January 5, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

Our live coverage of Israel's war against Hamas has moved here.

Nearly three months into Israel's military onslaught against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, divisions within its wartime government have become increasingly public.

Some of Israel’s leading politicians publicly feuded Friday after what one source described as a “fight” in a security cabinet meeting over how to handle investigations into the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

There have also been public disagreements about the post-war plan for Gaza.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant outlined a vision Thursday that envisages no Hamas control of the enclave and no presence of Israeli citizens. The plan was criticized by the country's far-right finance minister, who has championed the idea of a Palestinian exodus from Gaza. The minister called for renewed Israeli settlement construction in Gaza and the "voluntary migration" of its civilians.

Here's what else you need to know today:

Famine "around the corner" in Gaza: People in Gaza face the "highest levels of food insecurity ever recorded," according to Martin Griffiths, the United Nations' top emergency relief official. Gaza is "a place of death and despair," Griffiths said Friday, as hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians live without access to basic necessities in the tent camps packing southern Gaza.

Satellite images taken Wednesday and published today show the extent of the crowding there.

Deadly Israeli airstrikes: Several Israeli airstrikes on Khan Younis in southern Gaza left at least 12 people dead Friday, according to a statement from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah.

Elsewhere, at least 10 Palestinians were killed in the area of the Al-Maghazi refugee camp, according to a doctor at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. The doctor added that a separate airstrike on a house in Deir al-Balah killed three people and left seven wounded. CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment on the strikes.

Major diplomatic visits: Two key visits from Western officials this weekend come as leaders in the Middle East warn of the potential for an expanded regional conflict stemming from the Israel-Hamas war.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Turkey for the first stop in a multi-country tour. His visit will focus on indirect, back-channel diplomacy with Iran, which backs the Houthi rebels in Yemen and Hezbollah paramilitary group in Lebanon — two key players in the region's inflamed tensions.

Meanwhile, the European Union's foreign policy chief is in Lebanon to discuss the situation at its border with Israel, which is the site of regular clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli troops.

More on the Iranian proxy groups: Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah claimed Friday that many Israeli troops have been killed or wounded during the ongoing clashes, which he says are aimed "to mount pressure on the enemy government and to stop the assault on Gaza."  

Meanwhile, in Yemen, Houthi supporters gathered Friday to commemorate fighters killed by the US Navy in the Red Sea on December 31.

Tunnel discovery: Israel’s military released a video Friday showing one of what it says are seven tunnel shafts underneath the Blue Beach resort along the Mediterranean Sea in northern Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces accuses Hamas of using the tunnel system to carry out "attacks both above and below ground." CNN cannot independently verify the IDF's claims.

Israel’s military is expected to launch an operational investigation to learn from its “failures” and apply those lessons to future security challenges, said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari said at a news briefing on Friday, without specifying what the investigation process would focus on.

He said that an internal investigation would be conducted within the chain of command, and another investigation would be carried out alongside it by former senior officials to “externally reflect on the processes and decision-making.”

Hagari added that the IDF has not yet started the investigation process, but the General Staff of the IDF is “formulating the process of planning the investigations” and choosing the leaders of the operational investigation, according to the IDF’s English translation of his comments.

He also said the probe would be similar to another investigation the military recently conducted into the deaths of three Israeli hostages mistakenly shot by the IDF’s soldiers.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has arrived in Lebanon to discuss the situation at the country’s border with Israel, an EU spokesperson told CNN on Friday. 

Borrell will be in Lebanon through Sunday to discuss the “situation in and around Gaza, including its impact on the region, especially the situation at the Israeli-Lebanese border, as well as the importance of avoiding regional escalation and of sustaining the flow of humanitarian assistance to civilians,” the EU said in a news release.

Some context: The visit comes after top Israeli officials told a visiting US envoy Thursday that time is running low to address security on its border with Lebanon.

Tensions with Iran-backed Hezbollah were further inflamed this week by the killing of a senior Hamas leader in Beirut, raising the fear of broader conflicts in the region.

There have been near-constant skirmishes between Israel and Hezbollah, the militant group that dominates southern Lebanon, since Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel and the ensuing Israeli offensive in Gaza.

Israel’s military released a video Friday showing one of what it says are seven tunnel shafts underneath the Blue Beach resort along the Mediterranean in northern Gaza.

The Israel Defense Forces accuses Hamas of using the tunnel system to carry out "attacks both above and below ground."

The tunnel shafts, which run underground near the beach, also house "terrorist quarters," the IDF claimed in a statement.   

The military also said it discovered an array of weapons beneath the hotel, including AK-47 assault rifles, explosives and drones.

The IDF claims several Hamas militants fired anti-tank missiles at its forces from the hotel while they were battling for the tunnels.   

