May 13, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

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

A damaged United Nations vehicle is seen in front of a hospital after a UN employee was killed in an attack on a vehicle in Gaza, according to Israeli media.

The US believes an Israeli operation in Gaza’s southern town of Rafah would be a mistake and is “urgently” working toward a ceasefire, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said.

This comes as the Biden administration has assessed that Israel has amassed enough troops on the edge of the city of Rafah in Gaza to move forward with a full-scale incursion in the coming days, two senior administration officials told CNN.

The White House is urging Israel to connect their military operations to a “clear” end game for Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas, Sullivan told reporters. 

A top State Department official said the US and Israel are “struggling over what the theory of victory is” for Israel in Gaza, and that US does not believe that the kind of total victory Israel says it is fighting for against Hamas is “likely or possible.”

Meanwhile, here’s what else has happened in Israel’s war in Gaza:

Aid to Gaza ransacked: Israeli activists opposed to sending help to Palestinians in Gaza intercepted and ransacked a shipment of humanitarian aid bound for Gaza. Video from the Tarkumiya checkpoint near Hebron in the West Bank, through which the convoy was traveling, shows at least two trucks ransacked, with sacks and boxes of food strewn across the road. Other footage showed activists blocking the path of the aid trucks, throwing the aid packages on the ground, and stomping on the boxes. It’s unclear whether the aid was coming from Jordan or the Palestinian Authority.

UN staffer killed and injured: At least one United Nations aid worker was killed and another injured after a vehicle marked as belonging to the agency was attacked in Rafah on Monday, according to Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the UN secretary-general. Haq did not assign blame to either Israel or Hamas for the attack.

Unclear Israeli military strategy: The Israeli military has renewed its fighting in northern Gaza where it previously claimed to have dismantled Hamas’ command structure. But it now says the Palestinian militant group is trying to “reassemble” in the area, raising doubts about whether Israel’s goal to eradicate the group in the enclave is realistic and renewing questions about its long-term military strategy.

Probe into intel failures: The Israeli State Comptroller’s Office, which is investigating possible intelligence failures prior to the October 7 terror attack by Hamas, has welcomed a Supreme Court decision denying a request by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to delay the inquiry. The office said it expects “all audited entities to order their people to comply with the duty imposed on them … and to fully cooperate.”

Palestinians pack their belongings as they prepare to flee Rafah in southern Gaza on Monday, May 13.

The Biden administration has assessed that Israel has amassed enough troops on the edge of the city of Rafah in Gaza to move forward with a full-scale incursion in the coming days, but senior US officials are currently unsure if it has made a final decision to carry out such a move in direct defiance of President Joe Biden, two senior administration officials told CNN.

One of the officials also warned Israel has not come anywhere close to making adequate preparations – including building infrastructure related to food, hygiene and shelter – ahead of potentially evacuating more than 1 million Gazans are who currently reside in Rafah.

If Israel were to proceed with a major ground operation into Rafah, it would be going against months of warnings from the US to forego a full-scale offensive into the densely populated city. Biden himself voiced that warning in his most explicit terms yet last week, telling CNN’s Erin Burnett that the US would withhold some additional arms shipments to Israel if they were to take such a step.

“The president was clear that he would not supply certain offensive weapons for such an operation were to occur,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters at the White House Monday. “It has not yet occurred.”

As the war enters its eighth month, US officials are increasingly questioning Israel’s approach to the war, including publicly suggesting it is unlikely to achieve its stated aim of destroying Hamas and eliminating its leadership.

On Monday, Kurt Campbell, the State Department’s No. 2 official, said there have plainly been tensions between the two countries on “what the theory of victory is.”

“We view that there has to be more of a political solution. That’s one of the reasons why the president’s team has been so engaged with the surrounding region,” Campbell said at the NATO Youth Summit co-hosted by the Aspen Institute.

Read more on the US assessment of Israel’s possible incursion of Rafah.

An Army intelligence officer resigned in an act of protest over what he called “nearly unqualified” US support for Israel, according to a resignation letter posted on LinkedIn.

Maj. Harrison Mann was assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency, according to his LinkedIn profile, and said in his resignation letter that US policies have “enabled and empowered the killing and starvation of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians.”

Mann has worked at the Defense Intelligence Agency since August 2021 as a Middle East analyst, according to his LinkedIn profile. He has been in the Army for 13 years, during which he attended Army’s Special Warfare Center and School, as well as Harvard’s Kennedy School. 

Mann says he submitted his resignation on November 1, which was less than a month after the Hamas terror attack on October 7 and the beginning of Israel’s bombardment of the coastal enclave.

CNN has not been able to reach Mann, but when The New York Times reached him Monday, Mann confirmed he was the author of the post but declined to comment further.

