May 7, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

The remaining field hospitals in the area of an eastern Rafah hospital that was evacuated Monday will only be able to provide less than one-third of its offered services, according to the hospital medical director.

The evacuation to Kareem “happened against our will” after the Israel Defense Forces told people in eastern Rafah they must leave the area, according to Abu Yusuf Najjar Hospital medical director Marwan Al-Homss.

Al Homss confirmed the hospital is now out of service including care for nearly 400 kidney dialysis patients. He said after it closed, vandalism started that led to the theft of fuel that was running the generators.

Hospital crews didn't leave until all patients were evacuated, he said.

 Al-Homss said that over the past 48 hours, more than 56 people in the area had been killed, of whom 40% were children.

CNN is unable to confirm his estimate.

Rockets were fired from the Rafah area in the Gaza Strip Tuesday toward Kerem Shalom and the Re’im area of southern Israel, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Six projectiles were fired toward Kerem Shalom, the IDF said. 

The Kerem Shalom crossing, one of the main conduits for humanitarian aid into Gaza, was closed Sunday after a rocket attack nearby killed four Israeli soldiers. It is due to reopen Wednesday, according to the US State Department.

The IDF said about 12 projectiles were also identified crossing from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza into the area of Re'im earlier today. The IDF Aerial Defense Array successfully intercepted five of the projectiles and the rest fell in an open area. No injuries were reported.

“Within less than an hour, IAF aircraft struck the launcher that fired toward Israel.”

When Hamas declared on Monday evening that it has “agreed” to a ceasefire deal, it caught many off guard. Israel was evidently not expecting it, and it was not even immediately clear what Hamas had agreed to.

Hamas’ announcement was initially met with jubilation in Gaza and cautious optimism by regional leaders after it was presented as an acceptance of an Israeli proposal. But Israel issued what looked like a holding position, saying that Hamas’ position was “far from” meeting its demands.

And it pressed on with a controversial military operation in Rafah, southern Gaza, conducting air strikes on Monday and seizing control of the Palestinian side of a border crossing with Egypt on Tuesday morning amid intense pressure from his hardline coalition to go all-in.

At the same time, Israel said that it would send a delegation to Cairo to assess Hamas’ position. The CIA director, Bill Burns, also arrived in Cairo on Tuesday morning.

So what’s going on? Find out here:

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The US has finished the offshore construction of the temporary humanitarian pier system, also known as JLOTS, meant to get aid into Gaza, according to the Defense Department.

“As of today, the construction of the two portions of the JLOTS, the floating pier and the Trident pier, are complete and awaiting final movement offshore,” announced Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh at a briefing.

However, due to weather, the US military is unable to move the pier into position to be anchored ashore in Gaza, according to Singh.

But Singh added that the US is loading aid meant to be unloaded at the temporary pier on the ship MV Sagamore, which is currently in Cyprus. 

“The Sagamore is a cargo vessel that will use the JLOTS system, and will make trips between Cyprus and the offshore floating pier as USAID and other partners collect aid from around the world,” said Singh.

CNN first reported last week that the Sagamore will be the first vessel used to transport the aid from Cyprus to the pier, but US officials hope that aid groups will eventually begin contracting their own vessels to deliver the aid. 

Singh also said that while the pier's movement would depend on weather and security conditions, the Defense Department hopes to have it in position “later this week.” 

A senior representative of Hamas says the proposed deal it agreed to includes the “withdrawal of the occupation from the Gaza Strip.”

Osama Hamdan, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, told a news conference in Beirut that the proposed deal would secure "the main issues of the demands of our people and our resistance in stopping the aggression permanently, the withdrawal of the occupation from the entire Gaza Strip, the free return of the displaced, relief, reconstruction, ending the siege, and achieving a real and serious exchange deal.”

Hamdan said the proposed deal's three phases would be continuously implemented, claiming that Israel wanted “to complete one stage, in which it would achieve the release of its prisoners held by the resistance, and then resume its aggression against the Gaza Strip.”

Referring to Egypt and Qatar, Hamdan said that “the mediator brothers, if their proposal is approved…will have a role in completing all stages of the agreement, and putting pressure on the occupation to adhere to its provisions and implement them.”

Netanyahu said that “as the war cabinet unanimously determined, the Hamas proposal was very far from Israel's core demands.”

The White House said Tuesday that a close reading of Israel and Hamas’ separate negotiating positions on a hostage deal indicates the two sides should be able to strike an agreement.

National security spokesman John Kirby's comment was a fresh sign of optimism about the state of hostage talks after they appeared to stall Monday. CIA Director Bill Burns was in Cairo Tuesday for continued discussions.

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller walked back his comment that Israel's seizure of the Rafah crossing looked like a "prelude" to a major military operation, saying, “we don’t know if it’s a prelude or not.”

He had earlier told a press conference that the seizure of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza looks like a "prelude" to a major military operation.

“They have made clear that they intend to launch a major military operation and we have made clear that we are opposed to that,” Miller added.

New satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies shows how the area near to the Egypt-Gaza Rafah crossing has changed in the hours since Israel's operation there. The images were taken this afternoon at 2:26 p.m. local time. 

One image shows a fire at the Arab Mall in eastern Rafah, just a mile north of the Egypt-Gaza crossing. It's unclear what started the fire, but there have been Israeli military strikes in the area. 

In northern Rafah, the area filled with tents from refugees appears to remain largely unchanged from days past. 

On the Egyptian side of the border, aid trucks that had gathered at the Egyptian border complex have since been moved into a buffer zone near the Gaza border. In recent months, Egypt worked to bulldoze the area and build a new wall along its Gaza border.

The roadway connecting the Egypt-Gaza border is also seen sealed on the Egyptian side by large cement walls. Egypt has periodically sealed this roadway section at the border since the start of the Israeli incursion into Gaza.  

In comments he later walked back, the US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Israel's seizure of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza looks like a "prelude" to a major military operation.

Miller later walked back the comment, saying, “we don’t know if it’s a prelude or not.”

He said that at present the Israeli military operation to seize control of the Rafah crossing appears to be “a limited operation at this time.”

Miller said that the operation does not qualify as the kind of action in Rafah that the US has warned Israel against conducting.

Miller would not say what the US response would be if Israel carried out a major operation, which the US has repeatedly tried to deter Israel from undertaking.

CNN has confirmed through hospital sources in Rafah the deaths of 27 people since Monday evening, including six women and nine children.

“Obviously, every death of any civilian, but especially children, is a tragedy whether they're in Rafah or anywhere else inside Gaza, and we've made that clear,” Miller said.

This post has been updated to include Miller's subsequent remarks

The US State Department condemned an alleged attack by Israeli extremists on a Jordanian humanitarian aid convoy bound for Gaza and said they had raised the incident with the Israeli government. 

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on X Tuesday that “the Israel government is fully responsible for the attack on a Jordanian aid convoy en route to Erez by radical settlers who again committed their despicable crime unchallenged by Israeli authorities.”

Another Jordanian convoy en route to the aid crossing last week was also assaulted by Israeli extremists. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was in Israel when it happened, told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “that these attacks on aid shipments are unacceptable, and that Israel ought to take steps to prevent them,” Miller said last week.

Miller on Tuesday said Israel’s arrest of three people for a previous attack on an aid convoy was “obviously the appropriate thing to do.”

“This is something that happened for the first time, the first time with this particular route, last week when we were in Israel, and the secretary raised it directly with Prime Minister Netanyahu,” said Miller, referring to Blinken’s recent trip to Israel.