April 23, 2024 - Israel-Hamas war

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.

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.

Gaza's Health Ministry has reported 32 more deaths due to Israeli military operations, bringing the total number of people killed since October 7 to 34,183 after 200 days of war.

The ministry does not distinguish between casualties among civilians and fighters.

Its counterpart in Ramallah said Tuesday that 72% of those killed in Gaza were children, women and the elderly.

It also reported that the number killed in the occupied West Bank over the past 200 days had reached 487, including 122 children under the age of 18.

Violence by Israeli settlers and troops in the occupied West Bank has surged during Israel's war in Gaza.

The Government Media Office in Gaza estimated that 7,000 people in the territory were missing.

It said that, over the past 200 days, 14,778 children had been killed – as had 9,752 women. The Media Office also said that 17,000 children in Gaza had lost one or both parents.

The office issued estimates for the scale of destruction across Gaza, which included 86,000 homes destroyed and a further 294,000 partially destroyed and unfit for habitation. It also said that 103 schools and colleges had been destroyed and more than 300 damaged. 

CNN cannot independently confirm the numbers due to the lack of international media access to Gaza.

The community of one of the kibbutz in southern Israel that was attacked on October 7 has called on the Israeli government to do "everything" needed to release the hostages still held in Gaza.

Kibbutz Be’eri marked the Passover Seder at what has become known as Hostage Square in Tel Aviv.

Yitzhaki said several kibbutz members were still being held hostage by Hamas.

Yitzhaki said the community would not be able to rebuild and heal until the hostages were released.

Dorit Or, the mother of hostage Dror Or, said that the community would continue to call attention to the hostages still in Gaza.

“Everyone has the freedom to live a life that’s full, safe and free with their families and communities,” she said.

The Israeli military and journalists in Gaza reported extensive strikes overnight in several parts of the territory.

The Israel Defense Forces said, “25 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip, including military infrastructure, observation posts, terrorists, launch posts” had been struck.

The IDF said its fighter jets completed “several airstrikes overnight on Hamas launch posts located in southern Gaza. ‏The launch posts were loaded, but were struck before any launches were carried out toward Israeli territory.”

In central Gaza, it “eliminated a number of terrorists using sniper fire."

And an aircraft struck “several terrorists who hid adjacent to a civilian shelter in the area of Bureij” in central Gaza.

A journalist working for CNN in Gaza City said that Israeli tank and artillery fire had continued in the neighborhoods of Zeitoun, Shuja'iya and Tuffah overnight.

The journalist said an Israeli airstrike hit an area near Wadi Gaza in central Gaza, and two more airstrikes had targeted the area of the Bureij refugee camp.

The journalist also reported that Israeli artillery shelling targeted the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Israeli officials in Sderot – close to the border with Gaza – said that shrapnel from a rocket caused a fire at a warehouse. There were no casualties.

An independent review of the UN's main relief agency in Gaza has found that “neutrality-related issues persist” among staff, and recommended strengthening UNRWA's neutrality.

Israel has longstanding issues with UNRWA, accusing it of aiding Hamas and calling for it to be entirely dismantled.

The review, led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, was not tasked with addressing Israel's accusation that some UNRWA staff had been directly involved in Hamas' October 7 attacks, but noted that "Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence" for its allegations.

What the UN said: UN chief Antonio Guterres accepted the recommendations, while UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini welcomed the findings.

What Israel said: The review was not "genuine" or "thorough," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein claimed. "This is what an effort to avoid the problem and not address it head on looks like," he said.

Here are the latest developments in the region:

The US State Department’s annual report on human rights raises sharp concerns about the conflict between Hamas and Israel in Gaza, citing allegations of war crimes.

The report noted that “human rights groups reported extensive and in many cases unprecedented conflict-related abuses and alleged the commission of war crimes by Israel, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and other Palestinian militant groups.”

Those abuses include the killings, torture, abductions and sexual violence carried out by Hamas, PIJ and others on October 7, according to the report, which covers the year 2023.

They also include “reports of systemic torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment of Palestinian detainees in prison facilities after October 7” and the forced disappearance of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza.

While the report does not represent the US government’s own conclusions, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in remarks Monday that “we have processes within the department that are looking at that incidents that have been raised.”

Melanie Ward still remembers the terrified mother in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, in Deir al-Balah, who begged her to expose the plight of Palestinians trying to survive Israel’s bombardment in Gaza.  

"How do you tell a mother of a child in hospital that the problem isn't that the world doesn't know what's being done to them? It's that the world has no will to stop it,” Ward, the CEO for the relief group Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), told CNN by phone on Wednesday.  

Scores of displaced patients and their relatives covered the grounds of Al-Aqsa hospital, said Ward, who visited the medical facility in central Gaza earlier this month.

Ward described scenes of injured children screaming in pain and overwhelmed doctors struggling to prevent infections among wounded patients.

Israel’s severe aid restrictions have drained water and medical supplies, Ward added.  

Local staff displaced by Israel’s military offensive are facing the grief of relatives killed by bombardment, while others shelter in homes that Israeli missiles have partially destroyed, Ward told CNN.

Those in the north are struggling to find food, she said.    

An independent review of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has said the agency's neutrality must be strengthened.

Earlier this year, Israel accused at least 12 UNRWA staffers of being involved in Hamas' October 7 attacks and has alleged that about 12% of the agency's 13,000 staffers are members of Hamas or other Palestinian militant groups.

The review, led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna and published Monday, was not tasked with addressing Israel's allegations but had a broader mandate to "assess whether UNRWA is doing everything within its power to ensure neutrality."

Despite UNRWA adopting a "robust framework" in 2017 to address issues of neutrality, the issues persist, the review said.

However, the report did note that "Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence" for their allegations that "a significant number of UNRWA employees are members of terrorist organizations."

The review also found that “UNRWA's facilities have sometimes been misused for political or military gains, undermining its neutrality.”

Israel's response: “The Colonna report ignores the severity of the problem, and offers cosmetic solutions that do not deal with the enormous scope of Hamas' infiltration of UNRWA,” Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Oren Marmorstein said, adding this is not what a “genuine and thorough review looks like. This is what an effort to avoid the problem and not address it head on looks like.”

Israel has longstanding issues with UNRWA, accusing it of aiding Hamas and calling for it to be entirely dismantled.

Efforts to reach two hospitals in northern Gaza over the weekend were only partly successful because of delays at checkpoints and ongoing fighting, according to Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization.

"On 20 April, WHO and partners could only partially complete their mission to Kamal Adwan and Al-Awda hospitals due to severe delays at checkpoints and ongoing hostilities," Tedros wrote Monday.

The mission was nonetheless able to evacuate four critically sick patients from Kamal Adwan, along with their caretakers, including one at possible risk of having a leg amputated, he said.