October 23, 2023 - Israel-Hamas war news

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have killed five commanders of the Hamas Aerial Array since October 7, according to a statement issued by the IDF on Monday.

The officers the IDF claimed to have killed include three in Gaza City, one in northern Gaza and one officer of Hamas’ Zabra Tel Elhua Battalion.

A surface-to-air missile launching cell was also eliminated, the IDF said.

Hamas has not commented on the IDF claims of killing five commanders. 

In a separate statement, the IDF said on Monday morning its fighter jets struck “the Head of the Anti-Tank Missiles Array of Hamas’ Northern Brigade, Ibrahim Alkhaser in the northern Gaza Strip,” whom they accuse of firing the anti-tank missile that killed IDF solider Staff Sgt. Omer Tabib and injured other Israeli soldiers in 2021.

“We’ve thwarted (two) aircrafts that tried to cross from the Gaza Strip. We’ve been minoring the aerial array for a long time. (Five) senior commanders of the Hamas aerial array were eliminated so far,” Hagari said. 

The two hostages released by Hamas arrived in the Egyptian city of Rafah at the border with Gaza, according to Egypt’s state-affiliated Al-Qahera News. 

A video from Al-Qahera News showed the two women receiving treatment at the Rafah border crossing before they were transported into Egyptian ambulances, where medics conducted a checkup on both. 

Two medics told an Al-Qahera News reporter the released hostages were in stable condition. 

Sources identified the two released hostages as Israeli citizens Nurit Cooper, 79, and Yocheved Lifshitz, 85.

Released Hostages Nurit Cooper and Yocheved Lifshitz

Two more hostages have been released from Hamas custody following Qatari and Egyptian mediation, according to two Israeli officials and two other sources briefed on the matter.

The two were identified as Israeli citizens Nurit Cooper, 79, and Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, according to multiple sources.

“They were handed over to the Red Cross at the Rafah crossing a short time ago, from there they will be transferred shortly to Israel. The families have been informed,” the Lifshitz family statement continued.

Hamas also said it released two hostages, according to a statement from Hamas spokesperson Abu Obaida.

“[We] released the two detainees [ ] bearing in mind that the enemy has refused since last Friday to receive them,” Abu Obaida said. “We have decided to release them for compelling humanitarian and health reasons.” 

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed they facilitated in the release of two more hostages.

“We facilitated the release of 2 more hostages, transporting them out of #Gaza this evening. Our role as a neutral intermediary makes this work possible & we are ready to facilitate any future release. We hope that they will soon be back with their loved ones,” ICRC posted to its official X account.

CNN reached out to the Israeli military, which declined to comment on the Hamas statement. The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office also said they have no comment.

On Sunday, Israel said it would not respond to the Hamas claim they were “prepared” to release two more hostages, characterizing it as “lying propaganda.” 

On Friday, Hamas released two American hostages, Judith Tai Raanan and Natalie Raanan. 

CNN’s Ibrahim Dahman and Tamar Michaelis contributed reporting to this post.

A British-Palestinian surgeon who traveled to Gaza to help in hospitals has warned that without electricity, the hospital he is in “will just be a mass grave.”

Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah said that without electricity “there’s nothing to do for these wounded” who are at Al-Shifa Hospital where he is working.

“The system is disintegrating and without a ceasefire and a humanitarian corridor — not token 14, 15, 20 trucks for two and a quarter million people, but a real humanitarian corridor that allows the evacuation of these wounded and allows humanitarian aid to come in and medical teams to come in — without that, there’s going to be an even larger catastrophe that the one that already exists here,” Abu-Sittah told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday. 

Abu-Sittah said the hospital has run out of burns dressings, with more than 100 patients in the hospital with burns covering more than 40% of their bodies.

There are more than 150 patients on ventilators with critical injuries in the hospital, he said, adding that they had also run out of “external fixators — the pins and rods that are required for orthopedic surgery.”

Abu-Sittah told CNN that a number of wounded and inpatients from the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital have been brought to Al-Shifa Hospital.

He said electricity is starting to cut out and there is not sufficient water pressure to run the sterilization machine that’s needed for surgical instruments.

The surgeon described treating a 16-year-old boy who “had burns to his face, his arms and his legs.” He said the boy told him how “he had dinner with his parents and his dad, who was sitting next to him, was killed and his mom suffocated in the fire that led to the burns that he had.” 

“We have now a term in Shifa hospital called ‘wounded child with no surviving family’ to designate over 50 kids who have been pulled out of the rubble on their own and have sustained injuries and are being treated in the hospital,” Abu-Sittah said. 

“For a system that had a total bed capacity of 2,500 beds before the war started, we are just waiting for the electricity to run out, the fuel, and then that will be the death… of the health system,” he added.

US President Joe Biden called on Hamas to release hostages held in Gaza before entertaining the prospect of a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza Monday. 

Pressed by a reporter if the White House backed a ceasefire in exchange for the hostages’ release, Biden said “we should have a ceasefire” before correcting himself and saying “not a ceasefire, we should have those hostages released, and then we can talk.”

The moment reflected how extraordinarily careful US officials have been to avoid publicly advocating for — and even uttering the term “ceasefire” — since violence erupted in Israel more than two weeks ago. That has been a careful and intentional decision by the administration in response to the shocking scope and scale of Hamas’ October 7 attack. Biden’s first written statement the weekend Hamas attacked Israel did not include the term “ceasefire,” and he and his top officials have not publicly urged for one since. 

In fact, officials said in the immediate days following the attacks that the US was not in a position to urge Israel to exercise restraint – notable given that the US has historically tended to urge for a ceasefire on all sides when conflicts have broken out in the region. 

But as the violence has dragged on and the war now enters its third week, the administration has begun to put pressure on Israel to, at the very least, delay its ground incursion into Gaza — in large part so that the administration can continue to work on getting additional American hostages out.  

John Kirby, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, rebutted calls for a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza Monday, telling CNN that Hamas must first release hostages held in Gaza.

A senior Israeli official told CNN over the weekend that there will be “no ceasefire” in Gaza, and that “humanitarian efforts cannot be allowed to impact the mission to dismantle Hamas.”

“A ceasefire? It simply means Hamas wins, and we lose,” Michael Oren, Israel’s former ambassador to the US, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Monday.

The president also offered details on his conversation with Pope Francis Sunday.

In a readout Sunday, the White House says Biden and Pope Francis “discussed the need to prevent escalation in the region and to work toward a durable peace in the Middle East.”

A dual Israeli-American citizen and her husband are missing after their kibbutz was attacked by Hamas, according to members of their family.

Yehuda Beinin, a Philadelphia native who grew up in New Jersey and currently lives in Israel, told CNN his 49-year-old daughter, Liat Beinin is missing along with her husband, Aviv Atzili, after Hamas attacked Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7. 

Beinin says his daughter, a dual Israeli-American citizen, is a high school civics and history teacher and also a tour guide at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, in Jerusalem. 

