October 22, 2023 Israel-Hamas war news

Our live coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict has moved here.

Directions for making a chemical weapon to use on civilian targets have been discovered on a USB drive found on the body of a Hamas terrorist involved in the October 7 attacks, Israeli President Isaac Herzog has claimed.

In a statement, Herzog’s office said the USB key contained pages from a 2003 al Qaeda manual that included a diagram for a “device for dispersing cyanide agents.”  

Herzog’s office provided two pages of the document in question, which included a crude sketch of a device made up of household items combined with chemical agents.    

The statement said other content on the USB drive included “a manual for abducting captives and instructions for the use of chemical substances for mass murder.”     

CNN is unable to independently verify the claims or contents of the documents.  

There have been no indications from the Israeli government that Hamas militants involved in the October 7 attack had the means to carry out a chemical attack. 

Herzog said the documents indicated an ideological link between Hamas and other Islamist terror groups.  

An Israeli official told CNN the information about the discovery of the documents was sent to dozens of Israeli embassies worldwide under the heading: “Hamas intention of using chemical weapons.”  

The number of Thai nationals killed in Israel following Hamas’ October 7 attack has risen to 30, Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.

Thailand, which for decades has made up one of the biggest sources of migrant labor in Israel, has suffered one of the highest tolls of any nation beyond Israel itself.

A total of 18 Thais have been injured in Israel, while 19 Thai nationals are believed to have been taken hostage by Hamas, the ministry said.

Many infants relying on ventilators would not survive an interruption of electricity in Gaza, a senior doctor in the besieged coastal enclave has warned, as he painted a grim picture of the situation at his hospital.

In a video released by the Gaza Ministry of Health on Sunday, Dr. Fu’ad al-Bulbul, head of the neonatal department unit at Al-Shifa hospital, said any stop of the electricity supply would be “catastrophic.”

Al-Bulbul spoke amid concerns that fuel supplies essential to keeping hospital generators on and electricity running are perilously low. Earlier Sunday, the UN agency aiding Palestine refugees (UNRWA) cautioned that its fuel reserves will deplete in three days, jeopardizing humanitarian efforts in Gaza.

The nursery at Al-Shifa hospital, which has 45 incubators, predominantly cares for preterm babies resulting from high-risk pregnancies, al-Bulbul said.  

“Unfortunately, at the moment we have not any medical supply — the essential drugs which is essential drugs as lifesaving for baby in the first two hours of life,” he said.  

Highlighting the severe shortage of essential medicines, the doctor revealed they had run out of surfactant and had used their last vial of caffeine citrate on Sunday.  

The unit is overwhelmed with caseloads, most infants are critically ill and the medical team has worked 18 straight days, leaving them exhausted, he added.  

Hamas said its political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh received a phone call from Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian late Sunday to discuss “how to use all methods to stop” Israeli strikes on Gaza.

They also “discussed the latest developments related to the Zionist aggression against the Gaza Strip,” Hamas said via the messaging platform Telegram.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said Tehran was not involved in the Hamas attack on Israel, but has praised the assault.

According to US officials, there is no “direct information” linking these attacks to Iran at this time, but Washington believes Iran is “broadly complicit” in Hamas attacks in Israel.

A senior Israeli official tells CNN there will be “no ceasefire” in Gaza amid US and Qatari efforts to free more than 200 hostages held there by Hamas.    

The official told CNN they were “not aware” of US calls for a delay to Israel’s expected Gaza ground operation, and said both Israel and the US want all the hostages released “as quickly as possible.”

But, the official added, “humanitarian efforts cannot be allowed to impact the mission to dismantle Hamas.”

Here are other headlines you should know:

Israel’s military carried out dozens of airstrikes on Hamas targets late Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces said. 

CNN’s Nic Robertson reported from Sderot, near the Gaza Strip, that Sunday’s strikes have been the most sustained bombardment of northern Gaza he has seen since he began to report from southern Israel two weeks ago.

The Israeli military said late Saturday its forces would be intensifying airstrikes in Gaza. 

Strikes in southern Lebanon: The IDF also struck two Hezbollah terrorist cells on the Lebanese side of the border with Israel, it said via the Telegram messaging platform.

The Israeli military said one cell was adjacent to the area of Mattat and planned to launch anti-tank missiles toward Israel; while the other, located in Har Dov, planned to launch rockets.

A senior Israeli official tells CNN there will be “no ceasefire” in Gaza amid US and Qatari efforts to free more than 200 hostages held there by Hamas.    

The official told CNN they were “not aware” of US calls for a delay to Israel’s expected Gaza ground operation, and said both Israel and the US want all the hostages released “as quickly as possible.”

But, the official added, “humanitarian efforts cannot be allowed to impact the mission to dismantle Hamas.”

Israel agreed to a US request to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, “although that was not popular in Israel,” the official said.  

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that US President Joe Biden’s administration was talking to the Israeli government on a “regular basis” about the Gaza situation.

“Both of us want to make sure that the many hostages who’ve been taken come home, and that’s why we’re working on it, as I said, virtually every minute of the day” Blinken told NBC’s Meet the Press.

A CNN journalist observed at least 14 humanitarian relief trucks, sponsored by the Egyptian Red Crescent and the United Nations, entering the Gaza Strip from Egypt through the Rafah crossing on Sunday late evening local time.

