Humanitarian crisis worsens in Gaza as Israel-Hamas war rages

Our live coverage of Israel’s war in Gaza has moved here.

This file photo from the US Navy shows the USS Gravely (DDG 107) on December 5.

A US Navy warship, the USS Gravely, shot down two anti-ship ballistic missiles from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen on Saturday night, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement. 

Earlier on Saturday, a Singapore-flagged and Denmark owned and operated container ship named the Maersk Hangzhou was struck by a missile while transiting the Southern Red Sea, prompting USS Gravely and another vessel, the USS Laboon, to respond, CENTCOM said.

It is the 23rd recorded illegal attack by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels on international shipping, CENCOM says, since November 19 when the group began carrying out strikes on ships in the Red Sea, which they say are revenge against Israel for its military campaign in Gaza.

No injuries were reported and the vessel was reportedly able to sail on, CENTCOM said.

Some context: The Houthis are believed to have been armed and trained by Iran, and there are fears that their attacks could escalate Israel’s war against Hamas into a wider regional conflict.

Their attacks have so far forced some of the world’s biggest shipping and oil companies to suspend transit through one of the world’s most important maritime trade routes, which could potentially cause a shock to the global economy.

An Israeli tank operates in Israel, near the Gaza border, on December 30.

Israel’s war against Hamas is at its “highest level and will continue for months,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday, according to Israel’s Army Radio.

His comments come as the death toll in Gaza rose to nearly 21,700 since Israeli military operations began on October 7, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza.

At least 165 people have been killed over the past day, and 250 others wounded, ministry spokesperson Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra said Saturday.

The ministry has confirmed the deaths of at least 21,672 people, and the injury of at least 56,165, since Israel’s offensive in the enclave began, according to the spokesperson. About 70% of the war’s victims are children and women, Al-Qudra said.

CNN is unable to independently confirm the figures provided by the Gaza ministry, due to restricted access to the region and the difficulty in verifying accurate numbers amid the ongoing conflict.

Here are other headlines you should know:

Israel’s war against Hamas is at its “highest level and will continue for months,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday, according to Israel’s Army Radio.

Addressing reporters in Tel Aviv, the prime minister also said the Israeli military is “fighting with force and new systems above and below the ground.”

“We have the upper hand, we have killed more than 8,000 terrorists,” he claimed, according to Army Radio.

CNN is unable to independently confirm casualty figures provided by the Israel Defense Forces or Hamas, due to restricted access to the region and the difficulty in verifying accurate numbers amid an ongoing conflict.

The Israel Defense Forces struck a centuries-old Ottoman-era bathhouse when it targeted a claimed “Hamas terrorist squad” in mid-December, the IDF confirmed Sunday. 

The Hamam al-Samra, in the Al-Zeitoun neighborhood of northern Gaza, was said to have been built in the 14th century and was the only public bathhouse in the Gaza Strip. It was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike on December 15, its owner, Salim Al-Wazeer, told CNN.

The bathhouse had seen annual renovations during the month of Ramadan since 1999, the owner told CNN, adding that he hopes to one day rebuild the hammam.

The Israel Defense Forces reported “numerous launches” coming from Lebanon toward Israeli territory Saturday.

The IDF said its defenses also intercepted a “suspicious aerial target that crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory.”

The fresh attacks come after Israel said earlier Saturday that its aircraft had targeted three “terrorist” squads in Lebanon, as well as Hezbollah infrastructure in the neighboring country.

Hezbollah announced that it had carried out three attacks on Israeli forces, including one drone attack. It also acknowledged the deaths of four fighters, without saying where they were killed.

Remember: This fighting is centered on northern Israel and southern Lebanon — separate from Israel’s battles with Hamas further south in Gaza.

But clashes between Israel and Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed paramilitary group operating across Israel’s northern border, are among various factors raising concerns that the war in Gaza could evolve into a widened Middle East conflict.

Palestinians crowd to buy meat in Rafah, Gaza, on December 30.

Palestinians displaced inside Gaza have described cramped living conditions, sky-high prices for food, children going hungry and poor sanitation. 

