February 5, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

Our live coverage of the conflict in the Middle East has moved here.

Displaced Palestinians are pictured along a road near their makeshift tent in Rafah, Gaza on February 4.

A makeshift tent city estimated to hold more than 1 million displaced Palestinian civilians is rapidly expanding in Rafah, southern Gaza, according to new satellite images from Maxar Technologies.

The images show much of the previously open area in Rafah has been filled with tents, largely between December 10 and February 3, as internally displaced Palestinians seek shelter from the war. 

Aid workers have raised concerns over any expanded Israeli military operation in Rafah as forces push south in their war with Hamas.

More than half of the estimated 2.2 million people in Gaza are seeking refugee in the Rafah area, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

OCHA said Monday that refugees facing acute shortage of food, water, shelter and medicine are still pouring into Rafah as fighting worsens nearby.

This satellite image shows a makeshift tent city in Rafah.

The United States military conducted a strike Monday against two Houthi explosive uncrewed surface vehicles in Yemen, US Central Command said.

The vehicles “presented an imminent threat” to US Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region, CENTCOM said in a statement.

The Iran-backed Houthis, who have said their attacks on global shipping in the Red Sea are in response to Israel’s war in Gaza, have vowed recent US strikes will not go unanswered.

Hamas’ leadership, including its top official in Gaza, is “on the run” as Israel’s military pushes further south in the Palestinian enclave, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant claimed on Monday.

The Israeli military operation in the southern city of Khan Younis will “soon achieve its goals” as troops advance southward on Rafah — Hamas’ last remaining stronghold, Gallant said in a televised briefing. “Our forces operate on the ground in most of the territory of the Gaza Strip,” he said.

Israel has publicly accused Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar of being the “mastermind” behind the group’s October 7 attack — though experts say he is likely one of several — making him one of the key targets of its war in Gaza.

Gallant claimed Monday that Sinwar had no contact with his fighters and was forced to flee from one hideout to another with the Israeli military in close pursuit. “He is not leading the forces; he is busy with his own personal survival. He became, instead of the head of Hamas, a fugitive terrorist,” Gallant said.

Gallant also claimed that Israeli forces had killed or seriously wounded about half of Hamas’ fighters in Gaza.

Hamas denial: Husam Badran, a Qatar-based spokesperson for Hamas, denied Gallant’s claims, saying they were an attempt to raise Israeli morale. Hamas fighters were “still operating in all areas” of Gaza, according to a statement from Badran published by Hamas media outlet Al Aqsa late Monday.

Antony Blinken disembarks from the plane upon his arrival at King Khalid International Airport in the Saudi capital Riyadh on February 5.

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken is back in the Middle East as he tries to make progress on a number of fronts: progress on a hostage deal, coordinating on the “day after” for Gaza, and trying to ensure the Israel-Hamas war does not escalate into a wider regional conflict. 

It comes after the US conducted major airstrikes over the weekend against Iran-backed militias in Iraq in response to a drone attack that killed three US service members and wounded more than 40 others in Jordan. Meanwhile, US forces also carried out further strikes on Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

On his trip, Blinken will again argue that the US actions in the region have been defensive, not escalatory.

Here are the top headlines:

The United States did not give the Iraqi government advance notice of the strikes in the country Friday, a State Department spokesperson said Monday.

This contradicts a previous comment from the White House saying that the Iraqis were informed ahead of time. A spokesperson from the National Security Council has since clarified those remarks, saying the US told the Iraqis generally that the US would be responding to a drone attack on January 28 that killed US service members.

Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder did not directly address conflicting accounts of whether the Iraqi government was notified ahead of US strikes, saying only that they are “a valued partner.” 

On Friday, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters the US “did inform the Iraqi government prior to the strikes.” Another NSC spokesperson later told CNN on Monday that Kirby meant that Iraq understood there would be a response.

“For operational security, we did not provide any kind of official pre-notification with specific details on these strikes,” the NSC spokesperson said.

Kirby said in a separate statement on Monday that he “responded with information that I had been provided at the time. It was not as specific as it could have been, and I regret any confusion caused.”

Read more about what the US is saying about the strikes.

This post has been updated with new information from the NSC spokesperson.

Approximately 8,000 displaced people have been evacuated from the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PCRS) headquarters and Al-Amal hospital in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis on Monday, PCRS said.

About 80 patients and wounded, 40 elderly displaced individuals and 100 administrative and medical staff remain, it added.

This comes after PRCS earlier said that hundreds of people who had been taking shelter at its headquarters and the hospital have begun to leave. On Friday, the aid group had called for a humanitarian corridor for evacuees as Israeli tanks had surrounded the area and were “firing live ammunition,” killing four people.

Alarms have been raised for days over the hospital as a site of “relentless bombing and direct gunfire,” PRCS said in a news release, with the group also sayings its medical workers were living in a “state of terror and panic.”

