March 13, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

Our live coverage of Israel's war in Gaza has moved here.

US forces destroyed four drones and one surface-to-air missile in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on Wednesday, according to US Central Command, the latest in a series of repeated attempts fend off attacks launched by the Iran-backed militant group against commercial vessels in the Red Sea.

The strike on the Houthi weapons came after the group fired an anti-ship ballistic missile from Yemen into the Gulf of Aden, CENTCOM said. The missile did not hit any ships and there were no injuries reported.

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has wiped out entire neighborhoods, crushed the medical system and razed hundreds of mosques – turning religious sanctuaries into relics of war. At least 1,000 of 1,200 mosques, including ancient sites, have been partially or completely destroyed as of February, the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs in Gaza told CNN.

Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7 have killed more than 100 preachers, including religious scholars, imams, muezzins (those who perform the call to prayer) and hafiz (Muslims who have memorized the Quran), according to the ministry.

Residents told CNN they cannot find enough space to attend nightly taraweeh prayers because places of worship have been destroyed. Taraweeh prayers are performed every night of Ramadan in a congregation. Limited access to water means others cannot make the obligatory ablution before prayer. Many are unable to share communal meals with relatives because forced displacement has separated families across the enclave.

Mohammed Hamouda, a displaced health worker in Rafah, told CNN he is struggling to explain to his young children why they will not be able to feast on traditional Palestinian dishes or receive gifts this Ramadan.

“Ramadan usually has a lot of dinner invitations for our extended families. Nowadays, everybody from the family is in a different place,” Aseel Mousa, 26, a journalist displaced in Rafah, told CNN. “When was the last time I heard the call to prayer without the sound of Israeli drones? I don’t remember.”

Read more about how Ramadan is anything but normal for Gazans this year.

Palestinians told CNN the war in Gaza has crushed hopes of observing a peaceful month of fasting, festivities and worship during Ramadan this year. Some are grappling with the reality that they will not find enough sustenance to break their fast as Israel’s siege diminishes critical supplies, inflicting deadly hunger on Palestinians.

These days, Jihad Abu Watfa, 27, finds himself riding his bicycle along the dusty streets of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza. He watches as hungry children scavenge for food – but he cannot help them.

Children often search for food in the garbage, he said. “There are many people who (already) fast like it’s Ramadan,” he told CNN in late February, as the holy month approached.

Levels of critical hunger are compounded in the north of the enclave, where Israel concentrated its military offensive in the early days of the war. Palestinians told CNN they resort to eating water-based soup mixed with herbs, custard or finger-sized biscuits because they have no access to nutrient-rich foods.

Read more about how Palestinians are struggling during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Senior White House officials are planning to meet with Arab, Muslim and Palestinian-American community leaders in Chicago on Thursday, multiple sources familiar with the meeting tell CNN, as President Joe Biden continues to grapple with anger and concern across the country about the Israel-Hamas war. 

Thursday’s meeting is part of the Biden White House's ongoing efforts to hear concerns about the Gaza situation directly from these communities, though that is hardly expected to be the only issue discussed. Officials are also expected to more broadly discuss concerns about Islamophobia in the US in the aftermath of October 7. 

Along with Vice President Kamala Harris, Biden and other top US officials have escalated calls for a ceasefire and for more humanitarian aid in recent weeks, urging Israel to do more to protect civilians. 

But negotiations remain stalled, even as the humanitarian toll of Israel’s war in Gaza rises. Biden is confronting mounting discontent within his own party over his handling of the conflict, including young and progressive voters and voters in battleground states like Michigan that will be critical to his 2024 coalition.

The White House declined to comment.

Read more.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed to continue the fight against Israel, claiming the Israeli military has been secretive about its losses in the north.

“[Our southern front] continues to carry out its task of pressuring the enemy at the human, material, military and economic levels,” Nasrallah said in a televised statement Wednesday night local time.

The fighting has continued since October 7 on Lebanon’s southern border with Israel between the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group and the Israeli military. As a result, Israel has ordered the evacuation of communities along the Lebanese border.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military said it has killed numerous Hezbollah militants and commanders since October 7. On Monday, it said it struck two Hezbollah compounds in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, the farthest north Israel has struck in Lebanon since the latest Israel-Hamas conflict began. 

