March 22, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

Videos filmed by CNN along Gaza’s coast, west of the Al-Shifa Hospital, show large groups of people fleeing the violence as the Israeli military continues its raid of the complex.

Nuzha Awad, a displaced woman carrying her 8-month-old triplets, told CNN that the route away from Al-Shifa was “full of tanks, and Israeli snipers on buildings shooting towards people.”

“Tanks are shelling the houses where people are sheltering to force people to leave, and they’re not allowing people to take blankets, pilots or even a bottle of water,” she said.

The Government Media Office in Gaza accused the Israeli military of deliberately killing 13 patients inside the hospital by depriving them of medicine, medical supplies and electricity. The figure includes four patients on ventilators in intensive care who died after their oxygen was cut off, according to the media office statement. CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment about the allegations. 

Earlier Friday, the IDF said that together with the Israel Security Agency, their forces are “continuing to conduct precise operational activity in the Shifa Hospital area while preventing harm to civilians, patients, medical teams, and medical equipment.”

The Israeli military’s raid at Al-Shifa medical complex in Gaza City continued for a fifth day on Friday, with Palestinian health officials reporting that hundreds of patients are still trapped in the hospital and dozens of medical personnel forcibly detained. 

The Gaza health ministry accused the Israeli military of detaining about 240 patients and their companions, as well as 10 health care personnel inside the hospital’s radiology department. Dozens of medical workers were also arrested and taken away from the hospital, a ministry statement added.

What Israel says: The Israel Defense Forces said Friday it has killed 150 Palestinian militants in or around the hospital and arrested hundreds of suspects since the raid began on Monday. CNN cannot independently verify these claims.

Allegations of violence: Hamas has accused Israeli soldiers of detaining and abusing civilians sheltering in and around Al-Shifa, including medical personnel.

Umm Rami, a Palestinian woman living close to the hospital, told CNN Friday that Israeli soldiers had raided her family home in the early hours of Monday and took away her 78-year-old father-in-law, Freij Hallaq, and a number of his male grandchildren. Rami found out Thursday afternoon that her father-in-law had died after sustaining gunshot wounds and bleeding to death. He was among several men who were detained from their homes in the area surrounding Al-Shifa.

“Yesterday, we received information in the afternoon that my father-in-law’s corpse was found lying on a chair in a room,” she said, adding that he was not wearing any clothes.

The IDF did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment on Freij’s death.

An American nurse who treated Palestinians in the coastal town of Al-Mawasi warned a looming Israeli ground assault on the nearby southern Gaza city of Rafah would be “the ultimate demise." 

In February, Amy Leah Potter set up an improvised primary health care clinic in the coastal town with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). She told CNN that children displaced in tents sustained burns while crowding around fires for warmth in cold winter conditions. Others were treated for upper respiratory infections because they were inhaling smoke. 

“We'd have burns from children who aren't used to living with fire around them,” said Potter. “We would see a lot of skin infections because hygiene is nonexistent through no fault of the population.” 

Some background: Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has forcibly displaced about 1.7 million Palestinians, according to the UN. Many of those forced to flee are crammed in sprawling tent camps that cannot offer basic sanitation – leading to the spread of disease. Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7 have killed at least 32,00 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in the strip.   

Potter recounted working under the constant whine of Israeli drones and ringing blasts. “There was not a day that went by that I didn't hear an explosion,” she said. “The Palestinian people, their resilience is unbelievable.” 

Video footage apparently retrieved from a downed Israeli drone in Gaza and released by Al Jazeera on Friday purportedly shows the killing of four unarmed Palestinian civilians in a targeted Israeli air attack.

Al Jazeera said the incident occurred in the area of Al-Sikka, Khan Younis, in early February without providing a precise date.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the incident has been "transferred for examination" by the General Staff’s Fact Finding and Assessment Mechanism. 

In the video, four men are seen walking down a bulldozed dirt road lined with rubble and destroyed buildings. The men appear to be unarmed and carrying nothing in their hands. Al Jazeera reported they were in search of their homes to determine what remained following Israeli bombardment of the area.

