Israel proposes safe passage out of Gaza for Hamas leaders during truce talks. Catch up here
From CNN staff
Israel has proposed allowing Hamas senior leaders to leave Gaza as part of a broader ceasefire deal, two officials familiar with the talks told CNN.
Though it would give safe passage out of Gaza for top Hamas leaders who orchestrated the October 7 attack, draining Gaza of its leaders could weaken Hamas' grip on the war-torn strip while also allowing Israel to continue tracking down high-value targets abroad.
Separately, Axios reported that Israel has offered a two-month truce as part of a prospective hostage deal.
The reports come after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Hamas’ call for an end to the war in exchange for the release of hostages held in Gaza, as he faces increasing public pressure to bring the captives home.
Here's what else you need to know:
Yemen strikes: The US and the UK carried out more strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen on Monday, marking the eighth round of attacks on the rebels' infrastructure in just over 10 days. Houthi leader Mohamed Ali al-Houthi said the assault would only make the Yemeni people stronger.
On the ground: Medical facilities in Khan Younis in southern Gaza have been battered amid an Israeli assault in the area, Palestinian health officials said. The Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas outposts, infrastructure, and command and control centers in Khan Younis and the action demanded "precise operations" due to the densely populated civilian areas.
Humanitarian crisis:Israel is destroying Gaza's food system, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food said. "It's unprecedented to make an entire civilian population go hungry this completely & quickly," Michael Fakhri said in a post on X. "Israel is intentionally imposing a high rate of disease, prolonged malnutrition, dehydration + starvation by destroying civilian infrastructure." People in some areas of Gaza have described sewage flowing through the streets. It comes as the death toll surpassed 25,000 people, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry.
Border security: Egypt rejected Israeli accusations that it has not maintained the security of its border with Gaza, leading to arms smuggling into the enclave. The head of Egypt's State Information Service blamed "extremist Israeli leaders who seek to drag the region into a state of conflict and instability."
Two-state solution: Netanyahu’s opposition to a two-state solution has sparked criticism from officials in Brussels and Washington, as divisions deepen between Israel and its allies and within its own government. After talking with Israel's leader on Friday, US President Joe Biden referenced the possibility of a demilitarized Palestinian state. The White House said Monday that Biden is maintaining an "open mind" about what a two-state solution could look like.
Israel polling: Netanyahu’s political prospects look dim, with a new poll suggesting that his party would come in a very distant second if elections were held today, and the coalition he leads now would not win enough seats to stay in power.
22 min ago
Israeli strikes shake the ground at besieged Gaza hospital, aid group says
From CNN’s Mitchell McCluskey
The ground shook at southern Gaza's Nasser Hospital as Israeli forces launched strikes on Khan Younis Monday, according to Médecins Sans Frontières staff on the ground.
In a social media post, the charity — also known as Doctors Without Borders — said the strikes caused “panic among staff, patients and displaced people sheltering inside the building,” adding that exit routes were blocked, preventing the evacuation of medical staff and patients.
Israel's military has intensified attacks on Khan Younis in recent days as it targets what its says is Hamas infrastructure, with the operation expected to last for several days.
“MSF staff fear the fighting, shelling and bombing will get worse and closer to Nasser hospital,” the group's statement said.
Earlier Monday, the Hamas-controlled health ministry said Nasser Hospital is receiving more patients with serious injuries than it can accommodate and intensive care units have reached capacity.
55 min ago
"Israel is destroying Gaza’s food system," UN official says
From CNN's Ruba Alhenawi
Palestinian children wait to receive food in Rafah, Gaza, on January 17. Mohammed Salem/Reuters
UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Michael Fakhri, said Israel is destroying Gaza's food system, in a post on X on Monday.
"It's unprecedented to make an entire civilian population go hungry this completely & quickly. Israel is destroying Gaza’s food system. Israel is intentionally imposing a high rate of disease, prolonged malnutrition, dehydration + starvation by destroying civilian infrastructure," Fakhri said.
Israel’s siege in Gaza has devastated swathes of the territory, diminished food, fuel and water supplies, and crushed the enclave's medical system.
More than 1.9 million Palestinians have been forcibly displaced, many multiple times, according to the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees.
