March 26, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

Our live coverage for the day has ended. Follow the latest Israel-Hamas war news or read through the updates below.

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan is meeting again with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for the second time in as many days, the White House said Tuesday, as the Biden administration continues to urge Israel to do more to stem the flow of civilian casualties in Gaza.

“We remain committed to supporting Israel in its fight against Hamas, which has said it wants to repeat October 7 again and again until Israel is annihilated, because we cannot expect Israel to accept a situation in which their citizens continue to live under active threat,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters traveling with Biden on Tuesday.

“At the same time…it is critical that Israel do whatever possible to prevent civilian casualties and to conduct operations as strategically and precisely as possible and target operations to protect civilians, including in Rafah,” she continued.

She said the Tuesday meeting between the two officials is an extension “because they believed it was important to continue the conversation.”

Some background: Following Monday’s meeting, Jean-Pierre said the national security adviser “welcomed Minister Gallant’s commitment to take additional steps to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.” The Monday meeting with Gallant took on renewed importance after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu abruptly pulled a planned delegation to the US to discuss operations in Rafah, citing the US’ abstention vote in a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. 

A senior US defense official said Tuesday that there has been a “significant increase” in the amount of aid flowing into Gaza through various crossings, resulting in nearly 200 trucks coming in a day. 

“[W]e are now seeing a rather significant increase in the flow of assistance through the many crossings that it does use — the Rafah crossing, the Kerem Shalom crossing, a new crossing 96 that Israel has opened,” the official said.

While aid was coming in at roughly 100 trucks a day in February, “it’s on its way back up to an average of close to 200 a day,” the official added. 

“There’s definitely still more to be done. We are contributing with airdrops, we are contributing with the maritime corridor we are addressing we are also — and the Secretary did today — urging continued maximum flow through the crossing, the land crossing points I mentioned, and others,” the official said. “And so we see results but we also see the need for significantly more results.”

Hamas has called on Western countries to end airdrops of aid into Gaza, warning that the humanitarian delivery method is “offensive, wrong, inappropriate and useless.” 

Earlier, CNN spoke to witnesses who said at least 12 people drowned off the northern coast of Gaza on Monday after swimming out to try to retrieve packages airdropped into the sea by an unknown country.

“We call for an end to the operations of landing aid in this offensive, wrong, inappropriate and useless manner,” the Hamas government said Tuesday.

Hamas has from the outset been critical of airdrops, describing them as “useless” and “not the best way to bring aid in.” On Tuesday, they called for further land crossings to be opened “immediately” to allow more substantial aid deliveries.

Israel has denied claims it is limiting aid into Gaza, telling CNN in a previous statement that the country “assists, encourages and facilitates” the entry of aid into the enclave. Despite Israel’s claims, the United Nations has repeatedly warned that Gaza is edging closer to famine, and said countries should pressure Israel to loosen its controls on aid entry.

At least 18 people, including nine children some of whom were just two years old, were killed after Israel struck residential areas in Rafah overnight into Tuesday, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported.

Others were also injured in shelling near Al-Nasr neighborhood, northeast of the city of Rafah, according to Palestinian state news agency WAFA.

CNN asked the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment on its activity in Rafah. The IDF said it was looking into the incident.

Death toll climbs: The total death toll in Gaza since October 7 now stands at 32,414, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported Tuesday with a further 74,787 people injured.

It said that 81 people were killed over the past 24 hours in the war-torn enclave. CNN cannot independently verify these numbers.

At least 12 Gazans drowned on Monday off the coast near Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza, as they were trying to retrieve airdropped parcels that had landed in the sea, Palestinian paramedics said.

Footage obtained by CNN shows hundreds of Palestinians rushing to the site of the aid drop, with some venturing into the sea as parcels crashed down on the shores of Gaza. In one graphic scene, several dead bodies are shown, with some civilians performing CPR in a desperate attempt to resuscitate them.

Abu Mohammad, who witnessed the incident, told CNN the aid was dropped almost one kilometer off the coast into the sea, after which multiple men “who don’t know how to swim drowned” and died while trying to obtain the aid. 

