December 5, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to the media in Dubai on Friday.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new policy on Tuesday to prevent extremist Israeli settlers responsible for violence in the West Bank from coming to the United States.

The State Department will be able to apply the policy to both Israelis and Palestinians who are responsible for attacks in the West Bank, Blinken said.

Blinken did not name any individuals who would be subject to the visa restrictions, nor did he say how many would be included in the initial tranche of restrictions.

The new policy is expected “to impact dozens of individuals and potentially their family members,” State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said Tuesday.

“Any other Israeli citizen who is designated as a result of this program, but does not currently have a visa, will not be notified. If they want to travel to the United States and they apply through ESTA, which is the way that it works if you’re currently a Visa Waiver Program Country, that application will be rejected,” he said.

The background: Administration officials have signaled for weeks that they would take such action as violence in the West Bank has intensified in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack. 

In his engagements with Israeli officials since that attack, Blinken has called on the Netanyahu government to do more to hold the settlers responsible for the violence accountable.

Blinken said that the US will continue to engage with Israeli leadership to “make clear that Israel must take additional measures to protect Palestinian civilians from extremist attacks.”

The secretary of state also said the US will continue to “engage the Palestinian Authority to make clear it must do more to curb Palestinian attacks against Israelis,” he said, noting that leaders in Israel and those with the Palestinian Authority “have the responsibility to uphold stability in the West Bank. Instability in the West Bank both harms the Israeli and Palestinian people and threatens Israel’s national security interests. Those responsible for it must be held accountable.”

Benny Gantz, Israel war cabinet member and former defense minister, on Tuesday cautioned the US against its rhetoric referring to extremist Israeli settlers responsible for violence in the West Bank, and urged the international community not to use the term “settler violence.” 

During a news conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, Gantz responded to a question about the US policy, saying: “Concerning the US sanctions, I repeatedly ask everyone, also from my American counterparts, not to use the term ‘settler violence,’ because it does not represent the citizens of Israel. It does not represent the residents of the communities in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank], 99% of them are normative and abide the law.”

This post has been updated with comments from Benny Gantz.

Tamar Michaelis contributed to this report.

US President Joe Biden’s administration has begun to stress publicly that the United States’ efforts to shape Israel’s military operations to be more surgical and deliberate to limit civilian casualties in Gaza have been fruitful. 

“I do believe that they have listened,” Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters on Sunday when asked about Israel’s receptiveness to US urgings to do more to protect civilian lives.

Two days earlier, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters, “We believe that the approach that we’re taking thus far has produced effective results.”

In particular, US officials are arguing that Israel has heeded lessons that the administration has shared from its past experience with urban warfare. They are also insisting that the Israel Defense Forces’ initial incursion into northern Gaza would have been far wider in scope had it not been for warnings from the US. 

But privately, that is not a view shared by everyone inside the White House. 

One senior administration official told CNN that they did not feel comfortable using the word “receptive” to capture Israel’s response so far to the administration’s advice on its military operations. 

The White House is deeply concerned, this official said, about how Israel’s operations targeting southern Gaza will unfold. US officials’ recent conversations with their Israeli counterparts about not replicating in the southern part of the strip what it did in the north have been “hard,” “firm” and “direct,” they said. 

But administration officials are careful to avoid directly admonishing any of Israel’s tactics in public. Since the start of the war, this official said, the White House’s approach has largely been to quietly counsel Israel behind the scenes, rather than publicly shaming them.

The Israeli military is encircling the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces’ chief of the general staff said on Tuesday. 

“Sixty days after the war began, our forces are now encircling the Khan Yunis area in the southern Gaza Strip,” Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said on Tuesday. “Simultaneously, we continue to secure our accomplishments in the northern Gaza Strip.”

Earlier Tuesday, the IDF said that its forces were operating “in the heart” of Khan Younis, the territory’s second-largest city.

In the north: Israeli troops have also “completed the encirclement” of the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza, Israel’s military said Tuesday, as it seeks to complete its offensive operations against Hamas militants in the north of the enclave.

