March 1, 2024 - Israel-Hamas war

Our live coverage of Israel’s war with Hamas has moved here.

Palestinian women and children walk past buildings destroyed during Israeli strikes in Beit Lahia, Gaza, on February 26.

UN Women, a United Nations organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women, called the war in Gaza “also a war on women.”

In a statement Friday, the organization estimated 9,000 women have been killed in Gaza since the October 7 attack.

UN Women reported an average of 63 women are killed every day in Gaza, with an approximate 37 mothers who are killed daily, “leaving their families devastated and their children with diminished protection.”

“More than 4 out of 5 women (84 per cent) report that their family eats half or less of the food they used to before the war began, with mothers and adult women being those tasked with sourcing food, yet eating last, less, and least than everyone else,” the statement added.

Displaced Palestinian women prepare bread inside a tent in Rafah, Gaza, on December 27.

UN Women also pointed out that 87% of women in Gaza find it harder to access food than men.

They called for immediate humanitarian aid to reach Gaza and an end to “the killing, bombing, and destruction of essential infrastructure in Gaza.”

“Unless there is an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, many more will die in the coming days and weeks,” UN Woman said.

Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy responded to CNN’s detailed investigation into Israel’s use of indiscriminate fire that killed half of an entire Palestinian family during a deadly January attack. He acknowledged there were civilian casualties, but blamed Hamas.

Several members of the Abu Jibba family were killed by the shockwave of what was likely a 2,000-pound bomb dropped by the Israeli military. Such a large bomb is, by its nature, indiscriminate when civilians are present.

The Israel Defense Forces has alleged they were responding to fire by militants from an area near where the civilians were sheltering. Survivors of the attack told CNN there were no militants at their location.

The survivors of the attack have said they were not warned in advance. The IDF previously told CNN that they told civilians to begin evacuating days ahead of the bombing. When asked for evidence supporting that claim, the IDF did not provide any.

“If soldiers are coming under attack, clearly there is no time to give a warning for people to evacuate, having already said that the militants terrorists were operating in the area,” Levy said.

CNN’s Mick Krever contributed reporting to this post.

President Joe Biden and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni reaffirmed their commitment to Israel’s right to self-defense and discussed the “urgent need” for more aid in Gaza during a meeting in the Oval Office on Friday, according to a White House readout. 

Biden and Meloni also discussed the ongoing war in Ukraine and the G7, as Italy is currently serving as the head. 

US President Joe Biden stops to talk to reporters as he departs the White House on March 1.

US airdrops of humanitarian assistance into Gaza will begin “very soon,” US President Joe Biden said Friday.

His comments come after he announced earlier Friday in the Oval Office that the US will begin air-dropping food aid to the people of Gaza. Biden also said earlier that the US would be “pulling out every stop” to get additional supplies into Gaza.

Additionally, Biden offered a mixed assessment of hostage talks between Israel and Hamas reaching a deal by Monday, saying that he was both hopeful a deal could be achieved by Ramadan but also that an agreement “may not get there.”

Asked if he was confident a ceasefire could be agreed to by Monday — the day he’d earlier this week pointed to as a possibility — Biden suggested it appeared unlikely.

“It looks like we’re still — it’s not there yet. I think we’ll get there but it’s not there yet. And it may not get there now,” Biden said.

Biden said he’s “still hoping for” a ceasefire, when asked whether he thinks a ceasefire may never be negotiated.

His comments were a starkly realistic view into the state of the talks, which have been advancing for weeks between the US, Egypt, Qatar, Israel and Hamas. The remarks laid bare the difficulties in brokering an agreement between Israel and Hamas that would result in the release hostages and a six-week pause in fighting.

At least 115 people were killed and at least 760 were injured after Israeli forces opened fire as Palestinian civilians waited for food on Thursday, according to Dr. Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesperson for the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza. 

It’s one of the single deadliest tragedies in Gaza since Israel’s war against Hamas began on October 7.

There are now growing calls for an independent inquiry into the incident. The United Nations has said an independent investigation is required to establish the facts, and nations such as France have backed that appeal.

