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Tag: Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza

  • Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, UN school strike, Lebanon border tensions

    Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, UN school strike, Lebanon border tensions

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    An Israeli soldier carries an injured comrade after projectiles were fired from Lebanon towards Israel, in Hurfeish, Israel, on Wednesday, June 5. Avi Ohayon/Reuters

    Hezbollah militants in Lebanon launched at least two explosive UAVs in an attack on Hurfeish, a Druze Arab village, in northern Israel on Wednesday evening, the Israeli military said.

    Nine people were treated for shrapnel injuries sustained in the drone strikes, according to the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya, including a woman suffering abdominal and chest injuries, whose condition was described as moderate to serious.

    The Israeli army has not commented on the identity of the injured, but the Reuters news agency reported that soldiers were among those wounded. Video obtained by the agency showed an ambulance moving several injured soldiers from the scene.

    In one clip, a paramedic can be seen carrying a uniformed Israeli soldier on his back toward an ambulance. The soldier is conscious with his head raised and does not appear to be badly injured.

    An eyewitness told Israel’s Channel 11 that the second self-detonating drone exploded as emergency responders arrived on the scene to treat patients injured in the first drone strike.

    “We came to rescue those who were injured, and suddenly a second UAV approached,” Anwar Maer, head of the Hurfeish municipality said.

    Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack which comes amid an escalation of tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border.

    According to the Israeli military, Wednesday saw approximately 30 rockets and drones launched from Lebanon towards Israel. Israeli fighter jets also targeted Hezbollah positions, the military said.

    “The [Israeli] strikes included terrorist infrastructure in Naqoura and Matmoura, Hezbollah military structures in Ayta ash Shab, and a Hezbollah observation post in Khiam,” the military added.

    Tensions ramp up: Iran-backed-Hezbollah has increased attacks on Israel’s border in recent months, saying they are in protest at Israel’s war in Gaza. Just this week, cross-border attacks from Lebanon led to large fires in northern Israel that triggered evacuations.

    Tamar Michaelis contributed reporting to this post.

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  • Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza

    Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza

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    Israelis enter through the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem, on June 5. Leo Correa/AP

    Large crowds of young Israeli nationalists pushed their way through the narrow streets of Jerusalem’s Old City intimidating, and in some cases attacking, Palestinian shopkeepers and journalists, as they marked Jerusalem Day in what has become the traditional fashion.

    The annual event marks the capture of the eastern part of Jerusalem by Israeli forces during the Six Day War in 1967. In recent years it has taken the form of a rally of right-wing religious Israelis, with anti-Palestinian songs and chants becoming standard.

    After gathering at the Damascus Gate entrance to the Old City, the mostly young men, many in religious clothing, many others carrying Israeli flags, passed through the gateway and made their way through what is known as the Islamic quarter towards the Western Wall, the most religious place Jews are allowed to pray.

    Videos either shot or obtained by CNN showed groups of young men intimidating shopkeepers. Other videos showed them shouting, “Death to Arabs” and “Burn Down the Villages,” a reference to Palestinian homes. Another video showed a group of young men singing and dancing on the Aqsa Mosque compound, where Jews are allowed to visit but not pray.

    A CNN crew outside the Damascus Gate witnessed bottles and sticks being thrown at TV crews. An Israeli journalist working for Haaretz newspaper said he was among a group of about ten people thrown to the floor by the nationalists and given a kicking. Police intervened, he said, and pulled him and others to safety.

    Eighteen people had been arrested on suspicion of violent offenses, assault, threats, and disorderly conduct, police said.

    The two political figureheads of Israel’s far-right, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, both made an appearance at the rally, which comes as Israel’s war in Gaza approaches its ninth month.

    Ben Gvir told the crowd they were conveying a message to Hamas: “Jerusalem is ours, Damascus Gate is ours, Temple Mount is ours, and with God’s help, total victory [will be] ours,” he said referring to the holiest site in Judaism, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and the location of the Aqsa Mosque.

    Further underlining the unique status of Jerusalem as a trigger in the wider, decades-long, conflict, a statement from Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh said the nationalists’ actions showed that “Jerusalem is the core of the conflict, and our people will not rest until the occupation departs and the independent Palestinian state is established with its capital in Jerusalem.”