Halevi said that the IDF was now entering the “third phase of the ground operations,” though he did not specify what that meant. “We have secured many Hamas strongholds in the northern Gaza Strip, and now we are operating against its strongholds in the south,” he said.

In response to a journalist’s question about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, Halevi pointed to the aid trickling into Gaza, saying, “We’re making great efforts, in accordance to the government’s decision and the international law.”

Fifty trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing Tuesday, including two trucks specifically carrying fuel, according to an Egyptian official.

Before the October 7 attack, about 455 aid trucks were crossing into the area each day, according to the UN. 

Meanwhile, seven injured Palestinians, along with seven accompanying individuals, have crossed into Egypt to receive medical treatment, as observed by a journalist working with CNN at the Rafah crossing.

Furthermore, seven buses transporting foreign nationals have been seen arriving in Egypt from Gaza. The exact number of foreign nationals on these buses is currently unclear.  

This post has been updated with the number of aid trucks to cross into Gaza.

As Israel expands its ground offensive into the south of Gaza, a woman who is living with dozens of her family members in the center of the territory says she feels like they are living through a “famine.”

Hammad’s testimony was shared with CNN by MAP. 

She has stayed in her home, where 45 of her family members are also sheltering, including 15 children.

“We’re a couple of miles away from Israeli tanks separating us from the south. We hear bombs and tank shelling from both Salah Eddin Street (Gaza’s main north-south route) and the seaside,” Hammad added. 

Israel blocked access to water, food and electricity in the strip on October 9, though resumed the delivery of some water at the end of October.

Earlier on Tuesday, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, said the organization had been forced to halt nearly all aid operations in Gaza “due to the bombardment, the chaos, and the panic.”

The “pulverizing of Gaza now ranks amongst the worst assaults on any civilian population in our time and age,” Egeland said in a Tuesday statement.

Almost 16,000 people have been killed in Gaza during the war, according to the enclave’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health. 

Hammad anticipates this may soon become the reality for her and her family. 

FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies before a House Committee on the Judiciary oversight hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, on July 12.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said the bureau is working “around the clock” to pinpoint and stymie potential attacks by individuals inspired by the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

There is currently no information to indicate that Hamas “has the intent or capability to conduct operations inside the US,” Wray said in a written statement separate from his opening remarks, “though we cannot, and do not, discount that possibility.”

Wray also warned of the increase in hate crimes, including the “troubling trend” of increased antisemitic threats in the months since October 7. His comments echo previous warnings of threats to the United States, and he has made similar remarks to other congressional committees.

The FBI director added that just since the October 7, “we are opening I think 60% more hate crimes investigations.”

Wray said he has never seen a time during his decades-long career when so many threats against the US were all as elevated as they are now.

“While there may have been times over the years where individual threats could have been higher, here or there, than where they might be right now, I’ve never seen a time where all the threats – or so many of the threats – are all elevated all at exactly the same time,” Wray told the committee.

“That’s what makes this environment that we’re in now so fraught,” Wray said, adding that this is why the FBI should continue to be funded.

Power has been returning gradually to Gaza following Monday’s blackout, according to the only remaining major telecommunications operator in the strip.

PalTel announced the “gradual return” of communication services — fixed, cellular, and internet — to the central and southern regions of the Gaza Strip. 

On Monday evening, London-based internet monitoring firm Netblocks pointed to live metrics that showed the enclave was “in the midst of a near-total internet blackout.”

Other telecom operators, Jawwal and Ooredoo, posted similar statements after 1 a.m. ET, announcing the restoration of their respective networks in Gaza.

“You can now communicate with the beloved Gaza Strip after our services are back in operation, which have been disrupted since yesterday,” Ooredoo announced. 

A CNN team in southern Lebanon counted at least five outgoing rockets fired from Lebanon toward Israel on Tuesday evening local time.