Suddenly, the four men are hit by an apparent airstrike, instantly killing two of them. The other two men continue moving after the initial attack — one slowly walks while other crawls — when they are both hit by successive follow up direct hit missile strikes.

The remains of the men have been blurred in the video published by Al Jazeera, which stated that "it is not possible to show the full pictures after the first missile fell due to its brutality."

No other drones or military equipment are visible in the video.

CNN cannot verify the video's authenticity or Al Jazeera's account of what it depicts.

In a statement, the IDF claimed that forces had often encountered terrorists who were disguised as civilians in the area.

US Secretary of State Blinken traveled to Israel and met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Friday, as part of an intensive diplomatic push to reach a “sustained and immediate ceasefire” in Gaza and deter an Israeli offensive into the southern city of Rafah.

However, following the meeting, Netanyahu publicly doubled down on his commitment to carry out an offensive — with or without US support. Blinken said this offensive would risk “further isolating Israel around the world and jeopardizing its long-term security and standing.”

US Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters she doesn’t see a safe way for civilians to evacuate Rafah ahead of the possible offensive. “There is nowhere for those people to go,” Harris said. “One and a half million people of a population of 2.2 million people who are now in that area — and let's remember why they are there, because they were told to go there.” 

Here are some other top headlines:

Amy Leah Potter will never forget the 9-year-old girl who wailed in pain from her unhealed broken leg. She first met the displaced Palestinian orphan in February, at a primary health care center in the coastal town of Al-Mawasi, in southern Gaza.  

“She was crying and screaming,” said Potter, an American nurse working with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). “She kept saying, ‘I want to die. Just let me die.’” 

The young child broke her leg in an Israeli strike that killed her parents and siblings in Gaza City, in northern Gaza, in October. Her surviving relatives had no access to crutches or physical therapy – leaving her severe injury swollen and in excruciating pain.

Potter, who set up an MSF-led clinic treating displaced patients in Al-Mawai and visited Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, told CNN that Israel’s bombardment and besiegement has "decimated” the medical system.  

Severely injured Palestinians cannot access life-saving care or rehabilitation because there is barely enough equipment or medication. Loved ones desperately scrambled to keep wounded relatives alive, while health care workers are forced to care for patients on the floor. Others are unable to make emergency calls to ambulances because Israel’s offensive has crushed communication lines.  

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that a looming Israeli ground offensive into the southern Gaza city of Rafah would risk “further isolating Israel around the world and jeopardizing its long-term security and standing.”

The top US diplomat’s blunt message comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — following a meeting with Blinken — doubled down on his vow to carry out the military campaign with or without US support.

Blinken said he had “candid conversations” with Netanyahu and the Israeli war cabinet, and told them the US “shares Israel’s goal of defeating Hamas” — but that “a major military ground operation in Rafah is not the way to do it.”

Blinken would not give details on the ongoing negotiations to secure an immediate ceasefire and the release of hostages.

US Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters traveling with her on Air Force Two she doesn’t see a safe way for civilians to evacuate Rafah ahead of a possible Israeli ground offensive into the city in the southern Gaza Strip.

Harris’ comments come as US President Joe Biden's administration prepares to welcome a team of top Israeli officials to Washington next week as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signals he remains intent on entering the southern Gaza city, American urging notwithstanding.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the war cabinet in Tel Aviv Friday that the United States remains committed to the "lasting defeat of Hamas, including in Rafah" – a message that comes as the US works to deter Israel from launching a full military offensive in Gaza's southernmost city, where more than a million displaced people have fled.

On Thursday, Blinken reiterated that the US does not support a military campaign into Rafah, saying that it would be a “humanitarian disaster.” US and Israeli officials are slated to meet in Washington next week to discuss “alternative actions” to deal with Hamas in Rafah without causing “further harm to civilians,” Blinken said.

However, on Friday, following the meeting with Blinken, Netanyahu publicly doubled down on his commitment to carry out an offensive with or without US support.

According to a readout of the meeting from the US State Department, Blinken also “emphasized the need to protect civilians in Gaza and increase and sustain humanitarian assistance, including through both land and sea routes.”

Blinken discussed efforts on the hostage and immediate ceasefire deal, according to the statement.