CNN spoke by phone with several people trying to survive in Rafah, in the south, which tens of thousands have fled to despite it already being the most densely populated part of Gaza.

Vegetables and fruit were unaffordable, he said. His children asked for oranges, but he was not able to buy them.

“We never (been) through this situation before; we were a middle-class family,” he said. “Now, since the war, we are buying dates — which we used to find everywhere for free. We want a solution to our miserable suffering.” 

Umm Omar, 50, is also displaced in Rafah, and lives in a tent. During the truce, his family had briefly returned home only to find all the windows and solar panels broken, and the kitchen destroyed.

Displaced Palestinians shelter in a tent camp in Rafah, Gaza, on December 29.

“We are nine people in a tent of two meters by one meter,” she said. “We have bought this camping tent ourselves; no one helped us or provided it.”

Omar said the group was getting by on canned food, and estimated that most foods were at least four times as expensive as before the war. Medication is also hard to find.

In recent days, large groups of civilians desperate for food have been seen surrounding aid trucks coming into Gaza in a desperate scramble for help.

The United Nations has warned that the humanitarian situation in southern Gaza is deteriorating. It warned that the volume of aid entering the enclave “remains woefully inadequate.”

Smoke billows over Khan Younis, Gaza, on December 30.

The Israel Defense Forces has issued what it calls “several urgent instructions” to people in Gaza on what it says are safe routes in the midst of intensified fighting near the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

The IDF posted instructions in Arabic as well as a map on X, saying that the fighting and advance of Israeli forces in the Khan Younis area meant that civilians could not use the main Salah Al-Din axis that runs north to south through the middle of Gaza.

Instead, the IDF said it would allow humanitarian movement through a separate route to the west of Khan Younis, along the coastal road, allowing access to parts of central Gaza, including Deir Al-Balah, which the UN says is overcrowded with displaced people.

The IDF also announced a four-hour “tactical suspension of military activities” in Rafah camp in the south to allow for humanitarian resupply.

Given the lack of communications and internet in Gaza, it’s unclear how many people are aware of the IDF’s instructions.

Even as Israel pushes on in central and southern Gaza, where it has announced it is extending operations, fighting also continues in the north of the territory.

On Saturday, the IDF reported fighting in the northern Shejaiya area, where “ground troops located a terrorist cell operating adjacent to the forces, and a terrorist armed with an RPG. The troops directed an IDF aircraft that struck and eliminated the cell.” 

And in Beit Lahia, which has already seen extensive destruction, the IDF said “two Hamas military compounds were dismantled by the troops, who had located numerous weapons, explosive devices, guns, military equipment, communication devices in the compounds prior to the strike.”

The IDF said that in Gaza City — also in the north — ground troops and aircraft killed “dozens of terrorists.”

Hamas’ military wing, Al Qassam Brigades, says it continues to fight Israeli forces in many parts of Gaza, including the Al-Bureij refugee camp in the center of the enclave.

A long war lies ahead: Israel’s initial focus following the October 7 attacks was northern Gaza, before it expanded its operations to the south.

Israel aims to destroy Hamas after their surprise attacks left 1,200 Israelis dead, as well as bring back the hostages the militant group captured.

Its military has warned the war could last “many more months.”

As of Saturday, the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza says nearly 21,700 people have been killed in the enclave during Israel’s offensive.

CNN is unable to independently confirm figures provided by the IDF and Gaza ministry, due to restricted access to the region and the difficulty in verifying accurate numbers amid an ongoing conflict.

Palestinians wait to collect food at a donation point in a refugee camp in Rafah on December 23.

The United Nations has expressed alarm at the growing density of internally displaced people in parts of the Gaza Strip, as the Israeli military expands operations into more parts of central and southern Gaza.

In its latest update, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that at least 100,000 internally displaced people had arrived in Rafah, the most southerly city in Gaza, in recent days, following the intensification of hostilities in Khan Younis and Deir Al Balah, and the Israeli army’s evacuation orders. 

The OCHA said that Rafah was already the most densely populated area in Gaza, with more than 12,000 people per square kilometre.

