Latest news on Gaza conflict

The number of hostages held by Hamas is currently at 240, according to Daniel Hagari, spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces.

“As I say this, the number has risen to 240, since as I have explained, identification is complex,” Hagari said in a press briefing Tuesday morning.

“Some of the hostages are not Israeli citizens, and the process is complex. It takes time, and the number currently stands at 240 — we have updated the families of 240 hostages.”

Militant group Hamas captured the hostages on Oct. 7 as part of its terror attack in southern Israel and took them to the Gaza Strip. Israel has previously said it will not end its siege of the area, imposed following the attack, until the hostages are freed.

— Katrina Bishop

The Israeli military is focusing its operations in the northern part of the Gaza strip but attacking “all parts” of the territory, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Jonathan Conricus said in an overnight update.

“We will focus our activities in the northern part of Gaza, that is the center of gravity of Hamas … but we are also continuing to strike in other parts of Gaza, we are hunting their commanders, we are attacking their infrastructure,” he said, noting that Israel had sent heavily armored vehicles, tanks and bulldozers into the strip.

This equipment is enhanced with “special engineering constructions to face threats that they’re going to face inside the densely populated urban terrain,” he noted.

The IDF is simultaneously engaged in combat with Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, with whom it has traded fire since the early days of its conflict against Hamas.

“What is important here is for the state of Lebanon to understand that they stand to lose almost everything and gain absolutely nothing by allowing Hezbollah to drag them into a war,” Conricus said.

Addressing the exacerbating humanitarian crisis in the heavily bombarded and resource-deprived Gaza Strip, he said: “As days go by, I think we will be ramping up the facilitation of humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip. We do understand that the situation there is difficult, but this isn’t our doing, and this isn’t what we wanted.”

Human rights groups and the U.N. have repeatedly called for a humanitarian cease-fire to allow food, water, fuel and medical resources to reach the Palestinian population through the Rafah crossing that bridges the Gaza Strip and Egypt. U.N. officials have said that the current number of trucks able to reach the civilians of the strip represents “a trickle” compared with their actual needs.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Rescued hostage Ori Megidish, a private in the Israel Defense Forces, has been able to supply information to the military on the location and conditions of her detainment by Hamas, IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus told MSNBC in a TV interview.

He confirmed that Megidish is now “safe with her family” after being rescued during an Israeli ground operation conducted in the Gaza Strip.

“This was the first of the hostages that was freed in such a way,” Conricus said.

Another 238 captives remain held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, following the group’s terror attacks of Oct. 7. Four other people were released by the Palestinian militant organization following negotiations.

Conricus said that the IDF is “committed to bringing all the people home,” but qualified this as a “very daunting task.”

Analysts have previously noted that the number of hostages will offer Hamas a strong bargaining chip in the event of an Israeli ground incursion. Hamas officials have said a ceasefire must be agreed before captives are released.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Japan has slapped fresh financial sanctions on individuals and a company believed to be linked to Palestinian militant group Hamas, the foreign ministry said in a Google-translated statement on Tuesday.

Among the newly sanctioned are individuals believed to be affiliated with the Hamas political bureau and its investment and financial operations, along with one of the group’s top commanders, Ayman Nofal, which the Israeli military previously reported it had killed.

This is the first set of sanctions Japan has applied against Hamas and Hamas-affiliated individuals since the terror attacks of Oct. 7.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said that there is “no threat” and “no danger” in Eliat, a town in the south of the country, following earlier reports of a “hostile aircraft” in the area.

“Further to the initial report, the IDF systems detected an aerial target approaching the territory of the State of Israel. There is no threat and there is no danger,” Hagari said on social media, according to a Google translation.

Around 30 minutes earlier, he had said a warning had been activated “about the intrusion of a hostile aircraft in the Eilat area.”

— Katrina Bishop

The chief of the World Health Organization has spoken out against antisemitism and Islamophobia, amid a rise in protests and deepening divides since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

“Hatred is not an expression of views, it’s a poison that divides and diminishes us. Increasing acts of antisemitism are deeply concerning and have no place in our society,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on social media.

“We must express our opinions with respect and empathy, leaving no room for antisemitism, Islamophobia or bigotry of any kind.”

His comments come after support of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip led to a wave of protests and demonstrations around the world. The enclave has been under Israeli siege since early October in response to the Oct. 7 terror attacks carried out by Hamas.

On Sunday, an anti-Israel mob stormed an airport in the Russian republic of Dagestan, looking for passengers who arrived on a flight from Tel Aviv.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Consul General of Israel to the U.S. Midwest Yinam Cohen said that freed hostage Natalie Raanan has returned home to Chicago.

“Her family members have been anxiously waiting for her return, and today I am sharing their happiness,” he said on social media.

“While we’re celebrating Natalie’s return, we remember the 239 hostages, among them babies, children, women, and the elderly, who are still held by Hamas in Gaza.”

Natalie Raanan and her mother Judith were taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, as they visited Israel. They were staying in the kibbutz Nahal Oz, which was stormed by the militant group.

They were released on Friday, Oct. 20, after nearly two weeks of captivity.

