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Israel-Hamas war

December 8, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

By Heather Chen, Sophie Tanno, Adrienne Vogt, Tori B. Powell and Elise Hammond, CNN

Updated 1:44 AM ET, Sat December 9, 2023

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5:15 p.m. ET, December 8, 2023

US vetoes UN resolution calling for Gaza ceasefire

From CNN's Richard Roth, David Shortell and Caitlin Hu

US Deputy Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood speaks during a United Nations Security Council after the vote about a ceasefire in Gaza at UN headquarters in New York on December 8. Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images

The United States on Friday vetoed a UN resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in war-torn Gaza amid growing concern about the civilian death toll there.

Thirteen countries were in favor of the resolution while the United States vetoed and the UK abstained.

A draft version of the resolution, presented by the United Arab Emirates, had called for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire,” as well as “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages” and “ensuring humanitarian access,” according to a draft copy.

At least 97 other countries joined in the effort, co-sponsoring the UAE-drafted bill.

The US previously signaled disapproval of the draft text. One of the council’s five permanent members with veto power, the US has repeatedly resisted calls for a “ceasefire,” emphasizing what it claims is Israel’s right to defend itself following Hamas’ terror attack.

Language about hostages still held by the Palestinian militant group in Gaza was added to the draft resolution in hopes of appealing to the US.

The vote was the sixth attempt by the 15-member group to reach a consensus on the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. Only one previous vote was successful, which called last month for “humanitarian pauses and corridors” to be established in Gaza.

Friday’s vote followed UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ rare invocation of Article 99 of the UN charter, which allowed him to call a Security Council meeting on an “issue that may aggravate existing threats to the maintenance of international peace and security.”

The powerful tool hadn’t been used since 1989.

4:04 p.m. ET, December 8, 2023

11 ambulances and 100 aid trucks sent by Turkey reach Gaza, Palestine Red Crescent Society says

From CNN's Abeer Salman

Eleven ambulances and some 100 trucks carrying aid items donated by Turkey have reached Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said on Friday.

The trucks contained food, water, relief aid and medical supplies, PRCS said.

8:42 p.m. ET, December 8, 2023

Israeli defense minister claims he sees signs Hamas is at breaking point in Gaza

From Tamar Michaelis and CNN's Sugam Pokharel

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant attends a press conference on September 28, in Berlin, Germany. Maja Hitij/Getty Images

Iraeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant claimed Friday that he sees signs Hamas is at a breaking point in Gaza.

“Whoever thought a month ago that (they) would extinguish our lights, it is proven day after day what the results are. In the State of Israel, there is light, and in Gaza, there is darkness. This will continue to intensify. I see the signs that indicate (Hamas is) beginning to break inside Gaza,” he told Israeli soldiers during a Hanukkah candle lighting event.

He didn’t elaborate further and didn’t provide any evidence to support his assessment.

The defense minister’s remark comes as the Israeli forces intensify attacks in the northern and southern Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military said earlier Friday that approximately 450 targets in Gaza were struck over the past day – the highest number reported since the end of the truce a week ago.

3:41 p.m. ET, December 8, 2023

Dozens of suspects arrested in Gaza taken to Israel for interrogation, IDF spokesperson says

From Tamar Michaelis

Dozens of suspects who were arrested by Israel's forces in Gaza over the past 48 hours have been taken to Israel for interrogation, IDF spokesperson rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Friday.

“We eliminate many terrorists, and gradually see more terrorists who surrender during the battles, and turn themselves over to our forces," Hagari said during his daily briefing. Over the past 48 hours we have arrested over 200 suspects, dozens of them were taken to Israeli territory for interrogation."

Hagari said the Israeli military is in an “intensive stage” of its ground operation in Gaza.

“Our troops are operating in the hearts of Hamas’s centers of gravity, in the northern and southern Gaza Strip simultaneously […] We conduct fierce fights against Hamas terrorists who hide underground and come up due to the activity of our forces,” he added.