Here’s where things stand:

Ongoing talks to reach a temporary ceasefire agreement to halt the fighting between Hamas and Israel in Gaza and release hostages appear to still be on track, even after more than 100 Palestinians were killed on Thursday as they tried to access food in Gaza City, according to officials familiar with the discussions.

United States officials on Friday said there are no indications that the discussions had been significantly derailed but much hinges on Hamas’ response to what has been discussed between the other countries involved in recent days: Qatar, Egypt, Israel and the US. On Thursday, a Hamas official warned the negotiations could be impacted.

CNN has reached out to several Hamas officials about the potential deal but has not gotten a response.

What could be in a deal: Technical teams have been working on the key components of a potential deal this week in Doha, officials familiar with the talks say. On Tuesday, Qatari spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said disagreements remained over “numbers, ratios and (Israel Defense Forces) troop movements.”

It’s believed that Hamas will demand a higher ratio of Palestinian prisoners to be released by Israel if Hamas is to release female IDF soldier hostages, as demanded by Israel.

Those involved in the discussions have said an agreement would likely be implemented in multiple phases; and once an initial deal is made, it could lead to a truce lasting for as long as six weeks, with a group of Israeli hostages released — including women, children, the elderly and sick hostages — in exchange for a smaller number of Palestinian prisoners than Hamas had initially demanded.

Read more about ceasefire deal negotiations.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, center, takes a question from a reporter for National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby, right, during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, on March 1.

The White House said Friday that it believes Israel should investigate the deaths of at least 112 people in Gaza City after Israeli troops opened fire while civilians waited for food aid, defending the country’s ability to look into its own potential wrongdoing. 

Kirby pointed to previous examples of Israel investigating incidents and said they have been “very honest and upfront” about mistakes. Kirby added that they have not given Israel a timeline to complete their investigation.

The United Nations secretary-general, meanwhile, has called for an independent investigation.

What we know: A convoy of at least 18 food trucks arrived in Gaza City on Thursday morning, sent by countries in the region including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to eyewitnesses.

An IDF spokesperson said Thursday that an Israeli tank fired warning shots to disperse the crowd after unrest broke out and people in the crowd were getting trampled.

That claim was directly contradicted by eyewitnesses, including local journalist Khader Al Za’anoun, who was at the scene and said the chaos only began once Israeli forces opened fire. Some Palestinians were killed by gunfire, but most of the casualties were accidentally rammed by aid trucks fleeing the gunshots, Al Za’anoun said.

U.S. President Joe Biden during a meeting with Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in the Oval Office at the White House today.

President Joe Biden on Friday said work toward a deal to release hostages continues and called for an “immediate ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

The president added that the US will “insist” that more trucks and routes be added so more aid can be delivered to people in Gaza. 

“We’re going to insist that Israel facilitate more trucks and more routes to get more and more people the help they need, no excuses,” Biden added. 

Palestinians gather to collect aid food in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, on February 26.

US President Joe Biden announced Friday that the United States will airdrop humanitarian aid and supplies into Gaza. The US military is working to carry out these airdrops to Palestinians in the coming days, a US official previously said.

Speaking in the Oval Office, Biden said the US would be “pulling out every stop” to get additional assistance into Gaza, which has been under heavy bombardment by Israel since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks.

Biden said aid was not flowing into Gaza quickly enough and that he was working to broker an immediate ceasefire deal that would allow additional assistance into the enclave.

Some background: US officials have been calling on Israel to open additional crossings for aid to enter into Gaza and have also been exploring possible airdrops of aid into the enclave. US Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power met on Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, a US official told CNN.

This post has been updated with details from Biden’s announcement.

The main Palestinian political factions, Fatah and Hamas, met in Moscow and agreed to continue meetings going forward, according to statements by both groups on Friday.

Hamas released a statement, signed by “Factions that met in Moscow,” saying the intra-Palestinian talks had been constructive.

Fatah, through spokesperson Hussein Hamayel, also welcomed the outcomes of the Moscow meeting, emphasizing the need for unity beyond partisan agendas, especially in response to challenges following the war in Gaza and the enclave’s reconstruction.

Key context: Fatah controls the Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank, which held administrative control over Gaza until 2007. Hamas won the 2006 legislative elections in the occupied territories and expelled the faction from the enclave.

