April 1, 2024 - Israel-Hamas war

Senior US and Israeli officials will meet virtually to discuss potential military operations in Rafah on Monday, a US official says. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will be at the virtual meeting, according to a US official. National security adviser Jake Sullivan is leading the US side, while national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer will lead for Israel, according to another US official and an Israeli official. There will also be representatives of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and other Israeli security services present. The meeting is scheduled to last two hours. 

The US officials' primary focus will be stressing "alternative ways" that the Biden administration believes Israel can achieve its goal of dismantling Hamas — without launching a significant military operation into southern Gaza, according to that official. That outcome, US officials have warned repeatedly, is certain to result in a huge number of additional civilian casualties and would be unacceptable to the Biden White House.

The two sides are still working toward an in-person meeting on the issue at some point, the official said. “We anticipate follow up meetings in person following additional work by expert teams,” an official said. 

Thousands of people took to the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem over the weekend in the largest protests Israel has seen since the start of the war against Hamas — a significant challenge to the increasingly embattled leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Demonstrators are angry at Netanyahu and his government for not having secured the release of all the hostages taken captive during the October 7 terror attack. While 105 people were released during a temporary truce last year, another 130 that were kidnapped are either dead or still being held by Hamas and other militant groups.

Banners at the protests called on the Prime Minister to resign and for Israel to hold new elections.

Netanyahu has said that the goals of the current war against Hamas are to bring back the hostages, destroy Hamas and remake Gaza so that no militant group can ever carry out the type of attack that Israel suffered last year, in which about 1,200 people were killed.

Families of hostages among protesters: But the families of the hostages and demonstrators that came out over the weekend believe the Israeli government should be more focused on hostage retrieval than any military or security objectives.

Read more about the anti-government protests in Israel here.

Ambulances trying to reach Al-Shifa hospital following the withdrawal of Israeli troops on Monday are finding it "almost impossible because of the damaged roads," Gaza's Civil Defense tells CNN. 

Gaza's Civil Defense reported earlier that at least 300 bodies have been found so far at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City but added that it was difficult to determine the exact number of people killed as Israeli forces had buried bodies inside and around the Al-Shifa complex and bulldozed nearby roads. CNN is unable to independently verify these numbers because of lack of reporting access to the strip. 

Speaking in front of a burning building of the surrounding Al-Shifa hospital right before sunrise as people and rescue groups were still making their way to the complex, Al-Dahshan said they are working despite the limited resources.

"Al-Shifa hospital is completely burnt," he said. "But we want to be close to our people to salvage what we can: put out the fires raging in house, stop the bleeding injuries and remove the decomposing bodies," he added.

The sister of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has been arrested in Israel on suspicion of terror offenses.

Sabah Abdel Salam Haniyeh, the sister of the head of Hamas’s political bureau, is accused of “having contact with Hamas operatives” and “inciting and supporting acts of terrorism in Israel,” according to Israeli police.

While an Israeli police statement did not give the woman’s identity, an Israeli security source confirmed to CNN that the suspect, arrested early Monday morning, is Haniyeh’s sister. The 57-year-old was arrested at her home in the Bedouin town of Tel Sheva in southern Israel. She had been jointly investigated by Israeli police and the ISA, also known as Shin Bet or Shabak, Israel’s domestic security agency.

Israeli police said evidence “linking her to committing serious security offenses against the State of Israel” had been found during the raid on her home. Haniyeh was detained for questioning and will be brought before a judge with the request to extend her detention later on Monday.

Israeli troops have withdrawn from the Al-Shifa hospital, Gaza's largest, two weeks after it first launched an offensive on the facility.

Eyewitnesses to the aftermath of the raid described it as "like a horror movie," with one journalist saying: “I’m looking around me and I can’t believe what I see."

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Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant praised the actions of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during a briefing on Monday after they withdrew from Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital.

Gallant expressed his appreciation to the IDF and Shin Bet personnel for their “determined and professional action” inside the medical complex. Describing the 14-day hospital siege as a “precise and deadly operation,” he said that fighters belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad had been taken by surprise with hundreds killed or captured.

“The terrorist base in Shifa has been eliminated,” Gallant said.

On Sunday — before the IDF withdrawal — the Director General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said 21 patients had died since the siege began on March 18 and dozens of patients were still trapped in the facility.

“107 patients are in an inadequate building, within the hospital compound, lacking needed health support, medical care and supplies,” he said. When Israeli forces surrounded the medical complex on March 18 the Ministry of Health in Gaza said about 3,000 people were sheltering in the area.

This post has been updated with more details on the number of people believed to have been sheltering in the area.

Medical service crews are working to recover hundreds of bodies “scattered” around the Al-Shifa medical complex, they said on Monday, as the scale of destruction emerges following the Israeli forces’ withdrawal from the besieged compound.

Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, head of the Palestine Initiative and director of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society described a “massacre” with “hundreds of mutilated bodies of children, women and civilian men killed by the Israeli army.” One hundred and thirty “sick and injured people were found in terrible health condition, dehydrated, starving, with their wounds infected and covered with flies,” he continued.

Several decomposed and disfigured bodies partly buried beneath the rubble of what was once the structures of Gaza’s largest hospital can be seen in videos obtained by CNN.

CNN has asked the IDF to comment on accusations of crushing bodies. In a briefing Monday, spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the IDF had distinguished between patients, medics and civilians sheltering at the medical complex and militants and had done its utmost to avoid civilian harm, reaffirming the 14-day siege was an “anti-terror” mission. According to the Civil Defense in Gaza on Monday, 300 bodies have been found at the Al-Shifa complex.

At least 300 bodies have been found so far at the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City following the Israeli military’s withdrawal from the medical complex Monday, according to Gaza's Civil Defense.  

The organization said it was difficult to determine the exact number of people killed as Israeli forces had buried bodies inside and around the Al-Shifa complex and bulldozed nearby roads. CNN is unable to independently verify these numbers because of a lack of reporting access to the strip.  

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) withdrew from Al-Shifa Monday following a 14-day siege of the facility. The Israeli military repeatedly said the Al-Shifa complex was being used by armed militants. CNN has reached out to the IDF on these numbers and have yet to hear back.  

Israel says its operations in and around the hospital were a “precise” anti-terror mission and said it had done its utmost to avoid civilian harm. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said more than 200 militants had been killed in the hospital.

More on the Al-Shifa operation: In a briefing Monday, spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said that 900 suspected militants had been detained in the two-week-long operation. More than 500 militants had been identified as members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Hagari added, with some of those detained being “commanders and significant people.” He claimed Hamas and PIJ started regrouping in the northern part of the Gaza Strip and were using Al-Shifa as a base to rebuild.

Protests calling for the removal of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have entered their second day Monday after thousands took to the streets of Jerusalem on Sunday.

Dozens of people marched outside Israel’s parliament, known as the Knesset, waving signs and shouting slogans calling on Netanyahu to step down.

Protesters blame the prime minister for failing to secure the release of hostages in Gaza with others chanting "Bibi, you failed. Go home." Netanyahu is known throughout Israel by the nickname "Bibi."

Some protestors camped out the night before with organizers planning to maintain their presence in front of the Knesset and the Supreme Court until Wednesday, when the Israeli parliament will begin its spring recess.

Appearing in a news conference on Sunday ahead of a surgery, Netanyahu again rejected calls for early elections, saying only Hamas will benefit from them.