April 10, 2024 - Israel-Hamas war

Amid the ruins of burnt-out buildings, many Gazans congregate in prayer.

Wednesday is Eid al-Fitr, a festival when Muslims gather to mark the end of Ramadan and show gratitude to Allah.

Previously, Muslims in Gaza would celebrate the day by meeting with their family and sharing large meals. This year, all 2.2 million people in Gaza do not have enough food to eat, with half of the population on the brink of starvation and famine projected to arrive in the north “anytime between mid-March and May 2024,” the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said last month.

View photos of prayers across the enclave today:

Before the war, Salwa Tibi used to prepare breakfast for the young children in her family, visit relatives and decorate her house in Gaza City, in northern Gaza, with balloons and lights to celebrate Eid al-Fitr. 

But this year, Israel’s military campaign has crushed hopes of marking the festival – when Muslims gather to mark the end of Ramadan and show gratitude to Allah. Instead, the Palestinian aid worker, in her 50s, told CNN she will struggle to find enough food, clothes and shoes for her younger relatives.

She is staying in a rented house with at least 20 relatives including eight children and babies in Rafah, in southern Gaza, where most Palestinians have been forced to flee bombardment. Market supplies are scant and food prices have increased drastically, as Israel’s siege has diminished supplies. These days, Tibi says she can only afford canned beans and hummus.

Hamas has indicated it is currently unable to identify and track down 40 Israeli hostages needed for the first phase of a ceasefire deal, according to an Israeli official and a source familiar with the discussions, raising fears that more hostages may be dead than are publicly known.

The framework that has been laid out by negotiators says that during a first six-week pause in the fighting, Hamas should release 40 of the remaining hostages, including all the women as well as sick and elderly men. In exchange, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners would be released from Israeli prisons.

Hamas has told international mediators – which include Qatar and Egypt — it does not have 40 living hostages who match those criteria for release, both sources said. CNN’s record of the conditions of the hostages also suggests there are fewer than 40 living hostages who meet the proposed criteria.

The inability — or unwillingness — of Hamas to tell Israel which hostages would be released, alive, is a major obstacle, the second source added. With Hamas appearing to be unable to reach 40 in the proposed categories, Israel has pushed for Hamas to fill out the initial release with younger male hostages, including soldiers, the Israeli official said.

Throughout the months of negotiations since the last ceasefire, Israel has repeatedly asked for a list of the hostages and their conditions. Hamas has argued that they need a break in the fighting to be able to track and gather down the hostages, the same argument they made in November before a week-long pause that broke down after Hamas failed to deliver more hostages.

The majority of the almost 100 hostages who remain alive are believed to be male IDF soldiers or men of military reserve age. Hamas is expected to try to use them in later phases to try to negotiate more significant concessions, including more high-level prisoners and a permanent end to the war. 

The Israeli army has in recent days disrupted GPS signals over a number of cities, including the Tel Aviv metropolitan area and Jerusalem, with the aim of thwarting missile or drone attacks potentially fired by Iran or Iran-backed groups in the region.

The jamming caused major disruptions to daily life, sparking frustration across Israel. Residents using mapping applications such as Google Maps or Waze to commute in Tel Aviv said their apps showed they were in the Lebanese capital Beirut or Cairo in Egypt. 

Many people took to social media to post screenshots of the jamming, which disrupted online payments, deliveries and car-hailing services. 

Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari last week said that Israel initiated GPS interference “in order to neutralize threats,” adding that “we are aware that these disruptions cause inconveniences, but it is a vital and necessary tool in our defensive capabilities.” 

The jamming was at its peak last week, but sporadically persists this week. Israel has been on high alert since its strike in Damascus last week that killed top Iranian commanders, prompting a promise of retaliation from Iran.

Sina Toossi, an Iran expert and senior fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington, DC, warned that some Iranian drones are not easily susceptible to jamming. “Such extensive GPS jamming in Israel seems to reflect a lack of confidence in the effectiveness of their anti-missile & drone defense systems,” he wrote on X.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continue to carry out ground operations in Gaza, despite the departure of many units in recent weeks, and have launched “dozens” of air airstrikes in the past day.

The IDF said Wednesday they are “continuing to operate in the central Gaza Strip" and said it killed a number of people it called "terrorists" over the past day.

“During a close-quarters encounter, IDF troops killed a terrorist cell that posed a threat to the troops,” it said.

In addition, fighter jets struck locations in Jabalya and Shejaiya in northern Gaza on Tuesday, according to the IDF, after rocket launches were detected from compounds in each place.

Altogether, “fighter jets and aircraft struck dozens of terror targets in the Gaza Strip, including military sites, launchers, tunnel shafts, and infrastructure,” the IDF said.

