November 13, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reports "intense gunfire" near the Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City on Monday. 

"Intense gunfire continues in the vicinity of Al-Quds Hospital in the Tel Al-Hawa area of Gaza City, and sounds of shelling and violent explosions are heard in the area," the PRCS said in a post on X shortly before 5.30 a.m. ET. 

Attempts to evacuate staff and patients from the hospital were thwarted on Monday when a convoy of PRCS vehicles, accompanied by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), was stopped in the Al-Wusta Governorate in central Gaza after setting off from southern Gaza, the PRCS said. 

"The convoy is still waiting for the situation to settle down in the surrounding area of the hospital to be able to reach it to start the evacuation process," the PRCS added.

CNN is reaching out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment on the possible evacuation of Al-Quds.

On Sunday the PRCS announced that the hospital, which is the second largest in the Gaza Strip, had gone completely out of service. In a statement, the PRCS said the hospital was "no longer operational" due to fuel depletion and a power outage. 

On Saturday, the PRCS said its teams of medics were trapped inside the hospital and could not leave, claiming it was "surrounded by tanks from all sides."

When asked by CNN about the situation at Al-Quds Saturday, the IDF said it was “in the midst of ongoing intense fighting against Hamas in the vicinity of the area in question," and was "taking all feasible measures to mitigate harm to civilians.” 

Some context: The situation at Al-Quds Hospital is part of a deepening health care crisis in Gaza. Conditions at Gaza's largest hospital, Al-Shifa, deteriorated into a “catastrophic” situation over the weekend, as staff, patients and thousands of sheltering residents were trapped inside due to heavy fighting, aid agencies and Hamas health officials said, though Israel insists people are safe to leave the hospital by following an evacuation corridor eastwards out of the complex.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) says two mortars launched from Lebanon landed in open territory in northern Israel Monday.

The IDF said it was striking back at the source of the launches.

A CNN team in southern Lebanon has heard frequent detonations in the border area Monday.

The IDF also reported the launch of an anti-tank missile from Lebanon toward the area of Netu'a in northern Israel.

“In response, IDF artillery is striking the sources of the fire,” the IDF said.

The IDF also said that overnight an “armed terrorist cell” was hit in southern Lebanon, just over the border from the Israeli area of Biranit.

The Lebanese militia Hezbollah says it attacked Israeli infantry close to the border "and achieved direct hits" on Monday morning.

Lebanon’s National News Agency reported six separate incidents of incoming fire Monday, five in the western sector and one in the east around Mhaibib where it says that "phosphorous" was used.

CNN is unable to confirm the use of phosphorous munitions Monday.

Remember: White Phosphorus is an incendiary weapon used to set fire to military targets. Its use is restricted under international humanitarian law - it can't be fired at or near civilian areas or civilian infrastructure. 

Last week, the IDF responded to accusations about the use of white phosphorus in Lebanon, dismissing reports that the substance had been used for setting fires, but acknowledging that it does use it in some circumstances.

Some context: On the face of it, the crossfire on Lebanon’s border with Israel appears marginal, dwarfed by the scale and intensity of the Hamas-Israel war further south.

Yet this barely populated swathe of mountainous terrain could be the launching pad of a regional war, drawing in a myriad of actors, including Iran and the United States.

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.

Meanwhile, the US has deployed two of its largest aircraft carriers — including the nuclear-powered USS Gerald Ford — to the eastern Mediterranean. It is an ominous sign of what may come if the situation on the Lebanon-Israel border combusts into a full-scale war.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says that an evacuation corridor for residents of northern Gaza is open again Monday.

It’s unclear how far the announcement of the corridor is known in Gaza, where there is little internet connectivity or cellular service.

Accounts from inside Gaza indicate that some civilians are afraid to leave places such as hospitals where they have taken shelter, while others are reluctant to leave their homes.

Avichay Adraee, the Arabic spokesperson for the IDF, said “the safe passage remains open today between 09:00 am and 04:00 pm (2 a.m. - 9 a.m. ET) for humanitarian purposes through Salah El-Din axis in the direction of the area south of Wadi Gaza" in a post on X.

Salah El-Din is the main north-south route through Gaza.

It’s unclear how many residents have moved south over the past few days. Last week, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that 50,000 were on the move in one day.

The IDF post on Monday added that “in light of the ongoing fighting in Al-Shati area which is controlled by the IDF forces and for the sake of all those who are unable to leave the area and move to the safe zone, the IDF calls on you to go between 10:00 am and 04:00 pm to Youssef Al-Azmeh Street and then to Salah Al-Din Street and from there to the south of Wadi Gaza.”

