October 27, 2024 Middle East war news

Our live coverage of the conflict in the Middle East has moved here.

An Israeli strike killed several people at the Asmaa school west of Gaza City on Sunday, according to Gaza’s Civil Defense.

Video from the scene showed victims being placed in pick-up trucks, including at least two children, and several people who appear to be dead on the ground.

The Hamas-run Government Media Office later said three of the dead worked for Hamas-affiliated media outlets.

The Civil Defense said crews were able to retrieve a number of bodies and wounded people, and that rescuers were still searching for missing people under the rubble.

The school compound in Al-Shati refugee camp, where hundreds of displaced people are staying, has been struck several times during the war.

Israel’s military claimed it targeted Hamas operatives in the strike. It alleged that a Hamas command and control center was embedded in the compound and said it took steps to mitigate the risk of harming civilians.

After a previous strike targeting what it said were Hamas operatives in the compound, the IDF had said Hamas “systematically, intentionally and strategically places its infrastructure and operates from within civilian areas.”

Remember: Renewed Israeli military operations in northern Gaza have once again displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians, and left many others dead from bombardment. Authorities in Gaza say the Israeli military has stopped aid from reaching parts of the area.

The United Nations’ human rights chief has warned the war’s “darkest moment” is unfolding in the north of the enclave.

This post has been updated with the Israeli military’s response.

Palestinians walk through a devasted neighborhood in Gaza City on October 24.

Gaza hostage and ceasefire talks in Doha “have begun,” a diplomat familiar with the matter told CNN on Sunday.

Top negotiators from the United States, Israel and Qatar were slated to meet in Doha on Sunday to discuss efforts to reach an agreement, CNN reported on Thursday.

This is the first round of high-level talks in more than two months. US officials have argued for renewed momentum following Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

Earlier Sunday, Egypt publicly proposed a two-day ceasefire deal in which four Israeli hostages in Gaza would be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. Cairo has played a key role in mediating the talks, along with Qatar and the US.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks during a plenary session at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, on October 24.

Iran vowed Sunday to respond to Israel’s strikes on the country this weekend, which Tehran says killed five people, but said it does not want a wider war.

“We do not seek war, but we will defend the rights of the people and the nation, and we will give an appropriate response to the Zionist entity’s aggression,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said, according to Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency.

The Iranian president warned tensions would escalate if Israel “continues its aggression and crimes” and accused the United States of “provoking the regime into committing these crimes.”

IRNA also quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as saying Iran was not seeking war, but adding that it would respond to any aggression by Israel at an “appropriate time.”

Remember: Israel has said its strikes on Iran early Saturday local time hit military targets and were in response to Iranian attacks on Israel earlier this month.

What Israel is saying: Israel’s chief of the general staff, Herzi Halevi, warned on Sunday that any threat against his country would be dealt with militarily. He added that Israel had “used only a portion” of its military capabilities during Saturday’s strikes on Iran.

Keep in mind: Israel had a relatively muted public posture immediately after the strikes, which was intentional, according to a source familiar with the government’s thinking, aimed at giving Iran the opportunity to downplay the strikes and avoid further escalation.

Iran’s government seemed to seize that opportunity initially, claiming the strikes caused only limited damage at military sites, even as it acknowledged that one civilian and four Iranian soldiers were killed.

The United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy said Sunday that he has held phone calls with his Israeli and Iranian counterparts and pressed for de-escalation.

A civilian was killed in Saturday’s Israeli strikes on Iran, bringing the death toll from the attack to five, according to the country’s state-run news agency, IRNA.

On Saturday, the news agency had said four Iranian army personnel were killed in the strikes.

Remember: Israel launched direct strikes on what it said were military targets in Iran early Saturday, in a high-stakes retaliation to Tehran’s ballistic missile barrage earlier this month.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi speaks at a press conference in Berlin in 2022.

Egypt has proposed a two-day ceasefire deal in which four Israeli hostages in Gaza would be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

The proposal was announced by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi at a news conference Sunday.

Sisi did not specify the number of Palestinian prisoners that would potentially be released.

Under the proposal, if the two-day ceasefire held, the two sides would then have 10 days to negotiate a permanent ceasefire to get desperately needed humanitarian aid into the Strip, Sisi said. Officials in Gaza say the Israeli military has not been allowing the small amount of aid that does reach the enclave to be distributed in parts of northern Gaza, where it is carrying out renewed military operations.

CNN has reached out to the Israeli government for comment.

Remember: Egypt has for months played a key role as a mediator in ceasefire talks, alongside the United States and Qatar, and is in contact with some Hamas officials.

