March 5, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

Anwar Abdul Nabi sits on the edge of a bed at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. The young mother tenderly holds the fingers of her daughter, Mila. Just a minutes ago, she died of starvation.

“My daughter moved to God’s mercy, because of the lack of calcium, potassium and oxygen,” she told CNN on Monday, crying into the arms of an elderly relative. “Suddenly, everything dropped, because she was not eating anything with iron, or eggs." 

She added: “She used to eat eggs every day before the war. Now nothing. She passed away.”

Israel’s severe restrictions on aid entering the enclave have exposed the population of more than 2.2 million people to malnutrition, dehydration and deadly disease. At least 15 children in northern Gaza have died from dehydration and malnutrition, a Palestinian Ministry of Health spokesperson said Sunday.

Parents in Gaza previously told CNN the stress of being unable to protect their children from bombardment is compounded by their inability to provide their families with food.

Nearby, Ahmad Salem, a doctor in Kamal Adwan hospital, nursed a small baby sleeping with an oxygen mask. The medical worker told CNN that patients in the intensive care and neonatal units were dying from malnutrition and a lack of oxygen, which are difficult to administer amid fuel shortages. 

Mother's who are unable to access enough food are also struggling to breastfeed, Salem said.

“We suffer from starvation of mothers," he said. "We cannot find an alternative to mother's milk, which leads to the death of those children.”

Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed at least 97 people and injured 123 others in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health reported Tuesday, bringing the total number of Palestinians killed in the enclave to at least 30,631 since October 7.

Israel's military campaign in the strip has also left 72,043 Palestinians wounded in Gaza since the Hamas-led October 7 attacks into southern Israel, the ministry added. Some of those killed remain buried under rubble, according to the ministry.

Iran-backed Houthis fired two anti-ship ballistic missiles from Yemen on Monday, striking and damaging a Swiss-owned container ship in the Gulf of Aden, according to US Central Command.

One of the missiles hit the M/V MSC Sky II and damaged the vessel, but initial reports indicate there were no injuries and the ship continued on its way, CENTCOM said.

Several hours later, the US “conducted self-defense strikes against two anti-ship cruise missiles that presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and U.S. Navy ships in the region,” CENTCOM said in a statement.

Remember: The Houthis, which control most of northern Yemen including the capital Sanaa, say their attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden are intended to pressure Israel and its allies to stop the war in Gaza. The group has repeatedly said its operations in the Red Sea will cease once Israel stops the war and lifts its siege on the Palestinian territory.

The Biden administration is continuing to call for more humanitarian aid to enter Gaza while it faces backlash for its ongoing military support to the Israeli government in the face of human rights abuse allegations. Still, the US reaffirmed Monday it will continue to provide military assistance to Israel, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

Negotiations continue for an agreement on a temporary ceasefire to release hostages from Gaza — but Israel is absent from the talks.

Meantime, more children have died of dehydration and malnutrition in Gaza as conditions in the enclave deteriorate further, a Palestinian Ministry of Health spokesperson said.

Here are the top headlines:

A growing number of children in Gaza are dying of starvation and dehydration, according to the World Health Organization and Palestinian officials, amid desperate conditions due to Israel’s throttling of aid and destruction of the besieged enclave — reinforcing the urgency of this week’s ceasefire talks.

Tedros appealed to Israel to ensure the safe and regular delivery of humanitarian aid and for a halt to the fighting.

A Palestinian Ministry of Health spokesperson said Sunday the number of children who have died of dehydration and malnutrition in northern Gaza has risen to 15.

A WHO team visiting Kamal Adwan Hospital at the weekend corroborated the dire conditions, saying the lack of food resulted in the deaths of 10 children at the hospital.

Keep reading about the urgency for a ceasefire deal.

There is "no way to know the fate" of Israeli hostages held in Gaza until a ceasefire deal is reached and implemented, a member of Hamas' political bureau told CNN on Monday.

Israel believes 130 hostages remain in Gaza — 99 of whom are believed to be alive — following Hamas' October 7 attacks that killed around 1,200 people in Israel.

"It is not possible to know any details about the fate of the Israeli prisoners because they are in different locations and with different factions, we do not know their fate under the bombardment and the starvation policy," Hamas official Basem Naim said in Istanbul.

The United States will continue to support Israel with military assistance, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Monday — despite the government’s refusal to open more crossings for humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Miller said “the leadership of Hamas that planned and plotted October 7 continue to be at large inside Gaza” and “they continue to pose a threat to innocent civilians inside Israel.” 

The Biden administration has faced backlash for its ongoing military support to the Israeli government in the face of human rights abuse allegations and for consistently suggesting that it would not use that assistance as leverage to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

Miller on Monday said there is more that the Israeli government “can do and more that they should do” to address the humanitarian crisis on the ground.

A United Nations team has found “clear and convincing” information that hostages in Gaza were sexually abused, Pramila Patten, the UN special envoy on sexual violence in conflict told reporters on Monday. There are “reasonable grounds” to believe the sexual violence is ongoing, she added.

According to Patten, the team also found “reasonable grounds to believe that conflict related sexual violence, including rape and gang rape occurred” during Hamas’ October 7 terror attack in Israel, in what is the most definitive finding by the global organization on sexual assault allegations in the aftermath of the attack.

The UN team, which was led by Patten, visited Israel between January 29 to February 14 for a mission “aimed at gathering, analyzing, and verifying information on conflict-related sexual violence” during October 7 and its aftermath, according to a 24-page report.

Patten stressed on Monday that the mission “was neither intended nor mandated to be investigative in nature,” adding that the team had 33 meetings with Israeli institutions while in Israel, interviewed 34 people, including survivors and witnesses to the October 7 attack, and released hostages, as well as reviewed 50 hours of footage of the attacks.

Hamas has previously denied that its militants committed rape during the October 7 attack.

Read the full story.

The Biden administration defended its decision to host Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz on Monday for a meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris and national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

Israeli officials have insisted that Gantz does not represent the government during his visit this week. 

Gantz, one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's main political rivals, is expected to meet with senior Biden administration officials without the Israeli ambassador present, which is at odds with the standard protocol when leaders of foreign governments visit. 

Kirby noted the meeting was at the request of Gantz.

Kirby wouldn’t say if there were plans for President Joe Biden to smooth things over with Netanyahu after reports the prime minister was “enraged” over Gantz’s visit.