Yad Vashem posted on Facebook Sunday about their missing employee. 

Beinin told CNN that Liat’s three adult children are also American citizens. One of them was also at Nir Oz and survived the Hamas attacks, which left 1,400 people, including civilians and soldiers, dead across southern Israel.

American hostages: US authorities have said that they believe fewer than 10 American citizens are being held captive in Gaza after being kidnapped by Hamas during the October 7 terror attacks. Two American hostages, Judith Tai Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter, Natalie Raanan, were released on Friday.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said Monday that 35 of its staffers have been killed in Gaza since October 7.

The UNRWA had said on Sunday that 29 staffers had died, and on Monday added another six to that grim tally. In addition, 40 of its facilities have been damaged, including two in the last 24 hours, the agency said.

“We are lost for words,” the agency said on X, formerly Twitter. “We grieve and we remember. These are not just numbers. These are our friends and colleagues. Many were teachers in our schools. @UNRWA mourns this huge loss.”

More than 13,000 UNRWA staffers operate in Gaza, according to its website. Nearly 600,000 internally displaced people are sheltering in 150 of its facilities in Gaza.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will hold public hearings in 2024 on the legal consequences of Israel’s policies and practices in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The ICJ announced the hearings in a Monday news release. The hearings are part of a request made last year by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) for a non-binding advisory option.

“The International Court of Justice has decided to hold public hearings on the request for an advisory opinion in respect of the Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, which will open on Monday 19 February 2024 at the Peace Palace in The Hague, the seat of the Court,” the ICJ said. 

The UNGA on December 30, 2022 voted in favor of adopting a resolution that requests the ICJ to provide an advisory opinion on the legal status of Israel’s practices “considering the rules and principles of international law, including the Charter of the United Nations, international humanitarian law and international human rights law.”  

The UN General Assembly specifically requests the International Court of Justice to consider: 

What is the ICJ? The ICJ “is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations” according to the court’s website. The court was established in 1945 and is based in The Hague in the Netherlands. The court’s role is “to settle, in accordance with international law, legal disputes submitted to it by States and to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by authorized United Nations organs and specialized agencies.”

The Israel Defense Forces have told US officials that more American hostages — in addition to Judith Tai Raanan and Natalie Raanan, who were released on Friday — are alive and being held by Hamas in Gaza, a US official said. 

The belief that there are more American hostages alive in Gaza is a major reason Biden administration officials are advising Israel to delay a ground incursion into Gaza, the official said. Still, they cautioned, there’s “no effort here to run intervention on military planning.” There are believed to be fewer than 10 American hostages held in Gaza.

The Raanans are still in Israel after their release, and are expected to go through a debriefing process with US officials, which is a typical part of the decompression process after an American hostage is freed. Those conversations will center on gathering intelligence about the conditions surrounding the Raanans’ captivity that could prove helpful to the administration’s ongoing efforts to get more hostages freed. 

Ten Americans are unaccounted for, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday.

US President Joe Biden also spoke with foreign counterparts on Sunday and discussed, according to a readout from the White House, the hopes for the release of more hostages. Biden, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz all visited Israel last week and French President Emmanuel Macron is set to visit Tuesday. 

The message conveyed to Israel is that a delay helps on several levels, a western diplomat said.

Israel has also been told: “you have our support but you don’t have an absolute blank check, we’ve all got equities in this. Give it a bit of time and space,” the diplomat added.

More on hostages: Israeli authorities said Saturday that it believes 210 people are being held hostage in Gaza. A Hamas spokesperson previously said that the militant group captured between 200-250 people during the October 7th terror attacks.

John Kirby, White House National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, declined Monday to say if the Biden administration was urging Israel to delay a possible ground incursion into Gaza.

On Sunday, CNN reported the administration has pressed Israel to delay its imminent invasion of Gaza to allow for the release of more hostages held by Hamas and for aid to reach Gaza, according to two sources briefed on the discussions.

Kirby would not say if the administration has heard of other countries urging Israel to delay an invasion into Gaza. He instead told CNN that the administration has been in “active conversation” with Israeli counterparts as they pursue Hamas targets following the October 7 attack.

“I won’t speak for other nations and what communications they might be having with Israel. I can tell you, we have, since the beginning of the conflict in the early hours, maintained a level of communication with our Israeli counterparts to ascertain their intentions, their strategy, their aims, to see what their answers are to the kinds of tough questions that any military ought to be asking before you launch any kind of a major operation,” he told CNN’s MJ Lee.

The White House official also reiterated the need for continued humanitarian assistance to the civilians of Gaza. 

“Whether or not there’s a ground invasion, we believe that humanitarian assistance flowing to the people of Gaza is critically important, and it needs to go as soon as possible and as much as possible,” he said. “We have been crystal clear with our partners in the region, including Israel, that we want to see humanitarian assistance flow. There’s been no change to our posture on that at all.”

“But as I said… we’re not dictating military terms to the Israeli Defense Forces. They have a right and a responsibility to go after these terrorists, and they certainly are going to do it in a way that they choose to, that they believe is appropriate to the threat,” he added.

There are “a lot of factors” contributing to why Americans trapped in Gaza have not been able to leave, even after the first tranche of humanitarian aid was successfully delivered via the Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza over the weekend, the White House said.

John Kirby, White House National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, said that while the United States is glad that aid is entering the enclave,” we still want to see safe passage out — and particularly for the several hundred American citizens that we know are in Gaza and want to leave.”

Kirby said Ambassador David Satterfield, the US envoy for the humanitarian situation in Gaza, “is on the ground working this very, very hard.” 

The White House official said “there’s a number of factors,” but pointed to security concerns specifically.

“Certainly Egyptian officials have spoken to this, I mean, there’s, you know, they’ve got legitimate security concerns, and again, we just need to — we just need to work through that,” Kirby said.

He said ongoing negotiations over the release of hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza “makes it impossible for us to publicly detail the efforts that are going on.” 

Kirby declined to offer an exact number of Americans being held, telling reporters the numbers “have fluctuated” since Hamas’ October 7 attack. He said about 10 Americans are still unaccounted for but it’s not clear where those people are, “so I would still categorize it as about a handful,” he said.

American hostages, Judith Tai Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter, Natalie Raanan, were released by Hamas on Friday.

A convoy of Israeli army vehicles drives along a road close to the southern Israeli city of Sderot on October 23.

Israel is preparing for a “multilateral operation” on Hamas from the “air, ground, and sea,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a video statement released Monday.

Gallant has completed a tour of the Ashdod Navy base, where he said he “conducted a situation assessment of naval operations” and “toured the shores on Israel’s southern border together with Navy Commander VADM David Saar Salama,” according to the Ministry of Defense on Monday.

He commended the work of soldiers and commanders in “thwarting many attacks that would have taken place” against Israel, Gallant said in a video statement filmed during the visit.

Members of Palestine Red Crescent Society organize humanitarian aid sent by the World Health Organization, after entering Gaza through the Rafah border crossing in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Monday.

