October 15, 2023 Israel-Hamas war news

Our live coverage of the conflict in Israel and Gaza has moved here.

Desperate residents hoping to exit Gaza via the Rafah crossing may receive “very little notice” if it opens, the US Embassy in Israel warned on Monday.

The Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt is the only remaining outlet to get people out of the enclave and supplies into it, but it has been closed for much of the past week.

“It is unclear whether, or for how long, travelers will be permitted to transit the crossing. If you assess it to be safe, you may wish to move closer to the Rafah border crossing,” the embassy said, adding there may be “very little notice if the crossing opens and it may only open for a limited time.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that “Rafah will be open” after meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

About half a million people have left northern Gaza for the south following Israel’s evacuation notice on Friday, an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said Sunday.

The estimate represents roughly half the population of northern Gaza, where the IDF is gearing up for the next stages of its war with Hamas, which runs the territory.

“The estimates — and I emphasize these are estimates and it is difficult to track — but we are looking at approximately half a million [people],” IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

The evacuation advisory came after Israel imposed a complete siege on Gaza. The IDF said Saturday it would allow safe movement on specified streets for residents to move from the northern city of Beit Hanoun to Khan Yunis in the south — a roughly 20-mile distance of rubble-strewn streets.

Southern Gaza is struggling to accommodate the influx of people. Shelters are overloaded and the area is experiencing shortages of food, water and fuel.

Conricus said Israel has “opened taps” on its side to allow water to enter southern Gaza, but said he “doesn’t have visibility on exactly how much is actually flowing where it should.”

Shelters in southern Gaza are overloaded, with shortages of crucial supplies, as tens of thousands of people flee from Israeli airstrikes on the north of the coastal enclave, a UN official said Sunday.

“We are at a very limited capacity in the south,” Lynn Hastings, the UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said on UNTV. “There aren’t shelters available in the south in terms of the numbers that are coming.”

Southern Gaza is also experiencing shortages of food, water and fuel, she said.

“There’s some food in distribution sites, but we can’t get to them because of the bombardment,” Hastings said.

The fuel scarcity has widespread ramifications for the area.

“No fuel means no desalination,” Hastings said. “Gaza is heavily reliant on desalination. No fuel also means no health care because you need electricity to run hospitals.”

On Sunday, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations told CNN water has been turned back on in southern Gaza, but he didn’t say if electricity was on for desalination.

Israel “has no interest” in occupying Gaza but will do “whatever is needed” to eliminate Hamas, the country’s ambassador to the United Nations said Sunday.

His remarks come after US President Joe Biden warned Israel against occupying the coastal enclave as it signals it is preparing for a ground invasion amid a spiraling humanitarian crisis.

“We have no interest to occupy Gaza or to stay in Gaza, but since we are fighting for our survival and the only way, as the president [Biden] himself defined is to obliterate Hamas, so we will have to do whatever is needed to obliterate their capabilities,” Israel’s ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.

In an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday, Biden said it would be a “big mistake” for Israel to occupy Gaza.His comments amount to one of the few times the US president has called on Israel to use restraint in responding to the Hamas attacks that left 1,400 dead.

Michael Herzog, the Israeli ambassador to the US, told CNN on Sunday that Israel does not intend to occupy Gaza after the conflict ends.

“We have no desire to occupy or reoccupy Gaza. We have no desire to rule over the lives of more than 2 million Palestinians,” Herzog said.

Biden meanwhile, has called for the protection of civilians as the US has been working to alleviate shortages of food, water and gas.

Erdan said water has been turned back on in southern Gaza, but he didn’t say if electricity was on for desalination.

Large-scale demonstrations in support of Palestinians took place around Europe this weekend as conditions in Gaza deteriorated with tens of thousands of residents attempting to flee Israeli airstrikes.

As the conflict reaches unprecedented heights, protests in support of both Israelis and Palestinians have been seen around the world — some resulting in violent clashes.

Here’s a roundup:

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday reiterated Beijing’s support for an independent Palestinian state as a way out of the conflict in Israel and Gaza.

In a phone call with his Iranian counterpart, Wang presented China as a peace broker, saying Beijing would “stand on the side of peace and justice and to support the Palestinian people in their just cause of safeguarding their national rights.”

“The fundamental reason for the situation in Palestine and Israel to have developed to the present stage is that the Palestinian people’s right to statehood has long been put on hold”, Wang told Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, according to a readout from China’s Foreign Ministry.

“This historical injustice should be brought to an end as soon as possible,” he said.

In a separate call with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Wang called for a ceasefire, the opening of humanitarian aid routes to Gaza and the resumption of dialogue between Israel and Palestinian authorities.

Without mentioning Israel, he said, “the right to self-defence should be exercised in compliance with international humanitarian law and not at the expense of innocent civilian casualties,” according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry readout.

Some context: China has long supported a “two-state solution” to establish an independent Palestinian state. Both Israel and the United States have expressed strong dissatisfaction to China for not strongly condemning Hamas’ deadly and brutal attacks against Israelis on October 7, and for not showing support to Israel following the massacre.

Hospitals in Gaza are under constant bombardment and facing imminent shutdown due to a lack of fuel, a Palestinian humanitarian official said Sunday.

Speaking to CNN’s Erin Burnett from Ramallah in the West Bank, Palestinian Red Crescent Director General Marwan Jilani said food, water, medicine, and fuel are in critically short supply.

He said hospitals in the coastal enclave have only enough fuel for Monday, and perhaps the day after. They cannot operate without fuel, he said.

Jilani called for a ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza from the Rafah crossing. He said Israel and Egypt were ready to facilitate aid delivery, contingent upon a cessation of hostilities. 

Some context: The Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, the only remaining outlet for aid, has been closed for much of the past week, with tons of vital humanitarian supplies for people in Gaza piling up on the Egyptian side of the border.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that “Rafah will be open” after meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday warned of the risk of a wider regional conflict in the Middle East as Israel pounds Gaza with airstrikes in response to Hamas’ unprecedented surprise attacks.

“There is a risk of an escalation of this conflict, the opening of a second front in the north, and of course of Iran’s involvement — that is a risk. And that’s a risk that we have been mindful of since the start,” Sullivan said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“It’s why the President moves so rapidly and decisively to get an aircraft carrier into the eastern Mediterranean, to get aircraft into the Gulf, because he wants to send a very clear message of deterrence to any state or any actor that would seek to exploit this situation.”

The Pentagon has ordered a second carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean Sea and is sending Air Force fighter jets to the region as Israel prepares to expand its Gaza operations, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement Saturday.

The US warships are not intended to join the fighting in Gaza or take part in Israel’s operations, but the presence of two of the Navy’s most powerful vessels is designed to send a message of deterrence to Iran and Iranian proxies in the region, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Some more context: If Hezbollah joins the conflict, it could provide the next flashpoint that would entangle bigger regional powers such as Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Israel has long accused Iran of engaging in a form of proxy war by backing groups — including Hamas — that have launched attacks on its shores. Iran has denied any involvement in the October 7 attacks.

US President Joe Biden on Sunday said there’s “no clear evidence” of Iran being behind the attacks. 

President Joe Biden said it would be a “big mistake” for Israel to reoccupy Gaza, but that Israel “has to respond” and “go after Hamas” after last week’s terror attacks — which he compared to the Holocaust — in an interview that aired Sunday.

Asked by “60 Minutes” if he agreed with a “total siege” of Gaza, Biden said he was confident Israel would act within the rules of war and there would “be an ability for the innocents in Gaza to be able to have access to medicine and food and water.”

The interview was shot by CBS News on Friday and aired on “60 Minutes” Sunday. 

Asked if he would support an Israeli occupation of Gaza at this point, Biden answered more directly.

“I think it’d be a big mistake,” he said. “Look, what happened in Gaza, in my view, is Hamas and the extreme elements of Hamas don’t represent all the Palestinian people. And I think that…It would be a mistake to…for Israel to occupy…Gaza again. We…but going in but taking out the extremists the Hezbollah is up north but Hamas down south. Is a necessary requirement.”

It was his most public warning so far against an Israeli occupation of Gaza.

