CBS News
U.N. slams Israel for deadly strike on Gaza shelter as war with Hamas leaves hospitals under siege
The death toll from tank fire that hit a United Nations shelter in the Gaza Strip‘s main southern city of Khan Younis has risen to 12, a top U.N. aid official said Thursday. Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry said, meanwhile, that Israeli fire had hit a large group of Palestinians waiting to receive humanitarian aid in Gaza City, killing at least 20 people and leaving scores more wounded.
Video obtained and verified by the Reuters news agency showed hundreds of people fleeing amid chaos and the sound of gunfire in Gaza City’s al-Zeitoun neighborhood.
CBS News could not immediately verify the information provided by the ministry, which does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths. The Israeli military said it was looking into the incident.
Obtained by Reuters
Gaza City, the largest metropolis in the enclave, was the focus of Israel’s offensive against Hamas for weeks, but the IDF has said the militants were largely driven from the city and the bulk of its operations more recently have been further south, around Khan Younis.
“Twelve people have now been confirmed dead with over 75 injuries, 15 of whom are in a critical condition,” Thomas White, Gaza director of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), said in a statement about the shelling of the agency’s shelter in Khan Younis.
Two tank shells struck the UNRWA shelter Wednesday in Khan Younis, where thousands of displaced Palestinians have taken refuge, White said.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said in a post on social media that the bombardment showed a “blatant disregard of basic rules of war,” noting that the compound had been clearly marked as a U.N. facility and its coordinates shared with Israeli authorities.
Asked about the tank fire, the Israeli army said “a thorough review of the operations of the forces in the vicinity is underway,” adding that it was examining the possibility that the strike was a “result of Hamas fire.”
The Israeli army is the only force known to have tanks operating in the Gaza Strip.
The United States also criticized the bombardment, with State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel saying, “we deplore the attack… You’ve heard me say it before, you’ve heard the Secretary say before, but civilians must be protected. U.N. facilities must be respected, and humanitarian workers must be protected so that they can continue providing civilians with the life saving humanitarian assistance that they need.”
Gaza’s hospitals under siege
CBS News senior foreign correspondent Charlie D’Aagata reported Thursday that in Israel’s relentless assault on Khan Younis, even the city’s hospitals are under siege. Health officials in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory said Thursday that more than 50 civilians were killed over the preceding 24 hours alone, pushing the overall Palestinian death toll in Gaza to almost 26,000 since the war — sparked by Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 terror attack — began.
In his statement, UNRWA’s Gaza director White said heavy fighting close to the few hospitals still functioning in Khan Younis had “effectively encircled these facilities, leaving terrified staff, patients and displaced people trapped inside.”
He said one hospital, Al Khair, had “shut down after patients, including women who had just undergone C-section surgeries, were evacuated in the middle of the night.”
“The situation in Khan Younis underscores a consistent failure to uphold the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law: distinction, proportionality and precautions in carrying out attacks. This is unacceptable and abhorrent and must stop. Every measure must be taken to protect civilians. I remind all parties that protection of hospitals, clinics, medical personnel and U.N. premises is explicitly enshrined within international law,” White said.
Hatem Ali/AP
The Israel Defense Forces said earlier this week that soldiers had surrounded Khan Younis, a Hamas stronghold where the IDF says Hamas militants operate from hospitals and other civilian infrastructure.
Doctors at the biggest health facility in southern Gaza, Khan Younis’ Al Nasser hospital, told CBS News the compound has been surrounded by IDF soldiers over the last week and they fear the troops will raid the facility, where thousands of civilians have sought shelter.
Video shows unarmed man shot dead
There was also a new claim that Israeli soldiers are shooting unarmed civilians in the Palestinian territories. A video clip aired by the British network ITV shows a small group of men waving a white flag in an area Israel designated as a safe zone in southern Gaza. They walk cautiously toward an area they had been forced to evacuate, telling the camera they wanted to find one of the men’s brothers, whom they said had not been permitted to leave by Israeli forces.