In his speech, Nasrallah claimed the Israeli prime minister has “lost the war” in Gaza, and that an Israeli invasion of Rafah would not change that.

“After five months of fighting, [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] was unable of presenting any spectacle of victory,” he said, adding that Hamas has not been defeated and is still able to impose its conditions on the negotiations.

The Hezbollah leader also decried the US stance on the Israel-Gaza conflict, labeling it as “hypocritical.”

“I don’t think anyone on earth believes that [US President Joe] Biden cannot stop the war on Gaza,” he said, adding that Biden can stop the fighting by ceasing military aid to Israel and not obstructing United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for ceasefire.

CNN's Mitchell McCluskey, Charbel Mallo and Donald Judd contributed reporting.

An Israeli strike killed five Palestinians and injured 22 others after it hit a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) building in Rafah, the agency's director said in a statement Wednesday.

At least one UNRWA staff member was among those killed, a UNRWA statement said.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini called for an investigation into attacks against UN facilities, emphasizing "the need for accountability" following the strike.

Here are other headlines you should know:

• Humanitarian crisis: Israel’s severe restrictions of aid entering Gaza have condemned Palestinians to deadly hunger, leaving at least 27 Palestinians in Gaza dead due to malnutrition and dehydration, the health ministry in Gaza said on Tuesday. Also, more children were killed during four months of war in Gaza than in four years of conflict worldwide, according to UNRWA. The situation on the enclave is so dire now that the “very survival” of the population in Gaza is at stake, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said as he met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the State Department. 
• Deaths in occupied Jerusalem and West Bank: A total of six Palestinians were killed in separate incidents, hours apart, around occupied east Jerusalem and the West Bank on Wednesday, health officials said. The number included a 12-year-old Palestinian boy who was fatally shot by an Israeli border police officer in Shuafat refugee camp, as well as a 15-year-old Palestinian boy accused of a stabbing attack were among those killed.

• Humanitarian aid: The UK said it is "doing everything we can" to get more aid into Gaza, including pressing Israel to lift restrictions and open more border crossings. Meanwhile, Germany’s Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius has approved the country’s air force carrying out humanitarian airdrops over the Gaza Strip. Elsewhere, the US military conducted the ninth airdrop of humanitarian aid into northern Gaza on Wednesday. But the UN and aid agencies have questioned how effective airdrops will be at alleviating the unfolding humanitarian crisis there.
• International talks: US officials held indirect talks with Iranian officials in Oman in January amid rising tensions in the Middle East, according to a US official familiar with the matter. The talks covered a range of issues, including Iran’s nuclear program and Houthi attacks on US ships in the Red Sea. Blinken spoke on Tuesday with the parents of Itay Chen — an Israeli-American hostage killed on October 7. Also, Qatar Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari said Wednesday he hopes a truce agreement will be reached between Israel and Hamas before the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan on April 9. Additionally, the European Council President Charles Michel has called for a humanitarian pause to the fighting in Gaza and the release of hostages in a call with the Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
• High-profile killing: An Israeli airstrike killed Hamas operative Hadi Ali Mustafa in southern Lebanon, according to a statement published by the Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday.

The United Kingdom said it is "doing everything we can" to get more aid into Gaza, including pressing Israel to lift restrictions and open more border crossings. 

The UK is providing planning support to the Jordanian Armed Forces for their humanitarian aid efforts and has provided around 500 parachutes to enable more airdrops. The UK is also working with Qatar to get more aid into Gaza. 

The UK has halted its own airdrops in Gaza but may review that decision as the situation on the ground changes, according to CNN reporting.

So far, the UK's Royal Air Force has delivered 74 tonnes of aid for people in Gaza through Egypt, including tents, blankets and wound care packs. In January, the country also delivered 87 tonnes of British and Cypriot aid.

The US military conducted the ninth airdrop of humanitarian aid into northern Gaza on Wednesday.

The forces airdropped “over 35,712 US meal equivalents and 28,800 bottles of water into Northern Gaza, an area of great need, allowing for civilian access to the critical aid,” CENTCOM said in a release. 

What the United Nations has said about airdrops: Aid delivered as airdrops will never match the volume necessary to meet the requirements of northern Gaza, according to the UN World Food Programme.

"Road access and the use of existing ports and crossings is the only way to get aid into Gaza at the scale that is now required,” said WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain, adding that 300 trucks of food are needed to enter every single day.