December 4, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

Gaza is currently in a "near total blackout," according to London-based internet monitoring firm, Netblocks.

Netblocks said live metrics showed the Gaza Strip to be "in the midst of a near-total internet blackout," according to a post on X, formerly Twitter, shortly after 1 p.m. ET.

The last remaining major telecommunications operator in Gaza, PalTel, also provided an update on the situation shortly after 1 p.m. ET, announcing that all telecom services in the Gaza Strip have been completely cut off. 

PalTel had previously warned of disruption to the "main elements" of its network earlier on Monday, cutting off telecom services in Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip. 

The blackout comes after what Netblocks described as days of "relatively stable service" in Gaza, brought about by the week-long truce enacted by Israel and Hamas. 

Why this matters: As Israel responded to the October 7 attacks by Hamas, its deadly airstrikes across Gaza destroyed homes, schools and hospitals in the densely populated territory. Israel cut electricity to the territory and service providers said the bombardment destroyed vital network infrastructure.

Without the ability to communicate, Palestinian civilians caught in the line of fire are unable to check on each other or call for help; emergency and medical workers can’t coordinate their responses, according to Mirna El Helbawi, the founder of Connecting Gaza, a grassroots initiative that uses virtual SIM cards to help Palestinians skirt telecommunication blackouts.

Additionally, the Israel Defense Forces said last week a new interactive map showing “evacuation zones” is meant to reduce casualties when it carries out strikes in civilian areas. But unreliable access to the internet and power makes it difficult to access.

There are 220 American citizens and hundreds more family members and legal permanent residents left in Gaza, US State Department spokesman Matt Miller said Monday. 

The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), during a visit to the Gaza Strip, said the level of human suffering there is intolerable.

“The purpose of my visit is to advance efforts that alleviate the desperate humanitarian situation,” Mirjana Spoljaric said Monday in a statement, adding that civilians currently have “no safe place to go in Gaza."

Spoljaric also said the ICRC must be allowed to safely visit hostages being held in Gaza. She said it would enable the organization to provide updates to family members on the well-being of their loved ones. 

The ICRC president highlighted the positive impact of the week-long truce between Israel and Hamas, describing it as “a small degree of humanitarian respite” and a “positive glimpse of humanity." 

“As a neutral actor, the ICRC stands ready to support further humanitarian agreements that reduce suffering and heartbreak," she said.

The ICRC helped facilitate the release of many of the hostages released from Gaza under the week-long truce agreement between Israel and Hamas. It has also repeatedly called for the protection of aid workers, civilians and critical infrastructure.

Palestinian children who were recently released from detention are barred from going back to school this term, the Israeli Ministry of Education told CNN in a statement.

The Ministry of Education said former child detainees, many of whom are teenagers considered children under international law, won't be able to "study in the education system and will be accompanied by a parole officer" at least until the end of the winter term on January 10, 2024.

After that date, their return to school will be examined on an "individual" basis according to the "the necessary adjustments for each one of the students are underway," the ministry said. 

In a video posted on social media, the father of a Palestinian boy named Ahmed, who was reportedly released as part of the exchange deal between Hamas and Israel, says he was "surprised" when the school did not allow his son to continue hid education there. 

"Now we are by the school door to say: we have many prisoners in Jerusalem, young children at [school] age... They are the future generation and the builders of the future and they want to stop them from getting an education. Our question is: where should we go with our children from today?," the father says in the video.

The negotiations over the release of additional hostages from Gaza that broke down early Friday appear highly unlikely to resume any time soon, multiple senior administration officials tell CNN, leaving the fate of multiple Americans believed to have been taken captive by Hamas up in the air. 

The White House has said there is one American woman and seven men unaccounted for following Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel. So far, four Americans have been released since the start of the war. All are believed to be dual Israeli-American citizens.

The talks have stalled, and there does not appear to be any real prospects of those discussion starting back up any time soon, according to multiple senior administration officials. 

The major reason for the impasse remained unchanged as of Monday, according to one senior administration official: Hamas is refusing to release a remaining group of young women hostages, and Israel will not accept the suggestion of moving on to discuss the next category of hostages: Men.

And it also appears unlikely that the administration would be able to negotiate separately for the release of Americans citizens – similar to what the Thai and Russian governments did for Thai and Russian national hostages. There is no reason to think that Hamas would do the US any “special favor” in that manner, said a second senior administration official, who all but dismissed that possibility.

With fighting having resumed in the war, it remains unclear what – if anything – could bring back a cessation in hostilities and revive hostage talks.

As CNN has previously reported, Israeli and US officials believe that that Hamas is refusing to release a number of women in the 20- to 30-year-old age range, many of them taken from the Nova music festival, claiming that those women are considered soldiers. That refusal, one official said, is “totally unacceptable” given that there have been “credible allegations of sexual violence linked to Hamas and the October 7 atrocities.”

Hamas on Monday denied that its militants committed rape during the October 7 attack that killed about 1,200 Israelis.

Israeli police are investigating whether rape occurred during the attack, using forensic evidence, video and witness testimony, CNN first reported in November. The Sunday Times of London published testimony this weekend from those who attended the Nova music festival and said that they witnessed rape.

The statement also denied that Hamas targeted festivalgoers at all at the Nova festival in Re’im. At least 260 bodies were recovered from the festival site, according to Israeli rescue service Zaka.