    On the same Jerusalem Day occasion three years ago, after weeks of building tensions in the city, Hamas triggered an 11-day war with Israel when it launched six rockets towards Jerusalem sending air raid sirens blaring for the first time in years.

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  • Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Biden peace proposal

    Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Biden peace proposal

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    President Joe Biden speaks at the White House on May 31. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

    President Joe Biden has laid out a three-phase Israeli proposal to end the conflict in Gaza, saying “It’s time for this war to end.”

    Speaking at the White House, Biden said Hamas has been degraded to a point where it can no longer carry out the type of attack that launched the current eight-month conflict.

    The three phases: Biden said the first phase would last six weeks and include the “withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza” and “release of a number of hostages, including women, the elderly, the wounded in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.”

    He said second phase would allow for the “exchange for the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers.”

    “And as long as Hamas lives up to its commitments, the temporary ceasefire would become, in the words of the Israeli proposals, ‘the cessation of hostilities permanently,’” Biden added.

    In the third phase, the president said, a “major reconstruction plan for Gaza would commence and any final remains of hostages who’ve been killed will be returned to their families.”

    Hamas and Israel respond: The militant group said it “views positively” what was outlined, and said it would respond “constructively” to any ceasefire and hostage plan.

    Soon after Biden detailed the Israeli proposal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted the country would not end the war until Hamas is defeated.

    The Prime Minister’s Office insisted the proposal allows Israel to “maintain these principles.”

    Read more about the peace proposal here.

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  • Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Rafah offensive draws global outcry

    Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Rafah offensive draws global outcry

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    Egypt denied Israeli statements about the existence of tunnels along its border with Gaza, calling Israeli media reports untrue, according to state-affiliated Al-Qahera TV on Wednesday. 

    “These lies propagated by Tel Aviv indicate the size of the crisis facing the Israeli government,” the channel said, quoting an unnamed senior official. 

    “The continuous Israeli attempts to spread lies about the status of its troops in the field in Palestinian Rafah intends to obscure its military failure and its political crisis,” the source added as per the channel. 

    A different senior source told the channel earlier in the day that there is no communication “with the Israeli side about the claims of the existence of tunnels along the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.” 

    Deployment of Israeli troops in the Philadelphi Corridor — a 14-kilometer (8.7-mile) buffer zone on the Egypt-Gaza border — without prior agreement between both countries would be a breach of the peace treaty, an Egyptian official told CNN in February, adding that the government had not approved such a deployment.

    On Wednesday, the Israeli military said it had established “operational control” over the corridor, where it was carrying out an operation at the corridor and that 20 tunnels it had found there were now being “neutralized.”

    Earlier Wednesday, an Israeli official said the 20 tunnels crossed into Egypt, some of which are new, and that the information has been passed on to Egypt. 

    CNN is unable to independently verify the Israeli claims of control.

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  • Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, deadly Rafah strike sparks global outcry

    Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, deadly Rafah strike sparks global outcry

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    US-made munitions were used in a deadly Israeli strike on a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah, a CNN analysis of video from the scene and a review by explosive weapons experts found. 

    CNN geolocated videos showing tents in flames in the aftermath of the strike on the camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) known as “Kuwait Peace Camp 1.”

    In video shared on social media, which CNN geolocated to the same scene by matching details including the camp’s entrance sign and the tiles on the ground, the tail of a US-made GBU-39 small-diameter bomb (SDB) is visible, according to four explosive weapons experts who reviewed the video for CNN.

    The GBU-39, manufactured by Boeing, is a high-precision munition “designed to attack strategically important point targets,” and result in low collateral damage, explosive weapons expert Chris Cobb-Smith told CNN.

    But “using any munition, even of this size, will always incur risks in a densely populated area,” said Cobb-Smith, a former British Army artillery officer.   

    Trevor Ball, a former US Army senior explosive ordnance disposal team member who also identified the fragment as being from a GBU-39, explained to CNN how he drew his conclusion.  

    “The warhead portion [of the munition] is distinct, and the guidance and wing section is extremely unique compared to other munitions. Guidance and wing sections of munitions are often the remnants left over even after a munition detonates. I saw the tail actuation section and instantly knew it was one of the SDB/GBU-39 variants.”   

    CNN’s identification of the munition is consistent with a claim made by Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari in a briefing about the tragedy on Tuesday. Hagari said the strike – which he said targeted senior Hamas commanders – used two munitions with small warheads containing 17 kilos of explosives, adding these bombs were “the smallest munitions that our jets could use.”