The aid group said on Monday: “This comes after the International Committee of the Red Cross informed the PRCS of the occupation’s approval to provide a safe passage, allowing the displaced individuals to exit Al-Amal Hospital and the PRCS’s headquarters towards the Mawasi area in Khan Younis.”

“Hundreds of displaced individuals have begun leaving the PRCS’s headquarters and Al-Amal Hospital after being besieged for over two weeks,” it added.

At the same time, the PRCS said the Israeli military had taken the General Manager of Al-Amal Hospital, Dr. Haider Al-Qaddura, and the hospital’s Administrative Director, Maher Atallah, “to an unknown location.” The Israel Defense Forces told CNN it did not detain two officials, but they were questioned.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Monday.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman discussed “regional coordination” on ending the war in Gaza and plans for the war-torn strip after the fighting ends on Monday, a State Department spokesperson said in a readout.

During their more than two-hour-long meeting in Riyadh, the leaders also spoke about the “importance of addressing humanitarian needs in Gaza and preventing further spread of the conflict” and the “urgent need to reduce region tensions,” including attacks by the Houthis in the Red Sea, according to the readout from spokesperson Matt Miller.

Following his meetings in the region last month, Blinken said that partners in the Middle East were “ready to support a lasting solution that ends the long-running cycle of violence and ensures Israel’s security.”

Blinken said at the time those partners underscored that this should include “a pathway to a Palestinian state.”

The United States and coalition forces have come under attack three more times in Syria since the US launched airstrikes against Iranian-backed militias over the weekend, a US official said.

US President Joe Biden said “yes” on Sunday when asked whether the strikes were working to deter Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and affiliated militia groups — but several attacks were carried out in the region in the last few days.

More background: On Friday, the US military struck more than 85 targets in Iraq and Syria, including command and control operations centers, intelligence centers, weapons storage facilities, rockets, missiles, and logistics and munition supply chain facilities used by the Iran-backed militia groups and the IRGC. 

Officials said Friday they believed the strikes to be successful.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that the “war must not end” before Israel kills Hamas leadership. 

“Our goal is an absolute victory over Hamas. We will kill the Hamas leadership, therefore we must continue to act in all areas of the Gaza Strip. The war must not end before that. It will take time — months not years,” he said at at a faction meeting of his party, Likud.

In the past, Israel has made no secret of its intention to continue hunting Hamas leaders long after the war is over. Netanyahu has also previously said that the war against Hamas “will be a long fight.”

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres speaks on January 23 at UN Headquarters.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has appointed a group to conduct an independent review of United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the main UN agency in Gaza that provides humanitarian assistance for Palestinians.

The independent external review will begin on February 14 and will be conducted alongside a current investigation by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) into Israel’s allegations that UNRWA personnel were involved in Hamas’ October 7 terror attacks.

France’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna, will lead the review and work with three research organizations: the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Sweden, the Chr. Michelsen Institute in Norway, and the Danish Institute for Human Rights.

The review group will “assess whether the Agency is doing everything within its power to ensure neutrality and to respond to allegations of serious breaches when they are made,” the secretary general said in a statement, adding Israeli cooperation will be critical to the investigation’s success.

UNRWA fired several employees in wake of the allegations, and its top donor, the United States, plus a growing number of countries have paused funding to the organization as the humanitarian disaster spirals in the besieged Palestinian enclave. The agency has warned that it will “most likely” have to suspend its relief work by the end of February due to the pause of funding, and that it will worsen the crisis in Gaza and among Palestinian refugees it serves in the larger region beyond Gaza borders.

The European Union’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell said in a blog post on Sunday that defunding the UNRWA “would be both disproportionate and dangerous,” adding that “no other” UN agency could replace it as the organization’s “infrastructure, logistics and personnel” are central to the “entire aid operation inside Gaza.”

CNN’s Amy Cassidy in London and Mostafa Salem contributed reporting to this post.

Israeli soldiers drive a tank near the border with Gaza on February 4.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reiterated an evacuation order to Palestinian civilians west of Gaza City, in the north, and much of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the enclave to leave their neighborhoods for other areas.

The Israeli military urged people in eight neighborhoods west of Gaza City “to evacuate your areas immediately and move through Al-Rashid (Al-Bahr) Street towards the known shelters in Deir Al-Balah.”

At least seven people were killed in an air strike in Deir Al-Balah on Monday morning, Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza has told CNN. The strike followed multiple casualties Sunday in another strike in the same area, according to a doctor at the hospital.

The IDF also called on people in five blocks west of Khan Younis to move “immediately to the humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi via Al-Bahr Street.”

