November 4, 2023 Israel-Hamas war news

Israeli airstrikes have damaged a building located in front of the emergency entrance of Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City, injuring 21 people, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said Saturday in a post on social media.

One video released by the PRCS shows people sheltering from dust and debris at the hospital's entrance, while some are running from across the street to avoid the debris.

Another video shows people rushing towards the damaged building.

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment about the reported airstrikes.

Some context: The IDF has repeatedly called on civilians to evacuate Gaza City and northern Gaza and move southwards, as it intensifies its assault in the area. The IDF has frequently asserted that civilian infrastructure, including hospital compounds, is being used by Hamas.

Al-Quds Hospital is located north of Wadi Gaza, the line Israel has urged people in Gaza to flee south of.

Turkey has "crossed out" Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu and will strive to bring Israel before the International Criminal Court for its actions in Gaza, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday, according to Turkish state media outlet Anadolu. 

The Turkish leader has been a vocal critic of Israel's actions in Gaza, last week accusing Israel of going beyond its right to defend itself, committing what he described as "oppression, atrocity" and "massacre" in Gaza. 

On Saturday, Erdogan recalled a speech he made at a recent pro-Palestinian rally during which he announced Turkey's support for "initiatives that would bring Israel’s human rights violations and war crimes to the International Criminal Court."

"Our relevant authorities, especially our Foreign Ministry, will carry out this work,” Erdogan added, according to Anadolu. 

The Turkish president is set to meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken soon, after the top US diplomat added a stop in Turkey to his shuttle diplomacy tour of the Middle East. 

Israel is not a member of the ICC, a body which was established in 2002 to bring justice to those found responsible for crimes against humanity and genocide.

A UN-run school serving as a shelter in a refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip was struck Saturday, according to the UN agency assisting Palestinian refugees in Gaza, UNRWA.

The strikes killed 15 people and injured more than 70, according to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza. 

Touma said that at least one strike directly affected the Al-Fakhoura school yard which had been converted to accommodate tents for the displaced families. Another strike damaged the school's perimeter wall, where women were making bread, she said.

Images obtained by CNN of the shelter show damage, bloodshed and casualties within the school's courtyard. 

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

Some context: As of October 12, the Al-Fakhoura school accommodated as many as 16,000 displaced persons. However, the current number of those sheltering there is unknown.

The IDF has repeatedly called on civilians to evacuate Gaza City and northern Gaza and move southwards, as it intensifies its assault in the area. The IDF has frequently asserted that civilian infrastructure is being used by Hamas.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is meeting with Arab officials, including several foreign ministers and Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, at a summit in Jordan's capital, Amman, on Saturday to discuss the conflict in Israel and Gaza.

Foreign ministers from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Qatar, as well as the Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, are set to meet with Blinken, according to a statement from Jordan's foreign ministry.

On Saturday morning, Blinken met with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati to discuss weeks-long tensions between Iran-backed Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah and Israel on the Israeli-Lebanese border, according to US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.

The Jordanian foreign ministry said the summit would be focused on ending the war and addressing “the humanitarian catastrophe it has caused.”

Blinken has also met with Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

Neither spoke during a brief photo opportunity at the beginning of their meeting.

Qatar has served as a key negotiator in discussions with Hamas amid the conflict in Israel and Gaza. The US has credited the Qataris for their help in securing the release of four hostages held by the group, as well as for the partial opening of the Rafah gate between Gaza and Egypt.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has expressed his condolences for the more than 70 UN staff that have been killed in the ongoing conflict in Gaza. 

The Israel-Hamas war has resulted in the highest number of UN workers killed in a conflict anywhere in the world in such a short period of time, the Commissioner of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, announced earlier this week. 

Lazzarini, who oversees the "largest humanitarian operation" in Gaza, told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Thursday that 72 staff members have now been killed in Gaza.  

Blinken told reporters Saturday that he holds "extraordinary admiration" for the "courage" shown by UNRWA employees, stressing that the purpose of his visit was to "talk to people in the field and to express our own ongoing support for this work." 

Some context: UN staffers in Gaza are working lengthy days as dozens of UN-operated schools provide shelter for civilians fleeing Israel's bombardment.

UNRWA said on Friday that nearly 50 of its buildings and assets across Gaza have been impacted by the conflict, with some being “directly hit.”

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) confirmed on Saturday it has received fresh food, water, relief and medical supplies from 47 aid trucks sent by the Egyptian Red Crescent that crossed into Gaza through the Rafah crossing on Friday.

The aid group said this brings the total number of trucks that have crossed successfully from Egypt into Gaza to 421.  

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

More on the Rafah crossing: Located in Egypt’s north Sinai, the Rafah crossing is the sole border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

It falls along an 8-mile (12.8-kilometer) fence that separates Gaza from the Sinai desert.

The Israeli military is calling on Gaza residents to use the main road in the strip in order to travel south of Wadi Gaza, the waterway bisecting the center of the strip.

The Israel Defense Forces spokesman for Arab media posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, in Arabic that residents should use Salah al-Din Road for a three-hour period between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. local time in Gaza to move to safety.

It's unclear how many Gaza residents have access to the internet to see the message.

The IDF has repeatedly called for civilians in Gaza to move south of Wadi Gaza as it intensifies its air and ground assault on Gaza City and northern Gaza, including strikes on densely populated areas and civilian infrastructure that the IDF has said is being used by Hamas militants. 

International aid and rights groups have criticized Israel's calls for residents to evacuate the north without a pause in fighting and with roads and other infrastructure badly damaged.

The number of French nationals killed in the Hamas attacks in Israel has risen to 39, according to the French foreign ministry. 

"France mourns the tragic deaths of further French nationals, bringing the total number of French victims of Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel to 39," the ministry said in a statement Saturday. 

Nine French nationals are still missing following the October 7 attacks, the ministry said, adding that it has "now been confirmed that some of them have been taken hostage by Hamas." 

The French government says it is in contact with the families of the missing individuals. French President Emmanuel Macron met with the family members of hostages during a recent trip to Israel. 

Israeli forces targeted the French cultural center in Gaza, which has been closed since the outbreak of fighting, the French foreign ministry said in a statement Friday.

The ministry said it was informed by Israeli authorities that the site was the target of the strike. It is the only Western cultural center in Gaza, and is affiliated with the French embassy in Israel.

“We have demanded that the Israeli authorities communicate to us without delay via appropriate channels the tangible elements that motivated this decision,” the ministry said. 

The ministry said none of the institute’s workers or French citizens were inside the center at the time of the strike. French authorities have been working to evacuate the center's Palestinian workers from Gaza.

In a statement to CNN, the Israeli military said that it continues to request all Gaza residents move to safer territory in the south of the strip due to its assault on Hamas in Gaza City and northern Gaza. 

Israel has, however, targeted several locations in the southern part of the coastal enclave.

“Hamas continues to attack Israel across the entire Gaza Strip. Hamas has embedded itself in civilian infrastructure and operates across the entire Gaza Strip. The IDF is determined to end these attacks and as such we will strike Hamas wherever necessary,” the IDF statement military said.