• US envoy Amos Hochstein held meetings in Beirut meeting with Lebanese officials on Tuesday. His trip is seen as a sign of progress in ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hezbollah, but does not mean a deal is imminent.
• An Israeli attack has killed at least five people in central Beirut. The strike, which hit just hundreds of meters from the prime minister’s office and parliament, was the third to hit the heart of the Lebanese capital in two days.
• In northern Gaza, an Israeli airstrike has killed over a dozen members of a single family. The 17 killed were family members of a cardiologist who was working at a hospital when the strike hit. Among those killed was the doctor’s newborn niece, whom he had delivered.
• The US has imposed sanctions on Israel’s largest settlement development organization. President-elect Donald Trump is unlikely to take any punitive actions against Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. Mike Huckabee, Trump’s pick for US ambassador to Israel, has voiced support for Israeli settlers in the Palestinian territory.
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US warns Turkey against hosting Hamas leaders
From CNN’s Jennifer Hansler and Nadeen Ebrahim
The United States has warned Turkey against hosting Hamas leaders, saying there “can be no more business as usual” with the Palestinian militant group.
Miller said the US is not in a position to dispute the reports.
Turkey has denied the reports. “Hamas political bureau members visit Turkey from time to time,” a foreign ministry source told CNN. “The claims that the Hamas political bureau has moved to Turkey does not reflect the truth.”
The US’ warning comes after Qatar, a key mediator in indirect hostage talks between Hamas and Israel, suspended its role after concluding that the two sides are no longer negotiating in good faith, and closed Hamas’ political office in Qatar’s capital, Doha.
The US doesn’t believe “the leaders of a vicious terrorist organization should be living comfortably anywhere, and that certainly includes in a major city of one of our key partners,” Miller said.
Hamas is a designated terrorist group by the US. However, members of the group can freely come and go from Turkey, a NATO member, and have a regular presence in the country.
In December, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s chief foreign policy and security adviser, Akif Cagatay Kilic told CNN that Hamas’ political leader Haniyeh “might have been” in Turkey on October 7, the day the militant group led an attack on Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages.
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More than 43,970 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, according to Gaza health ministry
From CNN’s Eyad Kourdi and Sana Noor Haq
People and rescures carry the covered body of a preson pulled from the rubble of a house destroyed in an Israeli strike on al-Jalaa street in central Gaza City on November 18.
Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP/Getty Images
At least 43,972 Palestinians have been killed and another 104,008 injured since Israel launched its war in Gaza, according to the Ministry of Health there.
Israeli attacks in Gaza killed at least 50 Palestinians and injured another 110 people in the past 24 hours, the health ministry reported on Tuesday.
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US envoy says ceasefire deal in Lebanon is "within our grasp"
From CNN's Pauline Lockwood, Tamara Qiblawi and Eyad Kourdi
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, right, meets with US special envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut, Lebanon, on November 19.
AFP/Getty Images
US envoy Amos Hochstein said that a ceasefire deal between Israel and Lebanon is “within our grasp,” but added it was ultimately “the decision of the parties.”
Hochstein was addressing reporters in Beirut on Tuesday after a meeting with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, the interlocutor with Hezbollah in the talks.
The US envoy said there had been “constructive” and “very good discussions to narrow the gaps.”
He also told reporters he would not be taking any question as he did not want “to be negotiating this in public.”
After speaking with Berri, Hochstein met with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati at his residence in Beirut on Tuesday to discuss efforts to end the Israel-Hezbollah war, according to the state-run National News Agency (NNA).
The meeting was attended by Lebanon’s foreign minister and the US ambassador to Lebanon, NNA said.
The US-backed proposal aims to achieve a 60-day halt in hostilities and is being portrayed as the basis of a lasting ceasefire, according to a Lebanese official.
The official said that terms are within the parameters of UN Resolution 1701, which ended the Lebanon-Israel war of 2006. The resolution stipulates that the only armed groups in the area south of Lebanon’s Litani River should be the Lebanese army and UN peacekeeping forces.
The proposal also requires Israeli ground forces, operating in southern Lebanon since late September, to withdraw from the country and demands a stricter enforcement of resolution 1701, according to the official.
What are the sticking points?
