October 27, 2023 Israel-Hamas war news

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

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reiterated “the importance of protecting civilians during the Israel Defense Forces’ operations” in a call Friday with the Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, according to a Pentagon readout. 

Austin also emphasized the urgent need for “humanitarian aid delivery for civilians in Gaza” and for Hamas to release all hostages, the Pentagon said.

Austin’s call comes as the Israel Defense Forces announced it is “expanding ground operations” in the Gaza Strip and “operating forcefully” on all fronts to fulfill its goals in the war with Hamas.

A United Nations resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict is important “to ensure that humanitarian assistance can enter Gaza,” Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said in a statement.

Eide said that the country is “happy to have voted” for the resolution because it was “important” for aid to get through.

“The world community agrees on many of the key issues, including the importance of protecting civilians and addressing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” Eide said of the resolution, which passed Friday with an overwhelming majority.

While Norway recognized “the resolution does not contain all the elements that we should ideally have included,” it was still “a compromise between different positions,” and that “requires that we too show a willingness to compromise,” Eide added.  

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told international news organizations that they cannot guarantee the safety of journalists reporting from Gaza, according to a Reuters report published Friday. 

International news agencies Reuters and Agence France Presse (AFP) contacted the Israeli military this week for assurance their journalists on the ground in Gaza would not be targeted by Israeli airstrikes. 

The IDF responded in a letter to both agencies saying they are “targeting all Hamas military activity throughout Gaza” and “[u]nder these circumstances, [they] cannot guarantee [their] employees’ safety, and strongly urge [them] to take all necessary measures for their safety.”

The letter also said Hamas deliberately put military operations “in the vicinity of journalists and civilians,” Reuters wrote. Hamas did not immediately respond when asked if these allegations put forth by the IDF were true, Reuters said. 

Reuters and AFP have both expressed concern over the safety of journalists in Gaza, Reuters stated. 

“The situation on the ground is dire, and the IDF’s unwillingness to give assurances about the safety of our staff threatens their ability to deliver the news about this conflict without fear of being injured or killed,” Reuters explained in a statement in response to the IDF’s letter.
“We are in an incredibly precarious position and it’s important that the world understands that there is a large team of journalists working in extremely dangerous conditions,” AFP Global News Director Phil Chetwynd said.

CNN is a client of Reuters and AFP, regularly using live and recorded video feeds from the news agencies. 

A top Palestinian telecoms provider said it suffered a “complete disruption of all communication and internet services” in Gaza on Friday as Israel continued to pound the coastal enclave with airstrikes in as the Israel Defense Forces announced it is “expanding ground operations.”

Independent internet monitoring groups told CNN it was the worst internet blackout in Gaza since the latest war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7, raising fears that Palestinian civilians will be unable to communicate with the outside world as the war escalates.  

“We regret to announce a complete disruption of all communication and internet services with the Gaza Strip in light of the ongoing aggression,” the Palestine Telecommunications Company, known as Paltel, said in a Facebook post on Friday evening local time. Paltel provides internet and cell service in Gaza and the West Bank.

“The heavy bombardment of the past hour has resulted in the destruction of all remaining international paths connecting Gaza to the outside world,” Paltel said on Facebook. “This destruction is in addition to the paths that were previously destroyed during the ongoing aggression, which has led to the interruption of all communication services from our beloved Gaza Strip.”

It could take days, if not longer, for Gazans to restore internet connectivity on a broad scale given the ongoing bombardment and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, said Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at Kentik, a California firm that monitors online connectivity globally.

Madory said the current outages are “probably the worst that Gaza has ever experienced.”

“The Gaza War in 2014 experienced [internet] outages but it was nothing like this,” Madory told CNN.

NetBlocks, an internet monitoring firm based in London, told CNN that the outage on Friday marked a “turning point” in Gazans’ ability to “keep the outside world informed on the situation on the ground.”

“Today’s incident is the largest single disruption to internet connectivity in Gaza observed since the beginning of the conflict,” NetBlocks claimed.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, expressed on Friday profound concern about the situation in Gaza. 

The organization said it has “lost contact with some of our Palestinian colleagues on the ground,” and expressed particular worry for patients, medical staff and families seeking refuge at Al Shifa hospital and other healthcare facilities. 

“We call for the unequivocal protection of all medical facilities, staff and civilians across the Gaza Strip,” MSF said on X.

The past three weeks of the Israel-Hamas war has been the deadliest period for journalists covering conflicts in decades, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

At least 29 journalists have lost their lives since the first attack by Hamas on October 7, it said in a statement released Friday. The CPJ said it began tracking the deaths of journalists covering a conflict in 1992.

Of the journalists killed, at least 24 were Palestinian, four were Israeli, and one was Lebanese, CPJ said.

The journalism advocacy group further said it was “highly alarmed” by reports of a communications blackout in Gaza.

“As news bureaus lose contact with their crews and reporters in Gaza, who are independently bearing witness to provide information about developments and the human toll of this war, the world is losing a window into the reality of all sides engaged in this conflict,” CPJ said.

Communications in Gaza have been severely disrupted in the past several hours as a result of Israeli airstrikes, according to the local telecoms provider Jawwal. 

The last standing major internet operator in the region, Paltel, experienced damage to its international routes, according to NetBlocks, an internet outage monitoring firm based in London.

CNN’s Amy O’Kruk and Abeer Salman contributed reporting to this post.

The number of United Nations staff killed in Gaza has increased to 53, after 14 lost their lives in the past 24 hours, according to a statement from the UN Relief Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) on Friday.

Nearly 640,000 out of 1.4 million internally displaced people in Gaza are sheltering in 150 UNRWA facilities across the strip, the statement said, adding that some of them have been killed at school sites operated by the relief agency.

Since the devastating October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, which sparked its retaliatory offensive in Gaza, 18 displaced people sheltering at schools have been killed and 282 have been wounded, the UNRWA said.

The Palestinian Authority foreign ministry welcomed the “overwhelming support” received for the United Nations resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.

The resolution that passed Friday called for an immediate humanitarian truce and unimpeded humanitarian assistance, while rejecting any attempts at the forced transfer of Palestinians.

“This vote signals the commitment of a moral majority of the international community to uphold its obligations and the rejection of double standards and politicization of international humanitarian law,” the West Bank-based ministry said in a statement.

It said the “international community has spoken in a clear and united voice against Israel’s ongoing crimes and deliberate violations of international law,” adding that UN countries have “stood their ground in defense of international law as the universal rule that applies to all without exception.”

Israel, however, has rejected the resolution, with the country’s foreign minister calling it “despicable” in a post on social media.

Here’s how the vote broke down:

Remember: Israel is at war with Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza and carried out devastating terror attacks in Israel earlier this month.

The Palestinian Authority is a separate government body with limited self-rule in the West Bank. It was established as part of a peace pact between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993.

Al Jazeera journalist Wael Al-Dahdouh continued reporting live from Gaza on Friday as heavy Israeli airstrikes hit the area, just two days after a dozen of his family members were killed in an airstrike.

Al-Dahdouh, Al Jazeera Arabic’s Gaza bureau chief, was on air for several hours speaking over the channel’s live pictures as bursts of gunfire are heard in the background.

On Wednesday, Al-Dahdouh’s wife, son, daughter and grandson were killed by an airstrike that hit a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. His family was taking shelter there after being displaced, according to Al Jazeera.

