May 13, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

The United Nations on Monday clarified that the overall number of fatalities in Gaza tallied by the Ministry of Health in Gaza remains unchanged, at more than 35,000, since the war broke out between Israel and Hamas on October 7.

The clarification comes after the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) published a report on May 8 with revised data regarding the number of Palestinian casualties in the war. The UN agency in its report reduced the number of women and children believed to have been killed in the war by nearly half.

The number was reduced because the UN says it is now relying on the number of deceased women and children whose names and other identifying details have been fully documented, rather than the total number of women and children killed. The ministry says bodies that arrive at hospitals get counted in the overall death count.

UN spokesperson Farhan Haq told a daily briefing at the UN that the health ministry in Gaza recently published two separate death tolls — an overall death toll and a total number of identified fatalities. In the UN report, only the total number of fatalities whose identities (such as name and date of birth) have been documented was published, leading to confusion.

CNN spoke to two officials from the Palestinian Ministry of Health. They said although the ministry keeps a separate death toll for identified and unidentified individuals, the total number of people killed remains unchanged. Additionally, the officials said, the total number of dead does not include the approximately 10,000 people who are still missing and trapped under the rubble.

While CNN cannot independently verify the ministry’s numbers, it has seen a daily report from the ministry which matches the number OCHA published in the revised version. Both the UN and US officials have previously appraised the figures from the Ministry of Health in Gaza as credible.

The White House is urging Israel to connect their military operations to a “clear” end game for Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters. 

His comments come as the White House has continued to make clear that it would not support a large-scale invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza. 

He also said that one of the "key points" that US officials are making to their counterparts is to look beyond the current military plan. 

"So one of the key points that we have been reinforcing is to step back just from a tactical military analysis of the situation but strategically, how do we get to the common goal, the enduring defeat of Hamas and that is going to require military pressure, yes, but more than just military pressure, a political plan to get there,” he said. 

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday that the ongoing ceasefire negotiations continue  “urgently” and that the administration remains “intent and determined” to help Israel and Hamas reach a deal and secure the release of hostages.   

He added: “This particular negotiation has had its ups and downs, its ins and outs, its twists and turns.”

Sullivan also said that it’s his belief that Israel can and must do more to protect civilians in Gaza and that the US government still believes a Rafah operation would be a mistake. 

He added: “We still believe it is — would be a mistake to launch a major military operation into the heart of Rafah that would put huge numbers of civilians at risk without a clear strategic gain.”

Some context: Top American officials have been offering stark warnings against an Israeli invasion of Rafah, predicting that a major ground offensive in the southern Gaza city would lead to widespread civilian casualties, spark a Hamas insurgency and create a power vacuum the terror group would later seek to fill.

It follows US President Joe Biden's ultimatum last week on CNN that an Israeli invasion of Rafah would cause him to pause certain weapons transfers.

A top State Department official said that the US and Israel are “struggling over what the theory of victory is” for Israel in Gaza, and that US does not believe that the kind of total victory Israel says it is fighting for against Hamas is “likely or possible.”

Campbell compared the situation in Gaza to the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq after 9/11, where fighting continued “after civilian populations had been moved.”

“Ultimately, I think we view that there has to be more of a political solution,” said Campbell.

A shipment of humanitarian aid bound for Gaza was intercepted and ransacked by Israeli activists opposed to sending help to Palestinians living in the besieged enclave.

Video from the Tarkumiya checkpoint near Hebron in the West Bank, through which the convoy was traveling, shows at least two trucks ransacked, with sacks and boxes of food strewn across the road.

It’s unclear whether the aid was coming from Jordan or the Palestinian Authority.

The Regavim movement, which opposes the transfer of aid to Gaza, said: "We will not be the 'silver platter' of the Palestinian Authority."

It added: "Unfathomable to the mind and heart, that precisely on the day of Remembrance Day for the fallen soldiers of Israel's battles and the victims of hostilities, the Israeli government opens a supply route from the Palestinian Authority in Hebron to the Hamas terrorists in Gaza.”

Regavim and activists from another group, Tsav 9, were involved in the disruption of the convoy.