2 hr 34 min ago
Gaza faces 10th near-total internet blackout since October 7, telecoms provider says
From CNN's Ruba Alhenawi
Gaza is facing its 10th near-total internet blackout, according to Paltel, the enclave's main telecommunications provider.
"We regret to announce that telecom services in Gaza Strip have been lost. Gaza is blacked out again for the 10th time since October 7th due to the ongoing and escalating aggression," Paltel said in a post on X.
Internet monitoring site Netblocks confirmed the outage in a post on X.
"Live metrics show that the #Gaza Strip is again in the midst of a near-total telecoms blackout; the incident is likely to severely limit most residents' ability to communicate, in the tenth such incident since the start of the war," Netblocks said.
Cell phone connection across Gaza was also “difficult to access,” an employee at Palestinian telecom company Jawwal told CNN on Monday.
3 hr 42 min ago
Israel has proposed letting senior Hamas leaders leave Gaza as part of possible ceasefire deal
Exclusive from CNN's Alex Marquardt
Israel has proposed that Hamas senior leaders could leave Gaza as part of a broader ceasefire agreement, two officials familiar with the ongoing international discussions told CNN.
The extraordinary proposal, which has not been previously reported, comes as Israel has struggled to achieve its stated goal of completely destroying Hamas. Despite its nearly 4-month war in Gaza, Israel has failed to capture or kill any of Hamas’s most senior leaders in Gaza and left around 70% of Hamas’ fighting force intact, according to Israel’s own estimates.
Though it would give safe passage out of Gaza for top Hamas leaders who orchestrated the October 7 attack, draining Gaza of its leaders could weaken Hamas’ grip on the war-torn area while also allowing Israel to continue tracking down high-value targets abroad.
Senior Hamas officials are known to live in Doha, Qatar, and the Lebanese capital Beirut, among other places outside the Palestinian territories. An Israeli airstrike earlier this month killed a top Hamas commander in Beirut.
Israel’s suggestion that Hamas leaders could leave Gaza, though unlikely to be accepted by Hamas, has been discussed as part of broader ceasefire negotiations at least twice in recent weeks — once last month in Warsaw by Israel’s intelligence chief, Mossad Director David Barnea, and then again this month in Doha with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, according to one official familiar with the discussions.
US and UK launch new strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen
From CNN's Natasha Bertrand and Oren Liebermann
US and British troops conducted strikes on eight targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on January 22. US Central Command
The United States and the United Kingdom carried out additional strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen on Monday, marking the eighth round of attacks by the US military on the rebels’ infrastructure in just over 10 days, according to a joint statement.
They struck eight sites, according to the statement from the US and UK, which conducted the strikes, and Canada, the Netherlands, Bahrain, and Australia, which supported the attacks.
It was a smaller number than the first joint operation on January 11 that struck over 30 Houthi targets. Monday’s strikes targeted a Houthi underground storage site and sites associates with Houthi missile and air surveillance, the statement added.
The US deployed fighter aircraft from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier as part of the strikes, a US defense official told CNN.
President Joe Biden spoke to his British counterpart UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday, the White House said earlier in the day, about a range of topics including security in the Red Sea.
“Our aim remains to de-escalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea , but let us reiterate our warning to Houthi leadership: we will not hesitate to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways in the face of continued threats,” the countries said in their statement.
1 hr 31 min ago
Israel offered 2-month ceasefire to Hamas as part of hostage deal, Axios reports
From CNN staff
An Israeli tank moves along the border with Gaza on Sunday. Amir Levy/Getty Images
Israel has offered a two-month ceasefire to Hamas as part of a prospective hostage deal, Axios reported Monday, citing two unnamed Israeli officials.
It would be “the longest period of ceasefire that Israel has offered Hamas since the start of the war,” wrote Axios reporter Barak Ravid, who is also a CNN analyst.
The Israeli proposal calls for the release of all remaining hostages and hostage bodies in multiple phases, in exchange for Palestinian detainees imprisoned in Israel, according to the Axios report.
It would also see Israel move its forces out of main population centers and allow “a gradual return of Palestinian civilians to Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip.”
The proposal comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Hamas’ call for an end to the war in exchange for the release of hostages held in Gaza, as he faces increasing public pressure to bring the captives home.