As they advance with their hands in the air, there’s a burst of gunfire and one man is shot dead.
The IDF told CBS News it was not aware of the incident, adding: “The video is clearly edited, and we have no way to comment.”
U.K. calls for “immediate humanitarian pause”
U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Thursday that he had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu there should be an “immediate humanitarian pause” in the ongoing fighting between the IDF and Hamas in Gaza, which he said should lead to a permanent cease-fire.
“The scale of suffering in Gaza is unimaginable. More must be done, faster, to help people trapped in this desperate situation,” said Cameron, a former U.K. Prime Minister. He called for Israel to restore water, fuel and electricity supplies to the Gaza Strip, most of which have been cut off or severely limited since the war began on Oct. 7. “We need an immediate humanitarian pause to get aid in and hostages out, followed by a sustainable cease-fire, without a return to hostilities.”
Cameron was to visit Qatar later Thursday to join ongoing negotiations there aimed at increasing the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza. It has long been hoped that the talks in the Arab nation, which representatives of Hamas and the U.S. have been involved in for weeks, will yield a new agreement to secure the release of the 132 hostages still believed to be held in Gaza.
The negotiations have borne little fruit, however, since a one-week cease-fire in November that enabled the release of 105 hostages, and a leaked remark by Israel’s leader was threatening to complicate the talks further on Thursday.
Netanyahu was allegedly caught on tape telling Israeli hostages’ families this week that Qatar’s mediation was “problematic,” blaming the small nation for funding Hamas.
The Gulf state said it was “appalled” at the remarks, which “if validated, are irresponsible and destructive to the efforts to save innocent lives.”
Bela Karolyi, the charismatic if polarizing gymnastics coach who turned young women into champions and the United States into an international power, has died. He was 82.
A spokesperson for USA Gymnastics confirmed to CBS News by email that Karolyi died Friday. No cause of death was given.
Karolyi and wife Martha trained multiple Olympic gold medalists and world champions in the U.S. and Romania, including Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton.
Ron Jenkins/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
“A big impact and influence on my life,” Comaneci, who was just 14 when Karolyi coached her to gold for Romania at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, posted on Instagram.
The Karolyis defected to the United States in 1981 and over the next 30-plus years became a guiding force in American gymnastics, though not without controversy. Bela helped guide Retton — all of 16 — to the Olympic all-around title at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles and memorably helped an injured Kerri Strug off the floor at the 1996 Games in Atlanta after Strug’s vault secured the team gold for the Americans.
Karolyi briefly became the national team coordinator for USA Gymnastics women’s elite program in 1999 and incorporated a semi-centralized system that eventually turned the Americans into the sport’s gold standard. It did not come without a cost. He was pushed out after the 2000 Olympics after several athletes spoke out about his tactics.
It would not be the last time Karolyi was accused of grandstanding and pushing his athletes too far physically and mentally.
During the height of the Larry Nassar scandal in the late 2010s — when the disgraced former USA Gymnastics team doctor was effectively given a life sentence after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting gymnasts and other athletes with his hands under the guise of medical treatment — over a dozen former gymnasts came forward saying the Karolyis were part of a system that created an oppressive culture that allowed Nassar’s behavior to run unchecked for years.
Still, some of Karolyi’s most famous students were always among his staunchest defenders. When Strug got married, she and Karolyi took a photo recreating their famous scene from the 1996 Olympics, when he carried her onto the medals podium after she vaulted on a badly sprained ankle.
Despite losing his boxing match to Jake Paul, Mike Tyson in a social media post Saturday said he had “no regrets” to getting “in ring one last time.”
The boxing legend was defeated by social media star Jake Paul in a highly anticipated fight on Friday night with an age difference of over three decades between the two contenders.
Netflix said Saturday that 60 million households worldwide tuned in to watch the match. The two fighters went eight full rounds, with each round two minutes long. Paul defeated Tyson by unanimous decision and the 27-year-old upset boxer and 58-year-old former heavyweight champion hugged afterward.
