanitarian crisis.

Israeli troops are encircling Hamas’s last two strongholds in northern Gaza, according to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

He claimed that Hamas battalions in the Jabalya and Shejaiya areas were “on the verge of dismantling. The number of those who surrender that come out of these places shows us what’s happening.”

Gallant also asserted that those Hamas fighters who have surrendered have said they are short of weapons and food.

Gallant made similar comments on Friday about the Israeli military’s progress, when he said he saw signs that Hamas is “beginning to break inside Gaza.”

In a separate development, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israeli Security Agency (ISA) announced that more than 500 Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters had been apprehended over the past month “and transferred for further questioning by the ISA and Unit 504,” referring to an intelligence unit of the Israeli military.

Since the end of the pause in the fighting, just over a week ago, about 140 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants have been detained in the Gaza Strip, the IDF said.

For the first time, the IDF also published photographs of alleged militants who had surrendered.

Unlike a series of videos that emerged last week of men having apparently surrendered to Israeli forces, which showed them stripped to their underwear, the two still photographs published Monday showed men fully clothed.

US State Department Spokesperson Matt Miller speaks to reporters during the daily press briefing at the State Department in Washington, DC, on July 17.

US State Department spokesperson Matt Miller on Monday reiterated concern about a report that Israel has used white phosphorous in southern Lebanon.

“Anytime that we provide items like white phosphorus or really anything to another military, we do it with the expectation that it will be used for legitimate purposes and in fully keeping with humanitarian law and law of armed conflict,” he said. 

Miller said that the US is looking into the matter and “for additional information.”

CNN is unable to confirm the use of phosphorous munitions. In a previous statement to CNN, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that it uses “only legal weapons and ammunition.”

Israel’s history with white phosphorus: Israel previously faced widespread criticism for firing white phosphorus shells over densely populated areas during a Gaza offensive that began in late 2008. HRW said in a 2009 report that Israel’s white phosphorus munitions had killed and injured civilians and damaged civilian structures, including a school, a market, a humanitarian aid warehouse, and a hospital. HRW claimed that Israel’s use of the weapons in crowded neighborhoods “violated international humanitarian law (the laws of war), which requires taking all feasible precautions to avoid civilian harm and prohibits indiscriminate attacks.”

In response, Israel pledged to limit the use of white phosphorus and make greater efforts to protect civilians during conflicts. Still, the government said that it had used white phosphorus lawfully.

Claim of recent use: In October, Human Rights Watch accused Israeli forces of using white phosphorus in Gaza and Lebanon.

According to the HRW report, the rights group said it verified one video taken on October 10 in Lebanon and another video in Gaza on October 11 that it claimed shows “multiple airbursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over the Gaza City port and two rural locations along the Israel-Lebanon border.”

Israel denied the claims by Human Rights Watch.

CNN’s Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.

The men can be seen in the cargo bed of a military vehicle. 

The recent images of men detained and stripped down in Gaza were “deeply disturbing,” US State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said Monday.

Asked by CNN about the photos, Miller reiterated that the US is seeking more information from the Israeli government.

The United States is seeking answers about the status of the individuals in the photos, the circumstances around the images, and “how ultimately they became public,” he said.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), claimed to CNN last week that the men were members or suspected members of Hamas, “without clothes in order to make sure they’re not carrying explosives.”

However, in an interview with CNN on Friday, Hani Almadhoun, director of philanthropy for the US arm of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA USA) said he knew a dozen people pictured in circulating images, including his brother — all of whom were civilians. 

More background: The photos circulating on social media last Thursday 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.

The exact circumstances and dates of the detentions are unclear, but some of the detainees’ identities were confirmed by colleagues or family members.

CNN’s Abeer Salman contributed to this report.

Video shared by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society shows the couple being pulled from the rubble. CNN obscured portions of this image to protect the couple's privacy.

A Palestinian humanitarian group shared footage of a dramatic rescue carried out on Sunday of a husband and wife who were trapped under rubble in central Gaza. 

In the video shared on the Palestinian Red Crescent Society’s (PRCS) official account on X, members of a group including the medical staff can be seen shining phone lights and hoisting the couple out from the rubble. 

