October 29, 2023 Israel-Hamas war news

Israeli troops appear to have advanced over two miles into Gaza, according to a CNN analysis of video published by an Israeli media outlet. 

The troops in the video, taken on Saturday, are seen putting an Israeli flag on a Gaza resort hotel's roof. CNN geolocated the video to an area just over two miles from the Gaza-Israeli border.

"Soldiers of the 52 Battalion of the 401 Brigade are waving the Israeli flag in the heart of Gaza, by the beach," a soldier is heard saying in the video, taken several miles north of central Gaza City. "We will not forgive nor forget, and we’ll not stop until the victory."

The video is one of the first glimpses into where Israeli ground forces have been, and what they've been doing, during the expanded ground operations in Gaza. 

A communications blackout in Gaza has significantly hampered the flow of information out of it, though providers said service was gradually being restored Sunday.

The video was published by Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom. CNN has asked the Israel Defense Forces for comment on the video, and why soldiers are installing an Israeli flag on the hotel roof. 

On the ground: A CNN team in the Israeli city of Sderot, near the Gaza Strip perimeter, heard machine gun fire at regular intervals Sunday.

The gunfire was heard from the northern part of the enclave, close to the border, while the Israel Defense Forces continued to fire artillery rounds and mortars from outside the border further south.

Earlier on Sunday, IDF tanks and armored personnel vehicles were seen approaching the border while helicopters, drones and fighter jets flew overhead.

A large column of vehicles was seen north of the strip. Staging grounds further away from the border that were full of tanks and armored vehicles just a few days ago are now nearly empty, suggesting the troops have moved closer to the perimeter.

CNN's Ivana Kottasová contributed reporting to this post from Sderot, Israel.

Israel has "crossed the red lines" in Gaza, which "may force everyone to take action," Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi said Sunday.

"Zionist regime’s crimes have crossed the red lines, which may force everyone to take action. Washington asks us to not do anything, but they keep giving widespread support to Israel," Raisi said in a post on social media. 

"The US sent messages to the Axis of Resistance but received a clear response on the battlefield," Raisi said.  

Some context: Israel's fierce military campaign in Gaza has raised concerns that more fronts will open up. Iran is allied to Hamas as well as Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group that has been involved in tit-for-tat exchanges of fire with Israel in recent weeks.

Experts say that while Iran is wary of being dragged into the Israel-Hamas war, it may not be in full control if the militias it backs in the region independently intervene as Hamas suffers heavy blows and the death toll in Gaza continues to mount.

In the early days after the October 7 attacks by Hamas in Israel, questions were raised about Iran’s potential involvement in the killings. Tehran at the time commended the operation but was quick to deny any hand in it.

Initial US intelligence also suggested that Iranian officials were surprised by Hamas’ attack, and that Tehran was not directly involved in its planning, resourcing or approval, CNN has reported.

Ten aid trucks passed inspection procedures at the Rafah border crossing and were received by the Palestinian Red Crescent on the Gazan side on Sunday, according to a CNN freelance journalist on the ground on the Egyptian side.

"Today we received 10 trucks from our brothers at the Egyptian Red Crescent through the Rafah crossing, containing food supplies and medical necessities. The total number of received trucks so far has reached 94, while fuel has not been allowed to enter yet," the Palestinian Red Crescent said in an updated statement on Sunday afternoon.

The journalist on the ground saw a total of 40 trucks from Egypt’s National Alliance for Civil Development Work arrive on the Egyptian side of the crossing between Saturday and Sunday morning — most of which are waiting to undergo security checks before entering Gaza.

The Israeli military said Sunday it expects more aid trucks to begin entering Gaza soon.

CNN also spotted the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan at the Rafah crossing.

A key link: The Rafah crossing is the only entry point to Gaza not controlled by Israel, which has implemented a "complete siege" on the Hamas-run enclave and the more than 2 million Palestinians living there.

Some aid trucks have been able to enter Gaza through Egypt since the crisis began, as seen by CNN’s team on the Palestinian side of the border, but the main United Nations agency working in Gaza has warned the limited shipments have done little to address humanitarian needs — and that more aid is desperately needed.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it has received a warning Sunday from the Israeli military to immediately evacuate Al-Quds Hospital, the second-largest in Gaza City, ahead of possible bombardment.

The hospital is located in the Tal Al Hawa neighborhood, in Gaza City, north of Wadi Gaza – the line south of which the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has urged people in Gaza to flee. 

The hospital is located in the Tal Al Hawa neighbourhood, in Gaza city, north of Wadi Gaza – the line south of which the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has urged people in Gaza to flee. 

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the evacuation threat as "deeply concerning."

"We reiterate - it’s impossible to evacuate hospitals full of patients without endangering their lives," he added in a post on social media Sunday.

In response to questions about the Palestinian Red Crescent statement, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Maj. Nir Dinar told CNN on Sunday, "They received much more than two (warnings) for the last three weeks." 

