March 26, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

At least 12 Gazans drowned on Monday off the coast near Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza, as they were trying to retrieve airdropped parcels that had landed in the sea, Palestinian paramedics said.

Footage obtained by CNN shows hundreds of Palestinians rushing to the site of the aid drop, with some venturing into the sea as parcels crashed down on the shores of Gaza. In one graphic scene, several dead bodies are shown, with some civilians performing CPR in a desperate attempt to resuscitate them.

Abu Mohammad, who witnessed the incident, told CNN the aid was dropped almost one kilometer off the coast into the sea, after which multiple men “who don’t know how to swim drowned" and died while trying to obtain the aid. 

It is unclear which country launched that specific airdrop. Egypt, Germany, the UK, the US, Singapore, and a joint UAE-Jordanian mission all flew airdrops over Gaza on Monday. CNN has reached out to all the ministries of defense of the countries who carried out air drops around that time and have not received official responses. 

Severe hunger in Gaza: Israel’s severe restrictions on aid entering the Gaza Strip has drained essential supplies. Humanitarian bodies including Oxfam and Human Rights Watch warned Israel is "using starvation of civilians as a weapon of war in Gaza, which is a war crime." Israel insists there is “no limit” on the amount of aid that can enter Gaza, but its inspection regime means relief is barely trickling in.

Qatar has said there is no sign as yet that the UN Security Council resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza is having any “negative impact” on high-stakes negotiations between Israel and Hamas. 

Israeli representatives are still having meetings in Doha, amid speculation that the entire delegation had withdrawn, according to a spokesperson for Qatar, which has served as a key mediator in talks.

“We didn’t have any development that one of the teams had pulled out of the negotiations at this time,” foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari told journalists on Tuesday.

In response to a question from CNN, Al Ansari said that so far he hadn't noticed “any negative impact” of the UN resolution on the “current negotiations.” 

Hopes for a ceasefire: Mediators were working towards a ceasefire before or during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, but gaps between Israel and Hamas over certain demands have delayed an agreement, added Ansari.

A window for a ceasefire before the Muslim holiday of Eid, the second week of April, is now closing, as both Israel and Hamas remain in disagreement over demands. 

The Israeli military struck parts of northern and southern Gaza on Tuesday, despite the UN Security Council calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave a day earlier.

Al Amal Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis was put "out of service" when Israeli troops forced health workers to evacuate, after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) encircled the facility earlier this month, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

Here are the latest developments:

A Palestinian man who was detained by the Israeli military for three days near Al-Shifa Hospital, in northern Gaza, during the IDF's operation there, says he was forced into torture positions, spat on and threatened with execution.   

Mohammad Mershid, 25, spoke to CNN while being treated for a head injury at another hospital, Al-Asqa Martyrs Hospital, in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza. He said Israeli troops stormed a house where he was sheltering, near Al-Shifa. They separated men, women and children, and stripped detainees naked inside rooms covered with broken glass, he said. 

"They didn’t even interrogate us, they were just enjoying torturing us,” he told CNN on Sunday. “We didn’t know what was happening with our neighbors. We were all besieged and we heard screaming.

Israeli forces threatened him with execution, he says, before he was released and told to flee south along Al-Rasheed Street. Mershid escaped by scrambling over dead bodies that Israeli tanks had crushed “to the ground.” He added: “They shot everything alive, really everything. A lot of cats and dogs, even birds on the street.” 

What the IDF says: CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) about the allegations levied by Mershid. The IDF has so far not responded. The IDF previously said it detained 500 people it claims are "terrorists” during its ongoing operation at Al-Shifa Hospital, but did not provide any details of or offer any evidence about the detainees. CNN cannot independently verify the numbers.

Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s political bureau, arrived in the Iranian capital Tehran on Tuesday to convene with Iranian officials and discuss "the ongoing war in Gaza," the militant group said in a statement.

Haniyeh and his delegation are scheduled to hold “a series of meetings and discussions with Iranian leadership, about political and on-the-ground developments" in the Gaza Strip, the statement said.

The Hamas chief, who is based in Qatar, is scheduled to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian among others, according to Iranian state news agency IRNA.

Calls for a ceasefire: It comes a day after the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Both Hamas and the Palestinian authority welcomed the resolution. The Israeli ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, criticized members for passing a measure that called for a ceasefire “without conditioning it on the release of the hostages.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanani said the move was a “positive yet insufficient step” in a statement on Tuesday, calling for “measures to put the resolution into practice,” IRNA reported.