Twenty trucks carrying humanitarian aid passed the Rafah crossing into Gaza on Monday, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). 

Ten trucks were carrying UN supplies of water, food, and medicine, OCHA wrote in a statement on Monday. The remaining ten trucks carried supplies from the Egyptian Red Crescent, the UN spokesperson said.

On Saturday and Sunday, a total of 34 trucks were able to enter Gaza with life-saving supplies, the statement said. That’s less than 4% of the daily average of commodities entering Gaza prior to October 7.

Aid deliveries entering Gaza have not included fuel. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), by far the largest humanitarian provider in Gaza, will exhaust its fuel reserves within the next two days, the statement said.

“No fuel means no functioning water desalination. No fuel also means that humanitarian partners will have to focus almost their entire aid delivery operation on transporting water. It also means no bakeries and no hospitals,” the OCHA statement declared.

“The number of people internally displaced in Gaza is estimated at about 1.4 million, with nearly 580,000 people sheltering in 150 UNRWA-designated emergency shelters. Humanitarian colleagues warn about overcrowding, as the average number of people per shelter has reached more than 2.5 times capacity,” it said.

“As of 19 October, the World Health Organization (WHO) had documented 62 attacks on health care, affecting 29 healthcare facilities and 23 ambulances. Seven hospitals, all in Gaza city and northern Gaza, were forced to shut down due to the damage they sustained, lack of power and supplies, and evacuation orders. For the 14th consecutive day, Gaza remains under full electricity blackout,” OCHA concluded.

Israeli forces are preparing for a potential ground operation in Gaza in its war against Hamas, amassing huge numbers of troops at the border. Hundreds of Israeli airstrikes since October 7 have flattened neighborhoods in Gaza. Hospitals in Gaza have been overwhelmed with casualties and some facilities have scaled back treatments amid electricity and fuel shortages. More than 4,500 Palestinian people have been killed, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health.

Here are the Israeli-Americans who are going to help their communities Israel:

Kineret Levin, 27: After Hamas’ surprise attack on Israeli communities on October 7, when Israel Defense Forces say the militant group took about 200 hostages and brutally killed more than 1,400 people, she felt going to Israel was a calling. So she left her home in Texas to fly to Israel to volunteer as a medic. She said she is not necessarily ready or prepared to see war injuries. But the medic said no matter what, she is sticking through it.

“It reminded me how I felt on 9/11 when I was a child and that hopelessness and not understanding what was going on,” she said. “And I was like, ‘never again’ and this is really never again.”

Dorel Meiri, 28: The Hamas attack on the Nova music festival that left scores dead particularly affected Meiri, an Israeli reservist from Los Angeles. “I think I was just in shock that it didn’t make sense to me the things that I was seeing.” He jumped on one of the charter flights.

“We’re going to fight for our country,” Meiri said at the Los Angeles terminal. “We’re ready and it’s amazing that everyone’s ready and you know, I’m just doing my part.”

Meanwhile, for Americans wanting to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza, it’s much more difficult. A trickle of international aid is reaching the besieged enclave.

Lulu Hammad of Yalla Indivisible, a California-based activist group advocating for Palestinian rights, says it is impossible to help in the way they want. And traveling to the area or sending supplies is not an option for them.

“We feel that we are unable to help in the way that we believe we can help and in the way we know we can help,” Hammad said. “We are taking to the streets as much as possible, we are sending letters, we are making phone calls, we are raising some funds but we are outmatched.”

CNN’s Stephanie Elam and Jason Kravarik contributed to this report.

Jamila Al-Shanti speaks during an interview in Gaza City in March 2021.

Hamas Political Bureau member Jamila Al-Shanti was killed after an Israeli airstrike on her home in Gaza City, Hamas said in a statement released on October 19. 

Dr. Jamila Al-Shanti founded the women’s wing of the Hamas movement in Gaza and was the first female member of its political bureau, according to Hamas. Al-Shanti was the widow of Hamas co-founder Abdel Aziz Al-Rantisi. 

CNN has asked the Israel Defense Forces if Al-Shanti was targeted in the strike that Hamas claims killed her. 

The UK will provide an additional 20 million pounds ($24.4 million) of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced on Monday, on top of 10 million pounds ($12.2 million) pledged last week.

“We recognize that the Palestinian people are suffering terribly,” he said in a speech to Parliament. “Over 4,000 Palestinians have been killed in this conflict. They are also the victims of Hamas, who embed themselves in the civilian population. Too many lives have already been lost, and the humanitarian crisis is ongoing.”

The limited entry of aid trucks to Gaza through the Rafah border crossing is “important progress and testimony to the power of diplomacy,” he said, but it is “not enough.”

“We need a constant stream of aid coming in, bringing the water, food, medicine and fuel that is so desperately needed, so we will keep up the diplomatic pressure,” he said.

A view of the surroundings of Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital after it was hit in Gaza City, Gaza on October 18, 2023. Over 500 people were killed on Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza on Tuesday, Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told. According to the Palestinian authorities, Israeli army is responsible for the deadly bombing. (Photo by Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The British government believes last week’s deadly blast at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City was “likely caused by a missile or part of one” fired “from within Gaza towards Israel,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced on Monday.

This is based on “the deep knowledge and analysis of our intelligence experts,” he told British lawmakers in the House of Commons Monday.

Sunak did not provide any further details, such as which group London believes is responsible.

Israel says a rocket “misfired” by the Islamic Jihad militant group caused the blast at the hospital, a claim that US President Joe Biden said last Wednesday was backed up by US intelligence. However, Palestinian officials and several Arab leaders blame an Israeli airstrike.

With previous reporting by CNN’s Natasha Bertrand, Katie Bo Lillis and Jeremy Herb.

Norwegian Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl condemned attacks on civilians and announced Norway is “prepared to provide resources quickly” if the country receives a request to contribute to an investigation of possible war crimes in Gaza and Israel.

“War crimes are never acceptable” and “those guilty of any war crimes must be held accountable,” the minister said in a statement on Monday.

“Regardless of who is behind it, civilians have special protection against attacks in a conflict,” Mehl said, reiterating that Norway “will make available capacity related to a possible investigation of war crimes in Gaza and Israel, if desired.”

“It is inhumane how civilians are affected in the bloody conflict in Gaza and in Israel,” Mehl added. “Thousands of civilians have already been killed on both sides. Norway condemns illegal attacks on civilians regardless of who commits them.”

Mehl also urged the international community to “come together to protect fundamental principles in a war.”

People search through destruction from Israeli strikes in Gaza on Monday.

As of Monday, at least 5,087 people have been killed in Gaza, and 15,273 have been injured since October 7, the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health in the occupied West Bank reported.

Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank at least 95 Palestinians have been killed and 1,828 have been injured since the Hamas attacks and Israeli retaliation.  

The ministry said that the Gaza Strip has experienced 250 strikes on its health sector, leaving a vast portion of its population without adequate medical assistance. 

