Devastation in Gaza as Israel wages war on Hamas

The White House defended a recent transfer of more than 2,000 bombs to Israel despite US concerns over its conduct in the war in Gaza.

Kirby said that it's important to remember that Israel still faces a lot of threats. "I mean, we're all focused on Hamas, and I understand that, but they still face active threats throughout the region, including from Iran, and the United States still has an ironclad commitment to help Israel with its self-defense."

He added that much of the recently reported sales were "not tied to this conflict."

As CNN previously reported, the transfer authorization for the MK82 bombs and small-diameter bombs occurred before an Israeli strike on a humanitarian convoy in Gaza on Monday that killed seven employees of the aid organization World Central Kitchen, a State Department spokesperson said. 

But news of the approval comes as Israel is facing fresh international condemnation over the strike. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged on Tuesday that the aid workers had been "unintentionally" targeted.

Kirby’s defense came after a call between Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu where the White House implied US policy toward Israel could change depending on the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

 An Israeli airstrike targeting the Al-Janina neighborhood in Rafah killed a heavily pregnant woman and her two young daughters, according to the woman’s father, Akram Al-Khairi.

The family was sleeping when a missile fell on their home, Al-Kahiri told CNN. Here's what he said happened:

There was a fourth person killed, who was a young man from the neighborhood, Al-Khairi added.

Video filmed by a CNN stringer on the ground shows the bodies at Abu Yousuf al-Najjar hospital, with members of the community standing around them. The father can be seen crying over the bodies of his wife and two young daughters, with a bandage covering his eye.

CNN has reached out to the IDF for comment.

Humanitarian aid organizations continue attempts to get aid to Gaza but acknowledge that they are often forced to suspend day-to-day missions because of the security situation.

Oxfam: “Every day we are forced to decide whether to suspend an operation or to proceed with an operation. And often, the decision is to suspend because we don’t have the proper security conditions in place. This is not an all-or-nothing proposition,” said Scott Paul, associate director for peace and security.

The question of staff safety has been paramount as many aid workers have been killed since the war began. But the Israeli airstrikes that killed seven World Central Kitchen staffers this week have heightened the focus on the dangers faced by the nonprofits.

Médicines Sans Frontièrs: President Isabelle Defourny said the organization is confronted by the fact that it’s reached its limit in the current circumstances. “The conditions today to deliver humanitarian assistance and to do something meaningful … they are not there,” she told CNN during a briefing on Thursday.

While MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, will never stop working in Gaza, Defourny said the capacity to help is a “continuous question and discussion.”

Save the Children: Karyn Beattie, who is currently in Gaza, said the situation is ever-evolving.

If the United States does not see changes in Israel’s policies to protect civilians in Gaza, “there’ll be changes in our own policy,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday.

“This week's horrific attack on the World Central Kitchen was not the first such incident. It must be the last,” Blinken said at a news conference in Brussels.

The secretary of state said he was “outraged” by the deaths of the seven WCK staffers. "I strongly condemn it."

He also described the repeated push on the Israeli government to do more to mitigate civilian harm.

The post was updated with Blinken's condemnation of the attack on WCK staffers.

US President Joe Biden called the deaths of humanitarian workers caused by Israeli strikes and the overall humanitarian situation in Gaza “unacceptable” during his phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, the White House said in a readout shortly after the conversation wrapped. 

“He made clear that US policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps,” the White House added.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the two leaders did not discuss Israel's investigation into the strike in detail. Kirby said that Netanyahu expressed that "he would take appropriate actions to make sure something like that couldn't happen again" once that investigation concluded.

Biden also “underscored that an immediate ceasefire is essential,” the readout said, adding that the president urgent Netanyahu to "empower his negotiators to conclude a deal without delay to bring the hostages home.”

The leaders also discussed Iran's threats against Israel and Biden assured US support for Israel in the face of those threats, according to the White House.

This post has been updated with comments from John Kirby.

At least four Palestinians, including one paramedic, were killed after Israeli artillery fire targeted an area near a school sheltering displaced civilians in the northeastern Gaza city of Beit Hanoun on Thursday, according to Kamal Adwan Hospital paramedics.

An ambulance driver for the hospital, Abdallah Hemaid, told CNN that some civilians were scavenging in a field for plants or vegetation they could eat when Israeli artillery fire targeted the area. Hemaid said when the initial attack took place, nearby civilians rushed over to try to help the injured. But then another round of artillery fire killed three people and injured several children, all from the same family, he said.

Two ambulances with four paramedics from the Kamal Adwan Hospital headed to the area when a third round of artillery fire erupted, killing one of the paramedics and critically injuring three others, he added.

Graphic video obtained by CNN showed the critically injured paramedics arriving at the hospital, blood splattered on their faces and body. Dead bodies can also be seen wrapped in white cloth on the floor, with civilians and paramedics hovering around them crying.

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has concluded its initial investigation into the deadly strikes on the World Central Kitchen (WCK) convoy, an Israeli official told CNN.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant were set to be briefed on the findings on Thursday, the official added.

The IDF said that it’s planning to publish the details of the preliminary investigation imminently.

A call between President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has concluded, a US official said. 

It marked their first conversation since the deadly Israeli airstrike that killed seven aid workers with World Central Kitchen in Gaza.

More about the call: The call was arranged after the deaths of the aid workers, per a source familiar. CNN reported Wednesday that in the aftermath of those deaths, Biden was “angry” and “increasingly frustrated” – and fully prepared to make all of that known to Netanyahu in their conversation, according to a senior administration official.

White House officials have emphasized in the wake of the aid workers’ deaths that the US’ stance in supporting Israel’s current military operation remains unchanged.

There has simply been no “shift in policy,” the senior administration official said. “What there has been is a shift in the president’s frustrations.”

Biden is also expected to discuss with Netanyahu a number of other issues in addition to the need to better protect humanitarian aid workers in Gaza.

Najdat Mohammed Saqer greets his patient with a warm smile. Palestinian flags decorate his makeshift clinic inside a tent in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, which is held down by cement blocks and neatly laden with medical equipment.

The Gazan health worker told CNN he was forced to shut down his dental center in Nuseirat refugee camp, after Israel's bombardment damaged the area in northern Gaza and forced locals to flee.

Saqer returned to the site of his old clinic to gather whatever was left of his equipment. These days, he provides dental services to displaced Palestinians for patients in the backyard of his home in central Gaza. Israel's siege has drastically diminished water and electricity supplies. Saqer must rely on limited solar energy.

“We were born on a struggling land, and we will never surrender. We will rebuild it, in God’s will.”