An official with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Gaza confirmed to CNN that the trucks had been admitted, and were being offloaded to vehicles that will take the goods to Gaza storage facilities of the UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.

Photos from the Palestinian Crossing Authority showed the second set of trucks getting loaded up on the Palestinian side of the crossing to complete the journey to the UNRWA site.

A short statement by Wael Abu Omar, head of public relations at the Palestinian Crossing Authority, said the trucks carried food and medicine for Gaza.

Some background: The news comes a day after a convoy of 20 Egyptian trucks unloaded humanitarian aid in Gaza after using the same crossing, which was briefly opened Saturday, according to a CNN stringer on the ground.

The critical Rafah crossing with Egypt in the south has been touted as the last hope for Gazans to escape as Israel’s bombs rain down, and many Palestinians have begun moving in its direction in anticipation. So far, however, the opening has only been opened for aid — not evacuees.

Meanwhile, aid workers in Gaza, which is under a “complete siege” by Israel and running critically low on basic resources, said this weekend’s deliveries were a help, but only barely started to address needs across the densely populated strip.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte are due to arrive in Israel Monday, the Israeli prime minister’s office said Sunday. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone to the two leaders as well as Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. Macron and Rutte will arrive on Monday and Tuesday, and will meet with Netanyahu, according to his office.

The Israeli prime minister thanked the the Western leaders for their support of Israel’s “right to defend itself against Hamas’s brutal terrorism,” his office said in a statement, adding that “Israel’s victory over Hamas would be a victory for the entire world.”

CNN reached out to the Elysee Palace, which has not yet confirmed Macron’s visit, but the French president had said he would visit Israel in the following days, according to his office.

More from Sanchez: The Spanish prime minister confirmed he spoke to his Israeli counterpart in a post on the social media platform X, saying he reiterated his “condemnation of Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel and its right to defend itself against them, within the limits of international and humanitarian law.”

Sanchez wrote that those being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza should be released “immediately and unconditionally.”   

He added that all civilians in the Israel-Hamas conflict should be protected, and that “sufficient and sustained humanitarian aid” should be provided to the people of Gaza.  

An Israel Defense Forces soldier died and three others were wounded during a raid as part of preparations for a Gaza ground operation, an IDF spokesperson said Sunday.

The raid was carried out earlier today in the area of Kibbutz Kissufim near the Gaza Strip, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said during a video briefing. An anti-tank missile launched toward an IDF tank and an engineering vehicle left one soldier dead, one with moderate injuries, and two with mild injuries, according to Hagari.

The IDF said the raid was part of the preparations for a Gaza ground operation, with Israeli forces attempting “to dismantle terror infrastructure, clear the area of terrorists, weapons, and locate missing persons, and bodies.”

The family of the killed and wounded soldiers have been notified, according to the IDF.

More background: The Israeli military has been increasing its attacks against Hamas and collecting information regarding the hostages held in Gaza, according to Hagari.

Hamas fighters clashed with Israeli troops inside Gaza Sunday, in what appears to be one of the first skirmishes between the two sides on the ground inside the strip since war broke out on October 7.

The IDF chief of staff told commanders Saturday that the military is preparing to “enter the Gaza Strip” and take out Hamas, but he did not provide a specific timeframe. The US is seeking to delay an Israeli ground offensive in Gaza, in hopes of getting more hostages out and more humanitarian aid in to the besieged enclave, according to two sources briefed on discussions

US President Joe Biden spoke with Pope Francis and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday in two separate calls about developments in Israel and Gaza.

In his discussion with Pope Francis, Biden condemned the attack by Hamas and discussed his efforts to deliver humanitarian assistance to Gaza.

The two “discussed the need to prevent escalation in the region and to work toward a durable peace in the Middle East,” according to a readout of his call.

The White House is expected to send a readout of the president’s call with Netanyahu soon.

Biden and US Vice President Kamala Harris also received a briefing Sunday morning from their national security team about the latest Gaza developments.

Participants in the briefing included Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Brown, Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, and national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

US President Joe Biden’s administration is “hopeful” that more hostages held by Hamas will be released, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday. 

“We don’t know why Hamas chose to release Natalie and Judith (Raanan) first. I use the word first advisedly, because again, we’re hopeful that more follow,” he said. “This is something we’re engaged in virtually around the clock.”

He said US officials have been engaged with partners in the region and in talks with those who might have influence with Hamas to release the hostages. 

Blinken said that of the 10 Americans unaccounted for, some are believed to be hostages, but he didn’t provide an exact figure. 

“What we don’t know for sure is whether some of the unaccounted for are dead and have simply not been uncovered yet, or whether they’re hostage. But we have a pretty strong idea that some number of the 10, at least, are being held in Gaza by Hamas,” he said.

When asked whether the US wants Israel to delay its ground operation until more hostages can be released — as CNN has reported, according to two sources briefed on the discussions — Blinken said the US is talking to Israel on a regular basis but maintained the decisions are for Israel to make.

Blinken later said the US remains concerned over a potential escalation by Iranian proxies and is prepared for that likelihood. 

“We are taking steps to make sure that we can effectively defend our people and respond decisively if we need to. This is not what we want, not what we’re looking for. We don’t want escalation,” he said.

An Israeli tank “accidentally fired and hit an Egyptian post” Sunday near the border between the two countries, the Israel Defense Forces said.

