November 2, 2023 Israel-Hamas war news

The skies of northern Gaza were illuminated by flares and explosions as the bombardment intensified late Thursday night.

CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson in Sderot, Israel, saw missiles raining down on Gaza for more than 30 minutes, with multiple flares illuminating the night sky. The volume of flares was more intense than had been seen in the past weeks since October 7.

The focus of the flares appears to be in the northern Gaza area of Beit Hanoun, around 2.5 miles away from Sderot, Robertson said. 

CNN’s Ben Wedeman, who has reported for years in the Gaza Strip, described Beit Hanoun, which is not as populous as the nearby Gaza City, as one of the areas that has traditionally experienced the first military moves by the Israel Defense Forces during past operations.

There also appears to be a smoke screen covering the ground suggesting the possible movement of troops in the areas.

Robertson said it appeared that two rockets were fired out of Gaza during this time. Artillery fire was also heard nearby.

Mark Regev, senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that the Israeli military is keeping up the pressure on Hamas.

Regev said he could not provide further details, as the operation is ongoing. 

The intensified fire comes after the Israeli military announced that they had encircled Gaza City.

The post has been updated with Regev's comments.

A Palestine TV correspondent and 11 members of his family were killed Thursday in southern Gaza following what the Palestinian Authority-run television network said was an Israeli airstrike on his home.

The deaths of Mohammad Abu Hattab and his family were the result of a "devastating Israeli airstrike" on his home in Khan Younis, the WAFA news agency reported. 

Al Hatab had been reporting live on-air Thursday night outside of Nasser Hospital in Gaza – 30 minutes later, he was killed after returning home, the network reported. 

CNN cannot independently confirm the source of the blast at the house, and Palestine TV did not publish evidence linking it directly to an Israeli strike.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the incident.

In an emotional on-air report after his death, Al Hatab’s colleague and fellow journalist, Salman Al Bashir, took off his protective gear, including his helmet and vest, saying “No protection, no international protection at all, no immunity to anything, this protection gear does not protect us and not those helmets. These are just slogans that we are wearing, it doesn’t protect any journalist at all. This protection gear does not protect us.”  

The continued Israeli bombing has become unbearable for the people of Gaza, he said.  

“We are dying one after the other and no one cares about us or the large-scale catastrophe and the crime in Gaza,” Al Bashir said.

Al Hatab's last on-air report was about Israeli airstrikes on neighborhoods in Khan Younis, according to a Palestinian television video. 

This post has been updated.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said it received fresh food, water, relief and medical supplies as at least 106 aid trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent crossed into Gaza via the Rafah crossing on Thursday.

This brings the total number of trucks that have crossed successfully from Egypt into Gaza to 374, according to the PRCS.

In its statement, the aid group highlighted once again that fuel supplies have still not been allowed into the besieged enclave. 

Dire humanitarian situation: The head of the main United Nations agency in Gaza, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), warned Thursday that the last remaining public services in Gaza have "completely collapsed.”

Philippe Lazzarini said the "handful" of aid trucks currently being allowed to enter the territory "basically don't do anything to reverse the fact" Gaza is "being strangled by the siege." 

Doctors in Gaza hospitals also describe dire conditions and not enough medical supplies to treat injured and displaced people.

The US has intelligence that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has agreed to provide the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah with a Russian-made missile defense system, according to two people familiar with the intelligence.

The Russian mercenary organization Wagner Group, which operates in Syria, has been tasked with carrying out the delivery of the surface-to-air SA-22 missile system, the people said.

It is not clear whether it has already been delivered or how close it is to delivery. The system was originally provided by Russia for use by the Syrian government, the sources said.

One of the sources said the US has been monitoring recent movement of the system, which is also known as a Pantsir. The other source said the US assessment was based partly on intelligence obtained about discussions among Assad, Wagner, and Hezbollah about the delivery of the system.