“There was strong currents and all the parachutes fell in the water. People want to eat and are hungry,” he said. “I haven’t been able to receive anything. The youth can run and get these aid (drops) but for us it’s a different story.”

It is unclear which country launched that specific airdrop. Egypt, Germany, the UK, the US, Singapore, and a joint UAE-Jordanian mission all flew airdrops over Gaza on Monday. CNN has reached out to all the ministries of defense of the countries who carried out air drops around that time and have not received official responses. 

Severe hunger in Gaza: Israel’s severe restrictions on aid entering the Gaza Strip has drained essential supplies. Humanitarian bodies including Oxfam and Human Rights Watch warned Israel is “using starvation of civilians as a weapon of war in Gaza, which is a war crime.” Israel insists there is “no limit” on the amount of aid that can enter Gaza, but its inspection regime means relief is barely trickling in.

Qatar has said there is no sign as yet that the UN Security Council resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza is having any “negative impact” on high-stakes negotiations between Israel and Hamas. 

Israeli representatives are still having meetings in Doha, amid speculation that the entire delegation had withdrawn, according to a spokesperson for Qatar, which has served as a key mediator in talks.

“We didn’t have any development that one of the teams had pulled out of the negotiations at this time,” foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari told journalists on Tuesday.

In response to a question from CNN, Al Ansari said that so far he hadn’t noticed “any negative impact” of the UN resolution on the “current negotiations.” 

Hopes for a ceasefire: Mediators were working towards a ceasefire before or during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, but gaps between Israel and Hamas over certain demands have delayed an agreement, added Ansari.

A window for a ceasefire before the Muslim holiday of Eid, the second week of April, is now closing, as both Israel and Hamas remain in disagreement over demands. 

The Israeli military struck parts of northern and southern Gaza on Tuesday, despite the UN Security Council calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave a day earlier.

Al Amal Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis was put “out of service” when Israeli troops forced health workers to evacuate, after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) encircled the facility earlier this month, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

Here are the latest developments:

A Palestinian man who was detained by the Israeli military for three days near Al-Shifa Hospital, in northern Gaza, during the IDF’s operation there, says he was forced into torture positions, spat on and threatened with execution.   

Mohammad Mershid, 25, spoke to CNN while being treated for a head injury at another hospital, Al-Asqa Martyrs Hospital, in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza. He said Israeli troops stormed a house where he was sheltering, near Al-Shifa. They separated men, women and children, and stripped detainees naked inside rooms covered with broken glass, he said. 

“They didn’t even interrogate us, they were just enjoying torturing us,” he told CNN on Sunday. “We didn’t know what was happening with our neighbors. We were all besieged and we heard screaming.

Israeli forces threatened him with execution, he says, before he was released and told to flee south along Al-Rasheed Street. Mershid escaped by scrambling over dead bodies that Israeli tanks had crushed “to the ground.” He added: “They shot everything alive, really everything. A lot of cats and dogs, even birds on the street.” 

What the IDF says: CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) about the allegations levied by Mershid. The IDF has so far not responded. The IDF previously said it detained 500 people it claims are “terrorists” during its ongoing operation at Al-Shifa Hospital, but did not provide any details of or offer any evidence about the detainees. CNN cannot independently verify the numbers.

Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s political bureau, arrived in the Iranian capital Tehran on Tuesday to convene with Iranian officials and discuss “the ongoing war in Gaza,” the militant group said in a statement.

Haniyeh and his delegation are scheduled to hold “a series of meetings and discussions with Iranian leadership, about political and on-the-ground developments” in the Gaza Strip, the statement said.

The Hamas chief, who is based in Qatar, is scheduled to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian among others, according to Iranian state news agency IRNA.

Calls for a ceasefire: It comes a day after the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Both Hamas and the Palestinian authority welcomed the resolution. The Israeli ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, criticized members for passing a measure that called for a ceasefire “without conditioning it on the release of the hostages.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanani said the move was a “positive yet insufficient step” in a statement on Tuesday, calling for “measures to put the resolution into practice,” IRNA reported.

