May 13, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

Our live coverage of Israel's war in Gaza has moved here.

The US believes an Israeli operation in Gaza's southern town of Rafah would be a mistake and is “urgently” working toward a ceasefire, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said.

This comes as the Biden administration has assessed that Israel has amassed enough troops on the edge of the city of Rafah in Gaza to move forward with a full-scale incursion in the coming days, two senior administration officials told CNN.

The White House is urging Israel to connect their military operations to a “clear” end game for Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas, Sullivan told reporters. 

A top State Department official said the US and Israel are “struggling over what the theory of victory is” for Israel in Gaza, and that US does not believe that the kind of total victory Israel says it is fighting for against Hamas is “likely or possible.”

Meanwhile, here's what else has happened in Israel's war in Gaza:

Aid to Gaza ransacked: Israeli activists opposed to sending help to Palestinians in Gaza intercepted and ransacked a shipment of humanitarian aid bound for Gaza. Video from the Tarkumiya checkpoint near Hebron in the West Bank, through which the convoy was traveling, shows at least two trucks ransacked, with sacks and boxes of food strewn across the road. Other footage showed activists blocking the path of the aid trucks, throwing the aid packages on the ground, and stomping on the boxes. It’s unclear whether the aid was coming from Jordan or the Palestinian Authority.

UN staffer killed and injured: At least one United Nations aid worker was killed and another injured after a vehicle marked as belonging to the agency was attacked in Rafah on Monday, according to Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the UN secretary-general. Haq did not assign blame to either Israel or Hamas for the attack.

Unclear Israeli military strategy: The Israeli military has renewed its fighting in northern Gaza where it previously claimed to have dismantled Hamas’ command structure. But it now says the Palestinian militant group is trying to “reassemble” in the area, raising doubts about whether Israel’s goal to eradicate the group in the enclave is realistic and renewing questions about its long-term military strategy.

Probe into intel failures: The Israeli State Comptroller's Office, which is investigating possible intelligence failures prior to the October 7 terror attack by Hamas, has welcomed a Supreme Court decision denying a request by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to delay the inquiry. The office said it expects "all audited entities to order their people to comply with the duty imposed on them ... and to fully cooperate."

The Biden administration has assessed that Israel has amassed enough troops on the edge of the city of Rafah in Gaza to move forward with a full-scale incursion in the coming days, but senior US officials are currently unsure if it has made a final decision to carry out such a move in direct defiance of President Joe Biden, two senior administration officials told CNN.

One of the officials also warned Israel has not come anywhere close to making adequate preparations – including building infrastructure related to food, hygiene and shelter – ahead of potentially evacuating more than 1 million Gazans are who currently reside in Rafah.

If Israel were to proceed with a major ground operation into Rafah, it would be going against months of warnings from the US to forego a full-scale offensive into the densely populated city. Biden himself voiced that warning in his most explicit terms yet last week, telling CNN’s Erin Burnett that the US would withhold some additional arms shipments to Israel if they were to take such a step.

“The president was clear that he would not supply certain offensive weapons for such an operation were to occur,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters at the White House Monday. “It has not yet occurred.”

As the war enters its eighth month, US officials are increasingly questioning Israel’s approach to the war, including publicly suggesting it is unlikely to achieve its stated aim of destroying Hamas and eliminating its leadership.

On Monday, Kurt Campbell, the State Department’s No. 2 official, said there have plainly been tensions between the two countries on “what the theory of victory is.”

“We view that there has to be more of a political solution. That’s one of the reasons why the president’s team has been so engaged with the surrounding region,” Campbell said at the NATO Youth Summit co-hosted by the Aspen Institute.

Read more on the US assessment of Israel's possible incursion of Rafah.

An Army intelligence officer resigned in an act of protest over what he called “nearly unqualified” US support for Israel, according to a resignation letter posted on LinkedIn.

Maj. Harrison Mann was assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency, according to his LinkedIn profile, and said in his resignation letter that US policies have “enabled and empowered the killing and starvation of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians.”

Mann has worked at the Defense Intelligence Agency since August 2021 as a Middle East analyst, according to his LinkedIn profile. He has been in the Army for 13 years, during which he attended Army’s Special Warfare Center and School, as well as Harvard’s Kennedy School. 