The ministry also warned of the impact on the health infrastructure stating ten of the 35 hospitals in the Gaza Strip — equating to 28% — are currently non-functional. Of these, nine hospitals have been “destroyed or rendered out of service.” The health sector has further lost 54 health personnel, with over 90 injured. Ambulances have also been affected, with 50 being hit and 23 now out of service, it added.

In Gaza, outbreaks of chickenpox, scabies, and diarrhea have emerged due to the deteriorating health environment, lack of sanitation, and consumption of water from unsafe sources, the ministry reported. Hospitals are nearing collapse, operating at more than 150% of their capacity. Situations have become so dire that surgeries are being conducted without anesthesia, and in some cases, under the illumination of phone lights, the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health added. 

The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health, based in the occupied West Bank, operates medical facilities and hospitals in Gaza and employs doctors who serve under the Palestinian Authority. Hamas ultimately controls Gaza. 

Palestinians take shelter in a tent camp at a United Nations-run center in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Monday.

“Patients are being treated in corridors, on floors and other inappropriate places. For example, Al-Shifa Medical Complex is currently treating 5,000 patients daily, while its capacity is 700,” the ministry said.  

The the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health stressed that the impending maternal and child health crisis cannot be ignored either. Around 50,000 pregnant women are struggling to access healthcare, with about 166 unsafe births happening daily, the upcoming month is anticipated to witness 5,500 childbirths under these challenging conditions. 

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that chickenpox, not smallpox, has emerged in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health.

Israeli soldiers are taking part in training exercises to improve their “readiness and capabilities for ground operations” in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement Monday.

“IDF soldiers in mandatory and reserve service are conducting a variety of training exercises in order to improve the forces’ readiness and capabilities for ground operations in the Gaza Strip,” the statement read.

The IDF added “soldiers and commanders” were “training in combat teams” that combine forces from Israel’s Infantry Corps, Armored Corps and other units.

More context: Israel has mobilized troops and military material on the Gaza border and called up 300,000 reservists in anticipation of a potential military incursion into the enclave.

The Lebanese government does not want a war with Israel, Lebanese Acting Minister of Information Ziad Makari said in an interview with the Russian state media RIA Novosti on Monday.

According to RIA, Makari added that such “threats” from Israel have become a “constant occurrence.”

“Israel has never refrained from making threats, and almost every week one or another Israeli political or military official threatens Lebanon and promises to return the country ‘to the stone age’ and so on. Netanyahu’s threats have become a constant occurrence for Israel,” said Makari.

More context: While the focus of Israel’s fighting has been in Gaza, there has been a recent increase in crossfire between Israel and Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Islamist movement which has its main base near the Israel-Lebanon border, raising concerns about a possible wider war.

The US still does not know the condition of the Americans believed to be held hostage by Hamas, a US official told CNN Monday.

The presumption is still that these Americans are being held in separate locations, the official said. Israel has previously told the United States government that some Americans held hostage by Hamas are known to be alive, a different US official told CNN last week.

The number of Americans who are unaccounted for remains at 10, which is the same number Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday. 

Two Americans were released by Hamas on Friday.

Two Palestinians were killed after Israeli forces raided the Jalazoun refugee camp near Ramallah on Monday morning, according to a statement by the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The men killed were 22-year-old Muhammad Alyan and 20-year-old Mahmoud Nakhla, according to the statement.

Six people were injured, four of whom are in critical condition, it added.

According to an eyewitness, hundreds of Israeli soldiers arrived at the camp at around 4 a.m. local time and detained nearly 20 people. 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told CNN that 15 wanted suspects had been apprehended in the raid, 10 of whom are Hamas operatives. The IDF added that it found weapon parts, ammunition and improvised explosive device.

It said suspects hurled explosive devices and stone blocks from roofs at Israeli security forces, who responded with live fire. 

Since the October 7 attack, Israeli forces have stepped up their operations into the West Bank, targeting what they say are Hamas operatives.

Alyan told CNN the two young men who were killed had no affiliation to any political group.

The Monday raid brings the total of those killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7 to at least 95. 

A Red Crescent worker sorts aid before it's distributed to Palestinians, in Khan Younis, Gaza, on October 23.

A third group of vehicles carrying vital aid entered the Rafah crossing linking Egypt and Gaza on Monday, but relief groups have warned much more is required to curb a deepening humanitarian crisis inside the strip.

The Israeli bombardment and blockade on the Palestinian enclave has put more than two million civilians at risk of severe dehydration and starvation, agencies have said. At least 5,087 people have been killed in Gaza, including 2,055 children and 1,119 women, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Israel’s strikes on Gaza came after Hamas launched deadly raids on Israel on October 7, killing at least 1,400 people and abducting hundreds others.

Here are the latest developments in the war:

The second convoy of aid trucks crosses the Rafah border from the Egyptian side in North Sinai, Egypt, on Sunday.

The Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sharply criticized the United Nations Security Council for failing to confront the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza. 

The ministry, which is based in the occupied West Bank, said “the UN Security Council is drowning in miserable double standards and lacks the minimum consensus on its duties and responsibilities towards the humanitarian catastrophe that has befallen our people and amounts to the new Nakba.”

The Nakba refers to the mass displacement of Palestinians in the 1940s as the state of Israel came into being. 

“The Ministry strongly rejects the politicization of the continuous entry of all humanitarian relief aid into the Gaza Strip and considers it a blatant violation of international law and international human rights law,” the statement said. 

It called for the establishment of permanent humanitarian corridors to provide aid and protection to Palestinians in Gaza. 

Two small convoys of trucks entered Gaza from Egypt through Rafah crossing over the weekend, totaling 34 trucks. Earlier on Monday, the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza reported that 5,087 people, including 2,055 children and 1,119 women, had been killed since October 7. 

Twelve hospitals and 32 medical centers are now out of service after Israeli strikes and fuel depletion, the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said.

“Hospitals have lost their ability to treat [patients], and medical teams are treating the patients with very limited capabilities,” the Palestinian health ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qudra said. 

Ayesha Ziadna is pictured at a community center in Rahat, Israel.

Ayesha Ziadna has spent the last two weeks working around the clock, pulling together volunteers and securing donations for care packages for Bedouin families impacted by the war between Israel and Hamas.

“They live in unrecognized villages, so there is no infrastructure, electricity, water and also no shelters,” she said in her office at a community center in Rahat, an Arab Bedouin city in southern Israel.

The city is the poorest one in Israel — yet the people who live here have more resources, compared to those residing in the unrecognized settlements.

“We have 19 people who got killed there and many more people who are still missing … and all of this is not mentioned,” Ziadna added, noting that some of these villages had been hit directly.

“We wanted to make these communities feel better and safer. Provide them with food, children with games. Most of these people work in agriculture around the Gaza Strip and there is none now,” she added. “I understand and I feel the pain of people whose family are missing … but I would love for people to recognize the pain of others and think about all the communities.”