Biden also said he wanted to see aid supplies sent into Gaza and the establishment of a humanitarian corridor for civilians to leave the enclave, but said it was “hard.” His administration was working on that with Israeli and Egyptian officials, he said. 

While Biden said he believes Hamas must be eliminated entirely, he added “there needs to be a Palestinian Authority. There needs to be — a path to a Palestinian state.”

Asked if there should now be a ceasefire, Biden voiced support for further action against Hamas. 

US President Joe Biden Sunday maintained there’s “no clear evidence” of Iran being behind the terror attacks in Israel carried out by Hamas earlier this month.

“I don’t want to get into classified information. But to be very blunt with you, there is no clear evidence of that,” Biden said in an interview with “60 Minutes.”  

Pressed again whether Iran was behind any of the conflict, Biden reiterated that there’s no evidence “at this point” that Iran helped plan the attack. 

Asked about his message to Hezbollah and Iran, and the limited fighting on the northern Israeli border this week, Biden said: “Don’t. Don’t, don’t, don’t.”

Administration officials have said that intelligence, so far, hasn’t indicated that Iran was involved in the planning of last Saturday’s terror attack, but they continue to assess new information as it is gathered.

“What we think now — again, we have not seen any evidence, specific evidence, that Iran was directly involved with these specific sets of attacks,” White House National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby told reporters last week.

“The book’s not closed on it. We’re going to keep looking at that. But that’s just where we are right now,” he added.

More background: CNN reported Wednesday that US intelligence suggests senior Iranian government officials were caught by surprise by Hamas’ attack, according to multiple sources familiar with the intelligence.

One source noted that while Hamas maintains operational independence from Iran — making it plausible that the Iranian government may not have known about the attack in advance — without Iran’s longstanding funding and training to Hamas militants, the group could not exist as it does now.

Iran has for years been Hamas’ chief benefactor, providing it with tens of millions of dollars, weapons and components smuggled into Gaza, as well as broad technical and ideological support.

CNN’s Zachary Cohen, Katie Bo Lillis, Natasha Bertrand and Jeremy Herb contributed reporting to this post.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in his first clear and stark denouncement of Hamas’ attacks on Israel, said the militant group’s actions “do not represent the Palestinian people.”

“The policies and actions of Hamas do not represent the Palestinian people, and it is the policies, programs, and decisions of the Palestine Liberation Organization that represent the Palestinian people as their legitimate and sole representative,” Abbas said during a phone call with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Sunday, the official Palestinian press agency WAFA reported.

Abbas called for an end to civilian casualties, the release of prisoners and a rejection of violence, according to WAFA.

During the call, Abbas also emphasized the urgent need for Israel to stop its aggression in Gaza and to immediately protect Gazan civilians by opening a humanitarian corridor for provisions of medical supplies, water, electricity, and fuel to the citizens of Gaza, WAFA reported. 

Abbas said displacing Palestinians from Gaza would represent “a second catastrophe for the Palestinian people,” WAFA added.

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

Abbas is the leader of the Palestinian Authority, a government body with limited self-rule in the West Bank. It was established in the 1993 Oslo Accords, a peace pact between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization that saw the PLO give up armed resistance against Israel in return for promises of an independent Palestinian state.

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.

You can read more about Hamas and the Palestinian Authority here.

CNN’s Abbas Al Lawati and Nadeen Ebrahim contributed reporting to this post.

Israel is gearing up for the next stage of its war on Hamas, following the Palestinian militant group’s brutal October 7 attacks that killed 1,400 people.

Following a week of unprecedented airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, which have killed more than 2,600 people, Israel is massing troops and military equipment on its border with the Hamas-controlled enclave. It has warned some 1.1 million people in the northern half of the strip to evacuate, according to the United Nations.

As Israel prepares for a ground offensive into Gaza, here’s what you need to know about the 140 square-mile territory – one of the most densely-populated areas on Earth.

What is Gaza? Gaza is a narrow strip of land, only about 25 miles long and seven miles wide – just over twice the size of Washington DC.

To its west lies the Mediterranean Sea, to its north and east is Israel, and Egypt is to its south.

It is one of two Palestinian territories, the other being the larger, Israeli-occupied West Bank, which borders Jordan.

Who lives there? Around 2 million people are crammed into the 140-square-mile territory. The overwhelming majority of people are young, with 50% of the population under the age of 18, according to the World Health Organization.

Nearly all of Gazans – 98-99% – are Muslim, according to the CIA World Factbook, with most of the rest Christians.

More than 1 million of Gaza’s residents are refugees, with eight recognized Palestinian refugee camps, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

Hamas has held the territory for years: In 2006, Hamas won a landslide victory in Palestinian legislative elections – the last polls to be held in Gaza.

Hamas is an Islamist organization with a military wing that formed in 1987, emerging out of the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamist group that was founded in the late 1920s in Egypt.

The group considers Israel to be an illegitimate state and an occupying power in Gaza. Unlike other Palestinian groups, such as the Palestinian Authority, Hamas refuses to engage with Israel.

The group has claimed responsibility for many attacks on Israel over the years and has been designated as a terrorist organization by countries including the United States, the European Union and Israel. The last war between Hamas and Israel was in 2021, which lasted for 11 days and killed at least 250 people in Gaza and 13 in Israel.

Israel’s enduring blockade: Despite Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, since 2007 it has maintained tight control over the territory through a land, air and sea blockade. For nearly 17 years, Gaza has been almost totally cut off from the rest of the world, with severe restrictions on the movement of goods and people.

The blockade has been fiercely criticized by international bodies including the UN, which said in a 2022 report that restrictions have had a “profound impact” on living conditions in Gaza and have “undermined Gaza’s economy, resulting in high unemployment, food insecurity and aid dependency.”

Israel has said the blockade is vital to protect its citizens from Hamas.

You can read much more about Gaza here, including details about Hamas, the territory’s history, and living conditions in the enclave.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invited US President Joe Biden to visit Israel soon, and the two sides are discussing the possibility, a source familiar with the matter said.

It wasn’t clear how advanced the discussions were, or when a possible trip might occur. 

The White House said Sunday it didn’t have any new travel plans to announce.

If Biden were to visit, it would come after high-stakes shuttle diplomacy by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has been jetting between countries in the region for the past several days.

Elsewhere in Washington: The US Senate will receive a classified briefing Wednesday regarding the ongoing Israel-Hamas war and humanitarian situation in Gaza, according to a Senate source. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. C.Q. Brown will brief the senators.

CNN’s Morgan Rimmer contributed reporting to this post.

At least 30 US citizens have died in Israel, a State Department official said Sunday.

That number has risen by one since Saturday.

The State Department is “also aware of 13 American nationals who are unaccounted-for,” the spokesperson said. That number has gone down by two people since Saturday.

The spokesperson said officials have been in contact with families, and that the US government “is working around the clock to determine their whereabouts.”

Americans are believed to be among the hostages taken by Hamas when it launched its October 7 surprise attack on Israel.

The US “is working with the Israeli government on every aspect of the hostage crisis,” the spokesperson said, “including sharing intelligence and deploying experts from across the United States government to advise the Israeli government on hostage recovery efforts.”

The Israeli military says it killed a Hamas commander as part of strikes on some 250 targets Sunday, mostly in the northern Gaza Strip.

The commander was identified in an Israel Defense Forces statement as Muetaz Eid, commander of the Hamas Southern District of National Security, who was located through intelligence from the IDF and the Israeli Security Agency, the statement said.

Hamas has not yet made a statement.

The IDF said it also hit “dozens of military headquarters, a series of military observation posts, and a number of rocket launching posts used by Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations.”

Some background: Israel launched its offensive in response to the devastating October 7 Hamas terror attacks that killed 1,400 people.

Hamas controls Gaza, which is home to 2.2 million Palestinians. More than 2,600 people have died there as Israel pounds the territory with strikes, the Palestinian health ministry says. The ministry has slammed Israel for killing civilians and emergency workers in its assault.

Israel has told the 1.1 million residents of northern Gaza to leave home for their safety as it gears up for the next stages of its war with Hamas.

Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, addressed the dire situation in the Gaza Strip Sunday, highlighting the critical humanitarian crisis. Lazzarini emphasized Gaza is rapidly running out of water and electricity, and the population faces severe shortages of food and medicine.

