October 23, 2023 - Israel-Hamas war news

Gaza needs fuel “as urgent as water and food," the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) told CNN on Monday," as the two aid convoys that entered Gaza this weekend barely alleviate the dire conditions within the territory.

Alrifai said humanitarian aid that entered Gaza was “a fraction” of what is needed for over 400,000 displaced people currently taking shelters in schools run by UNRWA, adding the situation is “very, very dire.”

She said people in Gaza are forced to ration food, “even counting the minimum required calories per person per day per survival,” adding “We are really counting on a continuous and unimpeded access of the trucks from Rafah into Gaza.”

Israel has previously said that fuel won’t be allowed into Gaza.

On October 14, the IDF told CNN that when aid enters Gaza, “Water pipes are turned into rockets. Cement meant for buildings is turned into tunnels. Food for orphans and people in need is given to Hamas operators. And fuel for the hospital is taken to Hamas bunkers.”

Crisis in Gaza: Amid a weekend of ramped-up strikes, doctors described “catastrophic” conditions at one central Gazan hospital as electricity and fuel supplies run out and crippled medical facilities rapidly become overwhelmed with casualties.

Dr. Iyad Issa Abu Zaher, director general of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital, described a “bloody day” for his staff to CNN on Sunday, saying the hospital had received up to 166 bodies and more than 300 injured people.

“It’s impossible for any hospital in the world to admit this number of injured,” he said.

The bodies of three children lie on a steel tray inside what appears to be a Gaza hospital morgue, one leg of their trousers pushed up to reveal writing in black ink on their skin.

“We received some cases where the parents wrote the names of their children on the legs and abdomen,” Dr. Abdul Rahman Al Masri, the head of the emergency department at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, told CNN.

He said parents were worried that “anything could happen,” and no one would be able to identify their children.

This means that they feel they are targeted at any moment and can be injured or martyred,” Al Masri added.

The black ink is a small sign of the fear and desperation felt by parents in the densely populated enclave as Israel continues to pound it with relentless airstrikes in retaliation for the October 7 Hamas attacks.

The supervisor of the room at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital where dead bodies are washed described Sunday as “an exceptional day.”

Declining to be named, he told CNN that the number of dead overnight from Saturday into Sunday had exceeded 200, and echoed what Dr Al Masri had said.

Read the full story here.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it struck 320 “terror targets” in Gaza overnight, including tunnels and “dozens of operational command centers” belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

The heavy bombardment of the besieged Palestinian enclave killed dozens of people, Palestinian doctors and Gaza ministry officials told CNN. 

Thermographic videos from Israeli aircraft and shared by the IDF showed strikes on buildings in Gaza, which hit "dozens of operational command centers, some of which concealed Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists, military compounds, and observation posts."

The intensified airstrikes took place as the IDF said it is preparing for what it called the "next stages" in the fight against Hamas.

In northern Gaza: At least 26 people were killed after Israeli strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp the director of the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza, Atef Al Kahlout told CNN. Jabalia is one of the largest refugee camps in Gaza.

In southern Gaza: 29 people were killed in the city of Rafah after four houses were struck, the Ministry of Health in Gaza spokesperson Ashraf Al Qidra said.

Damage all over: Buildings in Rafah, Khan Younis, Central Gaza and Gaza City were struck overnight, including several residential homes, the Palestinian Interior Ministry in Gaza said. “Heavy strikes” were reported near the Quds Hospital in the city. 

In Israel's Sderot, near the Gaza Strip: CNN’s Nic Robertson reported that Sunday’s strikes have been the most sustained bombardment of northern Gaza he has seen since he began to report from southern Israel two weeks ago.

This post has been updated.

India’s humanitarian aid to Gaza arrived in Egypt on Sunday, the country’s Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Adrindam Bagchi said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The plane arrived at el-Arish in Egypt’s Sinai and the relief material was handed over to the Egyptian Red Crescent for “onward transmission to Palestine,” Bagchi said.

An Indian Air Force flight was carrying nearly 6.5 tonnes of medical aid and 32 tonnes of disaster relief material, including life-saving medicines, surgical items, tents, sleeping bags, tarpaulins, sanitary utilities and water purification tablets.

Remember: Aid has been piling up on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing that connects to Gaza. The vital passage was briefly opened over the weekend, delivering the first convoy of 20 aid trucks into besieged Gaza on Saturday, and another 14 trucks passed through on Sunday.

A humanitarian crisis is rapidly worsening in Gaza as Israel bombards the territory, while the volume of aid that has passed through is but a drop in the ocean for over 2.2 million people inside the territory.