3:17 p.m. ET, December 8, 2023

"All of us are losing our credibility" due to the war in Gaza, Jordanian foreign minister says

From CNN's Jennifer Hansler

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi speaks during a news conference about the Israel-Hamas war, and pressure to reduce civilian casualties, on December 8, in Washington, DC. Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi reiterated his call for the passage of a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza "because the message is, if they do not, it is simply an endorsement of what Israel is doing."

"And what Israel has been doing is simply killing people, destroying their livelihoods, denying them food and water, jeopardizing the security of the whole region, undermining the interest of its own allies in our part of the world, hurting its own people by contributing to an environment in which it will deny its own people to live in peace," Safadi told CNN's Jim Sciutto on "CNN Newsroom" on Max.

Safadi said Israel has not been adhering to the red lines that the US has described for post-war Gaza.

Asked if the US is losing its credibility among its Arab allies, Safadi said, "all of us are losing our credibility."

"We are losing credibility in front of our people because our own people are looking at us and saying, 'OK, you're demanding that Israel stop. It's not. The whole international community has failed to act in any meaningful manner to stop the massacre,'" he said. "So, everybody's losing credibility. Moderation is losing credibility. The camp of peace is losing credibility. So, that is a danger with which we were going to have to reckon at some point or the other."

2:49 p.m. ET, December 8, 2023

Arab ministers reiterate call for immediate ceasefire and denounce countries for failing to do so

From CNN's Jennifer Hansler

The delegation of Arab ministers set to meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday afternoon reiterated their call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and cast aspersions on members of the international community — like the United States — for failing to advocate for one.

"One of the disturbing factors of this conflict is that ending the conflict, ending the fighting, doesn't seem to be the main priority for the international community, or at least this is something of dispute," Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud said at a news conference in Washington DC.

The top Saudi diplomat was joined by counterparts from Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and the Palestinian Authority.

They strongly condemned the Israeli offensive, with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi saying it was "jeopardizing not just the security of the region, it's jeopardizing the standing of the United States and other Western friends of ours in our region."

"It is also creating an environment in the region where the amount of hatred that's growing by the day, as a result of what we see unfolding in Gaza, is undoing 30 years of work that we all have invested in to normalize the idea of peace," Safadi said. "So basically, Israel is also killing faith, not just in the peace process, but in the possibility of having peace and that is not in the interest of Israel."

The foreign ministers said they were not willing to discuss the "day after" solely in the context of Gaza, but rather in the context of a Palestinian state.

The delegation also advocated strongly for the passage of the UN Security Council resolution led by the United Arab Emirates that calls for a ceasefire, which the US is poised to veto.

"Our pitch is that people are dying. Innocent people are dying. Innocent children are dying. And that needs to stop. That's a very clear message, I think," the Saudi foreign minister said when asked about the message to Blinken in light of the likely veto.

"If the Security Council fails to adopt a resolution that's simply calling for a humanitarian pause, then it is giving Israel a license to continue with its massacre of Palestinians in Gaza," Safadi said. "All of us are seeing very unequivocally that resolution must be adopted, and action must be taken to curb Israel's aggression on the Palestinians."

2:42 p.m. ET, December 8, 2023

2 Israeli soldiers severely injured during operation to rescue Gaza hostages, IDF says

From Tamar Michaelis

Two Israeli soldiers were severely injured during an operation overnight to rescue hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Friday.

They are hospitalized in Soroka Medical Center in southern Israel and their condition remains "severely injured," a spokesperson for the hospital said Friday.

No hostages were rescued in the operation, the IDF said.

“During the operation, numerous terrorists who took part in the abducting and holding of hostages were killed,” the IDF claimed.

The military did not specify where in Gaza the operation took place.

The IDF said it continues “to operate in a variety of operational and intelligence methods, together with security organizations, in order to release the hostages, and to collect relevant information."

