April 23, 2024 - Israel-Hamas war

Our live coverage of Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza has moved here.

The US Senate passed, with wide bipartisan support, a $95 billion foreign aid package Tuesday night which includes aid for countries including Israel.

The legislation ties together four bills that the House voted on separately in a rare Saturday session, providing over $26 billion for Israel, nearly $61 billion in aid for Ukraine and more than $8 billion for the Indo-Pacific. 

The final vote was 79-18. Fifteen Republicans voted with three Democrats against the bill, while 48 Democrats and 31 Republicans voted for the bill.

It will now be sent to be signed by President Joe Biden, who applauded the package’s passage on Tuesday and said that he will sign the legislation on Wednesday.

“This critical legislation will make our nation and world more secure as we support our friends who are defending themselves against terrorists like Hamas and tyrants like Putin,” Biden said in a written statement.

Israeli military operations in Gaza have killed at least 34,183 people after 200 days of war, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The Government Media Office in Gaza said that, over the past 200 days, 14,778 children had been killed – as had 9,752 women. The Media Office also said that 17,000 children in Gaza had lost one or both parents.

Here are other headlines you should know:

Young children wearing sandals pucker their faces under the Gazan sun. Others drift barefoot across the courtyard of a sprawling school in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.

CNN footage shows clothes on washing lines and dusty plastic tents fluttering in the wind. 

“Our lives are full of suffering, no drinking water, no livable place to stay,” says Mohammad Shabat, a displaced Palestinian.
“There is no health, no education. How will these children live? How will they study? We had COVID, now we have war. We are mentally exhausted. 
“I am 60 years old, I lived through wars before, but we never lived through this oppression.” 

Palestinians described months of forced displacement as they waited anxiously for news from relatives separated across the enclave, with no relief from Israeli strikes. 

Rahaf Shabbat, a young student who was forced to flee from Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, told CNN she was heartbroken when the war disrupted her school year. “Today marks 200 days of war, it feels like 200 years… of fear and horror, rockets, martyrs, and deaths,” she said. 

Another Palestinian child, Rama Shabat, says she has not seen her loved ones for seven months. “We lost our dreams and our childhood. We miss our loved ones in the north,” Rama told CNN, as she broke down into tears.  

Hala Abdan, a lawyer, said her 20-year-old son’s left foot was amputated after he was injured by a drone strike in December. “I struggle to provide him anything, just like all the Palestinian people,” she said. “It has been 200 days full of suffering that one can barely bear… 200 days of catastrophe.” 

An Israeli airstrike on the southern village of Hanine in Lebanon targeted a house, killing at least two people and injuring six others, according to state-run media NNA.

A woman and her 11-year-old niece were killed and at least six others were wounded, NNA reported. 

The incident happened on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. local time when the two-story house of Ahmad Ali Khashakesh in Hanine was struck with two rockets, according to NNA.

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

Earlier Tuesday, the IDF announced that fighter jets struck Hezbollah military positions in the area of Markaba in southern Lebanon. Also on Tuesday, the IDF said it had “successfully intercepted two suspicious aerial targets off the northern coast.”

Nirmine Moussa said her children will never get used to the sound of Israeli strikes raining down on Gaza. The Palestinian mother was left homeless after her house in the north was destroyed in the early days of the war.  

“They erased our memories,” said Moussa, who is displaced in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. “My children are not used to the sound of bombardment every second of the day. They live in a nightmare forever, after the IDF destroyed their dreams and their future, by destroying their schools and killing their friends.” 

After 200 days since Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza, Palestinians who spoke to CNN by phone say they feel exhausted by a war that has wiped out families and turned once-lively neighborhoods into rubble-filled wastelands.  

“Have I even survived without my father, without my house, without everything?” said Maram Faraj, 26, a writer displaced in the coastal town of Al-Mawasi. “Will I be the next genocide victim? If so, will my family be able to identify my body?” 

Raed Redwan, who is in the southern city of Rafah, said he is homeless and afraid. The teacher and academic said he has been living on the streets for more than six months, with no access to electricity or running water.  