Israeli police said they have since opened an investigation and arrested several activists over the interception.

The US raised the incident with the Israeli government.

“We have raised this incident with the government of Israel and we expect them to take appropriate action,” he added.

The department previously condemned several other attacks on aid convoys by Israeli activists and called on Israel to hold the alleged perpetrators accountable.

Palestinians caught in the middle of the war between Israel and Hamas have been struggling to get enough food and water to survive. Northern Gaza is now in the middle of a "full-blown famine," according to the World Food Programme.

Half the population of Gaza is projected to face catastrophic hunger by mid-July, with all 2.2 million people unable to meet their food needs, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.

This post has been updated to include a response from the Israeli police and the US State Department.

The United States is aware of reports that a group of American medical workers at the European hospital in Khan Younis are trapped in Gaza, according to a State Department spokesperson. 

Patel emphasized that Israel must keep the Rafah crossing open in part so foreign nationals can leave Gaza through there.

Raed Redwan collected water in a little plastic container as rainfall pelted his makeshift tent in Rafah, in southern Gaza. 

The teacher and academic, who is displaced with his wife and mother, told CNN he feared potential flooding would drown his two-month-old daughter, Maria. The sound of raindrops can be heard in videos shared with CNN, as Redwan swaddles his newborn baby in a pink and cream blanket.

“I don't know what to do. I can't sleep, the indiscriminate shelling is getting closer to me. I am very afraid and tense,” he told CNN on May 9. 

Earlier this month, Israeli forces issued a relocation order to displaced civilians in Rafah ahead of a threatened a full-scale ground assault on the city. Redwan – along with more than one million Palestinians displaced in the sprawling city – was caught between staying trapped, or fleeing without the promise of safety.  

“I am here alone, it's hard to make a decision to flee. Displacement is very exhausting mentally, physically, and emotionally. There is no safe place in Gaza,” he said. “Rafah is under fire and bombardment.  

On Sunday, Redwan said he had made a risky journey further north, to Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza. His young family were forced to sleep on the streets with no water, food or electricity, where they could hear explosions nearby, he added. 

At least one United Nations aid worker was killed and another injured after a vehicle marked as belonging to the agency was attacked in Rafah on Monday.

UN personnel were "targeted while traveling in a United Nations vehicle clearly marked with the UN flag and insignias," according to Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the UN Secretary-General. Haq did not assign blame to either Israel or Hamas for the attack.

The death is the first of a UN foreign aid worker since October 7, Haq said.

The Jordanian Foreign Ministry later confirmed the aid worker killed was Jordanian.

The Gaza media office issued a statement blaming Israel for the killing of the UN workers. CNN has asked the Israeli military about the allegations and has yet to hear back.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres's office released a statement condemning the attack on UN personnel and called for a full investigation. 

The Jordanian Foreign Ministry condemned the Monday attack, saying the incident “was a result of Israel's expansion of its military operations in Rafah."

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

Jordanian Ministry spokesperson Sufyan Qudah underscored the urgent need to safeguard UN aid workers, whom he called pivotal figures providing humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza.

The spokesperson said that the ministry is actively coordinating with the United Nations to monitor the medical condition of the injured Jordanian citizen and ensure her safe departure from Gaza.

This post has been updated to include comments from the Jordanian Foreign Ministry.

The Israeli military has renewed its fighting in northern Gaza where it previously claimed to have dismantled Hamas’ command structure. But it now says the Palestinian militant group is trying to “reassemble” in the area, raising doubts about whether Israel’s goal to eradicate the group in the enclave is realistic.

Israel’s renewed ground operation began on Saturday, with intense shelling and gunfire gripping much of the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza. The Israeli military also began operating in the area of Zeitoun in central Gaza, as it continues its offensive in eastern Rafah and near the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

Israel’s return to pockets it had supposedly cleared of Hamas renews questions about its long-term military strategy, which after more than seven months of war has left more than 35,000 Palestinians dead and much of Gaza in ruins – but more than 100 hostages from Israel still in captivity and Hamas’ top leadership still at large.

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