January 21, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

“Not a single shekel will go to Gaza. Period,” far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich wrote after Israel's security cabinet approved a measure that gives him the power to freeze funds intended for the Palestinian Authority, if the PA transfers those funds to Gaza.

Under existing agreements, Israel collects tax revenue on behalf of the Palestinian Authority on Palestinian imports and exports. Since Hamas launched its attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, the Israeli government has refused to disburse the full amount of taxes collected, which are primarily used by the Palestinian Authority to pay public employees and retirees.

The funds collected by Israel will now be transferred to Norway as a third party, then be sent to Ramallah — excluding the sum earmarked for Gaza — which would remain frozen in Norwegian hands, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Sunday. The United States and Norway will help oversee and facilitate the agreement.

“Any violation of the agreement allows the Minister of Finance to immediately freeze all of the Palestinians' repayment funds,” the prime minister’s office said.

Hussein al-Sheikh, a top official with the Palestine Liberation Organization, immediately rejected the Israeli plan, calling it "piracy" and urging the international community to stop it.

Remember: Smotrich has come under fire for recent comments advocating for the voluntary migration of Palestinians from Gaza, and the reestablishment of Israeli settlements there.

Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) is reporting that one person was killed and five others were injured in what it says was an Israeli drone strike that hit a vehicle near a Lebanese military checkpoint in Kafra, southern Lebanon, on Sunday afternoon.

The incident happened roughly 8 km (4.9 miles) away from the Lebanese-Israeli border, the agency reported.

It destroyed one vehicle, while a nearby vehicle also caught fire, NNA added.

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment. The IDF said they would release a statement later on Sunday.

The European Union has sanctioned Abdelbasit Hamza, a Sudanese financier with strong ties to Hamas who was at the center of an investigation carried out by CNN with Israeli investigative platform Shomrim and the International Consortium for Investigative Journalism (ICIJ) into the militant group’s funding.

The investigation exposed the wide range of business interests Hamza had managed to maintain in Europe, despite being placed under US sanctions in the wake of the October 7 attacks.

Hamza, who has previously denied any involvement in Hamas funding, is believed to have a network of global assets previously estimated by Sudanese anti-corruption officials to be over $2 billion.

“For the first time, the EU will also be able to target persons or entities providing support to those facilitating or enabling violent action by Hamas and the PIJ (Palestinian Islamic Jihad); in other words, the sponsors of those who sponsor the two terrorist organizations,” the bloc said.

Hamza was one of six individuals, including senior Hamas financier Rida Ali Khamis and senior Hamas operative Musa Dudin, sanctioned on Friday. All six will be subjected to an asset freeze and a travel ban to the EU, according to the EU release.

UK Secretary of State for Defense Grant Shapps has called comments from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejecting the prospect of a Palestinian state "disappointing," reiterating the UK's commitment toward a two-state solution. 

Netanyahu sparked controversy during a news conference in Tel Aviv on Thursday when he appeared to reject the idea of creating a Palestinian state in adherence with a two-state solution. 

“In any future arrangement… Israel needs security control of all territory west of Jordan. This clashes with the idea of (Palestinian) sovereignty. What can you do?” he said.

On Saturday, Netanyahu's office said the prime minister "reiterated his policy" on this during a private phone call with US President Joe Biden.

Speaking to British broadcaster Sky News on Sunday, Shapps said it was "disappointing to hear that from the Israeli Prime Minister." 

Shapps said a Palestinian state "needs to be sovereign on the Palestinian side" and to also "provide security guarantees on the Israeli side." 

On Saturday, UK shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy said "Biden is right" in calling for a two-state solution, and described Netanyahu's comments as "unacceptable," adding: “Of course, the Palestinian people deserve a state."

The father of a Palestinian American teenager shot dead in the occupied West Bank has blamed the United States for his son’s death, citing long-standing US military support.

Hafiz Abdel Jabbar said his son Tawfic Abdel Jabbar – who was born and raised in Gretna, Louisiana, near New Orleans, but had been living with his father in the West Bank since May 2023 – was driving to have a picnic on their family farm with his friends, about 10 miles north of Ramallah, near the town of Al-Mazra'a ash-Sharqiya, on Friday.

A Palestinian state media report earlier said the teen was transported in critical condition to the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah, where he later died.

Police said the shooting would be investigated.   

More than 360 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops and settlers in the West Bank since October 7, the Palestinian Ministry of Health says.

More than 25,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7, the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health said Sunday.

The latest Palestinian toll includes 178 people killed and 293 injured in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 25,105 killed and 62,681 injured across the strip during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

CNN cannot independently verify these numbers due to the challenges of reporting from the war zone.

According to an operational update, IDF snipers in cooperation with the Israeli Air Force (IAF) “eliminated a number of terrorists” in Khan Younis in the south of Gaza while troops also “eliminated 15 terrorists” in Daraj Tuffah in the northern part of the territory.

In an update Sunday morning, the IDF said one additional soldier had been killed in combat, bringing Israel's military death toll to 195 since Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza began.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday his desire for security control over all territory west of Jordan is contrary to the existence of a Palestinian state.

He did not provide any other details in his one-line post, which came a day after he had a phone call with US President Joe Biden which included discussions on the matter. 

Netanyahu’s post echoes a statement he made on Thursday where he said Israel "must control security of all the land which is west of the Jordan River." 

In a separate post, Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir also reasserted his rejection of a Palestinian state. “I do deny a Palestinian state. Always!” Ben Gvir said on X.

Some background: It remains unclear what post-war Gaza will look like, but Netanyahu is under competing pressures from the international community to allow a viable Palestinian state and domestically to guarantee Israel's security in the wake of the October 7 attacks.

Following their call, Biden told reporters he believed Netanyahu could ultimately be convinced of a two-state solution. 

“There are a number of types of two-state solutions,” he said.

“There’s a number of countries that are members of the UN that are still – don’t have their own military; a number of states that have limitations, and so I think there’s ways in which this can work,” Biden added.

Early on Christmas Day in the central Gazan city of Deir al-Balah, Motaz Azaiza shared a terrifying update on X.

A quadcopter was flying low above the door of his house, he said, and he feared he was about to be targeted in an Israeli airstrike. As a highly visible Palestinian online who had received threats before, Azaiza believed he had reason to be afraid.

Hundreds of people flooded the replies with concern for the 24-year-old Palestinian photojournalist, who has been documenting Israel’s military assault on Gaza on social media since Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7.

Noor, a medical student in California who asked to go by her first name for safety reasons, was one of the people worrying. For months, she’s been following Azaiza’s dispatches from Gaza, broadcast to his millions of followers: images of his once vibrant neighborhood transformed into a gray wasteland, raw glimpses of carnage in the ashes, and reflections on his own feelings of rage and exhaustion.

Noor refers to Azaiza with the familiarity of his first name. She gets notifications on her phone each time he posts, and worries when too much time passes.

Read more.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called opposition to a two-state solution “unacceptable” on Sunday.

Guterres added that “the right of the Palestinian people to build their own state must be recognized by all.”

On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his desire for security control over all territory west of Jordan is contrary to the existence of a Palestinian state.

In a separate post, Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir also reasserted his rejection of a Palestinian state. 

“I do deny a Palestinian state. Always!” Ben Gvir said on X.