February 29, 2024 - Israel-Hamas war

A spokesperson for the US National Security Council said the White House is looking into the situation in Gaza involving food aid trucks and reports of dozens killed, calling it a “serious incident.”

The spokesperson also called for a temporary ceasefire in the war in a statement.

A screengrab captured from an IDF video shows Palestinians surrounding humanitarian aid trucks in Gaza City on Thursday.

Many of the casualties in the chaos that erupted in Gaza at a food distribution site were killed as a result of being run over by aid trucks as they tried to escape Israeli fire, according to a local journalist in Gaza, Khader Al Za’anoun.

Al Za’anoun, who was at the scene and witnessed the incident, told CNN that, though large crowds were waiting for food to be distributed from aid trucks, the chaos and confusion that led to people being hit by the trucks only started once Israeli soldiers opened fire. 

“Most of the people that were killed were rammed by the aid trucks during the chaos and while trying to escape the Israeli gunfire,” he said.

He said that around 20 were killed directly by the gunfire, and the rest were killed under the aid trucks’ wheels.

Injured Palestinians receive medical treatment in Al-Shifa Hospital after Israeli forces open fire on Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid trucks at Al-Rashid Street in Gaza on February 29.

Israeli government spokesperson Avi Hyman told reporters that people in Gaza who were killed while waiting in line for humanitarian aid are “obviously a tragedy, but we’re not sure of the specifics quite yet.”

What we know: At least 104 people were killed, and 760 injured after IDF troops used live fire as hungry Palestinian civilians were gathering around food aid trucks, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. 

CNN is unable to independently confirm these numbers.

Civilians had swarmed around newly arrived aid trucks hoping to get food, when Israeli tanks and drones started shooting at the people in Haroun Al Rasheed Street in western Gaza City, in the Sheikh Ajleen area.

What Israel says: An Israeli official told CNN IDF troops did use live fire on people surrounding the aid truck as “the crowd approached the forces in a manner that posed a threat to the troops, who responded to the threat with live fire. The incident is under review.”

“I can tell you this is a developing situation,” Hyman told reporters.

“At some point, the trucks were overwhelmed and the people driving the trucks, which were Gazan civilian drivers plowed into the crowds of people ultimately killing as my understanding is tens of people. I don’t have anything more specific to that. It is unfolding,” Hyman said.

Hamas senior member Izzat Al-Risheq warned that the killing of people collecting aid from trucks in Gaza could lead to the failure of ongoing talks aiming at the release of hostages and a ceasefire.

“Negotiations are not an open process,” he said in a statement published by the Hamas on Telegram. 

“We will not allow for the pathway of the negotiations…[to become] a cover for the enemy’s continued crimes against our people in the Gaza Strip,” Al-Risheq said. 

At least 104 people were killed and 760 injured on Thursday in a chaotic incident where IDF troops opened fire as hungry Palestinian civilians were gathering around food aid trucks, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.

CNN is unable to independently confirm these numbers. The IDF said, “the incident is under review.”

Injured Palestinians receive medical treatment in Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza on February 29.

More than 100 people were killed in northern Gaza where Israeli troops opened fire, triggering panic as hungry Palestinian civilians were gathering around food aid trucks, Palestinian officials and eyewitnesses said.

People had swarmed around newly arrived aid trucks in western Gaza City in the hope of getting food, when Israeli forces started shooting, according to witnesses. Many of the victims died when they were run over by trucks, according to one account.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said 104 were killed and more than 700 injured in the incident, one of the deadliest since the war in Gaza began. CNN is unable to independently confirm the figures and the Israeli military has given a different account of the circumstances.

In a briefing on Thursday, an Israeli military spokesperson said he couldn’t confirm the death toll.

What we know: A group of trucks carrying desperately needed aid arrived at Haroun Al Rasheed Street in western Gaza City, in the Sheikh Ajleen neighbourhood, early Friday.

A local journalist in Gaza, Khader Al Za’anoun, who was at the scene and witnessed the incident, said large crowds had gathered waiting for food to be distributed from aid trucks. But he said that the chaos and confusion that led to people being hit by the trucks only started once Israeli forces opened fire.

An Israeli military spokesperson disputed the Palestinian account of events in a briefing later Thursday, and said there were two separate incidents involving aid trucks.