An Israeli source familiar with the talks cast doubt on the likelihood of an imminent deal, noting that Hezbollah’s refusal to accept Israel’s demand for the right to strike the group in the event of a ceasefire violation could jeopardize the process. Without this clause, the source said, it was uncertain whether Israel’s prime minister could get cabinet approval for the agreement.
Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich said that “full operational freedom” for the Israeli military in southern Lebanon was “non-negotiable.”
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati dismissed reports of demands to give the Israeli military operational freedom in south Lebanon as “speculation,” adding that he hasn’t seen such a clause in the proposal.
Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who leads the Hezbollah-allied Amal party and is an interlocutor in the talks, told Saudi media that the proposal he received from the US does not mention Israeli military operational freedom in Lebanon, adding that the US knows that such a demand would be “unacceptable.”
Another Lebanese source familiar with the talks has told CNN that President-elect Donald Trump has endorsed US envoy Amos Hochstein’s ceasefire negotiations track, increasing the chances of its success.
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US envoy arrives in Beirut, national agency reports
From CNN’s Tamara Qiblawi
U.S. special envoy Amos Hochstein arrives for a meeting with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, in Beirut, Lebanon, on November 19.
Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters
US envoy Amos Hochstein has arrived in Beirut, according to Lebanese state news agency NNA, as Israel and Hezbollah continue to exchange fire.
His trip is seen as a sign of progress in ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hezbollah, but does not mean a deal is imminent.
Beirut has responded “positively” to a US-backed proposal to stop the war, per Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Makati.
But an Israeli source familiar with the talks cast doubt on the likelihood of an imminent deal, noting that Hezbollah’s refusal to accept Israel’s demand for the right to strike the group in the event of a ceasefire violation could jeopardize the process.
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It's morning in the Middle East. Here's what you need to know
Beirut has responded “positively” to a US-backed proposal to stop the war, per Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Makati.
But an Israeli source familiar with the talks cast doubt on the likelihood of an imminent deal, noting that Hezbollah’s refusal to accept Israel’s demand for the right to strike the group in the event of a ceasefire violation could jeopardize the process.
In Lebanon, an Israeli attack killed at least five people and wounded 31 others in central Beirut on Monday, the Lebanese health ministry said. The strike, which hit just hundreds of meters from the prime minister’s office and parliament, is the third to hit the heart of the Lebanese capital in two days.
In Gaza, nearly a hundred aid trucks were looted in southern Gaza this weekend, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said. UNRWA did not identify the perpetrators, but blamed the “collapse of law and order” and the “approach of the Israeli authorities” for creating a dangerous environment.
Israeli airstrikes have killed over a dozen members of a single family in northern Gaza. The 17 killed were family members of Hani Badran, a cardiologist who was working at Kamal Adwan hospital when the strike hit, the local health ministry’s general director told CNN. Among those killed was the doctor’s newborn niece, whom he delivered and whose birth he had intended to register.
In Israel, a rocket attack killed at least one person and wounded several others in the Palestinian town of Shefa’Amr in the northern part of the country on Monday. The Israeli military said about five projectiles had crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory.
Also on Monday, debris from an intercepted rocket wounded several people in the Tel Aviv district. The Israeli military said it had intercepted a projectile from Lebanon.
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Rocket attack kills at least one person in northern Israel
From CNN's Lauren Izso, Ruba Alhenawi and Hira Humayun
A view of the damage after a rocket launched from Lebanon struck a building in the city of Shefa-Amr, Israel, on November 19.
Saeed Qaq/Anadolu/Getty Images
A rocket attack has killed at least one person and wounded several others in the Palestinian town of Shefa’Amr in northern Israel.
Israeli authorities said a multistory building was hit by a direct strike on Monday night local time.
A woman in her 50s was found dead in the rubble of the building, where she had been sheltering, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency service.
The woman named by Israeli media had an Arab name, and appears to be a Palestinian citizen of Israel, MDA said.
Rambam hospital in northern Israel said it was treating 30 patients wounded in the attack.
The Israeli military said about five projectiles had crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory.
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Israeli airstrike kills 17 family members
From CNN’s Kareem Khadder, Abeer Salman and Hira Humayun
Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 50 people, including 17 members of a single family, according to the local health ministry.
Most of the dead were killed in on northern Gaza, including the 17 family members who died in the city of Beit Lahiya, the ministry’s general director Dr. Munir Al-Bursh told CNN.