The objective of the two-day talks in Moscow was to unite the groups under the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), a coalition of parties that signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1993.

It comes at a time that the Palestinian Authority has grown deeply unpopular among Palestinians — seen as corrupt and unable to provide security in the face of regular Israeli military incursions. It is also under intense pressure from the United States to reform.

Hamas, meanwhile, is not currently part of the PLO and does not recognize Israel.

CNN’s Abbas Al Lawati contributed to this post.

At least 10 Palestinian children have starved to death in Gaza, the United Nations reported on Friday, after a senior United Nations official warned Israel’s severe restrictions on aid entering the strip are creating a “man-made famine.”

The number of Gazan children that have died from starvation “can unfortunately be expected to be higher,” UN health agency spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said in a statement on Friday.

By the numbers: Among the entire population of more than 2.2 million people in Gaza, one in four face catastrophic levels of food insecurity, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Around 1.17 million Palestinians face “emergency” levels of food insecurity, and the plight for another 500,000 is “catastrophic,” according to OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke.

Risk of famine: Earlier this week, the commissioner-general of the UN’s agency for Palestine refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that lengthy aid inspections, difficulties in distributing relief across the rubble-filled strip, and the scarcity of aid have produced a “chaotic situation.”

CNN previously reported on Palestinians eating grass and drinking polluted water to try to survive in northern Gaza, where Israel concentrated its military offensive in the early days of the war.

Palestinians run along a street as humanitarian aid is airdropped in Gaza City on March 1.

The Jordanian military made three airdrops of aid into parts of Gaza City on Friday, as humanitarian agencies warn of the growing food crisis in the enclave.

Three C-130 Jordanian military planes parachuted food to civilians of the heavily damaged and isolated Gaza City, Jordan said. Videos and pictures circulating on social media showed a plane dropping several shipments of aid from the sky in northern Gaza.

Last week Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, France and even Egypt, which controls the Rafah crossing via Egypt, airdropped aid into Gaza. The United States is also looking into possible aid drops.

Not enough aid: Lengthy inspections, rejected humanitarian aid and Israeli bombs raining down are delaying vital supplies reaching Gaza. At least 260 aid trucks were “inspected and transferred” to Gaza on Thursday, according to Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, or COGAT, which manages the flow of aid into the strip.

But relief agencies say it is not enough. Israel’s severe restrictions of aid entering the enclave have severely curtailed food, fuel, water and medicine supplies - exposing the population of more than 2.2 million people to starvation, dehydration and deadly disease.

The Rafah crossing, where most aid had been delivered into Gaza, is now working at a reduced rate, and the alternate Kerem Shalom crossing in Israel is being blocked by demonstrators calling for the release of hostages held by Hamas. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan makes statements as he attends the Antalya Diplomacy Forum (ADF) at NEST Congress and Exhibition Center in Antalya, Turkey, on March 1.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has described Israel’s military offensive in Gaza as “a genocide attempt.”

Speaking during the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, Erdogan said on Friday: “What is happening in Gaza is definitely not a war. It is a genocide attempt.”

He reiterated calls for a Palestinian state, saying: “Unless words are supported by action, it is neither possible to stop the oppression in Palestine nor to rebuild trust in the international system.”

United Nations experts previously described Israel’s military campaign - launched after the Hamas-led October 7 attacks - as a “genocide in the making.”

More than 30,200 people have died in Gaza since October 7, the Ministry of Health in the enclave said Friday, with more than half a million people on the brink of famine, according to UN agencies. The Israel Defense Forces has insisted it is trying to limit civilian casualties in the enclave.

UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City on February 21.

The European Union has said it will send the next installment of 50 million euros ($54 million) to the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), the primary humanitarian aid group in Gaza.

The payment is part of an 84 million euro ($90 million) package that is due to be given to the United Nations agency in 2024.

The EU said its decision was made following the establishment of an independent review group by the UN to look into the agency. UNRWA also agreed to an audit by EU-appointed experts and to strengthen its department of internal investigations.

In January, Israeli authorities accused 12 UNRWA employees of involvement in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks, prompting an investigation by the agency.

More than a dozen Western countries suspended funding from the agency in the wake of the explosive allegations, raising questions about the fate of the 5.9 million refugees it serves.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock speaks to the media during a press conference on February 13, in Berlin, Germany.