Human rights groups: Following the UN vote on Monday, Amnesty International said Israeli authorities “must immediately halt their brutal bombing campaign in Gaza and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid.” It added that, “Civilian hostages must be immediately released.”

An Israeli airstrike late Sunday killed at least 21 Palestinians at Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, including six women and 10 children, according to the local Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. Worshipers were performing nightly taraweeh prayers around that time, one eyewitness told CNN. 

“We prayed taraweeh together with the children. Suddenly, airstrikes started bombarding the area,” said Darwish Abu Al-Khair. “I am a pediatrician, and I came here with my family seeking safety. They said Deir al-Balah is safe. Where should we go? 

Phone torches lit up the black sky over Deir al-Balah, as dozens of Palestinians scoured for survivors following the airstrike in the rubble of a blown-out residential building. 

Further south, in the city of Rafah, a barrage of Israeli airstrikes killed at least 30 civilians, including 11 women and 10 children, according to the Palestine Center for Human Rights. Eight members of the Al Kurdi family were killed after their home in the Al Jeneina neighborhood was struck at iftar time – when worshipers break their fast at sundown. 

“People were eating,” one man at the local Abu Yousef Al Najjar hospital, where bodies of the dead had arrived, told CNN. “Look around, it’s children and young people. No one got the chance to break their fast.”  

What the IDF says: Responding to CNN’s questions about the attack on Deir al-Balah, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it is “operating to dismantle Hamas military and administrative capabilities.” CNN has reached out to the IDF regarding the attacks on civilian homes in Rafah and has not yet heard back. CNN is unable to independently verify the figures due to lack of access to the Gaza Strip. 

The Al Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza is “out of service” after the Israeli military forced medical staff to evacuate the facility, Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) warned on Tuesday.

“The occupation forces forced the hospital teams to evacuate and closed its entrances with earthen barriers,” the organization said in a statement on X.

At least 27 PRCS staff and six patients were evacuated from the hospital, with help from the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs. The bodies of two people who had been killed inside the hospital were included in the evacuation.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said “troops are continuing to conduct operational activity in the areas of Al Amal and Al-Qarara, eliminating terrorists and carrying out targeted raids on terrorist infrastructure,” on Tuesday.

CNN cannot independently verify the IDF’s statement.

Israeli forces wounded displaced people sheltering at the hospital, who later died, the PRCS said on Sunday.

Remember: Hospitals are protected civilian objects under international humanitarian law. It is illegal, with few exceptions, to attack hospitals. A hospital can lose its special protected status only if it is used by an armed group for acts that are “harmful to the enemy.”

But, even if a hospital loses its special status, the wounded and sick inside are still protected by the principle of proportionality. A warning must be given, and time for safe evacuation, before carrying out an attack.

The UK carried out its first solo airdrop into Gaza on Monday, dropping over 11 tons of food aid into the besieged Palestinian enclave. 

A Royal Air Force plane flew from Amman, in Jordan, to release the aid along the northern Gaza coastline “as part of the Jordanian-led international aid mission,” the UK Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday. 

The UK stressed its commitment to ensuring that the food aid, including “water, rice, cooking oil, flour, tinned goods and baby formula,” reaches those who “need it most.” 

Aid distribution warnings: Humanitarian agencies have criticized airdrops as an inefficient and degrading way of getting aid to Gazans, urging Israeli authorities to lift controls on land crossings into the enclave.

“You’re throwing aid into the wind to people who’ve been starving and have been denied humanitarian access. This will create chaos, predictably, and we cannot blame the people for that,” the UN’s special rapporteur for food, Michael Fakhri, told journalists in Geneva earlier this month. 

There have been calls on allies of Israel, including the UK and the US, to put pressure on Israel to allow more relief into Gaza via land crossings.

British defense secretary Grant Shapps on Tuesday said Israel should “provide port access and open more land crossings in order to increase incoming aid deliveries to Gaza.” 

