January 4, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has told a visiting US envoy that Israel needs a “new security reality” on its northern border with Lebanon.

Gallant met Thursday with a senior adviser to President Joe Biden, Amos Hochstein, in Tel Aviv. Hochstein has been tasked with helping ease tensions between Israel and Lebanon.  

The Defense Ministry said that Gallant and the IDF Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, had briefed Hochstein on “the conditions required by the defense establishment to facilitate the secure return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes in the region.” 

Gallant talked of Israel’s determination to change the security reality in northern Israel, to enable more than 80,000 displaced Israelis to return to their homes. 

“There is only one possible result - a new reality in the northern arena, which will enable the secure return of our citizens. Yet we find ourselves at a junction - there is a short window of time for diplomatic understandings, which we prefer. We will not tolerate the threats posed by the Iranian proxy, Hezbollah and we will ensure the security of our citizens.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also met with Hochstein on Thursday.

Echoing Gallant's remarks, Netanyahu said Israel is committed to bringing a "fundamental change" on its border with Lebanon and allowing Israeli residents to return to their homes in the region.

Some background: While war has raged most fiercely in Gaza, there have been near-constant skirmishes between Israel and Hezbollah, the militant group that dominates southern Lebanon, since Hamas' attack on October 7.

Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Islamist movement with one of the most powerful paramilitary forces in the Middle East, has its main base on the Israel-Lebanon border. It shares Hamas' ultimate goal of destroying the Jewish state.

CNN's Jennifer Hansler contributed reporting to this post.

This post has been updated with details of the Israeli prime minister's meeting with the US envoy.

The Israel Defense Forces and Israeli Security Agency, also known as Shin Bet, say they have killed Palestinian Islamic Jihad's chief of operational staff in northern Gaza.

The IDF said that Mamdouh Lolo was an assistant to leaders of the militant group, which is separate from Hamas, in the northern Gaza Strip. 

“In addition, he was in contact with senior officials in the terrorist organization’s headquarters abroad. He was killed in a strike by an IDF aircraft,” the IDF added.

The IDF claimed that Lolo had planned and led many attacks from the Gaza Strip against Israeli civilians and soldiers. 

The Israeli military has warned civilians in Gaza not to use Salah Al-Din street, the main north-south route, as it ramps up fighting in central and southern parts of the territory.

Instead, the IDF told Palestinians to travel via Al-Rasheed street, the coastal road to the west.

At least 36 Palestinians were killed in strikes on Al-Mawasi and neighboring Khan Younis on Thursday. Thousands of displaced Palestinians have moved to Al-Mawasi in recent days, as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) deepened its military operations in central and southern Gaza.

Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed more than 22,300 people since the Israel-Hamas war erupted, 70% of whom are women and children, the Hamas-run Ministry of Health said on Wednesday. CNN is unable to independently confirm the figures provided by the Gaza ministry, due to restricted access to the region and the difficulty in verifying accurate numbers amidst the ongoing conflict.

In December, the UN's children agency warned that Gaza is "the most dangerous place in the world to be a child."

Here are the latest developments:

The Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that 22 people were killed in an Israeli air strike in the area of Khan Younis, southern Gaza. It confirmed the deaths were additional to the 14 deaths reported earlier in a strike in nearby Al-Mawasi.

CNN is unable to verify details of the reported strikes and has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment on its operations in southern Gaza. 

But, both the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the military wing of Hamas have reported that Khan Younis is at the epicenter of current combat in Gaza, and videos from the area over recent days have shown multiple explosions.

The IDF says their current combat focus is in Khan Younis and Deir al Balah in central Gaza.

In a post on X, it said that in Khan Younis, a Hamas weapons depot was hit and an aircraft had “killed three saboteurs who tried to plant an explosive device near our forces. The soldiers also killed two other saboteurs hiding in a nearby building.”

A warplane also bombed a Hamas military building “in which a member of the anti-armour missile group of the Deir al Balah Hamas battalion was present," the IDF said. It added that they located long-range rocket launchers during their operations in the Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

"In addition, two buildings, into which saboteurs fled and many weapons concealed, were attacked.”

More on the situation on the ground: In a later update, the IDF said their brigades in Khan Younis had "significantly impacted Hamas' operational and command and control capabilities in the area.”

Many Hamas militants of the northern and eastern battalions of the Khan Younis Brigade were killed by the IDF, it said.

The IDF added that they dismantled Hamas tunnel networks which had been used by Nukhba operatives to reinforce Hamas’ Khan Younis brigade and five Nukhba operatives had surrendered.

The IDF claimed that during field interrogations, Hamas fighters testified that "many" of their soldiers were killed, "including two platoon commanders from the northern and eastern battalions" of the Khan Younis brigade.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) also said there was “intense and continuous shelling in the vicinity of Al-Amal Hospital and the association’s headquarters in Khan Younis,” hindering the movement of ambulance crews and limiting access to the injured in the targeted areas.

CNN's Lauren Izso, Tim Lister and Abeer Salman contributed reporting to this post.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it struck several targets in southern Lebanon and along the border on Thursday, after "a number of launches from Lebanon toward Israeli territory were identified."

"Earlier today, an IAF fighter jet struck a Hezbollah observation post and terrorist infrastructure in the area of Maroun El Ras in southern Lebanon," it said in a statement released on Thursday.