Talks aimed at restarting hostage and ceasefire negotiations for Gaza resumed in Qatar on Sunday, marking the first high-level talks in two months.

Dozens of hostages taken from Israel during the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks are still being held in Gaza.

As of April, more than 9,500 Palestinians were being held in Israeli prisons, including more than 3,500 without charges, according to Addameer Prisoner’s Support and Human Rights Association, a Palestinian NGO. That figure doesn’t include detainees from Gaza, the group said.

The Israel Defense Forces said a total of five Israeli soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon on Saturday.

Earlier Sunday, the IDF had announced four soldiers from the same brigade — a platoon commander, a deputy commander, a military rabbi and a soldier — had been killed during combat. In a later statement, it added that a fifth soldier from the same brigade, a sergeant major, had also been killed.

According to a CNN tally of IDF figures, a total of 32 Israeli soldiers have now been killed in southern Lebanon since October 1.

The IDF also said four other soldiers had been severely injured in southern Lebanon on Saturday and were evacuated to a hospital.

At least 771 Israeli soldiers have been killed, including 360 inside the Gaza Strip, since Hamas’ deadly attacks on the country on October 7, 2023.

Remember: Israel launched a ground offensive in Lebanon earlier this month as part of its intensifying conflict with the Iran-backed paramilitary group Hezbollah.

Israel has bombarded what it says are Hezbollah targets in Lebanon at an unprecedented intensity, displacing over 1 million people and killing more than 1,800 since mid-September, according to the Lebanese government.

A general view of Tehran, Iran after several explosions were heard on October 26.

As part of Israel’s airstrikes on Iran early Saturday, some Israeli warplanes breached Iranian airspace, one former and one current Israeli official told CNN — representing a significant Israeli military capability against Iran.

About 100 Israeli aircraft took part in the mission, though not all of them entered Iranian airspace.

The Israeli military said it had targeted Iranian missile manufacturing sites and aerial defense systems in what appeared to be a highly calculated response that avoided critical energy infrastructure, such as oil fields and nuclear facilities.

The strikes came in response to Iran’s large-scale missile attack on October 1.

On Saturday, Tehran accused Israel of using Iraqi airspace to carry out the attack.

CNN’s Helen Regan contributed to this report.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in Tehran, Iran in July 2024.

Israel’s airstrikes on Iran should not be magnified nor downplayed, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Sunday.

While Israel would like to amplify the impacts of its actions against Iran, Khamenei said, it would also not be right for Iran to dismiss the strikes as insignificant.

Khamenei said that those who believe Iran should avoid producing weapons in order to avoid provoking backlash are misguided. Keeping a country weak does not maintain its security, he said.

The Iranian leader also condemned Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, as well as the international community for enabling them.

“War operates within a framework of rules, laws, and limitations. These limitations can’t just be disregarded during a war. However, the criminal gang ruling over the occupied lands has trampled all boundaries and rules underfoot,” he said.

Key context: Both Iranian and Israeli officials appeared deliberate Saturday in their initial framing of Israel’s retaliation for Tehran’s major missile attack earlier this month.

Israel’s public posture immediately after the strikes was relatively muted. That was intentional, a source familiar with the Israeli government’s thinking said, aimed at giving Iran the opportunity to downplay the strikes and avoid further escalation.

Iran’s government seemed to seize that opportunity, claiming the strikes caused only limited damage at military sites, even as it acknowledged that four Iranian soldiers were killed.

CNN’s Jeremy Diamond contributed to this report.

Palestinians inspect the damage after an overnight Israeli airstrike in Beit Lahia, Gaza on October 27.

The “devastation and deprivation” caused by Israel’s military operations in northern Gaza is “making the conditions of life untenable” for Palestinians there, the spokesperson for the United Nations’ Secretary-General António Guterres said Sunday.

Israel has been bombarding northern Gaza for weeks, after saying it received intelligence that Hamas is rebuilding in the area.

“The Secretary-General is shocked by the harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction in the north, with civilians trapped under rubble, the sick and wounded going without life-saving health care, and families lacking food and shelter, amid reports of families being separated and many people detained,” he continued.

Israeli authorities are continuing to deny attempts to deliver humanitarian aid to those in need, Dujarric said, “with few exceptions, putting countless lives in peril.”

A report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs released Tuesday claimed that, in the first three weeks of October, only four out of 70 planned aid movements into Gaza were facilitated by Israeli authorities.

A UN-led campaign to vaccinate children in Gaza against polio has also been postponed in the north of the Strip, Dujarric said, “putting the lives of thousands of children at risk.”

Lebanese army soldiers stand near the site of an Israeli strike in Sidon, Lebanon on October 27.