The Israeli military launched attacks in northern and southern Gaza on Tuesday, despite a UN Security Council calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said “troops are operating in the area of Al Amal in Khan Yunis; the IDF and ISA are continuing to conduct precise operational activity in the Shifa Hospital.”

Israel’s Air Force claimed targets on 60 sites across the Gaza Strip over the past day. CNN cannot independently verify the IDF’s statements.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz insisted that Israel “will not cease fire” after the UN Security Council on Monday passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire for the remaining weeks of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, the immediate and unconditional release of hostages and “the urgent need to expand the flow” of aid into Gaza.

Katz added that Israel “will destroy Hamas and continue to fight until the last of the hostages returns home,” in a statement on X.

Human rights warnings: Israel’s military campaign in Gaza since the Hamas-led October 7 attacks has destroyed neighborhoods, wiped out families, and exposed the population of more than 2.2 million people to the risk of famine.

Earlier this month, Oxfam and Human Rights Watch warned that Israeli authorities have carried out “indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks” in Gaza, “imposed collective punishment on the civilian population” and “used starvation of civilians as a weapon of war.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to scrap a planned delegation to Washington — a trip President Joe Biden personally requested a week ago — amounts to a low point in the ever-deepening rift between the two men.

Netanyahu did not communicate directly with Biden over the decision, a US official said, and the president has no plans to phone the prime minister to discuss the matter.

The White House viewed the cancelation as an overreaction and the move has perplexed US officials.

The talks in Washington were set to occur at a crucial moment, not only for the trajectory of the conflict but for gauging Washington’s influence on its ally.

US officials had planned to offer the Israeli delegation alternative options for going after Hamas in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, hoping to forestall what the US believes would amount to a humanitarian catastrophe if Israel launched a full-scale ground invasion.

Netanyahu remains determined to push ahead with a ground offensive in Rafah, even without US support.

Read more on the rupture between the leaders.

When Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant meets with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday, Gallant is expected to ask for more US weaponry and equipment to support Israel’s war in Gaza, US officials said.

It is an extremely delicate request because US weapons sales to Israel are under intense scrutiny by lawmakers and critics of President Joe Biden’s ongoing support for Israel.

“The secretary still believes fundamentally in Israel’s inherent right to defend themselves and that we will continue to support them in that regard,” Pentagon press secretary Patrick Ryder said on Monday. “That support is ironclad.”

It also comes as the US and Israel’s relationship hit a new low point after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scrapped a delegation’s Washington visit with US officials to discuss Israel’s military plans for southern Gaza.

According to a senior administration official, Gallant will be told that the various cases of weapons sales are being worked on. “There is scrutiny, but no policy decision to deny” the provision of additional weapons to Israel, the official told CNN.

Some background: The Biden administration has been debating whether and how to condition certain forms of military assistance to Israel. Despite the heightened tensions, the growing weapons sales from the US remain top of mind for Israeli defense officials, who have been pushing their US counterparts for faster approval and progress on the weapons transfers.

Read the full story.

Tensions between the US and Israel were further exposed on Monday when Washington stood aside and allowed the UN Security Council to pass a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

The US decision to abstain from the vote prompted Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel a scheduled trip to the US by two of his top advisers, two Israeli officials said.

US and Israeli officials were expected to discuss alternatives to a planned Israeli military ground offensive in Rafah, southern Gaza.

“We’re very disappointed that they will not be coming to Washington, DC, to allow us to have a fulsome conversation with them about viable alternatives to going in on the ground in Rafah,” US National Security spokesman John Kirby said.

Despite US pressure, Netanyahu is determined to launch a ground offensive into the Gazan city, where about 1.4 million people are sheltering in dire conditions.

Here are the latest developments in the conflict:

China welcomed the UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire between Gaza and Israel that was approved on Monday, hailing it as “unequivocal and correct in its direction” in comparison to a resolution put forward by the US last week that did not pass.

