May 11, 2024 - Israel-Hamas war

United Nations agencies are likely to run out of food aid soon in southern Gaza – possibly by tomorrow – said Georgios Petropoulos, the head of the UN Humanitarian Agency (OCHA) in Gaza.

“The World Food Programme and UNRWA will run out of food for distribution in the south by tomorrow. That means that people will be left only with the aid that has already been distributed in their shelters, in their homes, and on-site. As of today (May 10) we have 12 bakeries supported by humanitarian partners here in South Gaza,” Petropoulos said in a post on OCHA’s X account on Friday.

Eight of the bakeries had ceased operations due to lack of staff, and four of them are operating at reduced capacity and will be out of stock by Monday, he added. 

The closure of the Rafah Crossing and Kerem Shalom, the border crossing between southern Gaza and Israel, had “severed our access to fuel, supplies, and the movement of humanitarian staff,” Petropoulos said in a video message recorded on Friday but posted on Saturday.

Aid agencies have long warned of a spiraling humanitarian crisis in Gaza under Israel’s military assault.

On Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces released a statement saying that “over the last few days, we facilitated the entry of 200,000 liters of fuel through the Kerem Shalom crossing.”

The IDF also said “over the last few days” Hamas had fired rockets from Rafah towards the humanitarian aid crossing, but it did not specify exactly when the attacks took place.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says it has started transferring the last 22 patients from a hospital in Rafah after the Israeli military ordered the immediate evacuation of further neighborhoods in the southern Gaza city. 

“New evacuation orders for parts of #Rafah have forced MSF to begin referring the remaining 22 patients at the Rafah Indonesian Field Hospital to other facilities, as we can no longer guarantee their safety,” the medical humanitarian organization posted on X on Saturday.

According to MSF, the Rafah Indonesian Field Hospital is a 60-bed facility that provides post-operative care and has been “seeing about 130 patients a day for dressing changes, physiotherapy, and counseling.”

MSF added in a post that it calls “on Israel to halt its offensive, which is making it impossible to provide lifesaving medical assistance and for people to find safety amid this campaign of destruction.”

Israel’s military on Saturday ordered the immediate evacuation of several more neighborhoods in Rafah, where it has been stepping up operations ahead of an anticipated ground offensive.

About 300,000 people have already fled the city as a result of what the Israeli military calls the “current temporary evacuation” of Rafah, the Israel Defence Forces said.

A man, woman and children ride in the back of a tricycle loaded with belongings and other items as they flee Rafah on May 11.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled Rafah after the Israel Defense Forces ordered evacuations. Strikes in the southern Gazan city killed more than a dozen people on Saturday, according to hospital officials.

Many of those leaving Rafah are being told to move to places that are already crowded with displaced people and facing an increasingly dire humanitarian crisis. It comes as Egypt says it will not coordinate with Israel on aid entering Gaza through the Rafah crossing, an official told Egypt’s state-run media Al-Qahera News.

Here’s what to know to get up to speed:

European Union Council President Charles Michel at the EU headquarters in Brussels, in April.

European Council President Charles Michel said it’s “unacceptable” for the Israeli military to issue evacuation orders for civilians in Rafah to “unsafe zones.”

“We call on the Israeli government to respect international humanitarian law and urge not to undertake a ground operation in #Rafah,” he said in an X post on Saturday.

Additionally, Michel said humanitarian assistance must get through “fully functioning” crossing points.

The Israel Defense Forces has ordered several more neighborhoods in eastern Rafah to immediately evacuate as the military steps up its operations in the southern Gazan city.

Avichay Adraee, head of the Arab media division of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, said in a statement on X earlier on Saturday that people in the Rafah and Al-Shaboura camps, and in the neighborhoods of Al-Adari, Al-Jeneina, and parts of Khirbet Al-Adas, should “immediately head to the expanded humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi.”

Al-Mawasi is an area that has already been crowded with displaced Palestinians before civilians in Rafah were ordered to move there.

