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Humanitarian crisis worsens in Gaza as Israel-Hamas war rages

By Chris Lau and Andrew Raine, CNN

Updated 12:38 a.m. ET, December 23, 2023
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1 min ago

UN Secretary General pays tribute to 136 colleagues killed in Gaza

From CNN’s Celine Alkhaldi and Michael Rios

United Nations' Secretary General Antonio Guterres paid tribute Saturday to 136 UN workers killed in Gaza over the past 75 days, calling it “something we have never seen in UN history.” 

In a statement on X, formally Twitter, Guterres said that most UN workers in Gaza had been "forced from their homes."

“I pay tribute to them and the thousands of aid workers risking their lives as they support civilians in Gaza,” he said.

The Secretary General’s statement came a day after United Nations Development Program (UNDP) administrator ​​Achim Steiner announced in a statement the death of agency worker Issam Al Mughrabi along with his wife and five children. They were caught up in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza city on Friday.

37 min ago

It's morning in Gaza. Here's what to know

From CNN staff

The United Nations Security Council has approved a resolution that calls for humanitarian pauses between Israel and Hamas, increased humanitarian aid to Gaza and the creation of conditions that will allow for a sustainable end to the fighting.

The vote ended days of closed-door negotiations.

The United States and Russia abstained, deciding against using their vetoes as permanent members of the body that would have shot down the resolution.

Throughout what a senior US diplomat called “marathon negotiations,” the US was eager to not vote against the resolution after it suffered global blowback for vetoing the last Security Council motion, which called for an immediate ceasefire.

Instead, Friday’s resolution called for “urgent steps” to lay the groundwork “for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.”

Its passage comes as the Biden administration has grown more vocal in expressing concerns over the brutality of the war in Gaza.

Here's what else you should know about the resolution:

  • Israel dismisses the decision: Israel called the resolution "unnecessary" and claimed it "proves the inability for the UN to play a positive role in the conflict," though it thanked the US for its efforts to "address the most problematic elements." Israel's ambassador to the UN said the global body was too focused on aid to Gaza, instead of the crisis of hostages captured by Hamas.
  • Hamas also largely rejects the move: Hamas said the resolution was "an insufficient step," given that it did not include an international resolution to stop the war. Hamas also slammed the US, saying it "worked hard to empty this resolution of its essence, and to issue it in this weak formula."
  • Humanitarian organization says more help is needed: The International Rescue Committee welcomed calls for immediate humanitarian access but criticized the resolution for not including a call for a ceasefire. "With more than 20,000 Palestinians killed and latest food insecurity numbers showing unprecedented threat of starvation in Gaza, much more is clearly needed," the IRC said in a statement.

And here are some of the other key developments in the war today:

  • Israel prepares to expand offensive: The Israel Defense Forces is preparing "to expand the operation into new areas" in the Gaza Strip, with an emphasis on southern Gaza, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Friday in a media briefing. His remarks follow comments from the Israeli defense minister that highlighted operations in southern Gaza and vowed to expand to other parts of Gaza "in the future." And the IDF also ordered residents in several areas of central Gaza to move to shelters for safety, signaling a new focus of the ground offensive and a potentially widening military operation in the enclave.
  • Deepening hunger crisis: Children in the Gaza Strip under the age of 5 — about 335,000 kids — are all at high risk of severe malnutrition and preventable death, according to a UNICEF statement Friday. That follows a warning from a UN-backed food security agency Thursday that the risk of famine is increasing every day that hostilities persist or worsen.
  • Aid enters Gaza under challenging conditions: The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it received 70 humanitarian aid trucks on Friday through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. But the head of the UN said Israel's military activity in Gaza is creating "massive obstacles" for aid distribution in the enclave. UN Secretary-General António Guterres says measuring the success of aid operations by the number of trucks entering Gaza is a mistake because distributing the goods amid "intense Israeli bombardment" and ground operations is highly dangerous.
  • Important stories from enclave: Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour referenced CNN’s recent visit to a field hospital in Rafah where Clarissa Ward met an 8-year-old girl named Jinan who survived a strike on her family home that crushed her femur. In his remarks to the UN Security Council, Mansour said the “important report” highlights the “unbearable tragedy” of children killed and wounded by Israel’s assault.
  • Hostage dies in Gaza: Gadi Haggai, a 73-year-old Israeli-American dual national who was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, has died while being held captive in Gaza, the Missing Persons Families Forum said in a statement. His body is still being held in Gaza, according to the organization.
38 min ago