He said the 17 were family members of Hani Badran, a cardiologist who was working at the city’s Kamal Adwan hospital at the time of the strike that killed them.
A local journalist who spoke to the cardiologist told CNN that Badran’s children had been killed alongside his sister, her husband and their children. Among the killed children was his sister’s weeks-old newborn, who Badran had delivered and whose birth he had intended to register on Monday, he said.
The director of the hospital, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, said that everyone in Badran’s home at the time had been killed.
Safiya said the hospital itself had also previously been attacked.
He said patients were filled with “fear and horror,” adding “we are now pleading to the world. This killing machine must be stopped, the bombing must be stopped.”
CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment on the hospital attack. It has previously said it was operating “against terrorist infrastructure and operatives” in Beit Lahiya.
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No agreement on a draft ceasefire deal between Hezbollah and Israel, US says
From CNN's Sam Fossum
Jake Sullivan answers questions during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, DC. on November 13, 2023.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan said Monday that they do not yet have agreement on a draft ceasefire deal between Hezbollah and Israel, but that the US government believes they are seeing progress.
On Gaza, Sullivan said that the Israelis have agreed to creating a new route to move aid on a daily basis into the enclave which he says has led to a “significant uptick” in aid.
“And so we have seen a significant uptick in the amount of aid going day by day into that humanitarian zone,” he said.
Sullivan added that Israel does need to do more in terms of providing aid.
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Israel and Lebanon have reacted to US ceasefire proposal
From CNN's Michael Conte and Jennifer Hansler
Matthew Miller speaks in Washington, DC., on October 1.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Both Israel and Lebanon have “reacted” to proposals by the US for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, according to the State Department.
Miller would not say if the US is optimistic about the prospects of reaching an agreement, but noted that “when you have a resolution in the interest of all the relevant parties, we ought to be able to get to an agreement, and that’s what we’re going to try to do.”
The US-backed proposal aims to achieve a 60-day cessation of hostilities and is being portrayed as the basis of a lasting ceasefire, a Lebanese official previously told CNN.
Some background: 1701 is the UN resolution that ended the Lebanon-Israel war of 2006, stipulating that the only armed groups in the area south of Lebanon’s Litani River should be the Lebanese army and UN peacekeeping forces.
US envoy Amos Hochstein is due to visit Beirut after Lebanon responded “positively” to the US-backed proposal, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Monday.
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US sanctions Israeli West Bank settlement organization
From CNN's Jennifer Hansler
The Biden administration has imposed sanctions on Israel’s largest settlement development organization as part of the latest US actions targeting those fomenting instability in the occupied West Bank.
The US has issued a number of rounds of sanctions after President Joe Biden issued an executive order in February allowing sanctions on those undermining “peace, security, and stability in the West Bank.”
Monday’s action comes amid a push from Democrats for Biden to act in his final months in office to impose sanctions on two far-right Israeli ministers – Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir – for their roles in inciting settler violence in the West Bank and as frustration grows from within Biden’s own party about his administration’s seeming unwillingness to penalize the Israeli government.
President-elect Donald Trump is unlikely to take any punitive actions against Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank – instead, his policies are likely to embrace them. His pick for US Ambassador to Israel, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, is staunchly pro-Israel and has voiced support for Israeli occupation in the Palestinian territory.
The sanctions from the US Treasury Department Monday hit Amana, “the largest organization involved in settlement and illegal outpost development in the West Bank” that has “established dozens of illegal settler outposts and directly engaged in dispossession of private land owned by Palestinians in its support of settlers,” according to the State Department.
Netanyahu says Israeli strikes damaged element of Iran’s nuclear program
From CNN's Lauren Izso and Michael Rios
Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a ceremony in Jerusalem on July 16.
Abir Sultan/Pool/AFP/Getty Images
Israeli strikes on Iran damaged an element of Tehran’s nuclear program and degraded its ability to produce ballistic missiles, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday.
“It’s not a secret, it’s published. There was a certain element of their nuclear program that was damaged in the attack,” Netanyahu said in a speech to the Israeli parliament, or Knesset.
Israel’s most recent strikes on Iran took place in October, though Netanyahu did not make explicit that this was when the element of the nuclear program was hit.
But during his speech to the Knesset, he also said strikes in both October and April had degraded Iran’s ability to produce ballistic missiles and destroyed four S-300 missile batteries.
CNN is attempting to reach the Iranian government for comment.