US President Joe Biden listens to a question from reporters before getting into a car upon arrival at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, in SeaTac, Washington, on May 10.

US President Joe Biden said there would be a “ceasefire tomorrow” if Hamas would release the hostages held in Gaza.  

“As I’ve said, it’s up to Hamas — if they wanted to do it, we could end it tomorrow. And the ceasefire would begin tomorrow,” Biden said at a fundraiser in Seattle on Saturday, according to reporters in the room. 

Families of the five Americans believed to be held hostage in Gaza met with national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk on Friday. 

According to a readout of the meeting from representatives for the families, they “expressed their immense frustration with yet another pause, especially after recent hostage videos showed their loved ones disabled, thin, pale, and under apparent duress” to the Biden administration officials. 

Where talks stand: Israeli and Hamas negotiating teams left Cairo without a deal earlier this week.

Hamas militants said Israel’s rejection of a ceasefire plan submitted by mediators at negotiations in Cairo sent hostage release talks back to “square one.” Hamas accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of hindering the ceasefire talks to use negotiations as a cover to attack the southern Gazan city of Rafah.

Israel has repeatedly refused to agree to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza until Hamas has been defeated, even if all hostages are released. On Tuesday, Netanyahu said that “the Hamas proposal was very far from Israel’s core demands.”

CNN’s Betsy Klein contributed reporting to this post.

In a screengrab of a video obtained by CNN, a man drives with his children and their belongings. "I don't know where we are going. We've been displaced 7 or 8 times. We and the children are suffering," the man, who did not give his name, told a CNN stringer.

Some families in northern Gaza following evacuation orders by the Israeli military on Saturday say they don’t know where to go, and describe the dangerous situation in the area.

The IDF ordered residents and displaced people in several neighborhoods there to leave the area immediately and head toward “shelters” west of Gaza City, warning they are in a “dangerous combat zone.”

“I don’t know where we are going. We’ve been displaced 7 or 8 times. We and the children are suffering,” a father of three, who did not give his name, told CNN. 

The father, who was driving a motorcycle with his young children and belongings, said Israeli forces “dropped leaflets saying they will invade the north.”

“We are only moving because of the little ones. I don’t care if I would die, but I worry about them,” he said, adding that “there is no safe place.”

Another man described Friday night as “intense.” He said this would be his tenth time being displaced. Artillery is ongoing in the north, he said, adding his family is anticipating death any second.

“We are scared for our lives. I’ll go look for a place, pitch a tent. Anything to escape death,” he added.

A poster of Itay Chen is held by his father Ruby Chen, while Ruby Chen gives a statement to the media in Tel Aviv in December 2023. Itay Chen was killed by Hamas in the October 7, 2023 attack.

The families of dead hostages held in Gaza are calling for a “dignified burial” of their loved ones.

Yael Adar, mother of Tamir Adar, who was abducted on October 7 and whose death was announced in January, said all she wanted was to bring the body of her son back for burial. 

“For 90 days, we fought for his return alive, 90 days of hoping that Tamir would return to us, to the bosom of the family — a hope that vanished with the news that he was no longer alive,” Adar said during a protest in Israel ahead of the country’s Memorial Day.

“Since then, all we ask is to bring Tamir and all the murdered hostages back for burial, here in the land they loved. To grant Tamir the burial he deserves. To grant us closure, to have a grave where we can be with his memory,” she added.

Protesters in several cities across Israel on Saturday have demanded the release of all hostages held in Gaza.

Hagit Chen, mother of Itay Chen, who was killed on October 7 during the Hamas attacks on Israel, said she wanted to bury her son in peace. Chen’s remains were taken into Gaza.

“I have been invited to take part in many ceremonies for Israel’s Remembrance Day, but the only ceremony that I ought to be in, with my family and with the memory of my own son, is a ceremony that the country has not enabled me to have,” Chen said.

Plumes of smoke are seen east of Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza.

The Israeli military is carrying out strikes against militants in northern Gaza’s Jabalya, spokesperson Daniel Hagari said at a press conference on Saturday.