A total of 12 members of his family, including nine children, were killed by the blast, a statement released by the family said.

On Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces told CNN it did carry out an airstrike in an area of Gaza where relatives of Al Jazeera journalist Wael Al-Dahdouh were killed.

Israel is rejecting the call for a ceasefire in Gaza approved by the United Nations General Assembly earlier Friday, with the country’s foreign minister calling it “despicable” in a post on social media.

“We reject outright the UN General Assembly despicable call for a ceasefire,” Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Israel intends to eliminate Hamas just as the world dealt with the Nazis and ISIS.”

The UN General Assembly voted Friday to approve a resolution calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities in the war between Israel and Hamas. A total of 120 countries voted in favor of the resolution, while 14 countries, including the US and Israel, voted against it. Another 45 countries abstained from the vote.

In a speech following the resolution’s passage, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan said, “Today is a day that will go down in infamy. We have all witnessed that the UN no longer holds even one ounce of legitimacy or relevance.”

“The majority of the international community has shown that it prefers to support the defense of Nazi terrorists rather than support the law-abiding state of Israel to defend it civilians,” he said. 

Gaza is approaching a near total internet blackout as the region suffered its worst loss in connectivity today since fighting first broke out on October 7.

The last standing major internet operator in the region, Paltel, experienced damage to its international routes, according to NetBlocks, an internet outage monitoring firm based in London. Many Palestinians are experiencing a total loss of internet access and the ability to communicate electronically, according to the data, while some may have very little connectivity.

Jawwal, another Palestinian telecom company that provides mobile service to the Gaza Strip, also released a statement Friday, saying “the intense bombardment in the past hour has resulted in the destruction of all remaining international routes connecting Gaza with the outside world” leading to a “complete interruption of telecommunications services.”

Internet connections are likely to worsen as the Israel Defense Forces announced its “expanding ground operations.”

Those with Israeli or international SIM cards are still reporting some internet access.

The Iraqi Sunni Endowment office issued on Friday an urgent call to all Iraqi mosques to amplify the call of “Allahu Akbar,” which means “God is Great” in English, through loudspeakers.

The office, otherwise known as the Sunni official authority, added that this call is a gesture of support and solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza as “these moments are witnessing a violent attack and subject to comprehensive destruction and genocide by the Zionist occupation forces.”

Video sent to CNN shows one of the most prominent Sunni mosques in Baghdad, Abu Hanifa Mosque, also known as the Grand Imam Mosque, amplifying the call of “Allahu Akbar” to show solidarity.

Several United Nations agencies report they have lost contact with their local staff in Gaza, as most of the communication capabilities of the enclave appear to have been interrupted.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X that the organization has lost touch with its staff as well as with its “health facilities, health workers and the rest of our humanitarian partners on the ground.” 

Lynn Hastings, the United Nations resident and humanitarian coordinator in Palestine, also took to X to say that “Gaza has lost contact with the outside world amid reports of intensified bombardment.”

The UN’s Children’s Fund executive director, Catherine Russell, said in a post on X that she is “extremely concerned” about her team in Gaza after losing touch with them.

“All humanitarians and the children and families they serve MUST be protected,” Russell said. 

Communications in Gaza have been severely disrupted in the past several hours as a result of airstrikes, the main Palestinian telecoms company says, although those with Israeli or eSIMs still have patchy connection.

A new, exclusive CNN analysis, aided by artificial intelligence (AI), has identified a significant amount of the destruction across Gaza in satellite imagery. 

Large swaths of buildings around Gaza City, Beit Lahya and Beit Hanoun have been destroyed. A big amount of the damage that CNN was able to confirm is in northern Gaza.

Hundreds of craters across northern Gaza have also been identified.

CNN was able to identify the areas of destruction in Gaza through satellite imagery from Planet Labs, and by working with Synthetaic — a company that utilizes AI to identify and classify data, including satellite imagery.

Using imagery of the entire Gaza Strip from Planet Labs, Synthetaic is analyzing and comparing it through its proprietary AI-driven Rapid Automatic Image Categorization (RAIC) system, looking for destruction such as damaged and destroyed buildings, as well as impact craters. Aided by what RAIC identified as destruction, CNN is taking the Planet Labs imagery and conducting its own analysis to independently confirm the destruction.

The result is a snapshot of the destruction that’s occurred across Gaza.  

CNN’s analysis is continuing, and is expected to identify other areas of destruction across Gaza, especially as the Israel Defense Forces continues to expand its ground operations there. It also differs from CNN’s previously analysis, which used Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar to determine damage.

A total, comprehensive map of the destruction in Gaza is impossible without an on-the-ground survey.

View the satellite imagery and CNN’s analysis.

More than two weeks of intense negotiations to evacuate foreign nationals out of Gaza have yielded few signs of progress, leaving hundreds of desperate civilians stranded inside the war-torn strip of land as Israeli ground operations expanded amid a barrage of airstrikes on Friday.

Multiple sources involved in the diplomatic talks tell CNN that the effort to open a key border crossing in southern Gaza remains stymied by Hamas’ control of the enclave, Israel’s blockade and bombing, as well as Egyptian security concerns.

Now that the Israeli defense forces have announced an expansion of their ground operations, the situation for civilians and foreign nationals who remain trapped in Gaza has become even more dire. Aid officials and other individuals on the ground had expressed fears even before the expansion of operations that nowhere in Gaza was safe, and despite US officials saying they were working with Israel to establish civilian safe zones, such areas have not been fully stood up.

People who have family in Gaza told CNN on Friday they have not been able to make contact with them after communications went down in the strip amid the barrage of strikes.

Negotiators have been furiously working to find a solution to appease Egypt’s concerns about refugees entering the country through the Rafah crossing in southwestern Gaza, the border between Egypt and the Sinai. Complicating things are Israeli and American claims that Hamas has blocked the way out, as well as the inherent difficulties that come with processing thousands of people who claim to be foreign nationals. 

The US had also been rushing to negotiate the release of hostages held by Hamas ahead of the incursion, talks that the US government insisted will continue amid Friday’s intensified airstrikes.

The Biden administration said Thursday it was hopeful that a deal will be reached in the coming days to allow US citizens to evacuate Gaza through Egypt, though the State Department had previously issued an alert saying the crossing into Egypt would open but it never did.

Keep reading about those stranded in Gaza.

Gaza has been “left in the dark with no connection to the outside world,” an eyewitness at the Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah tells CNN.

The eyewitness says the hospital has received the bodies of multiple people killed and more wounded in the intensified bombardment of central Gaza Friday night. They added that casualties are expected to rise.

The bombardment in central Gaza concentrated on Deir al Balah, the Nuseirat refugee camp and al Zawaida, the eyewitness said, adding that now there is “intense bombing” on Al-Maghazi and Al-Bureij camps.

“We only see fire and hear bombardment around us, and we don’t know from where it is coming,” Salem Ahmad Ammar, who is around the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, told CNN on the phone Friday.

“The situation is very, very hard and difficult. Don’t know if I (will) live to see the daylight tomorrow morning. I split from my wife, and the kids went to her parents’ house, and I came to the hospital here in the event we die in different places and maybe one of us would live and our kids will live. Difficult choices we are making,” Ammar said. 