CNN cannot independently verify the IDF's claims.  

About Gaza's tunnels: One of the key challenges facing the Israeli military is the labyrinth of Hamas tunnels that it says spans the entirety of the strip.

The underground network, known as the "Gaza metro," is used to transport people and goods, store rockets and ammunition caches, and house Hamas command and control centers — all away from the prying eyes of the IDF’s aircraft and surveillance drones.

Hamas in 2021 claimed to have built 500 kilometers (about 311 miles) worth of tunnels under Gaza, though it is unclear if that figure was accurate or posturing.

During its ongoing offensive in the enclave, the Israeli military claims it has destroyed hundreds of tunnel shafts and discovered many more.

CNN's Nadeen Ebrahim and Joshua Berlinger contributed reporting to this post.

Gaza is Palestinian land and its future is not up to Israel to decide, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told CNN on Friday, after two Israeli ministers called for resettling Gazans outside of the enclave. 

Such calls are “irresponsible” and “brings us away from a solution,” Colonna said, adding that such rhetoric is also against the long-term interests of Israel.

She stressed her support for the two-state solution.

“Gaza is Palestinian land, which wants to become part of the future Palestinian state. We support the two-state solution, which is the only viable option,” she said. “Gaza and the West Bank must together be part of the future Palestinian state.”

France is committed to avoiding any further escalation of the situation by all sides, including in neighboring areas such as Lebanon and the Red Sea, according to Colonna.

It’s the obligation for a democratic country like Israel to follow international law and protect the civilian population while exercising its rights of self-defense, she said. “[Civilians] are not responsible for the crimes and must be protected,” Colonna said. 

Famine is "around the corner" as people in Gaza face the "highest levels of food insecurity ever recorded," according to Martin Griffiths, the United Nations' top emergency relief official.

Griffiths says Gaza has become "a place of death and despair," saying in a news release published Friday that the death toll has reached the tens of thousands, medical facilities are under attack and there is a lack of functioning hospitals.

"Hope has never been more elusive," Griffiths wrote in the report, which was released by the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs almost three months since Hamas launched its attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

A public health disaster is unfolding as sewers spill over and infectious diseases spread in overcrowded shelters, Griffiths said. Around 180 Palestinian women "are giving birth daily amidst this chaos," the UN official added.

"Meanwhile, rocket attacks on Israel continue, more than 120 people are still held hostage in Gaza, tensions in the West Bank are boiling, and the specter of further regional spillover of the war is looming dangerously close," he added.

Fears of a broader war in the Middle East, spurred on by incidents involving Iranian proxy groups like the Houthi rebels in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon, are a key focus of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's current trip to the region.

Griffiths urged all involved in the ongoing war to observe international law, "including to protect civilians and meet their essential needs, and to release all hostages immediately." He called on the international community to use all its influence to help make this happen.

"This war should never have started. But it’s long past time for it to end," Griffiths said. 

Satellite imagery provider Maxar has published a new image showing how crowded one part of Rafah in southern Gaza has become, as people move to the area from central and northern parts of the territory.

The image, taken on January 3, shows an area in Rafah — close to the Egyptian border — now filling up with tents and other improvised shelters.

Here's what the area looked like in November 2023:

Here's what the area looks like as of January 2024:

The war that began on October 7 has displaced at least 1.93 million people in Gaza, according to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Thousands of families have moved multiple times as Israel’s offensive has moved to new areas. 

Palestinians have told CNN about sky-high prices for food, with children going hungry, a lack of sanitation and densely crowded surroundings.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Turkey on Friday – the first stop in his whirlwind tour through the region to try to deter a wider conflict and press Israel on its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.

The top US diplomat will hold a series of meetings in Istanbul on Saturday. He is expected to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

When Blinken last traveled to Turkey in November, he did not meet with the Turkish leader but met with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, for two and a half hours.

Turkey hosts Hamas leadership, and Erdogan has been outspoken against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the war in Gaza.

Indirect back-channeling to Iran to try to deter a wider conflict in the Middle East will also be a key focus of Blinken's trip to the region, a senior State Department official said Friday.

The top US diplomat will make clear to the leaders with whom he meets that the US does not want to see the conflict escalate nor do they intend to escalate it. The US expects that message to then be conveyed to Iran and Iranian proxies through the countries that have a relationship with them, the official said.

The US has sought to distinguish between defensive and escalatory actions amid an immense uptick in attacks on US personnel by Iranian-backed proxies in Iraq and aggression by Iranian-backed Houthis in the Red Sea.

Efforts to back-channel with Iran — through partners as well as competitors like China — have been happening since the early days of the war in Gaza.

More on Blinken's trip: The secretary of state will also travel to Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank, Egypt, and Greece. It is Blinken's fourth trip to the region since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.