“Gaza is being strangled and it seems that the world right now has lost its humanity. If we look at the issue of water — we all know water is life — Gaza is running out of water, and Gaza is running out of life,” Lazzarini said.

Asked by a journalist during a news conference about the restoration of water in the southern Gaza, Lazzarini said:

“We haven’t been able yet to confirm. My understanding is that if there is restoration of the water, it would primarily impact Khan Younis or half of Khan Younis. So, it would not cover to south of Khan Younis or the people in Rafah. But again, this is a report that we need to confirm. And for the time being our colleagues on the ground are not able to confirm this information.”

He described an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe with thousands seeking shelter in UNRWA facilities, while resources are stretched to the limit. “The number of people seeking shelter in our schools and other UNRWA facilities in the south is absolutely overwhelming, and we do not have, anymore, the capacity to deal with them,” he added.

Lazzarini noted the blockade, which he said started 16 years before the recent conflict, had already placed a significant burden on the population, with more than 60% relying on international food assistance.

According to UNRWA, 14 of its staff members have been killed, and many others are displaced or affected by the ongoing crisis, Lazzarini said.

He called for an immediate end to the hostilities to prevent further loss of life, the lifting of the siege, and the establishment of a humanitarian corridor to provide essential supplies such as fuel, water, food, and medicine.

The commissioner general stressed the importance of upholding international humanitarian law, emphasizing all wars must abide by its principles.

An estimated 1.1 million people live in Gaza City and surrounding parts of the northern Gaza Strip, where the Israeli military has warned civilians to leave before a new phase in its war with Hamas.

The map below shows the densely populated areas included in Israel’s advisory.

It also shows the Rafah crossing to Egypt (bottom-left) — the only option for people trying to leave Gaza entirely, as Israel has tightened its long-established blockade on the territory and completely closed its border crossings.

Hamas is holding 155 hostages after its surprise attack on Israel, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Efforts continue on several fronts to get the hostages released. Troops are working to get the captives back “immediately” and with “no conditions,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Sunday.

“We are trying our best, of course, to identify their exact fate through various sources, and we are demanding from the international community unequivocal condemnation, and demand for the release of the hostages,” Herzog said in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

Herzog said it is a “complicated situation” because Hamas does not “obey any rules of international humanitarian law in any way or format. For years already, they’ve been holding Israeli soldiers, bodies, citizens from previous rounds, not even telling any information about their fate, whereabouts and how they’re feeling.”

He said there is “a big international effort” to bring the hostages back, and thanked the US in particular for its support.

The Israeli president said some of the hostages need special medications and treatment, calling the situation regarding their health “extremely fragile.”

Read more about the hostages captured by Hamas here.

The humanitarian crisis is deepening in Gaza. The Hamas-run enclave — home to 2.2 million Palestinians — has been pounded by airstrikes in retaliation for the militant group’s devastating October 7 terror attacks on Israel.

At least 2,670 people have already died in Gaza, and aid groups warn they are running out of critical supplies as Israel maintains a “complete siege” on the crowded territory. Tens of thousands of northern Gaza residents are trying to evacuate after the Israeli military warned the “next stages of the war” will bring even more airstrikes and “significant ground operations.”

Diplomatic efforts are taking center stage this weekend. Here’s some of the latest from world leaders:

Israel is in the process of working with the United Nations to create a humanitarian zone in Gaza, Michael Herzog, Israeli ambassador to the United States, told CNN on Sunday.

“We are in the process of establishing a humanitarian zone, a big humanitarian zone in the southern part of Gaza, with the UN. We are working very closely with UN agencies so that they will go there — it will be a humanitarian zone and they will get all the essential provisions like water, medicine, food, and things like that,” Herzog said.

The zone would be able to host hundreds of thousands of people, Herzog said.

“We are operating under international law and any essentials that the Palestinian population needs, we’re facilitating. That’s why we’re establishing this safe zone,” Herzog said.

CNN has reached out to the UN for comment.

Herzog added Israel does not intend to occupy Gaza after the conflict.

“We have no desire to occupy or reoccupy Gaza. We have no desire to rule over the lives of more than two million Palestinians,” Herzog said.

Israel’s military airstrikes have killed at least 2,670 people and wounded 9,600 others since October 7, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said in a statement Sunday.

The health ministry further accused the Israeli military of “direct targeting of medical staff and their families.”

Palestinian health officials have previously accused Israeli forces of targeting medical workers. CNN cannot independently verify those claims, and has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.

The health ministry urged the world to send medical teams.

“We call on the world, international organizations and emergency action relief to send voluntary medical delegations from all specialties to rescue the wounded civilians of the Gaza Strip,” Marwan Abu Saada, director general of International Cooperation at the Ministry of Health, said during a news briefing.

The Israel Defense Forces told CNN on Sunday the number of people killed in the surprise October 7 Hamas attack is now known to be more than 1,400.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken promised Sunday that the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt “will be open” after meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

“Rafah will be open,” he said. “We’re putting in place with the UN, with Egypt, Israel, with others, the mechanism by which to get the assistance in and to get it to people who need it.”

Israel has closed its two border crossings with Gaza and imposed a “complete siege” on the territory, blocking supplies of fuel, electricity and water. That has left the Rafah crossing as the only viable outlet to get people out of the enclave — and supplies into it.

Officials from several countries have been involved in the talks around when, and to what extent, the crossing can be opened. Catch up on the issue here.

Aid efforts: Blinken also announced President Joe Biden’s appointment of David Satterfield, former US ambassador to Turkey, to help coordinate aid efforts. Blinken said Satterfield will be in Israel on Monday to begin coordinating.

Blinken, who has met with various regional leaders including those of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, said he had “very good conversations” with both el-Sisi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

He added every nation he spoke with shared the administration’s goal of preventing an escalation and securing aid to civilians stuck in Gaza.

US support for Israel: Blinken said while the US supports Israel’s right to defend itself, he hopes Israel responds “in a way that affirms the shared values that we have for human life and human dignity.”

“The way that Israel does this matters. It needs to do it in a way that affirms the shared values that we have for human life and human dignity, taking every possible precaution to avoid harming civilians,” he said. “Civilians should not have to suffer for Hamas’ atrocities.”

Asked if the US would come to Israel’s defense in the event of an escalation, Blinken said, “I don’t think we could be more clear than we’ve been, that when it comes to Israel’s security, we have Israel’s back.”

He added, “We will stand with it today, tomorrow, and every day.”

Military presence in the Middle East: Blinken assured US strike groups mobilized in the region are not intended “to provoke anyone, but to send a very clear message of deterrence, that no one should do anything that widens this conflict in any way, or that furthers aggression against Israel from any other direction.”

“No one should do anything that could add fuel to the fire in any other place. I think that’s very clear,” he added.

Egypt is facing mounting pressure to act as neighboring Gaza gets pummeled by Israeli strikes after last weekend’s brutal assault in Israel by Hamas.

In the wake of the Hamas attacks, Israel closed its two border crossings with Gaza and imposed a “complete siege” on the territory, blocking supplies of fuel, electricity and water.

It has left the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt as the only viable outlet to get people out of the enclave — and supplies into it.

But the crossing has been closed for much of the past week: Neither Gazans nor foreign nationals have been able to cross.

A Palestinian border official told CNN Egypt had blocked the gates of the crossing with concrete slabs. Egypt has denied reports it closed its side of the crossing, and said the Gaza side had been damaged by repeated Israeli airstrikes.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told CNN on Saturday the crossing was open, but aerial bombardment had rendered the roads “inoperable” on the Gaza side.

Aid is stuck at the crossing: Tons of vital humanitarian supplies for people in Gaza are piling up on the Egyptian side of the border.

Aid flights from Jordan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the World Health Organization and the Red Cross have arrived in the Egyptian city of El-Arish, approximately 45 kilometers (23 miles) away from Rafah, according to footage aired on Egyptian state television Saturday.

The Red Crescent has warehouses full of humanitarian aid, and the El-Arish stadium has been prepared to accommodate more aid, an official said Saturday.