Volunteers prepare parcels to be sent to Bedouin families in southern Israel.

Roughly 200,000 people who identify as Bedouins live in Israel, according to official statistics. They are the descendants of nomadic people who herded animals across the Nagev desert in southern Israel and lay claim to the land. About half of them live in Rahat and other planned cities, while half reside in dozens of unrecognized villages and face a near constant threat of eviction. The Israeli army regularly enters these communities and destroys them, arguing they are illegal.

The lack of support from official sources has forced her to organize a community response. She is heading the emergency headquarters at Rahat, distributing help where it’s most needed and tirelessly contacting potential donors, asking for help. That is by itself unusual — it is almost unheard of to have a woman in a leadership position in the Bedouin community and Ziadna keeps talking about her gratefulness towards the bosses who trusted her enough to take on the job.

Serving cardamom coffee from an ornate pot, Ziadna said she knows of several people who have been let go from their jobs after the attack, likely because of their Arab background.

“These are the poorest people in the country and they used to work in agriculture and now it’s not its gone and a lot of Jewish a manufacturers and workplaces are a firing Arab people because they do not trust them,” she said. “And yet these people, the Bedouin society, these people are really generous. They’re always willing to help you and never think about themselves first.”

CNN’s Adi Kopelwitz contributed reporting to this post.

Omer Balva, who was killed while serving in the Israel Defense Forces, is seen in this 2019 year book photo.

Omer Balva, 22, died Friday at the northern border of Israel, killed by anti-tank missile fire while serving in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), according to a statement from the IDF.

The Israeli-American dual citizen from Rockville was called to duty to serve in the IDF just last week, according to a statement from the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. 

“Omer was an unabashed advocate for the State of Israel,” a statement from Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School where Balva recently graduated from reads. “He was a beloved student who attended CESJDS from age seven through his high school graduation.” 

Balva was a staff sergeant reservist in the Artillery Corps, according to the IDF. He was one of the more than 300,000 reservists called up after the Hamas attacks earlier this month.

An aerial view shows a humanitarian aid convoy as it enters Gaza from Egypt via the Rafah border crossing on Saturday, October 21.

Gaza is more than 7,200 truckloads short of the aid usually imported since Israel launched a blockade on the strip, according to CNN.

The territory normally receives 455 aid trucks per day, the United Nations said. Therefore, 7,280 trucks should have arrived between October 7 and October 22.

Hamas militants carried out a deadly attack on Israel on October 7, killing 1,400 people and kidnapping hundreds of others.

The Israeli government has since imposed a complete siege on food, fuel and water entering the Palestinian enclave. Rights groups have warned much more aid is needed in Gaza, where more than 2 million civilians are at risk of severe dehydration and starvation.

Amnesty International said Israel’s “collective punishment” of civilians amounted to a war crime.

Two small convoys entered Gaza over the weekend, totaling 34 trucks between them, meaning that the territory is 7,246 trucks short of regular deliveries.

Palestinians gather at the site of Israeli strikes on a house in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Monday, October 23.

Some 436 people, including 182 children, were killed in overnight Israeli strikes on Gaza, the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement.

The majority of those killed were from the southern part of Gaza, the ministry added.

The total death toll since the war began has risen to 5,087 killed, including 2,055 children and 1,119 women, the ministry said.

More than 15,000 people have been injured in the bombardment, it added.

The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, led calls Monday for a revival of the peace process in the Middle East as the war between Israel and Hamas enters its third week.

“Any step towards de-escalation” must involve efforts to “revive the political process,” the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy told journalists at an EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg.

Here’s what others said:

Latvia’s foreign minister Krisjanis Karins: The bloc needs to “encourage talks” and “work harder towards the two-state solution,” he said. “If the Palestinians had a clear state, I think that that would help also to alleviate some of the pressure — and maybe a great part of the pressure — which has been building up there for years and years.”

Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin: “We can’t lose sight of the need to get this on to the political track as well, to get an overall resolution.” he said.

Slovenia’s Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon: The country supports every effort that works toward “a tangible peace process that is based on the two-state solution,” she said.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Sunday it has made the first operational use of the “Steel Sting” mortar bomb in its ongoing fight with Hamas.

What is it: The Steel Sting is a mortar bomb (PGM) with dual guidance that enables precise hitting of targets in a built-up area while increasing the lethality of the hit and reducing the risk of hitting non-involved people, the IDF statement said. 

The IDF fighters used the bomb to attack a Hamas position “from which launches were made towards the territory of the State of Israel,” the IDF statement said.

A video purporting to show the bomb in use was released by the IDF.  

“We used it for the first time at the beginning of the war,” a captain in the Magellan commando unit said, according to the IDF statement. “It allows us to neutralize threats with greater precision than other types of bombs. We don’t shoot and hope to hit — we know we removed the threat.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out raids “along the contact line” with Gaza overnight to “kill terrorist squads,” a spokesperson said, as it ramps up its bombardment on the Palestinian enclave ahead of an anticipated ground assault.

“Armored and infantry raids were conducted during the night. These raids are raids that kill terrorist squads, preparing for our next phase of the war,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said on Monday.

The “deep raids” were also to locate and search for people taken hostage during Hamas’ large-scale attack on Israel on October 7, Hagari added, ahead of “the coming stages of the war.”

Hamas militants killed 1,400 people in Israel during its incursion earlier this month and took hundreds of people hostage.

The IDF has since ramped up its military crackdown on Gaza while flooding the border with troops.

It has also launched raids on the occupied West Bank since the Hamas incursion, arresting hundreds of Palestinians said to include lawmakers, prominent figures, journalists, and former detainees who have served extended terms in Israeli jails.

Israeli forces launched a heavy bombardment on Gaza overnight, which killed dozens of Palestinians. At least 4,651 people have been killed inside the enclave by the continued bombardment, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. The figure does not include casualties from Sunday.

Hagari said on Monday the Israeli airstrikes in the last 24 hours struck “hundreds of terrorist targets” in Gaza, including the tunnel network used by Hamas.

A third fleet of vehicles carrying desperately needed aid traveled through the Rafah crossing linking Egypt and Gaza on Monday, according to a journalist on the ground working for CNN.

At least 34 trucks importing food, water, drugs and medical supplies also traveled from Egypt to Gaza via the crossing on Saturday and Sunday.

Sunday’s convoy was subjected to “additional” security checks, a security official told CNN.

But human rights groups warned not enough aid has reached the Palestinian enclave, where Israel’s continued bombardment and complete siege has put more than 2 million civilians at risk from severe dehydration and starvation.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza amounts to crimes against humanity, UN experts said on Thursday.

This post has been updated to clarify that the convoy entered the Rafah crossing from Egypt but may not have entered Gaza yet.

People hold photos of loved ones who were kidnapped on October 7 by Hamas militants, during a protest in Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 21.

Hamas took 222 people hostage during its deadly attack on Israel on October 7, according to the Israel Defense Forces, as international efforts ramp up to release those kidnapped.