“After 200 days of genocide in Gaza, I still ask why this happened? Who is responsible for continuous war in Gaza? Why did they leave us alone in this war?… There is no one able to help me, my baby, or my family,” Redwan said. “l’ve lost everything… But I still hold hope.” 

US military vessels are in the Mediterranean region and “standing by” and prepared to begin construction on the temporary pier off the coast of Gaza when given the order to do so, Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said Tuesday. 

He also said the United States was “positioned to begin construction very soon, in the near future.”

Currently, officials are working through a checklist of processes and procedures, including security on the ground, coordination with partners supporting this effort and drawing up a timeline for implementation, Ryder said.

Ryder has said the expectation is for the temporary pier to be operational by the end of April or early May, and said Tuesday the military is on track to meet that timeline. 

The World Food Programme (WFP) will support the distribution of aid from the pier following weeks of diplomatic wrangling, the organization said Saturday.

The temporary pier, which will be several miles off the coast of Gaza, will receive both military and civilian vessels, Ryder added. The aid brought by those vessels will then be transported from the pier by US military vessels to the causeway, where non-military trucks — driven by non-profit organization personnel — will take the aid and then distribute it into Gaza.

Abu Obaida, the spokesperson of Hamas’ military wing Al Qassam Brigades, urged continued attacks on Israel in his first video message in more than six weeks on Tuesday, marking 200 days of the Israel-Hamas war.

“We will keep attacking the enemy with different techniques as long as the aggression continues on our land,” Abu Obaida said. Hamas fighters would “keep coming out to fight the enemy,” he added.

He also praised Iran’s unprecedented strikes on Israel earlier this month, saying the attack’s “size and nature, established new rules and confused the enemy’s calculations.” Iran launched a large-scale drone and missile attack at Israel in retaliation for a suspected Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic complex in Syria. The Israeli military said 99% of the more than 300 projectiles fired were intercepted.

Abu Obaida also slammed Israel’s role in the hostage release and ceasefire negotiations, saying Israel is “trying to renounce all his promises” and wants to “gain more time.” Israel and the US have blamed Hamas for holding up negotiations by making unreasonable demands.

Jordan has conducted an airdrop of humanitarian and relief aid into Gaza on Tuesday, according to Jordanian state news agency Petra.

The Jordanian Armed Forces conducted seven airdrops to multiple sites in northern Gaza, and said they would continue sending humanitarian and medical aid to Gaza through airdrops, ground convoys and through the Marka airport in Amman to Egypt’s Al-Arish International Airport.

Jordan has conducted 87 airdrops into Gaza and took part in 209 international airdrops since October 7, according to Petra.

Petra reported that Tuesday’s aid drop was conducted along with the US, Egypt and Germany.

“Focus on Gaza:” As tit-for-tat strikes between Israel and Iran appear to have concluded, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told CNN, “The focus should remain on Gaza,” as the strip edges towards famine.

An Israeli attack on Iranian territory would have serious consequences and result in there being “nothing left” of Israel, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said Tuesday, Iranian state news agency IRNA reported.

“There will be nothing left of that entity” if Israel attacks Iran again, Raisi said.

Raisi’s comments were made on the second of his three-day official visit to Pakistan, at a university in Punjab province.

Raisi warned that if Israel “commits another mistake and violates the sovereignty of the holy Iranian lands, the situation will be different.”

The warning came after Israel on Friday carried out a military strike inside Iran, a US official told CNN, although Israel has not officially claimed the attack. Officials in Tehran have sought to play down the Friday morning strike on Iran, as tensions simmer from a significant escalation between the regional powerhouses.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has issued a warning to people in parts of the area of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza. 

Identifying several blocks from its map of Gaza, the IDF warns: “You are in a dangerous combat zone. The IDF will work with extreme force against terrorist infrastructure and subversive elements in the region.”

The IDF called on residents to evacuate and “head towards the known shelters in Blocks No. 1770, 1766” in the west and south of the city.

“The most excused is he who warns,” the message ends.

It’s unclear how many people would receive the warning, given the sporadic nature of electricity and connectivity in northern Gaza.

Reports from journalists in Gaza speak of artillery bombardments and air strikes in the north and renewed airstrikes in Zeitoun in central Gaza.