Khan Younis medical facilities battered in Israeli assault, Palestinian officials say
From CNN's Celine Alkhaldi and Ibrahim Dahman
Medical facilities in Khan Younis in southern Gaza have been battered amid an Israeli assault in the area Monday, Palestinian health officials said, as the number of people killed in Israel’s siege on Gaza continues to rise.
Dozens of people have been killed and wounded in the latest offensive in western Khan Younis, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza. Medical facilities including the Nasser Medical Complex, Al Amal Hospital and the Palestine Red Crescent Society headquarters are located in the area.
“The situation here is completely catastrophic. We didn’t sleep last night. The hospital is entirely besieged,” Ahmad Al Moghrabi, a doctor at the Nasser Medical Complex said in a video shared to his Instagram page Monday. “There is no way for us to escape the hospital and no way for evacuation. The troops are all around, and the only roads for evacuation are filled with dead bodies.”
The Nasser Medical Complex is receiving more serious injuries than it can accommodate, the health ministry said, adding that intensive care units are at capacity.
Health officials also said Israeli forces on Monday stormed the Al Khair Hospital, west of Khan Younis, and detained a number of its medical staff, amid an ongoing “siege” of the area.
The Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas outposts, infrastructure, and command and control centers in Khan Younis and the action demanded "precise operations" due to the densely populated civilian areas.
Air pollution, waste and sewage exacerbate dire civilian shelter conditions in southern Gaza
From CNN's Sana Noor Haq and Ibrahim Dahman
A tent camp housing displaced Palestinians is seen in Rafah, Gaza on Monday. Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters
Mounds of solid waste and sewage openly flowing in the streets are exacerbating health hazards in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, with air pollution adding to the toxic environment, according to aid workers and civilians in the area.
“Everywhere in Rafah, if you walk, you will see a lot of solid waste and a lot of water sewage building up on the street,” said Salwa Tibi, 53, who works at the humanitarian agency CARE International. “You will find a lot of diseases in the shelters.”
Despite the hazards, children in desperate search of food can be seen picking scraps from rubbish piles, Tibi said.
Israel’s siege of the Palestinian enclave has collapsed waste collection and disposal services, according to the United Nations relief agency UNRWA, and the scarcity of clean drinking water and toilets has created an “explosively dangerous” environment for the spread of disease, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on Thursday.
Gazans also describe air pollution caused by smoke from people burning wood instead of fuel, supplies of which have been largely cut off from the territory.
“My father is sick because of air pollution, smoke and gas,” a displaced civilian in Rafah, who wished to remain anonymous, told CNN. “Influenza diseases are widespread due to the weather and the lack of facilities in the tents and rooms of the displaced."
Israel has proposed allowing Hamas senior leaders to leave Gaza as part of a broader ceasefire deal, two officials familiar with the talks told CNN. Separately, Axios reported that Israel offered a two-month truce as part of a prospective hostage deal.
Israel has proposed allowing Hamas senior leaders to leave Gaza as part of a broader ceasefire deal, two officials familiar with the talks told CNN.
Though it would give safe passage out of Gaza for top Hamas leaders who orchestrated the October 7 attack, draining Gaza of its leaders could weaken Hamas' grip on the war-torn strip while also allowing Israel to continue tracking down high-value targets abroad.
Separately, Axios reported that Israel has offered a two-month truce as part of a prospective hostage deal.
The reports come after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Hamas’ call for an end to the war in exchange for the release of hostages held in Gaza, as he faces increasing public pressure to bring the captives home.
Here's what else you need to know:
Yemen strikes: The US and the UK carried out more strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen on Monday, marking the eighth round of attacks on the rebels' infrastructure in just over 10 days. Houthi leader Mohamed Ali al-Houthi said the assault would only make the Yemeni people stronger.
On the ground: Medical facilities in Khan Younis in southern Gaza have been battered amid an Israeli assault in the area, Palestinian health officials said. The Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas outposts, infrastructure, and command and control centers in Khan Younis and the action demanded "precise operations" due to the densely populated civilian areas.
Humanitarian crisis:Israel is destroying Gaza's food system, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food said. "It's unprecedented to make an entire civilian population go hungry this completely & quickly," Michael Fakhri said in a post on X. "Israel is intentionally imposing a high rate of disease, prolonged malnutrition, dehydration + starvation by destroying civilian infrastructure." People in some areas of Gaza have described sewage flowing through the streets. It comes as the death toll surpassed 25,000 people, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry.