Close to 180,000 people living in shelters are suffering from upper respiratory infections; there are 136,400 cases of diarrhoea (half of them among children under five years old); 55,400 cases of lice and scabies; 42,700 cases of skin rash, as well as outbreaks of jaundice and meningitis.

Israel presses on: The OCHA said that on Friday, multiple locations were targeted by the Israeli military in Khan Younis and Rafah in southern Gaza, with airstrikes and missiles striking housing units and infrastructure, reportedly resulting in high numbers of fatalities in areas where Palestinians have relocated.

As it presses on with its campaign, Israel has repeatedly called on residents in different parts of Gaza to leave but the UN has previously warned they have nowhere to go.

CNN analysis found that Israel has struck at least three locations in Gaza to which it had ordered civilians to evacuate to since the beginning of the war in October. 

Smoke rises as a result of Israeli attacks in Khan Younis, Gaza on December 29.

Israel’s military said it was “extending operations” and dismantling Hamas infrastructure in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza on Friday, while also claiming to have destroyed a network of tunnels near Gaza City along with one of the “hideout apartments” belonging to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

While the Israel Defense Forces reported its progress on the ground, officials with the United Nations are again raising the alarm about the consequences for Gaza’s civilians.

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said in a post on X Thursday that over 150,000 people “have nowhere to go” after the latest IDF warning to evacuate large portions of central Gaza.

Even civilians who have reached shelters have not always been able to escape harm. The UNRWA said Friday that at least 308 people taking refuge in its shelters had been killed — and at least 1,095 others wounded — since the most recent fighting began in the enclave on October 7.

And, the UN relief chief on Thursday described the frustrations of getting aid into the enclave, where an acute hunger crisis is impacting millions. UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths described “constant bombardments. Poor communications. Damaged roads. Convoys shot at. Delays at checkpoints.” He added that “this is an impossible situation for people of Gaza and those trying to help them.”

Here are some of the other key updates Friday:

Pallets of humanitarian aid are unloaded and inspected before entering Gaza at the Kerem Shalom Crossing on December 22, Kerem Shalom, Israel.

Dispatch of aid into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing has resumed after it was suspended for several days due to “security incidents,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Friday.

A total of 81 trucks carrying food and medicine entered Gaza on Friday through both the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel and the Rafah crossing from Egypt, the UN agency reported.

But OCHA also warned the volume of aid entering the ravaged Palestinian enclave “remains woefully inadequate.” Before October 7, the UN reported an average daily delivery of 455 trucks carrying commercial goods into Gaza.

Some background: The Kerem Shalom crossing was closed from December 25 to 28 due to “security incidents” that had been reported in its vicinity since it was opened on December 17, according to OCHA.

Those incidents included a deadly drone strike on December 25, the seizing of aid from food convoys by desperate local communities and “unannounced and uncoordinated prisoner and casualty transfers from Israel which rendered the crossing unusable for hours at a time,” the agency said.

Earlier on Friday, Tal Heinrich, spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister, said the UN requested the closure of the crossing on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday “for aid inspections, due to congestion on the Gaza side.”

Heinrich also insisted that Israel was not limiting the amount of humanitarian aid that can enter the enclave, saying that suggesting otherwise is a “fallacy.”

The United Nations relief chief Martin Griffiths speaks during a press conference on the situation in Gaza, at UN Building in Geneva, on November 15.

The United Nations relief chief Martin Griffiths issued a statement Friday condemning a UN aid convoy being fired upon the previous day in Gaza. 

 “The convoy was clearly marked and its movements were coordinated with the parties. Attacks on humanitarian workers are unlawful,” Griffiths said.

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza has said the convoy was fired on by Israeli soldiers, according to the organization’s director Thomas White.

The Israeli military told CNN it is investigating the incident.

The convoy was made up of seven UN vehicles, including two armored vehicles, with their exteriors marked with the letters “UN,” UNRWA Communications Director Juliette Touma told CNN on Friday.

Touma also said the convoy had been asked to change its route.

It is not yet clear why the convoy was asked to make the change, and how much time elapsed between the reported request to change the convoy’s route and the reported firing by Israeli soldiers.