Qatar is yet to decide whether it will shut Hamas’ office in Doha, Qatar’s capital, as it questions both the Palestinian militant group and Israel’s commitment to reach a hostage-ceasefire agreement in Gaza, the foreign ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Qatar has come under pressure from Israel and US politicians over its links with the Palestinian militant group. But it said on Tuesday that there won’t be a need to shut the Hamas political bureau in Doha provided that communication channels remain open.

“If the office is performing that role, as in the mediation efforts are ongoing, then there is no justification to end the presence of the (Hamas) office in Doha,” the spokesperson Majed Al Ansari told a news conference on Tuesday.

“We are calling on both sides to show more flexibility and seriousness in the negotiations,” Ansari said.

Stalled talks: Meetings between negotiators in Qatar have stopped amid a deadlock in the months-long indirect talks between Hamas and Israel. The lack of progress, coupled with criticism of Qatar’s relationship with Hamas, has pushed Doha to reconsider its role as an interlocutor in the stagnant negotiations.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it has “successfully intercepted two suspicious aerial targets off the northern coast.”

“The sirens regarding rocket fire sounded following the possibility of fallen shrapnel from the interception. The incident has concluded,” it said.

Sirens sounded in the city of Acre for the first time since December.

Hezbollah said that “in response to the Israeli aggression on the town of Adloun and the assassination of one of our mujahideen brothers,” it had launched an attack on the command headquarters of the Golan Brigade and the Eguz 621 unit near Acre.

Earlier, Hezbollah had acknowledged the death of a senior operative, Hussein Ali Azkul. The IDF said it had killed Azkul, whom it described as “a significant terrorist operative in Hezbollah’s Aerial Defense Unit” in southern Lebanon.

There are no reports of damage or casualties from the Hezbollah attack.

More than 270,000 tons of solid waste across the entire Gaza Strip remain uncollected, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said Tuesday, as Israel’s military campaign has disrupted essential services in the enclave. In January and February, UNRWA and the UN’s Development Programme collected 10,000 tons of solid waste in Gaza.

Scores displaced: As of April 21, up to 1.7 million people (more than 75% of the entire population) have been displaced across Gaza, the majority multiple times, UNRWA estimated.

Israeli attacks intensified in central Gaza and the southern city of Khan Younis in recent weeks, uprooting “a significant number of displaced people” further south, UNRWA said, adding, “Families are forced to move repeatedly in search of safety.” In the northern Gaza and Gaza City governorates, about 300,000 people were estimated to be sheltering.

Relief operations hindered: Efforts to provide relief for Palestinians in northern Gaza have been “severely restricted,” the agency said, claiming that Israeli authorities have impeded aid missions to the area.

Israel has longstanding issues with UNRWA, having accused some staffers of being directly involved in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks into southern Israel. An independent review noted that “Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence” for its allegations.

Health system crushed: As of April 17, eight out of 24 UNRWA health centers were operational across the north, central Gaza and in the south, as Israel’s siege in Gaza has diminished food, fuel and water supplies, and severely damaged the medical system.

Israel has consistently denied aid convoys to northern Gaza, according to the UN’s agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA). Food shortages are worst in northern Gaza, where Israel concentrated its military offensive in the early days of the war.

Israeli authorities vetoed at least 27 out of 81 aid missions that require coordination in the north and south of the strip, between April 1 and April 19, UNRWA said in a report on Tuesday. The last time UNRWA was able to deliver food supplies to the area was on January 23.

The Israeli agency in charge of inspecting convoys entering Gaza told CNN earlier this month that it was “cooperating [in the north] with a wide array of humanitarian organisations” including UN agencies and regional actors.

Since the beginning of April, an average of 186 aid trucks have crossed into Gaza per day via the Kerem Shalom and Rafah land crossings, UNRWA added. As of 8 April, UNRWA said it had delivered flour to nearly 400,000 families in southern Gaza. Before the war, about 500 trucks of supplies were entering the Palestinian enclave daily.

Barely trickling in: Human rights agencies have repeatedly warned that Israel’s severe restrictions on aid entering Gaza means relief is barely tricking into the strip.