In video obtained by CNN, explosions are followed by plumes of smoke rising above buildings in a neighborhood east of Jabalya refugee camp with multiple residential buildings.

Hagari said the Israel Defense Forces started a temporary evacuation of the population in the area before beginning the operation. In the afternoon, IDF troops began an operation targeting militant infrastructure in the Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahya areas in northern Gaza, he said.

“In northern Gaza, in the last hour, fighter jets have been striking terrorist targets across Jabalya. This morning, we began a temporary evacuation process of the Jabalya area from this area towards the center of the strip as part of our preparation for a military operation in the area,” he said. 

Israeli forces dropped leaflets Saturday morning ordering residents in several areas in northern Gaza to evacuate, according to residents.

Some background: Overnight Friday into Saturday, Israeli airstrikes in the Kasaib neighborhood in northern Gaza’s Jabalya refugee camp killed journalist Bahaa Okasha, his wife and 12-year-old son, according to Kamal Adwan Hospital. Three others were killed in a separate airstrike in Jabalya, the hospital said.

Protesters gather for an anti-government demonstration in Tel Aviv on May 11.

Protesters took to the streets of several cities across Israel on Saturday, demanding the release of all hostages held in Gaza ahead of Israel’s Memorial Day.

They demanded the resignation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and for early elections to be held.

Families of hostages held in Gaza also took part in the ongoing anti-government protests, including in Tel Aviv, Caesarea, Rehovot and Haifa. 

Israel is gearing up to mark its Memorial Day starting Sunday evening.

Many waved Israeli flags and held up signs with images of the hostages, calling on the government to bring them home alive.

The Civil Defense in Gaza said Saturday it estimates about 10,000 bodies are trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings in Gaza. 

“For months, we’ve been working with simple equipment, which drains us (of) our time and effort,” spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal said. The group says Israel has destroyed 70 to 80% of Civil Defense’s capabilities. 

What the group does: Civil Defense and medics are the first responders in the aftermath of Israeli airstrikes and work on rescuing survivors and retrieving bodies when they are able to reach the sites of the attacks. 

“We demand that the United Nations and humanitarian groups immediately intervene to allow the entry of necessary rescue equipment so we can continue our work, retrieve the missing from under the rubble and provide the required fuel to operate the civil defense vehicles,” Bassal said. 

Forty days after the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the vicinity of the Al-Shifa medical complex, “Civil Defense and medical staff are still retrieving bodies buried by the Israeli occupation forces in mass graves,” Bassal added. 

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said Wednesday that medical teams discovered a third mass grave in the Al-Shifa complex. The Israeli military has denied any involvement in the burials.

On Saturday, Gaza’s health ministry said 28 people were killed over the past 24 hours, and at least 34,971 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7. CNN cannot independently confirm the numbers due to the lack of international media access to Gaza.

Egypt has refused to coordinate with Israel regarding the Rafah crossing “due to the unacceptable Israeli escalation,” Egypt’s state-run media Al-Qahera News said on Saturday, citing a senior official. 

Egypt also held Israel “responsible for the deterioration of the situation in the Gaza Strip,” the senior official said, as cited by Al-Qahera News. It has warned Israel that this might halt the flow of humanitarian trucks into Gaza until Israel withdraws its tanks and forces from Rafah, an Egyptian official told CNN on Saturday.

“Egypt believes the trucks need to go through the Palestinian mechanisms and it won’t be able to guarantee the safety of the trucks because they can be potentially targeted by the Palestinian factions while they are trying to target Israelis,” the official added.

CNN has reached out to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office for comment.

Israeli forces took control of the crossing earlier this week. About a quarter of the aid reaching Gaza in recent weeks had been coming through Rafah crossing. 

Some context: The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned Friday that the situation in Gaza has reached “even more unprecedented levels of emergency,” with every crossing into Rafah remaining closed. The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said in a social media post on Friday that the southern crossings to the Gaza Strip, where the main flow of aid goes through the enclave, have not seen aid in three days.