The rockets were launched not far from the town of Marjayoun, in the direction of the Israeli border town of Metula. 

The CNN team witnessed at least two Israeli interceptors apparently hitting some of the projectiles.

Hezbollah said on Telegram on Tuesday it targeted IDF troops near the border with Lebanon in various locations.

Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire across the border for two months.

A picture taken from the Israeli side of border with Lebanon shows Israeli shelling around the southern Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab on December 5.

A Lebanese soldier was killed and three others were wounded in an Israeli attack on Tuesday, the Lebanese army said on social media.

It appears to be the first death of a Lebanese soldier as Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon’s powerful militant group, have been exchanging frequent fire across the border for two months, using rockets, artillery, drones and airstrikes. 

CNN has reviewed Lebanese army statements so far, and this is the first mentioned fatality. In addition, a security source with knowledge of the military situation in Lebanon confirmed the first death of a Lebanese Ministry of National Defense member.

The attack happened near Lebanon’s border with Israel, according to the Lebanese National News Agency (NNA). 

Earlier Tuesday, Israeli forces shelled areas in southern Lebanon, NNA reported.

A CNN team in the Marjayoun area of southern Lebanon reported hearing loud booms in the morning and filmed a suspected Israeli drone over the area.  

NNA reported a drone strike in the central-southern sector near the Lebanese-Israeli border, plus shelling in the southeastern, central and western areas of the border. 

What Israel is saying: Israeli Defense Forces fighter jets struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, including infrastructure and weapons storage military posts, the IDF said Tuesday morning, adding it identified several launches from Lebanon into Israel that fell into open areas. 

Hezbollah said on social media it had targeted IDF troops near the border with Lebanon in various locations.

Smoke rises above buildings in Khan Younis, Gaza, on December 5.

The Israel Defense Forces says its troops are now “in the heart of Khan Younis” in the southern part of Gaza.

Accounts from Khan Younis and Deir Al Balah further north describe intensive Israeli strikes, with many casualties being taken to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. 

“Since the end of the operational pause, Israeli Air Force aircraft have carried out two rounds of strikes involving dozens of aircraft from all the combat squadrons. Hundreds of munitions were utilized during strikes on tunnels, operational shafts, and anti-tank missile launch positions in order to support the movement of IDF infantry soldiers on the ground,” Finkelman said.

The IDF also reported intense battles further north in the areas of Jabalya and Shuja’iyya.

Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on January 12.

The Norwegian Refugee Council has been forced to halt nearly all aid operations in Gaza “due to the bombardment, the chaos, and the panic,” said its secretary general, Jan Egeland.

The “pulverising of Gaza now ranks amongst the worst assaults on any civilian population in our time and age,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.

Egeland said there “must be accountability for those responsible for the killings, the torture, and the atrocities committed in Israel on October 7th.” But he added that Israel’s “military campaign can in no way be described as ‘self-defense,’” calling the situation in Gaza a “total failure of our shared humanity.”

An Israeli artillery unit is pictured firing near the border with Gaza on December 5.

“Today, more than 750,000 people are crowded into just 133 shelters. Tens of thousands live on the streets of southern Gaza, where, under bombardment, they are forced to improvise basic shelters from whatever they can get hold of. The winter rains have arrived and so have infectious diseases, just as public health services have been utterly paralysed,” Egeland outlined, adding that members of the NRC in Gaza are now living on the streets — one of them with a 2-month-old baby.

A Palestinian girl holds empty water bottles as she queues to collect water amid water shortages in Rafah, Gaza, on December 5.

Israeli police stand next to part of a rocket fired from Gaza in Tel Aviv, Israel, on December 5.

CNN teams are hearing sirens in Tel Aviv. 

A CNN producer has heard at least eight rocket interceptions of the Iron Dome defense system.

Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, has claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s rocket attacks aimed at Tel Aviv. 

A 40-year-old man was treated for mild injuries caused by rocket fragments, Israel’s emergency service Magen David Adom said.

