November 20, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

The Israel Defense Forces has released CCTV videos and still images it says show Hamas fighters bringing hostages into the Al-Shifa Hospital on October 7.

IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari presented two short videos, along with several still images, which he said show Hamas fighters moving the hostages – one Nepali, one Thai – through the hospital, Gaza's largest.

One of the CCTV videos shows a hostage being brought into the hospital through the main entrance, Hagari said. The hostage is being marched by force through the building.

Hagari, at a news conference Sunday, said the second CCTV video shows a second hostage – who has a bandaged hand and is clearly bleeding – being pushed on a gurney down a hallway and into a room.

Hagari did not spell out how the IDF had acquired the videos, although he did say Israeli intelligence officers were part of the operation inside the hospital to try to locate the hostages.

CNN cannot independently verify the content of the videos and the stills.

Opposing narratives: The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry responded to the IDF briefing by questioning the authenticity of the videos and stills — but it went on to say that, if true, the pictures showed that hospitals were providing medical care to anyone who needed it.

The IDF spokesman dismissed suggestions the hostages had been brought to the hospital because they were wounded, claiming one of the two hostages was not injured and did not need medical treatment. They had been brought to the hospital first, before being later moved to hiding spots, like nearby apartments, he said.

“If medical care had been given at the hospital, if the hostages had remained there, then the Red Cross would have come, and the people would have been released. None of these things happened,” he said.

In a statement issued Saturday before the release of the CCTV videos, Hamas said it had brought several hostages to hospitals for medical treatment after they were injured in Israeli airstrikes.

Hagari said the latest videos had been shared with diplomats of the hostages’ countries of origin, adding the IDF has not yet located the Nepali and Thai hostages in Gaza.

The Nepali Embassy in Israel and Nepal’s Foreign Ministry had confirmed with CNN before the publication of the video that one Nepali citizen remained missing after the October 7 attack and was believed to have been taken hostage by Hamas.

Ten Nepali citizens were killed and several others injured when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, Nepal's ambassador to Israel told CNN after the attack.

More context: After raiding Al-Shifa Hospital last Wednesday, the IDF is under tremendous pressure to prove its long-standing assertion that Hamas uses Gaza's largest medical center for combat and command purposes.

The military also released video Sunday from inside an exposed tunnel shaft at the Al-Shifa compound, showing an underground tunnel extending downward from the shaft opening. 

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has announced that 28 babies are being transported by ambulance to the Rafah crossing for their transfer to Egyptian hospitals.

"Urgent: Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance teams have just departed from the Emirati Hospital in Rafah to transport 28 injured neonatal babies to the Rafah crossing, in preparation for their transfer to hospitals in Egypt for treatment," said the PRCS in a statement to CNN.

"This comes in coordination with the World Health Organization and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)," it added.

Some context: Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in Gaza, has become a flashpoint in Israel’s war in the besieged enclave. The Israeli military alleges the facility is being used by Hamas as a shield for its operations and raided the hospital last Wednesday. Hamas and hospital officials have denied Israel’s claims.

The UN’s main aid agency in Gaza says heavy rain has been falling in the region on Monday, causing "unliveable" conditions in shelters.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) posted a video on X showing crowds in Gaza stepping through puddles of rain. 

"Heavy rain is falling across the Gaza Strip. The situation in shelters is unliveable. People have no options," the agency said in the post. 

Sewage is also flowing through the streets of Gaza, according to a top UNRWA official. 

Director of UNRWA Affairs Thomas White said in a post on X that there is only enough fuel to run sewage pumps at 55% capacity.

UNRWA has persistently highlighted the impact of Israel's fuel restrictions in Gaza on key services, including sewage systems. 

Last week, Israel approved the entry of two fuel tanks into Gaza each day, sparking condemnation from UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, who described the quantity as "far from enough."

China welcomed officials from Arab and Muslim majority countries on Monday for talks on “de-escalating” the Israel-Hamas conflict as Beijing steps-up its efforts to play a role in establishing a ceasefire.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, the Palestinian National Authority, Indonesia, as well as the head of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in the capital Monday.

Beijing described the visit as an opportunity for “in-depth communication and coordination” on de-escalating the “current Palestinian-Israeli conflict,” protecting civilians, and “justly resolving” the Palestinian issue.

The meeting comes as sources tell CNN that a possible deal to secure the release of some hostages held by Hamas may be in sight, following weeks of negotiations between the United States, Israel and the militant group, mediated by Gulf state Qatar.

Beijing and Washington – an Israeli ally and long a major power broker in the region – have been at odds over their approach to the conflict. In particular, Beijing has criticized Israel’s retaliation and failed to condemn Hamas or name the group in its statements, sparking backlash from Israeli officials.

Read the full story here:

A doctor inside Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital has spoken to CNN about conditions inside the facility, accusing Israeli forces of pushing around staff and questioning them about Hamas.

“The common question [staff keep being asked]: Do you know anything about the Hamas groups? Do you know anything about the tunnels within the hospital?” Dr. Ahmed El Mokhallalati, the head of the hospital’s burns unit told CNN, adding that staff movements around the complex were being restricted.

Israeli forces have been inside the hospital complex for days, looking to uncover what they say is a major Hamas underground base.

Many patients and staff members were evacuated over the weekend, including more than two dozen premature babies, who were transported to the Al-Helal Al-Emirati Maternity Hospital in southern Gaza Sunday.

El Mokhallalati said two adults and two babies died overnight Saturday, leaving the hospital with about 259 patients, seven doctors and five nurses.

He told CNN the hospital is running out of urgent requirements, including anesthetics, oxygen tanks, medicine and blood banks.

Israel’s Defense Ministry says it delivered over 6,000 liters of water and over 2,300 kg of food — including fish, canned food, bread, spreads and dates — over the weekend.

Appealing for more international support, El Mokhallalati said Israeli forces had only made a single delivery of water and food to the hospital.

“The whole world should stop this, and we need more and more involvement of the international community and organizations to help us,” he said.

El Mokhallalati also told CNN that Israeli forces had removed about 200 bodies from the hospital’s mortuary as well as from mass graves recently dug on the site.

“They brought two trucks and they have taken all the dead bodies out of the hospital,” he said.

Several days ago Israel’s army spokesman Daniel Hagari dodged a question about whether Israel had taken bodies out of the hospital complex as part of its efforts to determine the fate of hostages kidnapped from communities in southern Israel on October 7.

Some context: Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in Gaza, has become a flashpoint in Israel’s war in the besieged enclave. The Israeli military alleges the facility is being used by Hamas as a shield for its operations and raided the hospital last Wednesday. Hamas and hospital officials have denied Israel’s claims.

A recent draft of a possible deal to secure the release of hostages that Hamas is holding in Gaza proposes a four- to five-day pause in fighting for the initial release of 50 hostages, two sources familiar with the talks told CNN.

An agreement has yet to be struck, and the text of a deal has been traded back and forth for weeks. But negotiators from various countries, including senior Biden administration officials, are expressing rare optimism about the progress. Gaps in some of the major sticking points have begun to close, sources say, and while the talks could still break down, an agreement may now be days away.

“We think that we are closer than we have been perhaps at any point since these negotiations began weeks ago,” deputy national security adviser Jon Finer told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” on Sunday. Finer did not get into details of the talks and stressed that there is no final deal in place.

Here’s what else you need to know:

Even in the darkness, the utter devastation in northern Gaza is clear as day. The empty shells of buildings, illuminated by the last shreds of light, lurch out of the landscape on the dirt roads across the Gaza Strip. At night, the only signs of life are the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) vehicles that rumble the landscape, tightening the military’s grip on the northern sector.

On Saturday night, we traveled with the IDF into Gaza to see the newly exposed tunnel shaft discovered at the compound of Al-Shifa Hospital, the enclave’s largest medical facility.

The IDF had promised “concrete evidence” that Hamas was using the hospital complex above ground as cover for what it called terror infrastructure underneath, including a command and control hub.

Standing on the edge of the tunnel shaft, it was apparent that the structure itself was substantial. At the top, the remains of a ladder hung over the lip of the opening. In the center of the round shaft, a center pole looked like a hub for a spiral staircase. The shaft itself extended down farther than we could see, especially in the meager light of our headlamps.

Video released by the IDF from inside the shaft is arguably the most compelling evidence thus far that the IDF has offered that there may be a network of tunnels below the hospital. It does not establish without a doubt that there is a command center under Gaza’s largest hospital, but it is clear that there is a tunnel down below. Seeing what connects to that tunnel is absolutely critical.

Hamas has repeatedly denied that there is a network of tunnels below Shifa Hospital. Health officials who have spoken with CNN have said the same, insisting it is only a medical facility.

As is so rarely the case in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this answer truly is black and white. Either there is an underground series of tunnels below the hospital. Or there is not.

Some context: CNN reported from inside Gaza under IDF media escort at all times. As a condition for journalists to join this embed, media outlets had to submit footage filmed in Gaza to the Israeli military for review and agreed not to reveal sensitive locations and soldiers’ identities. CNN retained editorial control over the final report. 

Read more about the tunnel shaft in the Al-Shifa Hospital compound.

Clarification: The headline on this post has been updated to reflect that the tunnel shaft was discovered on the grounds of the Al-Shifa hospital complex. 

Doctors from Al-Helal Al-Emirati Maternity Hospital in Rafah, in southern Gaza who are treating 31 neonatal babies who were evacuated from Gaza City say all the babies are fighting serious infections, according to a statement from the World Health Organization (WHO) on Sunday.

Eleven of the young babies are in "critical condition," the WHO said in its statement.

The WHO said the babies had fallen ill due to a lack of medical supplies at Al-Shifa Hospital and the difficulty of continuing infection control measures in Al-Shifa Hospital amid an ongoing Israeli assault.

Dr. Mohammad Salamah at the Al-Helal Al-Emirati Maternity Hospital told CNN: "We are conducting tests on all those babies and they were given fluids and needed medication according to their condition. For now, they are in a difficult, stable condition, but this condition might deteriorate, especially given that we might run out of electricity at any time now as long as fuel doesn’t get into Gaza."

"Six health workers and 10 of their family members, who had been sheltering at the hospital, were also evacuated," WHO said.

It was hoped that the parents of the newborns would be able to travel to safety with their children, but the WHO said very few of the infants were accompanied by family members.

This was because Gazan officials were not easily able to find close family members due to the intense fighting between Israel and Hamas and communications blackouts.

CNN spoke to one father, Ali Sbeiti, who managed to be reunited with his young son, Anas, who was born three days before the war. 

"Thank God. We now feel that our son is safe after not seeing him for more than two weeks. We didn’t know whether he was dead or alive, especially when communications were disconnected with the doctors," Sbeiti said.

The killing of civilians in Gaza schools and large evacuations from Al-Shifa Hospital are actions that fly in the face of basic protections civilians are afforded under international law, the United Nations' top human rights official said Sunday.

The Israeli military has previously pushed back against accusations of war crimes, saying its strikes on what it says are Hamas targets follow international law and that it seeks to minimize civilian casualties.

Türk called the events of the past two days horrendous, saying they beggar belief.

He said hundreds of people have fled Al-Shifa Hospital and were seen heading south, but warned, “nowhere is safe in Gaza.”

He also said that in Khan Younis in southern Gaza — where hundreds of thousands of Gazans have fled — the IDF has been dropping leaflets, telling residents to go to unspecified shelters, but he stressed, “Irrespective of warnings, Israel is obliged to protect civilians wherever they are.”

Türk again called for an immediate ceasefire on humanitarian and human rights grounds.

“The pain, dread, and fear etched on the faces of children, women and men is too much to bear,” he said. “How much more violence, bloodshed and misery will it take before people come to their senses? How many more civilians will be killed? This must stop.”