First, he says trucks went to the north and were swarmed by crowds, with trucks running over people. Subsequently, he says, a group of Palestinians approached Israeli forces, who then opened fire on the Palestinians.

The IDF spokesperson Daniel Hargari said at a press conference Thursday there was no strike on the aid convoy. “I want to repeat that. No IDF strike was conducted towards the aid convoy. On the contrary the IDF was there conducting a humanitarian operation,” he said.

This post has been updated with CNN’s latest reporting.

Protestors holding Israeli flags at the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and Gaza Strip appear to have blocked aid shipments into Gaza on Thursday, videos obtained by CNN show. 

Videos show a line of aid trucks reversing away from the crossing, obstructing the deliverance of humanitarian shipments to the territory.

Dozens of people stand by the lorries, surrounded by Israeli flags, with some holding placards demanding the release of hostages. The extent of the disruption is unclear. 

On Monday, the Commissioner-General of The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said humanitarian aid deliveries into Gaza have declined by 50% compared to January. On Tuesday, UN humanitarian officials said over half a million people in Gaza are “one step away from famine.” 

Tsav 9, the group behind the protests, said Thursday that they will “continue with all our strength, to block the oxygen for the Nukhba terrorists with our bodies.”

“No aid goes through until the last of the abductees returns,” the group added. 

Tsav 9 have been protesting at the crossing since late January. 

CNN’s Ibrahim Dahman, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Lucas Lilieholm contributed to this report.

Families and supporters of Israeli hostages held in Gaza march with photos of hostages as they start a four-day protest march at the 'Nova' party site to Jerusalem on February 28, in Re'im, Israel.

Families of hostages in Gaza have started the second day of their long-distance march from southern Israel’s Re’im to Jerusalem, repeating their calls for the release of those captured during the October 7 attack.

The families will be joined by former hostages, survivors of the Hamas attack, and the public. 

The group started the four-day March on Wednesday from the site of the Nova festival in Re’im.

Some background: Hamas militants stormed the Nova festival on October 7 in an attack that killed over 360 people.

In the attacks on Israel that day, 1,200 people were killed and more than 240 were taken hostage.

There are believed to be 130 hostages still in Gaza, of which 99 are believed to be alive.

Pressure is mounting for a hostage-for-ceasefire deal in Gaza, with negotiations ongoing.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin delivers remarks during a meeting at Pentagon on February 7, in Arlington, Virginia.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday, according to statements released by their respective offices.

Austin asked for Gallant’s “assessment of negotiations for the release of hostages held by Hamas,” according to a statement from Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder.

The two also discussed the urgent need for more humanitarian assistance to reach Palestinian civilians and the need to facilitate new routes for aid into northern Gaza, according to the Pentagon’s statement.

Gallant emphasized the importance of US leadership and international pressure to achieve “a framework that will enable the return of hostages,” the Israeli minister’s office said.

Gallant also briefed Austin on the destruction of “dozens of kilometers” of Hamas tunnels in Gaza.

Gallant also detailed attacks by Hezbollah on Israel’s northern border, saying that Israel will not tolerate threats against its citizens and violations of its sovereignty, and “will take the measures required to ensure their security.”

Residents conduct a search and rescue operation in the rubble of destroyed buildings after Israeli attacks at al-Nuseirat refugee camp in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on February 28.

More than 30,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s war with Hamas began in October, the health ministry in the besieged enclave said Thursday.

The towering figure underscores a horrific, months-long ordeal for Palestinians in the territory, during which Israel’s bombing and ground campaigns have displaced the vast majority of the population and created a dire humanitarian crisis.

Israel is facing mounting pressure globally to halt the conflict, but its campaign in Gaza has retained the support of the United States, its key ally and largest supplier of military aid.

The US proposed a “temporary ceasefire” at the United Nations earlier this month, but has vetoed calls for an immediate halt in the conflict.

The death toll highlights fears of more suffering in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city where more than 1 million people are crammed, and where Israel is expected to launch a fresh offensive.

Gaza’s health ministry does not distinguish between civilians and fighters but has said in recent updates that around 70% of the casualties are women and children.

Israel estimates about 10,000 Hamas fighters have been killed since October 7, when Israel declared war on the militant group. More than 1,200 people in Israel were killed during Hamas’ attacks on that day, and more than 250 were kidnapped and taken hostage in Gaza.

CNN cannot independently verify the casualty tolls in Gaza or the Israeli estimates of Hamas fighters killed.