“The current draft is unequivocal and correct in its direction, demanding an immediate ceasefire, while the previous one has been evasive and ambiguous,” China’s ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun said.
“The differences between the two drafts boil down to nothing but whether there should be an immediate and unconditional ceasefire and whether the collective punishment of the people in Gaza should be allowed to continue.”

Zhang also highlighted the “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, saying “this resolution, if fully and effectively implemented, could still bring long-awaited hope.”

China also urged an end to civilian harm and called for humanitarian supplies to be able to enter Gaza “in sufficient quantities” to reach people in need. It hailed the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and urged all parties to fully restore funding, as well as welcomed efforts of Egypt, Qatar and the US “to promote the release of the hostages.”

Last week, the US put forward a resolution calling for “an immediate and sustained ceasefire … in connection with the release of all remaining hostages,” which failed after China and Russia vetoed it. It came after the US vetoed prior UNSC resolutions citing concerns they would jeopardize sensitive negotiations. 

UNICEF spokesperson James Elder has expressed frustration about getting aid to those who “desperately” need it in the Gaza Strip due to the complicated security process. 

There have been “a lot of arguments and discussions in the media and on social media about the obstructions to getting lifesaving aid to people in desperate need here in the Gaza Strip,” Elder said in a video he filmed from the enclave and posted to Instagram on Monday.

“Well, I am on one such mission, trying to head north with vaccines, with malnutrition supplies for severely malnourished babies, with obstetric kits for pregnant women,” he said.

He said UNICEF staff “waited at checkpoints for hours. We’ve been given apparently the green light. We’ve gone forward. We’ve been told to come back.”

“This is the reality, day in and day out, as we try, often in vain, to get aid to those who desperately, desperately need it,” Elder said.

Some background: Humanitarian workers and government officials overseeing aid distribution in Gaza previously told CNN a clear pattern has emerged of Israeli obstruction. They say the Israeli agency that controls access to Gaza has imposed arbitrary and contradictory criteria. 

On the eve of the Israeli military raid last Monday on Al-Shifa Hospital, an eyewitness spotted hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad members inside the hospital.

The eyewitness, who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, estimated about 400 to 500 Hamas and Islamic Jihad members and their families arrived at the hospital in mid-March. Some of them appeared to be members of Hamas’ political branch, while others were armed militants.

The eyewitness said some of the militants were carrying guns inside the hospital.

CNN has asked the Gaza Health Ministry for comment.

The Israeli military launched a major operation at Al-Shifa last Monday, alleging that Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants had embedded themselves within the hospital.

As the military operation enters its second week, the Israeli military says it has detained “approximately 500” Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants in and around the hospital and killed about 170 militants.

Thousands of civilians were also sheltering inside the medical complex at the time of the raid and eyewitnesses said medical personnel and other civilians were also detained by Israeli troops.

Hundreds of those sheltering were stranded inside the hospital for days — with little food or water — and warned by the Israeli military that they would be shot if they exited the hospital without first receiving instructions to evacuate.

The Israeli military said it killed 180 people it described as “terrorists” in and around Gaza City’s Al-Shifa medical complex in its raid on the site, which is now in its second week.

Daniel Hagari, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson, said Monday that those killed had been “fighting,” that Israeli forces had been fired upon from the yard of the emergency and the maternity wards, and that the militants remained barricaded inside the wards.

He said “no patients, doctors, medical teams were harmed,” but some buildings had been destroyed by militants using explosives. 

He also reiterated that 500 people had been detained.

CNN is unable to independently verify the numbers due to a lack of reporting access to Gaza. Due to the ongoing siege, communication with people inside Al-Shifa has been very limited.

A high-ranking IDF officer said Saturday the raid will finish “only when the last terrorist is in our hands — alive or dead.”

Yaron Finkelman said the raid, which started last Monday, “struck hundreds of terrorists, apprehended hundreds of terrorists and brought in significant operational and intelligence assets.”

Patients trapped: Gaza’s Health Ministry said patients were trapped inside “without water, or food, or medical services and the rest of the wounded and injured are in a dire situation.”