At least 15 people were killed in an airstrike and artillery strike in Rafah, according to a local hospital. Officials at the Kuwait Hospital in Rafah said the bodies were brought to the medical center on Saturday.

The head of the hospital media unit, Saber Abu A’arar, told CNN that “15 Palestinians were killed including four children and five women” in the two strikes.

Artillery shelling hit the Al-Salam neighborhood in eastern Rafah, while an airstrike hit a building in Al-Hashasheen neighborhood in western Rafah.

The Israel Defense Forces says its troops have been operating in eastern Rafah and it has ordered the immediate evacuation of several more neighborhoods in the city.

Al-Hashasheen is not covered in the IDF’s latest evacuation order.

Palestinians evacuate Rafah, Gaza, with their belongings on May, 11.

Thousands of people continue to leave Rafah in southern Gaza, according to video and testimony obtained by CNN — though many appear to be unsure of where they will end up.

Many journalists have moved to Rafah as the conflict has ravaged Gaza. One of them, Sherouq Shahin, told CNN at the Shaboura refugee camp in Rafah:

“Honestly, we don’t know where to go, we are only packing up our belongings that we were able to collect along the past months, but we don’t know where we are going.”

Another journalist, Doaa El Baz, told CNN that “a lot of people were displaced to Rafah as the last refuge we had. It was the last hope for all those displaced from the north and all the way to the south.”

“We relayed our message to the world. We were keen to tell the entire world what’s happening. Today, we don’t know who would cover our displacement,” El Baz said.

Earlier Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces said people in Al Shaboura and several other neighborhoods of Rafah must leave because of Hamas activities there, expanding the number of neighborhoods included in the evacuation order. 

“We don’t know where to head to,” Ghazi Alaloul, a reporter for Jordanian Roya TV, told CNN. “The destination is unknown because all the areas we moved to in the past had the basic facilities for us to work. But now it’s not known especially after the destruction of the hospitals, the infrastructure. It’s become difficult to get internet or electricity. Consequently, these are the challenges we are facing in relaying what we are seeing to the world.” 

The Al Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, claimed that one of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza died more than a month ago. 

Abu Obaida, the military wing’s spokesperson, said on Telegram that Nadav Popplewell, who was 51 years old when abducted, had died of wounds he sustained after an Israeli airstrike hit the place where he was held.

“His health condition deteriorated and he died because he did not receive intensive medical care,” Obaida said.

Popplewell, who has dual British-Israeli citizenship, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nirim on October 7, 2023. His mother, Channah Peri, was also abducted but was released as part of the hostage deal on November 24. His brother Roi was killed on October 7.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office told CNN it did not know whether Popplewell was alive or dead. The Israel Defense Forces declined to comment. 

The United Kingdom’s Foreign Office said it is seeking more information about Popplewell.

“The UK government has been working with partners across the region to secure the release of hostages, including British nationals. We will continue to do all we can to secure the release of hostages,” the office told CNN.

This post has been updated with comments from the UK Foreign Office.

A woman prepares to evacuate Rafah, Gaza, on May 11.

The Israel Defense Forces have intensified action in central Gaza, killing dozens of Palestinians in strikes Friday night and into the overnight hours, according to hospitals there.

It comes as about 300,000 people have fled Rafah in the southern part of the enclave as the military steps up operations ahead of an anticipated ground operation.

Here’s what to know today:

Palestinians load their car with belongings to evacuate Rafah, Gaza, on May 11.

Approximately 300,000 people have moved away from Rafah as a result of what it calls the “current temporary evacuation” from the southernmost Gazan city, the Israel Defense Forces says.

In a statement Saturday, the IDF said that “so far, approximately 300,000 Gazans have moved towards the Humanitarian Area in Al-Mawasi,” which is on the coast north of Rafah. Al-Mawasi was already crowded with displaced people before civilians in Rafah were ordered to move there.

The 300,000 figure is double that estimated by the IDF on Thursday.