The IDF apologized for the incident — which took place in the area of Kerem Shalom, near the borders of southern Gaza and northeastern Egypt — and is investigating the matter.

Some Egyptian border guards suffered minor injuries, Egypt’s military said. 

“During the ongoing clashes in the Gaza Strip Sunday, one of the Egyptian border watchtowers was accidentally hit by fragments of a shell from an Israeli tank, resulting in minor injuries to some border guards,” an Egyptian military spokesperson said on Facebook.

Egypt also said the Israeli side “immediately” expressed its regret over the unintentional incident, and that the circumstances around the shelling are being investigated.

More background: Kerem Shalom is one of Israel’s two border crossings with Gaza.

It has been closed since Israel imposed a “complete siege” on the enclave after Hamas’ October 7 terror attacks. Kerem Shalom was among the areas where Hamas killed civilians after bulldozing through the Gaza border during the assault.

Conditions at a central Gaza hospital are “catastrophic” Sunday, the medical center’s director general told CNN, as the emergency department faces a surge of casualties and electricity and fuel shortages brought on by Israel’s airstrikes and blockade.

Dr. Iyad Issa Abu Zaher said it has been a “bloody day” at Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital, updating the number of bodies the hospital has just received to 166.

The Al Aqsa hospital is located in Deir Al Balah in central Gaza — the district where Israel carried out airstrikes overnight Saturday into Sunday.

More than 300 wounded people have been admitted, Zaher said.

“It’s impossible for any hospital in the world to admit this number of injured, and it’s impossible for any medical crew to work with (these) large numbers of injured,” the doctor told CNN. “And every injured person needs four or five specialized surgeons and surgeries, and this puts a large burden on the medical crew.”

Hamas fighters clashed with Israeli troops inside Gaza, the Palestinian group’s militant Al-Qassam Brigades said Sunday, in what appears to be one of the first skirmishes between the two sides on the ground inside the strip since war broke out on October 7.

Hamas said its fighters destroyed two Israeli military bulldozers and a tank in an ambush, forcing Israeli troops to retreat into Israel without their vehicles.

“The soldiers of the Zionist force that fell into the Khan Younis ambush left their vehicles and fled east of the fence on foot,” the Al-Qassam Brigades said on social media.

The Israel Defense Forces said only that “shots were fired at IDF soldiers operating west of the Gaza Strip security fence, in the area of Kissufim.”

“An IDF tank struck the terrorist cell who fired at the soldiers,” the IDF added.

Kibbutz Kissufim, in Israel, is east of Khan Younis, in Gaza. 

The IDF confirmed to CNN by phone that its troops had been operating inside Gaza during the incident.

It is not the first time the IDF has said it operated inside Gaza since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. On October 13, the IDF said it had carried out raids inside Gaza in the previous 24 hours, but it did not say clashes had taken place.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the US is “concerned about potential escalation” in the Middle East, following the announcement of additional US military assets to the region.

“We’re concerned about potential escalation. In fact, what we’re seeing is a — is a prospect of a significant escalation of attacks on our troops and our people throughout the region, and because of that, we’re going to do what’s necessary to make sure that our troops are in the right — in a good position, and they’re protected, and that we have the ability to respond,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Austin said the deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery, as well as additional Patriot defense battalions, to locations throughout the region was to protect US troops in the area. Those deployments were announced Saturday night.

The Defense Secretary said he has encouraged Israeli officials, and specifically Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, “to conduct their operations in accordance with the law of war.”

In response to a question on whether Israel was doing enough to protect or ensure innocent civilians are not being killed, Austin said, “We encourage them at every opportunity, Jon, to make sure that, you know, we’re accounting for those civilians that are in the battle space that were providing corridors for them to leave the battle space if necessary, and that they’re allowing humanitarian assistance to get into that space as well.” 

Austin did say he thinks a two-state solution is still “very, very supportable.”

Iran addresses US and Israel: Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warned the US and Israel Sunday that “if crimes against humanity do not stop immediately, there is the possibility at any moment that the region will go out of control.”

He called the Middle East a “powder keg” during a news conference in Tehran on Sunday, according to quotes published by state-aligned Tasnim News Agency.

“Any miscalculation in continuing genocide and forced displacement can have serious and bitter consequences, both in the region and for the warmongers,” Abdollahian said, referring to the US and Israel.

CNN’s Adam Pourahmadi contributed reporting

Gaza’s main medical facility, the Al-Shifa Hospital, is reducing the duration of dialysis sessions for hundreds of kidney patients as electricity and fuel supplies dwindle due to the Israeli blockade, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza on Sunday. 

Out of more than 1,100 kidney failure patients in Gaza, 450 receive treatment at the Al-Shifa hospital, the ministry said. 

Security conditions are also making it hard for patients to access hospitals in the strip, ministry Director General of International Cooperation Marwan Abu Saada said.

In a video posted by the ministry, a kidney patient inside the Al-Shifa Hospital mentioned that he lives at the hospital.   

“I cannot come (to the hospital), I sleep here with my wife in one of the rooms,” he said. “The rest of my family are in two tents back there (in Al-Shifa Hospital complex).” 

Crisis deepens in Gaza: About 1.4 million people, constituting over 60% of Gaza’s population of about 2 million, have been displaced since October 7, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on Saturday. 