A World Health Organization plane carrying medical supplies also landed in Egypt on Saturday, the WHO director-general said. However, the organization is still waiting for humanitarian access through the crossing.

Diplomatic efforts: Shoukry, the Egyptian foreign minister, told CNN the country has tried to ship humanitarian aid to Gaza but has not received the proper authorization to do so.

Egypt said Sunday it would intensify its efforts to try and help relief organizations deliver aid to Gaza, though a statement from the Egyptian presidency said “national security is a red line and that there is no compromise in its protection.”

The Biden administration has held talks with Israel and Egypt about getting aid to Gaza and ensuring safe passage for Americans and other civilians out of the territory.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN on Sunday Egypt was willing to allow Americans to cross at Rafah but a group of them had been blocked by Hamas.

Egypt’s concerns: Egypt, which already hosts millions of migrants, is uneasy about the prospect of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees crossing into its territory. More than two million Palestinians live in Gaza.

Egyptian media outlets have sounded alarms about the prospect of allowing Palestinian refugees into the country, warning it may forcefully displace Gazans into Sinai.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi echoed those sentiments Thursday. “There is a danger” when it comes to Gaza, he said, “a danger so big, because it means an end to this (Palestinian) cause … It is important that (Gaza’s) people remain standing and on their land.”

The Rafah crossing is pictured at the bottom of the map below, which shows the extent of the Israeli blockade on Gaza:

Fighter jets have struck Hezbollah military infrastructure in Lebanon, Israel Defense Forces said in an update Sunday.

Earlier, the IDF said it was responding to fire coming from Lebanon. 

“At the same time, a report was received regarding a shooting toward IDF soldiers along the border of Lebanon,” it said, adding IDF soldiers in the area were “responding with live fire.”

More context: This fighting is centered on northern Israel and southern Lebanon — separate from Israel’s fighting with Hamas farther south, which is centered around Gaza.

But an uptick in clashes with Hezbollah has raised fears the powerful Lebanese paramilitary group could actively participate in the conflict. Hezbollah has unambiguously supported the Palestinian militants and roundly condemned Israel’s large-scale airstrikes on Gaza, but it has not intervened on behalf of Hamas so far.

President Joe Biden said the US can provide support to Israel and Ukraine while still maintaining, “our overall international defense,” in an interview excerpt aired Sunday morning.

“We have the capacity to do this and we have an obligation to, we are the essential nation,” Biden said on CBS News, paraphrasing a famous quote from former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

“We’re the United States of America for God’s sake, the most powerful nation in the history — not in the world, in the history of the world. The history of the world. We can take care of both of these and still maintain our overall international defense,” Biden said, when asked if the US could take on both wars at the same time. “And if we don’t, who does?” the president noted.

A pillar of Biden’s presidency has been to reassert America’s global leadership, which is supported, the White House argues, by the president’s lifetime of experience and worldview, and which his allies said will guide his next steps through remarkably uneven geopolitical crosscurrents of aid for Israel, funding for Ukraine and relations with Iran, CNN previously reported.

The full interview airs on CBS “60 Minutes” tonight.

Additional US attack aircraft have arrived in the Middle East as part of a plan to bolster American defense posture in the region, US Air Combat Command announced Sunday.

The deployment of additional A-10 Warthog attack aircraft, along with other US fighter jets, is intended to deter any Iranian aggression or an expansion of the fighting beyond Israel’s borders, a US official previously told CNN.

“A-10s from the 354th EFS have arrived to the US Central Command AOR (Area of Responsibility),” Air Combat Command posted on social media Sunday.

“This arrival bolsters the U.S. defense posture, enhances air operations throughout the Middle East, and reassures our allies and regional partners we remain postured to protect and defend their freedom,” the post added.

Last week, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the US would “augment” its fighter squadrons in the Middle East under US Central Command.

In addition to F-35s and F-15s, Austin also said F-16 and A-10 squadrons in the region would be bolstered.

The death toll in Gaza increased to 2,450 people and 9,200 injured, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said.

A bipartisan US Senate delegation was forced to take shelter in Tel Aviv amid rocket fire on Sunday, according to a social media post by US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

“While in Tel Aviv today, our delegation was rushed to a shelter to wait out rockets sent by Hamas,” Schumer wrote. “It shows you what Israelis have to go through. We must provide Israel with the support required to defend itself.”

Schumer, who is leading the delegation on a trip to meet high-level Israeli officials and show US support for Israel, posted a photo of senators and staffers standing in an Israeli shelter.

The Israel Defense Forces warned the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah to “watch very closely what is happening to Hamas,” following the recent exchanges of fire along the Israeli-Lebanese border.

“With Hezbollah, we have had several skirmishes along the border over the last few days,” IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said in an interview with ABC’s “This Week” program on Sunday.

“Even today, during the day, we’ve had anti-tank guided missiles fired at forces indeed causing some casualties. So, we need to be prepared,” Lerner said.

On Sunday, Hezbollah launched an attack on the northern Israeli town of Shtula, killing one Israeli, according to medics.

Hezbollah said Sunday’s attack was launched as a response to the killing of a Reuters journalist during Israeli shelling in Lebanon.

“I would highly recommend that Hezbollah watch very closely what is happening to Hamas and their organization in Gaza as we speak,” Lerner added, stressing the militant group should be “very cautious of crossing that threshold.”

Israel is also keeping a close eye on Iran, Lerner said, accusing them of using “millions and millions of dollars” to “fund terrorist organizations.”

More background: This fighting is centered on northern Israel and southern Lebanon — separate from Israel’s fighting with Hamas farther south, which is centered around Gaza.

But an uptick in clashes with Hezbollah has raised fears the powerful Lebanese paramilitary group could actively participate in the conflict. Hezbollah has unambiguously supported the Palestinian militants and roundly condemned Israel’s large-scale airstrikes on Gaza, but it has not intervened on behalf of Hamas so far.

Hamas has been stopping Americans from leaving Gaza through the Rafah crossing to Egypt, even though Cairo has agreed to let US citizens cross into the country, the White House said Sunday.

 “We have told President Sisi to open the border to let Americans out,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “The situation there at the crossing is actually more complicated.”

Sullivan said while the Egyptians have agreed to allow Americans to depart to get safe passage through the Rafah crossing and the Israelis agreed, “to ensure that the area around there would be safe, at least as far as they were able to do so,” when a group tried to cross yesterday, it “was actually Hamas taking steps to try to stop that from happening.”

“But we are continuing to work this around the clock, and we are doing all that we can to make sure that American citizens who are in Gaza can get through that border crossing,” Sullivan said. He added US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Egypt Sunday to meet with the country’s president, and it was “at the top of his list to help get those American citizens out of Gaza.”

“Anyone who is a US citizen should have the right to free passage through there, and then have the US government facilitate their travel home,” he said.

Key context: Egypt is facing mounting pressure to act as neighboring Gaza gets pummeled by Israeli airstrikes after Hamas’ brutal October 7 terror attacks on Israel.

In the wake of the Hamas attacks, Israel closed its two border crossings with Gaza and imposed a “complete siege” on the territory, blocking supplies of fuel, electricity and water.

It has left the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt as the only viable outlet to get people out of the enclave — and supplies into it. But it’s unclear if even the crossing is operational.

The Egyptian foreign minister told CNN Saturday the crossing was officially open on the Egyptian side, but aerial bombardment had left the roads to the crossing “inoperable” on the Gaza side. He emphasized the need for humanitarian shipments to use the crossing.

CNN spoke to several Gaza residents Saturday who said they tried to leave via the Rafah crossing but were eventually turned away.

CNN’s Nadeen Ebrahim contributed reporting to this post.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office told CNN Sunday Israel has restored water to southern Gaza, but the director of the Palestinian Water Authority said he could not be sure it was true, because electricity has not been restored.

“I cannot confirm this at the moment because our water stations in Khan Younis, Gaza City, and central Gaza are not in a condition to receive and distribute water to the people,” Munther Shublaq, the director of the Water Authority in Gaza, told CNN.

“To enable the stations to receive and distribute water, we need electricity, which is currently cut off. The alternative is fuel to power the generator, which we also do not have. There may be pressure to restore the water supply, but I cannot confirm anything until the stations are ready.”

