February 15, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it killed a senior commander and two operatives belonging to Hezbollah's Radwan Forces in an airstrike conducted late Wednesday in Lebanese territory.

The airstrike, carried out on a Hezbollah military structure in Nabatieh, resulted in the deaths of all three individuals, according to the IDF. Ali Muhammad al-Debs, whom they describe as a senior Hezbollah commander, his deputy, Ibrahim Issa and a third unnamed “terror operative” were killed in the airstrike, it said.

“Al-Debs was amongst those who directed the terrorist attack at the Megiddo Junction in Israel in March 2023. He led, planned, and carried out terrorist activity toward the State of Israel, especially during this war,” the IDF said.

Hezbollah said Thursday that a number of its fighters were killed without specifying how, where and when they were killed. One of those killed is Ali Muhammad al-Debs, Hezbollah said. They did not identify him as a "commander."

“With greater pride and honor, the Islamic Resistance mourns the martyr, the Mujahid Ali Muhammad al-Debs, born in 1976 from the town of Balat and resident of the town of Zabdin in southern Lebanon, who rose as a martyr on the road to Al-Quds,” a Hezbollah statement read.

Hezbollah also claimed that it carried out additional strikes on Israeli army positions on Thursday.

Hezbollah has exchanged near-daily fire with the Israeli military along the Lebanon-Israel border since October, which it says is to support its Palestinian ally Hamas amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

An explosion near a ship 85 nautical miles east of Yemen's port city of Aden was reported on Thursday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said in its latest advisory note.

"The Master reports an explosion in close proximity to the vessel. The crew and the vessel are reported safe and the vessel is proceeding to its next port of call," the UKMTO said.

It is unclear what nationality the ship is.

In recent weeks, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have been stepping up their strikes on ships in the Red Sea, which they say are retaliation against Israel for its military campaign in Gaza.

On Monday, Houthi rebels fired on a Greek-owned commercial vessel headed for Iran, according to US Central Command and the US State Department.

Earlier on Thursday, the US said it had struck targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen that "presented an imminent threat," iincluding on missiles prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea.

Israel earlier this week gave feedback on a proposed Gaza ceasefire deal, which would see the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and Qatar is waiting for a response from Hamas, a source familiar with the negotiations tells CNN.

“Qatar are talking to Hamas in Doha and waiting for their response to the Israeli feedback from the Cairo meeting,” the source said, adding that “the major sticking point remains the Israeli withdrawal of troops from Gaza.”

Israel’s negotiating team on Tuesday left Cairo, where indirect talks between Israel and Hamas are being mediated by Qatar and Egypt.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said Hamas must change its negotiating position before talks can continue in Cairo.

A diplomat familiar with the discussions told CNN Wednesday that Israel had told mediators they will continue to engage in talks but have so far rejected a counterproposal made by Hamas that demanded a large release of Palestinian prisoners.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has rejected Israeli military accusations against it and objected to arrests of staff at a hospital in the south Gazan city of Khan Younis earlier this month.

The IDF said that during an operation at al-Amal hospital last week, its forces “detained approximately 20 terrorists, including members of the Hamas terrorist organization who were hiding in the hospital.”

It was, the IDF alleged, “further evidence of Hamas’ cynical exploitation of the Gazan civilian population, with Hamas’ use of hospitals and civilian infrastructure as shields for its terrorist operatives and activities.”

The PRCS said nine of its medical and administrative staff were arrested, along with several patients and their companions.

But, the organization said its employees “do not carry out any work outside the scope of their humanitarian mission.”

“The occupation forces’ methods of defaming medical teams and accusing them of performing actions that fall outside the scope of their humanitarian mission are nothing but a poor attempt to justify their commission of war crimes by killing medical personnel in addition to bombing and destroying hospitals,” the PRCS said in a statement Thursday.

“The PRCS believes that these accusations are only part of a series of excuses fabricated by the occupation forces to justify the siege, bombing, storming of hospitals, and killing of PRCS medical staff and others in the Gaza Strip.”

Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), has called for Israeli forces "immediately" to stop the attack on the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza, after MSF staff reported "an undetermined number of people" were killed and injured.

The hospital "was shelled in the early hours of this morning, despite Israeli Forces having told medical staff and patients they could remain in the facility," the charity said Thursday on social media, adding that thousands of displaced people were ordered to evacuate the hospital on February 13.