CNN cannot independently verify the figure cited by the IDF.

On Friday, Hamas released two American hostages, Judith Tai Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter, Natalie Raanan.

Hamas killed more than 1,400 people during its large-scale incursion, including civilians and soldiers, according to Israeli authorities. It was the most deadly attack by militants in Israel’s 75-year history and revealed a staggering intelligence failure by the country’s security forces.

Israel has since hammered the Hamas-run Gaza Strip with a deadly barrage of airstrikes, killing 4,651 people and injuring 14,245, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. The bombardment has killed more than 1,900 children and unraveled a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the enclave.

The death toll does not include casualties from the IDF’s heavy shelling on Gaza overnight, which killed dozens of people, Palestinian doctors and Gaza ministry officials told CNN. 

CNN’s Richard Greene, Helen Regan, Kareem Khadder, Eyad Kourdi, Abeer Salman and Elliott Gotkine contributed reporting.

Relief workers in hospitals in Gaza are unable to use morphine or painkillers to treat civilians, as Israel’s siege on the enclave drains critical medical supplies amid persistent bombardment, a relief agency official said Monday.

“What is extremely important are the trauma kits, the surgery kits,” said Leo Cans, the Head of Mission for Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) in Jerusalem.

Doctors were “doing surgical operations without the correct dose of narcotics, without the correct dose of morphine,” Cans told CNN’s Max Foster.

“In terms of pain management, it’s not happening. We currently have people being operated on without having morphine. It just happened to two kids.

“There is no justification at all to block these essential medicines to reach the population,” Cans added.

The UN’s experts last week said that Israel’s “unspeakably cruel” blockade on Gaza is in violation of international and criminal law.

Cans also acknowledged CNN’s reporting on parents who have resorted to writing their children’s names on their limbs in the event that either they or the children are killed.

Colleagues had told him families were sleeping in the same room because “they want to live together or die together,” he said.

Health workers were also seeing the impact fuel shortages have on the functioning of hospitals and water supplies.

“Fuel is essential for the water plants in order to desalinate to water…If you don’t have fuel, you don’t have quality water,” he said, adding many Gazans were now drinking untreated water, leading to outbreaks of diarrhea.

He also called for an end to the “indiscriminate bombing.”

“Even war has rules, and you cannot bomb civilians. We have too many children, too many women arriving at the hospital. It is not acceptable.”

CNN’s Rhea Mogul and Christian Edwards contributed reporting.

European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell is pictured speaking at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on October 18.

The European Union’s top diplomat has called for “more” essential supplies to enter Gaza “quicker,” as Israel’s blockade and relentless bombardment on the strip has spiraled into a devastating humanitarian crisis.

Ministers of member states will discuss a potential “humanitarian pause” to facilitate aid deliveries to the Palestinian enclave at a foreign affairs meeting on Monday, Josep Borrell told reporters.

“The most important thing is to call for humanitarian support to go into Gaza.

“We, the European Union, we have increased our support, but there are queues and queues of trucks waiting to enter. They have to enter, and they had to bring in things that are badly needed,” Borrell stressed.

Two convoys of aid trucks carrying aid relief crossed into Gaza over the weekend, according to Palestinian and Egyptian authorities.

An aerial view shows humanitarian aid trucks arriving in Khan Younis, Gaza, after crossing the border from Egypt, on October 21.

However, human rights groups warned that much more is needed to remedy the catastrophe on the ground, where more than 2 million people are running out of drinking water, and risk starvation. Hospitals are facing severe supply shortages and, in some cases, have been forced to use ice cream trucks as morgues to manage overflow.

Israel’s complete siege on food, fuel and water entering Gaza has stunted electricity supplies for powering essential infrastructure, including desalination plants and the strip’s sole power plant. Amnesty International said Israel’s “collective punishment” of Palestinian civilians amounted to a war crime.

Borrell emphasized the need for fuel supplies to make Gaza’s “power stations and desalination stations work.”

He also said hostages kidnapped by Hamas during its deadly incursion onto Israel on October 7 “have to be released.”

“It is part of any step towards de-escalation and we have to start thinking of how to revive the political process.”

CNN’s Renée Rigdon and Annette Choi contributed reporting.

At least 85 people have been arrested in the occupied West Bank by Israeli forces Sunday night and early Monday morning, according to a statement published by the Palestinian Prisoners Club.

The arrests took place in Ramallah and Bethlehem, it said, adding that more than 1,215 people have been arrested in the West Bank since the start of the month.

CNN has reached out to the IDF for comment on the arrests. There have been arrests of suspected militants in the West Bank daily since October 7.

The Palestinian Prisoners Club is a non-governmental organization dedicated to addressing the concerns of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons and detention centers, according to its website.

Some context: Even before the war with Hamas, tension was high between Palestinians and Israelis in the West Bank.

Following a wave of Palestinian attacks on Israelis last year, Israel launched regular incursions and raids into the West Bank targeting what they said were militant strongholds. The resulting violence left a record number of both Palestinians and Israelis dead, numbers not seen in at least a decade. 

Since Israel took control and occupied the West Bank in 1967 from Jordan following the Six Day War, the territory, which residents hope will form part of a future Palestinian state, has been settled by Israeli civilians, often under military protection.

Most of the world considers these settlements illegal under international law.

Beijing’s special envoy to the Middle East Zhai Jun met with Qatar's Minister of State Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al-Khulaifi in Doha, Qatar, on October 19.

Days after the United States’ shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East, which culminated in President Joe Biden’s historic wartime visit to Israel, China has started its own diplomatic hustling in a region teetering on the brink of a wider conflict.

Zhai Jun, Beijing’s special envoy to the Middle East, has embarked on a whirlwind tour aimed at promoting peace talks between Israel and Hamas – even though Beijing still refuses to condemn or even name the Palestinian militant group in any of its statements.

Zhai has traveled to Qatar and attended a peace summit in Egypt, calling for a ceasefire, humanitarian access to Gaza and reiterating China’s support for a two-state solution. It is unclear if he will visit Israel, as Beijing has provided no details of the trip.

But brokering peace is a tall order, especially for a country with little experience or expertise in mediating such a long-running, intractable conflict – in a deeply divided region where it lacks a meaningful political and security presence.

Few experts in or familiar with the Middle East expect Zhai’s trip will lead to any concrete deliverables in peacemaking.

Instead, they view it as a chance for China to tilt the global balance of power further in its favor as the strategic competition with the US heats up.

Read the full analysis here.

Trucks carrying fuel enter Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on October 22.

Gaza needs fuel “as urgent as water and food,” the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) told CNN on Monday,” as the two aid convoys that entered Gaza this weekend barely alleviate the dire conditions within the territory.

Alrifai said humanitarian aid that entered Gaza was “a fraction” of what is needed for over 400,000 displaced people currently taking shelters in schools run by UNRWA, adding the situation is “very, very dire.”