Another eyewitness, Alla Majhool, also speaking to CNN from near the central Gazan hospital by phone, came to the medical center because her 4-year-old niece was wounded in a previous strike. 

“I am by her bedside, but I am terrified and shaking. I can’t call my family and sisters to check on them. All we hear is explosions. East of central Gaza are the most intense. It’s dark and there are no communications; we don’t know where the airstrikes and artillery shelling is hitting,” Majhool said.

Nearly all communications in the enclave have been interrupted as a result of airstrikes, the main Palestinian telecoms company says, although those with Israeli or eSIMs have patchy connection.

In a text message sent to CNN Friday, the president of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, expressed deep concern over the perilous state of medical services in the besieged enclave.

“Our medical work in the Gaza Strip is in great danger due to the interruption of internet and telephone communications,” Barghouti said.

CNN’s Abeer Salman and Hamdi Alkhshali contributed reporting to this post.

The US Embassy in Lebanon is urging Americans to “leave now, while commercial flights remain available, due to the unpredictable security situation.”

An updated security alert Friday provided lengthy advice about the embassy’s capabilities during a crisis and warned Americans who choose to stay in Lebanon to “have a plan of action for crisis situations that does not rely on U.S. government assistance.”

“The best time to leave a country is before a crisis if at all possible. U.S. military-assisted evacuations of civilians from a foreign country are rare. There is no guarantee the U.S. government will evacuate private U.S. citizens and their family members in a crisis situation,” the alert said. 

“In the event that a U.S. military-assisted evacuation does occur, our focus will be on helping U.S. citizens. The U.S. government generally cannot provide in-country transportation during a crisis. That includes transportation to points of departure,” it continued. 

The State Department raised the travel advisory level for Lebanon last week to Level 4: Do Not Travel.

Remember: Lebanon borders Israel to the north, and Israeli forces have exchanged fire with Hezbollah across that boundary while also fighting Hamas further south in Gaza.

An “expansion” of ground operations in Gaza means Israel’s army is “beefing up the pressure on Hamas,” Mark Regev, senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Friday. 

“That pressure will increase and continue to increase until we achieve our goal,” Regev added.

A senior Hamas official said Thursday that Hezbollah and other allies were expected to play a bigger role in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Ghazi Hamad told the Associated Press in an exclusive interview from Beirut that “Hezbollah now is working against the occupation,” adding, “We appreciate this. But … we need more in order to stop the aggression on Gaza … We expect more.” 

Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, met with top officials from Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad on Wednesday, the Lebanese group said. Hezbollah’s press office also released a handwritten letter by Nasrallah — his first statement since the start of the war — commending those who have died fighting Israel.

In his interview, Hamad denied any involvement from Iran or Hezbollah in the planning of the October 7 attack.

“The decision was taken by Hamas only, and we took the responsibility (for it),” he said. 

Initial US intelligence also suggested that Iranian officials were surprised by Hamas’ attack, casting doubt on the idea that Tehran was directly involved in its planning, resourcing or approval, CNN reported.  

Earlier Friday, Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem met with a delegation from the Iranian parliament. Qassem warned that “the Americans and Israelis do not know what the coming days will hold for them should the aggression continue.”

Hamad told the AP that the initial international condemnation of the October 7 attack that killed Israeli civilians gave Israel “license to kill” civilians in Gaza in response. 

Amid growing pressure to secure the release of hundreds of more hostages, Hamad reiterated that Hamas is “very open” to discuss the release of more.

Hamad did not make any apologies regarding the high number of civilian deaths in Israel or the rising death toll in Gaza, according to the Associated Press.

Izzat al-Rishq, a senior member of the Hamas political bureau, said Friday that Hamas is ready to defeat Israeli forces if they enter the Gaza Strip.

“If Netanyahu decides to enter [ground troops into] Gaza by land tonight, the resistance is ready,” al-Rishq said. 

His comments come after Israel announced it was expanding ground operations in the enclave.

The United Nations approved a resolution that called for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas on Friday in the face of strident objection from the US and Israel.

A resolution was introduced by Jordan and passed the General Assembly overwhelmingly, with 120 countries voting in favor of the resolution, 14 against and 45 abstained. Applause broke out in the assembly hall when the positive vote count was displayed. 

The resolution calls for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities,” as well as “immediate, full, sustained, safe and unhindered humanitarian access.” It also asks Israel to rescind its recommendation to evacuate northern Gaza.

The resolution urges “the immediate and unconditional release of all civilians who are being illegally held captive,” but does not name Hamas as the captor. 

The US and Israel had denounced the motion, arguing that it did not include explicit criticism of Hamas. In debate around the resolution on Thursday, Israeli ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan said calls for a ceasefire were “not an attempt for peace” but “an attempt to tie Israel’s hands, preventing us from eliminating a huge threat to our citizens.”

Earlier Friday, an amendment introduced by the Canadians and backed by the United States to include harsh language about Hamas in the resolution was rejected by the General Assembly.

The vote comes as the Israel Defense Forces announced earlier Friday it is “expanding ground operations” in the Gaza Strip and “operating forcefully” on all fronts to fulfill its goals in the war with Hamas.

In what appears to be a significant attempt to prepare public opinion ahead of a major ground offensive inside Gaza, the Israeli army has accused the Strip’s largest hospital, Al Shifa, of being the site of a major Hamas command and control center.

Army spokesperson Daniel Hagari accused Hamas of directing rocket attacks and commanding Hamas operations from bunkers underneath the hospital building, which he said was linked to the network of tunnels that Hamas has dug underneath Gaza City.

He claimed other hospitals inside Gaza were also being used by Hamas in similar ways during a media presentation that included aerial photos, graphics and voice recordings,

“When medical facilities are used for terror purposes, they are liable to lose their protection from attack in accordance with international law,” Hagari said, appearing to suggest such hospitals were now firmly and publicly on Israel’s target list. 

The army would “continue making efforts to minimize harm to the civilian population,” he added.

Hagari offered only one piece of evidence at the presentation: a phone call purporting to be between two Gazans discussing the presence of Hamas’ headquarters at the hospital. 

He said Israel had more evidence that he could not yet make public, but which had been shared with what he called the intelligence community, which had accepted Israel’s allegations, he said.

Palestinians rejected the Israeli army claim.

The Director General of the Gaza Health Ministry, Dr. Medhat Abbas, told CNN’s Eleni Giokos that Gaza’s hospitals, “are used to treat patients only” and are not being used “to hide anyone.”

Hamas also rejected the claim, calling on “the United Nations, Arab and Islamic countries to immediately intervene to stop the madness of bombing and destroying the medical system.”

Mustafa Barghouti of the Palestine National Initiative based in Ramallah said Israel was lying.

“They keep lying to justify criminal acts against a civilian population, now they want to justify attacking people in a hospital” he told Sky News.

And Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian physician who has worked at the hospital on several occasions, including during three periods of open hostilities between Hamas and Israel, called the allegations “old.”

“We heard these unsubstantiated claims during the 2009 and 2014 attacks. We have never seen any single sign or proof, we’ve had zero restrictions on filming and photographing in Shifa, and have never been controlled in any ways,” he told CNN.