The chief of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is urging media organizations to verify information, including from government officials, before publishing.

In a statement Friday, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini responded to claims from Israeli officials blaming UNRWA for aid delivery gaps in Gaza. 

On Friday, Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy accused UNRWA of covering up for Hamas’ alleged hijacking of aid in Gaza, describing the UN’s aid mechanism as “woefully unsuccessful.” 

Earlier in December, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) appeared to blame the UN for aid delay, saying it “must do better.” 

Lazzarini said even after the opening of Kerem Shalom border crossing for aid delivery, Israeli authorities have severely restricted humanitarian access through constant bombardment, regular disruptions of phone and internet services, long delays at the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings as well as restricted access to the northern part of the strip.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, attends a press briefing at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on December 15.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it is very concerned over the spread of infectious diseases in Gaza as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians remain displaced, with many in overcrowded shelters and health facilities.

In a statement Friday, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the following diseases and conditions were documented in shelters across the strip from mid-October to mid-December:

So far, 1.9 million Palestinians, constituting around 85% of Gaza’s population, have been displaced since October 7, according to UNRWA. 

Meanwhile, only 13 out of 36 hospitals remain partially functioning across Gaza, with another two minimally functioning, the WHO said in a statement Wednesday. 

Yahya Sinwar, Hamas' leader in Gaza, attends a meeting in Gaza City on April 13, 2022.

The Israel Defense Forces claimed Friday to have destroyed a network of tunnels and one of the “hideout apartments” belonging to Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ leader in Gaza. 

The IDF’s 14th Reserve Brigade Combat Team located and destroyed the apartment near Gaza City “in recent weeks,” the IDF said. 

The IDF said the apartment was part of “a long and branching tunnel network” that was used by senior Hamas officials. During an inspection of the apartment, soldiers with the IDF’s Yahalom Unit discovered a 20-meter-deep (about 66 feet) tunnel shaft in the basement floor. The shaft led to a 218-meter-long (about 715 feet) tunnel that contained an electrical network, ventilation and sewage infrastructure, as well as prayer rooms, the IDF said. 

The tunnel was subsequently destroyed by the IDF’s Yahalom Unit.

CNN cannot independently verify the IDF’s claims. 

Some background: Earlier in December, Israeli forces said they had surrounded Sinwar’s house. The IDF said Sinwar was not in the house and was believed to be hiding underground in Gaza, but a senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that it was “only a matter of time before we get him.”

Israel has publicly accused Sinwar of being the “mastermind” behind Hamas’ terror attack against Israel on October 7 – though experts say he is likely one of several – making him one of the key targets of its war in Gaza.

He was elected to Hamas’ main decision-making body, the Politburo, in 2017 as the political leader of Hamas in Gaza branch. However, he has since become the Politburo’s de facto leader, according to research by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). He has been designated a global terrorist by the US Department of State since 2015, and has been recently sanctioned by the United Kingdom and France.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to the media prior to departure from Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai on December 1.

The Biden administration bypassed Congress to approve a nearly $150 million sale of military equipment to Israel for the second time this month.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken informed Congress that he has made an emergency determination to immediately approve the transfer of “155mm ancillary items including fuzes, charges, and primers that make 155mm shells functional,” a State Department spokesperson said Friday.

The spokesperson said the additional items were added to previous sales, which “increased the total value of the sale to $147.5 million.”

Earlier this month, the administration rushed forward a sale of thousands of munitions to Israel, bypassing the standard 20-day period that congressional committees are typically afforded to review such a sale. The State Department sent an emergency declaration to the oversight committees that more than 13,000 tank shells would be delivered to Israel without any “further information, details or assurances.”

“We continue to be clear with the government of Israel that they must comply with [international humanitarian law] and must take every feasible step to avoid harm to civilians,” a State Department spokesperson said at the time.

The $106 million transaction was part of a larger request to sell a total of 45,000 tank shells to Israel.

A United Nations aid convoy came under fire from Israeli soldiers in Gaza on Thursday, according to the Director of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza.

“Israeli soldiers fired at an aid convoy as it returned from Northern Gaza along a route designated by the Israeli Army,” Thomas White wrote in a post on X on Friday.

While no one was injured, White said “aid workers should never be a target” in his post.

The convoy was composed of seven UN vehicles, including two armored vehicles, with their exteriors marked with the letters “UN,” UNRWA Communications Director Juliette Touma told CNN on Friday.

According to Touma, the incident occurred between Gaza City and Nuseirat after aid deliveries were made in Gaza City’s Rimal neighborhood.

She stated that the incident occurred south of Wadi Gaza, located around five kilometers (or about 3.10 miles) away from Gaza City, after the convoy passed through an Israeli checkpoint.

Touma also told CNN that the convoy had been asked to change its route.

It is not yet clear why the convoy was asked to make the change, and how much time elapsed between the reported request to change the convoy’s route and the reported firing by IDF soldiers.

The IDF tells CNN it is looking into the reports.

Aid frustration: The United Nations relief chief has previously described the “impossible situation” of getting aid into Gaza, where an acute hunger crisis is impacting millions as Israel presses on with its offensive against Hamas. UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths described “constant bombardments. Poor communications. Damaged roads. Convoys shot at. Delays at checkpoints,” adding: “This is an impossible situation for people of Gaza and those trying to help them.”

“You think getting aid into Gaza is easy? Think again,” he said.

At least 308 people sheltering in shelters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) have been killed and at least 1,095 have been injured since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, the agency said Friday on X, formerly known as Twitter.  

The UNRWA also noted that “initial reports indicate on 25 December, 2 people sheltering in @UNRWA Maghazi Prep School were killed & 1 injured, result of a direct strike.”

CNN cannot independently verify these numbers.

In a statement sent to CNN on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that during “operations in the Gaza Strip against Hamas terrorist targets, IAF fighter jets struck two targets adjacent to which Hamas operatives were located on December 24, 2023.” 

The strikes were against targets in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp. According to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry, some 70 people were killed in the strikes.

The IDF has acknowledged that there was what it calls “unintended harm” to civilians as a result of air strikes in central Gaza on December 24.

“Before the strikes were carried out, steps were taken by the IDF to mitigate harm to uninvolved civilians in the area. A preliminary investigation revealed that additional buildings located near the targets were also hit during the strikes, which likely caused unintended harm to additional uninvolved civilians,” the statement said. 

The IDF said the strikes would be further investigated by the General Staff’s Fact Finding and Assessment Mechanism. It said the IDF regretted the harm caused to uninvolved civilians and is acting to draw conclusions and learn lessons from this event.

More on the situation on the ground: Nearly 1.4 million displaced people are sheltering in 156 UNRWA installations with another 500,000 registered and accessing services from UNRWA, according to the agency’s statement on its official website on Wednesday. 

The average number of internally displaced people in UNRWA shelters located in the middle and southern areas is over 12,000, UNRWA also said, adding, “This is more than four times their capacity.”

The IDF warned residents on Thursday in many parts of central Gaza that they must urgently leave while its operations against Hamas continue. The IDF issued a message in Arabic on X, formerly Twitter, instructing people in 15 identified blocks south of Wadi Gaza to move to shelters. The areas include the Al-Bureij refugee camp. 

The lack of communications and internet access in Gaza, which have been degraded by Israeli air strikes, make it difficult to assess how many residents would be aware of what the IDF calls “urgent instructions.”

The Peace Palace, which houses the seat of the the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, is pictured on September 19.

South Africa has filed an application at the International Court of Justice to begin proceedings over allegations of genocide against Israel for its war against Hamas in Gaza, the court said.

Israel, through its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, rejected South Africa’s claims and application to the World Court, saying South Africa “is calling for the destruction of the State of Israel,” and that its “claim lacks both a factual and a legal basis.”

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed South Africa’s move to begin proceedings over the genocide allegations.

Some background: South Africa and Israel are both parties to the Genocide Convention, according to the ICJ, which is also known as the World Court and is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations.

The role of the International Court of Justice is to handle disputes between member states, whereas the International Criminal Court tries individuals.