Five patients at Al-Shifa died on Saturday as a result of the Israeli raid on the facility, the ministry said.

Witnesses told CNN that hundreds of civilians, including patients and medical staff, were trapped.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz has said that Israel “will not cease fire” after the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan, the immediate and unconditional release of hostages, and “the urgent need to expand the flow” of aid into Gaza.

Israel “will destroy Hamas and continue to fight until the last of the hostages returns home,” Katz said on X on Monday.

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan from the White House on Monday that the outcomes of the war in Gaza “will impact the region for decades to come.”

“The meeting was held in private, over a period of one-and-a-half hours,” according to a statement released by the Israeli government. 

“The Minister and (US) Advisor discussed efforts to ensure the release of hostages held by the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza, as well as the measures required to ensure the destruction of Hamas’ governing and military capabilities,” the statement said. 

Tensions between the US and Israel were exposed on Monday when Washington stood aside and allowed the UN Security Council to pass a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

The US decision to abstain from the vote prompted Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel a scheduled trip to the US by two of his top advisers, two Israeli officials said.

Israel’s national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and Ron Dermer, a member of the war cabinet and close adviser to Netanyahu, had been scheduled to travel to Washington on Monday night to discuss a planned ground offensive in Rafah and US alternatives, but the visit was canceled after the vote.

“We’re very disappointed that they will not be coming to Washington, DC, to allow us to have a fulsome conversation with them about viable alternatives to going in on the ground in Rafah,” US National Security spokesman John Kirby said.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller called the cancelation “surprising and unfortunate.”

Read more about the UN vote and Israel’s response.

At least two people were killed as a result of Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Monday, according to Lebanon’s state-run NNA news. 

The airstrikes hit an area in the town of Meiss El Jabal, near the border with Israel, NNA said in the report. 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Monday that “IDF fighter jets struck a Hezbollah military structure in the area of Meiss El Jabal.”

The airstrike came after “an aircraft identified Hezbollah terrorists inside a military post in the area of Abou Chach. In response, fighter jets were directed to strike the military post, as well as the terrorists inside it,” IDF said in the statement. 

According to figures released by the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health on March 20, at least 316 people have been killed since October 8 as a result of the “Israeli aggression against southern Lebanon.” 

At least 91,300 people have been displaced from areas and towns close to the border with Israel since the conflict started, the country’s Health Ministry said in its report. 

Hamas said it has informed mediators that it will hold to its original “position and vision,” that it presented on March 14 on a complete ceasefire in Gaza.

The group said that Israel has not responded to “a complete ceasefire, withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the return of the displaced people,” according to a Hamas statement released on Monday.

Hamas said they are holding Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government “full responsibility for thwarting all negotiation efforts and obstructing reaching an agreement so far.”

US officials remain in Doha to continue discussions over a ceasefire deal after CIA Director Bill Burns traveled to the Qatari capital for meetings with Israel’s intelligence chief and fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar, according to a source familiar with the discussions.

CNN previously reported that technical teams remained after Mossad Director David Barnea left Doha on Saturday.

The source also confirmed that the current proposal is for 40 Israeli hostages to be released by Hamas in exchange for around 700 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, dozens of whom have life sentences.

CNN affiliate Channel 11 (Kan News) and CNN analyst Barak Ravid reported the number of those with life sentences could be as high as 100.  

Separately, a US official said Monday that progress was made over the weekend and expressed optimism that an agreement will come together.

Aside from the ratio of hostages to prisoners being negotiated, the official said, there are discussions about the ability of Palestinians to move around Gaza once the expected six-week ceasefire starts, about getting more humanitarian aid in, and the location of Israeli troops.

The discussions are tedious and slow, the official added, because Hamas representatives engaging in the talks in Doha and elsewhere then have to send the proposals into Gaza for the head of Hamas there, Yahya Sinwar, to respond.

Sinwar is believed to be hiding in part of Gaza’s extensive tunnel system, US and Israeli officials say.

Hamas pushed back against reports that mediators are waiting for its response to a hostage-prisoner exchange deal, and said more issues remain unresolved.

