November 15, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

Israel said its soldiers have uncovered what the army is calling “military equipment used by Hamas” during a raid at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. 

Israeli forces entered Al-Shifa in the early hours of Wednesday, after signaling for weeks their intention to move on the complex, which they claim is the site of an underground command and control center for Hamas.

Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the military operation at the hospital “is still underway and will take time."

“It’s a complicated area, which still has many people. We need to conduct in the right pace,” he said.

Doctors and health officials in the Hamas-controlled enclave have consistently rejected accusations that the hospital was the site of a command center.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said soldiers located a room in the hospital where they found, “technological assets, along with military and combat equipment used by Hamas.”

The statement said the IDF was continuing to operate in the hospital complex.

CNN is trying to contact the hospital to speak to doctors there, but phone calls are not going through.

Earlier in the day, a senior Israeli defense official said troops had uncovered “concrete evidence that Hamas terrorists used the Shifa hospital as a terror headquarters,” promising to present the evidence later.

Israel is under significant international pressure to prove its claims about Hamas's infiltration of the hospital, in order to justify some of its military decisions — which could otherwise constitute a possible serious violation of international humanitarian law.

There is certainly no indication yet that troops have uncovered a multi-level tunnel structure with underground chambers — of the kind illustrated in an animation presented by the army spokesman at a briefing almost three weeks ago.

Hamas responded to earlier comments from the Israeli army – that troops had found weapons inside the hospital – as a blatant lie and propaganda. 

On the eastern edge of Gaza, dawn is still a few minutes away on the morning of October 7. A group of Hamas militants wait, some packed into a white pickup truck, others on motorbikes. They run through a few final checks, making sure they are recording video and that their weapons are ready.

An explosion in the distance appears to be the signal to move.

As they race to the border, the men shout “Allahu Akbar,” a phrase that means “God is great” in Arabic.

After three minutes of driving, they cross the first border fence that separates Gaza from Israel. The fence is mangled, leaving a large opening through which they pass, though it is difficult to know if it is from the explosion heard moments earlier.

Video from the attack provided to CNN by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) offers a new window into a portion of the Hamas operation launched from Gaza’s eastern border. The video comes from the body camera of one of the terrorists who took part in the attack.

The IDF said it released the video to show the reality of what happened on October 7, a day that Israeli officials have compared to 9/11 when an estimated 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 others taken hostage in Hamas’ brutal assault inside Israel.

The video of the attack is an unbroken recording of 100 minutes, starting before the assault and continuing until the camera stops. CNN has geolocated the locations seen in the footage and confirmed they match other footage from the attack.

As the group passes the first border fence, the gunman with the camera shouts repeatedly, “Go right!” He appears to know where he is headed, indicating the depth of planning and coordination as Hamas launched a multi-pronged assault across the Gaza border.

Less than two minutes later, the militants cross the second security fence. They are in Israel and heading toward a kibbutz, racing along dirt roads between plowed fields among a group of motorbikes. Many of the men have rifles like AK-47s, while some carry rocket-propelled grenades slung across their backs.

Seventeen minutes into the video, the pickup truck stops as the gunman opens fire for the first time across an open field with Israeli buildings visible in the distance. It is unclear if he hits anything. For a few minutes, the group pauses and appears to regroup. One man urges everyone not to shoot into the air and waste fire.

Read more about what was seen in the Hamas videos

Intense fighting is still ongoing in northern Gaza, according to a CNN team at Israel's border with the enclave.

It comes after Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant proclaimed Tuesday that Hamas had "lost control" of the northern Gaza Strip, including in Gaza City. 

Israeli forces continued to strike some of the northernmost areas of Gaza on Wednesday evening near Beit Lahia and Jabalya. CNN witnessed several large explosions, flares and tracer fire in that area. 

A CNN team in Sderot also heard multiple large explosions coming from the direction of northern Gaza overnight. Then, in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday morning, intense firefights broke out. 

While it’s clear that Israeli forces have secured large swaths of northern Gaza and pushed deep into Gaza City, many areas in northern Gaza remain contested, and according to the Israel Defense Forces, its forces continue to face ambushes by Hamas militants. 

The United Nations Security Council will vote on a resolution on Wednesday afternoon calling for a series of humanitarian pauses in Gaza, a diplomat briefed on the matter said.

It also advocates for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held in Gaza by Hamas, especially children. 

The resolution was drafted by Malta and has the support of the 22-member Arab Group, including the United Arab Emirates, which is an elected member of the UNSC, the diplomat told CNN.  

The vote is expected to happen around 3 p.m. ET Wednesday and is likely to pass, the diplomat said.

Some context: About a month ago, the United States vetoed a draft resolution at the UNSC that called for a humanitarian pause in Gaza.

That draft resolution was proposed by Brazil. It condemned Hamas' October 7 attacks in Israel and urged the release of hostages taken, also calling on all parties to comply with international law and to protect civilian lives in Gaza during Israeli airstrikes.

Speaking after the vote, US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that the US wanted more time to let American on-the-ground diplomacy “play out.”

The Security Council is the UN’s most powerful body but is frequently hampered by the veto power held by each of its five permanent members. Twelve of the council’s 15 members approved the October draft, with the UK and Russia abstaining, and a US veto.