Hagari, the Army spokesperson, also addressed the issue of fuel stocks, which Israel says Hamas continues to divert from civilian purposes towards powering its military campaign. 

Hagari played a voice recording which he said was a conversation between an Israeli army officer and a “senior Gazan energy official” in which the purported energy official says that Hamas has “at least a million liters” of diesel, and that some its fuel is being used to provide ventilation and lighting in tunnels. 

CNN was not immediately able to verify the authenticity of either of the two recordings presented.

On Thursday, a World Health Organization spokesperson told CNN that more than one-third of hospitals in Gaza and nearly two-thirds of primary health care clinics have shut down due to damage from hostilities or lack of fuel.

People who have family in Gaza tell CNN they have not been able to contact them after communications went down in the enclave following heavy airstrikes.

Jawwal, the Palestinian telecom company that provides mobile service to the Gaza Strip released a statement Friday night saying “the intense bombardment in the past hour has resulted in the destruction of all remaining international routes connecting Gaza with the outside world” leading to a “complete interruption of telecommunications services”. 

Said Alhayek, 42, from Las Vegas, said he has not been able to reach his family in Gaza.  

“It’s like sitting in the dark not knowing what is going to hit you, I can’t reach them on any medium of communication at this point, I can’t even know if they are okay or not, I don’t know if they are safe or not,” Alhayek said. “Also, the fact that they cut off communication, makes us feel as though they are about to do something terrible.” 

Adli Anwar, 57, who is living in Ottowa, Canada, also said he has no way of communicating with his family.

“I can’t get anything — about three hours ago, we lost all communications, no phones, no internet, nothing. Before it would connect, about 80% of the time, and now it’s zero percent. It doesn’t get to the international line,” Anwar said. 

CNN tried calling several contacts with Gaza numbers over the last hour, both over international calling and over WhatsApp. On the international calls, they either go straight to voicemail or an automated message says “the number you are calling is currently unreachable. Please try again later.” 

WhatsApp and iMessage are not delivering, and when using the internet to call, it just rings endlessly.  

The White House wouldn’t say if Israel had informed the United States before the Israeli Defense Forces announced an expanding ground operation into Gaza on Friday.

“So, I’m not going to talk about in getting into details of the conversations that we have with our Israeli counterparts and the information, the flow between us,” White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said. “I think that would be a very imprudent place for me to go. 

He also declined to say if the Biden administration has confidence that Israel has fully considered the ramifications of a ground operation.

Kirby said he was “not going to talk about their decision-making process” or what is unfolding on the ground in Gaza.

“They have to speak to that, and they have to be able to answer the questions about the soundness of their planning and the effectiveness of their execution,” he said.

Still, he said the administration has asked Israel some of the “hard questions.”

“You know, what are the aims? What’s the strategy? What, you know — how and when is this going to end? Because, again, we’ve learned from our own experience that you have to ask those questions,” Kirby said.

In the meantime, Kirby emphasized, the administration has been vocal in raising concerns about civilian casualties in the operation so far. 

The US has held “active conversations” with Israel about a humanitarian pause to allow for the release of hostages in Gaza, the White House said.

“We absolutely believe that that if a pause can be effected to allow for the…release of hostages, then that is something we absolutely would support and we believe Israel should support it,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

“We’ve been having active conversations with them about that,” Kirby said. 

He said the US would “continue to press with our partners in the region” to see the hostages released.

“If that requires a localized, temporary pause to do it, then we are absolutely supportive of that. We’re in support of whatever effort can be made to get them home safely to their families,” Kirby said.

The White House said it will still continue its work Friday to secure the release of hostages even after the Israel Defense Forces’ announcement of “expanding ground operations” in the Gaza Strip.

“We are working as hard today as we were yesterday and the day before and the day before to get these hostages home,” Kirby told CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez. “And we will do what it takes working with our partners for that outcome.”

What Israel is saying: IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters Friday to disregard rumors about a possible deal to release the hostages being held in Gaza.

The official said IDF “will reach and present any credible information” on hostages to the families first when it’s confirmed, and then they will notify the public.

“Until then, don’t surrender to Hamas’ manipulations of psychological terror,” Hagari said.

CNN’s Kyle Blaine contributed reporting to this post.

The White House says it wouldn’t be appropriate for it to weigh in after the Israel Defense Forces announced Friday they are expanding ground operations.

“We have, of course, certainly seen Israel undertake varied operations on the ground in the last couple of days,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters. “But again, we’re not going to get into the habit of chiming in from the sidelines here on what they’re trying to do on the ground.”

Kirby said he wouldn’t address what Israel is doing on the ground, how they’re doing it or progress they were making.

He did say the US would continue providing Israel military assistance.

“We’re going to continue to support their desire for capabilities … and munitions and that process continues,” Kirby said.

He said President Joe Biden is still working to ensure humanitarian aid enters Gaza and civilians who want to leave are able to. Kirby added that an additional 10 trucks of humanitarian aid entered Gaza, bringing the total since the start of the conflict to 84. 

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it has “completely lost contact with the operations room in Gaza and all our teams operating there,” according to a statement released Friday following a massive increase in Israeli air strikes on the enclave.

“We are deeply concerned about the ability of our teams to continue providing their emergency medical services, especially since this disruption affects the central emergency number ’101’ and hinders the arrival of ambulance vehicles to the wounded and injured,” the statement said. 

Earlier, Jawwal, the Palestinian telecom company that provides mobile service to the Gaza Strip also said the strikes resulted in a “complete interruption of telecommunications service,” according to a statement.

The Israel Defense Forces’ troops are “operating forcefully” on all fronts in order to fulfill its goals in the war with Hamas, and will “continue striking Gaza City and keep calling upon civilians to evacuate south,” IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Friday.

Asked about a possible deal to release the over 200 hostages being held in Gaza, Hagari told reporters to “disregard rumors,” claiming Hamas is using psychological terror.

On the ground in Israel: As the IDF announced it was expanding ground operations in Gaza, sirens indicating incoming rockets sounded in the Israeli city of Ashkelon Friday night.

A CNN team on the ground heard a loud boom, potentially from Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system intercepting a rocket.

CNN’s Ivana Kottasová contributed reporting to this post.

Multiple residents of Gaza tell CNN the airstrikes Friday night were the most intense they have experienced since the beginning of hostilities nearly three weeks ago.

Jawwal, the Palestinian telecom company that provides mobile service to the Gaza Strip released a statement Friday night, saying “the intense bombardment in the past hour has resulted in the destruction of all remaining international routes connecting Gaza with the outside world” leading to a “complete interruption of telecommunications services.”

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh told CNN “the world is facing a historic moment ” and needed to act in order to stop the “aggression and massacres” that would come in a potential Israeli incursion.

He accused Israel off cutting communications and internet in the Gaza Strip Friday in an “attempt to create darkness so that crimes can be committed” in preparation for an IDF ground operation.

The IDF would not comment on whether it had cut off telephone and internet service in the coastal enclave. 

Meanwhile, journalist Asmaa Khalil, who is working for CNN in Rafah, said the most intense bombardment of southern Gaza in the past 10 days was heard from the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing.

Consecutive artillery fire was heard nonstop for over an hour in Egypt, in addition to an exchange of gunfire. The bombardment and explosions were heard more than 40 kilometers (about 25 miles) away from the Egyptian-Gazan border, Khalil reports. 