Returning foreigners home: Separately on Sunday, 143 passengers, including two Nepali citizens, arrived in New Delhi from Tel Aviv on India’s sixth flight to bring back its citizens from Israel, Bagchi said on Sunday.

The Israel Defense Forces said it struck a terrorist cell in Lebanon.

"The terrorist cell was planning to carry out an anti-tank missile launch towards the town of Shlomi," which is located in northern Israel, the IDF said in a statement Monday.

The IDF said Sunday it struck two Hezbollah terrorist cells on the Lebanese side of the border with Israel.

Some context: Hezbollah is an Iran-backed Islamist movement with one of the most powerful paramilitary forces in the Middle East. The group, which has its main base on the Israel-Lebanon border, could become a wildcard player in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, and spark a wider regional conflict.

The fallout is palpable on the Lebanon-Israel border, where Hezbollah and the IDF are engaging in low-rumbling tit-for-tat skirmishes since the war began.

In the days since a blast ripped through the packed Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, killing hundreds of Palestinians, dueling claims between Palestinian militants and the Israeli government over culpability are still raging. But forensic analysis of publicly available imagery and footage has begun to offer some clues as to what caused the explosion.

CNN has reviewed dozens of videos posted on social media, aired on live broadcasts and filmed by a freelance journalist working for CNN in Gaza, as well as satellite imagery, to piece together what happened in as much detail as possible.

Without the ability to access the site and gather evidence from the ground, no conclusion can be definitive. But CNN’s analysis suggests that a rocket launched from within Gaza broke up midair, and that the blast at the hospital was the result of part of the rocket landing at the hospital complex.

Weapons and explosive experts with decades of experience assessing bomb damage, who reviewed the visual evidence, told CNN they believe this to be the most likely scenario – although they caution the absence of munition remnants or shrapnel from the scene made it difficult to be sure. All agreed that the available evidence of the damage at the site was not consistent with an Israeli airstrike.

Read the full CNN investigation here.

The situation in Gaza is severe and the risk of a large-scale ground conflict is significantly rising, China's Special Envoy on the Middle East issue warned Sunday, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Speaking at a press briefing in Cairo, Zhai Jun said “armed conflicts are permeating along the Israeli-Lebanese and Israeli-Syrian borders, with their spillover effects expanding regionally and internationally. The prospects are worrisome.” 

Zhai urged the international community to stay vigilant against such developments and act immediately to prevent the situation from turning into serious humanitarian disaster.

China will continue to provide emergency humanitarian aid to the Palestinians through United Nations and bilateral channels, Zhai promised, without specifying what aid has already been provided.

Zhai attended Saturday’s Cairo peace summit with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and other Arab leaders to find a “roadmap” for ending the “humanitarian tragedy” in Gaza.

Zhai is currently in the Middle East to promote peace talks and push for a ceasefire. Zhai visited Qatar and Egypt and will also visit the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other countries in the region.

Before his trip, Zhai had phone calls with the foreign ministry heads of the Palestinian Authority, Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Norway and other countries, as well as with the special representatives at United Nations and European Union, CCTV reported.

China's stance: Chinese leader Xi Jinping said last week that a two-state solution to establish an independent Palestine is the “fundamental way out” of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Xi, who made the comments in a meeting with Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly in Beijing, said China is willing to work with Egypt and Arab nations to “promote an comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the Palestinian issue,” according to CCTV.

Palestinian journalist, Roshdi Sarraj, has been killed by an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City, the official Palestinian press agency WAFA reported on Sunday.

Sarraj was a fixer, a translator for foreign journalists, at French national public radio broadcaster Radio France and had been working with its correspondents since May 2021, according to the French broadcaster.

His family members were also injured in the strike that targeted a house in Gaza City in the northern part of the besieged territory, and they were transferred to Al-Shifa hospital, according to WAFA. Radio France said his wife and one-year-old daughter were injured.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 23 journalists have been killed in the Israel-Hamas conflict as of Sunday, with another eight reported injured and three reported missing or detained.

Nineteen of those killed were Palestinian, including Sarraj, while three were Israeli and one was Lebanese, the CPJ said. 

When CNN reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment, the IDF said on Monday “in stark contrast to Hamas' intentional attacks on Israeli men, women and children, the IDF follows international law and takes feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm.”

A senior Israeli official told CNN there will be "no ceasefire" in Gaza as the United States and Qatar work to free more than 200 hostages held by Hamas in the besieged enclave.    

The official told CNN they were "not aware" of US calls for a delay to Israel's expected Gaza ground operation, and said both Israel and the US want all the hostages released "as quickly as possible."

"Humanitarian efforts cannot be allowed to impact the mission to dismantle Hamas," the official said.

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