Asked by CNN for clarification of the number, the IDF said it was “relevant to the beginning of the current temporary evacuation of the civilian population from Rafah,” indicating it did not include people who may have moved in that direction before the operation in eastern Rafah commenced nearly a week ago.

More context: The United Nations and humanitarian groups estimate that somewhere between 1.2 and 1.4 million people were living in the Rafah area before the Israeli operation in the eastern part of the city began. Satellite imagery examined by CNN in the last week showed that tent cities in several parts of Rafah were emptier than previously.

Relatives, loved ones and colleagues of Al-Aqsa TV journalist Mohammad Salama attend his funeral ceremony in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on March 6.

The Government Media Office in Gaza says the number of journalists killed since October 7 has risen to 143, after the death of photojournalist Bahaa Okasha overnight.

Okasha worked for the Al-Aqsa network, and he was killed when his family’s house in the Jabalya camp was hit in an airstrike, the media office said.

It has been the deadliest period for journalists since 1992, when the Committee to Protect Journalists started collecting data. It has recorded the deaths of at least 97 journalists and media workers in Gaza since October – 92 of whom were Palestinian.

CNN cannot independently confirm the number of deaths due to the lack of international media access to Gaza.

Many journalists in Gaza risk their lives to report on what is happening there. Some have been forced to flee their homes without equipment or protective gear, relying on their phones to document. Others must travel to higher ground when uploading footage, in an effort to bypass power outages and communications disruptions as Israeli shelling persists. Displaced reporters working in makeshift tents risk exposure to Israeli strikes.

Civil defense teams and local residents carry out search and rescue work in the rubble of a house that was destroyed by an Israeli attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza on May 10. 

The Israel Defense Forces says its troops have been operating in eastern Rafah and have “intensified” operational activity in the area of Zeitoun in central Gaza, which saw heavy bombardments overnight, according to journalists in the area.

This comes after the Israeli military ordered the immediate evacuation of several neighborhoods in northern Gaza and more neighborhoods in the eastern part of Gaza’s southern city of Rafah Saturday.

The IDF said that in Zeitoun troops located “large quantities of weapons, and in recent hours eliminated terrorists in close-quarters combat. In one activity in the area, the troops uncovered AK-47 rifles, military vests, and additional weapons and military equipment that were hidden inside a clinic.”

It said that aircraft struck “tens of terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip, including military structures, launch posts, observation posts, terrorist operatives and additional terrorist infrastructure.”

At least 47 people were killed, including children, in Israeli airstrikes in northern and central Gaza Friday evening and overnight, according to local hospitals. 

IDF troops have also been operating “against Hamas terrorists and infrastructure in specific areas of eastern Rafah,” the IDF said. “Over the past day, IDF troops eliminated numerous terrorists in close-quarters combat and dismantled terrorist infrastructure in the area.”

It added that IDF troops had also uncovered numerous underground tunnel shafts in the area adjacent to the Rafah crossing into Egypt.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza says 28 people were killed as a result of Israeli military operations in the most recent 24 hours.

CNN cannot confirm the figure, which may not include fatalities reported in central Gaza overnight.

The Ministry said that 69 people had been injured in the same period.

Altogether, since October 7, 34,971 people have been killed in Gaza and 78,641 injured, the Ministry said.

At a military base that now doubles as a detention center in Israel’s Negev desert, an Israeli working at the facility snapped two photographs of a scene that he says continues to haunt him.

Rows of men in gray tracksuits are seen sitting on paper-thin mattresses, ringfenced by barbed wire. All appear blindfolded, their heads hanging heavy under the glare of floodlights.

A putrid stench filled the air and the room hummed with the men’s murmurs, the Israeli who was at the facility told CNN. Forbidden from speaking to each other, the detainees mumbled to themselves.

Guards were instructed “to scream uskot” – shut up in Arabic – and told to “pick people out that were problematic and punish them,” the source added.