Egypt has increased military presence in north Sinai and deployed more troops near the border. Egyptian military aircraft were heard flying over the Egyptian side on Friday.

Remember: Israel is at war with Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza and carried out devastating terror attacks in Israel earlier this month.

The Palestinian Authority is a separate government body with limited self-rule in the West Bank. It was established as part of a peace pact between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993.

Hamas — which is designated as a terrorist organization by the US, European Union and other countries — presents itself as an alternative to the Palestinian Authority, which has recognized Israel and has engaged in multiple failed peace initiatives with it.

CNN’s Abeer Salman, Asmaa Khalil in Rafah and CNN’s Sarah El Sirganycontributed reporting to this post.

UN members are preparing to vote on a resolution calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities in the war between Israel and Hamas so that humanitarian aid can reach civilians in the battered enclave of Gaza. The vote is expected at 3 p.m. ET.

Key Arab states, including Egypt, endorsed the resolution. The United States, siding with Israel, sharply criticized the effort, calling the resolution “deeply flawed.”
Jordan brought the resolution to the General Assembly after successive attempts to call for ceasefires and humanitarian pauses failed in the more powerful Security Council. A general assembly vote is politically significant but not binding.

The draft resolution calls for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities,” as well as “immediate, full, sustained, safe and unhindered humanitarian access.”

The resolution also calls for “the immediate and unconditional release of all civilians who are being illegally held captive” but does not name Hamas as the captor.

Israel’s position: In debate Thursday, Israeli ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan called the resolution “completely devoid of any content related to the situation,” saying calls for a ceasefire were “not an attempt for peace,” but “an attempt to tie Israel’s hands, preventing us from eliminating a huge threat to our citizens.”

Palestinian observer’s position: Ambassador Riyad Mansour, head of the Palestinian Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations, highlighted the climbing death toll among Palestinian civilians, asking the assembly, “Is this the war some of you are defending?” 

There is no explicit criticism of Hamas in the General Assembly resolution currently under debate. Hamas, which controls Gaza, sparked the latest outbreak in violence after its October 7 terror attacks in Israel that left more than 1,400 dead.

“These are omissions of evil and they give cover to and they empower Hamas’s brutality,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, said Friday. “No member state should allow that to happen.”

Canada has offered a last-minute amendment which sharply denounces the militant group. 

A majority of at least two-thirds of member countries present in the General Assembly Hall would need to vote yes for the resolution to pass.

Jordan’s input: Jordanian Foreign Affairs Minister Ayman Safadi urged approval of the pending UN resolution, writing on X that “voting against Arab #UNGA resolution means approving this senseless war, this senseless killing.”

The outcome of the Israeli ground operation “will be a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions for years to come,” he said. “Millions will be watching every vote. History will judge.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced Friday that they are “expanding ground operations” in the Gaza Strip, according IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.

“In addition to offensive operations we carried over the past few days, the IDF ground forces are expanding their ground operation this evening,” Hagari said. 

“Hundreds of thousands of IDF soldiers are all around the borders of the state — in the air, ground, and the sea — to protect the state,” he added.

The announcement comes as CNN reports a large series of explosions rocked Gaza City on Friday night.

CNN’s Nic Robertson reports:

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As Israeli strikes on Gaza intensify, US government officials insist talks will continue to pursue hostage negotiations, two officials tell CNN.

One official said earlier talks had seemed closer to moving forward than they do now. But the official insisted they would press for negotiations to continue.

“There’s no scenario until they’re freed that we would stop pursuing talks,” the official said.

A third official said the talks are “tug and pull.”

A large series of explosions rocked Gaza City Friday night, according to CNN’s Nic Robertson who is reporting live near the Israel and Gaza border.

Robertson reports hearing outgoing tank fire as well as “unusual, intense and sustained” military activity for the past couple of hours.

“There have been huge rounds of outgoing tank fire from where we are,” he said reporting from Sderot. “Round after round of artillery fire going into Gaza as well. Multiple impacts reported in Gaza and Gaza City.”

Robertson said that about an hour ago, the CNN team saw a “huge wall of smoke literally blow in off of Gaza.” He reported that it smelled like the kind of cover smoke that could be used for military operations.

Israeli television has been showing live images of outgoing rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.

The Israel Defense Forces has not commented on the uptick in military activity or whether there has been a scaling up of their operations targeting Hamas.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it conducted more “targeted raids” within Gaza for a second straight night, aiming to destroy Hamas infrastructure.

Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, in response to its October 7 deadly terror attacks in which 1,400 people were killed and more than 200 others taken hostage.

While sources told CNN on Friday that progress has been made in hostage negotiations, issues still remain.

In Gaza, the main United Nations agency aiding Palestinians said that food and water are running out, with the enclave “on the brink of a massive health hazard.”

Here are some of the main developments:

“A breakthrough” in hostage negotiations: There has been “significant progress” on Qatar-led negotiations to release hostages held by Hamas but issues still remain, diplomatic sources familiar with the negotiations told CNN. 

“Negotiations are going very well. We have a breakthrough,” a source said. “There are issues still remaining, but talks are ongoing, and we remain hopeful.”

The US Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Barbara Leaf is in Doha for meetings with Qatar’s leadership, a person familiar with the meetings said. 

IDF raids inside Gaza: Israeli troops conducted “targeted raids” inside Gaza for a second consecutive night before withdrawing, the Israel Defense Forces said in statement Friday. It comes one day after the IDF said it carried out a raid with tanks in northern Gaza as “part of preparations for the next stages of combat.”

The raids targeted Hamas infrastructure, including “anti-tank missile launch sites, military command and control centers, as well as Hamas terrorists,” the IDF said.

UN agency warns of hunger and disease: The head of the UN Relief Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) warned Friday that hunger and disease are rapidly becoming a major issue in Gaza and said more aid was urgently needed in the enclave.

Philippe Lazzarini said current aid levels were “nothing more than crumbs,” and would make little difference for the more than 2 million people living in Gaza. In addition to living in fear of Israeli airstrikes, Lazzarini said the people of Gaza were now facing the growing threat of hunger and disease.

“Food and water are running out. The streets of Gaza have started overflowing with sewage,” he said.
“Gaza is on the brink of a massive health hazard as the risks of diseases are looming,” he added.

Eight more aid trucks are expected to enter Gaza, the UN said. And a 10-person team of medical staff and experts from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) crossed into Gaza on Friday, the organization said in a statement. The ICRC’s regional director said this will provide a “small dose of relief, but it’s not enough.”

Since October 7, more than 7,300 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza, according to figures released Friday by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah drawn from sources in the Hamas-controlled enclave. More than 18,500 people have been injured. Twelve of the enclave’s 34 hospitals are no longer functioning, the ministry said, adding that about 25 ambulances had been destroyed.

Scuffles at al-Aqsa mosque: The atmosphere near the al-Aqsa mosque is getting tense, according to a CNN team on the ground. Israeli police are strictly regulating who can enter the compound, only letting a selected few through the Lion’s Gate entrance to the site.

Police were not giving any reasons for denying people access, which is creating more tension. At one point, a scuffle between worshippers and the police heated up, with officers forcefully pushing people out of the alleyway leading to the compound.