    The traditional GBU-39 warhead has an explosive payload of 17 kilos.  

    Additionally, serial numbers on the remnants match those for a manufacturer of GBU-39 parts based in California – more evidence the bombs were made in the US.  

    The Pentagon declined to comment and referred CNN to comments from Israel on its operation. CNN has also reached out to the US National Security Council.

    Some context: The US has long been the biggest supplier of arms to Israel, and that support has continued despite the growing political pressure on the Biden administration over the Gaza offensive.

    Last month, Biden signed a foreign aid bill that included $26 billion for the Israel-Hamas conflict — including $15 billion in Israeli military aid, $9 billion in humanitarian aid for Gaza and $2.4 billion for regional US military operations.

    Read the full story.

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  • Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, deadly Rafah strike sparks global outcry

    Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, deadly Rafah strike sparks global outcry

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    President Joe Biden speaks with CNN during an interview on May 8 in Racine, Wisconsin. CNN

    US President Joe Biden told CNN earlier this month that he’d halt some shipments of American weapons to Israel – which he acknowledged have been used to kill civilians in Gaza – if it invades Rafah.

    “I made it clear that… if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities – that deal with that problem,” Biden said.
    “I’ve made it clear to Bibi and the war cabinet: They’re not going to get our support, if in fact they go on these population centers,” Biden added, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

    In giving Netanyahu this ultimatum in May, Biden set a red line on Israel’s actions in Gaza.

    Deadly strike: Israel’s strike on a displacement camp in Rafah on Sunday killed at least 45 people and wounded 200 others. It is among the deadliest strikes by the Israeli military on Gaza’s southernmost city since Israel began its operation there on May 7. 

    What the US is saying: Biden is yet to comment publicly on Sunday’s strike. A US National Security Council spokesperson said the strike was “heartbreaking,” and that the US was “actively engaging” with Israel to determine what happened. But the spokesperson also said that “Israel has a right to go after Hamas.”

    The US has supported Israel’s efforts to go after Hamas while warning against an invasion of Rafah, which would lead to widespread civilian casualties. In recent weeks, Biden’s top national security aide Jake Sullivan engaged Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, emphasizing the US position. Sullivan said he had detected “refinements” to Israel’s Rafah plan, which he said was now more “targeted and limited” in scale.

    Israel digs in: Last week, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel would expand its ground operation in Rafah. After meeting Sullivan, he said: “I emphasized to him Israel’s duty to expand the ground operation in Rafah, to dismantle Hamas and return the abductees.”

    Global outcry: The strike on the Rafah camp, which killed and wounded many women and children, has sparked a mounting global outcry. The UN is holding an emergency session on the strike on Tuesday — adding to the unprecedented pressure on Israel over its Gaza offensive, and on its staunch ally the United States.

    Mounting pressure: It also came just days after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to “immediately halt” its military operation in Rafah, and any action in the city “which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

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  • Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Rafah strike, rockets fired on Tel Aviv

    Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Rafah strike, rockets fired on Tel Aviv

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    Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp area housing internally displaced people in Rafah, Gaza, on May 27. Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty Images

    UNRWA, the main United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, does not know whether Israel’s deadly strike on the southern Gaza city of Rafah damaged any of the agency’s buildings or killed any of its workers, spokesperson Juliette Touma told CNN Monday.

    “The line of communication is very patchy, so we are not able to confirm that all UNRWA staff are accounted for,” Touma said.

    The agency has 13,000 staff members working in Gaza, the majority of whom have been displaced and are taking refuge in several locations, including open areas, the spokesperson said.

    “No place is safe in Gaza and no one is safe in Gaza including aid workers,” Touma said.

    At least 35 people were killed in an Israeli strike on Rafah’s Tal Al Sultan last night, according to Gaza’s health authorities. Videos obtained by CNN showed tents on fire and charred bodies being pulled from the location. Israel said it killed two Hamas commanders in the strike using “precision munitions” and is reviewing the incident.

    The movement of people inside Gaza is “so rapid and frequent” that it is difficult to keep up with their needs, Touma said, as UNRWA battles additional restrictions on bringing in aid since Israel started its military operation in Rafah on May 6.