The health ministry warned that the electricity and fuel shortages “will lead to a major humanitarian catastrophe, especially for patients with kidney failure.” 

It further called on civilians and owners of gas stations in Gaza to donate any fuel they have to hospitals to “save the lives of the wounded and patients.”

On Thursday, Doctors Without Borders said the Al-Shifa Hospital only had enough fuel to last 24 hours. 

Rhea Mogul and Christian Edwards contributed reporting to this post.

The US government has pressed Israel to delay its imminent ground operation Gaza to allow for the release of more Hamas hostages and aid into Gaza, according to two sources briefed on the discussions.

The Friday release of two Americans held by Hamas signaled the possibility of freeing more of the around 200 people believed to be kidnapped by the militant group after its deadly attacks two week ago.

“The (administration) pressed Israeli leadership to delay because of progress on the hostage front,” and the need to get trucks of aid into Gaza, one person familiar with the discussions said.  

The National Security Council did not immediately respond for comment.

When US President Joe Biden was asked Saturday if he was encouraging Israel to delay the invasion, he responded: “I’m talking to the Israelis.” 

Qatar, acting as a middle man for the US and Israel, has been leading the discussions with Hamas about releasing the hostages since they were abducted by Hamas two weeks ago. According to a diplomat briefed on the talks, the negotiations have included talks about getting much-needed aid into Gaza and the need for a temporary ceasefire to get the prisoners out. Israel has not indicated they are considering a ceasefire. 

Hamas does not appear to have gotten anything concrete out of the Friday release of Judith Tai and Natalie Raanan. 

Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said in a statement Saturday they were prepared to release two “detained individuals” whom they identified by name. “The same procedures” used to release the Raanans would be employed for the new proposed release, the statement said. 

The office of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the claim Saturday evening, saying it would not comment on “false Hamas propaganda,” adding Israel’s government would “continue to do everything necessary to bring all the captives and missing back home.”

An official in the Israeli prime minister’s office told CNN on Friday, after news of the Americans’ release, that it may have been an attempt by Hamas to lessen the Israeli military response.

“That (military) pressure isn’t going to go because they were released,” the official said. “It won’t change the mission, which is to dismantle Hamas.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that if Hezbollah decides to enter the war, it will be crippled “with a force (it) cannot even imagine.” 

“And the meaning for (Hezbollah) and for the state of Lebanon will be devastating, but we are prepared for any scenario,” Netanyahu said during a visit to troops in the north on Sunday. 

In a video, Netanyahu tells commandos “we are in a battle for life, a battle for home. This is not an exaggeration; this is the war. It’s ‘to be, or to cease’ — they should cease.”

Some context: Hezbollah is an Iran-backed Islamist movement with one of the most powerful paramilitary forces in the Middle East.

The group, which has its main base on the Israel-Lebanon border, could become a wildcard player in the Hamas-Israel war, and spark a wider regional conflict.

The conflict that started with Hamas’ deadly attacks on Israel – which Israeli officials say killed 1,400 people – has already had broad ramifications in the Middle East, and triggered diplomatic rifts and protests around the world.

The fallout is palpable on the Lebanon-Israel border, where Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in low-rumbling tit-for-tat skirmishes since the war began, putting the entire region on a knife’s edge.

It remains unclear whether Hezbollah will intervene in the Hamas-Israel war on behalf of the Palestinians. Should Hezbollah get involved in the war, it would open up a multifront conflict, propelling the Middle East into uncharted territory with unpredictable consequences.

The United Nations’ fuel supply in Gaza will run out in three days, a top official has warned, reiterating that supplies must be allowed into the besieged enclave. 

“In three days, UNRWA will run out of fuel, critical for our humanitarian response across the Gaza Strip,” Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner General for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said in a statement Sunday. 
“Without fuel, there will be no water, no functioning hospitals and bakeries. Without fuel, aid will not reach many civilians in desperate need. Without fuel, there will be no humanitarian assistance.” 

The 20 aid trucks that managed to cross through the Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza on Saturday delivered food, water, medicine and medical supplies but no fuel, according to Egyptian border authorities. 

Lazzarini emphasized that as the “largest humanitarian actor in the Gaza Strip,” without fuel, the UNRWA is not able to “help the people of Gaza whose needs are growing by the hour.”

“UNRWA is currently hosting more than half a million people out of nearly 1 million displaced across the Gaza Strip,” he added. 
“I call on all parties and those with influence over them to immediately allow fuel supplies into the Gaza Strip and to ensure that fuel is strictly used to prevent a collapse of the humanitarian response,” Lazzarini continued. 

Despite welcoming Saturday’s convoy into Gaza, he stressed that the supplies delivered are “far from enough,” maintaining that “to be meaningful, Gaza needs an uninterrupted and scaled up humanitarian supply line.” 

Overnight airstrikes in central Gaza’s Deir Al Balah have killed at least 143 people, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital says. 

A total of 262 people were wounded in those strikes, according to the hospital, which received the bodies and the wounded.

The hospital has been overwhelmed with bodies, according to a journalist at the medical center working for CNN. Videos obtained by CNN showed more than a dozen bodies wrapped in shrouds brought into the hospital. Family members are seen grieving and trying to identify the bodies.

As the hospital’s morgue is full, bodies were being kept on the grounds surrounding the hospital, according to the CNN journalist. They counted five airstrikes near the hospital on Sunday morning.