The IDF post said that military activity would be suspended for a six-hour period until 4 pm local time “in the city of Rafah in the area west of Salah Al-Din Street.”

The leader of the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation will arrive at the White House on Monday bearing a message for US President Joe Biden about the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who is traveling to Washington for talks after meeting with Arab and Muslim leaders in Saudi Arabia, has called for a ceasefire.

He said before departing Jakarta he would convey to Biden the outcomes of the Riyadh summit, where leaders criticized Israel.

"I will be delegated to tell President Joe Biden that the Hamas-Israel war should immediately be stopped,” Widodo said, according to Reuters.

That sets up a major point of difference with Biden, who has refused calls for a ceasefire and has instead advocated for "humanitarian pauses."

The US president, who is looking to deepen ties with Indonesia, will “listen carefully” to Widodo’s perspective and his account of the weekend summit in Riyadh, a senior administration official said.

“It is undeniable that Indonesia's views, its values and its approach not just to Gaza, but the Middle East, is very important, and how we think about our own next steps,” the official went on to say, adding Biden is planning to “ask Indonesia to play a larger role and to assist us as we go forward” in the Middle East.

The conflict in Gaza has consumed much of Biden’s time over the past month, but he is turning this week to Asia.

That includes Monday’s meeting with Widodo, Wednesday’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping and a large gathering of Pacific leaders in California on Thursday and Friday.

His strategy for the region centers around bolstering American alliances, including with Indonesia, with which the US will formally elevate its relationship on Monday.

The “comprehensive strategic partnership” will place Washington in the same tier of relations as Beijing, and include an expanded defense partnership.

The US undertook a similar move with Vietnam when Biden visited earlier this fall. Both come as Washington seeks to enhance its presence in the region amid Chinese military and economic aggression.

As Biden prepares to meet Xi in the Bay Area this week, US officials said they believed countries like Indonesia are looking for improved, stable ties between the two powers.

“They want communication, they want dialogue. And they want an appropriate level of engagement between Washington and Beijing. And I think that's what President Biden is seeking to do,” the senior administration official said.

The US also hopes to deepen ties in the areas of critical minerals and climate, and is working closely with Indonesia as it develops next steps for how to deal with “untenable” crisis in Myanmar, the senior administration official said.

On Monday, Georgetown University will announce it is opening a campus in Jakarta, the first US university to do so in Indonesia.

And the US will announce it is helping restore Indonesia’s national museum after a fire in September damaged its collection of historical and archaeological artifacts.

The conditions inside al-Shifa hospital are “catastrophic” as essential units collapse, hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiya told CNN.

Around 7,000 people are currently sheltering in the hospital, along with 1,500 patients and medical staff, said Abu Salmiya.

The hospital has asked the Israeli army for 600 liters of fuel every hour to power its generators, but the army has yet to respond, he added. 

On Sunday, the Israeli military said it put 300 liters of fuel at the entrance to the hospital complex, but claimed that Hamas had blocked the hospital from receiving it. 

Abu Salmiya told Al Araby TV that staff had been too scared to go out to get it. 

“We told the Israeli army that the 300 liters of fuel they offered is not enough to operate the hospital for 30 minutes,” he told CNN.

“There is no more water, food, milk for children and babies .. the situation in the hospital is catastrophic,” Abu Salmiya said.

Al-Shifa Hospital falls under the Gaza Health Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas. Israel claims that Hamas houses its headquarters below the hospital building. Hospital doctors and Hamas have denied that claim.

CNN also spoke to a reporter for the Al Arabiya network, Khader al Zaanoun, who is inside the hospital.

"Communication is very bad and almost impossible for us to report what is happening in the hospital and its yards, we barely have cell lines but no internet,” he said.

“No one can move or dare to go out of the hospital, the staff here are aware of many strikes that are happening around the hospital, we see smoke coming up from those strikes and we know that there are people in some of those buildings but ambulances do not make their way out of the hospital because… during the last days an ambulance was hit on its way out of the hospital.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have said in recent days that there is intense fighting going on in the area around al-Shifa hospital.

On Sunday it said there was a corridor to the east of the hospital that could be used by people on foot, and ambulances. It’s unclear how many of the thousands of displaced people in the hospital compound have been able to use that corridor to leave.

Al Zaanoun said that people inside the hospital “are starving, there is no food or drinkable water, we barely get tap water for one hour a day.” 

The United Nations aid organization that operates in Gaza, UNRWA, says that one of its premises in Rafah in southern Gaza sustained significant damage after it was hit on Sunday by an Israeli naval strike.

There were no casualties, as UN international staff had left the building 90 minutes before the strike, UNRWA said in a statement Monday.

