March 14, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

At least seven Palestinians were killed, and 86 others injured, when Israeli troops opened fire while civilians waited for humanitarian aid in Gaza City on Wednesday, according to an eyewitness and a doctor at a nearby hospital.

Many of the people transferred to Al-Shifa Hospital from the aid site suffered bullet wounds, according to Fathi Obaid, a doctor in the medical center's emergency department. Obaid said the hospital struggled to treat all the patients because of medicine and equipment shortages.

Nimr Abu Atta, a patient at the hospital who was shot in the stomach, said he had been hit with "gunfire from an Israeli tank."

Abu Atta said he went to an area in Gaza City known as the Kuwait roundabout — where aid trucks commonly distribute food, attracting crowds of people desperate for supplies — to pick up flour for his children when he was hit.

"My wife was killed two months ago in the war, and I am caring for my seven children," he said. 

The Israel Defense Forces has not yet responded to a CNN query about the alleged shooting.

Violence at aid sites: Gazans have reported several deadly attacks by Israeli soldiers on crowds of civilians lining up for aid in recent weeks.

The Gaza-based Government Media Office claimed Tuesday that at least 400 people have been killed in such incidents since the beginning of the war.

CNN cannot independently confirm the Gaza government's numbers due to the lack of international media access to the strip. The IDF did not immediately provide a comment on the figures.

Journalist Khader Al-Za’anoun of Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, contributed to this report.

The White House did not weigh in on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s criticisms of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or his calls for new elections in the country. 

Kirby said the Biden administration was going to "stay focused on making sure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself while doing everything that they can to avoid civilian casualties."

Kirby added that the administration is also "still focused laser focused on trying to get a temporary ceasefire in place so that we can get the hostages out and get more aid."

Fresh satellite images have shown the site of the jetty where the first aid ship, the Open Arms, is likely to dock in Gaza on Thursday.   

Images taken by satellite image company, Maxar have shown evidence of a jetty at a site in central Gaza —which was not visible in early March. 

According to Maxar, construction on the jetty which extends approximately 50 meters from the shoreline began on or after March 10. 

The jetty lies roughly less than half a mile from the Wadi Gaza checkpoint which is the Israeli checkpoint separating southern and northern Gaza. 

It's also less than one mile from one of the main locations of the deadly aid incident, now known as the "Flour Massacre," which took place last month. 

More than 100 people were killed on February 29 after Israeli troops opened fire near civilians who had gathered around an aid truck. 

The non-governmental organization, World Central Kitchen, which organized the aid ship, told CNN that the jetty was constructed using rubble from Gaza. 

Clarification: This post has been updated to clarify a comment from World Central Kitchen about the construction of the jetty.

US Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell responded critically to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s speech where he called for a new election in Israel on Thursday.

McConnell went on to accuse the Democratic Party of having an "anti-Israel problem" saying, "Israel is not a colony of America whose leaders serve at the pleasure of the party in power in Washington. Only Israel’s citizens should have a say in who runs their government."

What Schumer said: The majority leader, who is the highest-ranking Jewish official in the US, said he believes Netanyahu has "lost his way" and that Israel needs to consider whether it should change course in how it is waging war against Hamas in Gaza.

He said an election would give Israelis the opportunity for a "healthy and open decision-making process about the future" of their country.

The US State Department announced new sanctions on three Israeli settlers and two farms in the West Bank on Thursday, as the administration targets threats to peace and security in the area.

The latest sanctions follow an executive order signed by President Joe Biden last month aimed at targeting violent Israeli settlers in the West Bank whom he has said have undermined stability in the area.

Miller reiterated the US position that there is "no justification for extremist violence against civilians or forcing families from their homes, whatever their national origin, ethnicity, race, or religion."

More on US sanctions: One of the individuals sanctioned, Moshe Sharvit, "repeatedly harassed, threatened, and attacked Palestinian civilians and Israeli human rights defenders in the vicinity of MOSHES FARM, an outpost in the West Bank," a fact sheet from the State Department explained. 

Another farm that was sanctioned, Zvis Farm, is used as a base to "perpetrates violence against Palestinians and prevents local Palestinian farmers from accessing and using their lands," the fact sheet noted. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has criticized Israel's government and called for new elections in a speech about the Israel-Hamas war on the Senate floor.

Schumer said he respected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's "extraordinary bravery for Israel on the battlefield as a younger man" and believed his "highest priority is the security of Israel."

"However, I also believe Prime Minister Netanyahu has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel,” Schumer said.  

In his speech, Schumer said Israelis needed to consider whether they should change course on how Israel is waging its war on Hamas and suggested new elections were the way to do so.

The US and Jordanian militaries dropped more aid into northern Gaza on Thursday morning local time, US Central Command announced. 

So far, US and Jordanian forces have performed 10 airdrops of aid into the enclave as many face extreme food shortages.

More context: Levels of critical hunger are compounded in the north of the enclave, where Israel concentrated its military offensive in the early days of the war. Palestinians told CNN they resort to eating water-based soup mixed with herbs, custard, or finger-sized biscuits because they have no access to nutrient-rich foods.

Humanitarian officials have warned that airdropping aid into the enclave falls far short of addressing the need in Gaza. While airdrops evade the rigorous examinations carried out at land crossings, they are costly and have limited delivery capacity. They can also create chaos on the ground as they drift unpredictably from the sky.

Critics have called on the US to instead pressure ally Israel to lift its severe restrictions on aid entry by ground.

CNN's Niamh Kennedy contributed reporting to this post.

At the start of this month, Hazem Saeed Al-Naizi's family in northern Gaza was surviving by eating bread made from animal feed. Two weeks later, even the animal feed has run out.

His comments follow warnings from the Red Cross of other Palestinian families in Gaza resorting to eating animal fodder, something experts say brings risks of infection and gastrointestinal issues. 

Al-Naizi was separated from his family in November, when he fled to Khan Younis with one of his sons, age 6, and the children he cares for as director of an orphanage in Gaza City.

His wife and other children tried to flee together but he says they were prevented from crossing by Israeli soldiers. His wife did not want to attempt crossing again, due to the difficulty of the journey and because she suffers from thalassemia, a genetic blood disorder.

Since then, they have stayed in the north while he cares for the orphans in the south.

He added that ever since the animal feed ran out in the markets, they have had to resort to eating plants like hibiscus.

“There are only a few wild plants left to eat, and they may be running out.”

Here are photos shared with CNN showing how the family turned the feed into a form of bread:

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told CNN that a number of armed individuals emerged from an alley in the occupied West Bank near the Jenin government hospital area and fired at its forces on Wednesday.

"Our forces responded by firing, and hits were detected," the IDF added.

On Wednesday, two Palestinian men were killed, and four others injured in an Israeli military raid on the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

The men were killed after Israeli soldiers shot at a group of civilians standing in front of the Jenin government hospital’s emergency department, the hospital director said.