What the Israeli military is saying: The Israel Defense Forces told CNN that strikes around the overwhelmed hospital were intelligence-led and resulted in the killing of a high-ranking Hamas figure.

He was an artillery commander who had ordered strikes on Israel a day before, an IDF spokesperson said. She could not immediately confirm if he was the same person as a rocket array commander whom IDF chief spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari had announced earlier had been killed.

The spokesperson emphasized that the IDF did not strike the hospital itself.

Some context: Deir Al Balah is a city roughly 8 miles south of Wadi Gaza, and outside the evacuation zone laid out by the Israeli military, which has told civilians to leave the crowded northern portion of the Palestinian enclave.

Last week, the IDF issued guidance telling all civilians in northern Gaza to evacuate to areas south of Wadi Gaza “for your own safety and the safety of your families” as the IDF continues “to operate significantly in Gaza City.”

Some parents in Gaza have resorted to writing their children’s names on their legs to help identify them should either they or the children be killed, according to videos filmed by a journalist working for CNN. 

The videos are from Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al Balah in central Gaza, a district where Israeli airstrikes took place overnight Saturday into Sunday.

They show a toddler and three children who have been killed, bearing their names written in Arabic on their calves. All four are seen lying on stretchers placed on the floor in a room that appears to be a morgue, which is full. It’s unclear whether their parents were also killed.

The journalist says the practice has become more commonplace in recent days. There have been chaotic scenes in several Gaza hospitals in the aftermath of airstrikes, with insufficient room to handle the influx of patients and morgues overflowing.

The videos show that in parts of the Al Aqsa hospital, which is overrun with patients, the injured people, including children, were lying in corridors on makeshift beds and mattresses Sunday morning.

The videos also show a stream of patients being brought in on stretchers early Sunday morning. Dozens of people have gathered outside for safety, while others are seen grieving.

The death toll in Gaza since October 7 has risen to 4,651 with more than 14,245 wounded, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza on Sunday.

A spokesman for the ministry, Dr. Ashraf Al-Qidra, said during the past 24 hours, 266 people had been killed including 117 children. 

The ministry has received 1,450 calls concerning missing people believed to be under the rubble, 800 of whom are children, according to Al-Qudra.

It comes after the Rafah border crossing opened for a brief window on Saturday, allowing Gaza to receive its first deliveries of vital aid.

However, international leaders have warned that much more is needed to combat the “catastrophic” humanitarian situation in the enclave that holds more than 2 million people.

Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Lt. Col. Richard Hecht refused to say Sunday if a fighter jet was involved in the rare airstrike on a mosque in Jenin.

Israeli media reported Sunday that the strike did come from a jet, in what would be the first fighter jet strike in the West Bank in nearly two decades. 

“All I can say is it was an aerial strike,” Hecht told reporters. He said it was the first IDF aerial strike of any kind in the West Bank since a June incursion into Jenin began with one. 

A local resident interviewed by Reuters mentioned a drone, but it is unclear from his comment whether he saw where the strike came from. 

Hecht suggested the strike was carefully targeted. “You will see the mosque is still intact but we took out the terrorists,” he said of Sunday’s attack. 

Video from the scene showed two holes in the mosque roof and rubble inside, but the building and its minaret are still standing.

Some context: The Israeli military said it launched the strike early Sunday to thwart what it called “an imminent terror attack.” 

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said it viewed the strike on the mosque in a refugee camp in the city of Jenin as a “dangerous escalation.”

“The Ministry views with great seriousness the bombing of the Jenin camp yesterday, and considers it a dangerous escalation using warplanes, resulting in Palestinian civilian casualties and terrorizing them, including children and women,” the ministry said in a statement following the airstrike. 

It labelled the strike as “an attempt to generalize the model of bombing the Gaza Strip to areas in the occupied West Bank.”

Demands by Israel for the evacuation of Gaza hospitals amount to “a death penalty for patients,” according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

The organization said the Israeli military issued three evacuation orders for the Al-Quds hospital on Friday. Spokesperson Nebal Farsakh told CNN Sunday: “We do not have the means to evacuate them safely. Most of the patients are with critical injuries.”

A total of 24 hospitals, including Al-Quds, are under the threat of “being bombed at any second due to Israeli evacuation orders,” Farsakh said. 

CNN has not independently verified this number. The Israel Defense Forces says Hamas frequently uses civilian facilities as cover for its military operations. The IDF told CNN Friday: “Hamas intentionally embeds its assets in civilian areas and uses the residents of the Gaza Strip as human shields.”

The World Health Organization has condemned “Israel’s repeated orders for the evacuation of 22 hospitals treating more than 2,000 inpatients in Northern Gaza.”

Farsakh said her team is counting on the international community to take action ahead and “stand for humanity.”

A truck driver waiting to pass through the Rafah crossing into Gaza with aid has said he is hopeful he will be successful.

“God willing, I am now entering the crossing, or in a few minutes. God willing, to deliver this aid and will go in and out safely, God willing,” Ali Shousha told CNN on Sunday morning. He is carrying food, blankets among other supplies. 

Driver Gamal al-Sakka also sounded hopeful: “God willing, we will fulfil the job and we are going to our beloved brothers,” he told CNN.

