March 18, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

Al Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, said its fighters have been engaged in “fierce clashes” with Israeli forces since dawn in the area surrounding the Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City.

Al Qassam Brigades said it targeted "Zionist vehicles, causing death and destruction among their ranks."

Hamas said Israel assassinated Gaza’s Police Service Commander, Brigadier General Fayek al-Mabhouh, during its attack on Al-Shifa Hospital.

Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Monday that "20 terrorists" had been killed in the area of the hospital, including Al-Mabhouh, who the IDF said served as head of the Special Operations Directorate of Hamas Internal Security.  

More on the Al-Shifa raid: The Israel Defense Forces said it launched an operation at Al-Shifa Hospital in central Gaza based on intelligence that the hospital was being used by “senior Hamas terrorists." The Palestinian health ministry said there were multiple casualties. CNN cannot independently verify either claim. 

US President Joe Biden voiced "deep concerns" over Israel's plans for a major operation going after Hamas in Rafah during his phone conversation with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, according to a top national security official.

While he affirmed support for Israel's right to defend itself, Biden sought to explain why the plan for Rafah could prove catastrophic for Palestinian civilians and hamper the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.

Biden asked Netanyahu to send a senior delegation of military leaders to Washington to discuss the issue further and to lay out an alternative approach to go after Hamas in Rafah. Netanyahu agreed to dispatch such a group, and Sullivan said the meeting would occur at the end of this week or early next week.

Speaking with Netanyahu, Biden "explained why he is so deeply concerned about the prospect of Israel conducting major military operations in Rafah."

He said those concerns fell within three areas:

Sullivan described the call as "businesslike” and said it “did not end abruptly."

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) surrounded the Al-Shifa medical complex early Monday, where the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said about 3,000 people were sheltering.

The IDF claimed that its operation on Gaza's largest hospital was based on intelligence that the hospital was being used by "senior Hamas terrorists."

Israeli forces shared video footage of what they said showed "terrorist fire" coming from buildings inside Al-Shifa hospital toward Israeli troops on Monday, according to a joint statement from the IDF and Israel Security Agency Shin Bet (ISA).

The Palestinian health ministry said there were multiple casualties.

CNN cannot independently verify either claim. 

Here's what we know:

Correction: An earlier version of this post quoted a Gaza Health Ministry estimate that 30,000 people were sheltering at Al-Shifa. The ministry says it made a typographical error in its estimate and meant to say 3,000.

President Joe Biden and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the latest developments in Gaza during their phone conversation Monday, the White House said.

They said a fuller readout of their conversation would come later.

In addition to providing more aid to the enclave, the prime minister also reiterated to Biden his country's commitment to achieving its goals in the war which include "the elimination of Hamas, the release of all our hostages, and the promise that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel," according to a readout from Netanyahu's office.

Some background: Netanyahu told CNN in an interview on Sunday that his country’s policy is to let as much humanitarian aid into Gaza as is necessary, a claim that has been disputed by aid agencies and even contradicts his own statements. In an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, Netanyahu sought to shift the blame for aid not getting into Gaza from his government and onto Hamas, accusing the group of looting relief supplies.

This post has been updated with information from Netanyahu's office.

Israeli forces have shared video footage of what they say shows “terrorist fire” coming from buildings inside Al-Shifa hospital toward Israeli troops on Monday, according to a joint statement from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israel Security Agency Shin Bet (ISA).

CNN cannot independently verify these claims.

Israeli forces say they are conducting a “precise operational activity” in the area of Al-Shifa hospital and over the past few hours, “the troops identified terrorist fire toward them from a number of hospital buildings. The forces engaged the terrorists and identified several hits,” according to the joint statement.

Israeli forces surrounded the Al-Shifa Medical Complex early Monday, where the Ministry of Health in Gaza said about 3,000 people are sheltering.

Correction: An earlier version of this post quoted a Gaza Health Ministry estimate that 30,000 people were sheltering at Al-Shifa. The ministry says it made a typographical error in its estimate and meant to say 3,000.

The World Food Programme released a statement Monday on their Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report about food security in the Gaza Strip that found 88% of the region’s entire population faces “emergency or worse” food insecurity and warns that famine in northern Gaza is “imminent.”

The IPC report, which was written by a group of NGOs, governments and UN agencies warned that "between mid-March and mid-July, in the most likely scenario and under the assumption of an escalation of the conflict including a ground offensive in Rafah, half of the population of the Gaza Strip (1.11 million people) is expected to face catastrophic conditions (IPC Phase 5)."

Here's what else we know: According to the report, for the 300,000 people that remain trapped in Northern Gaza, "famine is expected to arrive between now and May,” and one in three children in Gaza below the age of two are “acutely malnourished.”   

Southern Gaza is also slowly nearing famine, according to the report, which found that the region may reach famine conditions by July. 

The report goes on to say that the nearing famine could be halted if aid organizations are allowed full access to the Gaza Strip to bring food, water and other nutritional products to the civilian population, and that “a humanitarian ceasefire is necessary,” for this to occur.

US President Joe Biden will speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday morning Eastern time, a source familiar with the matter said.

The call is their first known phone conversation in more than a month as the rift between the two men deepens and comes days after one of Biden's top allies in Washington, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, called for new Israeli elections that would result in Netanyahu's ouster.

Biden called the speech "good" and said it reflected the concerns of many Americans, though did not explicitly endorse nor condemn the call for new elections in Israel.

Netanyahu on Sunday forcefully pushed back on Schumer's speech during an interview with CNN's Dana Bash.

Why this matters: The Biden-Netanyahu relationship has devolved over the past several months as frustration inside the White House mounts over what American officials regard as Netanyahu's rejection of US advice on the war in Gaza.

That includes allowing more humanitarian aid to enter the strip, steps to protect civilian casualties and the future of an eventual Palestinian state.

The call also comes as Israel says it's preparing for a major operation in Rafah, where more than a million Palestinian civilians have been sheltering.

The White House has said such an operation should not move ahead without a credible plan to protect those civilians. As of Sunday, officials said they had not seen such a plan.

The World Health Organization's head expressed concern about the situation in the Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza where an Israeli military operation is still ongoing. 

The organization's chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus highlighted the concerning situation in a post on X, saying: "Hospitals should never be battlegrounds." 

A displaced Palestinian, Hamada Abdelhadi told CNN that Israeli military vehicles and bulldozers have been “demolishing and excavating the outer edges of the hospital yards” as part of the operation which began during the early hours of Monday morning. 

According to Ghebreyesus, the hospital had only recently managed to restore "minimal health services," warning that fighting there or "militarization of the facility jeopardize health services, access for ambulances, and delivery of life-saving supplies." 

Israeli forces have "arrested" Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Ismail Al-Ghoul at the Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City, according to Al Jazeera. 

Al-Ghoul and his crew were “severely beaten” before being taken to an undisclosed location, Al Jazeera said in a statement on Monday. Al Jazeera's satellite broadcasting vehicles and cameras were destroyed, the statement added.

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment on the matter, but so far has not heard back.