At least eight people have been killed and 25 injured in an Israeli strike on Sidon in southern Lebanon, according to the country’s health ministry.

The strike took place Sunday in the city’s Haret Saida neighborhood, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.

Sidon, which is on the Mediterranean coast, is one of Lebanon’s largest cities. It is located roughly halfway between Tyre and Beirut, two cities that the Israeli military has struck repeatedly since it launched a ground offensive in the country on October 1.

Israel has bombarded what it says are Hezbollah targets in Lebanon at an unprecedented intensity, displacing over 1 million people and killing more than 1,800 since last month, according to the Lebanese government.

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

Israeli police inspect the site of a truck ramming attack near Tel Aviv, Israel on October 27.

One of the people injured in a truck ramming attack near Tel Aviv on Sunday has died of their injuries, according to the Ichilov hospital in central Israel.

More than 30 people were physically injured, some seriously, when the truck rammed a bus near a military base in central Israel, the country’s Magen David Adom emergency services said.

When paramedics first reached the scene, they said eight people were trapped underneath the truck. The emergency services were able to rescue seven people from underneath the truck with the help of civilians, they said, and rescued the final person with the help of the fire brigade.

Israeli officials say they are treating the ramming as a deliberate attack, and that civilians “shot at the truck driver and neutralized him” after the incident.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant speaks in Jerusalem on October 27.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said that Hezbollah and Hamas are no longer “effective” proxies for Iran after Israeli operations killed several leading figures from the two groups in recent weeks.

Gallant was speaking at a memorial ceremony on Mount Herzl for Israeli soldiers killed on October 7 last year.

Gallant added Hamas and Hezbollah, “long prepared as Iran’s extended arms against Israel, no longer serve as effective tools.”

But with a new round of negotiations on hostages and a Gaza ceasefire getting underway in Qatar, Gallant added: “We know that some goals cannot be achieved by military action alone, and thus, we must honor our moral obligations to bring our captives home, despite the painful compromises involved.”

He did not elaborate.

Gallant and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have frequently been at odds on the negotiations to secure the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza.

A barrage of rockets are fired from south Lebanon toward Israel on October 27.

The Israeli military says that about 75 projectiles were fired into northern Israel from Lebanon Sunday.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said sirens sounded soon after midday in the Upper and Central Galilee areas and “approximately 75 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory.”

Fire and rescue services reported direct damage to a building in Tamra in Galilee, where a fire broke out and nearby vehicles were damaged. Several people were taken to a nearby hospital; the extent of their injuries is unknown.

The Israeli military also said that it had killed a Hezbollah commander, describing Ahmed Jafar Maatouk as the group’s commander in the Bint Jbeil area of southern Lebanon.

His successor was killed the following day, according to the IDF. The military said the successor had directed numerous attacks on northern Israel.

Authorities inspect the scene of a truck ramming attack near Tel Aviv, Israel on October 27.

Some 33 people were physically injured — six seriously — when a truck rammed a bus near a military base in central Israel on Sunday, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency services.

When paramedics first reached the scene, they said eight people were trapped underneath the truck that rammed into them.

The emergency services were able to rescue seven people from underneath the truck with the help of civilians, they said, and rescued the final person with the help of the fire brigade.

Police are treating the attack as deliberate and say they “neutralized” the truck’s driver.

Damaged ambulances are seen at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, Gaza on October 26.

As Israel continues its offensive across northern Gaza, where it says Hamas is operating, the human toll from the attacks continues to grow.

On Sunday morning, about 40 people were killed in strikes in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, and another 80 were injured, according to health officials in the territory.

Additionally, about 30 medical staff were arrested by Israeli forces during their raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza on Saturday, according to an NGO operating in the region and Gaza’s health ministry.

As the fighting continues across northern Gaza, here’s what else to know about the war:

• Attempted stabbing attack near Jerusalem: A man attempted to carry out a stabbing attack on Israeli soldiers near the Palestinian village of Hizma close to Jerusalem on Sunday, according to the Israel Defense Forces. The man drove his vehicle toward the soldiers, who were conducting “counterterrorism activity,” the Israeli military said in a statement. He then pulled out a knife and attempted to stab the soldiers with it, the statement continued.

• Israel “severely damaged” Iranian assets: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel’s recent attacks on Iran had severely damaged its defense capabilities, without providing further details on what was targeted. In his first comments on the strikes, Netanyahu said that Israel had promised to respond firmly to the Iranian ballistic missile attack earlier this month.

• Bus ramming: At least 35 people have been injured after a truck rammed a bus near a military base in central Israel, according to Israeli emergency services (MDA). The MDA said that six of the injured are in severe condition and five are moderately injured from the ramming in Ramat Hasharon, north of Tel Aviv.

