October 13, 2023 - Israel-Hamas war news

The first charter flight from Israel organized by the US State Department arrived in Athens Friday afternoon, State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said.

“A big thank you to everyone involved in making this possible. Our work continues,” he added.

Delta, American and United Airlines all announced larger aircraft or that they were adding flights to and from Athens. The airlines also have said they're in close contact with the US State Department.

Here's what each airline is doing:

More on the US effort to get citizens out of Israel: Beyond air transportation, the US is also looking for ways to “expand capacity” via transportation by sea.

“We began offering departure assistance to U.S. citizens who have completed our crisis intake form beginning on Friday, October 13, but it will take some time to schedule everyone seeking to depart,” the US Embassy in Israel said in a security alert on Friday.

It's unclear so far, what specific assets will be used to transport citizens by sea, and Americans who take advantage of the US government transportation “will be asked to sign an agreement to repay the U.S. government prior to departure,” the alert said.

The Biden administration said once the travelers get from Israel to Europe – on Israeli, Turkish and other regional airlines – they’ll be ferried home by US-based and other carriers.

Worried about safety, United, American and Delta airlines all ceased operations to and from Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel’s lone international airport, earlier this week.

Some US citizens have been successful departing Israel into Jordan through the border crossings, including Allenby Bridge, the alert said.

As for citizens in Gaza, US officials are working on "potential options for departure," according to the alert, but further details were not available.

When President Joe Biden was asked about what worried him about a ground invasion of Gaza, he had one word: “Death.”

Biden was speaking while greeting attendees following an economic speech in Philadelphia on Friday.

Earlier, the US president voiced concern about Palestinian civilians in Gaza, who he said were bearing the repercussions of Hamas’s terror in Israel. 

“They’re suffering as a result as well,” Biden said. 

He said US officials were working with regional partners to alleviate the humanitarian crisis. 

Some background: Israel’s military warned 1.1 million people living in northern Gaza to evacuate their homes ahead of a potential Israeli ground operation.

Gaza is already one of the world’s most densely populated pieces of land, with more than 2 million people crammed into 140 square miles. Now, the entire population is being told to move into the southern part of the strip – an order the UN has described as dangerous and “impossible” to carry out.

The Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations outlined a three-point plan Friday aiming to bring an immediate end to violence against Palestinians after millions of Gaza residents have been warned to flee south and signs point to an Israeli ground investigation in the coming days.

“All of us are united to stop this carnage against the Palestinian people now,” Riyad Mansour said to reporters at the United Nations. 

Mansour said the plan includes establishing a ceasefire, allowing for humanitarian assistance to be delivered to Gazans in need, and ultimately denouncing and rejecting the idea of displacing 1.1 million Gazans from the northern part of the territory. 

The ambassador thanked Egypt for opening El Arish Airport to allow for humanitarian assistance and acknowledged the efforts of global leaders, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, to stop the war and prevent what he called the implementation of “ethnic cleansing” by displacing more than 2 million Palestinian civilians. 

Mansour called on the Security Council to shoulder its responsibility toward the Palestinian people and to avoid further destruction and killing in Gaza. 

The Nakba: Mansour compared the calls for Palestinians to leave Gaza to the "Nakba," which means "catastrophe" or "disaster" in Arabic. The term is used to describe the expulsion and flight of 700,000 Palestinians from their homes in what is now Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The United Nations says that Palestinian refugees and their descendants, some of them forcibly displaced during the Nakba, now number 5 million people, many living in camps in neighboring countries.

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations said Friday that the Israeli government is doing “all that we can to minimize civilian casualties," pointing to the advanced warning given to Gazans to evacuate the northern part of the city — an order the United Nations has called "impossible" to achieve.

Erdan criticized the UN for condemning what he called Israel’s preventative measures in mitigating the loss of life. 

The UN has said several times that Israel's order cannot be achieved, and has urged the Israeli military to withdraw, amid signs Israel is set to ramp up its retaliatory offensive against Hamas.

At least 1,900 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza since Hamas — the militant group that runs the densely populated enclave — launched its devastating terror attacks on Israel last Saturday, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Saudi Arabia – his fourth country in one day – as part of the US’s intensive shuttle diplomacy in the region.

Blinken began his day in Jordan for meetings with King Abdullah II and Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank. He then traveled to Qatar for meetings with senior officials and made a quick stop in Manama, Bahrain, before heading to the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

He is also slated to visit the United Arab Emirates and Egypt before returning to the US on Sunday.

Blinken said Thursday that he was visiting the Middle Eastern countries to press them “to help prevent the conflict from spreading, and to use their leverage with Hamas to immediately and unconditionally release the hostages.”