She said people in Gaza are forced to ration food, “even counting the minimum required calories per person per day per survival,” adding “We are really counting on a continuous and unimpeded access of the trucks from Rafah into Gaza.”

People queue outside a bakery in Rafah, Gaza on October 22.

Israel has previously said that fuel won’t be allowed into Gaza.

On October 14, the IDF told CNN that when aid enters Gaza, “Water pipes are turned into rockets. Cement meant for buildings is turned into tunnels. Food for orphans and people in need is given to Hamas operators. And fuel for the hospital is taken to Hamas bunkers.”

Crisis in Gaza: Amid a weekend of ramped-up strikes, doctors described “catastrophic” conditions at one central Gazan hospital as electricity and fuel supplies run out and crippled medical facilities rapidly become overwhelmed with casualties.

Dr. Iyad Issa Abu Zaher, director general of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital, described a “bloody day” for his staff to CNN on Sunday, saying the hospital had received up to 166 bodies and more than 300 injured people.

“It’s impossible for any hospital in the world to admit this number of injured,” he said.

The bodies of three children lie on a steel tray inside what appears to be a Gaza hospital morgue, one leg of their trousers pushed up to reveal writing in black ink on their skin.

“We received some cases where the parents wrote the names of their children on the legs and abdomen,” Dr. Abdul Rahman Al Masri, the head of the emergency department at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, told CNN.

He said parents were worried that “anything could happen,” and no one would be able to identify their children.

This means that they feel they are targeted at any moment and can be injured or martyred,” Al Masri added.

The black ink is a small sign of the fear and desperation felt by parents in the densely populated enclave as Israel continues to pound it with relentless airstrikes in retaliation for the October 7 Hamas attacks.

The supervisor of the room at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital where dead bodies are washed described Sunday as “an exceptional day.”

Declining to be named, he told CNN that the number of dead overnight from Saturday into Sunday had exceeded 200, and echoed what Dr Al Masri had said.

Read the full story here.

People inspect the site of Israeli strikes on a house in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Monday, October 23.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it struck 320 “terror targets” in Gaza overnight, including tunnels and “dozens of operational command centers” belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

The heavy bombardment of the besieged Palestinian enclave killed dozens of people, Palestinian doctors and Gaza ministry officials told CNN. 

Thermographic videos from Israeli aircraft and shared by the IDF showed strikes on buildings in Gaza, which hit “dozens of operational command centers, some of which concealed Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists, military compounds, and observation posts.”

The intensified airstrikes took place as the IDF said it is preparing for what it called the “next stages” in the fight against Hamas.

In northern Gaza: At least 26 people were killed after Israeli strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp the director of the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza, Atef Al Kahlout told CNN. Jabalia is one of the largest refugee camps in Gaza.

In southern Gaza: 29 people were killed in the city of Rafah after four houses were struck, the Ministry of Health in Gaza spokesperson Ashraf Al Qidra said.

Damage all over: Buildings in Rafah, Khan Younis, Central Gaza and Gaza City were struck overnight, including several residential homes, the Palestinian Interior Ministry in Gaza said. “Heavy strikes” were reported near the Quds Hospital in the city. 

In Israel’s Sderot, near the Gaza Strip: CNN’s Nic Robertson reported that Sunday’s strikes have been the most sustained bombardment of northern Gaza he has seen since he began to report from southern Israel two weeks ago.

This post has been updated.

India’s humanitarian aid to Gaza arrived in Egypt on Sunday, the country’s Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Adrindam Bagchi said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The plane arrived at el-Arish in Egypt’s Sinai and the relief material was handed over to the Egyptian Red Crescent for “onward transmission to Palestine,” Bagchi said.

An Indian Air Force flight was carrying nearly 6.5 tonnes of medical aid and 32 tonnes of disaster relief material, including life-saving medicines, surgical items, tents, sleeping bags, tarpaulins, sanitary utilities and water purification tablets.

Remember: Aid has been piling up on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing that connects to Gaza. The vital passage was briefly opened over the weekend, delivering the first convoy of 20 aid trucks into besieged Gaza on Saturday, and another 14 trucks passed through on Sunday.

A humanitarian crisis is rapidly worsening in Gaza as Israel bombards the territory, while the volume of aid that has passed through is but a drop in the ocean for over 2.2 million people inside the territory.

Returning foreigners home: Separately on Sunday, 143 passengers, including two Nepali citizens, arrived in New Delhi from Tel Aviv on India’s sixth flight to bring back its citizens from Israel, Bagchi said on Sunday.

The Israel Defense Forces said it struck a terrorist cell in Lebanon.

“The terrorist cell was planning to carry out an anti-tank missile launch towards the town of Shlomi,” which is located in northern Israel, the IDF said in a statement Monday.

The IDF said Sunday it struck two Hezbollah terrorist cells on the Lebanese side of the border with Israel.

Some context: Hezbollah is an Iran-backed Islamist movement with one of the most powerful paramilitary forces in the Middle East. The group, which has its main base on the Israel-Lebanon border, could become a wildcard player in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, and spark a wider regional conflict.

The fallout is palpable on the Lebanon-Israel border, where Hezbollah and the IDF are engaging in low-rumbling tit-for-tat skirmishes since the war began.

A view of the surroundings of Al-Ahli Hospital after it was hit in Gaza on October 18.

In the days since a blast ripped through the packed Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, killing hundreds of Palestinians, dueling claims between Palestinian militants and the Israeli government over culpability are still raging. But forensic analysis of publicly available imagery and footage has begun to offer some clues as to what caused the explosion.

CNN has reviewed dozens of videos posted on social media, aired on live broadcasts and filmed by a freelance journalist working for CNN in Gaza, as well as satellite imagery, to piece together what happened in as much detail as possible.

Without the ability to access the site and gather evidence from the ground, no conclusion can be definitive. But CNN’s analysis suggests that a rocket launched from within Gaza broke up midair, and that the blast at the hospital was the result of part of the rocket landing at the hospital complex.

Weapons and explosive experts with decades of experience assessing bomb damage, who reviewed the visual evidence, told CNN they believe this to be the most likely scenario – although they caution the absence of munition remnants or shrapnel from the scene made it difficult to be sure. All agreed that the available evidence of the damage at the site was not consistent with an Israeli airstrike.

Read the full CNN investigation here.

Zhai Jun during a meeting in Tehran on October 22, 2019.

The situation in Gaza is severe and the risk of a large-scale ground conflict is significantly rising, China’s Special Envoy on the Middle East issue warned Sunday, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Speaking at a press briefing in Cairo, Zhai Jun said “armed conflicts are permeating along the Israeli-Lebanese and Israeli-Syrian borders, with their spillover effects expanding regionally and internationally. The prospects are worrisome.” 

Zhai urged the international community to stay vigilant against such developments and act immediately to prevent the situation from turning into serious humanitarian disaster.

China will continue to provide emergency humanitarian aid to the Palestinians through United Nations and bilateral channels, Zhai promised, without specifying what aid has already been provided.