    “We’ve only been able to bring in just over 140 trucks, as of Thursday, and this is by far not enough,” Touma said.

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  • Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza

    Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza

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    Police use water cannon to disperse demonstrators during a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in Tel Aviv, Israel, on May 25, 2024.  Ariel Schalit/AP

    Police and protesters clashed in Tel Aviv on Saturday night after a day of rallies calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and for the return of all hostages, according to several videos posted on social media.

    In the videos, horse-mounted police and water cannons can be seen in Tel Aviv’s Democracy Square attempting to disperse crowds refusing to leave, resulting in violent clashes.

    At a separate protest, police said they arrested two people “for disorderly conduct” after they allegedly left the approved demonstration site at the Kaplan intersection, headed to the Azrieli intersection and “lit fires and began to break the order, not obeying the police’s instructions.”

    The clashes followed anti-government protest marches that took place in several cities across Israel, calling for the release of hostages taken during Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on Oct 7, and for a general election.

    Around 250 people were taken hostage during Hamas’ surprise October 7 attack on southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed, according to Israeli officials. Since then, Israel’s retaliatory war on Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.

    Many of the protesters in the streets of Tel Aviv, Haifa, Rehovot and beyond on Saturday took aim at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing his government of corruption and criticizing his handling of the war against Hamas.

    Read the full story here.

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  • Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, ICJ genocide ruling, Rafah invasion looms

    Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, ICJ genocide ruling, Rafah invasion looms

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    The International Court of Justice is expected to rule today in a case against Israel that was brought by South Africa.

    South Africa filed an urgent request on May 10 for additional measures in its genocide case against Israel, accusing it of using forced evacuation orders in the southern Gaza city of Rafah to “endanger rather than protect civilian life.”

    The allegation was rejected by Israel. Deputy Attorney General for International Law Gilad Noam said the picture South Africa painted was “completely divorced from the facts and circumstances.” 

    South Africa filed its claim to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), not the International Criminal Court (ICC).

    The ICJ is the main legal arm of the United Nations. It is based in The Hague, in the Netherlands, and was set up by the UN in 1945. It is a civil court and seeks to settle disputes between states.

    Conversely, the ICC is a permanent, autonomous court — not affiliated with the United Nations — that prosecutes individuals.

    The court can only prosecute individuals from countries that have ratified the Rome Statute — which gives it jurisdiction — or if a crime has taken place in a country that is a signatory.

    This week, the ICC said it is seeking arrest warrants for the Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the October 7 attacks on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.

    Israel doesn’t recognize the ICC so the court has no jurisdiction over it.

    Israel, however, is a signatory to the Genocide Convention, which gives the ICJ jurisdiction.

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  • Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Iran President Raisi funeral, ICC arrest warrant request

    Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Iran President Raisi funeral, ICC arrest warrant request

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    A rescue team works following the crash of a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, in Varzaqan, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran, on May 20. West Asia News Agency/Reuters

    The chief of staff for the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has revealed new details about the hours after the presidential helicopter went missing.

    Gholam Hossein Esmaili was in one of three helicopters returning from a dam inauguration ceremony on Iran’s border with Azerbaijan, he said in an interview with IRINN state TV, and reported by Iran’s semi-official news agency Mehr News on Tuesday.

    The helicopter carrying nine people ran into inclement weather on the way back and went missing, prompting an hours-long overnight search in the mountainous region.

    On the return flight on Sunday, three helicopters took off at around 1 p.m. local time Sunday “while weather conditions in the area were normal,” Esmaili said, as cited by Mehr News.

    He said the weather conditions in the mountainous region in Varzeghan — where the crash happened — were perfect at the start of the flight. 

    “After 45 minutes into the flight, the pilot of President Raisi’s helicopter, who was in charge of the convoy, ordered other helicopters to increase altitude to avoid a nearby cloud,” Esmaili said. 
    “However, the president’s helicopter, which was flying between the two others, suddenly disappeared,” Esmaili added, as cited by Mher news.

    Roughly 30 seconds into flying above the clouds, Esmaili said his pilot noticed the helicopter in the middle had disappeared. The pilot circled around to search for the president’s helicopter, he said.

    Esmaili said several attempts were made to contact the president’s helicopter through radio devices before their helicopter continued its flight and landed at a nearby copper mine. Esmail said the pilot of the helicopter he was flying in was unable to decrease altitude because of the clouds. 

    Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian and the head of the president’s protection unit, who were in the same chopper as Raisi, did not respond to repeated calls after the helicopter went missing, Esmaili said.

    “Pilots of the two other helicopters had contacted Captain Mostafavi, who was in charge of the president’s helicopter,” he said.

    One person alive for three hours: Tabriz’s Friday prayer Imam, Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Alehashem, was able to answer the pilot’s phone and said the helicopter had crashed into a valley and he was in critical condition, Esmaili added.

    Esmaili said after they found the location of the crashed helicopter, it was clear from the condition of the bodies of Raisi, Abdollahian and others that they “had died instantly.” 

    Alehashem was alive for at least three hours after the crash and was able to speak to officials multiple times before he died, Esmaili said.  

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  • Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, ICC seeks warrants for Netanyahu and Hamas leaders

    Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, ICC seeks warrants for Netanyahu and Hamas leaders

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    In this photo provided by Moj News Agency, rescue team members work at the scene of a crash of a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Varzaghan in northwestern Iran on May 20. Azin Haghighi/Moj News Agency/AP

    Funeral ceremonies will begin today for the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi after his death in a helicopter crash, as authorities investigate what caused the crash on a remote mountainside during foggy weather on Sunday morning.

    Raisi’s death, alongside the foreign minister and other officials, has left the Islamic Republic’s hardline establishment facing an uncertain future as it navigates rising regional tensions — including Israel’s war against its ally Hamas — and domestic discontent.

    Iran’s government has arranged multiple days of mourning culminating in a funeral this week for the 63-year-old ultraconservative cleric who had once been seen as a potential successor to current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

    Tuesday will begin with funeral prayers and a procession in the city of Tabriz, the largest city in the northwestern region of Iran where the chopper crashed, according to Mohsen Mansouri, the head of the funeral planning committee and Iran’s vice president of executive affairs.

    Later that day, the bodies of the victims will be transferred to the holy Shiite city of Qom, where many of the clerics who make up Iran’s theocratic elite are trained, before then heading to the capital Tehran.

    Large ceremonies are planned in Tehran’s Grand Mosallah Mosque on Wednesday. Mansouri announced a public holiday and the closure of offices all over the country that day so that processions could take place.

    Raisi’s body will then be moved to the historic Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad where Ayatollah Khamenei will conduct prayers, according to Mehr News.

    There is no indication of what might have caused the crash – and why so many senior Iranian government officials were traveling in a single, decades-old helicopter.

    Read the full story.

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  • Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Benny Gantz ultimatum, Netanyahu government in turmoil

    Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Benny Gantz ultimatum, Netanyahu government in turmoil

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    Hamas has denounced the request by the International Criminal Court for arrest warrants of three of its leadership over the October 7 attacks into southern Israel.

    In a statement Monday, Hamas said it “strongly condemns the attempts of the ICC Prosecutor to equate victims with aggressors by issuing arrest warrants against a number of Palestinian resistance leaders without legal basis.”

    The ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, issued requests for arrest warrants for Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ military leader in Gaza, as well as two other top Hamas figures — Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, the leader of the Al Qassem Brigades and better known as Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ political leader.

    Hamas said that arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over Israel’s military campaign in Gaza had come “seven months late,” during which time “the Israeli occupation committed thousands of crimes against Palestinian civilians, including children, women, doctors, journalists, and the destruction of private and public properties, mosques, churches, and hospitals.”

    The prosecutor should have issued arrest warrants against “all responsible leaders of the occupation who gave orders, and soldiers who participated in committing crimes,” according to the court’s statutes, the militant group added.

    “Hamas calls on the ICC Prosecutor to issue arrest warrants against all war criminals among the occupation leaders, officers, and soldiers who participated in crimes against the Palestinian people, and demands the cancellation of all arrest warrants issued against Palestinian resistance leaders.”

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  • Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Benny Gantz’s ultimatum for Netanyahu

    Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Benny Gantz’s ultimatum for Netanyahu

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    Gaza faces a “dire” food situation as barely more than 300 aid trucks have entered the strip since Israel began its offensive in Rafah, a UN agency said in a report published Friday. Follow live updates.

