May 8, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed that the United States is pausing a shipment of “high-payload munitions” to Israel due to possible ground operations in Rafah without a plan for civilians in the southern Gaza city.

CNN previously reported that the US last week had paused the shipment of 1,800 bombs weighing 2,000 pounds and 1,700 bombs weighing 500 pounds to Israel amid concerns over their potential use in a Rafah incursion. 

“We’ve been very clear … that Israel shouldn't launch a major attack into Rafah without accounting for and protecting the civilians that are in that battlespace,” Austin said.

Austin added that the US has not made "a final determination" about what will happen with the weapons shipment, and he emphasized that the shipment was not part of the supplemental spending package recently passed by Congress that included lethal aid for Ukraine as well as Israel.

Austin was interrupted during his answer by Code Pink protesters who yelled “Free Palestine” before being escorted out of the room.

Hospitals in the south of Gaza only have three days of fuel left, "which means services may soon come to a halt," the chief of the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted to X that the closure of the Rafah border crossing "continues to prevent the (United Nations) from bringing fuel. Without fuel all humanitarian operations will stop. Border closures are also impeding delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza."

Israel's military seized control of the Gazan side of the Rafah crossing, an Israeli military official said Tuesday. Video from the Israel Defense Forces showed Israeli flags raised on the Palestinian side of the crossing.

It is the sole crossing between Gaza and Egypt and a crucial entry point for humanitarian aid to the besieged Palestinian enclave.

Palestinian medical teams said they discovered a third mass grave inside the Al-Shifa Hospital medical complex, retrieving an additional 49 bodies, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said in a statement on Wednesday. 

The ministry shared video showing the recovery of the remains from inside the hospital grounds in Gaza City. According to the health ministry, it is the seventh mass grave found inside hospitals in Gaza. Aside from the three uncovered at Al-Shifa, one mass grave at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia and three at the Nasser medical complex in Khan Younis were discovered. 

Gazan authorities said they have recovered 520 bodies in total from the graves. 

CNN reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment on the discovery of the additional mass grave inside Al-Shifa but has yet to hear back. 

CNN cannot independently verify death toll numbers due to lack of international media access inside Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Wednesday afternoon with CIA Director Bill Burns to discuss ceasefire and hostage negotiations, an Israeli official said.

The Israeli war cabinet is now set to convene at 7:30 p.m. local time Wednesday to discuss the state of those negotiations.

A 4-month-old baby was among the dead who were brought to the only functioning hospital remaining in Rafah over the last 24 hours. On Wednesday, the Kuwait Specialized Hospital said 35 bodies were brought to the facility over the past day, including nine children.

The majority of those killed were in their 20s and 30s, it added.

Another 129 injured people were also brought to the hospital over the past 24 hours. The hospital’s media officer, Saber Muhammad, warned on Wednesday that the hospital was “too small with limited capabilities,” and could therefore not deal with huge numbers of casualties.

The Kuwait Specialized Hospital became the only functioning hospital remaining in the southernmost Gaza city after the Al-Najjar Hospital went out of service when Israeli forces declared eastern Rafah a red zone.

There are field hospitals remaining in Rafah

; however, those are also struggling to stay functional. Doctors Without Borders said on Wednesday that it is discharging patients from the Rafah Indonesian Field Hospital to prepare for a possible evacuation. 

The European Gaza Hospital east of Khan Younis is also taking in casualties from Rafah, with one body of a person killed by artillery shelling overnight arriving there on Wednesday morning. 

“Roughly 50,000 people” have left the southern Gazan city of Rafah in the last 48 hours as a result of Israel’s evacuation order, a senior staffer at the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) told CNN on Wednesday.

Top international officials have condemned Israel's military operation in the city, describing the impact on Palestinian civilians as potentially "devastating."

Below are the latest updates:

Top international officials have criticized Israel's military action in eastern Rafah, after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Monday ordered residents there to “evacuate immediately" as it conducts an operation in the city.

Roughly 50,000 people have left the southern Gazan city in the last 48 hours as a result of Israel’s evacuation order, a senior staffer at the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) told CNN on Wednesday.

Many of those leaving Rafah have been previously displaced multiple times as Israel’s focus has moved from city to city.

Hamas said the Israeli military’s move on Rafah constituted a “humanitarian catastrophe” that posed “a direct threat to more than 1.5 million displaced Palestinians.”

Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said on Wednesday that "Australia has been clear about our objections to a major Israeli ground offensive into Rafah, and we have reiterated this to Israel again today."

"The impacts on Palestinian civilians from an expanded military operation would be devastating," she added.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned on X against a “major offensive” on Rafah, saying: “One million people cannot vanish into thin air. They need protection. They urgently need more humanitarian aid. To this end, the Rafah and Kerem Shalom border crossings must be reopened immediately.”

Qatar has condemned “in the strongest terms the Israeli occupation forces’ bombardment of the Rafah governorate, invasion of the land crossing and threat to displace citizens from shelter and housing centers.”

The African Union, which comprises 55 countries, said it “strongly condemns the extension of this war to the Rafah crossing, the only corridor for humanitarian aid.”

Indonesia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote on X that it "strongly condemns" the "attack" on Rafah as well as the Israeli military's "control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing."

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov on Tuesday described the situation in Rafah as a "humanitarian disaster," according to the country’s state media outlet TASS. 

Six people, including two women, were killed by Israeli airstrikes and shelling in Rafah and Khan Younis overnight, according to statements from hospitals in the area. 

Three people were killed in central Rafah in two separate attacks. The first strike, on a house in a residential district, killed two people and injured eight. One person was also killed by an artillery strike near the Qeshta Tower in the central part of the city. 

The bodies of two men arrived at Kuwait Specialized Hospital after they were killed while riding on a motorcycle near the Salah al-Din Gate, south of the city. 

A local journalist who works for CNN said there was artillery shelling all night, as well as exchanges of gunfire. They said the situation is now calmer, with no more casualties having arrived at Kuwait Specialized Hospital since the morning.

The body of one person killed by artillery shelling in Khuza’a, east of Khan Younis, was brought to the European Gaza Hospital.

“Roughly 50,000 people” have left the southern Gazan city of Rafah in the last 48 hours as a result of Israel’s evacuation order, a senior staffer at the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) told CNN on Wednesday. 

Gazans began leaving eastern Rafah on Monday after Israel’s military ordered residents there to “evacuate immediately” as it conducts a military operation in the city. 

When asked about the expanded humanitarian area that Israel has designated in the coastal town of Al-Mawasi for displaced Gazans to flee to, Anderson said the area “certainly does not have the infrastructure that you would expect,” adding that there are already over 400,000 people seeking shelter there.

Anderson also said that people fleeing to Khan Younis would reach an area already devastated by the war. He stressed that the arrival of more humanitarian aid was a paramount concern for his agency.