Yoni Saadon, who attended the Nova music festival, told the Sunday Times of London that he witnessed a rape first-hand.

“I saw this beautiful woman with the face of an angel and eight or ten of the fighters beating and raping her. She was screaming, ‘Stop it — already I’m going to die anyway from what you are doing, just kill me!’ When they finished they were laughing and the last one shot her in the head," the Sunday Times of London reporting said.

The Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) objectives in northern Gaza are "nearly completed," the head of the Israeli military’s Armored Corps said Monday.

"The war objective in the northern Gaza Strip is nearly completed," Brig. Gen. Hisham Ibrahim told Israeli Army Radio on Monday.

The comments were echoed by the Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant during a visit to the Israeli border with Gaza on Monday.

"This action that is happening now, in the north of the Gaza Strip, will soon lead to the breaking of the entire area of Gaza City and the north of the Gaza Strip," Gallant said.

It is not the first time Israeli officials have said that the military was close to achieve its objectives in northern Gaza. On November 16, before a since-expired temporary truce with Hamas went into effect, the Chief of the IDF General Staff Herzi Halevi said, “We’re quite close to destroying the military system that [Hamas] had in the northern Gaza Strip.”

More Israeli strikes have been reported since Israel announced Sunday it is expanding its ground operations to all of Gaza. Israeli ground forces are now operating in southern Gaza, with at least one Israeli tank in action, according to video geolocated by CNN. There have also been reports of Israeli raids in Jersualem and clashes at the Israel-Lebanon border.

Meanwhile, all telecom services were also down in Gaza City and other parts of northern Gaza, Palestinian telecommunication company PalTel said on Monday.

Here's what you need to know:

Death toll in Gaza rises: Israeli attacks in Gaza have resulted in the deaths of about 15,899 Palestinians since October 7, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health spokesperson. A CNN producer Ibrahim Dahman, who reported from Gaza for weeks before escaping to Egypt with his young family after nearly a month of Israeli strikes, heard news Sunday that at least nine of his relatives trapped in northern Gaza had been killed in a strike on his aunt’s house. His childhood home in Gaza City was obliterated in a separate strike on an adjacent building the same day.

People displaced: Almost 1.9 million people, more than 80% of Gaza's total population, have now been displaced since the beginning of the war between Hamas and Israel, the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) said on Monday.

Israel claims it hit Hamas targets: Israeli airstrikes hit about 200 Hamas targets in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces said in an update Monday. The targets included a school in the northeastern town of Beit Hanoun, which the IDF claimed contained "terror infrastructure" including tunnel shafts stocked with weapons and explosives. Other airstrikes hit a vehicle holding weapons and an arms storage facility, the IDF said.

Deadly Israeli raids near Jerusalem: A 32-year-old man has been killed by the Israeli military during a raid at the Qalandia refugee camp, north of Jerusalem, the Palestinian Health Ministry said on Monday. Seventeen other people were injured during the raid, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. Eleven of those injured were hurt by live ammunition. Videos from the area — which is in the West Bank — show clashes between Israeli soldiers and young Palestinians. CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.

An explosion in northern Gaza: A strike targeted the northern entrance to the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, killing 10 people, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, head of pediatrics at the hospital, told CNN Monday. Video shot Sunday night and geolocated by CNN shows a number of casualties lying in the street in the aftermath of an explosion close to the hospital. CNN has been unable to confirm the cause of the explosion and has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment on any strikes in the hospital’s vicinity. The Hamas-run government media office in Gaza claimed Monday that the Israeli military had struck the hospital.

Two suspected militant killed: The IDF has said its troops and the Border Police killed two suspected militants overnight Sunday in the occupied West Bank city of Qalqilya. One of those killed – 29-year-old Emad Alaa Nezal – had "carried out a number of recent shooting attacks against security forces," it said. The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed that two Palestinians were shot and killed during an Israeli military incursion in Qalqilya, but did not confirm their identities. It said that the bodies of the two men had been taken by the IDF.

Israeli soldiers killed: Three more Israeli soldiers have been killed fighting against Hamas in Gaza, according to the IDF, bringing the number of IDF losses inside the Palestinian enclave to 69 since the military operation began in October.

Clashes at Israel-Lebanon border: Three Israeli soldiers were injured by mortar shells fired from across Israel's northern border with Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces said Monday. Later, more shells were fired toward an IDF post in the area of Yiftah, a kibbutz in northern Israel, the IDF said. Meanwhile, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported concentrated Israeli shelling near a number of border settlements. Several border villages were also attacked by Israeli aircraft, the agency reported. 

All telecom services are down in Gaza City and other parts of northern Gaza, Palestinian telecommunication company PalTel said on Monday. 

"We regret to announce that all telecom services in Gaza City and North Gaza Strip have been lost due to the disconnection of main elements of our network in light of the ongoing aggression," PalTel said in a social media post at 3:25 p.m. local time in Gaza City.

"Our technical teams are working relentlessly by all available means to restore the services," it added.

NetBlocks, a London-based internet monitoring firm, also confirmed on Monday that internet connectivity is disrupted in parts of the Gaza Strip.

"Live network data show a disruption to internet connectivity in parts of the #Gaza Strip; the incident comes amid renewed military operations after the ceasefire and follows several days of relatively stable service," Netblocks said on X.