UNRWA says there “has been very little significant change in the volume of humanitarian supplies entering Gaza or improved access to the north.” Israeli agencies have frequently blamed the United Nations for failing to distribute aid within Gaza, saying last week that hundreds of trucks of aid piled up at Kerem Shalom. 

Dozens of Palestinians visited the central Gaza neighborhood of Nuiserat last week, after Israeli forces withdrew. 

CNN footage shows the destroyed interior of buildings sliced by bombardment, as men and boys wearing flip flops stand on huge mounds of debris. A young Palestinian child sits on a white sofa surrounded by pink cushions, old blankets, and upturned concrete slabs in the Nuseirat refugee camp. Residents in Gaza say they were desperately trying to salvage precious objects from homes ravaged by Israeli strikes, as they surveyed the area in horror. 

“On the second day of Eid rockets started hitting us,” Abu Mohammad Farajallah, a displaced resident, told CNN on April 18. “We came back after a week to struck houses and buildings, there is no place to stay.” 

Earlier this month, the Israeli military retreated from Nuseirat and left swathes of rubble, damaged residential buildings and destroyed water, sanitation and waste collection services, Palestinian officials told CNN. Israeli attacks in the neighborhood left at least 500 people killed, injured or missing, said Gaza’s Civil Defense spokesperson, Mahmoud Basal. CNN cannot verify the estimate and contacted the Israeli military about the scope and purpose of its attacks in Nuseirat. 

Another resident, Hassan Al Habbash, compared the devastation to “an earthquake.”

“We have never witnessed such destruction in history,” added the doctor, who wore glasses and had a wispy white beard. “I came back to find my house demolished.” 

Israel’s bombardment demolished the top three floors of the Al-Sahaba building in Gaza City, in the northern part of the enclave, Monday.

Footage from the attack shows the Israeli airstrike hitting the eight-story tower, igniting a ball of fire and triggering a massive plume of smoke. The strike was also captured from a distance, with another video showing a dark cloud of smoke rising on the city’s horizon.

A warning was issued an hour ahead of the strike, with no casualties reported, according to journalists on the ground. The Israeli military says it launched 25 air strikes across Gaza over past 24 hours. 

Human rights warnings: Oxfam and Human Rights Watch have accused Israel of imposing “indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks in violation of international humanitarian law” in Gaza.

The Israeli military says it killed two members of the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah, in southern Lebanon.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) struck and killed Hussein Ali Azkul, who it described as “a significant terrorist operative” in Hezbollah’s Aerial Defense Unit, in southern Lebanon. Azkul was “heavily involved in the planning and execution of terrorist attacks against Israel,” the IDF said in a statement Tuesday.

Hezbollah also acknowledged the death of Azkul in a statement on Tuesday as well, without mentioning the cause or date of death.

The IDF claimed to have killed another “significant terrorist” in Hezbollah’s Aerial Unit – Sajed Sarafand – in the area of Arzoun, in southern Lebanon. Sirens were activated Tuesday morning in the western Galilee area, near the Lebanese border, because of a suspected drone infiltration.

Regional tensions: Israeli and Hezbollah forces have engaged in cross-border fire and tit-for-tat exchanges since October 7, when Hamas launched an attack on Israel. Hezbollah’s political stance has unambiguously supported the Palestinian militants. It has roundly condemned Israel’s relentless airstrikes on Gaza.

CNN’s Tamara Qiblawi contributed reporting.

Emergency workers on Tuesday recovered at least 35 more bodies from a mass grave within the Nasser medical complex, in southern Gaza, after Israeli forces withdrew from the neighborhood earlier this month.

The total number of bodies found increased to 310, Colonel Yamen Abu Suleiman, the director of Civil Defense in Khan Younis, told CNN, adding that operations are ongoing.

Suleiman previously alleged that some of the bodies were found with hands and feet tied, “and there were signs of field executions. We do not know if they were buried alive or executed. Most of the bodies are decomposed.”

CNN is unable to verify Suleiman’s claims and cannot confirm the causes of death among the bodies being unearthed. Over the weekend, family members gathered at the hospital desperately searching for the bodies of loved ones who had been killed.