On October 31, an Israeli soldier who was abducted by Hamas was rescued in a special Israeli military operation, the IDF announced then.

2:49 p.m. ET, December 8, 2023

UN Security Council "complicit in the ongoing slaughter" in Gaza, Doctors Without Borders says

From CNN’s Catherine Nicholls

The “inaction” of the United Nations Security Council amidst the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has made the organization “complicit in the ongoing slaughter” in the strip, according to Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

“To date, the inaction of the United Nations Security Council and vetoes from member states, particularly the United States, make them complicit in the ongoing slaughter,” said in a statement Friday. “This inaction has given license to the mass killing of men, women and children.”

The UN Security Council is set to vote Friday on a resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. The emergency vote follows pressure from Secretary-General António Guterres, who invoked the UN Charter's rare Article 99.

The charity said that since the temporary truce between Israel and Hamas ended at the end of November, its staff had witnessed “a resumption of indiscriminate killing and of forced displacement on a staggering scale and intensity” in Gaza.

Israel said it tries to mitigate harm to civilians in its pursuit of Hamas, which it accuses of hiding behind civilian infrastructure, including hospitals. Hamas denies the claim.

“Repeated assurances from both the United States and Israel that this war is being waged on combatants alone runs counter to what we see on the ground,” MSF said.
“People have nowhere to go; they have been bombed in the north, south and at the Rafah border. This cruel system does not spare civilians,” the group continued.

2:49 p.m. ET, December 8, 2023

Israel's UN ambassador says eliminating Hamas — not a ceasefire — is the only way to peace

From CNN's Jennifer Z. Deaton

Gilad Erdan, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, speaks during special event to address sexual violence during Hamas terror attack on October 7 held at UN Headquarters in New York on December 4. Lev Radin/Sipa USA/Getty Images

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations told the Security Council on Friday that calling for a Gaza ceasefire would only extend the war, and the only option for peace is to eliminate Hamas.

Ambassador Gilad Erdan opened his remarks with a not-so-subtle jab at UN chief António Guterres for his invocation of the rarely used Article 99 of the UN charter to convene the vote, saying that despite wars in Ukraine, Yemen and Syria in recent years, none had prompted the same response by the secretary general.

"Despite the immense global impact of other conflicts and far more pressing threats to international peace and security, Israel's defensive war against Hamas — a designated terrorist organization — was the catalyst for activating Article 99. The irony is, that regional stability and the security of both Israelis and Gazans can only be achieved once Hamas is eliminated, not one minute before. So the true path to ensure peace is only through supporting Israel's mission, absolutely not to call for a ceasefire," Erdan said.

He also blamed Hamas for breaking the ceasefire multiple times. First, he said, was when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, and then several times during the seven-day humanitarian pause. During the pause, he said rockets were launched, and the parameters of the hostage release deal — including that all women and children be released and that children not be separated from their children — were not met.

He also said Hamas terrorized Israelis and Gazans alike.

"Hamas is responsible for inhumane terror against Israelis. Hamas is responsible for ruling Gaza with an iron fist, forcing Gazans to live in poverty, deprived of basic human rights." Erdan continued. "And calling for a ceasefire is precisely what ensures that this will continue. A ceasefire means that the suffering of all will carry all. A ceasefire cements Hamas' control of Gaza."

Erdan said his hope was "that we will see Hamas defeated soon so that both Israelis and Gazan can leave freely, free of violence and free of fear."

He also vowed that Israel would continue with its mission, which includes "the elimination of Hamas' terror capabilities and the return of all of the hostages."

"And we will complete our mission while supporting every humanitarian initiative, every humanitarian initiative to improve the situation for Gazans. Whoever truly seeks peace and security in the region must understand that the only way to truly achieve this is by destroying Hamas. Not by calling for a ceasefire which will only extend the war and the suffering of all. There is no other option," Erdan said in closing.