November 2, 2023 Israel-Hamas war news

Israeli airstrikes on Thursday killed more than 20 people sheltering at United Nations schools in Gaza, the head of the main UN relief agency working in the enclave told CNN.

The agency has received “extraordinary, difficult news” about schools in the refugee camps of Jabalya and Al Shati, which is sometimes referred to as Beach camp, said Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

The UNRWA later said in a statement that four of its shelters were damaged by Thursday's bombardment: the two mentioned by Lazzarini, and two other schools-turned-shelters further south in the Al-Bureij refugee camp. Two people were reportedly killed and 31 wounded at those sites, the agency said.

The IDF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on UNRWA's statements.

On the ground: Reuters video Thursday showed damage at the Jabalya camp near Gaza City. A separate, five-minute video posted to Telegram shows the chaotic aftermath at the UNRWA-sponsored Jabalya Elementary school. Bloodied bodies lie strewn across the floor as people scream around them.

“These are official UNWRA schools, where we shelter a number of displaced persons in the north of Gaza,” Lazzarini said. “These are shelters which are clearly notified,” he added, meaning the Israeli military knows their location.

Those sheltering in a school in the Al Shati camp, northwest of Jabalya, recounted the ordeal to a CNN stringer.

“The school was shelled and we started screaming,” a woman who fled the school after the attack told CNN. “It was an absolute horror.”

This post has been updated with information from the UNRWA about strikes on two additional school shelters.

More foreign nationals have made their way out of Gaza and into Egypt through the Rafah border crossing, with 341 having crossed on Thursday, an Egyptian border official told CNN — a figure that includes American citizens.

It's unclear what nationalities are held by the others who have crossed, but some countries have confirmed their own citizens transited the Rafah crossing on Thursday.

The Egyptian official said the border is closed and will not accept any more people evacuating from Gaza on Thursday.

United States: Between 20 and 25 American citizens arrived Thursday on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing from Gaza, an Egyptian border official told CNN.

Hungary: Eight Hungarian citizens, along with two of their Palestinian family members, have evacuated from Gaza through the Rafah crossing into Egypt, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in a live video statement on Thursday. 

Szijjártó added that they were two families and they crossed the border a “few hours ago.”

Italy: A 5-year-old Italian girl and her Palestinian mother left Gaza through the Rafah crossing on Thursday, Italy's foreign ministry said in a statement. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said he was "particularly happy for the positive outcome," noting the girl's 6th birthday is on Friday. 

Netherlands: The first Dutch nationals and their immediate family have left the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said in a post on social media on Thursday. 

Rutte added that a team from the foreign ministry met the Dutch nationals at the border crossing. 

“I am grateful to Egypt for the crucial role they played in this, and for receiving and treating the injured,” said Rutte, adding that he also wanted to thank Qatar “for their mediation in facilitating the departure of foreign nationals who were stuck in Gaza.”

Spain: Between 140 and 170 Spanish citizens and their families are expected to be evacuated from Gaza on Thursday or Friday, acting Defense Minister Margarita Robles said on Thursday morning.

"The latest report I got is that Israeli and Egyptian authorities are calling the different countries in alphabetical order, and everything is prepared in Cairo to travel and get them. We don’t know exactly when, but it could be today or tomorrow,” Robles told journalists at Torrejon Air Base. 

The minister also said one Spanish citizen evacuated on Wednesday.

Some background: The exodus of the foreign nationals is the result of a deal announced Wednesday brokered by Qatar between Israel, Hamas and Egypt, in coordination with the US, that allows for the departure of those individuals, alongside critically injured civilians from Gaza, according to sources familiar with the talks. The agreement is separate from any hostage negotiations, the source added.

CNN's Sharon Braithwaite, Claudia Rebaza, Eve Brennan and Boglarka Kosztolanyi contributed reporting to this post.

The Israeli military is surrounding Gaza City and "deepening" its operations there, the Israel Defense Forces chief of staff said in a TV interview Thursday.

Halevi said Israel has not delivered any fuel into Gaza. "We check the situation every day," he said. "When fuel runs out, fuel will be delivered under supervision to the hospitals."

Nearly half of all hospitals in Gaza are out of service due to bombardments and fuel shortages, including the leading cancer hospital in the strip, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah. It warned on Wednesday that Gaza’s largest hospital, Al Shifa, could be forced to stop operating soon.

More background: The Israeli army began its full ground operation in Gaza on Friday, moving tanks, bulldozers, infantry and combat engineer units into the strip.

This map shows some of the areas where IDF troops have been operating in the days since:

A Palestinian American family from Medway, Massachusetts, have safely arrived in Egypt after leaving Gaza via the Rafah crossing early Thursday morning, their attorney told CNN in a statement.

Abood Okal, Wafaa Abuzayda and their 1-year-old son Yousef arrived in Egypt just after 11:30 a.m. local time, the lawyer, Sammy Nabulsi, said.