CNN has requested a response from the Israeli military to claims that its troops carried out DNA tests on scores of people who had been killed and temporarily buried within the hospital’s grounds in the search for hostages taken by Hamas and held in Gaza.

IDF’s response: The Israel Defense Forces said that the “claim that the IDF buried Palestinian bodies is baseless and unfounded,” it told CNN.

“During the IDF’s operation in the area of Nasser Hospital, in accordance to the effort to locate hostages and missing persons, corpses buried by Palestinians in the area of Nasser Hospital were examined. The examination was conducted in a careful manner and exclusively in places where intelligence indicated the possible presence of hostages.” 

“The examination was carried out respectfully while maintaining the dignity of the deceased. Bodies examined, which did not belong to Israeli hostages, were returned to their place,” the IDF added.

The IDF reburied the bodies of Palestinians in a collective grave, relatives told CNN.

Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, on Monday called reports of the mass graves unearthed at Nasser hospital “extremely troubling.”

The post was updated with the response from the Israeli military.

Gaza’s Health Ministry has reported 32 more deaths due to Israeli military operations, bringing the total number of people killed since October 7 to 34,183 after 200 days of war.

The ministry does not distinguish between casualties among civilians and fighters.

Its counterpart in Ramallah said Tuesday that 72% of those killed in Gaza were children, women and the elderly.

It also reported that the number killed in the occupied West Bank over the past 200 days had reached 487, including 122 children under the age of 18.

Violence by Israeli settlers and troops in the occupied West Bank has surged during Israel’s war in Gaza.

The Government Media Office in Gaza estimated that 7,000 people in the territory were missing.

It said that, over the past 200 days, 14,778 children had been killed – as had 9,752 women. The Media Office also said that 17,000 children in Gaza had lost one or both parents.

The office issued estimates for the scale of destruction across Gaza, which included 86,000 homes destroyed and a further 294,000 partially destroyed and unfit for habitation. It also said that 103 schools and colleges had been destroyed and more than 300 damaged. 

CNN cannot independently confirm the numbers due to the lack of international media access to Gaza.

The community of one of the kibbutz in southern Israel that was attacked on October 7 has called on the Israeli government to do “everything” needed to release the hostages still held in Gaza.

Kibbutz Be’eri marked the Passover Seder at what has become known as Hostage Square in Tel Aviv.

“During the dark Saturday, we lost 100 of our members and friends, children and youth, and their loss leaves a huge hole in our community’s heart,” Kibbutz Be’eri member Noam Yitzhaki said at the event.

Yitzhaki said several kibbutz members were still being held hostage by Hamas.

“We’re calling from here upon decision makers — we have lost enough. Do everything, everything, necessary in order to bring back the freedom to those still held captive… This isn’t a political or strategic decision, but a moral call, which is why it can be taken now.”

Yitzhaki said the community would not be able to rebuild and heal until the hostages were released.

“Tonight we shall try to both remember that dark day, lay the foundations of the story we’ll tell to the next generations, and to also preserve parts of our tradition, from the life we had before.”

Dorit Or, the mother of hostage Dror Or, said that the community would continue to call attention to the hostages still in Gaza.

“Everyone has the freedom to live a life that’s full, safe and free with their families and communities,” she said.

The Israeli military and journalists in Gaza reported extensive strikes overnight in several parts of the territory.

The Israel Defense Forces said, “25 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip, including military infrastructure, observation posts, terrorists, launch posts” had been struck.

The IDF said its fighter jets completed “several airstrikes overnight on Hamas launch posts located in southern Gaza. ‏The launch posts were loaded, but were struck before any launches were carried out toward Israeli territory.”

In central Gaza, it “eliminated a number of terrorists using sniper fire.”

And an aircraft struck “several terrorists who hid adjacent to a civilian shelter in the area of Bureij” in central Gaza.

A journalist working for CNN in Gaza City said that Israeli tank and artillery fire had continued in the neighborhoods of Zeitoun, Shuja’iya and Tuffah overnight.

The journalist said an Israeli airstrike hit an area near Wadi Gaza in central Gaza, and two more airstrikes had targeted the area of the Bureij refugee camp.

The journalist also reported that Israeli artillery shelling targeted the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Israeli officials in Sderot – close to the border with Gaza – said that shrapnel from a rocket caused a fire at a warehouse. There were no casualties.

