October 10, 2023 - Israel-Hamas war news

At least 1,000 people have been killed following the Hamas attacks on Israel over the weekend, Israel’s Army Radio reported on Tuesday.

Army Radio is operated by the Israel Defense Forces.

 President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris just concluded a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “to discuss our support for Israel,” the White House said.

This marks the third call Biden has held with Netanyahu since the conflict erupted on Saturday.

The White House plans to share a readout of the call shortly, and Biden is expected to deliver remarks on the conflict from the State Dining Room imminently, although those remarks have been delayed.

German authorities are working with airlines to expand departure options for German nationals trying to leave Israel, the German Foreign Office said in a statement Tuesday, advising those seeking to return home to Germany to look for flights on less well-known airlines or flights traveling through third countries.

The statement comes as a group of exchange students from Dortmund were able to leave Israel via Turkey on Tuesday afternoon. The 13 students landed safely in Antalya and are expected to arrive in Germany on Wednesday morning, Martina Plum, a spokesperson for the Youth Exchange Organization, told CNN “with great relief“ on Tuesday. 

“Nothing happened to them, but the students and their tutors, of course, have experienced a very threatening situation," Plum said. “We are overjoyed that the students are safe."

Most of the students are 16 years old and were staying with host families in Tel Aviv and Netanya as part of the exchange program. They were scheduled to leave Wednesday but were relieved to have been able to catch an earlier flight given all the flight cancellations, Plum added.

Homes, schools, medical institutions and government buildings were flattened in Gaza as Israeli airstrikes continued Tuesday, the Palestinian Ministry of Information said in a statement.

Here's a breakdown provided in the statement:

Buildings:

Medical institutions: 10 bombed, including seven hospitals were bombed

Ambulances: 12 ambulances have been directly targeted

Schools: 48 schools destroyed

Government buildings: 23 destroyed

Five medical personnel and seven journalists were killed, and displaced people in Gaza are now taking shelter in 70 centers due to continued airstrikes, the statement said.

Fighting between Israel and Hamas continues for the fourth day straight since the Islamist militant group carried out one of the deadliest terror attacks in Israel's history, killing at least 900 people. Israel has responded with an overwhelming number of airstrikes on Gaza, the 140 square-mile densely populated territory controlled by Hamas, leaving at least 830 people dead there, wounding 4,250 and displacing more than 137,000.

If you're just joining us, here's what you need to know:

Israel attacks Gaza: Israel is carrying out air strikes on the Gaza port, the Israel Defense Forces has confirmed to CNN. "IDF is currently striking terror targets belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization on the coast of the Gaza Strip. Details to follow," it said in a statement Tuesday. A fishing boat was pictured ablaze at the port. 

Hamas attacks Israel: A huge barrage of rockets were fired from Gaza by Hamas on Ashkelon in “response to the displacement of civilians in Gaza,” a statement on Telegram said. It followed a warning issued to the residents of the southern Israeli city to leave the city before 5 p.m. local time. A video shared by Hamas showed rockets flying through the sky with people taking cover on the side of the road in Israel.

The only crossing available to fleeing Gazans was struck: The only border crossing between the Gaza strip and Egypt was struck by Israeli warplanes on Tuesday, the spokesperson for the Palestinian Interior Ministry Eyad al-Bozom said Tuesday. The tightly controlled Rafah crossing is the only crossing available to Gazans looking to flee as Israel attacks Gaza in response to Hamas' attack on Saturday. All other crossings out of the territory are shut. The IDF has urged civilians in Gaza to leave their residential areas immediately for their safety as Israeli military operations continue to target Hamas, and shut all crossings between Israel and Gaza, potentially setting the stage for a ground incursion into the enclave.

Rockets fired from Lebanon toward Israel: Rockets were fired from south Lebanon toward Israel, according to Al Manar, a Lebanese outlet that is Hezbollah-owned. Hezbollah did not claim that it fired the rockets. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) responded with artillery fire, it said.

Foreigners among the dead: At least nine Latin Americans — Peruvian, Brazilian, Argentinian — are dead and 25 others are missing following attacks by Hamas on Israel this weekend, according to their respective governments. Other foreign nationals were reported dead on Tuesday, including citizens of France, Russia and Thailand.