Meanwhile, the IDF ramped up its offensive in and around Khan Younis, as well as in north and central Gaza, where it said troops carried out “targeted raids on Hamas terrorist targets” and thwarted “a five-man terrorist cell.” CNN cannot independently verify operational details reported by the IDF.

Remember: It is unclear how many people are aware of the orders, given the lack of internet and mobile service in much of Gaza. Thousands of people have not fled following previous such orders, for fear of being targeted while trying to flee or because they do not want to endure winter conditions without shelter.

CNN has previously reported on Palestinian civilians who followed evacuation orders being killed by Israeli strikes, underscoring the reality that evacuation zones and warning alerts from the Israeli military haven’t guaranteed safety for civilians in the densely populated Gaza Strip, where Palestinians have no safe place to escape Israeli bombs.

A man dressed in black stood on neon-lit streets of Shinjuku district, in Tokyo, on February 5, as heavy snow descended on the Japanese capital. He held up a sign that read, “Stop Gaza Genocide.”

Yusuke Furusawa, 48, has peacefully demonstrated every day since October 29 against Israel’s military offensive in the Palestinian enclave – across various locations including the financial center of Shibuya, to busy railway hubs including Shinjuku station and Yurakucho station. He’s shared his protests on his Instagram account.

“I have continued to protest against the genocide in Gaza,” the carpenter told CNN on Monday. “I want to protect human rights, and justice.”

In December, Japan voted in favor of a UN General Assembly resolution to demand a ceasefire in Gaza. Earlier this year, Tokyo suspended funding to the UN’s relief agency for Palestine refugees over explosive allegations by Israel that staffers participated in Hamas’ October 7 attacks.

Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed at least 27,365 Palestinians and wounded 66,630 others, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health, as world leaders warn against the mounting civilian death toll.

“Don’t kill children, don’t break into hospitals, don’t break into schools in Gaza, don’t kill,” added Furusawa. “I stand alone against racism, the occupation and genocide.”

CNN’s Angus Watson and Teele Rebane contributed reporting.

Israel killed three Hezbollah fighters, the Iran-backed group said Monday, as cross-border exchanges continue between both sides.

Both sides have traded strikes continuously since October 8, but the intensity of fighting has been contained as they try to avoid a clear escalation. Here’s what the two sides said about Monday’s exchanges:

Hezbollah said it targeted Israeli forces in Shebaa Farms and Kfarchouba with rockets. There were “direct hits,” it added.

The Israel Defense Forces said its fighter jets and artillery targeted Hezbollah in several areas in southern Lebanon, including a military site in the area of Labbouneh, a “military command center” in the area of Jibbain, and a “number of military compounds” in the areas of Beit Lif and Baraachit. Lebanese state media NNA said there were deaths and injuries after Israel struck the Beit Lif village.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken disembarks from the plane upon arriving at King Khalid International Airport, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on February 5.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Saudi Arabia Monday, the first stop on his latest whirlwind trip to the Middle East as he seeks to make progress on a number of fronts: progress on a hostage deal, coordinating on the “day after” for Gaza, and trying to ensure the Israel-Hamas war does not escalate into a wider regional conflict. 

This is his fifth trip to the Middle East since since the October 7 attacks. Here’s a deeper look at the topics he’ll raise during the trip:

On a deal to release hostages and pause fighting: A senior State Department official said it is “impossible” to predict whether there will be a breakthrough on the talks and when. “It’s one of those things where we don’t know because the ball right now is in Hamas’s court,” the official said.

On preventing a wider regional conflict: Blinken will again argue that the US actions in the region have been defensive, not escalatory. Late last week, the US launched strikes against Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for a deadly attack against a US base in Jordan. They have continued a drumbeat of assaults against Houthi targets. 

On more aid to Gaza: “We are in conversation with the Israelis every day on a number of different humanitarian pieces, and make progress on them. But to get real breakthroughs on some of the big things, one of two things has to happen: the Secretary has to show up or the President has to get on the phone with the prime minister. So whenever we come to Israel, we come with a list of things that we’re trying to push,” the senior State Department official said.

Still, despite numerous, in-person visits by Blinken, the Israeli offensive in Gaza continues to rage after nearly four months, the humanitarian toll remains incredibly high, and US intentions for post-war Gaza have been repeatedly and publicly rebuffed by the Netanyahu administration.

In Saudi Arabia Monday, Blinken will also continue to discuss prospects for normalizing Saudi-Israeli diplomatic ties. US officials acknowledge that such an agreement cannot move forward without a two-state solution, and the conversation around the prospect has changed since October 7.

Eighteen injured children arrived in Italy on Monday, and they are set to receive medical treatment in Italian hospitals that have volunteered to treat them, according to Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.

The children are part of a larger group of 62 Palestinian civilians from Gaza who managed to flee the war-torn enclave onboard an Italian navy ship. They were greeted by Tajani in La Spezia in northern Italy.

