March 29, 2024 - Israel-Hamas war

A Palestinian paramedic who was detained by the Israeli military for three days at Al-Shifa Hospital, in northern Gaza, claims he was stripped naked, left outside in rainy and cold weather, beaten and prevented from using the bathroom.

“The army came to us and forced us out one by one. They stripped us naked and seated us in the yard,” Mohammad Al Shawwa, in his 30s, alleged on Thursday.

Al Shawwa claims the IDF eventually told him to leave Al-Shifa, and he walked for about 1.25 miles (2km) to Al Ahli Baptist Hospital. “I ran away with other guys between the vehicles, partly blindfolded and tied,” the paramedic said. CNN previously asked the IDF about the movement of people to Al Ahli Baptist Hospital.

Al Shawwa says he was forced to leave his relatives behind. He says the fate of his mother, a cancer patient, sister, wife and son is unknown – after the family was separated during their detention. He is especially worried about his father, aged 60, who, he says, “was taken by the army.” “I don’t know if they are alive or dead,” he told CNN.

CNN has asked the IDF about Al Shawwa’s claims of mistreatment.

Strikes launched by the Israeli military have killed medical workers, patients and people sheltering at the besieged Al-Shifa Hospital, in northern Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials.

An Israeli bombing has also damaged the surgical building of Al-Shifa, the Ministry of Health in Gaza alleged.

Hundreds of bodies: Local residents told CNN on Thursday there was heavy fire in the vicinity of the hospital. One family said there was an air strike on their property near the maternity facilities at Al-Shifa, leaving hundreds of bodies strewn.

What Israel is saying: The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israeli intelligence said on Friday it was carrying out "precise operational activity" for a twelfth day in the area of Al-Shifa. On Thursday, the IDF claimed “approximately 200 terrorists have been eliminated in the area of the hospital since the beginning of the activity" at Al-Shifa. It said that “over the past day, terrorists fired at IDF troops from within and outside of the ER building.”

The IDF claimed troops evacuated civilians, patients, and medical teams to alternative medical facilities that the IDF set up to enable proper medical treatment to continue. CNN cannot independently verify IDF statements.

A doctor who cared for patients trapped inside Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza told CNN he fears two severely malnourished siblings will not survive due to a lack of care and medication.

Dr Ali Alghaliz treated Rafiq Dughmosh, 15, and his sister Rafif Dughmosh, 13, at Al-Shifa before the Israeli military laid siege to the hospital on March 18. The doctor was not at the hospital when the raid began.

Both siblings had limbs amputated after surviving an Israeli airstrike on their home that killed their mother and 10 other relatives, according to the UK-based NGO Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP). The Israeli military forced their uncle Mahmoud to evacuate, MAP said.

The siblings were left without a guardian inside the hospital, said Alghaliz.

Alghaliz told CNN that he spoke to Rafiq on Monday night and that the siblings have had no food, medication, or wound dressings for more than one week.

The Palestinian boy “feels desperate,” he said.

Alghaliz said he hopes both siblings will be evacuated.

UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told CNN on Friday that people in Gaza were hopeful when the UN Security Council passed a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, but that hope has since disappeared as Israeli bombing of the enclave continues.

"When that announcement was made, there was a breath, there was a palpable relief, but that hope has been drowned out by bombs," Elder said from Gaza.

Elder said the conditions in Gaza have "deteriorated massively" since prior visits, with the nutrition situation having "rapidly declined" and cities becoming "unrecognizable."

Elder said people told him on a recent visit to northern Gaza that they need basic humanitarian resources.

Dignity is being denied to young women on an unprecedented level in Gaza, UNICEF global spokesperson James Elder told CNN's Michael Holmes on Friday.

Elder was asked about his comments in a press briefing this week, in which he said UNICEF workers in Gaza spoke with "teenage girls hoping they are killed" to escape the conditions in the enclave.

Elder said Israel's planned ground offensive in Gaza's southern city of Rafah "would lead to potentially the biggest catastrophe of this war" as the city is many people's "last hope."

A series of Israeli airstrikes targeting areas close to the Syrian city of Aleppo have led to casualties among both civilians and military personnel early on Friday, according to the Syrian state news agency SANA.

According to a military source quoted by SANA, Israeli warplanes initiated an attack around 1:45 a.m. local time from the direction of Athriya, southeast of Aleppo.

Israel has not publicly commented.

Israel has for years launched airstrikes on Syria to target Iran-backed militant groups, with their frequency increasing since the October 7 Hamas attacks.

Israeli forces last week launched another military operation on Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, bringing the sprawling medical facility in the north of the enclave back into the spotlight.

The raid comes despite the Israel Defense Forces in January saying it had completed dismantling Hamas’ command structure in northern Gaza.

While the IDF said civilians, patients, and medical teams were evacuated during the operation, Palestinians inside and around Al-Shifa have reported civilian casualties and arrests, as well as large-scale destruction at the complex.

Heavy fighting around the hospital has also been reported by Israel, Hamas and civilians, with the UN saying hospitals must not be battlegrounds.

Here’s what we know about the raid:

Why are Israeli forces raiding Al-Shifa? Israeli forces said they were conducting “precise operational activities against terrorists” at Al-Shifa.

The IDF said Wednesday that “approximately 200 terrorists have been eliminated in the area of the hospital since the beginning of the activity.”

What are Palestinians saying? About 3,000 people were sheltering in Al-Shifa at the time of the raid, Gaza's Health Ministry said, adding that those attempting to leave were being targeted by snipers and fire from helicopters.

Hundreds of those stranded in the hospital have little food or water — and were warned by the Israeli military that they would be shot if they left the hospital without receiving instructions to evacuate.

Eyewitnesses said medical personnel and other civilians were detained by Israeli troops.

One eyewitness estimated about 400 to 500 Hamas and Islamic Jihad members and their families arrived at the hospital in mid-March. Some of them appeared to be members of Hamas’ political branch, while others were armed militants.

Read the full story.

President Joe Biden said Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries are “prepared to fully recognize Israel” during remarks at an off-camera fundraiser Thursday night, according to reporters in the room.

Biden repeated calls for a “post-Gaza plan” for Israel, including “a train to a two-state solution.” 

The remarks reflect Biden’s increased willingness to publicly call for Israel to increase efforts to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

“But there has to be a post-Gaza plan, and there has to be a train to a two-state solution, it doesn't have to occur today, but there has to be a progression, and I think we can do that,” Biden said. 

Arab states offered to recognize Israel in 2002 in exchange for a Palestinian state in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Israel rejected the proposal then.

The fundraiser, which featured Biden in conversation with former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, was interrupted at least four times by protesters, with at least three calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. 

“But we can't forget, Israel is in a position where its very existence is at stake. You have to have all those people. They weren't killed. They were massacred. They were massacred.”

This post has been updated to add background on Israel's relations with Arab nations.

Israel has not been provided every weapon it has asked the US for, according to Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair CQ Brown.

“Although we’ve been supporting them with capability, they have not received everything that they’ve asked for,” Brown told reporters on Thursday. 

“Some of that is because they've asked for stuff that we either don't have the capacity right now to provide or are not willing to provide right now in particular."

Brown also told reporters that during the meetings he had with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and his team this week in DC, “they did make requests” for different forms of military assistance.

Some background: CNN previously reported that Gallant reiterated Israel’s desire to buy a new squadron of F-15 and F-35 fighter jets and Apache helicopters. 

The growing weapons sales from the US remain top of mind for Israeli defense officials, who have been pushing their US counterparts for faster approval and progress on the weapons transfers, multiple officials and people familiar with the requests told CNN.