Human rights groups: Following the UN vote on Monday, Amnesty International said Israeli authorities "must immediately halt their brutal bombing campaign in Gaza and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid." It added that, "Civilian hostages must be immediately released."

An Israeli airstrike late Sunday killed at least 21 Palestinians at Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, including six women and 10 children, according to the local Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. Worshipers were performing nightly taraweeh prayers around that time, one eyewitness told CNN. 

“We prayed taraweeh together with the children. Suddenly, airstrikes started bombarding the area,” said Darwish Abu Al-Khair. "I am a pediatrician, and I came here with my family seeking safety. They said Deir al-Balah is safe. Where should we go? 

Phone torches lit up the black sky over Deir al-Balah, as dozens of Palestinians scoured for survivors following the airstrike in the rubble of a blown-out residential building. 

Further south, in the city of Rafah, a barrage of Israeli airstrikes killed at least 30 civilians, including 11 women and 10 children, according to the Palestine Center for Human Rights. Eight members of the Al Kurdi family were killed after their home in the Al Jeneina neighborhood was struck at iftar time – when worshipers break their fast at sundown. 

“People were eating,” one man at the local Abu Yousef Al Najjar hospital, where bodies of the dead had arrived, told CNN. “Look around, it’s children and young people. No one got the chance to break their fast."  

What the IDF says: Responding to CNN's questions about the attack on Deir al-Balah, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it is “operating to dismantle Hamas military and administrative capabilities.” CNN has reached out to the IDF regarding the attacks on civilian homes in Rafah and has not yet heard back. CNN is unable to independently verify the figures due to lack of access to the Gaza Strip. 

The Al Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza is "out of service" after the Israeli military forced medical staff to evacuate the facility, Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) warned on Tuesday.

At least 27 PRCS staff and six patients were evacuated from the hospital, with help from the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs. The bodies of two people who had been killed inside the hospital were included in the evacuation.

CNN cannot independently verify the IDF's statement.

Israeli forces wounded displaced people sheltering at the hospital, who later died, the PRCS said on Sunday.

Remember: Hospitals are protected civilian objects under international humanitarian law. It is illegal, with few exceptions, to attack hospitals. A hospital can lose its special protected status only if it is used by an armed group for acts that are “harmful to the enemy.”

But, even if a hospital loses its special status, the wounded and sick inside are still protected by the principle of proportionality. A warning must be given, and time for safe evacuation, before carrying out an attack.

The UK carried out its first solo airdrop into Gaza on Monday, dropping over 11 tons of food aid into the besieged Palestinian enclave. 

A Royal Air Force plane flew from Amman, in Jordan, to release the aid along the northern Gaza coastline "as part of the Jordanian-led international aid mission," the UK Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday. 

The UK stressed its commitment to ensuring that the food aid, including "water, rice, cooking oil, flour, tinned goods and baby formula," reaches those who "need it most." 

Aid distribution warnings: Humanitarian agencies have criticized airdrops as an inefficient and degrading way of getting aid to Gazans, urging Israeli authorities to lift controls on land crossings into the enclave.

There have been calls on allies of Israel, including the UK and the US, to put pressure on Israel to allow more relief into Gaza via land crossings.

British defense secretary Grant Shapps on Tuesday said Israel should "provide port access and open more land crossings in order to increase incoming aid deliveries to Gaza." 

The Israeli military launched attacks in northern and southern Gaza on Tuesday, despite a UN Security Council calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said "troops are operating in the area of Al Amal in Khan Yunis; the IDF and ISA are continuing to conduct precise operational activity in the Shifa Hospital."

Israel's Air Force claimed targets on 60 sites across the Gaza Strip over the past day. CNN cannot independently verify the IDF's statements.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz insisted that Israel "will not cease fire" after the UN Security Council on Monday passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire for the remaining weeks of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, the immediate and unconditional release of hostages and "the urgent need to expand the flow" of aid into Gaza.

Katz added that Israel "will destroy Hamas and continue to fight until the last of the hostages returns home," in a statement on X.

Human rights warnings: Israel's military campaign in Gaza since the Hamas-led October 7 attacks has destroyed neighborhoods, wiped out families, and exposed the population of more than 2.2 million people to the risk of famine.