Eyad Kourdi and Amir Tal contributed reporting to this post.

Top UN officials have warned of an “apocalyptic” situation in Gaza as people are left with no safe place to go, while Israel’s military expands its campaign in the territory.

The warning comes as satellite images show dozens of Israeli armored vehicles now operating in southern Gaza.

The images, obtained by CNN Tuesday, show the vehicles to the west of Salah El-Din Street, Gaza’s main north-south route, roughly six kilometers (3.7 miles) north of central Khan Younis.

Israel has called on Palestinians in some parts of southern Gaza to leave, issuing digital maps that residents have told CNN are either confusing or to which they don’t have access because of a lack of electricity and internet connectivity.

Earlier in the war, the the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) encouraged Gazans to move to the southern part of the Strip for their safety, while committing to strike at Hamas “wherever it is.”

Here are today’s other headlines:

Gazans hunt for food: An apparent Israeli airstrike on Monday has destroyed the Al-Baraka bakery in the central Gazan city of Deir al-Balah, one of the few left in the Strip. Without it, people are digging through rubble — desperately searching for food.

Death toll in Gaza: At least 15,800 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 7, according to a report published by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah on Tuesday, which cites sources from the Hamas-controlled enclave. The report added that a total of 40,900 people have been injured, and the majority of wounded people are children, women, and the elderly.

Refugee camp surrounded: Israeli troops have “completed the encirclement” of the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza, Israel’s military said Tuesday, as it seeks to complete its offensive operations against Hamas militants in the north of the territory. The camp, Gaza’s largest, has been hit by renewed Israeli strikes in recent days following the end of a week-long pause in the conflict on Friday.

More UN workers killed: The United Nations relief agency in Gaza, UNRWA, has confirmed the death of 19 more workers. Their deaths bring the total number of UNRWA staff killed in Gaza since October 7 to 130.

Bodies lie in hospital: There are 108 corpses lying – some unclaimed – at the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, according to the territory’s Hamas-controlled health ministry. Israeli troops have been advancing toward the facility, with heavy gunfire and explosions around its vicinity over the past 24 hours.

Man killed in refugee camp: A 25-year-old Palestinian man has been killed by Israeli military fire during renewed clashes at the Qalandia refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Tuesday.

Israeli troops killed: Three Israeli soldiers have died in combat in Gaza, bringing the total number of IDF deaths in the strip to 72 since the ground offensive began, it said Tuesday.

Hostages remain: The number of hostages believed to be in Gaza now stands at 138, the Israeli prime minister’s office said Tuesday, citing its office of the Coordinator for the Hostages and Missing. The number includes foreign nationals.

In this satellite image Israeli armored vehicles and tanks can be seen just north of Khan Younis, Gaza, on December 3.

Dozens of Israeli armored vehicles are operating in southern Gaza, satellite images from Sunday provided by PlanetLabs to CNN show.

The images, obtained by CNN Tuesday, show the vehicles to the west of Salah El-Din Street, Gaza’s main north-south route, roughly six kilometers (3.7 miles) north of central Khan Younis.

Tracks on the ground visible in the images show the Israeli armored vehicles had driven to the location in a near-direct line from the Israel-Gaza border in the east.

On Monday, CNN geolocated an Al Jazeera video showing an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tank in southern Gaza, the first apparent confirmation of an IDF operation south of Wadi Gaza in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. The video shared on Sunday showed an Israeli tank 1.5 kilometers south of the location of vehicles in the PlanetLabs imagery.

The New York Times and Washington Post came to the same conclusion in their analysis of the satellite imagery.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has responded to claims that 10 people were killed close to the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza on Sunday night.

On Monday, the head of pediatrics at the medical center told CNN a strike had targeted the northern entrance of the facility, and 10 people had been killed.

CNN was unable to confirm the cause of the explosion and reached out to the IDF for a comment on strikes in the vicinity of the hospital.