An independent review of the UN’s main relief agency in Gaza has found that “neutrality-related issues persist” among staff, and recommended strengthening UNRWA’s neutrality.

Israel has longstanding issues with UNRWA, accusing it of aiding Hamas and calling for it to be entirely dismantled.

The review, led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, was not tasked with addressing Israel’s accusation that some UNRWA staff had been directly involved in Hamas’ October 7 attacks, but noted that “Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence” for its allegations.

What the UN said: UN chief Antonio Guterres accepted the recommendations, while UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini welcomed the findings.

What Israel said: The review was not “genuine” or “thorough,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein claimed. “This is what an effort to avoid the problem and not address it head on looks like,” he said.

Here are the latest developments in the region:

The US State Department’s annual report on human rights raises sharp concerns about the conflict between Hamas and Israel in Gaza, citing allegations of war crimes.

The report noted that “human rights groups reported extensive and in many cases unprecedented conflict-related abuses and alleged the commission of war crimes by Israel, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and other Palestinian militant groups.”

Those abuses include the killings, torture, abductions and sexual violence carried out by Hamas, PIJ and others on October 7, according to the report, which covers the year 2023.

They also include “reports of systemic torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment of Palestinian detainees in prison facilities after October 7” and the forced disappearance of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza.

While the report does not represent the US government’s own conclusions, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in remarks Monday that “we have processes within the department that are looking at that incidents that have been raised.”

“Those processes are ongoing,” he said. “It’s important that we take the time to do our best to get the facts, to get the information, to do the analysis. It’s very challenging to do this in real time.”

Melanie Ward still remembers the terrified mother in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, in Deir al-Balah, who begged her to expose the plight of Palestinians trying to survive Israel’s bombardment in Gaza.  

“How do you tell a mother of a child in hospital that the problem isn’t that the world doesn’t know what’s being done to them? It’s that the world has no will to stop it,” Ward, the CEO for the relief group Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), told CNN by phone on Wednesday.  

Scores of displaced patients and their relatives covered the grounds of Al-Aqsa hospital, said Ward, who visited the medical facility in central Gaza earlier this month.

Ward described scenes of injured children screaming in pain and overwhelmed doctors struggling to prevent infections among wounded patients.

Israel’s severe aid restrictions have drained water and medical supplies, Ward added.  

“Sometimes there’s no running water on the wards… They’re having to remove them (external fixators; pins and rods needed for orthopedic surgery) from limbs of dead people and try to clean them and then re-use them.” 

Local staff displaced by Israel’s military offensive are facing the grief of relatives killed by bombardment, while others shelter in homes that Israeli missiles have partially destroyed, Ward told CNN.

Those in the north are struggling to find food, she said.    

“Everybody is traumatized and terrified,” Ward added. “Palestinian colleagues are just trying to survive like everybody else… They’re terrified about the future for their children. How do you recover from this?”  

An independent review of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has said the agency’s neutrality must be strengthened.

Earlier this year, Israel accused at least 12 UNRWA staffers of being involved in Hamas’ October 7 attacks and has alleged that about 12% of the agency’s 13,000 staffers are members of Hamas or other Palestinian militant groups.

The review, led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna and published Monday, was not tasked with addressing Israel’s allegations but had a broader mandate to “assess whether UNRWA is doing everything within its power to ensure neutrality.”

Despite UNRWA adopting a “robust framework” in 2017 to address issues of neutrality, the issues persist, the review said.

However, the report did note that “Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence” for their allegations that “a significant number of UNRWA employees are members of terrorist organizations.”

“They include instances of staff publicly expressing political views, host-country textbooks with problematic content being used in some UNRWA schools, and politicized staff unions making threats against UNRWA management and causing operational disruptions,” it said.

The review also found that “UNRWA’s facilities have sometimes been misused for political or military gains, undermining its neutrality.”

Israel’s response: “The Colonna report ignores the severity of the problem, and offers cosmetic solutions that do not deal with the enormous scope of Hamas’ infiltration of UNRWA,” Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Oren Marmorstein said, adding this is not what a “genuine and thorough review looks like. This is what an effort to avoid the problem and not address it head on looks like.”