Israeli military says it demolished a tunnel network in southern Gaza City   

From CNN's Abel Alvarado

The Israel Defense Forces has demolished a tunnel network in the Issa area of southern Gaza City, it claimed in a statement Friday.

The network served as an “underground post,” the IDF said, and “numerous buildings used as Hamas headquarters were destroyed” as part of its operations in recent days.

The statement claimed that “many Hamas terrorists were eliminated, along with many buildings used for terrorist activities and weapons that were destroyed.”  

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the tunnel network was targeted using “13 tons of explosives, which simultaneously detonated 30 tunnel shafts in a secured manner.”

The network, according to the IDF, was also “used for storage, hideouts, command and control, and movement of operatives between different areas.”  

The IDF said video footage captured by a canine unit revealed that the tunnel network was “hundreds of meters long.”

Some background: Colloquially referred to as the “Gaza metro,” a vast labyrinth of tunnels beneath Gaza is used to transport people and goods, to store rockets and ammunition caches, and house Hamas command and control centers — all away from the prying eyes of the IDF’s aircraft and surveillance drones.

During its offensive in the territory, the IDF claims it has exposed “hundreds of terror tunnel shafts throughout the Gaza Strip,” and says it is operating “to locate and destroy dozens of attack tunnel routes.”

Recently, it has tested methods for flooding the Hamas tunnels.

CNN's Joshua Berlinger contributed reporting to this post.

38 min ago

Biden says he is heartbroken by death of Israeli-American hostage in Gaza

From CNN's Samantha Waldenberg

Gadi Haggai, right, and Judi Haggai.
Gadi Haggai, right, and Judi Haggai. The Hostages and Missing Persons

US President Joe Biden says he is heartbroken by reports of the death of Israeli-American Gadi Haggai, who is said to have been killed by Hamas on October 7. The 73-year-old's death was confirmed in a statement from the Missing Persons Families Forum on Friday. 

“We continue to pray for the well-being and safe return of his wife,” Biden said in a statement. Haggai’s body is reportedly still being held in Gaza. 

Biden added that he is also praying for the Haggai family and reaffirmed that his administration will keep working to release other hostages in Gaza. 

The Haggai family told CNN today that they are “filled with great sorrow” after learning of the death of Gadi Haggai. The family added that they hope his body will be returned.

“We mourn the loss of our father and grandfather, and we continue to hope and pray that his body will be returned to us and that Judi is still alive and we will be reunited soon,” the family said in a statement. Judi is Gadi Haggai's wife.

Their daughter Iris Haggai Liniado, told CNN previously that her parents were on their morning walk about a mile and a half from their home in the Nir Oz kibbutz on October 7 when they heard rockets flying overhead. She said her parents “hit the dirt” and tried to call for help and that was the last Iris heard from them.

The Missing Persons Families Forum said Gadi Haggai was shot and critically injured that morning.

38 min ago

US pleased with UN resolution's approval after "marathon negotiation," US diplomat says

From CNN's Alex Marquardt

The Biden administration has praised the passage of the United Nations Security Council resolution on Gaza, saying it was the result of a "marathon negotiation," a senior US diplomat said.

The United States abstained from voting in favor of the resolution because it did not contain language condemning Hamas.
“We would love to see condemnation of Hamas. We don't understand why the Council can't just explain exactly how we got to where we are,” the diplomat said. “But at the end of the day, that's what diplomacy is all about.”

