December 2, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

Our coverage of the Israel-Hamas war has moved here.

Hisham Awartani, one of three Palestinian students who were shot while walking in Vermont is now paralyzed from the chest down, his mother Elisabeth Price tells CNN. 

She had previously shared that her son may not be able to move his legs for the rest of his life after a bullet became lodged in his spine.

Price told CNN that she established a GoFundMe page to provide financial support for Hisham "as he prepares to move into this next phase of his life – recovery.”

“It's been a gut wrenching and difficult six days, but it's also been a remarkable and awe-inspiring time – first to watch Hisham and his two childhood friends meet this experience with resilience, strength and even deep concern for others (for each other, for their parents many miles away and for thousands of their people suffering under a brutal military bombardment) and, second, to see and feel the incredible support from all over the world, including messages of love and support from many of you,” Price writes. 

A 20-year-old junior at Brown University, Hisham was coming to terms with the “very long road he has in front of him," Price said.

She said her son was scheduled to be released from the hospital next week and he will go on to receive rehabilitation care. 

Price also told CNN that Tahseen Ali Ahmad has been released from the hospital and his mother has now joined him after successfully obtaining an emergency visa to travel from Ramallah in the West Bank to the United States.

Palestinian poet and writer Mosab Abu Toha and his family have been able to leave Gaza after being detained and released last month by the Israel Defense Forces when trying to leave the enclave in the south, a source close to the family told CNN on Saturday.

The source said Abu Toha crossed at Rafah into Egypt.

Abu Toha was taken into custody by the IDF “when he reached the checkpoint while leaving from the north to the south” Gaza on November 20, his brother said on Facebook last month. Abu Toha was released the following day, the IDF announced.

Following his release by the IDF, Abu Toha posted on X, formerly Twitter, that he was safe but alleged he was mistreated.

“I’m safe but still have pain in nose and teeth after being beaten by Israeli army. I gave them all my family’s passports, including my American son’s but they didn’t return anything. Also my clothes & my children’s were taken and not returned to me. No wallet, money, credit card,” he posted. 

CNN has asked the IDF for comment about Abu Toha’s allegations.

Abu Toha had been contributing to The New Yorker and other publications with reflections on his life inside Gaza during the war.

Israel has killed the commander of Hamas’ Shejaiya Battalion, Wessam Farhat, the Israel Defense Forces and Israel Security Agency said in joint news release Saturday. 

Fighter jets from the Israeli air force killed Farhat earlier Saturday by following military and agency intelligence, the release said.

According to the IDF and ISA, Farhat plotted the attack on the kibbutz of Nahal Oz and an IDF post in the community on October 7. Six IDF soldiers were killed in the attack, Israel says.

Farhat began his command over the battalion in 2010 and had previously plotted a 2002 terror attack on Mechinat Atzmona and an attack on a civilian bus in Nahal Oz in 2011, the Israeli officials said.

“Since the beginning of the war, the IDF and ISA have significantly degraded the Shejaiya Battalion’s capabilities, including the elimination of their senior commanders and the striking of terror infrastructure and weapons,” the joint statement read. 

Hamas has not yet publicly commented on the statement from the IDF and ISA. CNN cannot independently verify the claims.

The aid that went into Gaza on Saturday included body bags and blankets as hostilities resumed following a seven-day truce between Israel and Hamas, the Egyptian Red Crescent Society told CNN.

CNN reported earlier that food, medicine and some fuel had gone into Gaza.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, had warned Gaza was running out of body bags earlier in the conflict.

On Saturday, a spokesperson for the Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza said at least 15,207 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 7. At least 193 Palestinians have died since the truce expired on Friday and Israel resumed its offensive in the enclave, the ministry said.

In his visit to Gaza on November 23, Lazzarini also said internally displaced people in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis told him they had no blankets. 

"(T)hey haven't been able to change their clothes; 45 days with the same clothes, no blankets, no mattress," Lazzarini said, citing a father displaced with his wife and five children.

CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed reporting to this post.

The military wing of Hamas, Al-Qassam Brigades, has launched a barrage of rockets toward Tel Aviv, it said in a statement late Saturday local time.

The group claimed the action is in response to what it calls "Zionist massacres against civilians."