"Following shelling this morning, our staff reported a chaotic situation, with an undetermined number of people killed and injured," MSF said, adding that since the attack, one of their colleagues remains unaccounted for.

MSF called on the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to "immediately stop this attack, as it endangers medical staff and patients who are still stuck inside the facility."

"Our medical staff have had to flee the hospital, leaving patients behind. Israeli Forces set up a checkpoint to screen people leaving the compound; one of our colleagues was detained at this checkpoint. We call for his safety and the protection of his dignity," MSF also said.

Earlier on Thursday, Israeli special forces entered Nasser Hospital. The IDF spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, on Thursday said that “Hamas terrorists are likely hiding behind injured civilians inside Nasser hospital right now.” Hamas has denied to CNN that it is operating at the hospital. 

A spokesperson in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Thursday has rejected any discussion, for the moment, about a Palestinian state.

“Now is not the time to be speaking about gifts for the Palestinian people,” Avi Hyman, spokesperson for the National Public Diplomacy Directorate in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, told CNN during a press briefing.

CNN had asked Hyman about reporting by The Washington Post that the Biden Administration and “a small group of Middle East partners” are working to formulate a comprehensive peace plan, which “could be announced as early as the next several weeks.”

“Here is Israel, we’re still in the aftermath of the October 7th massacre,” Hyman said.

“Now is the time for victory – total victory against Hamas. And we will continue on the path to victory. All discussions about the day after Hamas will be had the day after Hamas."

US President Joe Biden has made clear that he hopes that a ceasefire deal, which would see the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, could lead to a more lasting peace “on the basis of the two-state solution.” 

Israeli politicians, including far-right ministers in government, have publicly rejected a purported plan to provide a pathway for a Palestinian state, taking to social media to argue against a two-state solution.

The Washington Post on Wednesday reported that the Biden Administration and “a small group of Middle East partners” are working to formulate a “comprehensive plan” for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, which would include a pathway to a Palestinian state.

CNN cannot confirm The Washington Post’s reporting.

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called it “a reward for the terrible massacre they [Hamas] did to us” on October 7. “The message is that it pays very well to massacre Israeli citizens,” Smotrich – who also holds a position within the Defense Ministry – said on X.

Additionally, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right Israeli Security Minister, expressed his rejection of the plan on X, saying “1,400 are murdered and the world wants to give them a state. Not going to happen!”

But, it is not only far-right ministers rejecting the purported plan.

Gideon Sa'ar, a center-right politician who left Likud and is now part of Benny Gantz’s National Unity party, said that the reported plan would “not only not resolve the conflict but will make it intractable."

“The Palestinians will receive recognition in the state without paying the price of compromise and will continue the conflict from an upgraded position that will harm Israel's right to self-defense,” Saar said on X.

Ze'ev Elkin, who is also a member of National Unity, said it was “not going to happen!” and that creating the state would lead to the "risk of a repeat of the events of 7.10 for the entire country" on X.

The United States conducted four “self-defense strikes” Wednesday on several targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, including on missiles prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea, according to a statement from US Central Command.

The US targeted seven mobile anti-ship cruise missiles, three mobile unmanned aerial vehicles and one explosive unmanned surface vessel that were determined to present “an imminent threat to US Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region,” according to CENTCOM.

The strikes were conducted between 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. local time Wednesday (5 a.m. and 12 p.m.ET), according to the statement.

“These actions will protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for US Navy and merchant vessels,” CENTCOM said in the release.

Over the last month, the US has carried out dozens of strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen and over the Red Sea as the rebel group has repeatedly attacked vessels traveling through the key shipping route in response to Israel’s ongoing offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Rajaa Musleh, the Gaza representative for the non-profit organization MedGlobal, currently based in Rafah, has painted a vivid picture of the situation in the besieged town, saying that health workers who are still alive “may still be breathing, but we are dying inside.” 

The city is the last remaining refuge in Gaza for displaced Palestinians, and panic is soaring as many decide whether to stay or leave ahead of a planned Israeli offensive. Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu directed the country’s military to plan for the “evacuation of the population” from Rafah after saying the IDF would “soon go into Rafah, Hamas’s last bastion."

She said the surviving healthcare workers are struggling “as we work to save ourselves and our patients in urgent and dire need of physical and psychological care.”