3 months into the war with Hamas, there are signs Israel's objectives are changing. Here's the latest

A photo taken from Rafah, Gaza, on January 6 shows smoke billowing over Khan Younis, Gaza, during an Israeli bombardment. (AFP/Getty Images)

On October 7, 2023, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a promise to Israelis:

“The IDF will immediately use all its strength to destroy Hamas’s capabilities,” Netanyahu said. “We will destroy them.”

Now, three months on, Israel's defense forces are shifting to a new phase of its war on Hamas in Gaza – and there are signs its objectives are changing too.

While the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have achieved some of their goals – such as claiming to have killed thousands of Hamas fighters – their war on Hamas is unfolding in front of an international community increasingly aghast at the extraordinary humanitarian crisis and tens of thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza.

Here are some other key developments:

• Palestinians killed: Seven Palestinian men were killed in an Israeli airstrike near Jenin in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said Sunday. Israel confirmed the strike, calling the men "terrorists." Four of the dead were brothers, according to Palestinian news agency WAFA. The IDF did not say why they had categorized them as "terrorists."
• Lawyer appointed: Israel has appointed British lawyer Malcolm Shaw to represent it at the International Court of Justice where this week it will fight genocide allegations, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat told CNN Sunday.
• Journalists killed: Al Jazeera Gaza bureau chief Wael Al-Dahdouh lost another son in an apparent Israeli airstrike that killed two journalists Sunday. His son's death comes just months after his wife, two children and a grandchild were killed in a strike he himself reported on before he learned of their deaths.
• Bombardment continues: At least 122 people were killed and 265 wounded by Israeli airstrikes over 24 hours spanning Friday and Saturday, Gaza's Hamas-controlled health ministry said. Videos from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the center of the strip showed staff members urgently trying to treat severely wounded victims. CNN cannot independently verify the casualty figures due to limited access in the area.
• Post-war plans for Gaza: The Palestine Liberation Organization has rejected plans proposed by Israel on the future of Gaza, as rifts also emerge within the Israeli government over its post-war vision. The PLO — which gave up armed resistance against Israel in a 1993 peace pact that saw the establishment of the Palestinian Authority — said, “The future of the Gaza Strip is determined by the Palestinian people, not Israel."
• Hezbollah strikes: Fears of a wider war are growing, as Hezbollah announced Saturday it had fired a total of 62 rockets at an Israeli observation post on the Israel-Lebanon border, as an "initial response" to the killing of a senior Hamas leader in Beirut. Red alerts warning of potential incoming rocket fire and shrapnel were issued for over 100 locations in northern Israel. The powerful Lebanese paramilitary group is among several Iranian proxy groups involved in inflamed tensions across the Middle East.