An official from the Defense Intelligence Agency confirmed Mann’s resignation and said such resignations are a “routine occurrence.”

According to the Army, Mann had deployed to Tunisia, Bahrain, Kuwait and South Korea during his 13-year military service. Mann requested an unqualified resignation on November 29, 2023, the Army said in a statement, in which an officer voluntarily requests to be discharged after completing his or her service obligations. Mann’s request was approved on January 8, 2024. It will be become effective June 3, 2024.

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdoğan speaks during a press conference in Ankara, Turkey, on Monday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Monday that he does not see Hamas as a “terrorist organization” but as a “resistance organization” and “more than 1,000 Hamas members are currently under treatment” in Turkish hospitals.

He said calling Hamas a “terrorist organization” would be “a cruel approach.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he is sending “a clear message” that the country is against a “broad attack” against Rafah.

Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed more than 35,000 Palestinians and injured another 78,600 people since October 7, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. CNN is not able to independently verify the numbers issued by the ministry.

Israel has said it would press ahead with plans for a full scale ground offensive in the southern city of Rafah, despite international warnings and pressure from aid agencies worsening a humanitarian catastrophe inside the Palestinian enclave.

The United Nations says 360,000 people have fled Rafah ahead of Israel’s planned invasion into the southern Gaza city.  

People mourn next to the bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on May 11.

The United Nations on Monday clarified that the overall number of fatalities in Gaza tallied by the Ministry of Health in Gaza remains unchanged, at more than 35,000, since the war broke out between Israel and Hamas on October 7.

The clarification comes after the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) published a report on May 8 with revised data regarding the number of Palestinian casualties in the war. The UN agency in its report reduced the number of women and children believed to have been killed in the war by nearly half.

The number was reduced because the UN says it is now relying on the number of deceased women and children whose names and other identifying details have been fully documented, rather than the total number of women and children killed. The ministry says bodies that arrive at hospitals get counted in the overall death count.

UN spokesperson Farhan Haq told a daily briefing at the UN that the health ministry in Gaza recently published two separate death tolls — an overall death toll and a total number of identified fatalities. In the UN report, only the total number of fatalities whose identities (such as name and date of birth) have been documented was published, leading to confusion.

CNN spoke to two officials from the Palestinian Ministry of Health. They said although the ministry keeps a separate death toll for identified and unidentified individuals, the total number of people killed remains unchanged. Additionally, the officials said, the total number of dead does not include the approximately 10,000 people who are still missing and trapped under the rubble.

While CNN cannot independently verify the ministry’s numbers, it has seen a daily report from the ministry which matches the number OCHA published in the revised version. Both the UN and US officials have previously appraised the figures from the Ministry of Health in Gaza as credible.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan answers questions during a press briefing at the White House on Monday.

The White House is urging Israel to connect their military operations to a “clear” end game for Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters. 

His comments come as the White House has continued to make clear that it would not support a large-scale invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza. 

He also said that one of the “key points” that US officials are making to their counterparts is to look beyond the current military plan. 

“So one of the key points that we have been reinforcing is to step back just from a tactical military analysis of the situation but strategically, how do we get to the common goal, the enduring defeat of Hamas and that is going to require military pressure, yes, but more than just military pressure, a political plan to get there,” he said. 

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday that the ongoing ceasefire negotiations continue  “urgently” and that the administration remains “intent and determined” to help Israel and Hamas reach a deal and secure the release of hostages.   

He added: “This particular negotiation has had its ups and downs, its ins and outs, its twists and turns.”

Sullivan also said that it’s his belief that Israel can and must do more to protect civilians in Gaza and that the US government still believes a Rafah operation would be a mistake. 

He added: “We still believe it is — would be a mistake to launch a major military operation into the heart of Rafah that would put huge numbers of civilians at risk without a clear strategic gain.”

Some context: Top American officials have been offering stark warnings against an Israeli invasion of Rafah, predicting that a major ground offensive in the southern Gaza city would lead to widespread civilian casualties, spark a Hamas insurgency and create a power vacuum the terror group would later seek to fill.

It follows US President Joe Biden’s ultimatum last week on CNN that an Israeli invasion of Rafah would cause him to pause certain weapons transfers.

A top State Department official said that the US and Israel are “struggling over what the theory of victory is” for Israel in Gaza, and that US does not believe that the kind of total victory Israel says it is fighting for against Hamas is “likely or possible.”

Campbell compared the situation in Gaza to the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq after 9/11, where fighting continued “after civilian populations had been moved.”

“Ultimately, I think we view that there has to be more of a political solution,” said Campbell.

A screengrab of a video shows Israeli activists blocking the path of the aid trucks and throwing aid packages on the ground.

A shipment of humanitarian aid bound for Gaza was intercepted and ransacked by Israeli activists opposed to sending help to Palestinians living in the besieged enclave.

Video from the Tarkumiya checkpoint near Hebron in the West Bank, through which the convoy was traveling, shows at least two trucks ransacked, with sacks and boxes of food strewn across the road.

It’s unclear whether the aid was coming from Jordan or the Palestinian Authority.

The Regavim movement, which opposes the transfer of aid to Gaza, said: “We will not be the ‘silver platter’ of the Palestinian Authority.”

It added: “Unfathomable to the mind and heart, that precisely on the day of Remembrance Day for the fallen soldiers of Israel’s battles and the victims of hostilities, the Israeli government opens a supply route from the Palestinian Authority in Hebron to the Hamas terrorists in Gaza.”

Regavim and activists from another group, Tsav 9, were involved in the disruption of the convoy.

Israeli police said they have since opened an investigation and arrested several activists over the interception.

The US raised the incident with the Israeli government.

“We have raised this incident with the government of Israel and we expect them to take appropriate action,” he added.

The department previously condemned several other attacks on aid convoys by Israeli activists and called on Israel to hold the alleged perpetrators accountable.

Palestinians caught in the middle of the war between Israel and Hamas have been struggling to get enough food and water to survive. Northern Gaza is now in the middle of a “full-blown famine,” according to the World Food Programme.

Half the population of Gaza is projected to face catastrophic hunger by mid-July, with all 2.2 million people unable to meet their food needs, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.

This post has been updated to include a response from the Israeli police and the US State Department.

The United States is aware of reports that a group of American medical workers at the European hospital in Khan Younis are trapped in Gaza, according to a State Department spokesperson. 

Patel emphasized that Israel must keep the Rafah crossing open in part so foreign nationals can leave Gaza through there.

Raed Redwan (left) and his two-month-old baby, Maria (right) sit along Salah Al-Din Street, in central Gaza, in a photo shared with CNN on May 12

Raed Redwan collected water in a little plastic container as rainfall pelted his makeshift tent in Rafah, in southern Gaza. 

The teacher and academic, who is displaced with his wife and mother, told CNN he feared potential flooding would drown his two-month-old daughter, Maria. The sound of raindrops can be heard in videos shared with CNN, as Redwan swaddles his newborn baby in a pink and cream blanket.

“I don’t know what to do. I can’t sleep, the indiscriminate shelling is getting closer to me. I am very afraid and tense,” he told CNN on May 9. 

Earlier this month, Israeli forces issued a relocation order to displaced civilians in Rafah ahead of a threatened a full-scale ground assault on the city. Redwan – along with more than one million Palestinians displaced in the sprawling city – was caught between staying trapped, or fleeing without the promise of safety.  

“I am here alone, it’s hard to make a decision to flee. Displacement is very exhausting mentally, physically, and emotionally. There is no safe place in Gaza,” he said. “Rafah is under fire and bombardment.  

On Sunday, Redwan said he had made a risky journey further north, to Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza. His young family were forced to sleep on the streets with no water, food or electricity, where they could hear explosions nearby, he added. 

A view of the damaged UN vehicle in front of a hospital in Gaza on Monday.

At least one United Nations aid worker was killed and another injured after a vehicle marked as belonging to the agency was attacked in Rafah on Monday.

UN personnel were “targeted while traveling in a United Nations vehicle clearly marked with the UN flag and insignias,” according to Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the UN Secretary-General. Haq did not assign blame to either Israel or Hamas for the attack.

The death is the first of a UN foreign aid worker since October 7, Haq said.

The Jordanian Foreign Ministry later confirmed the aid worker killed was Jordanian.

The Gaza media office issued a statement blaming Israel for the killing of the UN workers. CNN has asked the Israeli military about the allegations and has yet to hear back.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres’s office released a statement condemning the attack on UN personnel and called for a full investigation. 

The Jordanian Foreign Ministry condemned the Monday attack, saying the incident “was a result of Israel’s expansion of its military operations in Rafah.”

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.

Jordanian Ministry spokesperson Sufyan Qudah underscored the urgent need to safeguard UN aid workers, whom he called pivotal figures providing humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza.

The spokesperson said that the ministry is actively coordinating with the United Nations to monitor the medical condition of the injured Jordanian citizen and ensure her safe departure from Gaza.

This post has been updated to include comments from the Jordanian Foreign Ministry.

The Israeli military has renewed its fighting in northern Gaza where it previously claimed to have dismantled Hamas’ command structure. But it now says the Palestinian militant group is trying to “reassemble” in the area, raising doubts about whether Israel’s goal to eradicate the group in the enclave is realistic.

