By Sana Noor Haq, Christian Edwards, Tori B. Powell and Aditi Sangal, CNN
Updated 2:14 a.m. ET, April 24, 2024
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10:25 a.m. ET, April 23, 2024
IDF warns people to leave "dangerous combat zone" in parts of northern Gaza
From CNN's Lauren Izso and Tim Lister
Palestinians do their daily shopping in the market set up between buildings destroyed by Israeli attacks in Beit Lahia, Gaza, on April 20. Omar El Qattaa/Anadolu/Getty Images
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has issued a warning to people in parts of the area of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza.
Identifying several blocks from its map of Gaza, the IDF warns: “You are in a dangerous combat zone. The IDF will work with extreme force against terrorist infrastructure and subversive elements in the region.”
The IDF called on residents to evacuate and "head towards the known shelters in Blocks No. 1770, 1766" in the west and south of the city.
“The most excused is he who warns,” the message ends.
It’s unclear how many people would receive the warning, given the sporadic nature of electricity and connectivity in northern Gaza.
Reports from journalists in Gaza speak of artillery bombardments and air strikes in the north and renewed airstrikes in Zeitoun in central Gaza.
9:49 a.m. ET, April 23, 2024
Qatar rules out shutting Hamas office "as long as mediation channels continue"
From CNN’s Mostafa Salem in Abu Dhabi
Qatar's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Majed Al-Ansari speaks during weekly press briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Doha, Qatar, on April 23. Imad Creidi/Reuters
Qatar is yet to decide whether it will shut Hamas’ office in Doha, Qatar's capital, as it questions both the Palestinian militant group and Israel’s commitment to reach a hostage-ceasefire agreement in Gaza, the foreign ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday.
Qatar has come under pressure from Israel and US politicians over its links with the Palestinian militant group. But it said on Tuesday that there won’t be a need to shut the Hamas political bureau in Doha provided that communication channels remain open.
“If the office is performing that role, as in the mediation efforts are ongoing, then there is no justification to end the presence of the (Hamas) office in Doha,” the spokesperson Majed Al Ansari told a news conference on Tuesday.
“We are calling on both sides to show more flexibility and seriousness in the negotiations,” Ansari said.
Stalled talks: Meetings between negotiators in Qatar have stopped amid a deadlock in the months-long indirect talks between Hamas and Israel. The lack of progress, coupled with criticism of Qatar’s relationship with Hamas, has pushed Doha to reconsider its role as an interlocutor in the stagnant negotiations.
9:49 a.m. ET, April 23, 2024
IDF says suspicious aerial targets intercepted off Israel's north coast
From Tamar Michaelis and Charbo Mello
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it has “successfully intercepted two suspicious aerial targets off the northern coast.”
“The sirens regarding rocket fire sounded following the possibility of fallen shrapnel from the interception. The incident has concluded,” it said.
Sirens sounded in the city of Acre for the first time since December.
Hezbollah said that “in response to the Israeli aggression on the town of Adloun and the assassination of one of our mujahideen brothers,” it had launched an attack on the command headquarters of the Golan Brigade and the Eguz 621 unit near Acre.
Earlier, Hezbollah had acknowledged the death of a senior operative, Hussein Ali Azkul. The IDF said it had killed Azkul, whom it described as “a significant terrorist operative in Hezbollah's Aerial Defense Unit” in southern Lebanon.
There are no reports of damage or casualties from the Hezbollah attack.
10:09 a.m. ET, April 23, 2024
Hundreds of thousands of tons of waste across Gaza remain uncollected, says UNRWA
From CNN's Tim Lister
Children walk past a pile of household refuse in a street in Gaza on March 28. AFP/Getty Images
More than 270,000 tons of solid waste across the entire Gaza Strip remain uncollected, the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said Tuesday, as Israel's military campaign has disrupted essential services in the enclave. In January and February, UNRWA and the UN's Development Programme collected 10,000 tons of solid waste in Gaza.
Scores displaced: As of April 21, up to 1.7 million people (more than 75% of the entire population) have been displaced across Gaza, the majority multiple times, UNRWA estimated.
Israeli attacks intensified in central Gaza and the southern city of Khan Younis in recent weeks, uprooting "a significant number of displaced people" further south, UNRWA said, adding, “Families are forced to move repeatedly in search of safety." In the northern Gaza and Gaza City governorates, about 300,000 people were estimated to be sheltering.
