Devastation in Gaza as Israel wages war on Hamas

Our live coverage of the war in Gaza has moved here.

Dozens of killed and injured Palestinians arrived at Kamal Adwan Hospital on Saturday as fighting continued in northern Gaza, the hospital’s director general Hussam Abu Saifya told CNN, describing the situation as “an absolute disaster.”

“Adwan is a small hospital without the capacity for this large number of injuries, all of which are critical,” he said. “We don’t have enough medical supplies and medications. We are facing a medical catastrophe.”

Al-Ghad TV journalist Abdel Karim Al-Zweidi was among the injured who arrived at the hospital after a shell hit a street where he was filming.

“A shell hit the street where a number of civilians were standing and it hit the center of their gathering,” Al-Zweidi told CNN. “I was injured and every citizen on the street was injured. A lot of people were killed.”

Earlier on Saturday, the Israeli military said its troops had killed Palestinian militants in multiple battles in Jabalya in northern Gaza. CNN footage from the area showed large explosions, with the sounds of bombardment, gunfire and drones.

People climb onto trucks to take aid that was delivered from a United States-built floating pier in central Gaza on May 18.

A group of men in southern Gaza intercepted trucks carrying aid from a newly introduced floating pier Saturday, seizing food boxes in a dramatic show of desperation.

CNN video showed the men running alongside the trucks and jumping on the back of the vehicles while they were still moving, reaching for the boxes of aid secured beneath tarps. When the trucks stopped, large groups formed along the roadside, with people clamoring aboard the vehicles to grab supplies.

One of the men interviewed by CNN in the area expressed deep skepticism about the intentions behind the floating pier, which was built by the US military. He questioned whether the aid was genuinely meant to assist the Palestinian people or had “ulterior motives.”

This sentiment was echoed by others in the area, who questioned why the aid could not be transported through existing land crossings, which they believe would effectively end the starvation in Gaza if opened.

Numerous United Nations agencies have warned that aid from the pier will not be sufficient to address a spiraling hunger crisis while Israel still tightly restricts more efficient deliveries via land crossing. 

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office has rejected Benny Gantz’s threat to leave the government, saying the ultimatum he laid out for the war plan against Hamas would harm Israel.

The office also asked Gantz if he’s determined to eliminate the Hamas battalions, oppose the introduction of the Palestinian Authority into Gaza and oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state – saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is committed to all three.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu thinks that the emergency government is important for achieving all the goals of the war, including the return of all our hostages, and expects Gantz to clarify his positions to the public on these issues,” according to the statement.

Remember: Gantz leaving the emergency war cabinet would not trigger a collapse of Netanyahu’s government, because he is not part of the coalition government. But his potential withdrawal would damage the image of wartime unity that Netanyahu has attempted to project throughout the war in Gaza.

Gantz responds: The war cabinet minister was quick to release a statement in response to Netanyahu’s office, saying the prime minister should not “drag his feet for fear of the extremists in his government.”

Gantz said Netanyahu would have “finished the mission” if he would have listened to Gantz and entered Rafah months ago.

This post has been updated with Gantz’s response to the Prime Minister’s Office.

Dr. Adam Hamawy, a US Army combat surgeon who is one of three American doctors choosing to stay behind in the Gazan city of Rafah, called on President Joe Biden to help protect him and other aid workers in a new statement Saturday.

He was among a group of 20 American doctors that arrived in Gaza on May 1 to serve patients at the European Hospital. Their planned May 13 departure was denied after Israel’s military offensive in Rafah shuttered a critical border crossing.

While the White House said Friday that it was able to evacuate 17 of the doctors who wished to leave, Hamawy wrote that he “could not in good conscience leave my team behind.”

The New Jersey-based doctor, who has been credited with saving Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s life in Iraq, is now calling on Biden to pressure Israel to ensure that medical professionals can continue to provide humanitarian aid.

CNN has reached out to the White House for comment.

Hamawy’s statement was first shared with the Washington Post.

People in Tel Aviv, Israel, protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and call for the release of hostages held in Gaza on May 18.

Israeli police say they have arrested at least one person during anti-government protests in Tel Aviv on Saturday night.

A police spokesperson says police initially authorized a demonstration at the Kaplan intersection of the city, but later, a number of protesters gathered at a different intersection, lit torches and tried to go down to a road to block it. Authorities deemed those protests illegal and ordered people to disperse.

Police say the group didn’t obey that order and that officers used unspecified “measures” to try to clear the area. At least one person was arrested over disorderly conduct, and several traffic tickets were handed out.

Some context: Israel has seen large anti-government protests in major cities for weeks, with domonstrators calling for the release of all hostages held in Gaza and, in many cases, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s resignation over his handling of the war.

Friday’s protests also come as an ultimatum from war cabinet member Benny Gantz — who said he would leave the government if the cabinet does not lay out a plan for the war against Hamas by early June — has added further turmoil to Netanyahu’s government.

A satellite image from Maxar shows Trident Pier on the Gaza shoreline on May 18.

The Israel Defense Forces said Saturday that more than 300 pallets of humanitarian aid were delivered to Gaza through a new floating pier installed by the US military.

It comes after the United Nations’ humanitarian agency said Gaza is facing a “dire” food situation as barely more than 300 aid trucks have entered the strip since Israel began its offensive in Rafah.

The pier, which was anchored to a beach in Gaza on Thursday, is estimated to facilitate about 500 tons of humanitarian assistance per day into the enclave, according to US Central Command Commander Adm. Brad Cooper.

Here’s how the whole process works:

Displaced Palestinians pack their belongings before leaving Rafah, Gaza, on May 15.

Approximately 800,000 people, nearly half of Rafah’s population, have been displaced since Israeli forces started military operations in the area on May 6, according to the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Since the conflict in Gaza began, Palestinians have been repeatedly forced to flee, “never finding safety, not even in UNRWA shelters,” the agency’s commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini, said Saturday in a post on X.

He also said the number of aid trucks getting into the strip is only “a small trickle amid the growing humanitarian needs and mass displacement.”

Lazzarini’s comments echo a warning from another UN agency, which said in a report Friday that Gazans face a “dire” food situation as Israel tightly restricts aid deliveries to the enclave.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid attends an anti-government demonstration in Tel Aviv, Israel, on May 18.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid urged war cabinet ministers Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot to “get out” of the government, suggesting their exits could lead to the removal of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Responding to Gantz’s Saturday news briefing — in which the former defense minister threatened to leave the government unless a concrete war plan is implemented by early June — Lapid said:

“The fact that Netanyahu is still in power is already registered in your name,” he added.

Some context: Gantz is not part of the coalition government, which means his potential withdrawal from the emergency war cabinet does not automatically trigger a collapse of Netanyahu’s government. However, it could upend the image of wartime unity that Netanyahu has attempted to create and sustain.

People carry the body of a person killed by an Israeli strike on a house in the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza on May 18.

The Israeli military has continued to strike targets across the Gaza Strip. 

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement Saturday that it had struck over 70 “terror targets” during the past day, including “weapons storage facilities, military infrastructure sites, terrorists who posed a threat to IDF troops, and military compounds.”

The statement added that Israeli soldiers had also continued military operations in eastern Rafah, ​​Jabalya and central Gaza.

According to Kamal Adwan Hospital, 30 people were killed as a result of Israeli bombardment in northern Gaza on Friday.

Hospital officials said 14 people were killed and 30 others injured after a missile hit a residential block close to the hospital. In Jabalya, at least 11 people were killed and 25 injured in an Israeli attack near a shelter for the displaced, the hospital officials added.

According to the Gaza health ministry, over 35,000 people have been killed and nearly 80,000 injured in the enclave since October 7. Others remain under rubble, it added.

CNN cannot independently verify death counts due to restricted international media access to the strip.

Former Israeli defense minister and war cabinet member Benny Gantz attends a meeting with the press in Ramot Naftali, Israel, on October 29.

Former Israeli defense minister and war cabinet member Benny Gantz is demanding that the cabinet lays out a plan for the war against Hamas by June 8.

In remarks in the city of Ramat Gan on Saturday night local time, Gantz warned that if his demands are not met, he will withdraw from the government. 

He said the plan should eliminate Hamas, bring back the hostages, establish an alternative government in the strip, bring back Israeli residents to the north of Israel, and set up a plan to make progress on normalization with Saudi Arabia.

Gantz said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must choose between “victory and disaster” as he issued the ultimatum.

Demands for a plan: Gantz’s ultimatum comes days after current Defense Minister Yoav Gallant publicly demanded a post-war plan and warned he would oppose Israeli rule in Gaza — his most direct statement on the topic. Gallant warned of the consequences of a long-term Israeli military presence in Gaza and called out Netanyahu directly.

On Rafah: Gantz defended Israel’s military operations in Rafah, calling the city a “gate” for the re-emergence of Hamas. Gantz said that to achieve peace between Israelis and Palestinians, Hamas cannot remain in Gaza and must be cleared from Rafah.

He acknowledged the harmful impact the war is having on civilians but insisted that “decisiveness” is needed.

Ron Benjamin.

The Israeli military has recovered the body of another hostage in the Gaza Strip, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a news conference Saturday. 

Ron Benjamin went on a bicycle trip with his friends on October 7, before he was killed at Mefalsim Intersection during the Hamas attack, Hagari said. His body was then abducted by Hamas and taken to Gaza, he added.

This follows Friday’s news that the bodies of three other hostages were recovered from a Gaza tunnel.

People receive food from a public kitchen in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on May 13.

Gaza is facing a “dire” food situation as barely more than 300 aid trucks have entered the strip since Israel began its offensive in Rafah, a United Nations humanitarian agency said in a report Friday.

Israeli forces seized the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on May 7, causing aid deliveries through Rafah to be halted.

The situation in Khan Younis and Deir al Balah continues to deteriorate as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flee into the two districts to escape Israeli operations in Rafah, according to OCHA.

“Between 6 and 16 May, according to the UN, nearly 640,000 people were displaced from Rafah. … There are no remaining stocks of shelter materials inside Gaza,” the report said. 

The UN agency stressed that more aid should be allowed to pass through checkpoints and enter Gaza by land.

Over 300 pallets of humanitarian aid were delivered to Gaza through the pier, according to a statement from Israel Defense Forces on Saturday.

CNN’s Lucas Lilieholm contributed reporting to this post.

A displaced woman has told CNN of the dire conditions at the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza, after Israel’s military heavily bombarded the area and engaged in renewed fighting with Palestinian militants there.

“Our house is gone. Four floors for me and my children — all gone,” she said, referring to her home in the nearby city of Beit Hanoun.

She is now staying in a destroyed shelter in the center of Jabalya, after being again displaced from the eastern part of the camp. Abu Abeid says she has no access to toilet facilities or adequate shelter, and water supply is scarce.

The Israeli military said Saturday that its troops had killed Palestinian militants in multiple battles in Jabalya. CNN footage from the area shows large explosions, with the sounds of bombardment, gunfire and drones heard throughout.

Rescuers pull bodies from the rubble: Some 300 houses were completely destroyed over the course of seven days during the Israeli incursion in Jabalya, according to Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesperson for the civil defense emergency services in Gaza.

Bassal’s teams have recovered at least 150 bodies and rescued hundreds of wounded people over the past week at the refugee camp, he told CNN on Saturday.

He warned that many bodies remain under the rubble, as civil defense teams are either unable to reach them or unable to dig them out. Bassal said Israeli fire has made his team of first responders afraid to approach certain areas, despite calls for help from citizens.

CNN’s Sarah El Sirgany contributed reporting to this post.

Aid organizations will face challenges getting doctors back into Gaza following the departure of 17 of the 20 American doctors who were stuck there after Israel shut the border crossing from Rafah to Egypt.

Remember: The crossing – when it was operating — was the only entry and exit point for foreign aid workers. Israeli and Egyptian officials have so far failed to reach an agreement on reopening it.

One of the doctors who decided to stay behind is Dr. Adam Hamawy, who helped save Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s life 20 years ago in Iraq, according to a source familiar with the matter. Hamawy traveled to Gaza with the Palestinian American Medical Association and did not feel right leaving without other doctors coming in to take over, the source said. 

Many members of Congress, including Duckworth, are working with the Biden administration to push Israel to do more to get aid and humanitarian workers into Gaza, and to get the protections needed for those workers. Earlier this week, a top USAID official said that Israel was not doing enough to ensure the safety of aid works.

CNN’s Jeremy Diamond and Muhammad Darwish contributed to this story.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that military escalation in Rafah could “bring humanitarian operations to a standstill.”

“We know we need additional entry points and every new entry point is a new artery pumping lifeblood into #Gaza,” WFP said in a statement on Friday.  

Since the Israeli military began its offensive in Rafah on May 6, over 630,000 people were forced to flee, UNRWA said on Friday, with many moving to Deir Al-Balah and Khan Younis.

On Thursday, UN emergency relief chief Martin Griffiths described the situation as “deeply tragic” as he warned about food running out in southern Gaza.

Meanwhile, trucks carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza have begun moving ashore on Friday morning via a temporary pier built by the US military, according to a statement from US Central Command (CENTCOM). 

Aid is moved on the pier to a facility in Gaza, after which WFP helps deliver the aid to other agencies or distribute it, a UN official told CNN.

This post includes reporting from CNN’s Colin McCullough and Kareem Khadder.