CNN spoke to three Israeli whistleblowers who worked at the Sde Teiman desert camp, which holds Palestinians detained during Israel’s invasion of Gaza. All spoke out at risk of legal repercussions and reprisals from groups supportive of Israel’s hardline policies in Gaza.

They paint a picture of a facility where doctors sometimes amputated prisoners’ limbs due to injuries sustained from constant handcuffing; of medical procedures sometimes performed by underqualified medics earning it a reputation for being “a paradise for interns”; and where the air is filled with the smell of neglected wounds left to rot.

Read the full story here.

Israel's Foreign Affairs Minister Israel Katz attends a meeting of the United Nations Security Council at U.N. headquarters in New York on March 11.

Israel’s Foreign Affairs Minister Israel Katz has condemned the passing of the UN General Assembly resolution on Friday calling for the UN Security Council to reconsider UN Membership for the Palestinian Authority.

“The absurd decision taken today at the UN General Assembly highlights the structural bias of the UN and the reasons why, under the leadership of UN Secretary-General Guterres, it has turned itself into an irrelevant institution,” Katz said, adding, “The message that the UN is sending to our suffering region: violence pays off.”

Katz said the decision would further complicate negotiations surrounding the release of hostages held in Gaza, by providing “a tailwind to Hamas.”

The foreign minister thanked the countries that did not vote in favor of the resolution, who he says chose to “stand on the right side of history and morality.”

Hamas, however, welcomed the passing of the resolution in a statement Friday in which it called on “the free countries of the world to intensify their efforts and provide all means of assistance and support to our Palestinian people.”

A United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution calling on the UN Security Council to reconsider Palestinian membership to the UN passed on Friday, with 143 votes in favor, nine votes against and 25 abstaining. 

The resolution calls for the Security Council to “reconsider the matter favourably,” and stresses that the Palestinian Authority be granted UN membership, saying, “the State of Palestine is qualified for membership in the United Nations.”

At least 47 people have been killed, including children, in Israeli airstrikes in northern and central Gaza Friday evening and overnight, according to three hospitals in the area. 

Among those killed were journalist Bahaa Okasha, his wife and 12-year-old son, in an airstrike on the Kasasib neighborhood in northern Gaza’s Jabalya refugee camp, according to Kamal Adwan Hospital. 

Three others were killed in a separate airstrike in Jabalya, the hospital’s director, Hussam Abu Saifiya, told CNN. 

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital also said it received 30 bodies overnight in strikes that hit Al-Maghazi, Al-Masdar village and Al-Zawaida in central Gaza. The figure includes 20 children, according to the hospital’s initial estimate. 

The hospital is still receiving bodies through Saturday morning as more are retrieved from under the rubble, according to a CNN stringer there.

Al-Awda Hospital said it also received 11 bodies from two different airstrikes in Nuseirat in central Gaza on Friday evening.

A CNN stinger at the hospital filmed several children treated earlier in the day who were injured in airstrikes, including one boy who had a severed arm.

What the IDF says: In response to a CNN inquiry about the airstrikes, the IDF said it was “operating to dismantle Hamas military and administrative capabilities.”

“In stark contrast to Hamas’ intentional attacks on Israeli men, women and children, the IDF follows international law and takes feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm,” it added.

This post has been updated with comment from the IDF.

The Israeli military has ordered residents and the displaced people in several neighborhoods in northern Gaza to leave the area immediately and head towards “shelters” west of Gaza City.

“You are present in a dangerous fighting zone. Hamas is trying to rebuild its capabilities in the area and the military will work with extreme force against terror groups,” Avichay Adraee, head of the Arab media division of the Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson’s Unit, said on X Saturday. 

Leaflets with the warning were dropped on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza and the surrounding area, according to a CNN stringer on the ground. Similar leaflets were also dropped on Jabalia, according to photos circulating on social media Saturday morning. 

In recent weeks, the IDF has renewed shelling and strikes on northern Gaza after it had said in December it was drawing down its troops there.

The evacuation order adds to another call from the Israeli military for the immediate evacuation of more neighborhoods in eastern Rafah, where the IDF is increasing its operations.