The compound, frequently a flashpoint in tensions, is home to one of Islam’s most revered sites but also the holiest site in Judaism, known as the Temple Mount.

The complex lies in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as the capital of their future state and which most of the international community considers to be occupied territory. Israel captured it from Jordan in a 1967 war and considers both East and West Jerusalem as its united, “eternal capital.”

Police didn’t give any specific answers to questions from CNN about why some people were not allowed to enter. After witnessing several police officers pushing an elderly woman out of the way, the CNN team was told to leave and was also pushed away.

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There has been “significant progress” on negotiations to release hostages held by Hamas but there are issues still remaining, diplomatic sources familiar with the negotiations told CNN. 

The US Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Barbara Leaf is in Doha for meetings with Qatar’s leadership, a person familiar with the meetings said. 

Asked about the status of the negotiations, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant commented at a news conference on Thursday, saying, “every channel is a possible channel.”

“One thing should be clear — we have a goal and I trust the State of Israel and the IDF … and we’ll keep doing every effort to bring the hostages and the missing back,” Gallant said. 

Meanwhile, a Western official familiar with the hostage negotiations told CNN that there is still optimism around a possible release, but there is also recognition that the clock is ticking. The official indicated the talks have made progress but noted Israel won’t delay a ground operation for much longer.

A US official told CNN there has been progress on the hostages, but it’s still “all very touch and go.” The official voiced caution around the idea that there has been a “breakthrough.”

CNN’s Jennifer Hansler contributed reporting to this post.

Aid must be allowed into Gaza “as soon as possible” with “hundreds” of trucks needed every day, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said Friday in an interview with French radio station RTL. 

“It is absolutely necessary to get aid into Gaza in a durable manner as soon as possible, in significantly greater volumes,” Colonna said, adding that inspections on aid trucks were a “real obstacle” to the flow of needed supplies. 

The French government announced a flight of 50 tons of aid Thursday for Gaza, which includes medicines, food aid and tents, a French foreign ministry source said on Friday, adding that the population of Gaza has “enormous and growing needs”.

The lack of a guarantee of French aid being allowed into Gaza is the largest obstacle facing aid operations, the source said, adding there is “no special treatment for French aid.”

The aid flight is due to take off tomorrow for Egypt, the source said, following delays in finding aircraft and logistical equipment suitable for the hub that Egyptian authorities have dedicated to Gazan aid.

This material aid is in addition to 20 million euros ($21.1 million) of French financial aid, split between multilateral international organizations and international NGOs already working in Gaza, the source added. 

A French helicopter carrier, the “Tonnerre,” is en route to the eastern Mediterranean, a French military source confirmed, following the government’s announcement that it will support the work of Gazan hospitals. 

Colonna also said that there were 170 people in Gaza whose safety France wanted to ensure, including some 50 French citizens, including NGO workers, along with their families and workers at the French cultural center in Gaza. 

Some context: Colonna’s call for aid comes after the EU announced they would provide an additional 50 million euros (around $52 million USD) ) in humanitarian aid for Gaza. 

EU leaders are meeting on Friday for the second day of the summit held in Brussels to discuss various issues including the crisis in the Middle East. European leaders have previously called for a humanitarian “pause” to provide aid but stopped short of calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The first trucks carrying aid entered Gaza via the Rafah crossing on Saturday, but 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.

Paramedics and emergency staff are treating three individuals in Tel Aviv, Israeli emergency services Magen David Adom (MDA) said Friday, after a rocket struck a building in the south of the city.

The Reuters news agency has been showing live pictures of a four-story building with damage to several top-floor apartments.

The MDA statement said a 20-year-old man suffering head and limb injuries was being treated in hospital. Two other casualties had suffered mild injuries,” the statement said. 

The strike followed a statement from Hamas’s Al Qassam Brigades declaring it had, “renewed the bombing of Tel Aviv in response to the Zionist massacres against civilians.”

Eight more aid trucks are expected to enter Gaza, according to the UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

“We have seen some deliveries of trucks starting. They started on the 21st of October. We have gotten in approximately 74 trucks. We’re expecting another eight or so today,” Lynn Hastings said at a press briefing on Friday.

For context, Hastings said that there were 450 trucks going into Gaza before October 7 under strict restrictions “in terms of goods being able to get into Gaza.” 

“We are down now to approximately 12. So, from 450 down to 12,” she added, saying it is “clearly not sufficient.”

Hastings went on to say that delays have been caused by screenings of the trucks. “In addition to the technical issues and the security issues, there are political issues as well,” she said, adding that there is also “a certain amount of pressure on the government of Israel in terms of its domestic politics.” 

“That delays things just also in terms of the maximum number that I think the government of Israel is prepared to allow us to bring in. So, it’s technical and political security. All of those issues are at play,” said Hastings. 

A 10-person team of medical staff and experts from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) crossed into Gaza on Friday, the organization said in a statement.

“A war surgery team and a weapons contamination specialist are among 10 International Committee of the Red Cross experts who arrived in Gaza on Friday, entering alongside six ICRC trucks carrying urgently needed medical material and water purification supplies,” the statement read.

The ICRC’s regional director said this will provide a “small dose of relief, but it’s not enough.”

“Safe, sustained humanitarian access is urgently needed,” said Fabrizio Carboni, in a statement. “This humanitarian catastrophe is deepening by the hour.”

Among the supplies ICRC has taken into Gaza are war surgery kits and equipment to treat people with wounds suffered in conflict. The ICRC said it had enough equipment to treat several thousand people, depending on their injuries, adding it had also sent in water purification supplies that would enable the treatment of 50,000 liters of water.

Scuffles broke out between Israeli police and Muslim worshippers wishing to pray at the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City just after midday on Friday.

A group of heavily armed police officers sealed off an entrance to the compound near the city’s Lion’s Gate, at times aggressively pushing people away with batons.

People who were turned away told CNN they were not given any reason why they were not allowed to attend the prayer service at the mosque.

They told CNN they believed “the officers’ mood” was the decisive factor. CNN witnessed numerous incidents of officers pushing people away after they approached the entrance and asked why they were not allowed in.

Several of the people pushed in this way were older women. CNN did not see any worshippers initiating a physical altercation or trying to push their way into the compound.

Police didn’t give any specific answers to questions from CNN about why some people were not allowed to enter.

There appeared to be disagreements between different officers on who should be allowed in and who should be turned away.

After witnessing several police officers pushing an elderly woman out of the way, the CNN team was also told to leave and was also pushed away.

The head of the UN Relief Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) warned Friday that hunger and disease are rapidly becoming a major issue in Gaza and said more aid was urgently needed in the enclave.

Philippe Lazzarini said current aid levels were “nothing more than crumbs,” and would make little difference for the more than 2 million people living in Gaza. 

“Over the last week, I followed closely the focus about the number of trucks entering Gaza. Many of us saw in these trucks a glimmer of hope. This is, however, becoming a distraction,” Lazzarini said at a news conference in Jerusalem on Friday. “These show trucks are nothing more than crumbs that would not make a difference for the 2 million people [of Gaza].”

In addition to living in fear of Israeli airstrikes, Lazzarini said the people of Gaza were now facing the growing threat of hunger and disease.