Read more about the rising death toll as a result of Israel’s war with Hamas.

Smoke billows above the Lebanese village of Bint Jbeil during Israeli bombardment on February 28.

US administration and intelligence officials are concerned that Israel is planning a ground incursion into Lebanon that could be launched in the coming months if diplomatic efforts fail to push Hezbollah back from the northern border with Israel, senior administration officials and officials familiar with the intelligence said.

While a final Israeli decision has yet to be made, the worry is acute enough inside the Biden administration that the prospect of an incursion has made its way into intelligence briefings for senior administration officials, according to one person who received a briefing and was told an operation could happen early summer.

The leadership of Hezbollah, a powerful Iran-backed paramilitary group, has expressed support for Palestinians and condemned Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

There have been months of daily, deadly cross-border strikes by both Israel and Hezbollah that have displaced tens of thousands of Lebanese and Israeli residents from their homes. Israel has fired artillery and launched jets and drones to strike targets while Hezbollah has used some of its vast arsenal of rockets and missiles.

While the US is a key mediator in discussions over a pause in the fighting in Gaza, the Biden administration has also been leading parallel discussions with Israeli and Lebanese officials that if successful would create a miles-wide buffer zone inside southern Lebanon. That deal would likely postpone an Israeli incursion, US officials believe.

Read the full story here.

This picture shows a camp for internally displaced Palestinians in Rafah, Gaza on February 28.

The United States considering airdropping aid into Gaza as the humanitarian crisis there worsens and aid fails to reach people in the war-torn territory, two US officials told CNN on Wednesday.

US officials have consistently said that much more must be done for critically, necessary assistance to reach people in Gaza, where more than 2 million people are at “imminent risk” of famine, according to the United Nations. 

Hospitals face dire conditions, and at least six children have died in recent days as a result of dehydration and malnutrition in Gazan medical facilities, according to the enclave’s health ministry. 

Earlier this week, Jordan, Egypt, the UAE, Qatar and France airdropped aid in various areas in Gaza, in a sign of how desperate the situation has become. Top US officials have called on Israel to open more crossings to allow aid to enter Gaza, as the flow of trucks into the enclave trickled down to less than 100 per day last week, according to USAID chief Samantha Power.

Here are our other top headlines:

Fifty-five foreign news correspondents have signed a letter calling for international media to be allowed “free and unfettered” access to Gaza to conduct comprehensive on-the-ground reporting on Israel’s war with Hamas.

The letter is addressed to the governments of Israel and Egypt and was delivered to their embassies in London.

Those who signed the letter include CNN’s Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour and Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward. Dozens more international correspondents from Sky News, BBC, Channel 4, ITN, CBS, NBC and ABC also signed the letter.  

The letter also emphasized the importance of on-the-ground reporting.

“There is intense global interest in the events in Gaza and for now the only reporting has come from journalists who were already based there,” the letter says.

Reporting restrictions: Foreign media have been allowed limited access to Gaza, which has been either embedded with the Israeli military on condition of viewing and approving unedited raw footage or, in rare instances, with humanitarian aid convoys into the enclave.

There has been no public response to the letter from Israel or Egypt.

The New Zealand government designated all of Hamas as a “terrorist entity” on Thursday, broadening its policy on the Islamist group.

The country now considers Hamas’ political wing a “terrorist entity”. It designated the military wing of Hamas a “terrorist entity” in 2010.

“What happened on 7 October reinforces we can no longer distinguish between the military and political wings of Hamas,” New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters said.

He said that the “organisation as a whole bears responsibility for these horrific terrorist attacks.”

The move means that any assets of Hamas in New Zealand will be frozen, and any financial or property transactions or material support to Hamas is now a criminal offense in the country.

Calls to end violence: New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon clarified that “this designation targets Hamas, not the provision of private humanitarian support to Palestinian civilians.”

It will also not hinder New Zealand’s efforts to provide humanitarian and development assistance to the civilians in Gaza, Luxon said.

Consular support to New Zealand citizens or permanent residents in the conflict zone will also not be affected.

Peters said that Wellington remains “gravely concerned” about the impact of the conflict on civilians in Gaza and called “for an end to the violence and an urgent resumption of the Middle East Peace Process.”

A child carries a sack filled with personal belongings at a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah, Gaza, on February 28.