Border security: Egypt rejected Israeli accusations that it has not maintained the security of its border with Gaza, leading to arms smuggling into the enclave. The head of Egypt's State Information Service blamed "extremist Israeli leaders who seek to drag the region into a state of conflict and instability."
Two-state solution: Netanyahu’s opposition to a two-state solution has sparked criticism from officials in Brussels and Washington, as divisions deepen between Israel and its allies and within its own government. After talking with Israel's leader on Friday, US President Joe Biden referenced the possibility of a demilitarized Palestinian state. The White House said Monday that Biden is maintaining an "open mind" about what a two-state solution could look like.
Israel polling: Netanyahu’s political prospects look dim, with a new poll suggesting that his party would come in a very distant second if elections were held today, and the coalition he leads now would not win enough seats to stay in power.
The ground shook at southern Gaza's Nasser Hospital as Israeli forces launched strikes on Khan Younis Monday, according to Médecins Sans Frontières staff on the ground.
In a social media post, the charity — also known as Doctors Without Borders — said the strikes caused “panic among staff, patients and displaced people sheltering inside the building,” adding that exit routes were blocked, preventing the evacuation of medical staff and patients.
Israel's military has intensified attacks on Khan Younis in recent days as it targets what its says is Hamas infrastructure, with the operation expected to last for several days.
“MSF staff fear the fighting, shelling and bombing will get worse and closer to Nasser hospital,” the group's statement said.
Earlier Monday, the Hamas-controlled health ministry said Nasser Hospital is receiving more patients with serious injuries than it can accommodate and intensive care units have reached capacity.
Palestinian children wait to receive food in Rafah, Gaza, on January 17. Mohammed Salem/Reuters
UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Michael Fakhri, said Israel is destroying Gaza's food system, in a post on X on Monday.
"It's unprecedented to make an entire civilian population go hungry this completely & quickly. Israel is destroying Gaza’s food system. Israel is intentionally imposing a high rate of disease, prolonged malnutrition, dehydration + starvation by destroying civilian infrastructure," Fakhri said.
Israel’s siege in Gaza has devastated swathes of the territory, diminished food, fuel and water supplies, and crushed the enclave's medical system.
More than 1.9 million Palestinians have been forcibly displaced, many multiple times, according to the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees.
Gaza is facing its 10th near-total internet blackout, according to Paltel, the enclave's main telecommunications provider.
"We regret to announce that telecom services in Gaza Strip have been lost. Gaza is blacked out again for the 10th time since October 7th due to the ongoing and escalating aggression," Paltel said in a post on X.
Internet monitoring site Netblocks confirmed the outage in a post on X.
"Live metrics show that the #Gaza Strip is again in the midst of a near-total telecoms blackout; the incident is likely to severely limit most residents' ability to communicate, in the tenth such incident since the start of the war," Netblocks said.
Cell phone connection across Gaza was also “difficult to access,” an employee at Palestinian telecom company Jawwal told CNN on Monday.
Israel has proposed that Hamas senior leaders could leave Gaza as part of a broader ceasefire agreement, two officials familiar with the ongoing international discussions told CNN.
The extraordinary proposal, which has not been previously reported, comes as Israel has struggled to achieve its stated goal of completely destroying Hamas. Despite its nearly 4-month war in Gaza, Israel has failed to capture or kill any of Hamas’s most senior leaders in Gaza and left around 70% of Hamas’ fighting force intact, according to Israel’s own estimates.
Though it would give safe passage out of Gaza for top Hamas leaders who orchestrated the October 7 attack, draining Gaza of its leaders could weaken Hamas’ grip on the war-torn area while also allowing Israel to continue tracking down high-value targets abroad.
Senior Hamas officials are known to live in Doha, Qatar, and the Lebanese capital Beirut, among other places outside the Palestinian territories. An Israeli airstrike earlier this month killed a top Hamas commander in Beirut.
Israel’s suggestion that Hamas leaders could leave Gaza, though unlikely to be accepted by Hamas, has been discussed as part of broader ceasefire negotiations at least twice in recent weeks — once last month in Warsaw by Israel’s intelligence chief, Mossad Director David Barnea, and then again this month in Doha with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, according to one official familiar with the discussions.