“Food and water are running out. The streets of Gaza have started overflowing with sewage.”
“Gaza is on the brink of a massive health hazard as the risks of diseases are looming,” he explained.
“The last remaining public services are collapsing, our aid operation is crumbling and for the first time ever, [our staff] report that people are now hungry.”

Aid efforts thus far had been woefully insufficient, he said.

“We should avoid conveying the message that few trucks a day means the siege is lifted for humanitarian aid. This is not true,” he said. “The current system in place is geared to fail. What is needed is meaningful and non-interrupted aid flow.”
“The siege means that food, water and fuel – basic commodities – are being used to collectively punish more than 2 million people among them a majority of children and women,” he added. 

The head of UNRWA also criticized the questioning of where aid would end up if allowed into Gaza.

“It pains me that humanitarian aid, a very basic right for people, is constantly questioned while at the same time, despair is live-streamed under our watch,” he said, explaining that UNRWA has very strict mechanisms in place. “All our vendors and partners are vetted against the sanctions list. We give aid to those who need it most. Our convoys and their routes are notified and deconflicted. 

“UNRWA does not and will not divert any humanitarian aid into the wrong hands,” he vowed, addressing Israel’s complaints that transfers into Gaza are often diverted by Hamas and put to military use.

Lazzarini reiterated his call for fuel to be allowed into Gaza so that basic services – bakeries, the water plant, hospitals – could continue to operate and so that UNRWA could continue its work. 

“Over the last few days, UNRWA has drastically limited its consumption of fuel. This came at a cost. Our team had to make tough decisions that no humanitarian worker should do,” he said without detailing what those decisions had been. “A few days ago, I warned that we will not be able to continue our humanitarian operations if we do not get fuel supply. My warning still stands.”

Lazzarini also lamented deaths among UNRWA staff. According to the UNRWA Commissioner-General, 57 of the organization’s workers in Gaza have died since the war between Israel and Hamas started.

“They are mothers and fathers. Wonderful people who are dedicated their life to their communities. If they were not in Gaza, they could have been your neighbour,” he said.
“One colleague died while on his way to pick up bread from a bakery. He left six children behind.”

Friday midday prayers are about to begin in Jerusalem and the atmosphere near the al-Aqsa mosque is getting tense, a CNN team on the ground reports.

Israeli police are strictly regulating who can come into the compound, only letting a selected few through the Lion’s Gate entrance to the site.

Police are not giving any reasons for denying people access, which is creating more tension.

At one point, a scuffle between worshippers and the police heated up, with officers forcefully pushing people out of the alleyway leading to the compound.

CNN witnessed a group of heavily armed police officers aggressively pushing a young woman out of the way as she tried to film the situation on her phone.

The police then cleared the entire area of people and appeared to be preventing young people in particular from entering the site.

The CNN team was also ordered to leave the area.

The midday congregational prayers — the most important moment of the week for Muslims — are about to begin.

Some context: The al-Aqsa Mosque is located in the Old City, in East Jerusalem, which Palestinians hope will one day become the capital of a future Palestinian state. Much of the international community considers it to be occupied territory.

Israel captured the land from Jordan in a 1967 war and considers the whole of Jerusalem as sovereign Israeli territory.

The compound, frequently a flashpoint in tensions, is home to one of Islam’s most revered sites but also the holiest site in Judaism, known as the Temple Mount.

Israeli troops conducted “targeted raids” inside Gaza for a second consecutive night before withdrawing, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in statement Friday.

Video published by the IDF showed tanks and armored vehicles moving on a road near agricultural land as well as strikes on buildings and open areas.

The raid, which included aircraft and artillery strikes in the Shaja’iyah neighborhood, targeted Hamas infrastructure including “anti-tank missile launch sites, military command and control centers, as well as Hamas terrorists,” the IDF said.

It comes one day after the IDF said it carried out a raid with tanks in northern Gaza as “part of preparations for the next stages of combat.”

Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, in response to its October 7 deadly terror attacks and kidnap rampage in which 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed and more than 200 others taken hostage.

Souad Al-Alem was one of the roughly 10,000 people forced to flee the Palestinian town of al-Majdal. It was 1948, she was a young woman and Israel’s troops were approaching the community during the Arab-Israeli war in what is now part of the Israeli city of Ashkelon.

Now in her 90s and living in Gaza, Al-Alem has been forced to run again — one of the hundreds of thousands of civilians caught up in the war.

“I see death 20 times every day, in the sky and on earth. Even the force of every blast affects us psychologically. It feels like it is on top of our heads when it’s next to us or nearby,” Al-Alem told CNN.

Just 10 miles north of the Gaza border, not much remains of al-Majdal. Once a buzzing market place known for textile manufacturing, it was reduced to rubble after the 1948/49 war.

All of its houses are long gone, replaced with modern Israeli buildings that are now part of Ashkelon. Only the old mosque remains standing. Nearby, an empty, overgrown field gives a hint of the size of the former town.

Read the full story.

The European Union will provide 50 million euros (around $52 million) in additional humanitarian aid for Gaza, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Thursday.

Speaking at a news conference in Brussels following the first day of the EU leaders’ summit, von der Leyen said the first 56 metric tons of aid from the EU have already been delivered to Gaza via two flights to Egypt.

During their meeting Thursday, European leaders expressed concern about the deteriorating situation in Gaza and called for aid to reach those in need via “humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs” — stopping short of calling for a ceasefire.

Von der Leyen and EU Council President Charles Michel both emphasized the bloc’s commitment to addressing the humanitarian crisis.

The EU is in contact “with the leaders in the region in order to encourage solutions on humanitarian front and release of the hostages,” Michel said.

Asked whether Hamas representatives will be participating in an upcoming conference aimed at resolving the conflict, Michel said he “doesn’t see any role” for the group, citing its designation as a terrorist organization.

The Israel Defense Forces will continue ground raids into Gaza in the coming days to prepare for the next stages of the war against Hamas, spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Thursday.

He said the IDF continues its strikes against Gaza from air and sea, and is focusing on killing senior Hamas commanders and destroying Hamas infrastructure.

“There will be more,” vowed Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at a news briefing Thursday.

Gallant’s comments echoed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address on Wednesday, during which he said Israel is “raining down hellfire on Hamas” and “preparing for a ground incursion.”

Here’s what else you need to know:

European Union leaders meeting in Brussels on Thursday expressed their concerns about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza and called for “aid to reach those in need through all necessary measures.”

Those measures include “humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs,” the leaders said.

In their communique on the Middle East, which sets out the position of the EU, leaders also called for “continued, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access” to Gaza.

The call for humanitarian “pauses” stops short of calling for a ceasefire, which several European leaders have previously ruled out.

The 27 heads of state and government agreed the EU “will work closely with partners in the region to protect civilians, provide assistance and facilitate access to food, water, medical care, fuel and shelter.”

The European leaders also said the EU will ensure “that such assistance is not abused by terrorist organizations.”

EU leaders reiterated their call “on Hamas to immediately release all hostages without any precondition” and their condemnation in the “strongest possible terms of Hamas for its brutal and indiscriminate terrorist attacks across Israel.”
Leaders also reiterated “the importance of ensuring the protection of all civilians at all times in line with international humanitarian law,” adding that the EU “deplores all loss of civilian life.”
The EU also said the body is “ready to contribute to reviving a political process on the basis of the two-state solution, including through the Peace Day Effort,” referring to an ongoing diplomatic effort by the EU, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Arab League.

