Live updates: Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Rafah offensive draws global outcry (2024)

Hamas said they had informed mediators on Thursday that they are "prepared to reach a comprehensive agreement" that includes a full hostage and prisoner exchange dealif Israel stops its war in Gaza.

A statement from the group said while they had shown "flexibility and positivity in dealing with the efforts of the mediators throughout all previous rounds of indirect negotiations," Israel, Hamas said, had used the months of ongoing talks as a cover to continue its war in Gaza.

"Hamas and the Palestinian factionswill notaccept being part of this policy of continuous negotiations in the face of aggression, killing, siege, starvation, and genocide of our people,"the Hamas statement said.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted that the war must continue until Hamas is completely destroyed.

All pieces of the temporary pier off the coast of Gaza have been relocated to the port of Ashdod for repair, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said Thursday.

“Earlier today, IDF engineers removed the anchored portion of the Trident pier from the beach, so as of this afternoon, all sections of the Trident pier have been relocated to the port of Ashdod for rebuilding and repairing,” she said.

The pier was damaged on Tuesday due to a storm and high seas causing a portion of the pier to separate. Singh said two of the four vessels that were beached over last weekend have also been recovered; the US is currently working with the Israeli Navy to recover the remaining two vessels beached on the coast of Gaza.

“As a reminder, the rebuilding and repairing of the pier will take over a week and following completion, the Trident pier will be re-anchored to the coast of Gaza,” Singh said.

Israel's National Unity party, led by war cabinet member Benny Gantz, has proposed a bill to dissolve the Knesset, Israel's parliament, and trigger new elections in the fall.

"This is a continuation of the initiative led by the chairman of the State Camp, Minister Benny Gantz, to hold elections with broad consensus by October, one year after the massacre," Gantz's press office said in a statement.

Knesset member Pnina Tamano-Shata submitted the bill on Thursday.

"October 7th is a disaster that requires us to regain the people's trust and establish a broad and stable unity government that can lead us safely through the enormous challenges in security, the economy, and above all, in Israeli society. Submitting the bill now will allow us to advance it further in the current session," Tamano-Shata said in a statement.

By proposing the bill, the National Unity Party members will now have the opportunityto table it during the Knesset's summer session in which they will hold a vote to decide whether to dissolve parliament in September and hold fresh elections in October.

Some context: Currently, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads a 64-membergoverning coalitionthat gives him a majority in the 120-seat Knesset.

While Gantz had performed well in polls from earlier this year, recently his favorability has dropped,accordingto CNN global affairs analyst Barak Ravid.

Gantz has repeatedly criticized Netanyahu's leadership throughout the conflict in Gaza. Earlier this month, Gantz threatened to withdraw from the government if the war cabinet did not lay out a plan by June 8 to free the hostages and eliminate Hamas.

It's unclear exactly what the image is. A series of tents? Truck beds against a rust orange background? Multicolored rectangles?

Mountains are visible in the background, and in the foreground are the following words: “All Eyes on Rafah” —a reference to the southernmost Gazan city that became the center of war coverage this week, after an Israeli strike on a refugee camp in the city, on what had been labeled a safe zone, killed dozens ofalready displaced Palestinians.

In the wake of the attack, the aforementioned image has seemingly been everywhere. Likely created using artificial intelligence, the graphic — which is not an actual picture from Rafah or the war in Gaza — has been shared more than 46 million times on Instagram alone.

It’s become so ubiquitous,comedian Tim Dillon noted it’s been shared like“it’s a new show on NBC.”

But the picture’s popularity has raised questions and critiques on the passivity of the act. Eyes being on Rafah has not stopped the violence, wrote scientistAyesha Khan on Instagram. Simply posting an ambiguous graphic is performative, Khan and others have noted.

Still, the post’s momentum has continued.

Read more about the graphic and what it could signal here.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has praised the pro-Palestinian protests carried out by students on university campuses across the United States, saying they managed to create another branch of the “resistance front” against Israel.

Khamenei penned an open letter to the students in the US, commending their efforts to "defend the oppressed women and children of Gaza," according to Iranian state news outlet, IRNA.

Iran, which views Israel as an enemy state, has strongly opposed the war in Gaza, and has been accused of using its proxies in Yemen and Lebanon to attack Israel. Tensions came to a head in April when Iran’s embassy in Syria was attacked, likely by Israel. The attack prompted Iran on April 13 to carry out a direct attack on Israeli soil using drones and missiles, the first in decades by a foreign nation. Israel responded by attacking Iranian military sites.