Israel must “fully investigate” how more than 100 people were reportedly killed on Thursday as they waited for food, Germany’s foreign minister has said, as the country becomes the latest to call for clarity over one of the deadliest single incidents in Gaza since the war began.

At least 112 people died and hundreds were injured on Thursday after Israeli forces opened fire as Palestinian civilians waited for food, the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said. The Israeli military has given a different account of the circumstances.

“The Israeli army must fully investigate how the mass panic and the shooting happened,” she added. “The people there are closer to dying than to being alive. More humanitarian aid needs to be provided.”

It comes after France said it would support the United Nations’ call for an independent inquiry into Thursday’s incident, with the French foreign affairs minister calling the events on the ground indefensible. 

Meanwhile, Baerbock reiterated her call for a humanitarian ceasefire, writing: “A humanitarian ceasefire is finally needed so that the hostages can finally be released from the hands of Hamas and no more people die in Gaza. And aid can be distributed safely.”

There are growing calls for an independent inquiry following the reported deaths of more than 100 people in Gaza as they waited for food on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the European Union has joined the United Nations to call for an investigation into reports of indiscriminate targeting of civilians in Gaza by the Israeli military, in light of a CNN report.

Here are the latest developments:

Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza stands in a street in the central part of the Palestinian territory on December 18.

For 108 days, Palestinian photographer Motaz Azaiza risked his life in Gaza to tell the story of the war to millions of followers on Instagram, as friends and family members were killed around him. But he has now left his native Gaza, feeling dismayed.

“Nothing changed. You didn’t change anything,” he told CNN’s Becky Anderson in an interview, addressing the international community, which he says has been unmoved by the images of death and carnage brought about by Israel’s war on the besieged territory.

He has been hailed by many around the world as the eyes and ears of Gaza for capturing a raw, unfiltered glimpse into the horrors of the war. That attention was unintended and unexpected.

Azaiza was an aspiring travel photographer. His first Instagram post in May 2014 was a simple photo of natural wonder; vibrant petals of fuchsia and crimson, exploding out from an orange center. Known by some as a Treasure Flower, botanists identify the plant by its correct genus, Gazania. From the very beginning, it seemed as though he wanted to share his vision of a beautiful world.

Read the full story:

Siblings Al-Zain, 10, and Ali, 13, were among those killed. 

The European Union has joined the United Nations to call for an investigation into reports of indiscriminate targeting of civilians in Gaza by the Israeli military, in light of a CNN report.

A CNN investigation published earlier this week found several members of the Abu Jibba family were killed in January by the shockwave of what was likely a 2,000-pound bomb dropped by the Israeli military. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told CNN it was responding to fire by militants.

The EU said on Friday the reporting by CNN “only underlines yet again” its call for restraint by the IDF, adding that it expects Israel to investigate “every unsettling report about unjustified and indiscriminate targeting of civilians.”

Peter Stano, lead spokesperson for foreign affairs and security policy, told CNN in a statement that he does not “in general” comment on media reports that the EU cannot independently verify, but was making an exception in this case.

Responding to CNN’s investigation, the UN secretary-general’s spokesperson on Wednesday called for “a full investigation into what was reported.”

Read the full investigation:

French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting to discuss the situation in the Middle East at UN headquarters in New York on January 23.

France would support the United Nations’ call for an independent inquiry into Thursday’s events in Gaza during which more than 100 civilians were killed while gathering around food aid trucks, the country’s foreign affairs minister has said.  

The foreign affairs ministry also released a statement on Thursday saying France was “waiting for all light to be shed on the acts mentioned, which are very serious.”

“In any event, it is Israel’s responsibility to comply with the rules of international law and to protect the distribution of humanitarian aid to civilian populations,” it added. 

The ministry reiterated France’s call for an “immediate and lasting ceasefire” to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid to the enclave.

Key background: Israeli forces opened fire as scores of people were waiting for food in Gaza on Thursday, leaving at least 112 people dead and hundreds injured, according to the Palestinian health ministry in the enclave. CNN is unable to independently confirm the death toll, and the Israeli military has given a different account of the circumstances. The UN has called for an investigation.