Israel reportedly agreed to a key issue on the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for hostages held in Gaza, according to CNN analyst Barak Ravid and CNN affiliate Channel 11 (Kan News) — both citing unnamed Israeli officials.

According to Ravid, a Hamas response was expected in the coming days.

But Hamas senior officials Basem Naeim and Hussam Badran separately pushed back on the media reports.

Naeim told CNN that “Israeli-American media” are adding pressure on the talks.

“For us, the negotiations are not only centric around the prisoner exchange deal,” he said.

“Israel has not agreed to any of [Hamas] requests related to a complete ceasefire, the withdrawal of all forces from the Gaza Strip, even in stages, and the return of all displaced people to their homes,” Naeim said. 

Another Hamas official, Hussam Badran corroborated the statement, saying on Hamas’ official page on Telegram that Israel is refusing to give “any guarantees to mediators on basic issues” related to the “lives of people in Gaza.”

“We… are negotiating to reach a clear and specific goal related to the needs and requirements of our people in general and Gaza in particular,” Badran said on Telegram.

A Hamas response to a US proposal for an exchange of Israeli hostages in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners could take up to three days, according to reporting from CNN analyst and Axios reporter Barak Ravid, who said he has spoken to Israeli officials.

“Those details need to go from Hamas representatives in Doha, who are negotiating, to the person who really calls the shots, and this is Hamas leaser Yahya Sinwar in Gaza who is in a bunker some 100 feet under the ground, so this takes a long time until the message gets to him and until the message gets back,” Ravid told CNN’s Omar Jimenez in an interview on Sunday. 

Ravid said the proposed exchange will “definitely include some” US hostages because it will include the release of men over the age of 50.

“The fact that Israel agreed is a result of a US written proposal put forward by the CIA director Bill Burns,” Ravid said.

Ravid earlier reported that Israel has agreed to a US proposal on a prisoner-hostage exchange that would release around 700 Palestinian prisoners, among them 100 serving life sentences for killing Israeli nationals, in exchange for the release of 40 Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

CNN affiliate Channel 11 (Kan News) also reported on the proposed deal Sunday, citing senior Israeli sources.

Israel has harshly criticized a plan devised by the leaders of Ireland, Spain, Malta and Slovenia to work towards the recognition of Palestinian statehood, questioning the appropriateness of such a move in the wake of the October 7 attacks. 

Lior Haiat, a spokesperson for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the recognition of Palestinian statehood following October 7 would “send a message” to Hamas that “terror attacks on Israelis” would be reciprocated with “political gestures to the Palestinians.” 

The spokesperson said that such a recognition would serve as a “reward for terrorism,” in a post on X.

During a meeting on the sidelines of the European Council summit in Brussels last week, the leaders of the four EU nations discussed their “readiness to recognise Palestine,” according to a joint statement. 

The leaders pledged to do so “when it can make a positive contribution and the circumstances are right.” 

The United Nations Security Council approved a draft resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire between Gaza and Israel on Monday.

The vote was 14 in favor. The US abstained.

Israel has agreed to a US proposal on a prisoner-hostage exchange that would release around 700 Palestinian prisoners, among them 100 serving life sentences for killing Israeli nationals, in exchange for the release of 40 Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, according to CNN analyst Barak Ravid’s reporting on the recent round of talks in Doha, Qatar.

CNN affiliate Channel 11 (Kan News) on Sunday also reported on Israel’s agreement to the US prisoner-hostage exchange proposal. Kan News cited a senior Israeli official, saying that Israel is ready to make “significant compromises in order to return the abductees home.”

Earlier in the weekend, Ravid, citing an unnamed Israeli official, tweeted that Israel agreed to a US “bridging proposal” on the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released for every hostage held by Hamas.

A diplomatic source briefed on the matter confirmed to CNN the accuracy of Ravid’s information Saturday but said outstanding issues remain, including the entry of aid and “Israeli military repositioning” in Gaza.

Here’s what we know.