CNN's Caitlin Hu and Richard Roth contributed reporting to this post.

The death toll among journalists covering the war between Israel and Hamas has soared to 42 — an average of at least one death per day since the conflict began October 7, according to the nonprofit Committee to Protect Journalists.

Most of the journalists — 37 — were Palestinian, according to CPJ data released Wednesday. Four of the journalists were Israeli and one was Lebanese, the CPJ said.

Al Qahera News photographer Ahmed Fatima and local radio director Yaacoub Al-Barsh were among the latest journalists killed in strikes on Gaza, CPJ said, citing multiple news outlets and press freedom groups.

The latest conflict has been the deadliest period for journalists since the Committee to Protect Journalists starting tracking such data in 1992.

"CPJ is also investigating numerous unconfirmed reports of other journalists being killed, missing, detained, hurt, or threatened, and of damage to media offices and journalists’ homes," the nonprofit added.

The US continues to believe Israel should not target hospitals in Gaza from the air and that civilians should be protected from the crossfire, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said, as Israel continues its raid on the enclave’s largest medical facility.

Kirby said the US did not sign off on the specific operation around Al-Shifa Hospital nor does it approve any of Israel’s military plans.

He said he would "refrain ... from providing a running commentary on what is an ongoing operation."

He repeated his assertion from a day earlier that the US doesn’t "want to see hospitals attacked from the air" or to "see innocent civilians, patients, medical staff become victims of crossfire between Hamas and Israeli Defense Forces."

He said the operation around Al-Shifa was "not a focus" of President Joe Biden’s phone call Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Kirby also said the decision Tuesday to unveil downgraded intelligence about Hamas’ use of the Al-Shifa Hospital as a command node was unrelated to Israel’s forthcoming operation.

“My delivery of some downgraded information yesterday, the timing of that really came after work by the intelligence community to prepare that information for downgrade, and it had nothing to do with any operational timing or any decision making by the Israeli Defense Forces,” he said.

CNN cannot independently verify Israel’s claims that Hamas is operating from the hospital.

The FBI has seen a significant increase in threats since the October 7 attack in Israel, FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress on Wednesday.

He said the "biggest chunk" have been against the Jewish community.

“The number of tips and threats that are being reported to us have gone up significantly since October 7,” Wray testified to the House Homeland Security Committee.

The director said that the FBI has also received a “large number of tips and leads related specifically to Hamas and radicalization and recruitment.” Though Hamas itself has historically worked only to fundraise within the US for terrorism overseas, the FBI “cannot and (does) not discount the possibility” that the group may change its tactics in the future and perpetrate attacks outside of Israel, Wray said.

He also said law enforcement is watching for individuals who “may exploit” the violence in Gaza to encourage or carry out an attack on US soil.

“We are urgently running down every tip and lead we get and trying to mitigate them,” he said.

Wray said that lone actors and other foreign terrorist organizations may be inspired by the conflict. Several terrorist organizations, including Hezbollah and al Qaeda, have already threatened attacks on the United States, he said. 

A reporter inside Gaza's largest hospital complex said intense fighting outside the facility occurred Wednesday as Israel launched a raid at Al-Shifa hospital.

Israeli forces have “invaded the hospital with large numbers of soldiers and military vehicles, including tanks, armored vehicles, troop carriers, and bulldozers" and were preventing anyone from leaving, Al Za’anoun said.

Israel has claimed Hamas militants have set up a command center at Al-Shifa, an allegation denied by Hamas and hospital officials. CNN cannot verify either side's claims. Hamas said Al-Shifa is now under the control of Israeli forces.

On Wednesday, Al Za’anoun said four militants had been shot dead — but stressed that he believed the shootings happened outside the hospital complex, on a nearby street.

Medical staff inside the hospital described explosions, the sound of gunfire, and reports of interrogations taking place, with people being handcuffed and blindfolded.

Several hours before Al-Za’anoun's report, a senior Israeli defense official told reporters there had been no gun battles inside the hospital complex that he was aware of — though he acknowledged the operation was ongoing at the time.

The Israeli official confirmed several people had been interrogated in parts of the complex in which Israeli forces were operating.

“If there (is) an individual or individuals that we related to Hamas, then we will interrogate them,” the official said.

The official said there had been “no friction with patients, medical staff or injured civilians,” who, the official said, were located in a part of the hospital not part of the Israeli operation.

Around 23,000 liters (6,078 gallons) of fuel from Egypt were delivered to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to be used only for transporting aid from Rafah, the organization’s director in Gaza, Thomas White, said on X. 

“Just received 23,027 [liters] of fuel from Egypt (half a tanker) – but its use has been restricted by Israeli authorities - only for transporting aid from Rafah,” White wrote. “No fuel for water or hospitals.”

The truck carrying the fuel crossed the border from Egypt into Gaza on Wednesday morning, a CNN stringer at the Rafah border crossing saw. It’s the first truck to carry fuel into the Gaza Strip since Israel imposed a blockade on the strip following Hamas’ attack on October 7. 

Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a government agency that liaises with Palestinians on civilian affairs, said earlier that UN trucks transporting humanitarian equipment from the Rafah crossing into the southern Gaza Strip will be refueled at the crossing Wednesday.