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan shared the development with CNN earlier Sunday.

“I can tell you this morning that I have been in touch with my Israeli counterparts just within the last hour who report to me that they have in fact turned the water pipe back on in Southern Gaza,” Sullivan told CNN.

Sullivan was pressed by CNN’s Jake Tapper to identify — from the Biden administration perspective — the difference between Russia cutting off supplies to civilians in Ukraine and Israel doing the same in Gaza.

“First, thank you for saying that Israel is not Russia,” Sullivan first responded.
“Civilians are civilians,” Tapper said.
Sullivan responded, “Yes, absolutely they are. They deserve, as I said before, access to water and medicine, and we are working actively to ensure that that happens.”

More context: The US has held diplomatic conversations with the United Nations, Jordan, Egypt and others to allow access of humanitarian supplies to flow into Gaza as the crisis deepens.

Trapped residents in the Gaza Strip — the coastal enclave Hamas controls — have been pummeled by airstrikes since Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a “complete siege” on the area, including halting supplies of electricity, food, water and fuel.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement Sunday afternoon it is responding to fire from Lebanon.

“Following reports regarding sirens sounded in northern Israel, nine rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israeli territory,” the IDF said in a statement.

According to the statement, the IDF’s Aerial Defense Array intercepted five rockets.

“The IDF is currently striking the site of the launch in Lebanon,” the statement said.

Remember: This fighting is centered on northern Israel and southern Lebanon — separate from Israel’s fighting with Hamas farther south, which is centered around Gaza. But an uptick in clashes with Hezbollah has raised fears the powerful Lebanese paramilitary group could actively participate in the conflict. Hezbollah has unambiguously supported the Palestinian militants and roundly condemned Israel’s large-scale airstrikes on Gaza, but it has not intervened on behalf of Hamas so far.

Israel’s military is seeing a “strong flow” of people moving out of northern Gaza after it said civilians should evacuate southward, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, told CNN in an interview Sunday.

“We are currently operating in order to ensure that people evacuate the area. We are seeing a strong flow of people going south which is actually a good thing,” Lerner told CNN’s Sara Sidner.

“Hamas has turned Gaza City into a fortress, a mechanism of brutal murder. They cannot be permitted to remain there, so they need to be removed,” Lerner said. “And what will come afterward is first of all, safety and security to the State of Israel.”

When asked if Israel was coordinating with any aid organizations to get civilians in Gaza water, food, and other necessities, Lerner said the IDF needed to leave “the diplomacy for the diplomats.”

“The IDF and the defense ministry are engaged with the international community to try and facilitate various different things … I speak on behalf of the IDF. So, we are deeply involved in the combat. We are the warriors. We need to leave the diplomacy for the diplomats. That is where that is taking place,” Lerner said.

Multilateral organizations such as the United Nations have highlighted the devastating impact of the blockade on Gaza which has failed to receive any fresh humanitarian aid since fighting broke out just over one week ago.

“The whole concept of evacuating people to the south is part of our humanitarian means, so that we can continue to fight and strike Hamas and prevent them from ever, ever, being able to strike in our homes and butcher our babies,” Lerner said. “That is why we’re pushing people to go south because there are the conditions there to be relatively safer from the heart of the hub of terrorism.”

Meanwhile, the UN and several humanitarian groups have sharply criticized Israel’s evacuation push. The World Health Organization said in a Saturday statement Israel’s calls to evacuate “are a death sentence” for sick and injured people in Gaza.

“If there’s one thing I would say to the international organizations (it) is: Utilize your institutions, your abilities and capabilities to facilitate the shifting of people to go south. You must not side with Hamas and say ‘No, stay’ or ‘It’s impossible,’” Lerner told CNN on Sunday.

The UN World Food Programme said it has helped more than half a million displaced people in Gaza, but warned it is running out of supplies and cannot guarantee the safety of its staff.

The shutdown of Gaza’s power plant forced bakeries and shops to close, the WFP said Saturday. Every bakery contacted by the WFP reported a shortage in wheat flour, electricity, or water.

“We’ve been able to assist 520k in Gaza so far but we’re running out of supplies, can’t get anything in or out, and can’t guarantee the safety of our staff,” Cindy McCain, executive director of the WFP, said in a statement.

“There are rules, even in war, and we have to make the protection of humanitarian workers and civilians a priority. Civilians will starve without our help,” she said.

The WFP said it is “ramping up” the distribution of bread and canned food as of Friday and providing additional cash transfers to more than 100,000 displaced people.

The program has received more than 3,500 calls on its interagency hotline, WFP said, with half the calls requesting food and cash assistance. The rest of the calls included requests for shelter, according to WFP.

“We need to send in help and set up on the border. The humanitarian community is ready to help. We have trucks heading there now. I hope the US can continue to make this point and keep this at the forefront as this conflict evolves. Emergency response is our strength. We want to do our job,” McCain said.

Israel called for more than one million Palestinians living in the north of Gaza to leave their homes and evacuate southward on Friday, ahead of an expected Israeli ground offensive in response to Hamas’ terror attacks on October 7.

Egypt will step up its efforts to help relief organizations deliver aid to Gaza, as the territory remains in the grip of a deepening humanitarian crisis.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi chaired a meeting of the country’s National Security Council on Sunday to address the “military escalation in the Gaza Strip,” according to a statement from the Egyptian presidency.

The Council decided to “intensify contacts with international and regional relief organizations in order to deliver the necessary assistance,” the statement said.

Vital humanitarian supplies remained in Egypt near the Rafah crossing on Sunday, amid growing calls to open the border to southern Gaza. The United Nations highlighted the devastating impact of the blockade on Gaza, which has not received aid since the fighting broke out a week ago.

Some context: On Friday, Israel said more than one million Palestinians should leave their homes in the north of Gaza and flee south, ahead of an expected ground invasion. Various international officials and organizations have since pressured Egypt to create a “humanitarian corridor,” allowing Palestinians to flee Gaza.

But Egypt stressed in the statement its “national security is a red line and there is no compromise in its protection.” Egypt has so far been reluctant to open the last remaining exit for Gazans.

Egypt also pledged Sunday to work with its “international and regional partners in order to reduce the escalation and stop targeting civilians.” It also said the government was ready “to make any effort to calm the situation and launch and resume a real peace process.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Israel on Monday and meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, according to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

Blinken is currently in Cairo as part of a whirlwind trip in the Middle East following Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7. He has already traveled to Israel as well as Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The last glimpse Adina Moshe’s family saw of her shows the 72-year-old woman on a motorbike, wedged between two Hamas fighters who are kidnapping her from the Nir Oz kibbutz near Gaza.

Moshe looks terrified, but is holding her head high.

The horrifying picture is featured on a missing person notice posted alongside dozens of others on the wall of HaKirya, the government and military quarters in Tel Aviv.

“First, I couldn’t look at it because it’s so shocking, you can see the kidnappers who killed her husband and put her on a motorcycle … and she has to hold onto him so she doesn’t fall,” Moshe’s niece Einav Moshe Barda told CNN during a gathering outside HaKirya.

Moshe Barda said the family was told by authorities Moshe is believed to be among the people taken to Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces said Friday it notified the families of 120 people taken captive, but did not release any other information.

A week after the attack, those families are still stuck in agonizing limbo.

“All we have been told is that her phone is in Gaza,” Meirav Gonen, whose daughter Romi was kidnapped from the Supernova dance festival, told CNN.

“I know she was shot. She called me at 10:15 and I was on with her until 10:58, she was fading away and I heard shooting around her coming closer to the car and then people shouting in Arabic … shouting she was alive and that they need her,” she said.

Read more here:

Einav Moshe Barda (center) attends a gathering of family members of hostages taken by Hamas in Tel Aviv on Saturday, October 14, 2023.

Related article 'It's so lonely': Desperate families of Israeli hostages are still in the dark a week on from Hamas rampage | CNN

The last word Alana Zeitchik heard from her family was an ominous voice note from her cousin, Sharon.

“We’re not going to make it … we love you,” Zeitchik said she was told.

Sharon, Zeitchik’s husband and their 3-year-old twin daughters Emma and Julie are among the six members of Zeitchik’s family who went missing in Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel on October 7.

