December 5, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

The Israeli military is encircling the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces’ chief of the general staff said on Tuesday. 

“Sixty days after the war began, our forces are now encircling the Khan Yunis area in the southern Gaza Strip,” Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said on Tuesday. “Simultaneously, we continue to secure our accomplishments in the northern Gaza Strip.”

Earlier Tuesday, the IDF said that its forces were operating “in the heart” of Khan Younis, the territory’s second-largest city.

In the north: Israeli troops have also "completed the encirclement" of the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza, Israel's military said Tuesday, as it seeks to complete its offensive operations against Hamas militants in the north of the enclave.

Halevi said that the IDF was now entering the “third phase of the ground operations,” though he did not specify what that meant. “We have secured many Hamas strongholds in the northern Gaza Strip, and now we are operating against its strongholds in the south,” he said.

In response to a journalist’s question about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, Halevi pointed to the aid trickling into Gaza, saying, “We’re making great efforts, in accordance to the government’s decision and the international law.”

Fifty trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing Tuesday, including two trucks specifically carrying fuel, according to an Egyptian official.

Before the October 7 attack, about 455 aid trucks were crossing into the area each day, according to the UN. 

Meanwhile, seven injured Palestinians, along with seven accompanying individuals, have crossed into Egypt to receive medical treatment, as observed by a journalist working with CNN at the Rafah crossing.

Furthermore, seven buses transporting foreign nationals have been seen arriving in Egypt from Gaza. The exact number of foreign nationals on these buses is currently unclear.  

This post has been updated with the number of aid trucks to cross into Gaza.

As Israel expands its ground offensive into the south of Gaza, a woman who is living with dozens of her family members in the center of the territory says she feels like they are living through a “famine.”

Hammad’s testimony was shared with CNN by MAP. 

She has stayed in her home, where 45 of her family members are also sheltering, including 15 children.

“We’re a couple of miles away from Israeli tanks separating us from the south. We hear bombs and tank shelling from both Salah Eddin Street (Gaza’s main north-south route) and the seaside,” Hammad added. 

Israel blocked access to water, food and electricity in the strip on October 9, though resumed the delivery of some water at the end of October.

Earlier on Tuesday, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, said the organization had been forced to halt nearly all aid operations in Gaza “due to the bombardment, the chaos, and the panic.”

The “pulverizing of Gaza now ranks amongst the worst assaults on any civilian population in our time and age,” Egeland said in a Tuesday statement.

Almost 16,000 people have been killed in Gaza during the war, according to the enclave's Hamas-run Ministry of Health. 

Hammad anticipates this may soon become the reality for her and her family. 

FBI Director Christopher Wray said the bureau is working "around the clock" to pinpoint and stymie potential attacks by individuals inspired by the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

There is currently no information to indicate that Hamas “has the intent or capability to conduct operations inside the US,” Wray said in a written statement separate from his opening remarks, “though we cannot, and do not, discount that possibility.”

Wray also warned of the increase in hate crimes, including the "troubling trend" of increased antisemitic threats in the months since October 7. His comments echo previous warnings of threats to the United States, and he has made similar remarks to other congressional committees.

The FBI director added that just since the October 7, “we are opening I think 60% more hate crimes investigations.”

Wray said he has never seen a time during his decades-long career when so many threats against the US were all as elevated as they are now.

“While there may have been times over the years where individual threats could have been higher, here or there, than where they might be right now, I’ve never seen a time where all the threats – or so many of the threats – are all elevated all at exactly the same time,” Wray told the committee.

“That’s what makes this environment that we’re in now so fraught,” Wray said, adding that this is why the FBI should continue to be funded.

Power has been returning gradually to Gaza following Monday's blackout, according to the only remaining major telecommunications operator in the strip.

PalTel announced the "gradual return" of communication services — fixed, cellular, and internet — to the central and southern regions of the Gaza Strip. 

On Monday evening, London-based internet monitoring firm Netblocks pointed to live metrics that showed the enclave was "in the midst of a near-total internet blackout.”

Other telecom operators, Jawwal and Ooredoo, posted similar statements after 1 a.m. ET, announcing the restoration of their respective networks in Gaza.

"You can now communicate with the beloved Gaza Strip after our services are back in operation, which have been disrupted since yesterday," Ooredoo announced. 

A CNN team in southern Lebanon counted at least five outgoing rockets fired from Lebanon toward Israel on Tuesday evening local time.

The rockets were launched not far from the town of Marjayoun, in the direction of the Israeli border town of Metula. 

The CNN team witnessed at least two Israeli interceptors apparently hitting some of the projectiles.

Hezbollah said on Telegram on Tuesday it targeted IDF troops near the border with Lebanon in various locations.

Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire across the border for two months.

A Lebanese soldier was killed and three others were wounded in an Israeli attack on Tuesday, the Lebanese army said on social media.

It appears to be the first death of a Lebanese soldier as Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon’s powerful militant group, have been exchanging frequent fire across the border for two months, using rockets, artillery, drones and airstrikes. 

CNN has reviewed Lebanese army statements so far, and this is the first mentioned fatality. In addition, a security source with knowledge of the military situation in Lebanon confirmed the first death of a Lebanese Ministry of National Defense member.

The attack happened near Lebanon's border with Israel, according to the Lebanese National News Agency (NNA). 

Earlier Tuesday, Israeli forces shelled areas in southern Lebanon, NNA reported.

A CNN team in the Marjayoun area of southern Lebanon reported hearing loud booms in the morning and filmed a suspected Israeli drone over the area.  

NNA reported a drone strike in the central-southern sector near the Lebanese-Israeli border, plus shelling in the southeastern, central and western areas of the border. 

What Israel is saying: Israeli Defense Forces fighter jets struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, including infrastructure and weapons storage military posts, the IDF said Tuesday morning, adding it identified several launches from Lebanon into Israel that fell into open areas. 

Hezbollah said on social media it had targeted IDF troops near the border with Lebanon in various locations.

The Israel Defense Forces says its troops are now "in the heart of Khan Younis" in the southern part of Gaza.

Accounts from Khan Younis and Deir Al Balah further north describe intensive Israeli strikes, with many casualties being taken to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. 

“Since the end of the operational pause, Israeli Air Force aircraft have carried out two rounds of strikes involving dozens of aircraft from all the combat squadrons. Hundreds of munitions were utilized during strikes on tunnels, operational shafts, and anti-tank missile launch positions in order to support the movement of IDF infantry soldiers on the ground,” Finkelman said.

The IDF also reported intense battles further north in the areas of Jabalya and Shuja'iyya.

The Norwegian Refugee Council has been forced to halt nearly all aid operations in Gaza “due to the bombardment, the chaos, and the panic,” said its secretary general, Jan Egeland.

The “pulverising of Gaza now ranks amongst the worst assaults on any civilian population in our time and age,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.

Egeland said there "must be accountability for those responsible for the killings, the torture, and the atrocities committed in Israel on October 7th." But he added that Israel’s "military campaign can in no way be described as 'self-defense,'" calling the situation in Gaza a "total failure of our shared humanity."

“Today, more than 750,000 people are crowded into just 133 shelters. Tens of thousands live on the streets of southern Gaza, where, under bombardment, they are forced to improvise basic shelters from whatever they can get hold of. The winter rains have arrived and so have infectious diseases, just as public health services have been utterly paralysed,” Egeland outlined, adding that members of the NRC in Gaza are now living on the streets — one of them with a 2-month-old baby.