The resolution included compromise language “deploring” acts of terrorism. It also stopped short of calling for a ceasefire which was included in a resolution earlier this month in the Security Council that the United States vetoed. Israel has repeatedly rejected international pleas for a ceasefire, saying it needs to remove Hamas from power and recover the hostages, and the US has supported its position at the UN.

Instead, Friday’s resolution “calls for urgent steps” that would “create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.” 

“Creating conditions for sustainable cessation of hostilities is something that everybody's looking to do,” the senior diplomat said. “I think the big dispute over the last few weeks has really been: Is the time right, right now, for a cessation of hostilities? Or do the conditions need to be right? We were comfortable with this idea of the conditions needing to be right for that." 

Another significant sticking point was Egypt and the United Arab Emirates pushing for a new UN mechanism to monitor the aid going into Gaza. The US believed it would be too cumbersome and slow down an already strained process. Instead, the resolution creates a position for a senior UN coordinator for aid.

The resolution also called for all the hostages held in Gaza to be released immediately. That, in addition to the softer language on the cessation of the fighting and the compromise on the aid monitoring mechanism, got the US to a place where it could support the resolution and see it passed, while still not voting "yes."

“We're never looking to use our veto and, in fact, we have very strict principles on use of the veto. that should be very rare, very unusual circumstances,” the senior US diplomat said.

38 min ago

US intelligence suggests Iran is involved in planning attacks in Red Sea

From CNN's Natasha Bertrand

Newly declassified United States intelligence suggests that Iran has been "deeply involved in planning the operations against commercial vessels in the Red Sea," National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson told CNN.

The Iran-backed Houthi rebels have launched over 100 attacks against about a dozen commercial and merchant ships transiting the Red Sea over the past four weeks, CNN previously reported.

The newly declassified intelligence suggests that "Iranian support throughout the Gaza crisis has enabled the Houthis to launch attacks against Israel and maritime targets, though Iran has often deferred operational decision-making authority to the Houthis," Watson said. 

On Tuesday, a senior US military official said that the Iranians are operating in the Red Sea when asked whether Iran is helping the Houthis select targets, CNN reported. But that official said the Houthi attacks have been broadly indiscriminate. 

"Iran has the choice to provide or withhold this support, without which the Houthis would struggle to effectively track and strike commercial vessels navigating shipping lanes through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden," Watson said. 

The Houthis have said they will only relent when Israel allows the entry of food and medicine into Gaza. Its strikes could be intended to inflict economic pain on Israel’s allies in the hope they will pressure it to cease its bombardment of the enclave.

The intelligence also suggests that the Iranians have provided monitoring systems to the Houthis that allow them to operate in the maritime space, Watson said.

"Iranian-provided tactical intelligence has been critical in enabling Houthi targeting of maritime vessels since the group commenced attacks in November," she added. The drones and missiles the Houthis have been using for the attacks were provided by Iran, too, Watson said, as part of Iran's arming of the rebel group since 2015. 

The US this week launched Operation Prosperity Guardian, a maritime coalition aimed at beefing up security in the southern Red Sea. More than 20 nations have signed on to the initiative so far, the Pentagon said Thursday. 

38 min ago

All children under age 5 in Gaza at high risk of preventable death due to food insecurity, UNICEF says

From CNN's Hande Atay Alam and Kareem Khadder

Palestinian children hold pots as they queue to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, amid shortages in food supplies, in Rafah, southern Gaza, on December 14, 2023.
Palestinian children hold pots as they queue to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, amid shortages in food supplies, in Rafah, southern Gaza, on December 14, 2023. Saleh Salem/Reuters

Children in the Gaza Strip under the age of 5 — about 335,000 kids — are at high risk of severe malnutrition and preventable death, as the risk of famine conditions continues to increase, according to a UNICEF statement on Friday.

In the coming weeks, "at least 10,000 children under five years will suffer the most life-threatening form of malnutrition, known as severe wasting, and will need therapeutic foods," according to UNICEF. 
"This means for many families in Gaza, the threat of dying from hunger is already real," UNICEF added.

