November 1, 2023 Israel-Hamas war news

Jordan has recalled its ambassador to Israel, according to a statement from the Jordanian foreign ministry.

Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said the move was happening immediately, “as an expression of Jordan’s position rejecting and condemning the Israeli war raging in Gaza.”

The statement also said that Israel’s ambassador — who is not currently in Jordan, according to the statement — was not welcome back.

The Jordanian ministry earlier on Wednesday announced the start of the evacuation process of its citizens from the Gaza Strip.

A massive blast has rocked the Gaza refugee camp of Jabalya, destroying several buildings, for a second day in a row. 

Video from the blast site on Wednesday showed catastrophic damage surrounding a deep crater in the Jabalya neighborhood of Falluja. People are seen digging through the rubble searching for bodies. 

CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment. 

The Civil Defense in Hamas-run Gaza said many people died in the attack and “large numbers” remained under the rubble in what it described as a “second massacre” at the refugee camp.

The Israeli military conducted airstrikes in Jabalya on Tuesday in an area near Falluja. Medics said there were hundreds of casualties – dead and wounded. Videos seen by CNN on Tuesday showed long lines of bodies outside the Indonesian hospital, the nearest medical facility to Jabalya camp. 

The IDF said Tuesday’s strikes targeted and killed Ibrahim Biari, whom it described as one of the Hamas commanders responsible for the October 7 attack on Israel, which left more than 1,400 people dead and hundreds taken hostage.  

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it fired on targets in southern Lebanon Wednesday in response to fire from that territory.

“A short while ago, a terrorist cell attempted to launch anti-tank missiles from Lebanon toward Israeli territory in the Zar'it area. An IDF tank struck the cell,” the IDF said in a statement.

“Additionally, terrorists opened fire a short while ago from Lebanon toward Israeli territory in the Yiftah area. No injuries were reported. The IDF is responding with fire toward the origins of the shooting.”

The Israeli military has sporadically but regularly exchanged fire with militants in southern Lebanon over the past weeks.

Some context: This fighting is centered on northern Israel and southern Lebanon — separate from Israel's fighting with Hamas further south, which is centered around Gaza. However, an uptick in clashes with Hezbollah has raised fears that the powerful Lebanese paramilitary group could actively participate in the conflict.

Hezbollah – an Iran-backed armed group that is also a regional force in its own right – dominates south Lebanon. It also operates alongside Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria, where the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights separates Israel from Tehran-aligned fighters.

CNN's Tamara Qiblawi contributed reporting to this post.

One hundred and ten foreign passport holders departed Gaza on Wednesday, according to officials on the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing.

It is not yet clear if all those foreign passport holders have crossed into Egypt.

Seventeen ambulances also left the Gaza side of the border on Wednesday, according to Rafah Crossing Media, the official communications wing of the border crossing — though it is unclear how many patients the ambulances were carrying.

Additionally, 20 trucks carrying aid arrived in Gaza, it said, but did not specify what type of aid was in the trucks.

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said Wednesday that he was "appalled by the high number of casualties” from the Israeli strike on the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza, urging both parties to balance their right to self-defense with the "obligation to spare civilians to the greatest extent possible.”

"Building on EU Council's clear stance that Israel has the right to defend itself in line with international humanitarian law and ensuring the protection of all civilians, I am appalled by the high number of casualties following the bombing by Israel of the Jabalia refugee camp," Borrell said in a statement on social media.

“The right to self-defence should always be balanced by the obligation to spare civilians to the greatest extent possible,” Borrell said. 

A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) defended its strike a day earlier on Gaza’s Jabalya refugee camp, saying that the Hamas commander it was targeting made the strike a “clear military necessity” and a “legitimate target.”

A spokesperson for Hamas has denied that the commander was there and called the Israeli strike a “heinous crime against safe civilians, children, and women."

Dr. Atef Al Kahlout, director of Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital, told CNN Tuesday the strike had caused hundreds of casualties – dead and wounded. “Many are still under the rubble,” he added.

CNN's Mick Krever in London contributed reporting to this post.

Egyptian state-affiliated Al-Qahera news reported on Wednesday that the first group of dual nationals has arrived in Egypt from Gaza after going through the Rafah border crossing.

Additionally, Al-Arish Hospital in Egypt has begun receiving injured Palestinians coming from the Gaza Strip, according to Al-Qahera news. 

Some context: Earlier on Wednesday, the spokesperson for Egypt’s Ministry of Health told CNN that injured Palestinians from Gaza had begun arriving in Egypt through the Rafah border crossing, "one by one."

Their exits followed a deal brokered by Qatar between Israel, Hamas and Egypt, in coordination with the US, allowing for the release of foreign nationals and critically injured civilians from Gaza, according to sources familiar with the talks.

Sources close to the matter have told CNN that up to 500 foreigners are expected to cross out of Gaza at Rafah.

Hundreds of foreign and dual nationals are among the more than two million people stranded inside the enclave.

The deal to release foreigners from Gaza into Egypt is not part of any potential deal to secure the release of hostages being held by Hamas, multiple sources emphasize to CNN. 

Those talks are still ongoing and one US official said they would caution against drawing any comparisons between the two parallel missions. 

But the reality is that the players involved in both negotiations are the same: Israel, Egypt, Qatar, Hamas and the US. But as this US official stressed, the agreement announced today does not include any component that would prompt the release of hostages at a later time, for example. 

The Rafah crossing has opened to allow a limited number of injured Palestinians to exit Gaza into Egypt – the first to be allowed out of the besieged enclave since the Israel-Hamas conflict began on October 7. “They are arriving one by one,” a spokesperson for Egypt’s health ministry told CNN.

For more than three weeks, the Rafah crossing had remained almost entirely closed, with some aid supplies trickling in but no civilians allowed to travel out. Two Israeli hostages were allowed last week to exit into Egypt, but more than 2 million Palestinians remained stuck inside the strip amid an escalating humanitarian crisis.

As well as injured Palestinians, CNN has also reported that foreign nationals may also soon be able to cross through Rafah into Egypt under a Qatar-mediated deal.

Here are the latest developments:

The deeply complex, multiparty negotiations to secure the release of foreigners from Gaza included Hamas demanding that some of its own fighters be let out as part of the list of injured people – a request that was rejected, according to a senior US official.

The logistics surrounding the release of foreigners that is in motion now is incredibly complicated, in no small part because Egyptian authorities are insisting that every person be thoroughly checked before they are allowed to cross into their country.

The current expectation is that around 500 people may be processed today – and that could ramp up to perhaps 1,000 people a day starting tomorrow, the official said.

A Western official has said Americans are not expected to be among the first batch exiting the enclave on Wednesday. US citizens are expected to begin departing Gaza as soon as Thursday, according to internal US government correspondence obtained by CNN, though the US official said some Americans may leave Wednesday.