Our live coverage of Israel's war in Gaza has moved here.
December 28, 2023 Israel-Hamas war
By Heather Chen, Christian Edwards, Aditi Sangal, Matt Meyer, Maureen Chowdhury and Tori B. Powell, CNN
Updated 12:01 a.m. ET, December 29, 2023
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Israeli military "failed in its mission" to rescue 3 hostages who were accidentally killed, new report says
From CNN's Michael Rios
Israel’s military “failed in its mission” to rescue three hostages mistakenly killed by its troops in Gaza earlier this month, its chief of the general staff said Thursday, as the military published the findings of its investigation.
The findings concluded that Israeli command ranks had information that hostages were present in the area, and “even took actions to prevent strikes on locations suspected of having hostages,” the report read.
But the investigation also concluded the Israeli forces in the field had “insufficient awareness” of the possibility that hostages would approach them or that the troops would encounter hostages in operations not specifically aimed at freeing them.
Yotam Haim, Alon Shimriz and Samer Talalka were kidnapped by Hamas militants during their attack on Israel on October 7. The three men were killed during an IDF operation around the Gaza City neighborhood of Shejaiya on December 15.
That day, according to the findings, an Israeli soldier fired toward three hostages “identified as threats,” killing two of them. The third hostage fled, and the battalion commander gave an order to hold fire to identify the third person.
After the commander heard someone screaming “help” in Hebrew, he called on the person to come toward the soldiers; the hostage emerged from a building and moved toward the troops, the report said. Two soldiers didn’t hear the commander’s orders to hold fire “due to noise from a nearby tank” and fatally shot the third hostage, according to the investigation.
The probe also concluded that the "hostages were walking shirtless, and one of them was waving a white flag, standing at a point with limited visibility relative to the position of the soldier that fired the shot."
Israeli military Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi said the shootings “could have been prevented” but he determined there was “no malice in the event, and the soldiers carried out the right action to the best of their understanding of the event at that moment.”
In the days before the killing of the three hostages, the report said Israeli soldiers heard cries for help in Hebrew coming from a building while Israeli soldiers fought Hamas gunmen. The soldiers thought it was an attempt to trap them, the report said.
A camera mounted on a military dog during the fight also captured the voices of the hostages crying for help. That same day, a note reading "Help" in Hebrew was found at the exit of a tunnel, the report claims, which Israeli soldiers interpreted as an attempt by Hamas to lure them.
On December 14, Israeli drone footage identified signs reading "SOS" and "Help, 3 hostages" on a building 200 meters from where the three hostages were killed the next day, the report says.
The report claims that the Israeli military suspected this was a trap after blue barrels were spotted nearby that it said are commonly found in rigged areas.
Halevi concluded the killing of the hostages shouldn’t have happened and didn’t match the risk of the situation.
“The standard operating procedures are necessary, and they are also intended to protect us, so that we do not kill our own forces. They set and impact fateful decisions, as happened in this event," he said.
Desperation grows in Gaza as thousands of civilians surround aid convoy for food. Catch up on the latest
From CNN staff
Thousands of desperate civilians in the Gaza Strip surrounded a relief aid convoy at a United Nations center in the Al-Zeitoun neighborhood of northern Gaza, as seen in CNN video footage on Thursday.
The aid convoy consisted of two trucks distributing aid just outside a center of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), where people were seen climbing over them in desperation to get relief aid.
Earlier this week, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) expressed “deep concerns” over the rapidly worsening food security situation in the Gaza Strip, saying approximately 2.2 million residents are facing acute hunger.
Here are the latest developments:
- Israeli strikes: Twenty-one people were killed, and dozens injured after an apparent Israeli airstrike hit a residential building in Rafah, a director at the hospital receiving the bodies told CNN over the phone on Thursday. A medical source at Al-Kuwaiti Hospital said that 12 children and four women were among the dead. In another apparent Israeli airstrike, 16 people were killed east of Khan Younis in Gaza on Thursday, two medical sources treating civilians told CNN.
- Deadliest year for children in West Bank: More than 80 children have been killed in the last 12 weeks in the occupied West Bank, amidst intensified military activities, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). That number is “more than double the number of children killed in all of 2022, amid increased military and law enforcement operations. More than 576 have been injured and others have reportedly been detained.” UNICEF said in a report issued Thursday.