Iran’s 'axis of resistance' refers to the informal military alliance with Syrian, Iraqi and Yemeni proxy groups, united in their opposition towards Israel and the US.

ThePhiladelphi Corridor– also known as the Salah al-Din Axis – is a narrow strip of land running along the Palestinian side of the border between Gaza and Egypt.

Just 14 kilometers (about 8.7 miles) long and 100 meters wide, the strip of land isa central partofa peace treaty signed between Egypt and Israel in 1979, which ended decades of war. Until the treaty, the two countries had been at war since Israel’s founding in 1948. The pact saw Israel return the Sinai Peninsula it captured from Egypt in the 1967 war in exchange for peace, and eventually paved the way for Egypt’s recognition of Israel.

A key buffer zone:The landmark treaty demilitarized the border area between Israel and Egypt, including an area referred to asZone D, where Gaza’s Philadelphi Corridor lies. The Palestinian enclave was occupied by Israel when the treaty was signed.

The pact restricted the number of troops Egypt and Israel can each place near the other’s territory, turning the corridor into animportant buffer zonebetween the former enemies.

Changes to the security presence in the area can, however, take place with mutual agreement. Amendments to security agreements have in recent years allowed Cairo to boost its security presence on the Sinai Peninsula, which borders Israel, as it sought to eliminate jihadist fighters.

Why it matters: According to the treaty, which was drawn up before Israel unilaterally withdrew its troops from Gaza in 2005, Israel is allowed a limited force of four infantry battalions in the area encompassing the Philadelphi Corridor.

The Israeli military on Thursday said it hadestablished “operational control”over the Corridor, a move that Egyptian officials have previously warned against.

The corridor has to be treated “with great caution as it is close to the Egyptian border,” Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid said in February. “Any operations there with such a great number of people present poses dangers.”

Another 53 people had been killed and 357 injured by Israeli military operations in the Gaza strip in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health in Gaza said Thursday.

The death toll in Gaza since October 7 now stands at 36,224 killed, with 81,777 injured, the ministry said.

CNN cannot verify the Ministry’s numbers, and it does not distinguish between casualties among fighters and civilians. It does not include in its figures the several thousand people thought to be missing, or who are still under rubble, in Gaza since October 7.

Pictures emerging from central and western parts of Jabalya following a withdrawal of Israeli troops show widespread destruction, as authorities in northern Gaza warn residents not to return.

Streets in the area are covered in rubble, most buildings are collapsed or destroyed, and the UNRWA HQ and school, which were being used as shelters by displaced Gazans, is burned.

People who had attempted to enter the area have been seen being hit and wounded by quadcopter drones.

Authorities in northern Gaza urged residents to not return tohomes and shelters following "news of the occupation forces withdrawing from the Jabalya camp" on Thursday morning.

The North Governorate Emergency Committee issued a notice Thursday morning, urging "citizens to be patient and not return" as "there are still some dangerous remnants" from Israeli troops.

The Director of North Gaza Civil Defence Operations, Mahdi Abu Amsha,told CNN he saw "massive destruction" and "found bodies on the roads and under buildings", describing the scenes as an "act of revenge".

He added that "bombings continues in these areas".

Local journalist al Sabbah also said the Israeli military withdrew from central Jabalya camp and west of Jabalya camp but remain in the north and eastern areas.

The IDF told CNN they "cannot provide information regarding the location of our forces". In a statement on Thursday morning, the IDF said its "troops are continuing to operate against terrorist infrastructure and operatives in the area of Jabaliya in northern Gaza".

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant “emphasized the importance of operating” in Rafah, when he spoke with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin overnight.

Gallant said there is “concrete information” of hostages being held in Rafah and claimed 20 “terror tunnels have been identified” in the area, in his conversation with Austin, according to a statement from the Israeli Defense Minister’s Communications Office.

Gallant briefed the Secretary of Defense “on developments in the war against the Hamas terrorist organization and efforts to ensure the return of 125 hostages held in Gaza,” the statement said.

For context: President Joe Biden had earlier warned that the US would stop supplying American weapons to Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a major invasion of Rafah. However Biden's administration is yet to take action on that promise, saying that so far — the strikes that killed at least 45 people, of whom many were children sheltering in tents — have not crossed that red line.

The Israeli strikes on Rafah have caused global outcry, with Germany describing the images of "charred bodies, including children" from Israeli airstrikes as "unbearable," French President Emmanuel Macron saying he was "outraged" by the strikes and various UN leaders criticizing Israel for the attack.