The UNICEF statement comes after the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) reported Thursday that approximately all of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents are now facing acute hunger. The entire population of the Gaza Strip is classified in a state of crisis, according to IPC.

That's the highest share of people facing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity that the IPC initiative has ever classified for any given area or country, the report stated. 

“Many adults go hungry so children can eat,” according to IPC, calling for humanitarian access to be restored throughout the region to enable the rapid delivery of life-saving aid. 

UNICEF also said it is particularly concerned about the nutrition of more than 155,000 pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers, as well as more than 135,000 children under the age of 2, given their specific nutrition needs.

The organization added that "the IPC has emphasized that these conditions do not have to persist. Yesterday's warning of famine in the coming weeks and months can still be averted. But we must act now."

CNN's Eyad Kourdi and CNN’s Michael Rios contributed reporting to this post.

38 min ago

Hamas calls UN resolution on Gaza an "insufficient step" to address catastrophic situation

From CNN's Kareem Khadder and Lauren Kent

Hamas said the United Nations Security Council resolution on Gaza is "an insufficient step," given that it did not include an international resolution to stop the war.  

In a statement released on its official website, Hamas said the UN resolution "does not meet the requirements of the catastrophic situation" created by Israel, "especially since it did not include an international resolution to stop the genocidal war waged by the terrorist occupation entity against our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip."

Hamas has repeatedly called for Israel to end its military operation in Gaza. 

Hamas also slammed the position of the United States, which abstained from the UNSC vote. 

"During the past five days, the American administration has worked hard to empty this resolution of its essence, and to issue it in this weak formula," the statement said.

"It is the duty of the UN Security Council to oblige the occupation to bring aid in sufficient quantities into all areas of the Gaza Strip, especially the areas of the northern Gaza Strip," Hamas added, claiming that Israel has caused "daily massacres" in northern Gaza and created conditions for starvation.

Friday’s adopted UNSC resolution comes after reports from the Hamas-run Palestinian health ministry, indicating that over 20,000 people have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military since October 7.

Simultaneously, a new report from the World Food Programme and other UN agencies reveals that more than one in four households in Gaza currently face extreme hunger. The report warns of an impending famine if the conflict persists. 

CNN's Maija Ehlinger, Michael Bodenhurst and journalist Tamar Michaelis contributed reporting to this post.

38 min ago

Israeli military says it plans to expand into new areas of Gaza — with an emphasis on the south

From Tamar Michaelis in Tel Aviv

Rescuers and civilians look for survivors amid the rubble of destroyed buildings following Israeli bombardment in Rafah, southern Gaza, on December 14, 2023.
Rescuers and civilians look for survivors amid the rubble of destroyed buildings following Israeli bombardment in Rafah, southern Gaza, on December 14, 2023. Said Khatib/AFP/Getty Images

The Israel Defense Forces is preparing "to expand the operation into new areas" in the Gaza Strip, with an emphasis on southern Gaza, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Friday in a media briefing.

"We’re approaching the final stages of gaining operational control over the north (of the Gaza Strip)," Hagari claimed.

Other signs of expansion Friday: Earlier today, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant pointed toward Israeli military operations in Khan Younis and other parts of southern Gaza, outlining the military's plans to operate in other places in Gaza "in the future."

The IDF also ordered the residents of the Al-Bureij refugee camp in Deir al-Balah and several other areas in central Gaza to move to shelters for safety, signaling a new focus of the ground offensive and a potentially widening military operation in the enclave.

On targeting top Hamas officials: The Israeli defense minister also reiterated Israel's promise to eliminate Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in his remarks Friday.

In response to a question about targeted killings of Hamas senior officials, the spokesperson Hagari said, "Our job is to kill all of them. This takes intelligence."

Hagari said the IDF is working with Israel’s domestic security agency, the Shin Bet, adding that "they have teams working on this all the time. Once there’s an opportunity, we perform."