In response, the IDF said “contrary to claims, Kamal Adwan Hospital was not attacked by IDF forces at the time in question,” adding “the IDF did not ask the hospital to evacuate.”

The IDF also said that a “few days ago, hospital officials contacted IDF representatives and asked to coordinate an evacuation. The IDF responded positively to the request.”

It’s unclear why an evacuation did not take place.

Several people at the hospital claimed that people trying to leave had been shot at.

In an audio message sent from the hospital to CNN, a journalist inside the facility, Mahmoud Al-Sabbah, said the facility was surrounded.

“The situation is very dangerous and [there is] heavy fire gunfire. The Israeli tanks and vehicles are advancing towards the hospital and are one block away,” Al-Sabbah said. As he spoke, heavy fire could be heard in the background.

Witnesses described the situation in the hospital as very difficult, with dozens of bodies lying outside in a hospital courtyard. There are also several thousand displaced people at the hospital, which is in an area that has seen extensive Israeli military operations since the end of the seven-day truce last Friday. 

CNN has contacted hospital authorities seeking their response.

One man carries six jars of cooking oil as he struggles to walk across the rubble. Two little girls run as they each carry stacks of white paper, used to build fire for heat and cooking.

A group of men argue, elbowing each other as they battle to find a bag of flour, some tea or even a forgotten blanket.

These are the scenes from the central Gazan city of Deir al-Balah, where an apparent Israeli airstrike on Monday destroyed not only homes and streets, but also the neighborhood’s Al-Baraka bakery, one of the few still standing in the Strip.

The strike in Dier al-Balah occurred overnight, according to residents, and by morning men, women and children were digging through the rubble. But this time, the residents weren’t digging to find loved ones. They were desperately searching for food and other essential supplies.

As the Israel-Hamas war enters its ninth week, signs are emerging of social order breaking down, with reports of looting by people struggling to survive. Since October 9, Israel has blocked access to water, food and electricity in the Strip that is home to more than 2 million Palestinians.

More than 15,899 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel started its campaign there, according to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza.

Al-Baraka bakery used to ease people’s suffering by providing much-needed bread, said Ibrahim Dabbour, a resident of Deir al-Balah. “The bakery should be outside of military operation,” he added.

In response to CNN questions about the bakery, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said Tuesday that “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.”

Read the full story here:

An aerial view of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) tent camp in Khan Younis, Gaza, on November 27.

The United Nations relief agency in Gaza — UNRWA – has confirmed the deaths of 19 more of its workers.

In total, “130 UNRWA colleagues have been killed since 7 October,” it said in a daily update.

UNRWA did not provide further details on where and when the additional 19 people had been killed.

The agency said that nearly one million displaced people were sheltering in 99 of its facilities in central and southern Gaza, including the Khan Younis and Rafah areas.

It said one of its schools in Deir Al Balah in central Gaza had been damaged by a strike on Sunday, while another school in Khan Younis was damaged by a nearby strike, killing four internally displaced people.

Meanwhile, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini has dismissed reports that the agency may open new refugee camps in Rafah, on the Egyptian border, to which many thousands of internally displaced Gazans have fled.

“Allegations that the United Nations has thousands of tents and is planning to open new refugee camps in Rafah are false,” he said.

“There is no safe place in Gaza, whether in the south or the southwest, whether in Rafah or anywhere in what is unilaterally called the ‘safe zone.’”

The Israel Defense Forces has repeatedly referenced the planned creation of what it calls a safe zone in the far south of Gaza.

There are 108 corpses lying – some unclaimed – at the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, according to the territory’s Hamas-controlled health ministry.

Israeli troops have been advancing toward the facility, with heavy gunfire and explosions around its vicinity over the past 24 hours.

A journalist inside the hospital, Mahmoud Al-Sabbah, sent CNN video Tuesday of about 30 bodies covered in white sheets in a courtyard.

Several more bodies were piled on a cart because, he said, ambulances were unable to operate in the area. It’s unclear how long the bodies had been there, but he said family members were trying to identify loved ones. 