Zeitchik told CNN’s Amara Walker on Sunday she learned her family was alive on Friday, but has not received any more information.

Zeitchik said the situation has been “unfathomable.”

“We don’t have any other information and we don’t know how to get it, really,” she said.

Zeitchik addressed the United Nations Friday as well to lobby for their return.

“I am pleading for your help to bring my family back,” she said. “We don’t want more bombs or rockets or blood or tears. We want our family back immediately and we want peace.”

A plane carrying more than 11 metric tons of aid destined for Gaza arrived in Egypt on Sunday from Dubai, according to the Emirates-based aid group sending the supplies.

The Dubai International Humanitarian City said in a statement the aid will be delivered to the Egyptian Red Crescent, which is working to get supplies sent by several countries into Gaza. 

The package includes water and food as well as goods for sanitation and hygiene.

Pope Francis called for the establishment of humanitarian corridors in Gaza and for the release of hostages taken by Hamas during an address at St. Peter’s Square on Sunday.

“I’m thinking of the many people who are suffering, the young people and the elderly and I renew my appeal for the release of the prisoners,” the Pope said. “And please respect the humanitarian situation in Gaza to guarantee humanitarian corridors to help and assist the entire population.”

Pope Francis said he was following “with great sorrow the situation in Israel and Palestine.”

“Please may there be no more blood spilled – here or in any other place,” he said. “Wars are always a defeat.”

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said Israel has committed to abide by international law as it prepares to launch a ground offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas attack that killed more than 1,200 people in Israel.

Cleverly told the BBC that Israel President Isaac Herzog told him privately and has “now also said publicly that Israel respects and will abide by international law.”

“Israel does have the right to defend itself and protect itself from terrorist attacks from Hamas coming out of Gaza,” Cleverly said.

Arab states and rights groups have criticized Israel’s response to the Hamas attack as a form of collective punishment. The Israel Defense Forces have pounded Gaza with airstrikes targeting Hamas since the October 7 attack. At least 2,329 people, including many children, have been killed in the bombardment, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

Israel has also cut off electricity, food and water to the densely populated enclave, pushing the healthcare system to the brink and fueling a humanitarian crisis.

Cleverly in his response suggested that Hamas is trying to prevent Palestinians from leaving Gaza so that they can be used as “human shields” after the IDF warned more than half of Gaza’s 2 million residents to evacuate the small coastal enclave’s northern area. Hamas told Gazans to ignore the Israeli statement.

“We want to minimize Palestinian casualties. We want to minimize Israeli casualties. We want everybody to respect civilians,” Cleverly said. “But the real clear distinction is – Israel are trying to get civilians out of danger. Hamas are trying to put civilians into danger, and that is a fundamental difference between the two.”

Rafah crossing remains closed: Cleverly added that Britain’s efforts to open the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza have so far been unsuccessful.

“We are seeking to do that to provide some kind of support,” he continued. “Whether they be British nationals who are seeking to leave Gaza … or humanitarian support for the people of Gaza.”

Cleverly said the circumstances around opening the Rafah Crossing are “very, very difficult. At the moment, we have not been successful in getting the Rafah Crossing opened.”

Gaza’s 50,000 pregnant women are facing a “nightmare” situation with the enclave’s healthcare system on the brink of collapse, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) representative for the state of Palestine, Dominic Allen.

Allen said that about 5,000 of the 50,000 pregnant women are expected to give birth in the coming month, and some of them could face complications.

“Imagine going through that process in those final stages and your last trimester before giving birth, with possible complications, without clothing, without hygiene, support, and not sure about what the next day, next hour, next minute will bring for themselves and for their unborn child,” Allen said. 

Stories coming out of hospitals have been “harrowing,” Allen said. One midwife at a maternity hospital in Gaza told Allen that since the beginning of the conflict, some midwives have been unable to even reach the maternity ward to provide assistance due to the unsafe environment. 

“Humanitarian aid and supplies to Gaza must be allowed through. There must be a humanitarian corridor opened, and humanitarian law abided by. The pregnant women must therefore get access to those lifesaving health services,” Allen said. 

Germany’s Foreign Ministry issued a warning on Sunday urgently advising its citizens against traveling to Israel, the Palestinian territories and Lebanon.

The ministry also urged Germans already in these areas to register themselves with the German government.

“The situation continues to be extremely volatile,” the statement said. “The Government’s crisis team is monitoring the situation on the ground very closely.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog met on Sunday with a bipartisan delegation of US senators who had traveled to Israel.

In a statement Sunday, the Israeli presidency said the “senators emphasized the cross-party support for the State of Israel” during the meeting at the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv.

The lawmakers included US Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer and fellow Democrats, Mark Kelly of Arizona and Jacky Rosen of Nevada. Utah’s Mitt Romney and Louisiana’s Bill Cassidy represented Republicans on the trip.

Hezbollah launched missiles at Israel Sunday morning in response to Israeli attacks on Friday that killed a Reuters journalist and two elderly civilians, the Shiite militant group said in a statement.

Hezbollah said it struck the northern Israeli town of Shtula, killing one Israeli. Israeli medics said one man in his 40s was killed in the attack by the Iran-backed group and two others, also men in their 40s, were injured.

Hezbollah claimed it attacked “military positions” with precision-guided missiles.

The Israeli military said it has been striking Lebanese territories, and that there has been shooting from Lebanon towards an Israeli military position on the border.

Issam Abdallah, the Reuters videographer who was killed, was with a group of other journalists who were wearing clearly labeled press vests when an Israeli shelling hit their position near the Lebanese border town of Alma Chaab, according to video analyzed by CNN.

Journalists from international news organizations Al Jazeera, Agence France Presse, and Reuters were among the victims, according to statements from their outlets.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Saturday it was looking into the incident.

In a report published Saturday, Reuters said two of its journalists who were wounded in the attack recounted the press grouping was filming incoming fire from the direction of Israel when a missile hit Abdallah as he was “sitting on a low stone near the rest of the group.”

Reuters has not yet determined if Israel was behind the attack, though it has said that the strike came from the direction of Israel. Some other outlets, including Al Jazeera and the Associated Press, have said the shells were Israeli.

Hezbollah’s next steps: It is still unclear whether Hezbollah will actively participate in the wider conflict. So far, it has adhered to its current rules of engagement and repeatedly stated that it will fire at Israel only when Lebanese territory, or its fighters, are fired on. It has broadly stuck to that, despite the spiraling tensions.

A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces denied that the Israeli military attacked a group of civilians attempting to flee south from northern Gaza.

What happened: The IDF on Friday warned more than half of Gaza’s 2 million residents to evacuate the small coastal enclave’s northern area in anticipation of a likely ground offensive. Rights groups and critics decried the move as impossible and tantamount to a war crime. Hamas, the militant group that carried out the deadly terror attack last week that killed at least 1,200 people in Israel, told Gazans to ignore the Israeli statement.

As Israeli airstrikes on Gaza continued, some people chose to abandon their homes on the advice of the IDF, packing into cars, taxis, pickup trucks and donkey-pulled carts to head south.

Extensive destruction could be seen on Salah Al-Deen street – a main route for evacuation – in videos authenticated by CNN. A number of bodies, including those of children, can be seen on on a flat-bed trailer that appears to have been used to carry people away from Gaza City.

What Israel said on Sunday: IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told CNN in an interview on Sunday that the Israeli military did not strike the convoy on Salah Al-Deen street.

“It was only this morning that we were able to confirm and announce that this was not on IDF strike,” Lerner said. 

Lerner said it appears from footage the IDF has viewed that “the explosion came from beneath,” suggesting “some sort of explosive device.”

Hamas has not commented on the allegations that the convoy was hit by an explosive device on the ground as opposed to an Israeli airstrike.

The World Food Programme (WFP) is running out of reserve stock inside Gaza and is so far unable to get more food into the enclave, according to Corinne Fleischer, a regional director with the United Nations humanitarian organization.

Fleischer said the WFP has enough supplies to feed 1.3 million people for two weeks piled up on the border, ready to go, but that the group cannot yet safely enter Gaza.