Zhai attended Saturday’s Cairo peace summit with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and other Arab leaders to find a “roadmap” for ending the “humanitarian tragedy” in Gaza.

Zhai is currently in the Middle East to promote peace talks and push for a ceasefire. Zhai visited Qatar and Egypt and will also visit the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other countries in the region.

Before his trip, Zhai had phone calls with the foreign ministry heads of the Palestinian Authority, Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Norway and other countries, as well as with the special representatives at United Nations and European Union, CCTV reported.

China’s stance: Chinese leader Xi Jinping said last week that a two-state solution to establish an independent Palestine is the “fundamental way out” of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Xi, who made the comments in a meeting with Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly in Beijing, said China is willing to work with Egypt and Arab nations to “promote an comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the Palestinian issue,” according to CCTV.

Palestinian journalist, Roshdi Sarraj, has been killed by an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City, the official Palestinian press agency WAFA reported on Sunday.

Sarraj was a fixer, a translator for foreign journalists, at French national public radio broadcaster Radio France and had been working with its correspondents since May 2021, according to the French broadcaster.

His family members were also injured in the strike that targeted a house in Gaza City in the northern part of the besieged territory, and they were transferred to Al-Shifa hospital, according to WAFA. Radio France said his wife and one-year-old daughter were injured.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 23 journalists have been killed in the Israel-Hamas conflict as of Sunday, with another eight reported injured and three reported missing or detained.

Nineteen of those killed were Palestinian, including Sarraj, while three were Israeli and one was Lebanese, the CPJ said. 

When CNN reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment, the IDF said on Monday “in stark contrast to Hamas’ intentional attacks on Israeli men, women and children, the IDF follows international law and takes feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm.”

A senior Israeli official told CNN there will be “no ceasefire” in Gaza as the United States and Qatar work to free more than 200 hostages held by Hamas in the besieged enclave.    

The official told CNN they were “not aware” of US calls for a delay to Israel’s expected Gaza ground operation, and said both Israel and the US want all the hostages released “as quickly as possible.”

“Humanitarian efforts cannot be allowed to impact the mission to dismantle Hamas,” the official said.

Here are other headlines you should know:

A picture taken from Israel's southern city of Sderot shows smoke billowing during a Israeli strike on Gaza on October 22.

Israel’s military carried out dozens of airstrikes on Hamas targets late Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces said. 

CNN’s Nic Robertson reported from Sderot, near the Gaza Strip, that Sunday’s strikes have been the most sustained bombardment of northern Gaza he has seen since he began to report from southern Israel two weeks ago.

The Israeli military said late Saturday its forces would be intensifying airstrikes in Gaza. 

Strikes in southern Lebanon: The IDF also struck two Hezbollah cells on the Lebanese side of the border with Israel, it said via the Telegram messaging platform.

The Israeli military said one cell was adjacent to the area of Mattat and planned to launch anti-tank missiles toward Israel; while the other, located in Har Dov, planned to launch rockets.

Conditions at a central Gaza hospital are “catastrophic” Sunday, the medical center’s director general told CNN, as the emergency department faces a surge of casualties and electricity and fuel shortages brought on by Israel’s airstrikes and blockade.

Dr. Iyad Issa Abu Zaher said it had been a “bloody day” at Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital, updating the number of bodies the hospital has just received to 166.

The Al Aqsa hospital is located in Deir Al Balah in central Gaza — the district where Israel carried out airstrikes overnight Saturday into Sunday.

More than 300 wounded people have been admitted, Zaher said.

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Palestinians enter Gaza through the Rafah border crossing on the Egyptian border in Rafah, Gaza on October 22.

A CNN journalist observed at least 14 humanitarian relief trucks, sponsored by the Egyptian Red Crescent and the United Nations, entering the Gaza Strip from Egypt through the Rafah crossing on Sunday late evening local time.

An official with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Gaza confirmed to CNN that these trucks have been admitted, and are currently being offloaded to proceed to Gaza storage facilities of the UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.

Photos from the Palestinian Crossing Authority showed the second set of trucks getting loaded up on the Palestinian side of the crossing to complete the journey to the UNRWA site.

A short statement by Wael Abu Omar, head of public relations at the Palestinian Crossing Authority said the trucks carried “food and medicines” for Gaza.

Some background: The news comes a day after a convoy of 20 Egyptian trucks unloaded humanitarian aid in Gaza after using the same crossing, which was briefly opened Saturday, according to a CNN stringer on the ground.

The critical Rafah crossing with Egypt in the south has been touted as the last hope for Gazans to escape as Israel’s bombs rain down, and many Palestinians have begun moving in its direction in anticipation.

Aid workers in Gaza, which is under a “complete siege” by Israel and running critically low on basic resources, said Saturday’s deliveries were a help, but only barely started to address needs across the densely populated strip.

An Israel Defense Forces soldier was killed and three others were wounded during a raid as part of preparations for a Gaza ground operation, an IDF spokesperson said Sunday.

The raid was carried out earlier Sunday in the area of Kibbutz Kissufim near the Gaza Strip, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said during a video briefing. An anti-tank missile launched toward an IDF tank and an engineering vehicle left one soldier dead, one with moderate injuries, and two with mild injuries, according to Hagari.

The IDF said the raid was part of the preparations for a Gaza ground operation, with Israeli forces attempting “to dismantle terror infrastructure, clear the area of terrorists, weapons, and locate missing persons, and bodies.”

The family of the killed and wounded soldiers have been notified, according to the IDF.

More background: The Israeli military has been increasing its attacks against Hamas and collecting information regarding the hostages held in Gaza, according to Hagari.

The IDF chief of staff told commanders Saturday that the military is preparing to “enter the Gaza Strip” and “destroy Hamas operatives and infrastructures,” but he did not provide a specific timeframe. The US is seeking to delay an Israeli ground offensive in Gaza, in hopes of getting more hostages out and more humanitarian aid into the besieged enclave, according to two sources briefed on discussions

Hamas fighters clashed with Israeli troops inside Gaza, the Palestinian group’s militant Al-Qassam Brigades said Sunday, in what appears to be one of the first skirmishes between the two sides on the ground inside the strip since war broke out on October 7.

Hamas said its fighters destroyed two Israeli military bulldozers and a tank in an ambush, forcing Israeli troops to retreat into Israel without their vehicles.

The Israel Defense Forces said only that “shots were fired at IDF soldiers operating west of the Gaza Strip security fence, in the area of Kissufim.”

“An IDF tank struck the terrorist cell who fired at the soldiers,” the IDF added.

Kibbutz Kissufim, in Israel, is east of Khan Younis, in Gaza. 

The IDF confirmed to CNN by phone that its troops had been operating inside Gaza during the incident.

It is not the first time the IDF has said it operated inside Gaza since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. On October 13, the IDF said it had carried out raids inside Gaza in the previous 24 hours, but it did not say clashes had taken place.