Mann says he submitted his resignation on November 1, which was less than a month after the Hamas terror attack on October 7 and the beginning of Israel’s bombardment of the coastal enclave.

CNN has not been able to reach Mann, but when The New York Times reached him Monday, Mann confirmed he was the author of the post but declined to comment further.

An official from the Defense Intelligence Agency confirmed Mann’s resignation and said such resignations are a “routine occurrence.”

According to the Army, Mann had deployed to Tunisia, Bahrain, Kuwait and South Korea during his 13-year military service. Mann requested an unqualified resignation on November 29, 2023, the Army said in a statement, in which an officer voluntarily requests to be discharged after completing his or her service obligations. Mann’s request was approved on January 8, 2024. It will be become effective June 3, 2024.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Monday that he does not see Hamas as a "terrorist organization" but as a "resistance organization" and "more than 1,000 Hamas members are currently under treatment" in Turkish hospitals.

He said calling Hamas a "terrorist organization" would be "a cruel approach."

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he is sending “a clear message” that the country is against a “broad attack” against Rafah.

Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed more than 35,000 Palestinians and injured another 78,600 people since October 7, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. CNN is not able to independently verify the numbers issued by the ministry.

Israel has said it would press ahead with plans for a full scale ground offensive in the southern city of Rafah, despite international warnings and pressure from aid agencies worsening a humanitarian catastrophe inside the Palestinian enclave.

The United Nations says 360,000 people have fled Rafah ahead of Israel's planned invasion into the southern Gaza city.  

The United Nations on Monday clarified that the overall number of fatalities in Gaza tallied by the Ministry of Health in Gaza remains unchanged, at more than 35,000, since the war broke out between Israel and Hamas on October 7.

The clarification comes after the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) published a report on May 8 with revised data regarding the number of Palestinian casualties in the war. The UN agency in its report reduced the number of women and children believed to have been killed in the war by nearly half.

The number was reduced because the UN says it is now relying on the number of deceased women and children whose names and other identifying details have been fully documented, rather than the total number of women and children killed. The ministry says bodies that arrive at hospitals get counted in the overall death count.

UN spokesperson Farhan Haq told a daily briefing at the UN that the health ministry in Gaza recently published two separate death tolls — an overall death toll and a total number of identified fatalities. In the UN report, only the total number of fatalities whose identities (such as name and date of birth) have been documented was published, leading to confusion.

CNN spoke to two officials from the Palestinian Ministry of Health. They said although the ministry keeps a separate death toll for identified and unidentified individuals, the total number of people killed remains unchanged. Additionally, the officials said, the total number of dead does not include the approximately 10,000 people who are still missing and trapped under the rubble.

While CNN cannot independently verify the ministry’s numbers, it has seen a daily report from the ministry which matches the number OCHA published in the revised version. Both the UN and US officials have previously appraised the figures from the Ministry of Health in Gaza as credible.

The White House is urging Israel to connect their military operations to a “clear” end game for Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters. 

His comments come as the White House has continued to make clear that it would not support a large-scale invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza. 

He also said that one of the "key points" that US officials are making to their counterparts is to look beyond the current military plan. 

"So one of the key points that we have been reinforcing is to step back just from a tactical military analysis of the situation but strategically, how do we get to the common goal, the enduring defeat of Hamas and that is going to require military pressure, yes, but more than just military pressure, a political plan to get there,” he said. 

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday that the ongoing ceasefire negotiations continue  “urgently” and that the administration remains “intent and determined” to help Israel and Hamas reach a deal and secure the release of hostages.   

He added: “This particular negotiation has had its ups and downs, its ins and outs, its twists and turns.”

Sullivan also said that it’s his belief that Israel can and must do more to protect civilians in Gaza and that the US government still believes a Rafah operation would be a mistake. 

He added: “We still believe it is — would be a mistake to launch a major military operation into the heart of Rafah that would put huge numbers of civilians at risk without a clear strategic gain.”

Some context: Top American officials have been offering stark warnings against an Israeli invasion of Rafah, predicting that a major ground offensive in the southern Gaza city would lead to widespread civilian casualties, spark a Hamas insurgency and create a power vacuum the terror group would later seek to fill.

It follows US President Joe Biden's ultimatum last week on CNN that an Israeli invasion of Rafah would cause him to pause certain weapons transfers.