“We’re talking to all parties to be able to move in. Unfortunately, we have not received that okay yet. We need to be able to cross the border, we need to have safe supply corridors to go to the shelters to distribute the food,” Fleischer told CNN in an interview from Cairo on Sunday.
“(We) are running out of time … people are really getting hungry.”

The WFP has so far provided 520,000 people in Gaza with canned food, bread and cash. The group is expected to reach another each 224,000 people on Sunday “despite the absolute chaos and our staff being themselves in shelters with no food, no mattresses, no water and no bathrooms, no electricity,” Fleischer said. 

The United States government will evacuate its nationals from Israel to Cyprus by sea, the US Embassy in Israel said.

Only US nationals and their immediate family members will be eligible for passage. The ship will depart Haifa, a city in northern Israel, on Monday. The journey is expected to take about 10 to 12 hours.

US citizens and their families will be responsible for arranging their own travel to Haifa and their own accommodations and onward travel from Cyprus, according to the embassy announcement. 

An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson told CNN that it had killed another Hamas commander, Billal al-Qedra, who allegedly led the attacks on the Nirim kibbutz near the Israeli border. 

“This just goes to exemplify that we have the intelligence in order to take out Hamas’ leadership … all the way down to the terrorists that breached, penetrated and butchered our babies in their bedrooms. So, the operation is ongoing,” Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said.

The Israeli Air Force also put out a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Sunday about the commander’s death, claiming IDF and Israel Securities Authority (ISA) “killed the Nukhba commander of the forces in southern Khan Yunis, who was responsible for the Kibbutz Nirim massacre.”

Hamas has not yet commented.

The IDF continues to urge civilians to evacuate to the south of Gaza, Lerner said, to enable the Israeli military to target Hamas. 

Hamas has “physically prevented people from moving” and “booby-trapped some of the roads in anticipation” of the move, he added.

In preparation for the next stage of conflict, Lerner said the IDF has recruited “several hundreds of thousands of soldiers and reservists,” with many of them in southern Israel and on the border with Gaza. 

“The IDF is targeting the institutions of Hamas because they have subordinated the entire government system to build support, fund, finance and instruct and execute their terrorist activities. So effectively, what we’re doing is dismantling the entire system to begin with,” Lerner said. 

Lerner said he “hopes” that the war between Israel and Hamas does not become a larger regional conflict, but he said he recognizes that “hope is not a method.”

“I would caution Hezbollah, look very closely how we are dismantling Hamas. They need to be very, very cautious with regard to Iran,” Lerner said.

The Israel Defense Forces says that following “initial reporting regarding a shooting toward the community of Shtula [in northern Israel], the IDF is currently striking toward the origin of the fire in Lebanon.”

It did not specify the nature of the shooting.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said his meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was “very productive,” as he answered a reporter’s question in Riyadh on Sunday. 

Blinken met the Crown Prince at his private farm residence for a little under an hour, according to the US State Department, as reported by a pool reporter.

The top US diplomat has been touring the Middle East, first visiting Israel and meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a show of support days after Hamas’ deadly attacks in Israel.

Following his departure from Tel Aviv Thursday, Blinken traveled to Jordan and Qatar. He is currently in Saudi Arabia, and is expected to travel to the United Arab Emirates and Egypt as he seeks to bolster the country’s defenses and stop the conflict from expanding or spreading.

Casualties in Gaza over the past eight days have surpassed the number of those killed during the 2014 Gaza-Israel conflict, according to the spokesperson for the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.

“The number of casualties caused by the Israeli occupation forces during the past eight days of their brutal aggression exceeds the number of casualties during the 51-day war in 2014. This confirms that the crimes committed against our people amount to ethnic cleansing,” Ashraf al-Qidra said in a statement on Sunday.

Until now, 2014 had been the deadliest year on record in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with at least 2,251 Palestinians killed in Gaza during 50 days of war, according to data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Following Hamas’ attack on Israel, the Gaza Strip has been hit by Israeli strikes, resulting in the deaths of 2,329 people, according to the latest figures issued by the Ministry of Health in Gaza on Sunday.

The number of Thai nationals killed since Hamas’ attack on Israel has risen by four to 28, Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday. 

The number of Thais injured remains at 16 while 17 are now believed to have been taken hostage, according to the ministry.

Among the many foreign nationals killed and captured by Hamas were migrant workers from Asia employed in Israel’s agricultural, construction and healthcare sectors.

Most of these workers hail from poor, rural families and have no familial links to either Israel or the Palestinian Territories.

At least 10 Nepali agriculture students were killed when the Hamas militants stormed the Alumim kibbutz, an agrarian community near Gaza, and another Nepali is missing, the country’s ambassador to Israel told CNN.

Two Filipinos were also killed, according to the Philippines government.

However, Thailand, which for decades has made up one of the biggest sources of migrant labor in Israel, has suffered one of the highest tolls of any nation beyond Israel itself.

Read more:

BANGKOK, THAILAND - OCTOBER 12: Thai migrant farm workers arrive to Bangkok from Tel Aviv after a government evacuation on October 12, 2023 in Bangkok, Thailand. Fifteen Thai nationals, rescued from high-risk areas in Israel, arrived in Thailand via a commercial flight on October 12. This evacuation followed recent attacks by Palestinian militants, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians and the taking of over a hundred hostages into Gaza, including 2 Thais killed and 14 taken as hostages. Approximately 30,000 Thai nationals reside in Israel, primarily working as migrant farmers near the Gaza border, with more than 5,000 Thais requesting evacuation. (Photo by Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images)

Related article Thai deaths in Hamas massacre spotlight poor agricultural workers from Asia who toil in Israel's fields | CNN

The boyfriend of a woman kidnapped by Hamas militants at the Nova music festival said he is clinging onto hope that she is alive and praying for her safe rescue.

Alon said Haiman had been hiding under the stage but decided to run, along with two other men, when it was no longer safe.

“At some point, one of the terrorists managed to take her,” Alon said. “Two other terrorists riding on a motorbike, came and took her away. The two other guys managed to survive, but they saw her taken away.”

Last week, Hamas terrorists launched a relentless attack on an Israeli music festival, opening fire on thousands of concert goers and killing at least 260 people as part of a coordinated massacre across multiple locations that has scarred and shocked Israel.

Hamas took up to 150 people hostage, including about 17 Americans. 

People close to Alon watched a Hamas video showing his girlfriend was injured, according to Alon, who couldn’t bring himself to watch it.

Alon said he is worried when he hears about Israel bombing sites in Gaza, but believes his girlfriend could be kept in an underground tunnel somewhere in the densely populated enclave.

“They built tunnels, underground tunnels, so I guess they are keeping everybody there. But we do not know of course where she is, where the other hostages are,” he said.

“I want people to know that she is the best girlfriend, an amazing person,” Alon said through tears. “Everybody loved her. She is talented, she is brilliant, she is clever, she is funny. We just want her back. Her and all the other hostages.”

A group of 12 families called “Families of American-Israeli Hostages in Gaza” have urged US President Joe Biden to use “all means and resources at his disposal” to ensure their loved ones are released.

“With US citizens held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, America has a responsibility to do all it can to secure their release,” the group said in a statement.
“We urge President Biden to use all means and resources at his disposal to ensure that the wounded receive urgent life-saving medical care before it is too late, and act for the immediate release of all hostages.”

The group met Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week and said they were thankful for their “declared commitment to bringing our loved ones home.”

Life is a struggle for all Palestinians in Gaza as they face potential blackouts and an “inability for people to get basic necessities,” the communications adviser of the Norwegian Refugee Council told CNN in an interview from Jerusalem Sunday morning.

Shaina Low said that a colleague of hers who had just fled to the south of Gaza is experiencing a shortage of food and difficulty finding other basic needs like water. She said her colleague also had airstrikes near him, despite relocating to the south. 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been advising civilians to evacuate to southern Gaza as military activities continue in the region.  

“There is no safe place in Gaza. Some people were killed while trying to make that journey to the south, and others are still facing bombardments, even once they’re relocated to the south,” Low said. 
Life in Gaza had previously been challenging, Low said, but the conflict has only made things worse. 
“Even before this war, Gaza was facing a humanitarian crisis, [with] the poverty rate over 50% [and] a third of the residents living in extreme poverty,” Low said. 