At least 1,900 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza following the deadly Hamas attack last Saturday, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The toll includes 614 children and 370 women, officials said. An additional 7,696 people have been wounded, according to the ministry. 

Two Palestinians were killed on Friday during clashes with Israeli forces in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Al-Issawiya, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.

One of the victims was a 15-year-old who died from gunshot wounds, society told CNN. The organization provides medical aid to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

The aid organization also said it treated five people with injuries, including two people with gunshot injuries, two with injuries from tear gas, and one injured by a rubber bullet. 

Al-Issawiya and other neighborhoods in East Jerusalem were blocked Friday by Israeli forces, which prevented some people from reaching Al-Aqsa Mosque for Friday prayers, according to residents who spoke to CNN.

As a result, clashes erupted between Palestinians and Israeli forces in those areas, and clashes are ongoing in Al-Issawiya.

Jerusalem police said Friday that officers in the area had aerial fireworks and Molotov cocktails launched at them, and in response, the officers fired shots at three perpetrators.

Some context: The Al-Aqsa compound is one of the most revered places in Islam and Judaism. The sacred grounds, known to Muslims as Al Haram Al Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) and to Jews as Temple Mount, have been a flashpoint of tensions between Israel and the Palestinians for decades. 

In a statement, Hamas said it had launched the October 7 attack on Israel — which targeted hundreds of troops and civilians — in part to defend the holy site. 

Israeli police have stormed the mosque multiple times over the past year, arresting hundreds of Palestinians.

East Jerusalem, where the compound is located, is also a contested location. Israel captured East Jerusalem in 1967, and considers both East and West Jerusalem part of its “eternal capital.” Most of the international community, including the UN, considers the area under Israeli occupation.

Currently, a “status quo” arrangement between Israel and Jordan governs the Muslim and Christian holy sites in East Jerusalem.

US President Joe Biden called Hamas “pure evil” but said the majority of Palestinians were suffering as a result of the militant group’s terror at a Friday speech in Philadelphia.

The president, in some of his most direct public comments about the suffering inside Gaza, said he was working “urgently to address the humanitarian crisis” in the coastal Palestinian enclave. 

He also recounted his conversation with the families of Americans missing after the Hamas attacks. 

“They're going through agony not knowing what the status of their sons, daughters, husbands, wives, children are,” he said. “You know, it's gut wrenching. I assured them my personal commitment to do everything possible, everything possible” to ensure their return. 

Biden emphasized that he was working to ensure “Israel has what it needs to defend itself.”

Fourteen Americans remain unaccounted for, and the White House believes “less than a handful” are being held hostage by Hamas following the October 7 attacks, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby has said.

Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah was killed near the Israeli border in southern Lebanon on Friday, according to a statement from the news agency.

What we know so far: CNN teams on the ground say a projectile that came from the Israeli side hit a group of journalists that included Abdallah. At around the same time, the Israel Defense Forces issued a statement saying it had fired artillery at Lebanese territory in response to an explosion at the security fence near Hanita, an Israeli community across the border from the Lebanese village where the gathering of journalists was shelled.

A Lebanese security source tells CNN that an Israeli Apache helicopter was seen over the site of the attack.

Israel Defense Forces did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment.

At least six other journalists, including two more from Reuters, and others from news outlets Al Jazeera and Agence France-Presse, were wounded in the same shelling. Abdallah and the group of injured journalists were wearing press-labeled jackets when the attack occurred, videos show.

The Al Jazeera journalists injured were Carmen Joukhadar and Elie Barakhiya, and the other Reuters journalists were Thaer Al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh. The AFP has not publicly named the two wounded journalists from its agency.

Hezbollah response: The media relations department for Hezbollah — the Lebanese militant group designated as a terrorist organization by the US — released a statement condemning the "targeting" of affected journalists and offering condolences to their news outlets and families.

"We pray to God for a speedy recovery for the injured. We demand that all media, humanitarian, and legal institutions to condemn the Zionist aggression on Lebanon and condemn the so-called free world's blind bias to the murderers, criminals, and aggressors,” it said. 

Separately, Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati also released a statement condemning the attack on the journalists. 

What's happening in southern Lebanon: Fighters in Lebanon and Israeli forces have regularly exchanged fire in recent days at the border following the surprise Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7.

Hezbollah’s has unambiguously voiced support for the Palestinian militants. It has sponsored rallies in support of Palestinian groups and has roundly condemned Israel’s large-scale airstrikes on Gaza.

It is still unclear whether Hezbollah will actively participate in the conflict. The US and its allies have warned the group against escalating the situation.