November 16, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

With Israeli leaders declaring the northern part of Gaza, including Gaza City, now under Israel’s control, there are growing indications that a ground offensive into the southern part of the strip could be imminent.

A leaflet dropped Wednesday on communities to the east of Khan Younis, the largest city in the southern part of Gaza, warned people living there to move and “head towards known shelters.”

The four communities – Al Qarrah, Khuza’a, Bani Suhaila, and Absaan – sit close to the perimeter fence separating the Gaza Strip from Israel, suggesting possible new incursion points by Israeli forces looking to take control of the south.

The director of the Norwegian Refugee Council, which has staff in Gaza, suggested yesterday in a social media post that members of his local team had seen the leaflet, and the Reuters news agency said it had spoken to people who had also seen it. 

CNN is attempting to reach out to contacts in the Khan Younis area who might have seen the leaflet themselves – but efforts are hindered by poor communications in the enclave.

Two days ago, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israeli forces were “in control of the entire area above and below ground in the northern Gaza Strip.”

Yesterday, Gallant went further, telling a reporter that Israel’s ground operations “will last for many months — and will include both the north and the south (of the Gaza Strip). We will dismantle Hamas wherever it is.”

What aid agencies are saying: Aid organizations say any Israeli move into the south of the enclave could make an already bad humanitarian situation considerably worse.

The United Nations estimates that about 1.5 million people are now internally displaced within Gaza – almost three quarters of the entire population — and most of them are in the south following Israel’s highly destructive air and ground campaign in the north.

More than 800,000 people have taken refuge in just over 150 of its shelters, “far more people than their intended capacity,” according to the United Nations Relief

As access to fuel and other resources dwindle in Gaza, "massive outbreaks of infectious disease, and hunger, seem inevitable" United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warned Thursday.

A total depletion of fuel supplies "would be catastrophic across all of Gaza – leading to the complete collapse of water, sewage and crucial healthcare services, and ending the trickle of humanitarian assistance that has been permitted to date,” Türk said during an informal briefing on Thursday following his visit last week to the Middle East.

UNICEF said Tuesday that it has already received reports of rising levels of dehydration and more than 30,000 cases of diarrhea in Gaza.

The UN Human Rights chief also called out intensifying violence and severe discrimination against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Türk said calls by his office for the de-escalation of violence, particularly in Gaza, have been ignored.

The Israel Defense Forces said its troops are still inside Al-Shifa Hospital and have found "military equipment used by Hamas" during a raid that began early Wednesday morning at the complex in Gaza City, while Hamas has claimed that Israel is fabricating the evidence presented.

Israel is under growing international pressure to uncover proof of Hamas operating from tunnels beneath the hospital — a claim denied by the militant group and hospital officials.

CNN cannot verify either side's claims.

Here are some of the latest developments:

More than 36 hours into a raid on Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson has told CNN that troops remain active both “inside and in the vicinity of the hospital complex.”

"Special forces are (conducting) very specific, contained operations,” the spokesperson said, in pursuit of what they believe to be Hamas infrastructure in the area of the complex.

The spokesperson said operations were being carried out without disturbing hospital patients.

Separately, an official from the army spokesperson’s unit said soldiers were “proceeding one building at a time, searching each floor" and that operations are “discrete, methodical, and thorough."

Israel is under growing international pressure to uncover proof of what it has previously described as a Hamas command and control center under the hospital.

So far, it has been able to present firearms, body armor, and a laptop described as containing incriminating material, among other items, from its raid on the hospital.

Israeli army spokesperson Jonathan Conricus said “it will take time” to expose what he called the full extent of Hamas activities beneath the hospital complex.

There has been no indication yet that Israeli forces have found tunnel shafts leading to the sort of multi-layered network of tunnels and underground chambers that officials have repeatedly suggested they expect to uncover.

Mobile items like guns could have easily been removed before Israeli forces arrived, Conricus also said, before expressing confidence that soldiers would “find the underground infrastructure and the access points to it … and hopefully [be able to] show footage of it.”

The claim about tunnels under the complex has been denied by the militant group and hospital officials.

A total of 103 United Nations aid workers have been killed in Gaza since Israel's war with Hamas began more than a month ago, the agency said on Wednesday. 

About 1.6 million people have been displaced across the Gaza Strip since October 7, according to the statement.

Nearly 813,000 internally displaced persons are sheltering in 154 of the agency’s installations in the Gaza Strip, including in the north, while about 653,000 are sheltering in 97 facilities in the Middle, Khan Younis and Rafah areas, UNRWA said.

Nearly 160,000 internally displaced persons were sheltering in 57 UNRWA schools in the northern and Gaza areas as of October 12, before an evacuation order was issued by Israeli Authorities, the agency said.

The agency said it does not have access to the 57 UN schools in the northern and Gaza areas and does not have information on the needs and conditions of internally displaced persons there.

US President Joe Biden said Wednesday the “only answer” to the conflict between Israel and Hamas is “a two-state solution that’s real” — and warned Israel that occupying Gaza would be a “big mistake.”

Biden told reporters during a news conference after his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco that he had put that position to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“I made it clear to the Israelis and Bibi and to his war cabinet — that I think the only answer here is a two-state solution that’s real,” Biden said. 

Some context: Biden has long endorsed a two-state solution to the decades-long tensions between Israel and Palestinians. Biden, in his address in Tel Aviv back in October, said he supported a two-state solution in the pursuit of peace.

"Nations of conscience like the United States and Israel are not measured solely by the example of power. We are measured by the power of our example, and that's why as hard as it is, we must keep pursuing peace. We must keep pursuing a path so that Israel and the Palestinian people can both live safely and securely in dignity and in peace," he said.

“For me, that means a two-state solution," he added. "We must keep working for Israel's greater integration with its neighbors. These attacks have only strengthened my commitment and determination and my will to get that done."

The Hamas-run government media office has accused Israel of lying on evidence found inside Al-Shifa hospital.

Ismail Al Thawabta, the director of the Gaza Government Media office, rejected Israel’s allegations that Hamas equipment was found in Al-Shifa hospital.  

Israel says its soldiers have uncovered what the army is calling “military equipment used by Hamas” during a raid at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. The IDF presented some of the evidence in a video.  

Al Thawabta said Israel failed to present significant evidence despite the “whole world” predicting “that this [Israeli] military was going to show maps of the Hamas command and control centers.”

A member of Hamas’ political office, Izzat al-Risheq, accused Israel of “staging a shameful play” with the raid, in a statement on Telegram. 

Both Risheq and Thawabta accused Israel of fabricating the evidence presented.

Some context: On Wednesday, 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 spokesperson at a briefing almost three weeks ago.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Thursday that they had taken "operational control" of the harbor in Gaza City, which is the center of the strip’s fleet of fishing vessels.

In a statement, the IDF said the harbor had also been used as a training facility for Hamas fighters.

The IDF said their forces had destroyed ten tunnel shafts as part of the operation.

CNN cannot independently verify the IDF claims or the exact location of their forces.

Six Israeli security personnel have been injured, including one who is in critical condition, in a shooting attack at a checkpoint south of Jerusalem, according to Israeli police. 

Police said three people arrived in a car at the checkpoint and opened fired on officers stationed there. The three attackers were shot dead, police said.

Two other civilians suffered minor injuries and were treated at the scene, according to a police statement. 

Police released a photo of two handguns and an M-16 rifle they say were used in the attack.