The rockets were fired from a location in the northern Gaza Strip, according to Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas' political bureau.

Earlier Saturday evening, Israel's Iron Dome defense system launched at least a dozen intercepts over central Tel Aviv. It was the second round of threats over the city since the truce between Israel and Hamas ended.

Dr. Sufyan Tayeh, the president of the Islamic University of Gaza, was killed Saturday by Israeli bombing in the northern Gaza Strip, according to a statement from the Palestinian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.

The ministry expressed its profound grief over the loss, which it said came in an earlier bombing of Jabalya.

Tayeh is a scholar who holds a professorship in the field of theoretical physics and applied mathematics, according to Al-Najah National University, in the West Bank city of Nablus.

Tayeh was classified among the best 2% of researchers in the world based on a study conducted by the international publishing house Elsevier and Stanford University, Al-Najah said.

“He was also appointed holder of the UNESCO Chair in Physical, Astrophysical, and Space Sciences in Palestine,” the university added.

Saleh Al-Arouri, deputy head of the political bureau of Hamas, conveyed the group's official stance on negotiations and hostage-prisoner exchanges in an interview with Al Jazeera TV on Saturday. He said “there are no negotiations now” and there will be no more prisoner exchanges until there is a ceasefire in Gaza and “until the Zionist terrorist aggression is completely ended.”

The remaining hostages still being held captive by Hamas are soldiers and former soldiers, according to Al-Arouri, who added that “there will be no negotiations regarding them until the end of the aggression.” 

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Saturday that Hamas refuses to release 17 women and children.

Al-Arouri said adult male hostages — “all of whom served in the army, with some still on the reserve list” — are now subjected to different standards by Hamas. The Israeli prime minister’s office said Saturday that 117 men remain captive.

“We said from day one that the price for releasing Zionist prisoners is the liberation of all our prisoners, after the ceasefire,” Al-Arouri added.

More context: The negotiations between Israel and Hamas over hostages held captive in Gaza broke down Saturday after Israel continued to insist on the release of a group of women and Hamas refused, a source familiar with the talks told CNN.

As CNN previously reported, US and Israeli officials believe Hamas is refusing to release a number of women in their 20s and 30s taken at the Nova music festival — claiming those women are considered soldiers, which Israel denies. 

Israel will continue ground operations in Gaza until all of its goals are achieved, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated in a press conference Saturday.

"We will continue the war until we achieve all our goals, and we can’t achieve these goals without the ground maneuvering," Netanyahu said. "There are no other ways to achieve these goals but to win, and there is no way to win other than ground maneuvering." 

Netanyahu said Israel's goals are freeing hostages, eradicating Hamas and preventing a "regime of terror" in Gaza.

"We must achieve these goals; this is the only thing that is important to me," he said.

Netanyahu also spoke of the freed hostages, but declined to provide details on the conditions in which they were kept in Gaza. 

"As evidence has been gathered, you realize they experienced hell," he said.

Pressure from abroad: Earlier Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron said Israeli authorities need "to more precisely define their goal and the final outcome they're trying to achieve."

"What does the total destruction of Hamas mean? Does anyone think it is possible?" Macron said, adding that he thinks the eradication of Hamas would take 10 years of fighting.

The US has also pressured Israel to be more targeted in its renewed offensive in the enclave.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin emphasized in remarks Saturday that the protection of civilians in Gaza is crucial to Israel’s long-term success against Hamas. Speaking at a defense forum in California, Austin warned Israel to avoid driving civilians "into the arms of the enemy" and to "shun irresponsible rhetoric" while expanding access to humanitarian aid in Gaza.

“It would compound this tragedy if all that awaited Israelis and Palestinians at the end of this awful war was more insecurity, more rage and more despair,” Austin said.

Message for Hezbollah: Netanyahu also reiterated his warning against Hezbollah becoming more involved in the conflict.  

"In the north, we are operating all the time against Hezbollah, eliminating terror squads bringing terrorists further from the border," Netanyahu said. 

"We are on the offensive and, let me declare, we are committed to bring security both to the north and the south; if Hezbollah makes such mistake and enters the expanded war, it will demolish Lebanon single-handedly," the prime minister continued. 

CNN's Haley Britzky contributed reporting to this post.