The health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza on Thursday published a 212-page report listing thousands of names described as “documented deaths since October 7” in the enclave, which it blamed on Israeli military “aggression.”

The list, which does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants but does list age and gender, followed US President Joe Biden’s comments that he had “no confidence” in the figures of civilian casualties reported by the Gaza Health Ministry.

Israel, along with the US, has expressed doubts about the casualty numbers being reported out of Gaza but has not provided evidence that they are exaggerated.

White House spokesperson John Kirby called the Gaza-based ministry “a front for Hamas,” though when asked he did not dispute that thousands of Palestinians, many innocent civilians, had been killed.

The prime minister of the US-backed Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, Mohammad Shtayyeh, said the PA’s own health authority considers the numbers to be “correct.”

The report stated that between October 7-26, 7,028 Palestinians were killed, including 2,913 children. A total of 3,129 females and 3,899 males were killed. The number of unidentified people killed stands at 218, but they are not included in the final death toll, the report added.

The report also excludes those buried without being brought to hospital, those for whom hospitals were unable to complete registration procedures, and people missing under the rubble, who number around 1,600, with many of them feared dead.

The ministry said the actual death toll is likely to be much higher than the report stated. The list of 6,747 names, released by its Hamas-controlled health ministry, gave the sex, age and identity card number of each of the victims. It said 281 bodies had not yet been identified.

Some context: The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority is run by a rival faction to Hamas, and operates the umbrella Ministry of Health, which maintains a relationship with the ministry in Gaza. Death tolls for Gaza are released both in Gaza and Ramallah daily.

CNN is not able to independently verify the death toll tabulated in Gaza.

The Israel Defense Forces will continue ground raids into Gaza in the coming days to prepare for the next stages in Israel’s war against Hamas, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Thursday in a televised news conference.

The purpose of Israel’s ground operations is to kill Hamas militants, lay the foundations for an all-out invasion and neutralize explosive devices and reconnaissance posts, according to Hagari.

Hagari’s comments come after the IDF said it carried out a “targeted raid” overnight in northern Gaza using tanks.

Hagari also said the IDF continues its strikes against Gaza from air and sea, and is focusing on killing senior Hamas commanders and destroying Hamas infrastructure.

When asked about US involvement in the Israeli forces’ decision-making related to ground operations, Hagari said, “We’re constantly in touch with the US. The IDF chief of the General Staff speaks almost on a daily basis with the commander of the US Centcom.”

“It is true that US advisers arrived. … They have a lot of experience. We’re listening, it’s good to learn and to listen. But our war is right in our borders, not thousands of miles away,” Hagari added. “We also know Gaza very well. Eventually, this is Israel’s decision. And Israel understands that it needs to fulfill the aims of the war.”

On Gaza’s dwindling fuel supplies: Hagari also reiterated that Israel would not allow fuel into Gaza for now, saying that Hamas’ arrays are “struggling to function” without fuel and blaming Hamas for stealing fuel from a facility belonging to the main United Nations agency aiding Palestinians, UNRWA.

Israel has also disputed that there are fuel shortages in Gaza. Responding to a post from UNRWA about low supplies, the IDF on Tuesday posted an aerial photo of what it said were fuel tanks in Gaza, claiming they held more than 500,000 liters of fuel. CNN is unable to verify the IDF claim.

“The facility that was posted (on Tuesday) is located in Rafah and belongs to UNRWA. … We supervise it aerially and together with UNRWA. Again, we’re not striking UNRWA. On the contrary, we’re making an effort along with the international community to ensure that south of Wadi Gaza, there will be conditions that allow the civilian population to access water, food and drugs,” he said.

UNRWA said Thursday that its operations are being “paralyzed” in Gaza due to the lack of fuel.

CNN cannot independently verify the amount of fuel in Gaza.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said during a news briefing on Thursday that Israel is preparing for the “next stages” in its war against Hamas, adding “there will be more.”

“The maneuvering will begin when the conditions are right. These conditions are complex because so is the campaign. The troops are ready,” Gallant said in the briefing in Tel Aviv. 

Gallant’s comments echoed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address on Wednesday, during which he said Israel is “raining down hellfire on Hamas” and “preparing for a ground incursion.”

Gallant reiterated the effectiveness of “lethal” Israeli strikes on Gaza and said that within 24 hours of the deadly Hamas attacks, Israeli forces shifted to the offensive with airstrikes.   

“Whatever happens in Israel’s next 75 years, will highly depend on the achievement that we’ll gain in that fight. That’s why I tell you — we have no other choice, and we’ll win because there’s no other option,” he said.

Gallant said Israeli forces and security authorities will “do everything needed” to bring back hostages taken by Hamas. 

“As a father, grandfather and son to Holocaust survivors, I understand that very high price that the fallen paid. I’m willing, along with all security establishment, to do everything needed to bring hostages back to their families,” Gallant said. 

In response to a question about whether Qatar is a legitimate mediator in the conflict, Gallant said, “The way I see it, every channel is a possible channel. The goal is the important thing.” His comment comes after Israel’s foreign minister accused Qatar of financing Hamas. 

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said 12 aid trucks entered Gaza through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt Thursday, carrying water, food, medicine and medical supplies — but no fuel.

The organization said it has received 74 trucks since humanitarian aid transfers into the Gaza Strip resumed several days ago.

United Nations officials emphasized that hundreds of aid trucks entered Gaza daily before the deadly October 7 Hamas attacks, meaning basic supplies are trickling into the enclave at a much slower pace than needed.

Israel continues to block deliveries of fuel altogether, saying that Hamas would only divert it for military use. 

Israeli forces have killed the deputy head of Hamas’ intelligence directorate, one of the officials they say is partially responsible for planning the October 7 attacks, according to a joint statement from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israeli Security Agency (ISA), or Shin Bet. 

“Based on precise IDF and ISA intelligence, IDF fighter jets struck the Deputy Head of the Hamas’ Intelligence Directorate, Shadi Barud,” according to the joint statement released Thursday. 

The IDF and ISA also released footage they claim is of the strikes that killed Barud, showing at least two buildings in Gaza hit with strikes and appearing to collapse. 

The Israeli statement said Barud and Yahya Sinwar planned the October 7 attacks that killed more than 1,400 people and saw more than 200 others taken hostage.

“Barud had previously served as Hamas’ battalion commander in Khan Yunis and was responsible for planning numerous terror attacks against Israeli civilians,” the statement said.

According to the statement, Barud went on to hold several positions in Hamas’ military intelligence and was in charge of the militant group’s intelligence relations.

Sinwar was a former head of the Al Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ militant wing; he’s now the head of Hamas in Gaza. He focused efforts on building relationships with foreign powers — notably Egypt and Iran.

Hamas has not commented on the statement. 

Hamas rocket commander reportedly killed: The Israeli military also said Thursday that intelligence reports suggest airstrikes have killed a Hamas rocket commander, Hassan Al-Abdullah, who the army says commanded rocket units in the Khan Younis area of Gaza.

Shin Bet told CNN it believes it has killed “scores” of senior figures in Hamas’s military structure since it began strikes on Gaza more than two and a half weeks ago. 

CNN’s Sam Kiley and Amir Tal contributed reporting to this post.