US and British troops conducted strikes on eight targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on January 22. US Central Command
The United States and the United Kingdom carried out additional strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen on Monday, marking the eighth round of attacks by the US military on the rebels’ infrastructure in just over 10 days, according to a joint statement.
They struck eight sites, according to the statement from the US and UK, which conducted the strikes, and Canada, the Netherlands, Bahrain, and Australia, which supported the attacks.
It was a smaller number than the first joint operation on January 11 that struck over 30 Houthi targets. Monday’s strikes targeted a Houthi underground storage site and sites associates with Houthi missile and air surveillance, the statement added.
The US deployed fighter aircraft from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier as part of the strikes, a US defense official told CNN.
President Joe Biden spoke to his British counterpart UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday, the White House said earlier in the day, about a range of topics including security in the Red Sea.
“Our aim remains to de-escalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea , but let us reiterate our warning to Houthi leadership: we will not hesitate to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways in the face of continued threats,” the countries said in their statement.
An Israeli tank moves along the border with Gaza on Sunday. Amir Levy/Getty Images
Israel has offered a two-month ceasefire to Hamas as part of a prospective hostage deal, Axios reported Monday, citing two unnamed Israeli officials.
It would be “the longest period of ceasefire that Israel has offered Hamas since the start of the war,” wrote Axios reporter Barak Ravid, who is also a CNN analyst.
The Israeli proposal calls for the release of all remaining hostages and hostage bodies in multiple phases, in exchange for Palestinian detainees imprisoned in Israel, according to the Axios report.
It would also see Israel move its forces out of main population centers and allow “a gradual return of Palestinian civilians to Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip.”
The proposal comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Hamas’ call for an end to the war in exchange for the release of hostages held in Gaza, as he faces increasing public pressure to bring the captives home.
Medical facilities in Khan Younis in southern Gaza have been battered amid an Israeli assault in the area Monday, Palestinian health officials said, as the number of people killed in Israel’s siege on Gaza continues to rise.
Dozens of people have been killed and wounded in the latest offensive in western Khan Younis, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza. Medical facilities including the Nasser Medical Complex, Al Amal Hospital and the Palestine Red Crescent Society headquarters are located in the area.
“The situation here is completely catastrophic. We didn’t sleep last night. The hospital is entirely besieged,” Ahmad Al Moghrabi, a doctor at the Nasser Medical Complex said in a video shared to his Instagram page Monday. “There is no way for us to escape the hospital and no way for evacuation. The troops are all around, and the only roads for evacuation are filled with dead bodies.”
The Nasser Medical Complex is receiving more serious injuries than it can accommodate, the health ministry said, adding that intensive care units are at capacity.
Health officials also said Israeli forces on Monday stormed the Al Khair Hospital, west of Khan Younis, and detained a number of its medical staff, amid an ongoing “siege” of the area.
The Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas outposts, infrastructure, and command and control centers in Khan Younis and the action demanded "precise operations" due to the densely populated civilian areas.
A tent camp housing displaced Palestinians is seen in Rafah, Gaza on Monday. Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters
Mounds of solid waste and sewage openly flowing in the streets are exacerbating health hazards in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, with air pollution adding to the toxic environment, according to aid workers and civilians in the area.
“Everywhere in Rafah, if you walk, you will see a lot of solid waste and a lot of water sewage building up on the street,” said Salwa Tibi, 53, who works at the humanitarian agency CARE International. “You will find a lot of diseases in the shelters.”
Despite the hazards, children in desperate search of food can be seen picking scraps from rubbish piles, Tibi said.
Israel’s siege of the Palestinian enclave has collapsed waste collection and disposal services, according to the United Nations relief agency UNRWA, and the scarcity of clean drinking water and toilets has created an “explosively dangerous” environment for the spread of disease, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on Thursday.
Gazans also describe air pollution caused by smoke from people burning wood instead of fuel, supplies of which have been largely cut off from the territory.
“My father is sick because of air pollution, smoke and gas,” a displaced civilian in Rafah, who wished to remain anonymous, told CNN. “Influenza diseases are widespread due to the weather and the lack of facilities in the tents and rooms of the displaced."
