April 9, 2024 - Israel-Hamas war

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that a date for a ground offensive into Rafah has been set, according to a video posted on his official Telegram account.

Netanyahu didn't say what the date was.

He also said that "entry into Rafah" was necessary for a "complete victory over Hamas."

Rafah, in the southernmost part of the besieged enclave, is where about 1.5 million Palestinians are estimated to be sheltering after fleeing fighting in the north.

Earlier on Monday, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said that if Netanyahu abandoned plans for a ground offensive in Rafah, he may lose the support of the coalition that has kept him in power.

The State Department later said Israel had not briefed the US on the date for the announced invasion of Rafah. 

Matthew Miller, State Department spokesperson, reiterated that the US believes a ground offensive “would have an enormously harmful effect on … civilians, and that it would ultimately hurt Israel's security.”

Miller said the US would be having “further conversations over the coming days, coming weeks” with Israeli officials about a potential Rafah operation “and how they could achieve it in a better way.”

A specialized United Nations committee will review whether Palestine will be granted full state member status in the UN this month, according to Vanessa Frazier, the UN Ambassador of Malta and Security Council's president for April.

After a closed-door session Monday, the UN Security Council referred this request for Palestinian statehood to the Committee on the Admission of New Members, she said.

The committee held their first meeting on Monday to begin discussions regarding Palestine’s renewed application, she said. 

The Palestinian Mission to the UN first put in a request to be recognized as a full member state in 2011. It was granted "non-member observer state" status in November 2012.

The US is historically keen on letting the Israelis and Palestinians decide the issue between themselves. 

A disinformation war is unfolding alongside the physical conflict raging in Gaza, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres warned in a post on X Monday, calling for international journalists be allowed entry into the enclave.

Foreign media have been allowed very limited access to Gaza, either embedded with the Israeli military on condition of viewing and approving the unedited raw footage or in rare instances with humanitarian aid convoys going into the enclave.

The leaders of Egypt, France and Jordan have issued a joint statement calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, highlighting the grave humanitarian crisis and the catastrophic impact of the ongoing war.

In an op-ed published Monday in Jordan and Egypt's state newspapers, as well as France's Le Monde and The Washington Post, they stressed the need for a peaceful resolution through a two-state solution, declaring that violence and warfare “have no place” in achieving peace in the Middle East.

Highlighting the critical situation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where over 1.5 million Palestinian civilians have sought refuge, the leaders warned about the “dire consequences of further military actions,” advocating for the protection of civilians as a legal and moral obligation under international law.

The three countries' leaders condemned violence, terrorism and indiscriminate targeting of civilians, reiterating the need for all parties to respect international humanitarian law.

Egypt and France have played a major role as mediators between Hamas and Israel, while Jordan has been a key actor in aid delivery, contributing dozens of airdrops over Gaza.

The bodies of 46 Palestinians have been brought to the European Hospital in Gaza since Monday morning, the European Hospital said in a statement on its Telegram channel.

Thirty-eight of those 46 bodies have been identified, the hospital said.

This comes after a search and recovery operation in the aftermath of the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Khan Younis announced Sunday.

An Iranian attack on Israel would likely be carried out by Iranian proxy forces in the region, rather than by Iran directly, two people familiar with US intelligence on the matter told CNN. 

Tehran is wary of a dramatic escalation in the fighting, the sources said, and does not want to give the United States or its allies an excuse to attack Iran directly. 

Iran and its proxy militia groups also do not appear poised to attack US troops or other assets in the region for similar reasons, the sources said. The sources noted, however, that Iran does not have perfect command and control over all of its proxy forces, so the possibility of an attack on US assets cannot be completely ruled out. 

The US and its allies have been bracing for a possible attack against Israeli and US assets in the region in retaliation for an Israeli strike last week on Iran’s consulate in Damascus, which killed a dozen Iranian military officials. 

The sources told CNN that US intelligence assesses that Iran has urged several of its proxy militia groups to simultaneously launch a large-scale attack against Israel, using drones and missiles, and that they could attack as soon as this week. There is some debate, however, about whether they will wait until after Ramadan ends to strike, said one of the sources.

 The Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment. 

Monday witnessed the passage of 419 humanitarian aid trucks through the Kerem Shalom and Nitzana border crossings into Gaza, marking the largest single-day delivery since the conflict began on October 7, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.

In addition to the truck deliveries, approximately 258 food packages were airdropped across various locations in the Gaza Strip, the IDF said.

The World Food Programme said last week that 88% of Gaza’s population faces “emergency or worse” food insecurity, and famine in northern Gaza is “imminent.”

Before the conflict, an average of 450-500 trucks would enter Gaza daily with supplies.