— Katrina Bishop

The armed wing of Hamas, Al-Qassam Brigades, fired anti-tank missiles against Israel’s forces early on Tuesday, according to a Hamas-affiliated outlet on social media.

The report said clashes had escalated in the northwest Gaza axis, according to a Google translation, as well as two tanks and bulldozers being targeted in the same area.

—Matt Clinch

Israeli military struck 300 targets of Palestinian militant group Hamas during ground operations undertaken in the past day, the Israel Defense Forces said in a social media update.

Targets included infrastructure, anti-tank missiles posts, rocket launch posts and Hamas compounds. The military also hit Hamas operatives, the IDF said.

CNBC could not independently verify developments on the ground. The IDF’s stated goal is to strip away the military capabilities of Hamas.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has no plans to resign, despite a public uproar over the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas raid that killed over 1,400 Israelis and sparked the current Israel-Hamas war.

Netanyahu was asked at a news conference Monday if he has considered stepping down.
“The only thing that I intend to have resigned is Hamas. We’re going to resign them to the dustbin of history,” he said. “That’s my goal. That’s my responsibility.”

Netanyahu also said he would not agree to a cease-fire, saying it would be tantamount “to surrender to Hamas, to surrender to terrorism, to surrender to barbarism. That will not happen.”
He said Hamas was responsible for the high death toll in Gaza, accusing the group of using civilians as human shields.

The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war has reached 8,306, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, more than 110 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids.

— Associated Press

The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees is warning that “an immediate humanitarian cease-fire has become a matter of life and death for millions,” stressing that “the present and future of Palestinians and Israelis depend on it.”

Philippe Lazzarini warned during an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council Monday that a further breakdown of civil order, following the recent break-ins at the agency’s warehouses by panicked Palestinians searching for food and other aid, will make it extremely difficult for the largest U.N. agency in Gaza to continue operating.

He said in a virtual briefing that he is worried about a spillover of the conflict and urged all 193 U.N. member nations “to change the trajectory of this crisis.”

The commissioner-general of the agency known as UNRWA, also said 64 of its staff have been killed in just over three weeks — the latest only two hours prior when UNRWA’s head of security in mid-Gaza was killed with his wife and eight children.

Lazzarini said most Palestinians in Gaza “feel trapped in a war they have nothing to do with” and “they feel the world is equating all of them to Hamas.” He stressed that the Oct. 7 Hamas atrocities in Israel don’t absolve Israel from its obligations under international humanitarian law, starting with the protection of civilians.

— Associated Press

Israel has warned its citizens to leave the northern Caucasus after a mob stormed an airport in Russia’s Dagestan region when a flight from Israel landed there.

Hundreds of men, some carrying banners with antisemitic slogans, rushed onto the tarmac of the airport in Makhachkala, the capital of the predominantly Muslim region, on Sunday night, looking for Israeli passengers on the flight from Tel Aviv, according to Russian news reports.

The attack seemed to be partly fueled by anger at Israel’s actions in Gaza, where it has been at war with Hamas following a deadly incursion by the militant group earlier this month. Several people in the mob were waving Palestinian flags.

More than 20 people were wounded, with two in critical condition, and police made 60 arrests.

Israel raised its travel warning level to 4, the highest level, calling on citizens to avoid all travel to Dagestan and neighboring regions, and for those who are there to leave as soon as possible.

— Associated Press

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby was asked during a press briefing to confirm reports that the U.S. was involved in convincing Israel to restore internet and communication services on the Gaza Strip after it was plunged into darkness Friday night, NBC News reported.

“I would just tell you that we’re glad to see that the internet connectivity was restored,” Kirby said,

Later he confirmed, “yes, we were part of the conversations that led to that restoration.”

The Gaza Strip was plunged into darkness Friday night as Palestinians lost access to internet and communication. Large explosions could be seen lighting up the night sky as Israel stepped up bombardment.

Communication services were slowly restored on Sunday.

— Riya Bhattacharjee

Israeli officials are going back on their promised refusal to grant entry visas to U.N. officials.

Martin Griffiths, the head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, tweeted Monday that he was in Israel — less than a week after Israel’s U.N. ambassador said it had “refused” to grant Griffiths a visa.

Israeli officials had expressed outrage over comments last Wednesday by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that the deadly Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants “did not happen in a vacuum.”

Gilad Erdan, Israel’s U.N. ambassador, accused Guterres on Israel’s Army Radio of justifying a slaughter, called for his resignation and said Israel would “refuse to grant visas to U.N. representatives.”

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Guterres stood by his remarks.

On Monday, Israel’s ambassador in Geneva, Meirav Eilon Shahar, said, “We haven’t said categorically that we’re not giving visas. We are … We understand their need to be there.”

Eilon Shahar confirmed that Griffiths was in Israel, as well as other officials, including Han Kluge, the regional head of the World Health Organization.

But she continued to voice Israel’s frustration that U.N. institution chiefs didn’t speak out more forcefully against Hamas militants for “butchering civilians and women in such a vicious way.”

“The United Nations has let down the people of Israel,” Eilon Shahar added. “When I say the United Nations, I’m talking about the multilateral organizations have let down the people of Israel.”

— Associated Press