Relief operations hindered: Efforts to provide relief for Palestinians in northern Gaza have been "severely restricted," the agency said, claiming that Israeli authorities have impeded aid missions to the area.
Israel has longstanding issues with UNRWA, having accused some staffers of being directly involved in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks into southern Israel. An independent review noted that "Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence" for its allegations.
Health system crushed: As of April 17, eight out of 24 UNRWA health centers were operational across the north, central Gaza and in the south, as Israel’s siege in Gaza has diminished food, fuel and water supplies, and severely damaged the medical system.
9:40 a.m. ET, April 23, 2024
UN agency claims Israel is impeding aid missions to northern Gaza
From CNN's Tim Lister
Displaced Palestinians receive cooked food rations at a donation point in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on April 19. Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
Israel has consistently denied aid convoys to northern Gaza, according to the UN's agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA). Food shortages are worst in northern Gaza, where Israel concentrated its military offensive in the early days of the war.
Israeli authorities vetoed at least 27 out of 81 aid missions that require coordination in the north and south of the strip, between April 1 and April 19, UNRWA said in a report on Tuesday. The last time UNRWA was able to deliver food supplies to the area was on January 23.
The Israeli agency in charge of inspecting convoys entering Gaza told CNN earlier this month that it was “cooperating [in the north] with a wide array of humanitarian organisations" including UN agencies and regional actors.
Since the beginning of April, an average of 186 aid trucks have crossed into Gaza per day via the Kerem Shalom and Rafah land crossings, UNRWA added. As of 8 April, UNRWA said it had delivered flour to nearly 400,000 families in southern Gaza. Before the war, about 500 trucks of supplies were entering the Palestinian enclave daily.
Barely trickling in: Human rights agencies have repeatedly warned that Israel's severe restrictions on aid entering Gaza means relief is barely tricking into the strip.
UNRWA says there “has been very little significant change in the volume of humanitarian supplies entering Gaza or improved access to the north." Israeli agencies have frequently blamed the United Nations for failing to distribute aid within Gaza, saying last week that hundreds of trucks of aid piled up at Kerem Shalom.
Cargo trucks carrying humanitarian aid move through the security inspections before crossing into the Gaza Strip, in Kerem Shalom, Israel, on March 14. Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
2:00 p.m. ET, April 23, 2024
"Destruction like an earthquake." Palestinians return after Israeli forces withdraw from Nuseirat
From CNN’s Mohammad Al Sawalhi, Abeer Salman and Sana Noor Haq
Palestinians inspect the damage to a building in the city of Nuseirat in central Gaza on April 18. AFP/Getty Images
Dozens of Palestinians visited the central Gaza neighborhood of Nuiserat last week, after Israeli forces withdrew.
CNN footage shows the destroyed interior of buildings sliced by bombardment, as men and boys wearing flip flops stand on huge mounds of debris. A young Palestinian child sits on a white sofa surrounded by pink cushions, old blankets, and upturned concrete slabs in the Nuseirat refugee camp. Residents in Gaza say they were desperately trying to salvage precious objects from homes ravaged by Israeli strikes, as they surveyed the area in horror.
Palestinians living in Nuseirat Refugee Camp collect the usable items among the rubble of the destroyed buildings after Israel withdrawal from northern Nuseirat Camp in Deir Al Balah, Gaza, on April 18. Ashraf Amra/Anadolu/Getty Images
“On the second day of Eid rockets started hitting us,” Abu Mohammad Farajallah, a displaced resident, told CNN on April 18. “We came back after a week to struck houses and buildings, there is no place to stay.”
Earlier this month, the Israeli military retreated from Nuseirat and left swathes of rubble, damaged residential buildings and destroyed water, sanitation and waste collection services, Palestinian officials told CNN. Israeli attacks in the neighborhood left at least 500 people killed, injured or missing, said Gaza’s Civil Defense spokesperson, Mahmoud Basal. CNN cannot verify the estimate and contacted the Israeli military about the scope and purpose of its attacks in Nuseirat.
Another resident, Hassan Al Habbash, compared the devastation to “an earthquake.”
Hassan Al Habbash, a doctor, told CNN that he returned to Nuseirat, in central Gaza, on April 18, to find his house had been “demolished.” CNN
"We have never witnessed such destruction in history,” added the doctor, who wore glasses and had a wispy white beard. “I came back to find my house demolished.”
This destruction reflects hate, rage,” a woman said, as she rummaged through a pile of stuffed toys and other belongings covered in dust. “Those are the remains of the memories, of what was left of our lives.”