The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Wagner may provide the system to Hezbollah. Assad’s role has not been previously reported.

Wagner and Hezbollah fighters have both operated in Syria for years, where they have been working alongside Russian and Syrian armed forces to bolster the Assad regime against the Syrian opposition.

Hezbollah began to pull its fighters out in recent years, but the group is also backed by Iran, which is a close Assad ally. A third source familiar with Western intelligence said there was evidence of increasing collaboration between Hezbollah and Wagner in Syria.

The possibility that Hezbollah could soon have a new air defense system comes amid concerns that the militants are considering opening a new front in Israel’s war against Hamas, on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. The US has repeatedly warned Hezbollah and other Iran-backed groups to stay out of the conflict and has positioned aircraft carriers and troops in the region to try to deter a potential escalation.

Israel has also targeted these missile systems inside of Syria before, as part of broader Israeli attacks on Iranian military sites in the country.

It is not clear how much influence Russia had over the decision to provide the system to Hezbollah. Since the death of Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in August, the Kremlin has made some attempts to absorb Wagner mercenaries and the group’s assets. But as of late September, the US had not seen a decisive shift in terms of the Kremlin taking full ownership over the fighters, CNN previously reported.

Read more about the Russian missile defense system

CNN's Oren Liebermann contributed to this report.

Iran's foreign minister spoke with Hamas' political leader on Thursday night, the Iranian official said on social media.

Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said he and Hamas' political lead Ismail Haniyeh discussed "the situation in Gaza and the West Bank."

Further details on the meeting have not been released yet. 

Some background: Iran for years has provided funding, arms and training to the various proxy groups across the region, relationships that it uses to counter Israel and the United States and wield influence across the Middle East — all while maintaining a degree of deniability about its involvement. Hamas, the group that carried out the October attack on Israel is among those groups.

But, while Iran has praised the October 7 attack on Israel, officials are now saying publicly that they do not seek a widening of the war and warning that the situation risks spiraling.

Al-Quds hospital, the second-largest in Gaza City, and the surrounding area have come under increased fire in recent days, wounding several people and damaging the hospital structure, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS).

Ramped up Israeli airstrikes and gunfire are "endangering the lives of the dedicated medical personnel" and thousands of civilians in the area, the PRCS said in a statement Thursday.

Israeli military vehicles fired bullets "indiscriminately" into the area from about a kilometer south of the hospital, wounding a child and young man standing in front of the medical center, and penetrating the walls of the hospital's sixth-floor shelter for displaced women and children, according to the aid organization. 

The incoming fire also damaged the hospital's central air-conditioning units and one of its water tanks, the PRCS says.

The PRCS also accused the Israel Defense Forces of firing on an ambulance while aid workers were transferring dead and wounded Palestinians. The PRCS released images of two paramedics who it said suffered gunshot and shrapnel injuries.

CNN has reached out to the IDF to comment. In previous statements, it has maintained it "has requested and continues to request that all civilians move south of Wadi Gaza for greater safety."

Some background: The hospital is located in the Tal Al Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City, north of Wadi Gaza — the line south of which Israel has urged people in Gaza to flee. 

The Red Crescent said Sunday that it received a warning from the Israeli military to immediately evacuate ahead of possible bombardment — a task the World Health Organization deemed "impossible" without endangering the lives of patients.

Al-Quds Hospital is treating hundreds of patients, including wounded people, patients in intensive care and children in incubators, the PRCS said. Thousands of internally displaced civilians have also sheltered at the hospital.

Israel will respond with actions, not words, in response to any escalation from Hezbollah at the northern border, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces said.

The comments from Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari come as the Israeli military has traded fire with Hezbollah militants for the past several weeks. The Israeli military said Thursday it struck several Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in response to launches from the country toward Israel.  

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is expected to weigh in on the war on Friday.

The group released a statement Thursday saying it hit an Israeli military barracks in the Shebaa Farms area with two attack drones, claiming they made "very direct hits inside the barracks." Shebaa Farms is disputed territory along the Israel-Lebanon border. 

