October 17, 2023 - Israel-Hamas war news

At least 17 staff members of the United Nations relief agency in Gaza (UNRWA) have been killed in Israeli airstrikes since October 7, the agency said in a statement Tuesday.

UNRWA said that Israeli air strikes had continued in Khan Younis and other southern areas of the enclave.

An estimated 1 million people have been displaced across the Gaza Strip, with nearly 400,000 seeking shelter in UNRWA facilities, the agency said.

Despite IDF evacuation orders, an unknown number of internally displaced persons remain in UNRWA schools in the north, the agency said, adding that it can no longer assist or protect people in these areas.

Ibrahim Dahman and his family entered the hotel room and looked out toward the blue of the Mediterranean Sea. His two young sons were excited to spot a swimming pool below their window, but this was no vacation.

“But they don’t strike… they don’t strike hotels, right?” Dahman’s 11-year-old son, Zaid, asked nervously, as the family took the elevator down a short time later.

Exchanging an apprehensive look with his 30-year-old wife, Rasha, Dahman replied: “They don’t strike hotels, no.” A gentle white lie from a father trying to reassure his boys as the explosions, once distant, seemed now to be getting closer.

Born and raised in Gaza, the 36-year-old CNN journalist has grown accustomed to war with Israel. Palestinians have watched as Israeli strikes have battered the strip on several occasions in the years since Israeli forces withdrew from the territory in 2005, often in response to Hamas rocket fire. Fighting frequently breaks out between Israel and Palestinian factions in Gaza, including the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

But for Dahman, this time feels different. While he wants to continue his work telling the stories of people in Gaza, he is now grappling with the reality of keeping his family safe at the same time.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians, including Dahman and his family, have been caught in the escalating crisis. Unlike across the border in Israel, there are no warning sirens, bomb shelters or high-tech Iron Dome defense system to intercept projectiles in Gaza.

Dahman has not stopped working since he was awoken by “the sounds of continuous rocket fire” from Gaza when Hamas launched its initial attack just over a week ago, signaling the start of what US President Joe Biden has called the largest massacre of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust.

After filming the rockets whistling in the skies above his home, he immediately headed to the CNN office.

Situated in the al-Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City, the office has been something of a safe haven for Dahman. It was in this area he began his career in journalism in 2005 when he covered the Israeli withdrawal from the coastal enclave.

The office building sits in what Dahman called a “beautiful, upscale neighborhood in which all press offices and foreign and international institutions are located.” The neighborhood was considered one of the “quiet areas.”

But by Monday, things weren’t so quiet.

Read more: CNN journalist details his family’s flight south from Gaza City

With Gaza's last functioning desalination plant shut down, the water crisis has escalated, risking fatalities, according to the United Nations relief agency in Gaza (UNRWA).

On Monday, one line of water was open for three hours only in the south of the Gaza Strip, providing limited water to only half of the population of Khan Younis.

“This does not solve the urgent water needs in other parts of Khan Younis, the Middle Area and Rafah. Only 14 per cent of the population in the Strip benefited from this three-hour opening of the water line," UNRWA said.

UNRWA added that Gaza requires 600,000 liters of fuel daily to operate water and desalination plants.

Fuel reserves at all Gaza hospitals are on the brink, it said, with only 24 hours of supply left. The failure of backup generators would endanger thousands of patients' lives. 

Gaza needs international assistance urgently as it faces an "unparalleled humanitarian crisis," according to the head of the Hamas-controlled government media office.

As the humanitarian situation worsens, “there is a noticeable decline in [the] international response,” Salama said.

Decisive action was "urgently required" from the international community to halt what he called a campaign of "ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the occupation against the Palestinian people."  

Earlier on Tuesday, Margaret Harris, spokesperson for the World Health Organization, told CNN's John Vause that the humanitarian corridor into Gaza remains unsafe due to Israeli bombing, with more than 44 Gaza hospitals targeted and 84,000 pregnant women in need of assistance. 

Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza, in response to the October 7 terrorist attacks that killed 1,400 people. It has laid siege to the enclave and told more than 1 million people to move to southern Gaza from the north.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Sudani told US President Joe Biden that “continued aggression in Gaza stirs outrage among people in the region and globally," according to a readout of a call from the prime minister's office.

The two men stressed “the importance of containing the conflict and avoiding the expansion of war, given the far-reaching consequences it has on regional and global peace, as well as its adverse impact on civilians,” it said.

Al-Sudani emphasized the importance of establishing humanitarian corridors to provide essential aid to Gaza, according to the readout.

They also discussed coordinating efforts to promote lasting stability in the region and reinforcing the bilateral partnership between Iraq and the United States, in accordance with the Iraqi- US Strategic Framework Agreement.

An Israeli airstrike on a residence in Gaza killed 21 people, Palestine's Ministry of Interior Affairs said Tuesday.

The strike hit the Al-Jabri family's residence in the Emirati neighborhood of Khan Younis, the Gaza-based ministry said in a statement. A number of others were injured, but the ministry did not provide an exact figure.

Khan Younis is in southern Gaza, which has become increasingly crowded with displaced civilians after Israel told people to evacuate northern Gaza.

IDF international spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told CNN’s John Vause earlier that he was “not aware of any strikes specifically in those areas but they could have happened.”

The World Health Organization is unable to get aid and supplies to Gaza, potentially putting 84,000 pregnant women at risk, a spokesperson told CNN.

There are "78 cubic meters of health supplies, which is enough for the basic essential needs for 300,000 people" positioned on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, which is currently closed, WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris told CNN’s John Vause.

The WHO’s director-general had an agreement with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to open the crossing, but Israeli bombing has rendered the passage unsafe, she said.

There are 84,000 pregnant women in Gaza, with many delivering every day, Harris told Vause. “Babies don’t care about bombs, they come when they come,” she said.

Several hospitals are “out of action due to the physical damage of the bombing,” Harris said, noting that the WHO has documented over 44 attacks on hospitals.

Japan will provide $10 million in emergency assistance for civilians in Gaza, Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said in a press conference on Tuesday. 

The assistance will come "through international organizations," Kamikawa added.

“Japan will work with humanitarian groups to ensure that innocent civilians and Palestinian refugees receive food, water, medical care, and support they need," she said.

The foreign minister reiterated Japan’s firm condemnation of Hamas's attacks and expressed support for diplomatic efforts.  

The Israeli military does not expect a planned visit by US President Joe Biden to complicate or delay any ground invasion of Gaza, a spokesperson told CNN on Tuesday.

Israel Defense Forces international spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told CNN’s John Vause he believes Biden supports Israel's campaign to defeat Hamas.

Biden is scheduled to arrive in Israel on Wednesday.