A total of 17 aid trucks carrying food and medicine were getting ready to enter the Gaza Strip through Rafah, the only entry point to Gaza not controlled by Israel, Egypt’s Red Crescent said earlier on Sunday morning.

Those follow the first 20 trucks that went through the crossing on Saturday, which has otherwise been closed since Hamas’ initial attacks on October 7. The border point was quickly closed again on Saturday after the aid convoy had passed.

But the level of aid is nowhere near enough to sustain those in Gaza, where the humanitarian situation is dire. WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed on Saturday that “the needs are far higher” than the aid people in Gaza have received.

A woman whose five family members were taken hostage by Hamas, and whose mother and niece were killed, has told CNN she “doesn’t even have time to stop to feel pain.”

Hadas Kalderon’s husband, mother, niece, and two of her children were taken by Hamas on October 7.

The Israel Defense Forces then confirmed on Wednesday that Kalderon’s mother, Carmela Dan, and her niece, Noya Dan, had been found dead, Jason Greenberg, a relative who lives in Massachusetts, told CNN last week.

Kalderon said she has no information beyond her family members being abducted and does not know if they are receiving necessities like food and water.

“I don’t have the time even to stop to feel the pain and to grieve. Wearing a black shirt – it’s the only thing I can do for grieving,” Kalderon said.

Kalderon describes her son, Erez, as “her angel” who loves to laugh and ride horses. Her daughter, Sahar, is an artist with a good heart, Kalderon said. She added that her husband, Ofer, is “the best father ever.”

She said the priority right now is not the war, but the “innocent people.”

“I think Hamas has a good opportunity to show the world they’re still human,” Kalderon said.

The deputy chief of Hamas’s rocket force and “dozens of terrorists” were killed in overnight strikes on Gaza, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a media briefing Sunday.

Hagari also said the number of people being held hostage in Gaza stood at 212.

The claims come after Hagari said Saturday that the Israel Defense Forces would increase airstrikes on Gaza.

The Palestinian foreign ministry has said it views the strike on a refugee camp in the city of Jenin as a “dangerous escalation.”

The Israeli military said it launched an airstrike early Sunday against a mosque in the West Bank city of Jenin to thwart what it called “an imminent terror attack.”

“The Ministry views with great seriousness the bombing of the Jenin camp yesterday, and considers it a dangerous escalation using warplanes, resulting in Palestinian civilian casualties and terrorizing them, including children and women,” the Palestinian foreign ministry said in a statement following the airstrike. 

It labelled the strike as “an attempt to generalize the model of bombing the Gaza Strip to areas in the occupied West Bank.”

The ministry also criticized the international community “for its failure to move so far to stop this Israeli killing and destruction against Gaza and its people, and considers that its responses are weak, selective and biased and do not rise to the level of the extent of the genocide that the Gaza Strip is being exposed to.”

At least 65 people were arrested in the occupied West Bank by Israeli forces overnight, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club.  

This takes the number of arrests since the beginning of October to more than 1,130, it said in a statement. 

This figure does not include workers or detainees from Gaza, the statement noted.

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment on the arrests. 

The Palestinian Prisoners Club is a non-governmental organization dedicated to addressing the concerns of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons and detention centers, according to its website. 

The death toll following an Israeli strike on a mosque in the occupied West Bank has risen to three, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The strike took place in a refugee camp in the city of Jenin.

Separately, following clashes in Toubas and Nablus, two people were killed, the ministry said.

This brings the total number of those killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7 to 90. 

The Israeli military said earlier that it had launched an airstrike early Sunday local time against a mosque in Jenin to thwart what it called “an imminent terror attack.”

Indian aid for Gaza departed for Egypt on Sunday, according to India’s Ministry of External Affairs.

An Indian Air Force plane “carrying nearly 6.5 tonnes of medical aid and 32 tonnes of disaster relief material for the people of Palestine” had left for Egypt’s El-Arish airport, the MEA wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“The material includes essential life-saving medicines, surgical items, tents, sleeping bags, tarpaulins, sanitary utilities, water purification tablets among other necessary items,” the post continued.

The Rafah Crossing opened briefly on Saturday, allowing 20 trucks of aid to pass through. It is unclear whether it will reopen on Sunday.

The Syrian state news agency has reported air strikes against both Damascus and Aleppo airports in the early hours of Sunday.

“At approximately 5:25 a.m. today, the Israeli enemy simultaneously carried out an air aggression with bursts of missiles from the direction of the Mediterranean Sea west of Latakia and from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting the international airports of Damascus and Aleppo,” the agency reported, citing a military source.

The agency said one worker at Damascus airport had been killed and another wounded.

It said damage to the runways at both airports had put them out of service and that air traffic was being diverted to the city of Latakia.

The Israel Defense Forces told CNN that it had no comment on the reports.

Israel’s Ministry of Defense and the Israel Defense Forces on Sunday announced the expansion of a state-funded evacuation plan for communities in northern areas close to the border with Lebanon.

It applies to 14 additional communities: Snir, Dan, Beit Hillel, She’ar Yashuv, Hagoshrim, Liman, Matzuva, Eylon, Goren, Gornot HaGalil, Even Menachem, Sasa, Tziv’on and Ramot Naftali.

The IDF and other agencies on Monday announced a plan to evacuate 28 communities living within 2 kilometers (1.24 miles) of the Lebanese border.