About 40 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on residential buildings in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, late on Saturday, health officials say.

Dr. Khalil Al-Daqran, spokesman for Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, said Sunday that in addition to those killed, more than 80 people had been wounded in the strikes on a residential area in Beit Lahiya.

Al Daqran estimated that about 1,000 people had been killed since a new Israeli military operation in northern Gaza began earlier this month.

Dr. Maher Shamiya, a senior official in the Gaza Health Ministry, also said that about 40 people had been killed but that in the absence of ambulance services it was an incomplete toll.

Shamiya said that five homes sheltering displaced people were struck.

Dr Munir Al Bursh, Director General of the Gaza Health Ministry, shared images of the scene Sunday and said a large number of victims remained trapped under the rubble.

Residents have been using their bare hands to look for survivors, Al Bursh said.

With communications disrupted in northern Gaza, CNN cannot confirm the extent of the casualties in the Beit Lahiya strike. CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment.

The Israel Defense Forces said Sunday that in the area of Jabalya, also in northern Gaza, IDF troops “continued operational activity and eliminated over 40 terrorists over the past day.”

The IDF said that “troops dismantled terrorist infrastructure and located large quantities of military equipment.”

In central Gaza, the IDF said, a terrorist cell had been “eliminated” during a close-quarter encounter. Over the past day, the IAF along with the ground troops, struck military structures in the area.

A man attempted to carry out a stabbing attack on Israeli soldiers near the Palestinian village of Hizma close to Jerusalem on Sunday, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

The man drove his vehicle towards the soldiers, who were conducting “counterterrorism activity,” the Israeli military said in a statement. He then pulled out a knife and attempted to stab the soldiers with it, the statement continued.

The soldiers “eliminated the terrorist” before this could happen, the military statement said, adding that no soldiers were injured in the attempted attack.

This comes shortly after a truck rammed a bus near a military base in the city of Ramat Hasharon, north of Tel Aviv on Sunday.

Some 33 people were physically injured in the attack, Israel’s emergency services (MDA) said, with a further four people taken to hospital with anxiety.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech in Jerusalem on October 27.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel’s recent attacks on Iran had severely damaged its defense capabilities, without providing further details on what was targeted.

In his first comments on the strikes, Netanyahu said that Israel had promised to respond firmly to the Iranian ballistic missile attack earlier this month.

“In the early hours of Saturday morning, we kept our promise and severely damaged Iran’s defense capacity and its ability to produce missiles that work against us,” Netanyahu said.

“Yesterday we hit the head of the octopus. To the people of Iran I say - our struggle against a tyrannical regime that threatens the entire region. Whoever hurts us, we hurt them.”

Netanyahu thanked the US for “close coordination and assistance” in the IDF strikes on Iran, and said the attack “achieved all its objectives.”

Biden administration officials have said that the US was not directly involved with the strike but had been consulting closely with Israel.

Some context: Iran said Israel attacked military facilities across the country Saturday morning, causing “limited damage” in some areas.

Israel “attacked parts of military centers in the provinces of Tehran, Khuzestan and Ilam,” state news agency IRNA reported, adding that “the attack has been successfully intercepted and countered” by Iran’s “integrated air defense system.”

An empty neonatal intensive care unit is seen at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, Gaza on October 26.

At least 30 medical staff were detained by Israeli forces during their raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza on Saturday, according to an NGO operating in the region and Gaza’s health ministry.

US-based NGO MedGlobal reported one of their employees who worked as nursing director at the hospital, Mahmoud Lubbad, was arrested during the raid at 6 .a.m. local time on Saturday alongside “many other” members of staff.

In a statement, they said they stand “unequivocally in support of” Lubbad.

“Our colleague Mahmoud is more than a healthcare leader; he is a lifeline. His arrest is not only a violation of humanitarian principles but a direct threat to essential medical care in Gaza,” Joseph Belliveau, Executive Director of MedGlobal said.

On Saturday, Médecins Sans Frontières said they were “deeply concerned” for the welfare of one of their orthopedic surgeons working in the hospital: Dr. Mohammed Obeid, who they had not heard from since the afternoon of October 25.

Gaza’s health ministry confirmed to CNN that 30 members of medical staff were detained by Israeli troops in the hospital — including Lubbad and Obeid — but said it did not know their whereabouts.

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday that after the raid the hospital’s female staff, the hospital director and one other male doctor had been left to care for “nearly 200 patients in desperate need of medical attention.”

CNN has approached the Israel Defense Forces for comment. The Israeli military has persistently asserted that Hamas uses hospitals and other medical facilities as cover for its operations. Last year it detained the head of Al Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza. He was released in July.