Asked about the potential for escalation in light of Nasrallah's speech, Hagari reiterated Israel would respond with action, noting they are highly prepared. 

It is unclear what Nasrallah may announce in Friday’s speech, but Hezbollah-owned media have been effusive in their support for Hamas since October 7. Observers will watch the speech for signs of a new phase in the conflict, or modifications to the loosely defined rules of engagement that extend beyond the current tit-for-tat. 

In anticipation of the speech, White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Thursday, “Our message to him or to anybody else is that they're thinking about widening and escalating and deepening this conflict: You shouldn't do it.”

Some background: Hezbollah is widely considered to be the regional wildcard that could tip the Israel-Hamas war into a regional conflict. It has a more sophisticated arsenal than Hamas, and its increased involvement in the war could rope in Iran’s paramilitary partners in Iraq and Yemen. 

CNN's Jim Sciutto, Jo Shelley, Ben Wedeman and Charbel Mallo contributed reporting to this post.

The United States believes Israel is "making efforts to try to minimize civilian casualties," National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby said Thursday — but he declined repeatedly to say whether President Joe Biden's administration sees Israel as having tried to minimize civilian deaths in its airstrikes on the Jabalya refugee camp.

Kirby told CNN earlier this week that it was “obvious” to the US that Israel is “trying to minimize” civilian deaths. When asked Thursday whether that remains the White House’s view after Israel struck the camp twice in two days, Kirby told CNN’s MJ Lee, “We see in the scope of their operations that they are making efforts to try to minimize civilian casualties.”

Israel's strikes on Jabalya prompted the United Nations Human Rights Office to express concern that the strikes "could amount to war crimes." The Israeli military said the strikes targeted Hamas commanders and the militant group's infrastructure.

Pressed again on the airstrikes on Jabalya specifically, Kirby said Thursday, “I'm not going to talk about specifics because I'm not going to litigate an operational event that our military is not involved in almost real time.” 

Any questions about the breadth of civilian casualties should come from the Israeli Defense Forces, not the US, Kirby said. 

Kirby reiterated that US officials are stressing the importance of preserving civilian lives with their counterparts in Israel.

The US is “not putting constraints on Israel in terms of how they conduct their operations," according to Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder. He was responding to a question about if the US was putting restrictions on the weapons it was providing.

“They are a professional military, well trained, well-led, and so I’ll just leave it at that,” he said. 

The head of the main United Nations agency in Gaza said on Thursday that its fuel supplies are “completely depleted,” and the last remaining public services in Gaza have "completely collapsed."

The lack of fuel means the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) will not be able to supply hospitals, the water station and bakeries "in the coming days," said Philippe Lazzarini, the agency's commissioner general. The agency may also be unable to move its trucks within the Gaza Strip to provide humanitarian assistance.

The UNRWA now needs to look at what other fuel is available in the strip, Lazzarini said in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour.

"There was commercial fuel, which was available, and there was also fuel which was brought in by the international community to supply the electric plant," he explained, adding that over the last week the agency has also worked with Israeli officials through deconfliction channels to pick up fuel reserves.

Collapse of public services: The last remaining public services in Gaza have "completely collapsed," the UN official said, and the "handful" of aid trucks currently being allowed to enter the territory "basically don't do anything to reverse the fact" Gaza is "being strangled by the siege." 

Claims on Hamas' fuel reserves: Amanpour asked the relief agency leader about reports that Hamas was storing and hoarding fuel.

The Israel Defense Forces has maintained publicly that Hamas holds significant amounts of fuel for its military operations — and that it is not using the supplies to provide for the humanitarian needs of Gaza civilians.

"What I can tell you is that no one right now is taking care of the civilian need. When it comes to the fuel, I have no idea what the military build-up has been of Hamas in the Gaza Strip," Lazzarini said.