The United States is looking into possible airdrops of aid into Gaza as the humanitarian crisis there worsens and aid fails to reach people in the war-torn territory, two US officials told CNN on Wednesday.

US officials have consistently said that much more must be done for critically necessary assistance to reach people in Gaza, where more than 2 million people are at “imminent risk” of famine, according to the United Nations. 

One US official said the prospect of airdrops is being seriously considered based on conditions on the ground. Axios first reported that the US is exploring the move.

Earlier this week, Jordan, Egypt, the UAE, Qatar and France airdropped relief aid on various areas in the Gaza Strip, in a sign of how desperate the situation has become. 

Top US officials have called on Israel to open additional crossings to allow aid to enter Gaza, as the flow of trucks into the enclave trickled down to less than 100 per day last week, according to Samantha Power, administrator for the US Agency for International Development.

Power met on Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, one of the US officials told CNN.

A woman mourns a loved one killed during Israeli bombardment, outside Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza on February 28.

Israeli airstrikes on central Gaza killed at least 20 people on Wednesday, according to health officials at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

The death toll could rise, as many people remain under the rubble, the officials said.

Several witnesses told CNN on Wednesday that airstrikes hit residential buildings in Al Bureij and Nuseirat in central Gaza.

CNN cannot independently verify the number of casualties.

A video obtained by CNN from Al-Aqsa Hospital shows multiple deceased people being brought from the area to the facility. It shows the bodies of several people being wrapped in white cloth.

The footage showed family members weeping and crying hysterically near the bodies. 

The video also shows several wounded people being carried on stretchers.

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment on the airstrike.

The United States called on Israel to sign a letter pledging it will not commit human rights violations with US weapons, State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said.

He noted the request is not specific to Israel, but applies to all nations who receive US military assistance.

He said the letter calls on countries receiving US assistance to “provide us written assurances that recipients, number one, will use the weapons in accordance with the US with a law of war and, number two, will facilitate and not arbitrarily deny or restrict humanitarian assistance.”

“It requires a 45-day timeline for these countries to provide written assurances, so we’re going about that process now,” he said.

More context: Israel has come under immense scrutiny for the way it has prosecuted its war in Gaza. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and US officials have repeatedly called on Israel to do more to decrease the death toll. There are growing calls from Congress to condition military aid to Israel. Nations around the world are sounding the alarm against a potential military offensive in Rafah, where more than a million people have been displaced.

Miller previously confirmed that the US is assessing civilian harm from US weapons in Israel.

Displaced Palestinians arrive at Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City to take shelter on February 22.

At least six children died in recent days as a result of dehydration and malnutrition in Gazan medical facilities, the health ministry said.

At least four children died at Kamal Adwan Hospital over the past few days, and two children died at the Al-Shifa Medical Complex on Wednesday, according to the health ministry and a local doctor.

Safiya said the generators would stop working tonight because of the hospital’s fuel shortage, “which means our incubators and oxygen supply will stop and only will run on solar panels during the day.”

Safiya also pointed out the lack of medical aid and baby formula in the hospital and said babies are getting milk that’s “diluted and not concentrated” every five or six hours instead of the recommended three to four hours.

Mothers are unable to produce natural milk “due to dehydration and lack of nutritional food,” Safiya said.

The United Nations is urging an investigation into indiscriminate Israeli fire that killed half of a family in Gaza, after a CNN report about it was published Wednesday.

“We call for a full investigation into what was reported,” the UN secretary-general’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said Wednesday during a news conference, in response to a question from CNN. 

The UN does not have its own information on the incident, “but they need to be investigated,” Dujarric said, reiterating the UN’s plea for Israel to allow more journalists in Gaza. 

Israel still has not provided evidence to support its allegations that members of the main United Nations aid agency in Gaza were involved in the October 7 Hamas attacks, the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said Wednesday.

“We keep now calling to the Israeli authority to cooperate with the investigation team so that we can come to a swift conclusion,” he continued.

“We haven’t received anything more than what we see on the media,” he said.

Lazzarini called footage that purports to show a UNRWA staff member participating in the kidnapping of Yonatan Samerano — who was killed in kibbutz Be’eri on October 7 — “shocking images.”