Khader Al-Za’anoun of Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, contributed reporting.

Aid trucks loaded with supplies for Gaza are queued in Arish, Egypt, on May 8.

The UN’s World Food Program (WFP) said in a social media post on X on Friday that the southern crossings to the Gaza Strip, where the main flow of aid goes through the enclave, have not seen aid in three days.

Only one bakery is functioning in Rafah, a city where some 1.4 million Palestinians are displaced, and the Israeli military is advancing with a ground invasion.

“Without a reopening of access, WFP’s operations will go into standstill while families run out of food,” the organization said.

Elsewhere, there has been dispute this week over the reopening of the Kerem Shalom crossing. The Israeli agency that approves the passage of humanitarian aid into Gaza – COGAT – said on Thursday that the Kerem Shalom crossing was open after being closed for several days.

However, the spokesperson for the Gaza Crossings Authority, Hisham Adwan, said Thursday that the crossing remains closed for a fourth consecutive day.

The Erez crossing in the north was also open, according to COGAT.

The UN and other aid agencies have long warned not enough aid is reaching Gaza, which faces a humanitarian crisis.

People ride on a vehicle loaded with belongings as Palestinians evacuate the eastern part of Rafah, Gaza, on May 11.

The Israeli military has ordered the immediate evacuation of several more neighborhoods in eastern Rafah as the Israeli military steps up its operations in the southern Gazan city. 

People in the Rafah and al-Shaboura camps, and the neighborhoods of Al-Adari, Al-Jeneina, and parts of Khirbet Al-Adas should “immediately head to the expanded humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi,” Avichay Adraee, head of the Arab media division of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) Spokesperson’s Unit, said in a statement on X Saturday.

“They (Israelis) told us to leave the area in the morning,” one woman in al-Shabora, Rafah told CNN without giving her name. She was filling water bottles ahead of her family’s move.

It comes as thousands of Gazans continue to flee Rafah after the Israeli military issued a call Monday for residents in the municipality of Al-Shawka and in the Al-Salam, Al-Jeneina, Tiba Zaraa, and Al-Bayouk neighborhoods in the Rafah area to “evacuate immediately.” 

Israel has ordered Palestinians to leave to Al-Mawasi, a coastal town near the city of Khan Younis, where an “expanded humanitarian area” has been created. Although, aid groups have warned that it is not appropriate for habitation.

Expanding operations: The new evacuation order follows Thursday’s approval by Israel’s security cabinet of an “expansion of the area of operation” in Rafah – empowering the war cabinet to continue to make military decisions there without further consulting the security cabinet.

Satellite images obtained by CNN have shown that Israel’s current attacks in Rafah havedeveloped from airstrikes to ground operations.

A leaked photograph of the detention facility shows a blindfolded man with his arms above his head.

The White House said a CNN report on alleged systematic abuse at an Israeli prison was “deeply concerning” and that the Biden administration is reaching out to Israeli officials for answers.

“We have seen these reports on potential alleged prisoner abuse at this prison,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told CNN’s Arlette Saenz on Friday. “It’s deeply concerning. Very troubling.” 

He said the administration was seeking more information from Israeli officials. “Obviously, our expectation is that we’ll get good answers here,” he said. 

The United States expects its allies to provide “the highest standard when it comes to the treatment of prisoners,” Kirby said while adding he didn’t want to “get ahead of where we are.”

CNN has exclusive reporting on Israeli whistleblowers alleging systematic abuse in the Israeli prison of the Sde Teiman in the Negev desert.

A man snaps pictures from a rooftop as thick, black smoke rises from a fire in a building caused by Israeli bombardment in Rafah on May 10.

Thousands are fleeing the southern city of Rafah as the Israeli military steps up its operations, despite a warning from US President Joe Biden that a major Israeli offensive  would result in a shut-off to some US weapons.

Here are the key headlines:

Rafah military operations:

The New US report:

Ongoing ceasefire and hostage release negotiations:

United Nations Resolution on Palestine: