October 30, 2023 - Israel-Hamas war news

Smoke rises in Gaza as Israeli airstrikes continue on Monday.

White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told reporters Monday the administration believes Israel is “certainly” making an effort to minimize humanitarian casualties in Gaza.

Still, he said: “It doesn’t mean that there haven’t been civilian casualties — tragically, there have been many, thousands of them, but unlike Putin in Ukraine, and unlike what Hamas did on October 7, killing civilians is not a war aim of the Israeli Defense Forces.” 

The NSC spokesperson told reporters that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has himself brought up the issue of civilian casualties in Gaza in conversations with US President Joe Biden, and that both leaders “recognize that as democracies, it’s important to abide by the law of war, to protect innocent life and to and to try to minimize civilian casualties.” 

More context: Muslim-American leaders told Biden in a small private meeting last Thursday he and his administration needed to show more empathy toward Palestinian lives and pushed back on his comment casting doubt on civilian death figures in Gaza provided by the health ministry there, according to two of the attendees.

Kirby’s comments Monday also come after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier pushed back on criticism about civilian casualties and said Hamas was preventing civilians from moving to the safe zone in southern Gaza. 

Israel’s bombardment has left at least 7,960 people dead, mostly civilians, according to figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah drawn from sources in the Hamas-controlled enclave. 

CNN’s Kevin Liptak and Khalil Abdallah contributed reporting to this post.

Fuel is a lifeline for more than 2 million people in Gaza who, three weeks into the siege, are suffering from dire shortages of basic supplies and medical care. The lack of fuel has crippled hospitals, water systems, bakeries and relief operations in the strip, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) warned on Sunday that the aid convoy system in Gaza “is geared to fail” if Israel continues to ban fuel.

Amid the threat of vital infrastructure collapsing without fuel, thousands of desperate Palestinians broke into the UNRWA’s warehouses for supplies on Saturday.

The enclave has gone without any fuel deliveries for almost three weeks since the Israeli government ordered a “complete siege” on October 9 and halted food, fuel, water and electricity supplies after Hamas’ attack left more than 1,400 Israelis dead.

Nearly all fuel has been exhausted and UN officials are warning that hospitals are on the brink of collapse without the ability to run backup generators to treat people.

Here’s a look at how services are affected in Gaza when fuel runs out:

As of Monday morning, 118 aid trucks with food, water and medical supplies have entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing. Israel began allowing a limited number of trucks through on October 21 but has continued to refuse fuel, saying Hamas would use it to launch weapons.

The Israel military says there are fuel supplies in Gaza being held by Hamas which are not being distributed for humanitarian purposes, CNN reported.

The main UN agency in Gaza has said it will have to stop operating when fuel runs out, which was expected on October 25, though some operations have continued by severe rationing. Gaza cannot produce food or clean water without electricity or fuel.

Read more about the situation in the enclave here.

The Capitol Building is seen on September 23.

The House has released the text of the supplement Israel funding bill, appropriating $14.3 billion dollars to the Mideast nation.

As House Speaker Mike Johnson noted last week, the bill includes the same amount in spending cuts, rescinding $14.3 billion that had been allocated to the IRS as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. 

Democrats are warning that the bill’s offsets could cost its passage in the House. And so far, two House Republicans – Tom Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene – have said they will oppose the bill.  

In the Senate, both top leaders have pressed to have any funding for Israel combined with Ukraine and border security funding. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer offered a new warning Monday to Johnson over his push to include spending cuts to offset the costs of the Israel package, signaling the chamber would reject the House plan if Republicans pursue that approach.

Schumer also told CNN that the funding package should include funding for Ukraine, even as Johnson plans to move a stand-alone Israel bill.

“We believe our Democratic Caucus — we should be doing all of it together. Israel, Ukraine, South Pacific,” Schumer said of the bill.

And he said of the Johnson plan to cut $14.3 billion from the IRS to pay for the plan: “Obviously, a pay-for like that makes it much harder to pass.”

Vice President Kamala Harris will meet Thursday with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and other leaders while in London this week, where she will continue the United States’ “close consultations on the conflict between Israel and Hamas and Russia’s war in Ukraine,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday.

Harris is scheduled to travel to London Tuesday. She will attend the Global Summit on AI Safety hosted by Sunak on Thursday and return to the US that evening.

In an interview that aired Sunday, Harris said the US has “absolutely no intention” of sending American combat troops into Israel or Gaza amid fears over a wider regional conflict.

Harris, who has been included in briefings and phone calls on the Middle East crisis, closely stuck to the administration’s approach: Supporting Israel’s right to defend itself while also calling for the protection of civilians.

CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed reporting to this post.

The father of Daniel Aloni said his heart stopped when he saw the picture of his daughter on television Monday after Hamas released a video in which she appeared with two other female Israeli hostages.

Ramos Aloni held a news conference in Jerusalem with other hostage family members and said that he was “shocked” to see his daughter being held captive by Hamas but felt relieved to see all three women alive. 

He also asked for the International Committee of the Red Cross to take the initiative and “demand to see all our hostages. The Red Cross must demand medical support.” He said his daughter needs regular medication and needs them on a daily basis. 

He then called on Qatar and Egypt and additional countries that are involved to end the hostages’ captivity and bring them back.

Aloni’s father said that aside from Daniel, her sister Sharon, and her 3-year-old twins, his 5-year-old granddaughter and son-in-law David are all believed to be held hostage in Gaza.

An antenna of a communications tower is seen in Rafah, southern Gaza, on October 28.

The US is pushing Israel to “ensure that communication networks in Gaza remain operational,” as well as to restore essential services of water and fuel, according to a State Department spokesperson.

Miller also said the US is “making progress” on ensuring fuel deliveries to Gaza.

The US also has an agreement with Israel to turn a second water line into Gaza back on, according to Miller, but “there are issues with parts of that line actually being damaged.”

The US State Department is suspending charter flights for Americans out of Israel on Tuesday due to a lack of demand, State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said Monday.

Miller said that demand for the flights has “consistently” gone down, and a flight left on Sunday with only five passengers.

“We have notified everyone that the charter flight tomorrow is the last one that we are currently planning so if they do want to leave, now’s the time to do it. Don’t wait for another flight,” Miller said, but added that they would continue to “conduct assessments in real-time about whether there’s additional demand.”

Meanwhile, Americans in Gaza continue to be trapped as the Rafah gate remains closed. US officials have blamed this squarely on Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back against the notion that Israel was inflicting collective punishment on the Palestinian people in its pursuit of Hamas, saying the group was preventing civilians from moving to the safe zone in southern Gaza. 

Netanyahu said Israel has been trying to prevent civilian casualties by calling for civilians in Gaza to move to a safe zone in the south and providing humanitarian support. 

“We have to do everything we can to minimize civilian causalities, but we cannot give up the fight,” Netanyahu said, saying the future of his countries and other “civilized countries” depend on it. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a press conference at the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv on October 28.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear on Monday that Israel would not agree to a ceasefire, drawing parallels to the United States’ position after Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the September 11 attacks in 2001. 

“Calls for a ceasefire or calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas, to surrender to terrorists, surrender to barbarism, that will not happen,” he added. 

Netanyahu said while the Bible says there is a time for peace, he said “This is a time for war.” 

When asked if he has considered stepping down, Netanyahu said the only thing he would resign is Hamas. 

“We’re going to resign them to the dustbin of history. That’s my goal. That’s my responsibility,” he said. 

Meanwhile, a Hamas spokesperson said Monday that Israel was not successful in entering Gaza “except in some limited areas” and described the humanitarian situation in the enclave as “disastrous.”

Watch part of Netanyahu’s address here:

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CNN’s Pierre Meilhan contributed reporting to this post.

A total number of 150 aid trucks that have made it through the Rafah crossing into Gaza since the gate opened last week, according to the US State Department.

A total of 45 aid trucks went through on Sunday — the most since the gate opened, it added.

“We aim to surpass that number today, tomorrow and beyond,” said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.

Miller said the US would “continue our relentless diplomatic efforts in partnership with Israel, Egypt, the United Nations and international humanitarian partners” to increase “daily deliveries of food, water and medical supplies into Gaza.” 

Some context: Prior to October 7, there were 450 trucks going into Gaza daily, said Lynn Hastings, the UN Humanitarian co-ordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, in a press briefing last week. She said the trucks were facing delays due to screening, technical, security and political issues.

An IDF leaflet dropped in Gaza warning civilians to evacuate is seen on Monday.

Israeli aircraft have dropped new leaflets in Arabic over Gaza, warning people in northern and central parts of the strip that “the governorate of Gaza has become a battlefield.”

“Shelters in the north of the Gaza Strip and the governorate of Gaza have become unsafe,” according to the leaflet, an image of which has been seen by CNN. 

“Hamas and the terrorist organizations are using the shelters, hospitals and schools in this area. Therefore, your presence in these places is not safe,” the flier continued.

“You must immediately evacuate and move to the humanitarian area to the south of Wadi Gaza,” the leaflet concluded, referring to a waterway that bisects the enclave.

Mitch McConnell speaks to reporters at the Capitol Building on October 24.

US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell continues to advocate for linking Ukraine and Israel aid together despite a House GOP push for a standalone Israel package offset by cuts, a sign of the division within the most senior Republicans.

“This is a moment for swift and decisive action to prevent further loss of life and to impose real consequences on the tyrants who have terrorized the people of Ukraine and of Israel. And right now, the Senate has a chance to produce supplemental assistance that will help us do exactly that,” said McConnell while introducing Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova at an event in Louisville, Kentucky on Monday.

McConnell tied aggression against Israel and Ukraine together, telling attendees: “Think of it as an axis of evil: China, Russia, and Iran. So this is not just a test for Ukraine. It is a test for the United States and for the free world. And the path toward greater security for all of us is simple: help Ukraine win the war.”

McConnell pushed back on the members of his own party who have argued against further aid for Ukraine.

In just the past three days, 10 United Nations staff members have been killed in Gaza, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said Monday. 

That brings the total number of UNRWA staff killed in Gaza since October 7 to 63, the agency said. 

The UNRWA, which runs the “largest humanitarian operation” in the Gaza Strip, also described dire conditions at its network of schools that are sheltering displaced Gazans.

“The average number of IDPs (internally displaced persons) per shelter has almost reached four times their intended capacity,” UNRWA added. 

Overcrowded conditions “create severe health and protection concerns for IDPs and place a “heavy toll on their mental health,” the agency stressed. 

More than 511,000 people are sheltering in 92 shelters — an increase of about 13,000 internally displaced persons since the UNRWA’s last update. 

Several incidents of collateral damage to UNRWA premises have also been observed in the past 72 hours, the agency said. 

Hamas Monday released a short video showing three women who are believed to be captives held by the Palestinian militant group since its terror attack on Israel on October 7.

The hostage video is only the second released by Hamas since more than 200 people were taken into Gaza after the attack earlier this month and appears intended undermine Benjamin Netanyahu with pointed criticism over his leadership by the detained women.

The video shows them seated in plastic chairs facing the camera, while the woman in the middle addresses Netanyahu directly with increasing fury. 

She makes reference to a press conference by families of the hostages “yesterday,” suggesting it was filmed on Monday.

The video comes just days after progress in hostage negotiations fell through, a fact referenced by the speaker who mentions a supposed “ceasefire.” Israeli leaders Friday dismissed talks of a breakthrough in talks as a rumor as they announced an expansion of the ground campaign.

The woman speaks fluently and does not appear to be reading from a script, but because the women are hostages, the statement could have been made under duress. 

“You promised to release us all,” she says, suggesting she is aware of hostage negotiations. 

She finishes with a demand to “free us all,” screaming: “Now! Now! Now!”

Relatives of the hostages have named the women as Yelena Trupanob, Daniel Aloni and Rimon Kirsht; Aloni is the speaker. 

The women do not show visible signs of physical mistreatment, but CNN is unable to verify anything about their circumstances or well-being. 

Netanyahu’s office confirmed the names in a brief statement, and said, “Our hearts go out to you and the other abductees. We are doing everything to bring all the kidnapped and missing people home.”

Israeli television channels 11 and 12 are showing a still from the video on air. Channel 13 is not, saying on air it is honoring a request from the relatives.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) commented on the Hamas hostage video, with Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari saying in a press briefing Monday that “our heart is broken by the cry of Daniel and from the faces of Yelena and Rimon who sit beside her.”

Hagari said Hamas is engaging in “mindgames” by releasing the footage of the women, and noted the number of hostages believed to held by the Palestinian militant group in Gaza is 238. 

Translation by Ido Soen in London. CNN’s Stephanie Halasz, Richard Allen Greene and Abel Alvarado contributed to this post.

Correction: The post has been updated with the correct spelling of the names of the hostages shown in the video.

Twenty-six aid trucks have passed inspection and made their way to the Gaza Strip from Egypt, according to a CNN stringer at the Rafah border crossing. 

Meanwhile, 34 trucks are still undergoing security checks, and 15 remain to be inspected.

Remember: Rafah crossing, the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, has been touted as the last hope for Gazans to escape as Israel’s bombs rain down. It is, however, shut to the movement of people. Only aid has been allowed in the recent days. 

Bodies of Palestinians killed by an explosion at the Al-Ahli Hospital are gathered in the front yard of the Al-Shifa hospital, in Gaza City on October 17.

The head of surgery at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza — the enclave’s largest — says staff at the facility “cannot cope” with the huge number of patients they are treating, as he shared video of the chaotic scenes inside the hospital’s emergency ward. 

The video he recorded and sent to CNN shows several rows of patients lining both sides of a hospital corridor, some on stretchers, others simply lying on the floor. 

Like most specialists at the hospital, he says he is now just working in the emergency ward to help treat the many wounded that continue to arrive. 

“[It is] difficult to cope with this situation, this is horrible, the staff cannot cope with this huge number of injured people,” he says, “There’s no more space.”

Sai’ida, who is also the head of International Cooperation at the Palestinian Ministry of Health, says there are currently 8,000 people at the hospital, and called on global leaders to act to end the war.

Josh Gottheimer and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz bow their heads during a vigil for Israel on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building on October 12, 2023 in Washington, DC.

US Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a prominent Jewish Democrat and Israel supporter, warned that the plans by House Speaker Mike Johnson to advance an aid package for Israel and offset it with spending cuts threaten its chances of passage.

Typically, emergency aid packages are not offset by spending cuts and the move to do so could cost Johnson support from Democrats.

Here’s Wasserman Schultz’s full statement:

Some more context: Johnson vowed on Sunday to move forward with a $14.5 billion aid package for Israel when the House returns later this week, according to sources on his first GOP conference call since ascending to the top job.

Johnson’s decision to move a standalone funding bill for Israel, which he told members would be fully paid for, and detach it from Ukraine aid will tee up a showdown with the Democratic-controlled Senate and White House, which prefer to link the two issues, given Ukraine aid on its own faces an uncertain path in the GOP-led House. Johnson told CNN last week he supports Ukraine aid but needs “conditions” on it.

Lebanon's caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati gives an interview in Beirut, Lebanon, on October 30.

An escalation of the war in Gaza could plunge the whole region into chaos, Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister said Monday.

“I see that there is a real race between a ceasefire in Gaza and escalation, because escalation is not only affecting Lebanon, and I fear that escalation will spread to the whole region, plunging the Middle East into chaos,” Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said in a video interview with AFPTV.

As the war in Gaza intensifies, Hezbollah continues firing rockets toward Israel and Israeli strikes target southern Lebanon, Mikati also said his country is at the “heart of the storm … but has lived through all the wars of the region and, on the contrary, Lebanon has been the most resilient.”

Lebanon has also been the site of protests as thousands rallied in support of Palestinians in Gaza following Israel’s siege and strikes on the enclave.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Monday as Doha continues to lead negotiations for the release of hostages from Hamas, according to two sources briefed on the call. 

Palestinians gather following an Israeli military raid on the Jenin Palestinian refugee camp, in Jenin, West Bank, on October 30.

Israel reported new operations against armed Palestinian groups in the occupied West Bank overnight, as the Palestinian Ministry of Health said four men were killed in an Israeli air and ground operation in Jenin.

The four men were named as Amir Sharbji, 25; Nawras Bajawi, 28; Wiaam Hanoun, 27; and Mousa Jabarin, 23. Five others were injured, two of whom were in critical condition, health officials said. Israel said Hanoun was a prominent member of Islamic Jihad.

The Israeli military said the Jenin operation was one of several carried out across the West Bank. Others took place in Hebron and in various villages across the territory.

According to Palestinian eyewitnesses in Jenin, the Israeli army launched two airstrikes on the refugee camp, causing severe damage to buildings.

In separate videos obtained by CNN, an Israeli bulldozer can be seen repeatedly driving into a building apparently trying to smash down the ground floor frontage.

Another video shows the arched gates at the camp entrance being destroyed as a bulldozer drives backward and forward into the structure. 

Other videos record intense bursts of gunfire.

In a statement Monday morning, Israeli officials - using biblical terms to reference the West Bank - said, “At the end of an extensive arrest operation to thwart terrorism and confiscate weapons tonight, 51 wanted persons were arrested in Judea and Samaria, of which 38 were operatives in the terrorist organization Hamas.”

The statement said that Israeli forces had located and destroyed what they said was a booby-trapped observation post, as well as a vehicle in which “ammunition and military equipment were found.”

The latest fatalities bring the total number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank since October 7 to 121, according to Palestinian Ministry of Health figures.

The UN’s humanitarian affairs office says that figure amounts to more than a third of all Palestinians killed in the West Bank by soldiers or settlers since the beginning of 2023.

Some background: Jenin sits toward the north of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and has officially been under the administration of the Palestinian Authority since 1993.

The city houses a tightly packed refugee camp, which has been the focus of this week’s raids. It was established in 1953 for Palestinians who were uprooted from their homes after Israel’s creation in 1948. Decades later, it’s now a built-up area with homes, shops and schools, but it has one of the highest rates of poverty of all of the West Bank refugee camps, according to the UN.

The Israeli military said Monday its troops have killed four prominent Hamas operatives as part of its expanded ground operations in the Gaza strip. 

The Israel Defense Forces in a statement provided the following names of killed Hamas members:

The Israeli military also said it “destroyed terror infrastructure, including anti-tank missile launchers and other launch pads,” it added.

Seventy-five aid trucks arrived on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with Gaza on Monday, according to a statement by the Secretary General of North Sinai Governorate, Osama Al-Ghandour.

Sixty are currently undergoing security checks, while the remaining 15 are waiting to be inspected, according to a CNN stringer on the ground in Rafah.

Al-Ghandour confirmed that a total of 193 trucks carrying more than 3,100 tons of food, medicines and medical supplies have arrived at the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing since October 8 from the Egyptian Red Crescent. 

According to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, only 118 trucks have been received so far inside the Gaza Strip “due to the complex inspection procedures imposed by Israel, which impedes the arrival of aid to Gaza.”

Israel has maintained its ban on the entry of fuel into the Gaza Strip, Al-Ghandour added.

He said that the medical sector in North Sinai is ready to receive wounded Palestinians from Gaza to be treated in Egyptian hospitals as soon as they are allowed to cross through.

Some context: Israel imposed a complete closure on Gaza from the two crossings it controls, in response to the October 7 Hamas attack, leaving the Rafah crossing from Egypt as the only entry to the strip.

Aid has been able to trickle into Gaza for more than a week, after the first convoy of trucks entered through the Rafah crossing on October 21. But UN officials have warned that the current levels of aid are a “drop in the ocean” of the needs of some 2 million Palestinians living in Gaza, and the initial deliveries did not include vital fuel supplies.

Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council John Kirby speaks in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on October 24.

The US is working to send a “strong” message of deterrence to Iran as concerns of a wider regional conflict escalate, the White House said Monday.

“We’re certainly going to act — if we have to— to continue to protect our troops and our facilities. We have proven that we will strike and act to do that. And that’s a strong message that Iran needs to take away. We take those responsibilities seriously,” said John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications.

Remember: Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said Sunday that Israel has “crossed the red lines” and it “may force everyone to take action.” There are concerns that Israel’s fierce military campaign in Gaza will open up more fronts. There are already crossfire exchanges on northern Israel and southern Lebanon border — separate from Israel’s fighting with Hamas farther south, which is centered around Gaza. But an uptick in clashes with Hezbollah has raised fears that the powerful Lebanese paramilitary group could actively participate in the conflict. It comes as the US national security adviser warned of an “elevated risk” of the war expanding into a broader Middle East conflict.

Israeli soldiers have advanced more than 2 miles into Gaza, a CNN analysis has found. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced Friday it was “expanding ground operations” in the besieged enclave. Gaza residents told CNN earlier that they had been subjected to the most intense airstrikes since Hamas’ October 7 attack and that their communications links had been severed.

Since then, United Nations agencies have warned that “civil order” is deteriorating in Gaza after weeks of siege and bombardment, with people breaking into warehouses to take survival essentials.

Meanwhile, Shani Louk, a 23-year-old German-Israeli woman kidnapped by Hamas gunmen during the October 7 attack and taken to Gaza, has been found dead, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Here are the latest developments:

Note: Israeli authorities previously announced that Louk had been “found and identified” but did not specify that a bone fragment was found.

The United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting Monday regarding Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza, diplomatic sources confirmed.

The United Arab Emirates will seek a binding resolution from other Security Council members for an “immediate humanitarian pause” in the fighting, the sources said.

The emergency meeting comes after 120 countries voted for a United Nations resolution on Friday, introduced by Jordan, that called for a “sustained humanitarian truce” in Gaza. The United States was one of 14 countries that voted against the resolution, with 45 countries abstaining.

The sources said the draft text of the Security Council resolution calls for “an immediate humanitarian truce” and further “humanitarian pauses.”

Remember: Earlier this month, the United States vetoed a draft resolution at the UNSC which called for a humanitarian pause. 

The UAE is the only Arab country currently a member of the UNSC.

Trucks carrying aid arrive at the Palestinian side of the border with Egypt in Rafah in southern Gaza, on October 21.

US President Joe Biden pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday to “immediately and significantly” scale up the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, according to a White House summary of the first call between the two leaders since Israel’s expanded operation began.

The request for increased flow comes as a dire humanitarian crisis grows worse following the enlargement of Israeli’s assault on the strip. Aid agencies say food, water and medicine are in short supply.

American officials have said the US is pressing Israel to expand aid into Gaza, describing the conversations as occasionally difficult.

“We have conversations, like friends do, on the hard questions … on issues associated with humanitarian aid,” US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday on CBS.

US officials expect that in the coming days, up to 100 aid trucks will begin to enter into Gaza per day, after Israel agreed to speed up inspections of the convoys carrying vital humanitarian support, per a source familiar. 

An Israeli tank was filmed apparently opening fire on a passenger vehicle as it executed a U-turn on the main road running through Gaza.

The footage — filmed by Palestinian freelance journalist Yousif Al Saifi and geolocated by CNN — shows the tank close to the Netzarim Junction, a key crossroad to the south of Gaza City, and about three kilometers (1.8 miles) from the Strip’s eastern boundary.

“The tank was standing there and targeting anyone who came close to it,” Al Saifi said, describing the incident on his Telegram account. “A car and a bus were both targeted in that area; there was also a bulldozer beside the tank.”

It is not known who was driving the vehicle, nor their condition after the incident.

In response to the video, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Maj. Nir Dinar told CNN that Hamas uses civilian equipment inside Gaza, acknowledging he didn’t know who was inside that particular car. “How can you tell there aren’t terrorists inside that car? Hamas has no jeeps or tanks, they use civilian equipment for their military purposes.”

Some context: Hamas-ruled enclave of Gaza is a poor, densely populated area, with few resources. The Islamist militant group’s attack on October 7 was fueled by cheap, second-hand, and purloined weapons — homemade rockets, modified AK-47s and decades-old Soviet machine guns, a CNN analysis showed. Many of the weapons appeared to be altered Russian or Chinese firearms, presumedly left behind on the battlefield in decades past that eventually made their way into the hands of Hamas terrorists, experts say. The weapons are far less sophisticated than Israel’s — a military that has access to some of the best equipment the US can provide.

The number of children reported killed in Gaza during Israel’s military campaign over the past three weeks has surpassed the annual number of children killed in armed conflict globally in each of the past four years, according to Save the Children.

More than 3,000 children have been reported killed in Gaza since October 7 by the enclave’s Hamas-controlled health authorities. 

A total of 2,985 children were killed across 24 countries in 2022, 2,515 were killed in 2021 and 2,674 in 2020, according to the United Nations secretary general’s annual report on children and armed conflict, cited by Save the Children.

In 2019, the UN reported 4,019 children were killed in conflicts around the world. 

Save the Children has added its voice to those calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. 

Israeli tanks manoeuvre inside Gaza on October 30.

Israel sent more ground forces into Gaza overnight, according to Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.

“Additional forces have entered the strip. Our activity there is only set to intensify,” he said during a daily morning briefing. 

Dozens of Hamas gunmen had been killed in recent fighting as Israeli ground forces advanced towards Hamas positions, he added.

He explained one type of tactical maneuver. 

“We are carrying out an extended ground operation. Ground forces, tanks, infantry, armored forces move towards the terrorists, [who take positions] in a compound in an attempt to attack us. Then we target them from the air,” Hagari said.

Some context: Israeli troops have advanced more than 2 miles [about 3 kilometers] into Gaza in their expanding ground operation, a CNN analysis has found.

Israel over the weekend announced it had entered a “second stage” of its war against Hamas and on Sunday said its ground operation in Gaza would intensify, following weeks of aerial strikes on the Hamas-controlled territory.

CNN’s Hadas Gold contributed to the reporting in this post.

The World Bank warns that an escalation of the conflict between Israel and Hamas could cause oil prices to sharply increase. In a new report, it says the impact of the conflict has been limited so far, with oil prices rising about 6% and prices of other commodities – such as food and metals – barely moving. The Bank says the global economy is much better-placed to cope with a major oil price move than in the 1970s, but cautions that an escalation of the conflict – combined with the disruptions from the Russian invasion of Ukraine – could lead to a dual shock. 

If the conflict escalates, the Bank has laid out three possible scenarios for oil prices, depending on the degree of disruption to oil supplies. In a “small disruption scenario,” similar to that resulting from the Libyan civil war in 2011, it says oil prices could jump to as much as $103 a barrel.

In a “medium disruption scenario”, which the World Bank says would be equivalent to the Iraq war in 2003, oil prices could jump as much as 35% to $121 a barrel.

A “large disruption scenario” – which the Bank says would be comparable to the Arab oil embargo in 1973 – would see oil prices climb up to 75% higher, at $157 a barrel. 

The World Bank also warned higher oil prices would lead to higher food prices, increasing food insecurity across the world. 

The Biden administration is announcing new actions Monday aimed at combating a series of antisemitic incidents on college campuses across the United States in the wake of the Hamas terror attacks on Israel.

The White House highlighted a series of steps taken by the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Education, including engagement with campus law enforcement officials, which comes amid rising tension on campuses.

CNN has reported that at many universities, students are engaging in fervent protests as some administrators grapple with how to acknowledge students’ wide-ranging concerns while also fielding backlash from influential donors demanding the colleges take a clearer stance on the conflict. Over the weekend, a series of antisemitic threats were made against Cornell University’s Jewish community in online posts.  

The Justice Department’s Community Relations Service is providing support to Jewish, Muslim, Arab, and other impacted communities, the official added.

And the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, part of DHS, is working to “proactively engage with schools to assess and address need,” the official said. 

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is also “(expediting) its update of the intake process for discrimination complaints under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, to specifically state that certain forms of Antisemitism and Islamophobia are prohibited by this law.”

That means that, for the first time, the complaint form will make clear that “discrimination on the basis of national origin in federally funded programs or activities – including ethnic or ancestral slurs or stereotypes against students who are for example Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, or Hindu — are forms of prohibited discrimination under this law,” the White House official said. That is expected to formally be updated later this week.

Russian National Guard vans parked at the airport in Makhachkala, Dagestan, on October 30.

The Russian government has blamed “external interference” for the antisemitic riots that broke out at the Makhachkala airport in Russia’s southern region of Dagestan on Sunday.

An angry mob in the Muslim-majority region of Dagestan stormed the airport where a flight arrived from Israel on Sunday, forcing authorities to close the facility and divert flights.

At least 20 people were injured in the incident, including both law enforcement and civilians, according to a statement from Dagestan’s health ministry on Telegram.

Multiple videos posted on social media showed a crowd of people inside the airport and on the runway, some waving the Palestinian flag, others forcing their way through closed doors in the international terminal.

According to Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been receiving extensive updates on the situation in Dagestan from various security agencies and local authorities, and has scheduled a meeting for Monday evening to address the riots.

The United Kingdom is “working extensively with the Egyptians, with the Israelis, and others to try and have a humanitarian pause” in Gaza, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said Monday.

Cleverly said this would be a “temporary pause, so that we can get that humanitarian aid to the people that need it.”

Speaking in an interview with Reuters during a visit to Abu Dhabi on Monday, Cleverly said that aid to Gaza was “trickling through, but we need a significant increase in the volume.”

Cleverly said that UK aid to Palestinian people in Gaza “is predominantly stuck in Egypt” at the moment.

Some background: Many of Israel’s allies have stopped short of calling for a “ceasefire,” stressing that Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas after its brutal October 7 terror attack – but have begun to call for a “humanitarian pause” to the fighting to allow aid to reach the 2 million civilians living in Gaza.

A resolution calling for a halt to the fighting passed by an overwhelming majority of 120 nations at a meeting of the United Nations on Friday. The resolution called for an immediate cessation of hostilities in the war between Israel and Hamas and for aid to be allowed to flow unrestricted into Gaza.

The United States and Israel sharply criticized the resolution text, however, for not explicitly criticizing Hamas.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan asked the assembly, “Why are you defending murderers?”

Shani Louk

Shani Louk, a German-Israeli woman kidnapped by Hamas gunmen during the October 7 attack and taken to Gaza, has been found dead, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said.

Louk was at the Nova music festival in southern Israel on October 7 when Hamas breached the border between Gaza and Israel. They blocked off the road to the festival from the north and the south, before swarming the sprawling site on foot, videos showed. The militants then encircled the crowds on three sides, gunning them down and forcing them to flee over fields to the east.

More than 260 bodies were found at the Nova festival site itself, according to Israeli rescue service Zaka but, based on CNN’s analysis, the total death toll could be even higher.

Louk was kidnapped at the festival and “tortured and paraded around Gaza by Hamas terrorists,” the foreign ministry statement said, adding that she “experienced unfathomable horrors.”

“May her memory be a blessing,” the statement said.

Note: Israeli authorities previously announced that Louk had been “found and identified” but did not specify that a bone fragment was found.

A total of 59 aid trucks arrived on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with Gaza and were waiting to undergo security checks Monday morning, according to a CNN stringer in Rafah.

If the vehicles cross into the strip, it will mark a significant increase in the number of daily aid trucks arriving in Gaza. But it will still be far short of the roughly 455 trucks that used to enter daily, according to the United Nations.

Monday’s arrivals at the crossing follow a statement from the Israeli military on Sunday that it had worked out an inspection mechanism with Egypt and the United States that would allow more aid to enter. 

On Sunday evening, 24 aid trucks were received by the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza, according to a statement from the aid group, adding to 10 that arrived earlier in the day.

The vehicles were allowed to enter Gaza after passing through inspection procedures on the Egyptian side, according to a CNN stringer on the ground, who spoke to an Egyptian border official at the crossing.

Some context: Israel imposed a complete closure on Gaza from the two crossings it controls, in response to the October 7 Hamas attack, leaving the Rafah crossing from Egypt as the only entry to the strip.

Aid has been able to trickle into Gaza for more than a week, after the first convoy of trucks entered through the Rafah crossing on October 21. But UN officials have warned that the current levels of aid are a “drop in the ocean” of the needs of some 2 million Palestinians living in Gaza, and the initial deliveries did not include vital fuel supplies.

A picture taken from Israel's southern city of Sderot shows rockets fired from northern Gaza towards Israel on October 30.

Several rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel Monday morning, a sign that Hamas is still capable of firing back despite enduring more than three weeks of intense bombardment by the Israeli military.

A CNN team on the ground in Askhelon, southern Israel, heard two successive barrages of rockets — at least six in total — just before midday local time on Monday. According to local media, one of the rockets fell onto an industrial complex in Ashkelon. The rest appeared to have been intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system.

Israel’s Home Front Command has issued thousands of warnings of incoming fire from the Gaza Strip since Hamas launched its terror attack on October 7. The vast majority have been intercepted by the Iron Dome, but a handful have caused damage in cities across Israel.

The Israeli military said that destroying the infrastructure that allows Hamas to fire rockets towards Israel was one of the priorities of its operation in Gaza. It said on Thursday that its intelligence reports suggested air strikes have killed a Hamas rocket commander, Hassan Al-Abdullah, who the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said commanded rocket units in the Khan Younis area of Gaza.

Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, told CNN it believes it has killed “scores” of senior figures in Hamas’s military structure since it began air strikes on Gaza more than three weeks ago — despite that, Hamas continues to fire rockets towards Israel on daily basis.

Israeli tanks and other military vehicles maneuver inside Gaza, as seen from Israel, on October 29.

Dozens of Hamas operatives who had barricaded themselves in buildings and tunnels were killed overnight as Israel continued its ground operations in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Monday.

In one incident, an Israeli aircraft guided by IDF ground troops struck a staging post inside a building belonging to Hamas with over 20 militants inside, the IDF said in a statement.

Overnight, a guided fighter jet also struck the area of Al-Azhar University, where IDF troops had identified what they said were armed terrorists and an anti-tank missile launching post.

Over the past few days, the IDF says it has struck more than 600 “terror targets,” including weapons depots, dozens of anti-tank missile launching positions, and hideouts and staging grounds used by Hamas.

Some context: Israeli troops have advanced more than 2 miles [about 3 kilometers] into Gaza in their expanding ground operation, a CNN analysis has found.

Israel over the weekend announced it had entered a “second stage” of its war against Hamas and on Sunday said its ground operation in Gaza would intensify, following weeks of aerial strikes on the Hamas-controlled territory.

The country was prepared for a “long and difficult” war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday, as it seeks to root out and “destroy” Hamas after its October 7 attack on Israel, which killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians.

The number of people killed during Israeli strikes on Gaza since October 7 has risen to 7,950, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah said Sunday, drawing the data from sources in the Hamas-controlled enclave.

Nearly three-quarters (73%) of those killed are from vulnerable populations, including children, women and elderly people, according to the ministry’s report. 

More than 20,000 people have been injured, the ministry added. 

The reported death toll includes 116 medical personnel, as many hospitals have been hit by military strikes.

In an earlier update, the ministry said 24 hospitals in northern Gaza, with a combined capacity of 2,000 beds, had been told to evacuate.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post misstated the figures provided by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah. This has been amended.

Touching the side of his neck gingerly, 30-year-old Withawat Kunwong reveals a jagged network of scars he received after being attacked at a poultry farm where he had been working in southern Israel.

The wound, Kunwong says, is a painful reminder of the fear and trauma he endured on October 7 when thousands of Hamas fighters broke through Israel’s border defenses in an unprecedented surprise attack.

The farm he had been working on was located in the Holit kibbutz, an agrarian community near the Gaza Strip. He was livestreaming from the farm when loud explosions were heard and thick black plumes of smoke rose into the air as rockets flew overheard.

He recalled hiding for hours that day but was discovered by a man he recalled as being a Palestinian dressed in civilian clothes who tried to cut his throat with a kitchen knife, after he “refused to surrender. A savage fight ensued.

After the violent struggle with his attacker, Kunwong was left for dead, heavily bleeding from the wound in his throat. He was eventually found and cared for by other migrant workers. He managed to survive, he believes, because the knife had been blunt and broken.

His story is a tragic illustration of the human toll of the ongoing war that has claimed thousands of lives in both Israel and Gaza and displaced more than a million people in the Hamas-controlled territory.

Hamas has described its brutal attack as an assault on Israel. But so many of those murdered and kidnapped by the militant group’s fighters were also foreign nationals.

Read more about the hostages.

“Civil order” is deteriorating in Gaza after weeks of siege and bombardment, with people breaking into warehouses to take survival essentials, according to United Nations agencies.

The UN World Food Programme said some of its aid supplies were looted in Gaza and warned of “growing hunger and desperation” in a news release Sunday. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said earlier Sunday that “thousands” of people had broken into some of its warehouses and distribution centers in the central and southern areas of the strip, “taking wheat flour and other basic survival items like hygiene supplies.”

Here’s what you need to know:

People crowd the tarmac at Makhachkala Uytash Airport in the southern Russian Republic of Dagestan on October 29.

An angry crowd in Russia’s mostly Muslim region of Dagestan stormed an airport where a flight from Israel arrived on Sunday, forcing authorities to close the facility and divert flights.

Clashes left at least 10 people injured, including two people in critical condition, according to a statement by the Dagestan Health Ministry late Sunday.

According to Russian state media TASS, “those gathered oppose the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.”

The Makhachkala Uytash Airport (MCX) was temporarily closed and flights were diverted, according to a statement from the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency, saying “unknown persons” broke into the facility.

The Red Wing Airlines flight from Tel Aviv arrived Sunday at 7:17 p.m. local time, according to Flight Aware, and was quickly surrounded by protesters upon landing.

Multiple videos posted on social media showed a crowd of people inside the airport and on the runway, some waving the Palestinian flag, others forcing their way through closed doors in the international terminal.

In one video, a pilot takes to the speaker of his aircraft to say: “It is not safe to open the doors” because “protesters are below our plane.”

The incident is the latest to illustrate huge global tensions and divides over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, which was sparked by a coordinated October 7 attack by the militant group that killed some 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and the kidnapping of more than 200 people.

Read more about the incident in Dagestan.

Benjamin Netanyahu attends a meeting in Tel Aviv on October 12.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received sharp criticism after he accused security chiefs in a now-deleted social media post of failing to warn him about the impending Hamas attack prior to October 7.

Amid a chorus of disapproval from opponents and allies, Netanyahu deleted the post on Sunday morning, issuing a rare apology and stating Israel’s security heads had his “full backing.”

But the incident has done little to quell increasing frustration and anger directed at Israel’s leader for failing to anticipate the brutal Hamas attacks, which saw the group kill at least 1,400 people and take more than 200 hostages, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Netanyahu’s tweet comes at a time when he is also under increasing pressure from the families of hostages for a “comprehensive deal” to ensure their release. These calls are becoming more urgent amid concerns for what Israel’s expanding ground operations could mean for the safety of hostages trapped in Gaza.

An outpouring of criticism swiftly followed Netanyahu’s post, following which, the prime minister deleted the post and apologized. “I was wrong. Things I said following the press conference should not have been said and I apologize for that,” he wrote on X. Israel’s security chiefs had his “full backing,” he added.