Since then, it has included towns that fall within the vicinity. 

As of Friday, around 123,000 civilians had been evacuated from their homes in northern and southern Israel.

Hezbollah is “playing a very dangerous game” and could drag Lebanon “into a war that it will gain nothing from,” an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson has said.  

“Is the Lebanese state really willing to jeopardize what is left of Lebanese prosperity and Lebanese sovereignty for the sake of terrorists in Gaza?” Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Sunday.  

Conricus said Hezbollah has been attacking Israeli positions near the northern border between Israel and Lebanon and “escalating the situation.”

There have been both civilian and military casualties as a result of Hezbollah fire, he added.

The IDF has seen instances where Hezbollah has “intentionally fired in near proximity to UN positions,” Conricus said, possibly to “tempt [the IDF] to respond to that fire and perhaps harming UN peacekeepers.”

Hezbollah fires missiles and rockets from civilian buildings, Conricus said, and usually shoots from within a populated area. 

In response, the IDF has used tanks, drones, artillery, and infantry to strike various Hezbollah infrastructure, Conricus said. The IDF has also struck Hezbollah squads manning anti-tank missiles, he added. 

One person was killed and several injured in an Israeli strike on a mosque in the West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent said on Sunday.

The strike took place in a refugee camp in the city of Jenin.

The Israeli military said earlier that it had launched an airstrike early Sunday local time against a mosque in Jenin to thwart what it called “an imminent terror attack.”

Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told CNN the IDF had new intelligence that “suggested there was an imminent attack coming from a joint Hamas and Islamic Jihad squad” making preparations from an underground command center in the Al-Ansar mosque.

Some context: A few months ago, there was significant fighting in Jenin for about two days, and Conricus said that an IDF operation had discovered the “terrorist” tunnel system inside the mosque.

The IDF and Israel Securities Authority (ISA) also put out a statement confirming the strike on the tunnel.

“In a joint IDF and ISA activity, the IDF conducted an aerial strike on an underground terror compound in the Al-Ansar mosque in Jenin; The mosque contained a terror cell of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror operatives who were organizing an imminent terror attack,” the statement said.

Civilian lives in Gaza are being pushed “to the edge of catastrophe,” the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has said, citing acute shortages of food, water and medical supplies to the enclave.

The agency said Saturday it urgently requires $74 million to sustain its emergency response in Gaza for the next 90 days.

The coastal enclave’s stores have food reserves of less than a week and the ability to replenish these stocks is “compromised by damaged roads, safety concerns, and fuel shortages,” the WFP said.

The report also cites a steady decline in food commodities such as vegetables, wheat flour, and eggs, along with a rise in their prices.

Three WFP trucks were part of the convoy of 20 aid trucks that moved through the Rafah border crossing into Gaza on Saturday. Another 40 WFP trucks are waiting at Al-Arish, Egypt, to go through the Rafah border crossing to enter Gaza, the report said.

The Israeli military said it launched an airstrike early Sunday local time against a mosque in the West Bank city of Jenin to thwart what it called “an imminent terror attack.”

Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told CNN the IDF had new intelligence that “suggested there was an imminent attack coming from a joint Hamas and Islamic Jihad squad” making preparations from an underground command center in the Al-Ansar mosque.

A few months ago, there was significant fighting in Jenin for about two days, and Conricus said during an IDF operation there, they discovered the “terrorist” tunnel system inside the mosque.

The IDF and Israel Securities Authority (ISA) also put out a statement Saturday confirming the strike on the tunnel.

“In a joint IDF and ISA activity, the IDF conducted an aerial strike on an underground terror compound in the Al-Ansar mosque in Jenin; The mosque contained a terror cell of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror operatives who were organizing an imminent terror attack,” the statement said.

The statement said Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives had been responsible for several “terror attacks” over the past few months and were plotting a new, “imminent” attack.

“The terrorist cell also carried out a terror attack on October 14 in the area of the security fence, where an explosive device was detonated by a cellular activation of terror forces who arrived at the scene. No injuries were reported,” the statement added.

“Intel was recently received which indicated that the terrorists, that were neutralized, were organizing an imminent terror attack. The mosque was used by the terrorists as a command center to plan the attacks and as a base for their execution,” the statement said.

At least 13 Palestinians, including five children, were reported killed in an Israeli security forces’ operation that lasted 28 hours in a West Bank refugee camp, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

The operation took place in Nur Shams, the UNRWA director in the West Bank, Adam Bouloukos, said.

The statement added that the UNRWA has suspended schools, health services, and solid waste collections in the camp. 

Earlier in the day, the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that at least 84 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7. 

The US military is sending more missile defense systems to the Middle East and placing additional US troops on prepare-to-deploy orders in response to escalations throughout the region in recent days.

The Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Saturday he had “activated the deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery as well as additional Patriot battalions to locations throughout the region to increase force protection for US forces.” 

The order for troops to prepare for deployment is meant “to increase their readiness and ability to quickly respond as required,” he said.

Both the THAAD and Patriots systems are air defense systems designed to shoot down short, medium and intermediate ballistic missiles.

“These steps will bolster regional deterrence efforts, increase force protection for US forces in the region, and assist in the defense of Israel,” he added.

The Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, told IDF commanders Saturday that the military is readying an operation to enter Gaza and take out Hamas but did not provide a specific timeframe.