Paul was expected to earn about $40 million from the fight, and Tyson was expected to take around $20 million for the fight, according to DraftKings and other online reports.
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Tyson said on his social media that “this is one of those situations when you lost but still won. I’m grateful for last night.”
The fight almost didn’t happen after Tyson experienced an ulcer flare-up while on a plane in March. He addressed his illness Saturday, writing that he “almost died in June.” He said he had eight blood transfusions and “lost half my blood and 25lbs in hospital and had to fight to get healthy to fight so I won.”
Tyson retired from boxing in 2005 after a 20-year career. He last fought in a 2020 exhibition match against former four-division world champ Roy Jones Jr.
“To have my children see me stand toe to toe and finish 8 rounds with a talented fighter half my age in front of a packed Dallas Cowboy stadium is an experience that no man has the right to ask for. Thank you,” he said.
Alex Sundby and
contributed to this report.
In their final meeting, China’s leader Xi Jinping told U.S. President Biden that his nation was “ready to work with a new administration,” as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take over.
The two leaders gathered Saturday on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Mr. Biden was expected to urge Xi to dissuade North Korea from further deepening its support for Russia’s war on Ukraine. It marked their first in-person meeting since they met in Northern California last November.
Without mentioning Trump’s name, Xi appeared to signal his concern that the incoming president’s protectionist rhetoric on the campaign trail could send the U.S.-China relationship into another valley.
“China is ready to work with a new U.S. administration to maintain communication, expand cooperation and manage differences so as to strive for a steady transition of the China-U.S. relationship for the benefit of the two peoples,” Xi said through an interpreter.
LEAH MILLIS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Mr. Biden, meanwhile, spoke in broader brushstrokes about where the relationship has gone and reflected not just on the past four years, but on their long relationship.
“Over the past four years, China-U.S. relations have experienced ups and downs, but with the two of us at the helm, we have also engaged in fruitful dialogues and cooperation, and generally achieved stability,” he said.
Mr. Biden and Xi, with top aides surrounding them, gathered around a long rectangle of tables in an expansive conference room at Lima’s Defines Hotel and Conference Center.
There’s much uncertainty about what lies ahead in the U.S.-China relationship under Trump, who campaigned promising to levy 60% tariffs on Chinese imports.
Bobby Djavaheri, president of Los Angeles-based Yedi Houseware Appliances — which manufactures its products in China — told CBS News in an interview this week that such tariffs “would decimate our business, but not only our business. It would decimate all small businesses that rely on importing.”
Trump has also proposed revoking China’s Most Favored Nation trade status, phasing out all imports of essential goods from China and banning China from buying U.S. farmland.
Already, many American companies, including Nike and eyewear retailer Warby Parker, have been diversifying their sourcing away from China. Shoe brand Steve Madden says it plans to cut imports from China by as much as 45% next year.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden administration officials will advise the Trump team that managing the intense competition with Beijing will likely be the most significant foreign policy challenge they will face.
It’s a big moment for Mr. Biden as he wraps up more than 50 years in politics. He saw his relationship with Xi as among the most consequential on the international stage and put much effort into cultivating that relationship.
Mr. Biden and Xi first got to know each other on travels across the U.S. and China when both were vice presidents, interactions that both have said left a lasting impression.
“For over a decade, you and I have spent many hours together, both here and in China and in between. And I think we’ve spent a long time dealing with these issues,” Mr. Biden said Saturday.
But the last four years have presented a steady stream of difficult moments.
The FBI this week offered new details of a federal investigation into Chinese government efforts to hack into U.S. telecommunications networks. The initial findings have revealed a “broad and significant” cyberespionage campaign aimed at stealing information from Americans who work in government and politics.
U.S. intelligence officials also have assessed China has surged sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry for use in its war against Ukraine.
And tensions flared last year after Mr. Biden ordered the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon that traversed the United States.