According to UNRWA, the coordinates of the premises an international staff guesthouse – were shared twice, including on November 10.

“This recent attack is yet another indication that nowhere in Gaza is safe. Not the north, not the middle areas and not the south. The disregard for the protection of civilian infrastructure including UN facilities, hospitals, schools, shelters and places of worship is testament to the level of horror that civilians in Gaza are living every day,” said UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini.  

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Monday that it "carried out a strike based on operational requirements, adjacent to a UN building" on Sunday. 

More than 60 of UNRWA's facilities, mostly schools sheltering thousands of civilians, had recorded collateral or direct damage. Around 70% of the damaged facilities were south of Wadi Gaza, in the middle and southern areas including Rafah and Khan Younis where Israel Defense Forces have instructed civilians in the north of Gaza and Gaza City to move.

This post was updated with the latest response from the Israel Defense Forces.

Premature babies at Gaza’s largest hospital are being wrapped in foil and placed next to hot water in a desperate bid to keep them alive, the hospital director warned, as Israeli firepower continues to pound surrounding streets and remaining fuel reserves dry up, leaving the facility unable to function.

Staff at the Al-Shifa hospital were fighting to keep the newborns alive after oxygen supplies ran out and they had to move the babies by hand from the neonatal unit’s incubators to a different part of the hospital.

“I was with them a while ago. They are now exposed, because we have taken them out of the incubators. We wrap them in foil and put hot water next to them so that we can warm them,” the medical center’s director, Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya, told Al-Araby TV on Sunday.

Images show several newborn babies who were taken off incubators at the hospital clustered helplessly together and placed in one bed.

The doctor said several children have died while in the intensive care unit and the nursery during the last day amid Israel’s continued bombardment and blockade of Gaza, an already impoverished and densely packed territory, following the October 7 attack on its territory by Hamas militants.

Some context: Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 11,000 people, according to Palestinian health officials, and a fuel blockade has resulted in a deepening humanitarian crisis as hospitals, water systems, bakeries and other services reliant on electricity shut down.

Ministry spokesman Dr. Ashraf al-Qidra said the complex was “out of service” after repeatedly being targeted by Israeli fire.

An Israeli military spokesperson told CNN its forces were engaged in “ongoing intense fighting” against Hamas in the vicinity of the hospital complex, but denied firing at the northern Gaza medical center and has rejected suggestions the hospital is under siege.

The Israeli military has previously said Hamas is embedding itself in civilian infrastructure and that it will strike Hamas “wherever necessary.” It has also accused Hamas of using hospitals as cover — a charge doctors at Al-Shifa and the militant group deny.

Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinians, injured or displaced by Israel’s escalating war against Hamas, have packed its wards, seeking shelter from the seemingly endless barrage of Israeli airstrikes.

Read more here.

Hospitals across Gaza are running out of electricity and supplies, with staff working in dire conditions while thousands of residents pack into medical centers, seeking shelter from a seemingly endless barrage of Israeli airstrikes.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah says it has lost contact with northern Gaza hospitals while Gaza's second-largest hospital — Al-Quds in Gaza City — is no longer operational, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

In Gaza's biggest hospital, Al-Shifa, patients and staff are trapped inside due to fighting nearby, according to health officials and aid agencies. The hospital is rapidly running out of electricity, food and medical supplies, a senior official at the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza told CNN on Saturday.

Heavy fighting near the medical center has left it in a “catastrophic situation,” with patients and staff trapped inside, ambulances unable to collect the wounded and life-support systems without electricity, health officials in Gaza and aid agencies are reporting.

Israel said it opened an evacuation corridor outside Al-Shifa Sunday, but the International Committee of the Red Cross said no one had left through it. CNN cannot independently verify whether any people have been able to evacuate.

Here are more key developments in the Israel-Hamas war:

Israel is looking ahead to a long-term plan for Gaza and is discussing the issue with the United States, according to Ambassador Michael Herzog.

In an interview on "Fox News Sunday," the Israeli ambassador to the US said it’s the Israeli “position that Palestinians will have to govern themselves," but also indicated — echoing the Israeli Prime Minister's earlier remarks — that the government would not support a role for the Palestinian Authority in its current form.

The Palestinian Authority would have to undergo reform, Herzog said.

The ambassador said Israel is not interested in occupying or governing Gaza, adding that security is the main priority. 

Herzog claimed Israel is “very targeted” in its operation in Gaza.

Some context: More than 10,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its military offensive nearly a month ago, the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in the Palestinian enclave said last week.

It’s unclear how many combatants are included in the total. CNN cannot independently verify the numbers released by the ministry in Gaza, which is sealed off by Israel and mostly sealed by Egypt.