On the ground, the IDF said, the 162nd Division, “continues to operate in the Netzarim Corridor that separates the northern and southern Gaza Strip, conducting targeted operations on terrorist infrastructure in the area.” Its soldiers had destroyed launching sites for anti-tank missiles and mortars.

Raghad Ezzat Hamouda can barely comfort her young siblings displaced in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza. Every day, she says, they wail from starvation.   

The 19-year-old Palestinian is sheltering with at least nine relatives – including her seven younger brothers aged four to 17. They are observing Ramadan, when Muslims abstain from food and water from sunrise to sunset. But Hamouda says Israel’s siege on the enclave forced her family to starve long before the Islamic holy month.   

These days, she can only offer her siblings a paste made with thyme, oil and hibiscus to break their fast, adding that she misses suhoor – the predawn meal – so that her younger brothers can eat tomato sauce with salt and pepper. She says she has lost about 44 pounds (20 kg) of weight since Israel launched its offensive.

As of April 8, at least 28 children in Gaza have died from malnutrition and dehydration, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. The actual number is likely to be higher, as limited access to northern Gaza has hindered the ability of aid agencies to fully assess the situation there.  

“The anxiety resulting from the thought of famine affects our mental and physical health. We think day and night: “Will we survive? Will we starve?” 

CNN’s Kareem Khadder contributed reporting to this post.

The Israeli agency that coordinates the inspection and delivery of humanitarian assistance for Gaza has again blamed the United Nations for failing to distribute the aid.

The agency, known as COGAT, posted on X Wednesday: “Israel is surging aid into Gaza, with over 1200 trucks entering in 3 days (avg 400/day). Right now, 500 trucks worth lying on the Gaza side of KS [Kerem Shalom] waiting to be picked up by UN agencies.”

It added: “@UN, Do your job, focus on distribution, and stop blaming Israel for your colossal failures.” The post is accompanied by a photograph of a large volume of aid waiting to be collected at Kerem Shalom, which along with Rafah is the main crossing point for aid.

There have been frequent disputes between Israel and UN agencies over who is to blame for delays and disruptions in getting aid into Gaza. COGAT has said that 419 humanitarian aid trucks were inspected and transferred to Gaza on Monday and 468 trucks on Tuesday — the highest number of aid trucks that entered Gaza in one day since the start of the war.

UN's response: The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said earlier this week that in March “an array of access restrictions and denials imposed by Israeli authorities continue to obstruct and limit humanitarian operations throughout Gaza.”

The United Nations main aid agency in Gaza has also said 176 of its staff have been killed since October 7.

The head of the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, Lt. Gen. Aroldo Lázaro, says "there is no military solution to the current confrontation and violence," instead suggesting "a political and diplomatic solution is the only way forward.”

He again warned of potential escalation as tensions continue to grow between Israel and Iran, and an almost daily barrage of rockets from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group across the Israel-Lebanon border.

Israel has been preparing for war with Hezbollah for months, having evacuated more than 40 communities in its north. The two sides have been engaging in skirmishes that have been confined to a few kilometers on each side of the border, although Israel last month struck as deep as 100 kilometers into Lebanon. Four UN peacekeepers were injured on March 30 when they were hit by a blast while on patrol in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, according to the UN mission.

Some context: UN Security Council resolution 1701, passed in 2006, calls for the full cessation of hostilities, the deployment of Lebanese forces to Southern Lebanon, parallel withdrawal of Israeli forces behind what is known as the Blue Line, and the establishment of a demilitarized zone between the Blue Line and the Litani River.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned that Israel "must be punished and it will be," for a deadly bombing of its consulate in Syria.

The airstrike, which Iran blamed on Israel, destroyed the consulate and killed seven Iranian officials, as well as at least six Syrians, according to Iranian state television. Iran subsequently vowed revenge.

Iran has vowed retaliation — an escalation of regional tensions over the war in Gaza that appeared to raise the risk of a wider Middle Eastern conflict.

Some context: Israel has intensified its longstanding military campaign against Iran and its regional proxies following the October 7 attack by Tehran-backed Hamas.

The strike in Damascus is a significant escalation because the consulate is considered sovereign Iranian territory, raising the risk of a wider Middle Eastern conflict.

What Israel says: After the strike, the Israeli military said it would not comment on foreign reports. But a military spokesperson said Israel believed the target was a “military building of Quds forces” — a unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards responsible for foreign operations.

In response to Iran's warnings on Wednesday, Israel's Minister of Foreign Affairs Israel Katz said: “Once Iran directly attacks Israel — that’ll be a turning point."

He said Israel would respond "inside Iran" in the case of an attack.