The statement added that shortly after, IDF soldiers identified an anti-tank missile "terrorist cell" in the same area, which they struck.

Overnight, the IDF fired mortar shells "in order to remove a threat in the area of Rab El Thalathine along the Lebanese border," according to the statement.

Doron Katz Asher said her daughters can “remember every little detail” about October 7.

How they woke to the sound of sirens and hid in their shelter. How the gunshots got nearer. How, when the doors burst open, their grandfather rushed out of the shelter so Hamas gunmen wouldn’t see the rest of them hiding inside. How he was taken. How they left the door open to the shelter in the hope other attackers would think it had already been raided and move on. How that didn’t work.

“Another terrorist unit entered and took us also,” Asher told CNN.

Asher, her mother and daughters, 5-year-old Raz and 2-year-old Aviv, were thrown into the back of a tractor with other hostages from the kibbutz, before gunmen opened fire. Asher was shot in her back; Aviv was shot in the leg; her mother was shot dead.

Asher, 34, and her daughters were taken into Gaza, where they were kept first in a home, then in a hospital, before being released in November during a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Read the full story here:

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The Israeli military has warned civilians in Gaza not to use Salah Al-Din street, the main north-south route, as it ramps up fighting in central and southern parts of the territory.

Instead, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told Palestinians to travel via Al-Rasheed street, the coastal road to the west. The IDF also made clear they would not allow people to move from south to north Gaza.

“The humanitarian corridor on Salah Al-Din Street is closed as of today, as its location is being changed to Al-Rasheed Street,” the IDF posted on X on Thursday.

“The humanitarian corridor of Al-Rasheed Street... will be open to travel only from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip, be it on foot or by car, starting today, between 09:00 hours and 16:00 hours” local time (commencing 2 a.m ET).

“A temporary local tactical suspension of military activities for humanitarian purposes in the Al-Brook and Jaffa neighbourhoods of Deir al-Balah [central Gaza] will be suspended from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm, for the purpose of replenishing provisions," the Israeli military added.

Key context: Israeli bombardment of Gaza since October 7 has extensively damaged telecommunications and electrical infrastructure, leaving many residents with unreliable access to the internet and power.

It is therefore unclear, given the number of people displaced, poor communications and lack of internet coverage, how many people in Gaza are aware of the IDF’s instructions.

Fourteen people were killed Thursday morning in a strike on Al-Mawasi on the coast of Gaza, west of Khan Younis, the Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza has said.

The ministry said that nine children were among those killed by an Israeli air strike on a house in the area.

CNN is unable to confirm details of what happened in the neighborhood and has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment.

Thousands of displaced people have moved to the area over the last few weeks as the conflict in Gaza has moved to central areas and Khan Younis.

Separately, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PCRS) said at least one person was killed and six wounded in an Israeli strike that hit the fifth floor of its headquarters in Khan Younis.

Two days ago, five people were killed in a strike on the same complex, according to the PRCS. The IDF told CNN that it was reviewing the details of that event.

In a statement sent to CNN, the IDF said that “upon receiving a report on the incident, an operational debrief was held in order to draw immediate lessons. The incident was transferred to the General Staff’s Fact Finding and Assessment Mechanism, which is responsible for examining exceptional incidents that took place during the conflict.”

More than 22,300 people have been killed in Gaza since 7 October, according to the ministry, with more than 57,000 people injured.

The Gaza ministry, as well as its counterpart in the occupied West Bank, estimates that about 70% of the casualties have been women and children.

CNN is unable to independently confirm the figures provided by the Gaza ministry, due to restricted access to the region and the difficulty in verifying accurate numbers amidst the ongoing conflict.

Saudi Arabia and a number of European nations on Thursday joined the United States in condemning comments by far-right Israeli officials calling for the resettlement of Gazans outside of Gaza.

In recent days, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich have reiterated remarks that Israel's war with Hamas presents an opportunity to encourage Palestinian migration from the enclave.

In a statement Thursday, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry expressed its “condemnation and categorial rejection of the extremist statements of two ministers in the Israeli occupation government.”

Meanwhile, European Union members including Netherlands and Slovenia echoed earlier condemnation of the Israeli officials' comments by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

US State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said Tuesday the US had been "told repeatedly and consistently" by Israel "that such statements [made by the far-right officials] do not reflect the policy of the Israeli government."

Israeli officials double down: Responding to the US rebuke, Ben Gvir on Tuesday called the United States a "good friend" of Israel but said the "emigration of hundreds of thousands from Gaza" will allow Israeli settlers to return and "live in security."  

Smotrich also responded to the State Department's rebuke, saying Israel could not afford to live in close proximity to "a hotbed of hatred and terrorism where 2 million people wake up every morning with a desire to destroy of the State of Israel."

Post-war Gaza: Last month, US officials discussed post-war Gaza governance plans with the Palestinian Authority along with regional US allies — making it a key focus as they try to look beyond the immediate conflict.

On Tuesday, Miller said the State Department had been "clear, consistent, and unequivocal that Gaza is Palestinian land and will remain Palestinian land, with Hamas no longer in control of its future and with no terror groups able to threaten Israel."

"That is the future we seek, in the interests of Israelis and Palestinians, the surrounding region, and the world," he said.