According to the PRCS, its teams managed to rescue the husband and wife after their house in the Um Zaher area was bombed. Their 22-year-old son was killed by the bombing, the PRCS said. 

CNN has not been able to independently verify this claim. 

After being rescued, the couple were transported to Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir-al-Balah to receive medical treatment, according to the the PRCS. 

Israel’s operation in central Gaza has intensified in the days since the brief truce ended, resulting in an uptick in fatalities recorded in Al-Aqsa Hospital. 

Since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the Gulf state of Qatar has come under fire by Israeli officials, American politicians and media outlets for sending hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Gaza, which is governed by the Islamist militant group Hamas

But all that happened with Israel’s blessing.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued the cash flow to Hamas, despite concerns raised from within his own government, CNN was told in a series of interviews with key Israeli players conducted in collaboration with Israeli investigative journalism organization Shomrim.

Israeli sources responded by pointing out that successive governments had facilitated the transfer of money to Gaza for humanitarian reasons and that Netanyahu had acted decisively against Hamas after the October 7 attacks.

Maj. Gen. Amos Gilad, a former senior Israeli Defense Ministry official, told CNN the plan was backed by the prime minister, but not by the Israeli intelligence community. There was also some belief that it would “weaken Palestinian sovereignty,” he said. There was also an illusion, he added, that “if you fed them (Hamas) with money, they would be tamed.”

Read the full story here.

A joint convoy of the United Nations and the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) successfully reached Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City from the south on December 9, a report published by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Monday. 

The convoy delivered medical supplies and evacuated 19 critically injured patients towards the south, the OCHA added. 

However, “one of the ambulances and a UN truck carrying supplies were hit by gunfire as the convoy struggled to reach the hospital,” the OCHA report noted, without specifying the source of the gunfire.

According to OCHA, the convoy faced significant obstacles on the return journey south.

Israeli forces delayed the convoy at a checkpoint in Wadi Gaza in central Gaza, where vehicles, staff, and patients underwent extensive screenings.

One of the evacuated patients passed away during the journey south, OCHA said.

“A paramedic was detained for four hours. During this time, he was subjected to interrogation and reportedly endured physical and psychological abuse,” OCHA added.

This convoy marked the first aid convoy to the city of Gaza since the resurgence of hostilities on December 1. 

CNN has contacted the Israel Defense Forces for comment on what occurred at the checkpoint.

Sixty-one trucks loaded with humanitarian aid entered into Gaza via the Rafah crossing on Monday, according to an Egyptian official. The convoy included three trucks loaded with fuel and two carrying cooking gas.

This is the smallest number of aid trucks that has entered Gaza since December 5. 

Thirty-four injured Palestinians crossed from Gaza into Egypt to receive medical treatment on Monday, as witnessed by a CNN journalist at the Rafah crossing.

In addition, four buses carrying an unknown number of foreign nationals made the crossing from Gaza into Egypt.

Since the beginning of the conflict, approximately 600 injured Palestinians, predominantly children and women, have crossed into Egypt via the Rafah border, based on CNN’s count.

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

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Monday it struck a Hezbollah military site in southern Lebanon after a number of launches from the area.  

“In response to launches from Lebanon toward communities in the western Galilee earlier today, IDF fighter jets struck a Hezbollah military site,” the IDF said in a statement. It added that “number of launches were also identified from Lebanon toward IDF posts in northern Israel. The IDF struck the sources of fire.” 

Hezbollah said earlier on Monday that it fired artillery shells at Pranit Barracks, saying its actions were in support of Gaza. Hezbollah said in a statement that the barracks suffered “a direct hit.” 

The IDF did not say whether there was any damage to its structures. 

Five reservists were killed on Sunday during a raid on what the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said were “terror infrastructure sites” in the area of a school in southern Gaza.

“During the battle, an explosive device was detonated at the (IDF) forces and terrorists were identified in the area. The troops responded with live fire, directed aircraft and tanks, initiated contact, killed the terrorists, and struck the terror infrastructure in the area,” the IDF said in a statement. 

Shots were fired at IDF troops from the school, it added.

The IDF said it identified the five killed soldiers and notified their families.

Previous reporting from CNN’s Richard Allen Greene, Amir Tal, Tamar Michaelis, Tim Lister, Mick Krever, Alex Marquardt and others.