Israel has longstanding issues with UNRWA, accusing it of aiding Hamas and calling for it to be entirely dismantled.

Efforts to reach two hospitals in northern Gaza over the weekend were only partly successful because of delays at checkpoints and ongoing fighting, according to Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization.

“On 20 April, WHO and partners could only partially complete their mission to Kamal Adwan and Al-Awda hospitals due to severe delays at checkpoints and ongoing hostilities,” Tedros wrote Monday.

As a result, he said “fuel and medical supplies did not reach Kamal Adwan, for the second time in the last 7 days, and partners were also unable to assess needs at Al-Awda to support restoration of services. This is further increasing the health risks of critical patients being treated there.”

The mission was nonetheless able to evacuate four critically sick patients from Kamal Adwan, along with their caretakers, including one at possible risk of having a leg amputated, he said.

“We again call for compliance with international humanitarian law, including access to health care and humanitarian aid for civilians in desperate need of help. Once again, we call for a ceasefire!”

Children desperately looking for food hold empty plates and saucepans in the streets and raw sewage spills in between rows of tents.

These are among the memories Melanie Ward has of Rafah, in southern Gaza, where more than 1 million people have been forced to flee Israel’s bombardment, according to the United Nations.

“Every morning you wake up to the sound of gunfire from battleships off the coast,” Ward, the CEO for the relief group Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), told CNN by phone on Wednesday. “You literally never know if something is about to hit you.” 

Di

placed Palestinians who have been uprooted from their homes and packed into the tiny area of land fear they will have nowhere to escape to ahead of an anticipated bloody Israeli ground offensive, said Ward, who visited Rafah earlier this month. 

Displaced Palestinians who have been uprooted from their homes and packed into the tiny area of land fear they will have nowhere to escape to ahead of an anticipated bloody Israeli ground offensive, said Ward, who visited Rafah earlier this month. 

“Where over a million people are supposed to go from Rafah, I do not know. It’s impossible to see.”  

A UN expert warned on Monday that the psychological terror of Israel’s offensive in Gaza could manifest years from now in the form of increased mental health illnesses among Palestinians there.

Ward told CNN that Gazans are “completely exhausted” by more than six months of persistent bombardment, displacement and siege.  

“You can see in people’s faces… They’re staring into the distance. They can’t focus properly on conversations. They are really depressed,” she added. “The people of Gaza are being destroyed.” 

A mass grave with nearly 300 bodies has been uncovered at a hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, Gaza Civil Defense workers said Monday, following the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the area earlier this month.

Col. Yamen Abu Suleiman, Director of Civil Defense in Khan Younis told CNN Monday that “today, 73 bodies were recovered” in the courtyard at the Nasser Medical Complex which brought the “total number to 283.”

Suleiman alleged that some of the bodies had been found with hands and feet tied, “and there were signs of field executions. We do not know if they were buried alive or executed. Most of the bodies are decomposed.”

A CNN stringer who visited the scene Sunday said people had buried the bodies of family members who had been killed on the grounds of the hospital in January as a temporary measure.

When they returned after the Israeli withdrawal, they found the bodies had been exhumed – apparently because the IDF was using DNA testing to determine whether any of the hostages held in Gaza were among the dead.

The bodies were then placed in at least one collective grave, the stringer said.

One man at the scene told CNN that he was yet to find the body of his 21-year-old son, who was killed in January.

“I haven’t found him yet. We had buried him over there. But we can’t find him. And we wanted to make him a decent grave.”

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The European Union’s foreign ministers have agreed to expand existing sanctions on Iran’s drone and missile program, the bloc’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said Monday.

Borrell said the new sanctions enlarge “the geographical area of this framework to cover drone and missile deliveries not only to Russia” but also Iran’s proxies in the region.

The sanctions will broaden the list of components blocked from being exported from the EU that are used to produce drones and missiles.

The EU’s decision comes after Iran’s recent unprecedented attack on Israel, which came after a suspected Israeli attack on an Iranian diplomatic complex in Syria earlier this month.

The US last week announced new sanctions on 16 people and two entities associated with Iran’s drone program.