- Hundreds leave Gaza through Rafah crossing: Fifteen US citizens were among 748 foreign nationals who left the Gaza Strip for Egypt via the Rafah crossing on Thursday, according to an Egyptian official. Heading in the opposite direction, 103 trucks entered Gaza through Rafah Thursday, including 80 aid trucks — four of which carried cooking gas — and 23 trucks carrying commercial goods, the official said.
- Israeli-American hostage killed on October 7: Judi Weinstein, an Israeli-American who was abducted by Hamas, was killed on October 7, a kibbutz in southern Israel has announced Thursday. Weinstein's death in Hamas custody means there are no remaining female Americans held by Hamas. Now, six Americans — all men — are believed to still be in captivity.
- Camp for displaced people in Khan Younis: The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said it is working with the Egyptian Red Crescent to establish the “first organized camp” for displaced people in Khan Younis, Gaza, where tens of thousands of Palestinians are crowded in makeshift camps.
- Hezbollah launches more attacks on northern Israel: Shelling along the Lebanon-Israel border continued Thursday, as Lebanese officials spent the day in meetings with foreign counterparts from France and Britain about the growing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed paramilitary group. The Israel Defense Forces told CNN that approximately 20 launches were detected on Thursday that were aimed at Kiryat Shmona.
- Sanctions imposed on those facilitating Iranian funds to Houthi forces: The US Treasury Department on Thursday imposed sanctions on one individual and three entities "responsible for facilitating the flow of Iranian financial assistance to Houthi forces and their destabilizing activities." The new sanctions were imposed in the wake of a series of Houthi attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
- Action in the Red Sea: A US Navy destroyer in the Red Sea shot down a drone and an anti-ship ballistic missile launched from Yemen, US Central Command said Thursday, marking the 22nd time the Houthis have targeted international shipping since mid-October. The USS Mason, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer intercepted the launches on Thursday evening from the Houthis, an Iranian proxy in Yemen. There was no damage or reported injuries to any of the 18 ships operating in the area of the southern Red Sea, Central Command said on social media.
16 Palestinians killed in strikes located east of Khan Younis in Gaza, medical sources say
From CNN’s Kareem Khadder and Eyad Kourdi
Sixteen Palestinians were killed east of Khan Younis in Gaza Thursday evening in an apparent Israeli airstrike, two medical sources treating civilians tell CNN.
In the town of Al-Fukhari, eight civilians — mostly children — were killed after an apparent Israeli airstrike hit a residential building that was housing internally displaced persons, a medical source at the European Hospital in Gaza told CNN by phone.
In the Al-Maghazi camp area in central Gaza, an Israeli airstrike killed another eight people, according to a medical source at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital who spoke to CNN Thursday.
"Eight martyrs from the Ismail family and several injured arrived at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital after an Israeli airstrike targeted their house in Al-Maghazi camp in central Gaza province," a hospital official informed CNN.
CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment on the apparent airstrike and was unable to get an immediate response.
21 killed in attack on Rafah, hospital director says
From CNN’s Kareem Khadder and Eyad Kourdi
Twenty-one people were killed and dozens of others were injured after an apparent Israeli airstrike hit a residential building in Rafah, a director at the hospital receiving bodies told CNN over the phone Thursday.
"We have received 16 bodies from the Kuwaiti Hospital, and five more bodies are on their way," Marwan Al-Homss, director-general of Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital, told CNN over the phone.
Another medical source at Al-Kuwaiti Hospital said that 12 children and four women were among those killed.
CNN obtained a video filmed Thursday evening near the entrance of Al-Kuwaiti Hospital, capturing chaotic scenes as doctors hurried to treat injured people. An ambulance is seen arriving at the hospital gate where people receive first aid. Additionally, the video shows two deceased individuals covered in blankets.
CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment and was unable to get an immediate response on claims it struck a residential building in Rafah, which killed civilians.
Palestine Red Crescent Society plans to establish “first organized camp” for displaced people in Khan Younis
From CNN's Michael Rios
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said it is working with the Egyptian Red Crescent to establish the “first organized camp” for displaced people in Khan Younis, Gaza, where tens of thousands of Palestinians are crowded in makeshift camps.
The first phase of the new camp will include 300 tents and will accommodate displaced families from “medical, ambulance, and relief teams” at PRCS, the group said. It will also provide water, sanitation services, lunch, nutrition, energy and fuel supplies, PRCS added.