Dr. Munir Al-Barsh, director general of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, said there was no power supply at Kamal Adwan hospital, and there were more than 7,000 displaced people there. Surgery had become impossible because of the lack of power, he said.

Only four hospitals are operating in northern Gaza and about 55 ambulances are out of service, Al-Barsh said. He also claimed that while 400 injured people had been able to leave Gaza through the Rafah crossing, more than 40,000 injured remained in the Strip.

In an audio message sent from the hospital to CNN, Al-Sabbah said the facility was surrounded.

In a separate video clip of about 30 seconds, the sound of gunfire and explosions is constant.

Another journalist at the hospital, Anas Al-Sharif, told CNN “the situation is very difficult.”

CNN cannot verify the number of casualties at the hospital, where an unknown number of displaced civilians are also taking shelter.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday that operations “happening now, in the north of the Gaza Strip, will soon lead to the breaking of the entire area of Gaza City and the north of the Gaza Strip.”

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment on operations in the vicinity of Kamal Adwan.

A general view of the destroyed building following Israeli attacks on Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza on December 1.

Israeli troops have “completed the encirclement” of the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza, Israel’s military said Tuesday, as it seeks to complete its offensive operations against Hamas militants in the north of the enclave.

The camp, Gaza’s largest, has been hit by renewed Israeli strikes in recent days following the end of a week-long pause in the conflict.

The IDF also said it “took control of key military posts from which attacks on IDF troops have been carried out.”

It said weapons and launchers had been located “in civilian compounds,” and it had “located and destroyed rockets found in the garden of a residence in the northern Gaza Strip.”

Some context: Jabalya is a densely populated refugee camp established shortly after the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were expelled from territory that encompassed the newly established State of Israel, and later denied return. The camp is a crowded, built-up area, with houses, shops and apartment buildings jammed up against one another.

Israeli strikes in October targeting Hamas commanders and the militant group’s infrastructure in the camp left catastrophic damage and killed a large number of people, according to eyewitnesses and medics in the enclave.

A 25-year-old Palestinian man was killed by Israeli military fire during renewed clashes at the Qalandia refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Tuesday.

Israeli forces entered the camp north of Jerusalem on Monday, when another Palestinian was killed amid clashes that lasted several hours, according to the ministry.

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

In a separate incident in the West Bank, four other Palestinians were injured in clashes with the Israeli army at Deheisheh refugee camp, near Bethlehem, the Palestinian ministry said.

Three Israeli soldiers have died in combat in Gaza, bringing the total number of deaths in the strip to 72 since the ground offensive began, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Tuesday.

The IDF on Sunday announced it is expanding its ground operations to all of Gaza as it bombards the enclave following the collapse of a truce with Hamas last week.

At least 15,899 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7, a spokesperson for the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza said Monday.

A picture taken from southern Israel near the border with Gaza shows smoke billowing during Israeli bombardment on December 2.

Top officials at the United Nations are warning of an “apocalyptic” situation in war-torn Gaza with “no place safe to go” for civilians, as Israel’s war with Hamas spreads into the south, where many had previously sought refuge.

“Every time we think things cannot get any more apocalyptic in Gaza, they do,” said Martin Griffiths, the top UN emergency relief official, in a statement Monday. “People are being ordered to move again, with little to survive on, forced to make one impossible choice after another,” he said.

“Such blatant disregard for basic humanity must stop,” he added.

Meanwhile, the number of civilians being killed in Gaza is “rapidly increasing,” the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said.

At least 15,899 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7, including more than 375 in the previous 24 hours, a spokesperson for the Hamas-run Ministry of Health said Monday.

Here’s what to know:

Displaced Palestinians who fled from Khan Younis, sit outside makeshift shelters at a camp in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on December 4.

Tens of thousands of internally displaced Palestinians have arrived in Gaza’s southernmost governorate of Rafah over the past two days, the United Nations’ humanitarian agency said Tuesday.

