January 20, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

Buildings belonging to Al-Israa University, south of Gaza City, were damaged on Wednesday when it was allegedly struck by Israeli warplanes, according to WAFA, the Palestinian news agency.  

The university condemned the incident, calling it a “barbaric aggression."

All universities in Gaza have now been destroyed or at least damaged, WAFA said.  

CNN has asked the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for a response to these claims and has geolocated images of damage to the university that matches its location. The IDF has not yet responded.

Buildings housing the graduate and undergraduate studies were struck, the university claimed, as well as the National Museum, which the university said it had licensed with the Ministry of Antiquities containing over 3,000 rare artifacts.

The university claims the IDF looted artifacts “before blowing up the museum building to cover up the traces of their crime.” CNN has asked the IDF about this claim and is waiting for a response. CNN cannot independently verify this claim by the university.

While the US said on Thursday it does not have independent information to verify Wednesday's alleged incident, it urged Israel to “avoid damage to critical infrastructure – that would, of course, include universities – and to ensure the protection of humanitarian and medical sites," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

The current Israel-Hamas conflict has left nearly three times more people dead in Gaza than in the last 15 years combined, according to a report from United Nations Women, the organization's gender equality entity.

The statistics released Friday say more than 24,620 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the latest war began with Hamas' attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.

The UN's death toll also reflects the number released by the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza. CNN cannot independently verify these numbers due to the challenges of reporting from the war zone.

The report specifically analyzed the war's impact on women. According to the data:

Earlier Friday, the UN International Children's Emergency Fund said there had been nearly 20,000 births in Gaza during the current war — with many of the mothers suffering or dying in childbirth due to a lack of resources, and newborns facing dismal conditions.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Joe Biden in a phone call Friday that public comments he made on Thursday, in which he appeared to reject the idea of creating a Palestinian state, were not meant to foreclose the possibility of a Palestinian state in any form, a person familiar with the conversation tells CNN.

Biden and Netanyahu discussed the possible attributes of a future Palestinian state in a "detailed" and "serious" conversation, the person said.

Biden administration officials have recently discussed the possibility of a future demilitarized Palestinian state, an idea Biden finds "intriguing," the person added.

What Netanyahu said Thursday: Netanyahu said in a news conference that "Israel needs security control over all territory west of Jordan" in any future arrangement reached after the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

"This clashes with the idea of (Palestinian) sovereignty. What can you do?" he asked.

Those comments were widely understood as a rejection of the idea of creating a Palestinian state — the central component of a two-state solution to the conflict, which Biden has long supported and advocated for.

A 17-year-old Palestinian American was fatally shot Friday in the town of Al-Mazra'a Al-Sharqiya in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian news agency WAFA, citing local sources.   

Tawfiq Hafiz Ajjaq was shot in the head and was taken to Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah, where he was in critical condition but later died, WAFA said, citing medical sources at the hospital.   

The Israel Defense Forces and Israeli police told CNN it received a report that an off-duty police officer and an Israeli civilian fired toward a “Palestinian individual suspected of hurling rocks in the area of Al-Mazra'a ash-Sharqiya.”   

An IDF soldier was also present in the area, the IDF said in a statement to CNN.

“The claim that the soldier fired at the Palestinian is under review,” the statement said.  

Israel’s police have opened an investigation into the incident, the IDF and Israeli police told CNN.  

Tawfiq had been living abroad for almost a year and a half before returning to the West Bank, according to WAFA.  

Al-Mazra'a Al-Sharqiya is a town where many Palestinian-Americans live.

The US is "seriously concerned" about reports of the shooting, though information is "scant at this time," John Kirby, US National Security Council spokesperson, said in a Friday briefing.

CNN has reached out to the US Embassy in Jerusalem and the US Office of Palestinian Affairs in Jerusalem for comment.

“I’m so scared for Motaz.”

“I hope Motaz is okay.”

“Pray for Motaz.”

These are some of the comments from one of Motaz 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, a medical student in California who asked to go by her first name for safety reasons, is one of the many followers who refer 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.

Like millions of others around the world, Noor is witnessing the war in Gaza through the eyes of Palestinians who are sharing their daily realities on social media. Through their posts on Instagram, X and other platforms, these citizen journalists are putting a face to the conflict, giving outsiders an intimate look at the human costs of war from the perspective of people who live there. In return, their followers are developing strong emotional connections with them.

Kanwal Ahmed, a filmmaker and storyteller in Toronto, has a similar opinion.

Read the full story about the Palestinians documenting the daily realities of war.

Israeli, Palestinian and Middle Eastern foreign ministers will travel to Brussels on Monday to meet with their European Union counterparts.

Foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and the secretary general of the Arab League are also scheduled to attend what a high-ranking EU official called a "complex ballet" of meetings.

The EU official told journalists in Brussels during a background briefing on Friday that the aim of the invitation was to have "a full discussion with all the participants — the Israelis, the Palestinians, the Arabs," adding that it could more precisely define "a policy position for the European Union."

The official detailed that Josep Borell, the EU’s chief diplomat, has tabled a series of objectives for Monday’s discussions, which include an independent Palestinian state, ironclad guarantees for Israel, and a full normalization of relations between Israel with the Arab countries.

The official also pointed to a two-state solution as "a reasonable, legitimate and achievable objective."

A senior EU diplomat, in a separate briefing to journalists, acknowledged there would be no concrete outcomes from the meetings but said that “going forward and in any solution, either for Gaza specifically or for the broader peace process that should lead to a two-state solution, the role of our Arab friends is crucial.”

Thousands of babies have been born "into hell" in Gaza, while mothers are forced to undergo caesarean sections without anesthetics — and in some cases have to be discharged from the hospital just a few hours after the operation, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund said Friday. 

There have been nearly 20,000 births in Gaza since the conflict began on October 7 of last year, UNICEF said. The mothers and their newborns face desperate aid shortages and the widespread Israeli bombardment in Gaza.

Some mothers have bled to death, and other women have been unable to deliver their stillborn babies because medical workers are overwhelmed, UNICEF said.

Ingram said staff at the overwhelmed Emirati Hospital in southern Gaza were forced to discharge mothers "within three hours of a caesarean," a situation that she said was "beyond belief and requires immediate action."

CNN is not able to independently verify the claims made by UNICEF because of difficulties in gaining access to hospitals and other impacted areas of Gaza. 

US President Joe Biden spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, one day after the Israeli leader appeared to reject the idea of creating a Palestinian state, a comment that would put him at odds with Biden’s position. 

Biden relayed “his vision for a more durable peace and security for Israel, fully integrated within the region, and a two-state solution with Israel’s security guaranteed” during their first phone call of the year, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Friday.

CNN reported Thursday that US officials would not allow Netanyahu's apparent rejection to stop them from pressing the matter with their Israeli counterparts.

Communications services in Gaza are gradually being restored following the longest near-total blackout since the start of the war, the Palestinian Telecommunications Company said in a statement Friday. 

The latest outage, which reached a one-week mark on Thursday, was the ninth such outage since Israel’s war against Hamas began on October 7, 2023, according to the internet monitoring site NetBlocks. 

The communications company did not indicate how long it would take for full services to return in Gaza, or if that is even possible.

The company also said that two members of its technical team died during a recent repair operation, bringing the total number of company employees killed since the start of the war to 14.