February 5, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

The United Nations relief agency in Gaza, UNRWA, says one of its trucks waiting to take aid to northern Gaza was hit by Israeli fire on Monday.

Thomas White, Director of UNRWA Affairs in Gaza, posted a photograph of the damaged truck on X, saying: “#Gaza this morning a food convoy waiting to move into Northern Gaza was hit by Israeli naval gunfire - thankfully no one was injured.”

The Israel Defense Forces told CNN Monday that it is looking into the incident.

About the agency: The agency serves 5.9 million Palestinian refugees and faces an uncertain future after Israeli allegations that 13 employees were associated with Hamas’s October 7th attack. In response, the United States and at least 13 of its allies have pulled crucial funding and several employees were fired.

Spain however has announced it will send 3.5 million euros (more than $3.7 million) in additional aid to UNRWA to help assist its humanitarian activities in Gaza, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said during a congress speech.

Video shows the wreckage of the Palestine Red Crescent Society headquarters in Jabalya, northern Gaza, as the Israeli military spread its offensive across multiple parts the enclave.

The scale of destruction was illustrated in the new footage published by the PCRS on Monday, showing the wreckage of its headquarters in the neighborhood.

Israeli strikes hit infrastructure in both Deir Al-Balah, in central Gaza, and the coastal town of Al Mawasi, in the south, in recent weeks, causing multiple casualties, according to the PRCS and the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza.

At least 14 Palestinians were killed, including two children and four women, and many others injured due to airstrikes on Al-Shuhadaa Mosque in Deir Al-Balah on Sunday, according to a doctor at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

Video obtained by CNN from the western part of Deir Al-Balah showed destruction at the mosque, with civilians trying to rescue people from under the rubble.

Palestinian civilians are "afraid" of Israel's military pressing into the southern city of Rafah, according to a relief worker, as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) expands its offensive into all parts of the territory.

“Everyone is afraid of the expanding of the ground operation in Rafah,” Raed Al-Nims, Media Director of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Gaza, said on Monday.

It came after Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said IDF ground troops would "soon reach" Rafah in the far south — where more than half of Gaza's entire population have been forcibly displaced since the start of the war.

In recent weeks, the IDF has ramped up its deadly assault on the southern city of Khan Younis, where local hospitals and a UN shelter came under fierce bombardment.

A “fighter jet struck a Hamas terrorist cell” which was “preparing to attack IDF troops in a nearby structure with explosives," the IDF said. In western Khan Younis, the IDF said that troops "killed dozens of terrorists who ambushed the troops throughout the city.”

“In a separate IDF activity directed by intelligence in Khan Younis, IDF troops conducted targeted raids on terrorist targets and located weapons including AK-47 rifles, sniper rifles, grenades, and ammunition. The troops also killed 10 terrorists using close-range fire and aerial support." 

CNN cannot independently verify operational details reported by the IDF. 

The director of the Hamas-run Government Media Office told CNN on Monday the expansion of the Israeli military's ground campaign into Rafah, in southern Gaza, would "cause a real disaster" inside the Palestinian enclave.

Israeli troops are not yet on the ground in the southern city bordering Egypt, Ismail Al-Thawabta said.

Last week, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would head from Khan Younis into Rafah to "eliminate terror elements that threaten us."

Israel's bombardment has displaced more than 2.3 million people in Gaza -- nearly the whole population -- according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

More than half of those are trying to shelter in Rafah.

Al Thawabta, of the Government Media Office, said there were 1.3 million displaced people in Rafah.

Palestinians have been forced to flee to Rafah from northern areas since the early days of the war, after the IDF instructed people to move south as it advanced from the north.

CNN obtained video over the weekend showing the tent camp in the shadow of Gaza’s walled border with Egypt, underlining that there is nowhere further south in the strip for people to flee.

Amos Shani Atzmon says he doesn’t blame Palestinians in Gaza for hating Israel right now.

An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reservist, Atzmon, 26, was called up just hours after Hamas launched its brutal terror attack on Israel, murdering around 1,200 people and kidnapping 253 others.

Atzmon said he is the “left-wing guy” in his unit. Like tens of thousands of others, he had spent most of last spring and summer protesting against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his plans to overhaul Israel’s judiciary. Netanyahu’s government is the most right-wing in Israel’s history, rejecting the idea of a Palestinian state and supporting Jewish settlements inside the West Bank.

His political views are sometimes difficult to square with the realities of being a soldier, fighting on behalf of a government he doesn’t support. He says he’s been grappling with this since he started forming his political opinions around the age of 15, anticipating his military service — something almost everyone in Israel must complete.

Read more of the Israeli soldiers' stories.

The United States will take "further action" after conducting major airstrikes over the weekend against Iran-backed militias who have carried out attacks on US troops in the Middle East, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday.

Sullivan’s comments comes after the US adopted a “multi-tiered” response to the drone attack that killed three US service members and wounded more than 40 others last week.

The US destroyed or damaged 84 out of 85 targets in its sweeping series of airstrikes on Friday in Syria and Iraq, according to two US defense officials, with no indications of Iranian casualties.

Meanwhile, US forces also carried out further strikes on Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Houthis, who have said their attacks on global shipping are in response to Israel's war in Gaza, vowed the latest strikes will not go unanswered.

Here's what you need to know:

The United States military struck Houthi anti-ship and land attack cruise missiles in Yemen Sunday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said, one day after joint US-UK strikes against the Iran-backed militant group.

US forces struck an anti-ship cruise missile prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea at approximately 4 a.m. Yemen time Sunday, CENTCOM said.

Ninety minutes later, US forces struck a Houthi land attack cruise missile. The rebel group has used these types of missiles to attempt to strike Israel, as the Houthis claim their operations are carried out in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

At 10:30 a.m. Yemen time, US forces targeted four more anti-ship cruise missiles, saying they presented a threat to merchant vessels and US warships in the region.

More context: These strikes, which have become increasingly common as the US goes after Houthi weapons, come one day after a US-UK joint operation struck 36 different Houthi targets across 13 different sites in Yemen.

US Senators unveiled a long-awaited border deal and foreign aid package with assistance for Ukraine and Israel on Sunday, paving the way for a key vote in the chamber this week in which the legislation is at risk of failing and, if it does pass, setting up a clash with the House.

According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, the sweeping $118.2 billion legislative package includes roughly $14.1 billion in security assistance for Israel, as well as humanitarian assistance for civilians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

It’s the product of months of bipartisan negotiations with a trio of senators — Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, one of the chamber’s most conservative Republicans. But former President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson have attacked the border deal as too weak, and their opposition threatens to derail the legislation.

If Congress is unable to pass the legislative package, senators will have to decide whether to try to pass aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan separately from border and immigration measures.

Johnson announced Saturday that the House will vote this week on a standalone bill providing aid for Israel. The Louisiana Republican called on the Senate to take up that bill swiftly, ratcheting up pressure on senators to abandon their efforts to keep Israel aid linked with other issues.

Read more about the package.

The Royal Jordanian Air Force worked with the Dutch Air Force Sunday to successfully airdrop aid and medical supplies twice in the vicinity of the Jordanian field hospital in northern Gaza, according to officials in both countries.

The drop included humanitarian and medical supplies, delivered using GPS-guided parachutes, according to a statement from the Jordanian Armed Forces Sunday.

The Dutch Ministry of Defense confirmed the successful humanitarian mission, and chef José Andrés, founder of the NGO World Central Kitchen, said he was also part of the effort.

In January, French and Jordanian air forces dropped 7 tons of urgent humanitarian and medical aid to another field hospital in Gaza's southern city of Khan Younis.