Israel’s renewed ground operation began on Saturday, with intense shelling and gunfire gripping much of the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza. The Israeli military also began operating in the area of Zeitoun in central Gaza, as it continues its offensive in eastern Rafah and near the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

Israel’s return to pockets it had supposedly cleared of Hamas renews questions about its long-term military strategy, which after more than seven months of war has left more than 35,000 Palestinians dead and much of Gaza in ruins – but more than 100 hostages from Israel still in captivity and Hamas’ top leadership still at large.

Read the full story:

The Israeli State Comptroller’s Office, which is investigating possible intelligence failures prior to the October 7 terror attack by Hamas, has welcomed a Supreme Court decision denying a request by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to delay the inquiry.

The office said it expects “all audited entities to order their people to comply with the duty imposed on them … and to fully cooperate.”

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said on Sunday that he bears “the responsibility for the failure of the IDF to defend our civilians on October 7.” 

Halevi’s remarks came during a speech he delivered at Israel’s Memorial Day ceremony held at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. 

“I carry its weight on my shoulders daily, and in my heart, I fully understand its significance,” Halevi said.

The October 7 attack, which prompted Israel to launch its current assault against Hamas, is widely seen as an intelligence failure. Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, the Israeli military intelligence chief, became the first senior military figure to step down over the attacks when he resigned last month.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said that an investigation should take place after the war with Hamas, which has been ongoing for more than seven months.

In a CNN interview in November, Netanyahu refused to answer whether he would take responsibility for failing to prevent the deadly incursion.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry during a visit to Antalya, Turkey, on March 1.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that the Israeli military’s actions in Gaza, particularly in Rafah, pose “grave security risks” and a “serious threat to the stability of the region” in a phone call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

More than 1 million Palestinians had fled to Rafah, on Gaza’s border with Egypt, seeking shelter from the months-long war in the enclave. Israel has been planning to invade the southern Gaza city despite widespread international concerns over the civilians who would be killed in a full-scale assault.

In his phone call with Blinken, Shoukry reiterated the dire humanitarian consequences that have come from Israeli troops seizing the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing — which sits on the Egyptian border and is a key entry point for aid — as well as the ongoing Israeli attacks. He also emphasized the urgent need to restore aid access to Gaza, according to a read-out of the call released by the Egyptian foreign ministry. 

Egypt, a key player in talks between Israel and Hamas, said on Monday it would throw its support behind South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice “in light of the escalating severity and scope of Israeli attacks against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.”

Relatives of Palestinians killed as result of Israeli attacks mourn at the Kuwait hospital, Gaza, on May 13, 2024 in Rafah, Gaza. It was reported that there were dead and injured people in the attack carried out by the Israeli army on the Brazil neighborhood of Rafah, located in the south of Gaza Strip. (Photo by

Gaza’s Health Ministry said that 57 people were killed in Israeli operations in the most recent 24-hour reporting period. The ministry says 82 people were injured.

Since the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel, 35,091 people have been killed in Gaza, in Israeli attacks pn the enclave, and 78,827 people have been injured, the ministry said.

CNN cannot verify the ministry’s numbers, which do not distinguish between casualties among fighters and civilians. That figure does not include the several thousand people thought to be missing in Gaza since October 7.

The number of civilians killed in Israel’s military operation has prompted international condemnation and concern, including among the country’s allies.

The United States recently paused the shipment of “high-payload munitions” to the Israeli military as the country’s senior officials say they plan to go ahead with a wider-scale operation in the southern city of Rafah.

Israeli forces ramped up attacks in northern and central Gaza, and said it would press ahead with plans for a ground offensive in the southern city of Rafah, worsening a humanitarian catastrophe inside the Palestinian enclave.

People are handed food portions from a large pot at a public kitchen in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, on May 13.

Palestinians prepare to flee Rafah in southern Gaza on May 13.

Hundreds of thousands of people have now fled Rafah as Israel stands firm it will invade the city. Relief agencies warn an escalation in Israeli attacks would stifle critical efforts to get aid to those who need it even further. Under growing international pressure to allow more aid into the strip, Israel later announced the opening of a new crossing into Gaza in coordination with the US.

But human rights organizations have repeatedly warned that Israel’s aid inspections process means relief is barely trickling into the strip, where the entire population of more than 2.2 million people are exposed to the risk of famine.

Palestinians wait for water in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on May 13.

Boys watch smoke billowing during Israeli strikes east of Rafah in southern Gaza on May 13.

Palestinians are desperately trying to flee intense shelling and gunfire in Jabalya refugee camp, in northern Gaza, after Israeli forces launched a ground attack over the weekend.

Meanwhile, senior US officials and human rights agencies doubled down on concerns of widespread civilian casualties in Rafah, ahead of a planned Israeli assault into the southern city.

Here are the latest developments: