January 21, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

More than 25,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7, the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health said Sunday.

The latest Palestinian toll includes 178 people killed and 293 injured in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 25,105 killed and 62,681 injured across the strip during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

CNN cannot independently verify these numbers due to the challenges of reporting from the war zone.

According to an operational update, IDF snipers in cooperation with the Israeli Air Force (IAF) “eliminated a number of terrorists” in Khan Younis in the south of Gaza while troops also “eliminated 15 terrorists” in Daraj Tuffah in the northern part of the territory.

In an update Sunday morning, the IDF said one additional soldier had been killed in combat, bringing Israel's military death toll to 195 since Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza began.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday his desire for security control over all territory west of Jordan is contrary to the existence of a Palestinian state.

He did not provide any other details in his one-line post, which came a day after he had a phone call with US President Joe Biden which included discussions on the matter. 

Netanyahu’s post echoes a statement he made on Thursday where he said Israel "must control security of all the land which is west of the Jordan River." 

In a separate post, Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir also reasserted his rejection of a Palestinian state. “I do deny a Palestinian state. Always!” Ben Gvir said on X.

Some background: It remains unclear what post-war Gaza will look like, but Netanyahu is under competing pressures from the international community to allow a viable Palestinian state and domestically to guarantee Israel's security in the wake of the October 7 attacks.

Following their call, Biden told reporters he believed Netanyahu could ultimately be convinced of a two-state solution. 

“There are a number of types of two-state solutions,” he said.

“There’s a number of countries that are members of the UN that are still – don’t have their own military; a number of states that have limitations, and so I think there’s ways in which this can work,” Biden added.

Early on Christmas Day in the central Gazan city of Deir al-Balah, Motaz Azaiza shared a terrifying update on X.

A quadcopter was flying low above the door of his house, he said, and he feared he was about to be targeted in an Israeli airstrike. As a highly visible Palestinian online who had received threats before, Azaiza believed he had reason to be afraid.

Hundreds of people flooded the replies with concern for the 24-year-old Palestinian photojournalist, who has been documenting Israel’s military assault on Gaza on social media since Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7.

Noor, a medical student in California who asked to go by her first name for safety reasons, was one of the people worrying. For months, she’s been following Azaiza’s dispatches from Gaza, broadcast to his millions of followers: images of his once vibrant neighborhood transformed into a gray wasteland, raw glimpses of carnage in the ashes, and reflections on his own feelings of rage and exhaustion.

Noor refers to Azaiza with the familiarity of his first name. She gets notifications on her phone each time he posts, and worries when too much time passes.

Read more.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called opposition to a two-state solution “unacceptable” on Sunday.

Guterres added that “the right of the Palestinian people to build their own state must be recognized by all.”

On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his desire for security control over all territory west of Jordan is contrary to the existence of a Palestinian state.

In a separate post, Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir also reasserted his rejection of a Palestinian state. 

“I do deny a Palestinian state. Always!” Ben Gvir said on X.

Iran's president has vowed to retaliate after five Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members who were serving on a military advisory mission in Syria were killed in an airstrike on a residential building in Damascus, according to the IRGC. Both Iran and Syria said Israel launched the strike. The Israel Defense Forces has declined to comment on the allegations, telling CNN, "We do not comment on foreign reports."

The reported strike comes as fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East continue to grow.

Here's what else you should know:

US personnel were injured in a ballistic missile attack on Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq, according to two US officials. US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed that multiple ballistic missiles and rockets targeted the base and, while most were intercepted, some did make impact.

The attack resulted in minor injuries, the two officials said, though it was not immediately clear how many personnel had been injured. In a statement, CENTCOM said some personnel "are undergoing evaluation for traumatic brain injuries."

Attacks since October 7: The Saturday attack appears to be the second time ballistic missiles have been used to target US and coalition forces in Iraq since October 7, 2023, when Iran-backed Shia militias began launching attacks on coalition bases after the beginning of the war in Gaza. The US and coalition forces have come under attack more than 140 times in Iraq and Syria since then, as Iranian-backed Shia militias have launched repeated drone and rockets. The use of more powerful ballistic missiles — far rarer than rockets or one-way attack drones — comes at a time of increased tension in the region as the war passes 100 days.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an Iran-backed militia group, claimed responsibility for the missile attack. The group emphasized in a statement Saturday its commitment to resisting American "occupation forces" in the region and cited the attack as a response to what they referred to as the "Zionist entity’s massacres" against the Palestinian people in Gaza. US forces in Iraq and Syria operate as part of the coalition to defeat ISIS. 

In a statement, the United Nations secretary-general’s special representative for Iraq warned that the region is at a “critical juncture” stemming from the war in Gaza that risks drawing Iraq further into the conflict.

On Monday, northern Iraq was the target of ballistic missile strikes by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for having what the organization said was a spy base for Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad. The US condemned the strikes as “reckless” and imprecise.

Learn more about this attack and others in the region.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Saturday strongly condemned the deaths of five members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in a suspected Israeli missile strike on the Syrian capital of Damascus, according to Iranian state media Press TV.

Reacting to the strike — in what is the latest tit-for-tat escalation of hostilities that further risks spiraling into a wider regional conflict — Raisi vowed that Iran would retaliate, saying such "cowardly" acts will not go unanswered.

Raisi also said the attack would be "another stain on the record of all governments who claim to be the advocates of human rights because it violated Syria’s airspace and trampled on human and international laws," according to Iranian state media.

The Syrian Ministry of Defense claimed Israel "launched an air attack from the Golan Heights at 10:20 a.m. local time that targeted a residential building in the Mazzeh neighborhood in Damascus." In a statement, the ministry said its defenses managed to intercept and shoot "down a number of the enemy's missiles."

The Israeli military declined to comment on the Iranian and Syrian allegations that they were behind the attack. An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson told CNN: "We do not comment on foreign reports."

The Israeli Prime Minister's Office on Saturday responded to CNN reporting from Friday that Benjamin Netanyahu, in a private phone call with US President Joe Biden, said he was not foreclosing the possibility of a future Palestinian state in any form. Netanyahu's office said the prime minister told Biden that Israel must retain security control over Gaza following the war against Hamas. 

CNN previously reported that Netanyahu told Biden in a phone call Friday that public comments he made a day earlier — in which he appeared to reject the idea of creating a Palestinian state — were not meant to foreclose that outcome in any form, a person familiar with the conversation told CNN.

Hours after getting off the phone with Netanyahu, Biden told reporters at the White House that he believed Netanyahu could ultimately be convinced of a two-state solution. 

Biden and Netanyahu remain publicly at odds over the fundamental question of what will happen to Gaza once the war against Hamas concludes, despite intense American efforts over the past several months to engage officials in Israel and the wider region on a plan they hope can finally resolve the decades-long conflict.

Kevin Liptak and MJ Lee contributed reporting.

 At least five people have been killed in a missile strike on a building in Damascus, Iran's English-language state media outlet Press TV reported Saturday evening.

This follows reports earlier Saturday that four Iranian military advisers and several members of Syrian forces had been killed in what was deemed an Israeli missile strike, according to Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency, which cited the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). 

Syrian state TV, which also accused Israel of the attack, said earlier that several people were killed and injured in Saturday's missile strike in the Mazzeh neighborhood, home to several diplomatic missions including the Iranian embassy. 

The IRGC named the four military members as Hojatollah Omidvar, Ali Aghazadeh, Hossein Mohammadi and Saeed Karimi. 

Syrian civil defense teams were searching for people they believe are trapped under the rubble, state TV reported, and that a number of surrounding buildings and nearby vehicles were also damaged in the strike.

The Israel Defense Forces declined to comment on the strike, telling CNN on Saturday: "We do not comment on foreign reports."

Escalating tensions: The reported strike comes as fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East continue to grow.

Along with northern Iraq, Syria was the target of ballistic missile strikes launched by Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Monday at what the organization said was “anti-Iran terror groups.”

On Friday, the US conducted its sixth reported strike on Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

This post has been updated to reflect the latest death toll provided by officials.