It comes after the Israeli military said Sunday it was expanding its ground operations to the whole of Gaza.

Out of about 1.8 million displaced people across Gaza, almost 1 million are sheltering in the 99 facilities run by United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in the south, including in Khan Younis and Rafah, OCHA said as it warned of the spread of diseases in shelters. 

“Due to the overcrowding and poor sanitary conditions at UNRWA shelters in the south, there have been significant increases in some communicable diseases and conditions such as diarrhea, acute respiratory infections, skin infections and hygiene-related conditions like lice,” the statement added. 

On Monday, OCHA said it had received reports of hepatitis outbreaks in refugee shelters in the strip. 

A “more hellish scenario is about to unfold” if more aid is not allowed to enter Gaza, UN humanitarian coordinator Lynn Hastings said Monday.

The current amount of aid is insufficient and the conditions required to deliver aid to Gaza do not exist, according to Hastings, the Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and United Nations Resident Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

The use of only the Rafah crossing to bring aid trucks does not work, the UN said, despite the efforts of its agencies, the Egyptian and Palestine Red Crescent Society, and other partners. 

The international body added Gaza’s health system is “on its knees” with a lack of clean drinking water, no proper sanitation and poor nutrition for people, and shelters with no capacity.

The situation amounts to a “textbook formula for epidemics and a public health disaster,” Hastings said. “Humanitarian operations cannot be kept on a drip feed of fuel,” she said, adding that fuel is required for hospitals, clean drinking water, sanitation, social services and UN operations, among others.  

The UN said fuel must be allowed to enter Gaza in a “manner which ensures Israel’s security.”  

Hastings said the UN and NGOs alone can’t support the population of Gaza, stressing that commercial and public sectors must be allowed to bring supplies into the strip.  

The UN said it stands ready to work with all parties to “expand the number of UN-managed safe shelters and to deliver assistance where it is needed.”

A ratio of two Palestinian civilians killed in Gaza for every Hamas militant is a “tremendously positive” given the challenges of urban combat, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces told CNN on Monday.

It comes after the Agence-France-Presse news agency, citing a briefing for foreign media by senior Israeli military officials, reported Monday that the IDF believes about two civilians have been killed in Gaza for every Hamas militant.

Asked by CNN’s Erin Burnett about that report, IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said: “I can confirm the report.”

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told journalists at a news conference Saturday that the military has killed “thousands of terrorists.” The Israeli military has not officially published any estimates of those killed.

AFP reported that the unnamed Israeli military official, when asked to confirm reports that around 5,000 Hamas militants had been killed, replied: “The numbers are more or less right.”

The Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza says 15,899 Palestinians have been killed as a result of Israeli attacks since October 7. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants.

A top US State Department official told Congress last month that while it was difficult to assess casualty figures while the conflict was ongoing, she believed the true death toll could be even higher than what is being publicly discussed.

Israeli military ground operations in southern Gaza could deprive thousands of Palestinians of health care, the World Health Organization warned Monday.

Israel is expanding its ground operations to all of Gaza, with ground forces now operating in the southern part, according to a video geolocated by CNN.

Only 18 out of 36 hospitals are still functioning in Gaza, but only providing partial services, WHO said, adding that the 12 operational hospitals in the south are “the backbone of the health system.”

“Gaza cannot afford to lose another hospital as health needs continue to soar,” WHO’s statement said, calling on Israel to take the necessary measures to protect civilians and hospital infrastructure.

A WHO team that recently visited the Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis said the conditions were “catastrophic.”

“[T]he building and hospital grounds [are] grossly overcrowded with patients and displaced people seeking shelter,” the statement said. “The emergency ward is overflowing with patients…Many patients are being treated on the floor.”

In a voice message posted Monday, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder also spoke of the harrowing conditions at one of Nasser Hospital’s crowded rooms after a blast had hit less than 100 meters away.

The system implemented by the Israel Defense Forces in recent days to designate unsafe areas of Gaza is not perfect, but is “the best thing that we can do,” an IDF spokesperson said Monday, as civilians search for shelters amid Israel’s expanded ground operations.