A total of 100 children are expected to arrive in Italy as part of a project organized by various Vatican charities, including the Sant’Egidio community, which has hosted some Palestinian families.

On January 29, a group of 11 children arrived on an Italian Air Force flight and were then transferred to hospitals in Rome, Genoa, Bologna and Florence.

Remember: Gaza’s death toll and injuries continues to rise and children make up a large part of these numbers. With the pre-war child population of Gaza at about 1.1 million, according to UNICEF, this means that one out of every approximately 120 children living in the enclave has been killed, CNN reported in early January. A separate statistic released by the international organization Save the Children said more than 10 children on average have lost one or both of their legs every day in Gaza since October.

A view of a truck carrying food that, according to Thomas White, Director of UNRWA Affairs Gaza, was hit by Israeli naval gunfire, in this picture obtained from social media on February 5.

The United Nations relief agency in Gaza, UNRWA, says one of its trucks waiting to take aid to northern Gaza was hit by Israeli fire on Monday.

Thomas White, Director of UNRWA Affairs in Gaza, posted a photograph of the damaged truck on X, saying: “#Gaza this morning a food convoy waiting to move into Northern Gaza was hit by Israeli naval gunfire - thankfully no one was injured.”

The Israel Defense Forces told CNN Monday that it is looking into the incident.

About the agency: The agency serves 5.9 million Palestinian refugees and faces an uncertain future after Israeli allegations that 13 employees were associated with Hamas’s October 7th attack. In response, the United States and at least 13 of its allies have pulled crucial funding and several employees were fired.

Spain however has announced it will send 3.5 million euros (more than $3.7 million) in additional aid to UNRWA to help assist its humanitarian activities in Gaza, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said during a congress speech.

Video shows the wreckage of the Palestine Red Crescent Society headquarters in Jabalya, northern Gaza, as the Israeli military spread its offensive across multiple parts the enclave.

The scale of destruction was illustrated in the new footage published by the PCRS on Monday, showing the wreckage of its headquarters in the neighborhood.

Israeli strikes hit infrastructure in both Deir Al-Balah, in central Gaza, and the coastal town of Al Mawasi, in the south, in recent weeks, causing multiple casualties, according to the PRCS and the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza.

At least 14 Palestinians were killed, including two children and four women, and many others injured due to airstrikes on Al-Shuhadaa Mosque in Deir Al-Balah on Sunday, according to a doctor at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

Video obtained by CNN from the western part of Deir Al-Balah showed destruction at the mosque, with civilians trying to rescue people from under the rubble.

Smoke rises over buildings in Khan Younis following Israeli bombardment on February 5.

Palestinian civilians are “afraid” of Israel’s military pressing into the southern city of Rafah, according to a relief worker, as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) expands its offensive into all parts of the territory.

“Everyone is afraid of the expanding of the ground operation in Rafah,” Raed Al-Nims, Media Director of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Gaza, said on Monday.

It came after Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said IDF ground troops would “soon reach” Rafah in the far south — where more than half of Gaza’s entire population have been forcibly displaced since the start of the war.

In recent weeks, the IDF has ramped up its deadly assault on the southern city of Khan Younis, where local hospitals and a UN shelter came under fierce bombardment.

A “fighter jet struck a Hamas terrorist cell” which was “preparing to attack IDF troops in a nearby structure with explosives,” the IDF said. In western Khan Younis, the IDF said that troops “killed dozens of terrorists who ambushed the troops throughout the city.”

“In a separate IDF activity directed by intelligence in Khan Younis, IDF troops conducted targeted raids on terrorist targets and located weapons including AK-47 rifles, sniper rifles, grenades, and ammunition. The troops also killed 10 terrorists using close-range fire and aerial support.” 

CNN cannot independently verify operational details reported by the IDF. 

A crowded street in Rafah, Gaza, on February 1.

The director of the Hamas-run Government Media Office told CNN on Monday the expansion of the Israeli military’s ground campaign into Rafah, in southern Gaza, would “cause a real disaster” inside the Palestinian enclave.

Israeli troops are not yet on the ground in the southern city bordering Egypt, Ismail Al-Thawabta said.

Last week, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would head from Khan Younis into Rafah to “eliminate terror elements that threaten us.”

Israel’s bombardment has displaced more than 2.3 million people in Gaza – nearly the whole population – according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

More than half of those are trying to shelter in Rafah.

Al Thawabta, of the Government Media Office, said there were 1.3 million displaced people in Rafah.

Palestinians have been forced to flee to Rafah from northern areas since the early days of the war, after the IDF instructed people to move south as it advanced from the north.

CNN obtained video over the weekend showing the tent camp in the shadow of Gaza’s walled border with Egypt, underlining that there is nowhere further south in the strip for people to flee.