Background on the footage: A video screened last week during a press conference with the Hostage and Missing Families Forum showed a white SUV approaching the entrance of what appears to be the kibbutz. Two men exit the vehicle and are seen carrying a body from the road into the vehicle. One of the men is identified in the footage as an UNWRA worker. CNN could not independently verify the identity of the men or Israel’s allegations about his involvement with Hamas.

Lazzarini said that he “personally cannot recognize the person on the video.” He called for “more forensic evidence to be provided,” while acknowledging the name of the accused man in the video “matched our staff list” and that his UNRWA contract was terminated.

Remember: UNRWA fired 10 of the 12 staff members accused by Israel of involvement in the October 7 attacks and launched an investigation into the allegations, in hopes of keeping international funding to the agency flowing at a critical time. At least 16 countries have paused or suspended funding to UNRWA since the allegations emerged, Lazzarini said, warning that operations beyond March will be impacted unless more money is donated.

The right side of Roba Abu Jibba’s face is almost completely gone – a deep, bloody wound is where her eye should be.

The 18-year-old, confused and in pain, lies on a gurney in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza. She tries to explain how she got there. She had been sheltering with her family for two months in an industrial warehouse on Salaheddin Street, the strip’s main north-south highway, she explains, when they came under heavy fire from the Israeli military.

In a whisper, she recalls being shot at, explosions and bulldozing. She says she watched her brothers and sisters die around her. Her mother and three of her siblings were able to flee, but she’s not sure where they went.

After a chance encounter and the discovery of Roba’s identification card under rubble, a weeks-long CNN investigation has been able to piece together what happened during one terrifying night in early January, which left five of her siblings dead. Their story offers a window into the Israeli military’s overwhelming and often indiscriminate use of force in areas where civilians were told they would be safe, helping to uncover an atrocity that would otherwise have remained hidden.

CNN interviewed seven eyewitnesses to the attack, tracking down relatives now scattered across the enclave, including Roba’s mother. Their testimonies were cross-referenced with hospital records, satellite imagery and dozens of videos and photos from the scene, reviewed by forensics and ballistic experts, who analyzed the damage to the building and injuries of the people found inside of it.

Read more about the CNN special report here.

US citizen Mohammad Ahmad Khdour, 17, was shot to death in the West Bank.

The last moments of Mohammad Khdour’s life could be those of any American teenager: taking the car out during a study break, snacking on chocolate waffles, posing for Instagram.

Those carefree moments with his cousin along the hillsides of Biddu, in the occupied West Bank, were captured in photos and videos reviewed by CNN.

They were snuffed out, his family says, when an Israeli gunman opened fire on their car, shooting the 17-year-old Mohammad in the head.

The death of Mohammad, a Florida-born US citizen, just weeks after another 17-year-old American citizen was shot under strikingly similar circumstances in the occupied West Bank, has underscored the frustrations among Palestinian-Americans who say the United States is doing little to respond to the deaths of their loved ones.

Videos from the aftermath of the February 10 shooting show several people rushing to the damaged car, pulling Mohammad’s limp, bloodied body out from the shattered glass.

Mohammad died hours later at a Ramallah hospital, his family said.

The Israel Defense Forces referred questions about the case to the Israeli Security Agency, which did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Some context: The killing or detention of American citizens in occupied Palestinian territories by Israelis and the concerns about a lack of accountability date back years.

In 2003, 23-year-old American activist Rachel Corrie was crushed by an Israeli army bulldozer while trying to block it from razing Palestinian homes in Gaza. Nine years later, an Israeli civil court ruled Corrie’s death an accident.

Read more about Palestinian Americans who were killed in the region.

Families and supporters of Israeli hostages held in Gaza hold signs depicting some of the hostages in Re'im, Israel, as they begin a four-day protest march to Jerusalem on February 28.

Families of hostages in Gaza started a four-day march on Wednesday from the site of the Nova Festival in southern Israel’s Re’im to Jerusalem, repeating calls for the release of those kidnapped on October 7.

“March with us for the hostages,” the Hostages Families Forum Headquarters said on Wednesday.

An aerial view shows the march setting out on a road in Re'im on Wednesday.

Remember: Hamas militants stormed the Nova Festival on October 7 in an attack that killed over 360 people.

In the attacks on Israel that day, 1,200 people were killed and more than 240 were taken hostage.

There are believed to be 130 hostages still in Gaza, of which 99 are believed to be alive.

Pressure is mounting for a hostage-for-ceasefire deal in Gaza, with negotiations ongoing.