The IDF on Friday distributed leaflets in Gaza with a QR-code linked to an online map that divided Gaza into thousands of parcels. Since then, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman has posted maps on his X account, formerly Twitter, warning Gazans to leave large swaths of the territory.

But electricity and internet supply have been extremely intermittent in Gaza. Netblocks, the London-based internet monitoring firm, reported a near-total internet blackout in Gaza on Monday. 

CNN’s attempts this weekend to contact people in Khan Younis to ask if they had seen the map were unsuccessful, due to the poor communication links. 

Some context: Israel expanded its ground operations to all of Gaza, with ground forces now operating in the southern part of the enclave. A recent evacuation order to move civilians from Khan Younis into Rafah in southern Gaza “created panic, fear and anxiety,” with a United Nations agency warning that 1.9 million people, more than 80% of the enclave’s total population, have been displaced since the beginning of the war.

António Guterres delivers an address in Dubai on December 1.

Gaza residents ordered to evacuate have nowhere safe to go in the enclave, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said Monday, as he urged Israeli forces to spare civilians from more suffering.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told civilians to leave large swaths of the strip, including several neighborhoods in the south, after it resumed its military offensive over the weekend.

The UN chief said he was extremely alarmed by the resumption of hostilities between Israel, Hamas, and other armed Palestinian groups in Gaza.

He urged Israeli forces to avoid action that would worsen the “catastrophic humanitarian situation,” according to the statement.

“Civilians — including health workers, journalists and UN personnel — and civilian infrastructure must be protected at all times,” the statement said. 

Guterres also said he was gravely concerned about the escalation of violence in the occupied West Bank, including a high number of fatalities and arrests, intensified Israeli security operations and settler violence, and attacks on Israelis by Palestinians, the statement said.

Martin Griffiths speaks during a press conference in Geneva, on November 15.

The situation in Gaza keeps getting “more apocalyptic,” the United Nations’ top humanitarian relief official said Monday.

Griffiths, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, added that no one and nowhere is safe in Gaza. 

Some background: The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday announced it is expanding its ground operations to all of Gaza, following the collapse of a truce with Hamas on Friday.

“The IDF is resuming and expanding the ground operation against Hamas’ strongholds across the whole Gaza Strip,” IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari told a news conference.

“Our policy is clear — we will forcefully strike any threat posed against our territory.”

The IDF told civilians to leave large swaths of the enclave, including some neighborhoods in the southern part where many Gazans had fled to after the Israeli operation began in northern Gaza.

Almost 1.9 million people, more than 80% of Gaza’s total population, have now been displaced since the beginning of the war between Hamas and Israel, the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) said on Monday.

Near 1.2 million internally displaced people (IDP’s) were sheltering in 156 UNRWA facilities across the Gaza Strip. A large majority, almost one million people, are sheltering in facilities in central and south Gaza, in places including Khan Younis and Rafah.

“The average number of IDPs in UNRWA shelters is 10,326, more than four times their capacity”, UNRWA said.

Thomas White, director of UNRWA affairs in Gaza, said “another wave of displacement” is taking place and the humanitarian situation is worsening as the Israel Defense Forces steps up operations in southern Gaza, including in Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced.

“The roads leading South towards Rafah are clogged with cars and donkey carts packed with people and their meagre possessions,” he said.

The UN agency said 218 internally displaced people have been killed and 901 injured while sheltering at UNRWA facilities. The organization also said 111 of its staff have been killed since October 7.

As of December 2, the UNRWA “has been able to verify that 117 incidents have occurred at 85 UNRWA premises since the beginning of the war. 30 installations were hit directly and 55 sustained collateral damage. In addition, UNRWA has received reports of the military use of its facilities,” the organization said.

Between November 20 and December 2, nine out of 22 UNRWA health centers were operational in central and southern Gaza, where 284 health workers attended to more than 30,000 patients.