The latest on Israel's war in Gaza

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog Thursday outlined a broad vision for the region after the Gaza war, including rebuilding the enclave, a dialogue between Israel and Palestinians, and normalizing relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

He also said he believed normalization with Saudi Arabia was key to exiting the war into a new geopolitical environment.

“It’s delicate, it’s fragile, it will take a long time, but I think it will provide the opportunity to move forward in the region towards a better future,” Herzog said.

“It is a game-changer.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Thursday that an interceptor missile that was fired toward the Red Sea was launched due to “false identification.”

It had earlier said in a statement on Thursday that it detected a “suspicious aerial target” approaching its territory over the Red Sea, and launched an interceptor at the object.

“A short while ago, following the sirens that sounded in the city of Eilat, southern Israel, an interceptor was launched in the area of the Red Sea toward a suspicious aerial target that was approaching Israeli territory,” the statement released Thursday morning read.

The IDF later clarified that it was found to be a "false identification,” it said, and that the sirens in Eilat went off because the interceptor was launched.

Iron Dome missiles self-destruct when there is no target to intercept.

An Israeli family will hold a public event on Thursday marking the first birthday of Kfir Bibas, the youngest hostage taken from Israel on October 7.

The Hostage and Missing Families Forum said that the Bibas family “will make an impassioned plea for Kfir’s release, as well as the release of his parents Yarden and Shiri and his young brother Ariel.” The event will be held at what has come to be known as Hostages Plaza, in Tel Aviv, at 3:30 p.m. local (8:30 a.m. ET).

It is, however, unclear whether Kfir Bibas is still alive. 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in November that it was assessing a claim by Hamas’ military arm, the Qassam Brigades, that the infant was killed in an Israeli airstrike. The Qassam Brigades did not provide evidence for its claim.

When asked on Thursday whether the IDF had come to any conclusion in that investigation, it said it had no comment.

 Kfir was taken, alongside his brother and parents from kibbutz Nir Oz in October.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pushed for the creation of a Palestinian state while speaking about the situation in Gaza during his annual press conference on Thursday. 

Lavrov said he “hopes the Israeli state will come to this conclusion eventually” but also said that he understood that was “unacceptable for Israel at the moment.”

“We can’t do anything apart from explain it to them,” Lavrov argued. 

Lavrov then urged that mediation efforts by the US would not work unless there is “direct dialogue between the Palestinians and Israelis.”

“Assume that, so to speak, 'grown men' will somewhere agree on how the Palestinians will continue to live, and then will present it to them. It won't be a success. Only direct dialogue that needs to be restored,” Lavrov outlined.

The US military carried out another round of strikes against the Houthis in Yemen, US officials said, marking the fourth time the US has struck the Iran-backed rebel group in less than a week.

Hours earlier, the Houthis struck a US-owned and operated vessel for the second time this week. 

The latest US strikes come amid heightened tensions in the Middle East. Iran's top diplomat has warned that attacks by Tehran-backed groups in the region won't stop until Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza ends, while Israel's military chief said the likelihood of war along the border with Lebanon is now "much higher" than in recent times.

Meanwhile, Iran is embroiled in an escalating spat with its southeastern neighbor Pakistan, which targeted locations inside Iran a day after deadly Iranian strikes on separatists in Pakistani territory. Read more about that conflict here.

Here's what else you should know:

Medicine for Israeli hostages and Palestinians has entered Gaza, Qatar said Wednesday, after the Gulf nation brokered a deal between Israel and Hamas to provide vital medication to the war-torn enclave.

The agreement mediated by Qatar Tuesday will see medication delivered to Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza in exchange for medicine and humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians.

“Over the past few hours, medicine & aid entered the Gaza Strip, in implementation of the agreement announced yesterday for the benefit of civilians in the Strip, including hostages,” Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Dr. Majed Al-Ansari wrote on X.

“Qatar, along with its regional and international partners, continues mediation efforts at the political and humanitarian levels.”

The medication left Doha on Wednesday and headed to Egypt before being transported to Gaza, the ministry previously said.

Osama Hamdan, a Lebanon-based Hamas official, said the agreement was dependent on there being enough medication for Palestinians in Gaza in addition to the Israeli hostages.

Hamas has stipulated that for every box of medication given to the hostages, Palestinians in Gaza must receive 1,000 boxes.

Read more about the deal.

It has been more than 50 days since Hamas militants released Sharon Aloni Cunio and her twin 3-year-old daughters, but she remains haunted by her time as a hostage — most of which she says was spent in a Gaza hospital — and longs for her husband who remains captive in the Palestinian enclave.

“I’m both mother and a father right now,” she told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Wednesday. Though when her children are out of sight, she watches videos and listens to voicemails of her husband, David Cunio, “to feel connected to him — but I’m pretty much depressed.”

Aloni Cunio’s family were among the more than 250 people kidnapped on October 7 and taken to Gaza during the Hamas attacks on Israel that killed more than 1,200 people.

She told Cooper that while her family had become separated in the chaos of the attacks, the four of them had been reunited in captivity when militants hid them alongside dozens of other hostages being held at Nasser hospital in southern Gaza.

In an account that potentially backs up US and Israeli assessments that hospitals were used to shelter hostages, Aloni Cunio said there were three rooms at Nasser hospital each holding between 10 and 12 captives and that they were tended to by a male nurse every other day.

Read her account.

The United States carried out another round of strikes against the Houthis in Yemen, according to two US officials, marking the fourth time the US has struck the Iran-backed rebel group in less than a week.

The US used Tomahawk missiles to target approximately 14 Houthi missile launchers used to attack international shipping lanes, one of the officials said. The Tomahawk missiles were launched from US Navy surface vessels and the USS Florida, a guided missile submarine, another official said.

The US strikes are the latest in a series of actions against the Houthis, following significant US-led strikes last week with the UK, and support from a handful of other allies. 

They come amid heightened tensions in the Middle East and fears that the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza could further spill out into the region.

Hours earlier, the Houthis struck a US-owned and operated vessel for the second time this week. 

The Iran-backed rebel group used a one-way attack drone to target the M/V Genco Picardy in the Gulf of Aden, according to US Central Command. No one was injured on board the commercial vessel, Central Command said in a statement. The ship suffered some damage but was able to continue on its way.

Read more about the latest US strikes.

Israel does "not have the ability to guarantee" medicine will reach hostages in Gaza, a military spokesperson said Wednesday, after Qatar brokered a deal between Israel and Hamas to deliver medication to the captives and to Palestinians. 

Asked how the medicine would reach the hostages, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Israel would work with Qatar to ensure it gets to those held captive.

The agreement says that for every box of medication given to Israeli hostages, 1,000 boxes of medication must be provided for Palestinians in Gaza.