Al-Quds Hospital is treating hundreds of patients, including wounded people, patients in intensive care and children in incubators, the Palestinian Red Crescent said. In addition, approximately 12,000 internally displaced civilians are currently sheltering at the hospital. 

The aid organization's management and operations teams, which are helping civilians staying in the northern Gaza Strip, are also stationed in the hospital, the organization said. 

Repeated warnings: In a statement released on October 14, the World Health Organization strongly condemned "Israel's repeated orders" for the evacuation of 22 hospitals in northern Gaza, and said those evacuation orders are "a death sentence for the sick and injured."

"Hospital directors and health workers are now facing an agonizing choice: abandon critically ill patients amid a bombing campaign, put their own lives at risk while remaining on site to treat patients, or endanger their patients’ lives while attempting to transport them to facilities that have no capacity to receive them," WHO said. 

"Overwhelmingly, caregivers have chosen to stay behind, and honor their oaths as health professionals to 'do no harm,' rather than risk moving their critically ill patients during evacuations," WHO said. "Health workers should never have to make such impossible choices," it added. 

The death toll in Gaza has risen to 7,960, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah announced on Sunday, drawing the data from sources in the Hamas-controlled enclave.

The enclave has been pummelled by Israeli strikes since October 7, which has also resulted in over 20,000 injured, the ministry said. 

Nearly three-quarters -- 73% -- of those killed are from vulnerable populations, including children, women, and elderly individuals, according to the ministry report. 

The ministry added that the total number of dead includes 116 medical personnel. Additionally, 24 hospitals, which together have a capacity of 2,000 beds, have been instructed to evacuate in the northern part of Gaza. 

The updated figures come as Israel said the next stage of its war with Hamas had begun after it expanded its ground operations in the enclave. "The war inside Gaza is going to be long," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Saturday.

Video from the ground in central Gaza shows the aftermath of the destruction of a mosque and adjacent houses in the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp on Sunday.

The video, obtained by CNN from a Gaza-based journalist, shows a large amount of destruction at the site of an airstrike at Bilal Bin Rabbah mosque and people searching through the rubble to look for survivors.  

According to medical sources at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby city of Deir Al-Balah, Gaza, an Israeli strike hit the mosque, killing 13 people and leaving "dozens" of other people injured. 

CNN cannot independently verify the number of casualties. 

Medical sources added that the victims were from several families who were taking shelter in houses around the site of the mosque after they were displaced from northern Gaza. The mosque in Al-Nuseirat is south of Wadi Gaza.

Additional footage that CNN obtained from the journalist on the ground shows people praying over several bodies that are wrapped in shrouds outside of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, as well as some of the victims' funerals.

Another survivor, Mohammad Ahmad, said in an interview that people from at least three families staying next to the mosque in "Block C" of the camp were killed. 

CNN has reached out to the IDF for comment. 

In a statement earlier on Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it struck more than 450 targets in the past day, including command centers, observation posts, and missile launch sites, as Israel continues to expand its ground incursion into Gaza. 

One video segment the IDF released along with its statement appears to show a missile hitting a building next to a mosque. It is not clear if that is the Bilal Ben Rabbah mosque.

The United Nations has warned that civil order is starting to break down in the besieged Gaza Strip, with thousands breaking into warehouses to take basic supplies including wheat flour and hygiene products.

“People are scared, frustrated and desperate," said Thomas White, director of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) affairs in the Gaza Strip.  

Below are the latest developments...

The Israeli military said Sunday it expects more aid trucks to begin entering Gaza soon, and denied that there were shortages of food, water or medicine, despite the complete closure Israel imposed on the territory in response to the October 7 Hamas attack.

Israel has set up a joint mechanism with the United Nations, the United States and Egypt to "facilitate the access of humanitarian assistance from Egypt to Gaza," said Colonel Elad Goren, head of the Civil Affairs Department for COGAT (Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories), at a press briefing on Sunday.

Despite a growing chorus of aid agencies that have released dire warnings about shortages of food, water and medical supplies, Goren stated there was “no food shortage in Gaza,” and insisted there was also enough water and medicine.

A US official who spoke on background regarding private conversations with Israeli officials questioned those assertions.

The main UN agency in Gaza reported Sunday that "thousands" of people had broken into some of its warehouses, "taking wheat flour and other basic survival items like hygiene supplies."

Director Thomas White warned that "civil order is starting to break down" as people are "scared, frustrated and desperate."

Three Palestinian men were killed in Israeli military incursions into the West Bank overnight, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said Sunday.

That brings the number of Palestinians killed in the territory since October 7 to 114. The Ministry announced the deaths of three men in a short post on its Facebook page.

Some context: Tensions, which were already high before the Hamas attack, have been boiling over in the occupied West Bank, where residents previously told CNN they are fearful of a wave of violence from the Israeli military and security forces, as well as revenge attacks by the estimated 700,000 Israeli settlers living in the area.

Violence has been particularly acute this year, with the number of Palestinians – militants and civilians – killed in the occupied West Bank by Israeli forces since the year began at its highest in nearly two decades.