But even in this apology, Netanyahu made no mention of his own responsibility for the failure to anticipate the deadliest attack in Israel’s history. By contrast, security chiefs Ronen Bar and Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, as well as chief of staff of the IDF Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, have all taken responsibility to some extent for failures that led to the attacks.

Palestinians check damage at the site of Israeli strikes on houses in Khan Younis on Sunday.

The “fabric of society” in Gaza is starting to break down, an official from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) told CNN — echoing warnings Sunday of a breakdown in civil order.

Thomas White, director of affairs for Gaza for UNRWA, said people were looting logistics and aid warehouses in the enclave in a “breakdown in civil order.” 

White said he was concerned for the people of Gaza but also for UNRWA’s ability to maintain operations there. He called for a humanitarian ceasefire, citing the urgent need to “get the assistance that people need and stabilize society in Gaza.” 

Hamas launched at least one of its weaponized drones in the October 7 terror attack from a residential building in southern Gaza, video circulating on social media shows.

CNN geolocated the takeoff site in the video to the eastern outskirts of the town of Khuza’a.

It’s the latest video to come to light from captured Hamas weaponry and body cameras that sheds new insight into how Hamas conducted its surprise assault on Israel. 

The drone is seen rising in the video from the building, away from Khuza’a and toward the Gaza-Israel border. A second video, taken near an Israeli military outpost just east of Nir Oz, shows the drone flying. 

It is suddenly heard losing propulsion and is then seen hitting the ground. It’s unclear what caused the drone to crash, and it’s unclear whether it dropped munitions before crashing. 

Israel has “crossed the red lines” in Gaza, which “may force everyone to take action,” Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said Sunday, while US national security adviser Jake Sullivan warned of an “elevated risk” of a spillover conflict in the Middle East.

Experts say that while Iran is wary of being dragged into the Israel-Hamas war, it may not be in full control if the militias it backs in the region — like the Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah — independently intervene as Hamas suffers heavy blows and the death toll in Gaza continues to mount.

Raisi’s comments were not the first warning from an Iranian official of the potential for a broader conflict.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has also warned that Israel’s bombardment of Gaza could have far-reaching consequences, saying that if Israel does not halt its airstrikes, “it is highly probable that many other fronts will be opened.”

“This option is not ruled out and this is becoming increasingly more probable,” he told Al Jazeera in a recent interview.

Last Monday, Abdollahian said the US has sent Iran two messages regarding escalation in the region.

“The first message said that the United States is not interested in expanding the war, and the second message asked Iran to have self-restraint and insisted that Iran should also ask other countries and other sides to have self-restraint,” Abdollahian said during a news conference in Tehran, without saying how and when the messages were delivered.

He added that while the US says it wants to de-escalate, it has contradicted itself by continuing to support Israel.

Trita Parsi, vice president of the Quincy Institute in Washington, DC, said there is no appetite or desire from either Iran, the US or Israel for a wider war, but that Washington’s failure to restrain Israel may inadvertently drive the region toward escalation.

Read more on Iran’s role in the region.

The United States sees an “elevated risk” of a spillover conflict in the Middle East as Iranian proxies target American troops stationed in the region, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday.

Last week, the US carried out airstrikes targeting two facilities linked to Iranian-backed militias in eastern Syria following a series of drone and rocket attacks against US forces in the region.

The airstrikes against the facilities linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and affiliated groups did not result in any casualties, the US assessed.

Asked about US strikes on Iranian proxies in the region, Sullivan said on ABC, “If attacks continue, we will respond, and I think the Iranians understand our message.”

“We, of course, are taking every measure necessary to protect our forces, to increase our vigilance and to work with other countries in the region to try to keep this conflict that is currently in Israel and Gaza from spinning out into a regional conflict,” Sullivan said. “But the risk is real, and therefore, vigilance is high, and the steps that we are taking to deter that and prevent that are serious, systematic and ongoing.”

Palestinians storm a UN-run aid supply center in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on October 28.

The United Nations World Food Programme said some of its aid supplies were looted in Gaza and warned of “growing hunger and desperation” in a news release Sunday.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said earlier Sunday that “thousands” of people had broken into some of its warehouses and distribution centers in the central and southern areas of the strip, “taking wheat flour and other basic survival items like hygiene supplies.”   

The food program said one of the warehouses was storing some of its food commodities, and supplies from humanitarian deliveries through Egypt.

The food program pointed to the “harrowing 24-hour communication blackout” and “persistent access challenges” that brought all of its operations to a halt as a result of Israel’s extensive airstrikes Saturday.

“WFP plans to provide food lifeline to over one million people who are going hungry now and needs a steady supply of food with at least 40 WFP trucks to cross daily into Gaza to be able to meet the escalating needs,” the statement said. “So far emergency food and cash assistance has reached over 635,200 people in both Gaza and the West Bank.”

Israel has “crossed the red lines” in Gaza, which “may force everyone to take action,” Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said Sunday.

Some context: Israel’s fierce military campaign in Gaza has raised concerns that more fronts will open up. Iran is allied to Hamas as well as Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group that has been involved in tit-for-tat exchanges of fire with Israel in recent weeks.

Experts say that while Iran is wary of being dragged into the Israel-Hamas war, it may not be in full control if the militias it backs in the region independently intervene as Hamas suffers heavy blows and the death toll in Gaza mounts.

In the early days after the October 7 attacks by Hamas in Israel, questions were raised about Iran’s potential involvement in the killings. Tehran at the time commended the operation but was quick to deny any hand in it.

Initial US intelligence also suggested that Iranian officials were surprised by Hamas’ attack, and that Tehran was not directly involved in its planning, resourcing or approval, CNN has reported.