US not urging Israel to exercise restraint: In a phone call with US President Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brought up the possibility of going into Gaza. President Biden did not warn him against doing so, a US official briefed on the conversation tells CNN. When Biden delivers a second speech on the situation in Israel later today, he will continue to hold back from urging Netanyahu to exercise restraint, according to officials familiar with the remarks.

On the ground: In a new season of CNN's "Tug of War" podcast, CNN International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson brings us the latest on the conflict from his position just two miles from the Israeli border with Gaza.

Hamas militants carried out a “massacre” in Kfar Aza in southern Israel during their attacks over the weekend, in which women, children, toddlers and the elderly were "brutally butchered in an ISIS way of action,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told CNN Tuesday.

The IDF said it cannot confirm the number of people killed there and would not go into details how the people were killed.

The IDF was responding to a report by the news outlet i24 that some of its troops who arrived at Kfar Aza found terrible atrocities had been committed against the victims.

Earlier today, an Israeli general described to CNN the moment the military found bodies in the Kfar Aza kibbutz: "I’ve never seen anything like this in my career, never in 40 years of service this something I never imagined," he said.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have seemingly stopped the “knock on the roof.” The euphemism describes a military tactic first developed in 2009 and used in several conflicts since then.

How it works: IDF forces will alert a building’s occupants that they are targeting the structure for an airstrike by dropping a small, non-explosive munition on the roof before a larger strike is executed. Its objective is to minimize civilian casualties by allowing for evacuation in buildings where militant groups keep rockets or ammunition stashed.

Despite the ultimate goal of saving lives, the technique is controversial and has been criticized by human rights groups, who argue dropping a munition on a building should not be considered a warning.

Others say even with the heads-up, there are few safe places for civilians to go in a blockaded strip of land. Gaza is small, just 140 square miles, and one of the most densely populated places on the planet. Civilians, including children, are often killed in the bombardments.

IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Richard Hecht explained that the distinction between military and civilian targets was not so simple.

What’s happening now: Following Hamas’ attack on Saturday, Israel seems to have abandoned the “knock on the roof.” CNN has spoken to multiple people in Gaza who said they were given no notice when their homes were bombed.

When asked whether the IDF has stopped the tactic, Hecht said on Monday that Hamas did not “knock on the roof.”

This absence of such warnings may be contributing to the significant number of civilian casualties reported so far in Gaza. At least 830 people have been killed in Gaza since Saturday.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops engaged in a firefight with Hamas militants near the kibbutz Mefalsim Tuesday evening local time, multiple IDF troops on the ground told CNN.

A CNN team heard numerous exchanges of machine gunfire, while positioned near a group of IDF troops holding a perimeter about 1 kilometer (or about 0.6 miles) away from the battle.

At one point, CNN heard gunfire coming from a different direction and troops indicated there were numerous firefights with Hamas happening in the area.

An IDF spokesperson could not immediately confirm an official version of events.

Before Adrienne Neta went missing from Kibbutz Be'eri Saturday — assumed kidnapped by Hamas attackers — she was on the phone with her children, who were trying to calm the 66-year-old as she heard gunfire outside her home, her eldest son Nahar Neta told reporters Tuesday at a news conference held by families of US citizens missing in Israel.

“Both my brother and my sister were on the call with her as the terrorists barged into her home and we heard a little bit of screaming and that was our last contact with her,” Nahar Neta said. 

According to Nahar, he has not been contacted by the government about his mother.

Adrienne was born and raised in California, Nahar said, adding the US government also had a responsibility "for the life of every US citizen that is out there," and to bring each home "safe and sound."

Diana Neta, Adrienne’s youngest child, praised her mother, describing her as "an exceptional human being" who spent most of her adult life working as a nurse and a midwife. "When she walked into a delivery room, she saw a human being in front of her. Not a religion, not a race.”

The family once calculated that Adrienne has brought thousands of lives into this world.

“When Hamas walked into my mother’s room in Be'eri, they saw her alone, but they did not see a human being,” she said.