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  • Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Benny Gantz’s ultimatum for Netanyahu

    Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Benny Gantz’s ultimatum for Netanyahu

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    Gaza faces a “dire” food situation as barely more than 300 aid trucks have entered the strip since Israel began its offensive in Rafah, a UN agency said in a report published Friday. Follow live updates.

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  • Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, death toll rises, humanitarian crisis

    Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, death toll rises, humanitarian crisis

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    The New Zealand government designated all of Hamas as a “terrorist entity” on Thursday, broadening its policy on the Islamist group.

    The country now considers Hamas’ political wing a “terrorist entity”. It designated the military wing of Hamas a “terrorist entity” in 2010.

    “What happened on 7 October reinforces we can no longer distinguish between the military and political wings of Hamas,” New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters said.

    He said that the “organisation as a whole bears responsibility for these horrific terrorist attacks.”

    The move means that any assets of Hamas in New Zealand will be frozen, and any financial or property transactions or material support to Hamas is now a criminal offense in the country.

    Calls to end violence: New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon clarified that “this designation targets Hamas, not the provision of private humanitarian support to Palestinian civilians.”

    It will also not hinder New Zealand’s efforts to provide humanitarian and development assistance to the civilians in Gaza, Luxon said.

    Consular support to New Zealand citizens or permanent residents in the conflict zone will also not be affected.

    Peters said that Wellington remains “gravely concerned” about the impact of the conflict on civilians in Gaza and called “for an end to the violence and an urgent resumption of the Middle East Peace Process.”

    “A lasting solution to the conflict will only be achieved by peaceful means,” Peters said.

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  • Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, ceasefire talks, humanitarian crisis

    Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, ceasefire talks, humanitarian crisis

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    Officials from Israel, Hamas and Qatar have cautioned against US President Joe Biden’s optimism that a hostage-for-ceasefire deal in Gaza could be reached by the end of this week. Follow for live news updates.

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  • Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza

    Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza

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    The European Union’s top diplomat says the situation in the Israeli-occupied West Bank is a “real obstacle” for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, adding that peace in the Middle East cannot be achieved without a clear prospect for the Palestinian people.

    Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Josep Borrell said the level of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has increased since the Hamas attacks on October 7 and has not been discussed enough.

    “Everybody talks about ending the war in Gaza. Yes, we have to end the war in Gaza. But nobody has talked a lot about the West Bank,” he said, stressing that “the West Bank is boiling.”

    Borrell added that he believes there is space for Europe to support a two-state solution, but for that, he said, Europe needs to be more united and must have the US “more than on board.”

    Key context: Under the Oslo Accords peace agreement of the 1990s, the plan was for Israel to gradually hand over control over more and more of the West Bank, but that has never happened. Israel has full administrative and security control over 60% of the area.

    More than 700,000 Jewish settlers now live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, land on which the Palestinians, along with the international community, want to establish a future Palestinian state. The settlements are considered illegal under international law and are widely seen as one of the main obstacles to a two-state solution.

    While the areas where settlements encroach on Palestinian land have always been prone to violence, settler attacks on Palestinians have spiraled out of control in recent months.

    CNN’s Ivana Kottasová contributed reporting to this post.

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  • Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza

    Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza

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    Israel released more details on Friday about the 12 employees of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees that it has accused of participating in the October 7 terrorist attacks and kidnappings, including their names, photos, and alleged roles with Hamas.

    The additional details included screengrabs of what Israel said were two United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) employees — a social worker and math teacher — in Israel on October 7. The defense ministry also provided identification photos of 10 other alleged Hamas members, their positions and alleged involvement in the attack, but did not provide any supporting evidence to back up its claims.

    CNN could not independently verify the identity of the men or Israel’s allegations about their involvement with Hamas.

    An UNRWA spokesperson said the United Nations’ highest investigative authority is investigating the matter, but declined to comment on the additional details provided by Israel on Friday due to the investigation.

    Some background: Israel presented the United Nations, the United States and other allies with a dossier last month that included allegations about these 12 UNRWA employees — out of 13,000 in Gaza — leading more than a dozen countries to suspend funding to the agency, which plays a central role in feeding and sheltering hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the strip.

    UNRWA quickly fired 10 of the 12 staff members accused by Israel of involvement in the October 7 attacks and launched an investigation into the allegations in hopes of keeping international funding to the agency flowing at a critical time. The United Nations said two of the 12 had died.

    Read more details about Israel’s allegations.

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