Meanwhile, the IDF will increase airstrikes on Gaza, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Saturday. 

Airstrikes have killed at least 4,385 people in Gaza since Hamas launched its October 7 attack on Israel, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza.

Here are other headlines you should know:

The Israel Defense Forces will increase airstrikes on Gaza “from today,” IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Saturday. 

“We will increase our strikes, minimize the risk to our troops in the next stages of the war, and we will intensify the strikes, starting from today,” Hagari told reporters during a briefing in Tel Aviv.

When asked whether Israel has halted a ground operation in Gaza due to US pressure, Hagari said the Israeli military would launch such an operation when the conditions for the military are optimal. 

The IDF has continued to conduct airstrikes over the last day, Hagari said.

“Our main effort in Gaza is to eliminate the terrorists, and especially those involved in the massacre on Saturday two weeks ago,” he said, referring to the surprise attack carried out by Hamas, which Israeli officials say killed more than 1,400 people.

“We continue to destroy terror targets ahead of the next stage of the war, and are focusing on our readiness to the next stage,” he added. 

Remember: Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, the coastal enclave home to more than 2 million Palestinians. Gaza is gripped by a deepening humanitarian crisis, with an Israeli siege cutting off access to critical resources and airstrikes killing at least 4,385 people since October 7, according to the health ministry in Gaza.

Israel has told over 1 million people to leave the northern Gaza Strip as it prepares for the next stages of the war with Hamas. The Israel Defense Forces’ chief of staff told IDF commanders Saturday that the military will “enter the Gaza Strip.”

Threats elsewhere: The IDF is focusing “on the goals we have in Gaza, as they were set by the government and they will have to be fulfilled,” Hagari said. “At the same time, we look at all the threats in the Middle East.”

“If there are any developments, we will adapt. However, our focus is Gaza,” he added, when asked about the potential of an additional front fighting Hezbollah, the paramilitary group that has been exchanging fire with Israeli forces at the Israel-Lebanon border.

Tal and Zak have no idea how long they’ll be deployed in what the Israelis call “the Gaza envelope,” the area in southern Israel that was attacked by Hamas terrorists two weeks ago.

It could be weeks, it could be months, they said. “It’s the same for everyone. No one knows,” Zak told CNN at a military camp not far from the Gaza border. The two young soldiers, whose surnames CNN isn’t revealing for security reasons, serve in an artillery unit of the Israel Defense Forces that was moved into the area after Hamas militants killed 1,400 people and kidnapped about 200 on October 7.

Their unit is part of a massive buildup of Israeli troops and military material on the Gaza border. On top of its regular force, the IDF has also called up 300,000 reservists who reported to their bases within hours. Across Israel, highways in the vicinity of major bases are lined with thousands and thousands of cars, abandoned by reservists rushing to take up arms.

A ground incursion by Israel into Gaza now seems inevitable. On Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told troops gathered near the border that they would “soon see” the enclave “from the inside,” saying Gaza will “never be the same.”

But what that operation might look like remains unknown. The IDF could launch a full-scale invasion or conduct more precise incursions aimed at recovering hostages and targeting Hamas operatives.

What will happen after that is an even bigger question. While the Israeli leadership speaks about the need to get rid of Hamas, the plan for the future of Gaza and its more than 2 million people people remains unknown.

“There is a consensus that any other option than to totally eliminate Hamas would be terrible, not just for Israel, but for the entire area, and then even globally,” said Harel Chorev, senior researcher in Middle Eastern studies at the Tel Aviv University.

But Hasan Alhasan, a research fellow for Middle East Policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said the plan to annihilate Hamas could be dangerous and complicated – and may have unforeseen consequences.

“Because Hamas is deeply rooted and embedded within Gaza, its society and geography, in order to defeat them, Israel would have to carry out permanent topographic and demographic change of the Gaza Strip – and that has already been happening,” he told CNN.

“The concern, within Egypt especially, is that Israel’s strategy of making the humanitarian situation very difficult in Gaza is ultimately meant to force a mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza into the Egyptian Sinai,” Alhasan said, adding that Egypt has the backing of all of the Arab states in that it would not allow this.

“The Jordanians are also concerned that if we see a mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, that this would create a precedent and that Israel’s right-wing government would attempt to solve the Palestinian issue once and for all by expelling them en masse from Gaza into Egypt and from the West Bank into Jordan,” he added.

Read more here.

After a peace summit in Cairo aimed at de-escalating the war between Israel and Hamas, Egypt criticized the international community for not doing enough to address the root causes of the conflict.

“The international scene over the past decades has revealed a serious deficiency in finding a just and lasting solution to the Palestinian issue, because it sought to manage the conflict, and not end it permanently,” reads a statement issued by the Egyptian presidency on Saturday.

“The ongoing war has also disclosed a shortcoming in the values of the international community in addressing crises,” it said. “While we see one place rushing and competing to promptly condemn the killing of innocent people, we find incomprehensible hesitation in denouncing the same act in another place. We even see attempts to justify this killing, as if the life of the Palestinian human being is less important than that of other people.”

Egypt hopes that in light of the current crisis “a new political spirit and will” will emerge that “pave the way for unlocking a real and serious peace process,” reads the statement.

“This shall lead, in a short period of time, to the establishment of an independent Palestinian State, along the June 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital,” it said.