7:35 a.m. ET, April 23, 2024
Israeli air strike destroys top three floors of building in Gaza City, in northern Gaza
From CNN’s Kareem Khadder and Jessie Gretener
Smoke rises above the al-Sahaba building after an attack by the Israeli army in the al-Daraj neighborhood, Gaza, on April 22. Emam Bader/Anadolu/Getty Images
Israel's bombardment demolished the top three floors of the Al-Sahaba building in Gaza City, in the northern part of the enclave, Monday.
Footage from the attack shows the Israeli airstrike hitting the eight-story tower, igniting a ball of fire and triggering a massive plume of smoke. The strike was also captured from a distance, with another video showing a dark cloud of smoke rising on the city’s horizon.
A warning was issued an hour ahead of the strike, with no casualties reported, according to journalists on the ground. The Israeli military says it launched 25 air strikes across Gaza over past 24 hours.
Human rights warnings: Oxfam and Human Rights Watch have accused Israel of imposing "indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks in violation of international humanitarian law" in Gaza.
6:57 a.m. ET, April 23, 2024
Israeli military kills two Hezbollah operatives in southern Lebanon
From CNN's Tamar Michaelis and Charbel Mallo
A member of the Lebanese intelligence service stands at the site of an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the Adloun plain area, Lebanon, on April 23. Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP/Getty Images
The Israeli military says it killed two members of the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah, in southern Lebanon.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) struck and killed Hussein Ali Azkul, who it described as “a significant terrorist operative" in Hezbollah's Aerial Defense Unit, in southern Lebanon. Azkul was "heavily involved in the planning and execution of terrorist attacks against Israel," the IDF said in a statement Tuesday.
Hezbollah also acknowledged the death of Azkul in a statement on Tuesday as well, without mentioning the cause or date of death.
The IDF claimed to have killed another “significant terrorist” in Hezbollah’s Aerial Unit -- Sajed Sarafand -- in the area of Arzoun, in southern Lebanon. Sirens were activated Tuesday morning in the western Galilee area, near the Lebanese border, because of a suspected drone infiltration.
Regional tensions: Israeli and Hezbollah forces have engaged in cross-border fire and tit-for-tat exchanges since October 7, when Hamas launched an attack on Israel. Hezbollah’s political stance has unambiguously supported the Palestinian militants. It has roundly condemned Israel’s relentless airstrikes on Gaza.
CNN's Tamara Qiblawi contributed reporting.
2:03 p.m. ET, April 23, 2024
Dozens more bodies found in mass grave at hospital in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza
From CNN's Ibrahim Dahman and Tim Lister
Bodies recovered from a mass grave at the Nasser Medical Hospital compound in Khan Younis, Gaza, on April 21. Ahmad Salem/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Emergency workers on Tuesday recovered at least 35 more bodies from a mass grave within the Nasser medical complex, in southern Gaza, after Israeli forces withdrew from the neighborhood earlier this month.
The total number of bodies found increased to 310, Colonel Yamen Abu Suleiman, the director of Civil Defense in Khan Younis, told CNN, adding that operations are ongoing.
Suleiman previously alleged that some of the bodies were found with hands and feet tied, “and there were signs of field executions. We do not know if they were buried alive or executed. Most of the bodies are decomposed.”
CNN is unable to verify Suleiman’s claims and cannot confirm the causes of death among the bodies being unearthed. Over the weekend, family members gathered at the hospital desperately searching for the bodies of loved ones who had been killed.
CNN has requested a response from the Israeli military to claims that its troops carried out DNA tests on scores of people who had been killed and temporarily buried within the hospital’s grounds in the search for hostages taken by Hamas and held in Gaza.
IDF's response: The Israel Defense Forces said that the “claim that the IDF buried Palestinian bodies is baseless and unfounded,” it told CNN.
“During the IDF’s operation in the area of Nasser Hospital, in accordance to the effort to locate hostages and missing persons, corpses buried by Palestinians in the area of Nasser Hospital were examined. The examination was conducted in a careful manner and exclusively in places where intelligence indicated the possible presence of hostages.”
“The examination was carried out respectfully while maintaining the dignity of the deceased. Bodies examined, which did not belong to Israeli hostages, were returned to their place,” the IDF added.
The IDF reburied the bodies of Palestinians in a collective grave, relatives told CNN.
Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, on Monday called reports of the mass graves unearthed at Nasser hospital "extremely troubling."
The post was updated with the response from the Israeli military.