“The Okal Family expresses its deepest gratitude to their family and friends around the world, the Medway community, the media for sharing their plight and the plight of the hundreds of other Americans trapped in Gaza, their elected officials who fought hard for their return, and the State Department for providing them with safe departure,” he added.

Okal — a cancer researcher for a pharmaceutical company — and his family had traveled to the region in late September to visit family. The first week of their trip was spent in the West Bank, but they became stranded in Gaza after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, fearing for their lives.

At this time, the family is asking for privacy until their safe return to Medway, Nabulsi said.

Israel’s Air Force said that “in recent days” it intercepted a cruise missile fired at the country “launched from the southeast.” 

The military also released footage it said showed the cruise missile being destroyed.

The Israeli Air Force did not indicate where the cruise missile was launched. But last month, the US Navy said that it intercepted multiple projectiles near the coast of Yemen. And on Wednesday, Yemen's Houthi rebels claimed to have successfully launched a barrage of drones against Israel.

It said that later the same day, the Air Force “intercepted a surface-to-surface missile in the Red Sea using the long-range defense system ‘Arrow.’”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Thursday responded to accusations about Israel’s use of white phosphorus in Lebanon with a carefully worded statement, dismissing reports that the incendiary substance has been used for setting fires but conceding that it does use it in some circumstances. 

On Tuesday, Amnesty International accused the Israeli army of firing white phosphorus at the southern Lebanese town of Dhayra, injuring civilians.

On the same day, Lebanese interim Agricultural Minister Abbas Al-Hajj Hassan accused Israel of burning more than 40,000 olive trees in southern Lebanon using “white phosphorous bombs.”

The IDF denied that.

The “smoke-screen shells containing the white phosphorus in the IDF are not intended or used for setting fire, and any claim that these shells are used for that cause is baseless,” the IDF said in a statement to CNN. 

The IDF also said it does not use the incendiary weapon in densely populated areas, but added that “certain exceptions” applied.  

What is white phosphorus? It's an incendiary weapon, which is used to set fire to military targets, but its use is restricted under international humanitarian law. It is considered lawful in some cases but cannot be fired at or near civilian areas or civilian infrastructure. 

White phosphorus can provide illumination or create a smokescreen in battle, but it is known to burn flesh down to the bone, according to previous CNN reporting.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, “The use of ... white phosphorous weapons against any military objective within concentrations of civilians is prohibited unless the military objective is clearly separated from the civilians.”

Human Rights Watch has also accused Israel of repeatedly firing white phosphorus at Lebanon since the escalation between the two countries began on October 8, sparked by the Hamas-Israel war. 

Last month, the IDF strongly denied the claims. In an interview, IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told CNN “categorically, no," it had not used white phosphorus.

Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented the use by Israel of white phosphorous in civilian areas in Gaza during previous rounds of fighting there. CNN also documented its use.

A CNN team on the ground in southern Lebanon has seen fires, burning trees and billowing smoke in the aftermath of Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon over the past two weeks. The CNN team filmed abandoned olive fields during the ongoing harvest season.

Newly confirmed United States Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew will travel with Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Israel Thursday.

Lew will take up his post in Jerusalem at a time when the stakes could not be higher: Israel’s expanding ground operations and the resulting toll on civilians has seen increasing condemnation by the Arab world, evidenced in part by Jordan's decision to recall its own ambassador to Israel.

Blinken's visit: President Joe Biden's administration has ramped up its public rhetoric about the need for Israel to abide by international humanitarian law, but it has not condemned the country's actions in Gaza. That is expected to be a key aspect of Blinken’s conversations with Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as will the need for Israel not to become an occupying force in Gaza.

State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said Wednesday that Blinken "wants to get an update from Israel on their military objectives and their plans for meeting those objectives" and "to talk about ways that we can increase the flow of humanitarian assistance and get to the point where it’s a sustained, continuous flow getting in every day that meets the needs of innocent civilians in Gaza."

The growing Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank is also expected to be a major topic of conversation.

More foreign nationals and injured Palestinians have arrived in Egypt from Gaza, a day after the Rafah crossing opened to allow the first evacuations since Israel’s siege of the enclave began nearly four weeks ago. At least 400 foreign nationals and 60 injured people are expected to leave the strip over the course of the day.

Meanwhile, Israel bombed the densely-populated Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza for the second time in two days Wednesday, prompting the United Nations' Human Rights Office to express concerns that the strikes "could amount to war crimes." The Israeli military said the actions targeted Hamas commanders and the militant group’s infrastructure.

And, as the global outcry against the suffering of Gazans grows, US President Joe Biden – who has offered full-throated support for Israel but increasingly raised concerns about the situation in Gaza – also called for a humanitarian “pause” in the Israel-Hamas war, to allow aid to reach civilians and help facilitate the release of hostages.

Here are the latest developments:

At least 33 journalists have been killed since the latest Israel-Hamas conflict began on October 7, according to a Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) statement released Thursday. 

The death toll among journalists includes 28 Palestinians, four Israelis and one Lebanese, the CPJ said.

Eight journalists have been reported injured, and nine others have been reported missing or detained, CPJ said.