In the final stages, the group aims to expand the camp to 1,000 tents, providing shelter for “hundreds” of displaced families in southern Gaza.
PRCS did not specify when the camp would open. CNN has reached out to the group for details.
Israel-Lebanon tensions grow as Hezbollah launches more attacks on northern Israel
From Charbel Mallo, Tamar Michaelis and Maija Ehlinger
Shelling along the Lebanon-Israel border continued Thursday, as Lebanese officials spent the day in meetings with foreign counterparts from France and Britain about the growing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed paramilitary group.
Hezbollah claimed it carried out simultaneous attacks around 4 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET) — targeting multiple "barracks" across northern Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces told CNN that approximately 20 launches were detected on Thursday that were aimed at Kiryat Shmona, a northern Israeli municipality that has been the target of Hezbollah strikes over the last several days.
The municipality claimed two anti-tank missiles were fired at the town earlier in the day.
Hezbollah made six direct missile hits on Kiryat Shmona on Wednesday.
Diplomatic efforts: Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati met with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron in Beirut on Thursday and also spoke with French Foreign and European Affairs Minister Catherine Colonna on a call to discuss the growing clashes in southern Lebanon and northern Israel.
Mikati called for "maximum pressure to stop the Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon" during his meeting with Cameron, according to a social media post from the Lebanese government.
Cameron said in a post on X that an "escalation of the conflict in Gaza to Lebanon, the Red Sea or across the wider region, would add to the extremely high level of danger and insecurity in the world."
The fighting is among various incidents involving Iran and its proxies that have raised global concerns that Israel's war in Gaza could widen into a greater regional conflict.
Peacekeeper wounded: As the threat of greater violence between Hezbollah and Israel rises, evidence of the growing tensions on the ground in Lebanon is appearing.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNFIL) on Thursday called on Lebanese authorities to investigate after an attack on a patrol unit.
The UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon says the attack "by a group of young men" in the southern city of Taybeh left a peacekeeper wounded and a vehicle damaged, according to an X account run by UNIFIL.
Desperate civilians in Gaza climb over trucks and surround relief convoy for food, video shows
From journalist Khader Al Za'anoun and CNN’s Abeer Salman and Eyad Kourdi
Thousands of desperate civilians in the Gaza Strip surrounded a relief aid convoy at a UN center in the Al-Zeitoun neighborhood of northern Gaza, as seen in CNN video footage on Thursday.
The aid convoy consisted of two trucks distributing aid just outside a center of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), where people were seen climbing over them in desperation to get relief aid.
An elderly man named Abu Hassan told CNN that he came to get some flour, which he has had no access to for the last month, subsisting instead on just "bits of rice".
"We are in desperate need of flour; it has been a month since the last time I had flour. We are living on some bits of rice, and it is not enough and causes health problems for us. We need them to give us only flour and water; all these aids aren't enough, not even for one refugee school," he said.
Earlier this week, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) expressed “deep concerns” over the rapidly worsening food security situation in the Gaza Strip saying approximately 2.2 million residents are facing acute hunger.
Israeli-American hostage abducted by Hamas was killed on October 7, kibbutz says
From Tamir Michaelis, Arlette Saenz and Kevin Liptak
Judi Weinstein, an Israeli-American who was abducted by Hamas, was killed on October 7, a kibbutz in southern Israel has announced Thursday.
Weinstein, who was 70 years old, is dead and her body is still held by Hamas, Kibbutz Nir Oz said.
Weinstein held Israeli, US and Canadian citizenship. It was known that she had been injured while being taken hostage on October 7.
Her husband Gad Haggai, who was 73 years old, was pronounced dead on December 22, and his body is also still held by Hamas, according to the kibbutz.
Weinstein's death in Hamas custody means there are no remaining female Americans held by Hamas. Now, six Americans — all men — are believed to still be in captivity. In total, four American women have been released.
It was initially believed Judi could be part of the hostage deal for Hamas to free at least 50 women and children that was struck last month. While two Americans were released under the agreement, Judi was not.
In a statement, US President Joe Biden said he and first lady Jill Biden are "devastated" to hear the news. Haggai and Weinstein's family "have been living through hell for weeks. No family should have to endure such an ordeal. And I reaffirm the pledge we have made to all the families of those still held hostage: we will not stop working to bring them home," the statement said.