May 13, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

Intense shelling and gunfire have continued in much of the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza after Israeli forces began a ground operation there on Saturday.

Videos from the area uploaded Sunday and Monday show civilians streaming out of the area against a background of constant drone flights, automatic gunfire, and explosions. Panicked families carrying whatever they can are seen leaving a UN school in the refugee camp amid heavy explosions.

In one video showing the rooftops of Jabalya, the sound of heavy gunfire is constant.

Communications from much of Gaza have been sporadic in the last few days. But CNN footage from Jabalya filmed early Monday showed terrified and exhausted families trying to leave the area. One child is seen carrying another child. There are also people being pushed in wheelchairs.

One child said there were Israeli tanks behind the schools. “They are coming for us, we are going to the other schools."

An unidentified man also said that tanks were close to the schools, where thousands have taken shelter.

Fares Afarna, director of ambulance services in northern Gaza, told the Al Jazeera network Monday that “ambulances are having a hard time to evacuate the dead and injured in the north.”

He alleged that “more than once our ambulances have been targeted by Israeli occupation forces…”

Afarna said that since the Israeli operation began on Saturday, ambulance crews had evacuated more than 50 wounded and 20 bodies. He told Al Jazeera that only two hospitals (Kamal Adwan and Al-Awada) were operating “and that’s where we are evacuating the dead and injured to and to some medical field points in the area.”

CNN is reaching out to the Israeli military for a response to the allegation that ambulances are being targeted.

An estimated 360,000 people have fled Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah over the past week, according to the UN's main relief agency in Gaza.

People are streaming out of Rafah following Israeli evacuation calls ahead of a planned major ground offensive.

At least 60,000 people have fled since Sunday alone, according to UNRWA.

Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA's Commissioner General, warned a day earlier that most people in the enclave had already moved once a month on average to avoid Israeli bombardment.

Top US officials repeated stark warnings over the weekend against an Israeli invasion of Rafah, predicting that a ground offensive would lead to widespread civilian casualties.

The United Nations and humanitarian groups estimate that somewhere between 1.2 and 1.4 million people were living in the Rafah area before the Israeli operation in the eastern part of the city began.

Satellite imagery examined by CNN last week showed that tent cities in several parts of Rafah were emptier than previously.

Ahed Bseso lay on the kitchen table in her home in Gaza, watching as her uncle amputated her wounded right leg. Standing by, her mother cried, “Ahed is dead!”

But 18-year-old Bseso was very much alive, and she survived to tell her story from a hospital in Greenville, South Carolina.

Bseso said that on December 19, she went to the top floor of her house in Gaza to get a phone signal when an Israeli tank outside fired at her building. It destroyed part of her home’s wall, which came crashing down on her leg, along with heavy debris. With her neighborhood under siege and no possibility of medical attention, her uncle, who used to work as an orthopedic surgeon, used kitchen supplies to amputate her leg below the knee and dress it with unsterilized gauze.

A video of her amputation went viral and caught the attention of the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF), a US organization that provides free health care to thousands of injured and ill Palestinian children in the Middle East. The organization worked for weeks to bring her to the US for medical care, according to Tareq Hailat, international pediatric healthcare coordinator at PCRF.

She is one of three Palestinians who received PCRF’s help to come to the US for leg injury treatment.

They are not unique: At least 1,000 children in Gaza have had one or both legs amputated, UNICEF reported in December — a number that has since grown.

Read the full story.

Almost half of the agricultural land in Gaza has been destroyed, and recovery could take years, an expert studying satellite images told CNN on Monday.

He said they spotted craters, bulldozer tracks, and signs of burning in the satellite images. 

“Almost more than half of the agricultural land was completely destroyed.”

He said Gazans had already relied on aid and imports due to insufficient land for farming before the war.

“With almost half of the agricultural land gone, the situation can only be more grave,” he said.

He also warned of years-long repercussions for farmers. 

Israel is battling Hamas across Gaza, including in the Jabalya refugee camp in the north.

Israel, which previously said it controlled Jabalya, said it is trying to stop Hamas regrouping there. Video captured heavy gunfire, Israeli tanks and the sound of drones in the area on Sunday.

The Israeli military said it was continuing "precise operations" in eastern Rafah and near the Rafah crossing, ahead of a planned full-scale invasion. US officials have repeatedly warned against the move, citing the risk of widespread civilian casualties.

The death toll in the enclave since October 7 has surpassed 35,000, Gaza's Health Ministry said.

Here are the latest developments:

Top US officials again expressed their concerns over a potential major Israeli military offensive in Rafah in calls with their Israeli counterparts on Sunday.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken "reaffirmed the U.S. opposition to a major military ground operation in Rafah" in a call with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, according to a readout from the State Department.

Blinken also underscored the urgent need to protect civilians and aid workers in Gaza, the readout said.

Meanwhile, national security adviser Jake Sullivan "reiterated President Biden’s longstanding concerns over the potential for a major military ground operation into Rafah," in a call with his Israeli counterpart, the White House said.

Sullivan discussed alternatives to an invasion of the city "to ensure the defeat of Hamas everywhere in Gaza" with Tzachi Hanegbi.

Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said he bears "the responsibility for the failure of the IDF to defend our civilians on October 7."

Halevi's remarks came during a speech he delivered at Israel's Memorial Day ceremony on Sunday evening at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

Remember: Hamas' surprise attack on October 7 left Israel flat-footed, sparking a backlash that is still rippling through the country. The operation saw at least 1,500 Hamas fighters pour across the border into Israel in an assault that killed at least 1,200 Israelis, while others are still held hostage by the militant group.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Sunday announced the opening of a new humanitarian aid crossing into Gaza in coordination with the United States.

The IDF said it's part of the effort "to increase aid routes to the Gaza Strip, and to the northern Gaza Strip in particular."

This came as Israel's military on Saturday ordered the immediate evacuation of several more neighborhoods in Rafah, where it has been stepping up operations ahead of an anticipated ground offensive. About 300,000 people have already fled the southern Gazan city.

The UN’s World Food Programme on Friday said the southern crossings to Gaza had not seen aid in three days Egypt said Saturday it would not coordinate on the entry of aid from the Rafah crossing, citing security concerns.

Top US officials offered stark warnings Sunday against an Israeli invasion of Rafah, predicting that a major ground offensive in the southern Gaza city would lead to widespread civilian casualties.

The alarm bells from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan came after President Joe Biden delivered an ultimatum last week on CNN that an Israeli invasion of Rafah would cause him to pause certain weapons transfers.

Blinken and Sullivan both said Biden made the determination because he didn’t want US weapons used in what he estimated would be a bloody, ill-advised operation. At the same time, they sought to rebut claims from Republicans and pro-Israel Democrats that Biden was leaving Israel to fend for itself.

Blinken said the US believes Israel has killed more civilians than Hamas terrorists as part of its war in Gaza. And he said the country needed to do more to mitigate civilian deaths.

Despite US warnings dating back months about the wisdom of a ground invasion into Rafah, Israel appears poised to continue advancing on the city and has issued evacuation orders for some of the 1.4 million civilians estimated to be sheltering there.

Going “headlong into Rafah” could have dire consequences, Blinken warned.

Sullivan warned an Israel operation would cause “really significant civilian casualties” while still being unlikely to eliminate Hamas. 

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