Some members of Low’s team in her humanitarian organization have evacuated, while others have chosen to stay behind because “they have nowhere to go in the south,” Low said. 

With the lack of resources and diminishing fuel, Low said her team is facing increased difficulty operating. 

Low said her neighborhood, which was previously “bustling,” has been “eerily quiet” this past week.

“Now what I hear besides this eerily quietness is often just the sound of warplanes going overhead, heading towards Gaza or surveilling the area. Life here does not feel normal. It feels that people are anticipating the worst,” Low said. 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) say they attacked “over a hundred military targets” in various parts of Gaza overnight Saturday, including Hamas headquarters and military compounds, dozens of launchers, anti-tank posts and observation posts. 

The IDF said that the areas of Zaytoun and Khan Yunis were among those struck. It said the military headquarters of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization were also destroyed

The Nukhba commander of forces in Khan Yunis, Billal al Kedra, was killed Saturday night, the IDF said, alleging that he was responsible for killings in the Kibbutz Nirim when Hamas launched its attack on Israel last weekend.

The Hamas media office in Gaza said a number of areas were struck by the Israeli military overnight and on Sunday morning, including Gaza City in the north and Rafah in the south. It said Israeli tanks were shelling eastern areas of Gaza.

A CNN team close to northern Gaza heard heavy machinegun fire Sunday morning, apparently close to the border fence. They also reported further air strikes and large explosions.

The Palestinian Water Authority has warned that water supplies in Gaza are running very low because of the destruction of generating capacity.

It said Saturday that before the conflict began, 262,000 cubic meters of water were being drawn from wells daily. Now that figure is 14,000 cubic meters, and there is an urgent need for fuel to provide more water, it said.

The shortages are throughout Gaza, according to the water authority.

There is an urgent need for 14,000 liters of fuel per day, which would provide around 130,000 cubic meters of water, it added.

The United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Saturday that most people in Gaza now had no access to water. 

Some 300 people were killed and 800 injured in Gaza in the 24-hour period to early Sunday, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

And most of the victims were women and children, the ministry said.

For eight consecutive days the densely populated Gaza Strip has been subjected to Israeli strikes, leaving 2,329 people killed and 9,042 injured, according to latest figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. 

Israel launched the retaliatory offensive after Hamas’ October 7 terror attacks that killed 1,300 people.

Fears for civilians in Gaza are now growing as Israel says it is gearing up for the next stages of its war with Hamas, including widespread strikes and “significant ground operations.”

Israel’s top priority is to rescue hostages from Gaza, despite the difficulties involved in fighting in a densely populated urban area, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson has told CNN.

Pointing to Hamas’ “elaborate network of tunnels,” Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said the hostages are “most likely held underground in various locations.”

“We know that Hamas has an elaborate network of tunnels both for defensive and offensive purposes, which will for sure, compound the complexity of fighting and we are prepared for that,” he said.

“Fighting will be slow. Advances will be slow, and we will be cautious, but we are very determined to get to the Hamas terrorists that currently are hiding underneath our civilians in the tunnel system that they have.”

Conricus said operations and raids that were conducted a day and a half ago recovered “some useful intelligence,” but no bodies of Israelis who were taken have been recovered. 

The IDF will not target civilians, Conricus said.

“But again, we must remember… we are going to fight a ruthless enemy that has no problems using everything available… civilians as human shields and using civilian infrastructure for military purposes,” he added. 

A main aim for the IDF is to “totally dismantle (Hamas’) military capabilities,” according to Conricus.

Israel will start “significant military operations” in Gaza only once they see that civilians have left, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson told CNN.

“The important thing here to focus on is that we will commence significant military operations only once we see that civilians have left the area,” Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said.

“It’s really important that people in Gaza know we’ve been very, very generous with the time. We have given ample warning, more than 25 hours… I cannot stress more than enough to say now is the time for Gazans to leave.

More than half of Gaza’s 2 million residents live in the northern section that Israel has told to evacuate. Many families, some of whom were already internally displaced, are now crammed into an even smaller portion of the 140-square-mile territory.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been fleeing south through the battered streets of Gaza after the Israeli military told them to leave northern areas of the densely populated strip.

Parts of the south are becoming even more crowded and overstretched, Gazans say, as waves of Palestinians abandon their homes in the wake of Israel’s statement, ahead of an anticipated ground assault by the IDF.

According to Conricus, the area around the Gaza Strip is densely packed with “hundreds of thousands of Israeli reserve units” that are preparing for various missions.

“The challenge and the mission is to have all of those more than 360,000 reservists both in the south and in the north, get them mission ready, equipped, prepared, task-forced, and ready for any assignments they will have in the future,” he said.

Israel’s military says it is preparing for the “next stages of the war” against Hamas, with troops gearing up for “strikes from the air, sea and land” and “significant ground operations.”

Signs have been growing throughout the week Israel could launch an invasion of Gaza, the densely populated enclave run by Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that carried out devastating terror attacks in Israel on October 7.

Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is deepening, as evacuating residents face a dangerous trek when they try to flee the violence.

Here are some of the latest developments:

The Israeli military’s announcement:

What would a ground invasion look like?

The crisis unfolding in Gaza:

Diplomatic efforts continue:

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The Pentagon has ordered a second carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean Sea, according to two US officials, as Israel prepares to expand its Gaza operations.

The US warships are not intended to join the fighting in Gaza or take part in Israel’s operations, but the presence of two of the Navy’s most powerful ships is designed to send a message of deterrence to Iran and Iranian proxies in the region, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The first carrier strike group, led by the USS Gerald R. Ford, arrived off the coast of Israel earlier this week.

Now the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower strike group, which deployed Friday from Norfolk, Virginia, is headed to the eastern Mediterranean. The aircraft carrier was initially set to move toward the US European Command, but the officials said it will now head for the waters near Israel.

It is unclear at this point how long the Ford will stay in the region once the Eisenhower carrier strike group arrives, one official said.

The Eisenhower is the flagship of the carrier strike group, which will be joined by a guided-missile cruiser and two guided-missile destroyers, according to the Navy.

ABC News first reported the carrier strike group’s orders.

The Biden administration made clear that the carrier, and its accompanying force, are not there to engage in combat activities on behalf of Israel but rather to deter others from entering the conflict, including Hezbollah.

“There is no intention or plan to put American troops on the ground in Israel,” said John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator for the National Security Council, on Thursday.

In addition, the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, a rapid-reaction force capable of conducting special operations, is making preparations in case it is ordered closer to Israel to bolster the US force posture there, multiple US officials tell CNN.

The unit, which is on board the USS Bataan amphibious assault ship, is composed of more than 2,000 Marines and sailors and would be capable of supporting a large-scale evacuation. Among the mission essential tasks for a Marine Expeditionary Unit are evacuation operations and humanitarian assistance.

No such order has been given yet to the unit, the officials said.

Defense officials have said repeatedly in recent days the Pentagon will be able to flow in additional forces and assets to the region quickly as needed, as Israel continues to fight a war against the terrorist group Hamas.

Israel responded to Hamas’ terror attacks last Saturday by ordering a “complete siege,” of Gaza, cutting off food, electricity, fuel and water supplies.

Israel already strictly controlled the flow of critical resources to the enclave, having imposed a stringent land, sea and air blockade on Gaza since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007. Now it has tightened its grip completely.

The UN said in a statement released Thursday that residents in Gaza “have lived under unlawful blockade for 16 years,” and condemned this “further tightening.” 

People in Gaza have nowhere to go:

As thousands of rockets have rained down on Israel, the country has been relying once again on the Iron Dome system to protect its citizens.

The missile defense system is one of the most important tools in Israel’s arsenal and has saved countless civilian lives over various conflicts in the last decade, analysts say. It is highly effective. The Israel Defense Forces said the system boasted a 95.6% success rate during a rocket salvo fired by Islamic Jihad in May.

Here’s how it functions:

There is little room for Palestinians to escape from the airstrikes Israel has rained down on Gaza in the wake of Hamas militants’ devastating terror attack last week.

Across the Middle East, Gaza is among the smallest and most densely packed urban areas.