October 9, 2023 - Israel-Hamas war news

Our live coverage of the conflict in Israel and Gaza has moved here.

An Israel Defense Force (IDF) officer has died after being injured in an "encounter" with militants near the northern border with Lebanon, Israeli hospital officials said.

The 40-year-old officer from the northern Yanoach-Jat district was brought to the hospital in critical condition, the Galilee Medical Center said in a statement.

"He was rushed into the operating room and the doctors fought for his life, but unfortunately they had to pronounce him dead," the statement said. 

The IDF said the officer died after militants had infiltrated from Lebanon into Israeli territory. 

It comes after Hezbollah, an Iran-backed group that is considered a terrorist organization by the US and much of the West, on Monday said three of its members died during an Israeli air raid in southern Lebanon.

The IDF later said there were "a number of launches from Lebanese territory into Israeli territory."

Israeli authorities believe up to 150 hostages are being held in Gaza as it lays siege to the enclave in an effort to "obliterate Hamas terrorist capabilities," Israel's ambassador to the United Nations said late Monday.

Speaking to CNN's Kaitlan Collins, Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan said while authorities hoped those held captive would return home safely, their situation would not "prevent us from doing what we need to do in order to secure the future of Israel."

"We have an unprecedented number of hostages," Erdan said, estimating the number was between 100 and 150.
"We expect the Red Cross, we expect all international organizations to focus on these hostages and how they are treated and that they receive treatment according to international law, but it's not going to stop us, prevent us from doing what we need to do in order to secure the future of Israel."

Hamas has said civilian hostages would be executed and the killings broadcast if Israel targets people in Gaza without warning. The group claims to be holding more than 100 hostages, including Israeli army officers.

Erdan, the Israeli ambassador, told CNN Monday "we cannot restore security for the citizens of Israel if Hamas continues with its military buildup."

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are committed to ensuring Hamas "doesn't have any military capabilities" by the end of the war, Lt Col. Jonathan Conricus, IDF international spokesperson, told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Monday. 

There have been attempts by Hamas militants to breach the southern border for suicide missions to kill civilians and soldiers, Conricus said, as fighting between Israel and Hamas intensifies.

And in response, the IDF has saturated the southern border with troops and continued conducting air strikes while working to rebuild their defense systems, Conricus said. 

"The issue here is that we have been tasked with mitigating or making sure that Hamas doesn't have any military capabilities at the end of the war. And that will be achieved," Conricus explained. 
"What happens on the way and how we implement that task will be seen. But at this stage, we continue to strike from the air. And there are plans to, of course, expand that. And the troops, the reserves, and the regular units that are amassing along the southern border are readying for their tasks," he said.

 

Two local journalists were killed and another injured in an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in the western part of the Gaza Strip, according to a statement by the Hamas-controlled Government Media Office.      

Journalists Saed Al-Taweel and Mohammed Sabah were killed in the airstrike while they were covering the evacuation of a threatened building. Another journalist who was with them, Hisham Al-Nawajha, was injured and is currently receiving treatment, according to a written statement sent to CNN by Salama Marouf, the head of the media office.   

The office said both Al-Taweel and Sabah were clearly identifiable as press members. They were wearing safety gear and distinctive journalist markings, which the office said should have been easily discernible to the aircraft.

"Hours earlier, we had cautioned about the occupation's aggressive intentions towards journalists and media entities, especially after several media headquarters were alerted to evacuate. This appears to be an attempt to muffle the truths they report," the statement said.

The Israel Defense Forces told CNN it was looking into the report and added: “We will let you know when we have information regarding this matter.”

A video viewed by CNN shows Sabah's body on a stretcher, clad in a blue bulletproof vest labeled "press" and surrounded by other journalists.

Eran Litman said that his daughter was trying to escape the attack by Hamas militants in Israel on Saturday morning — but that was the last time he heard from her. Now, her family is searching for any information about what happened to her as hundreds of Israelis have been killed and thousands of others wounded in the attack.

The spelling of Litman's daughter's name was not immediately available.

Litman said she was in contact with him while she was trying to escape the fighting in a car. Soon, she told him she was hearing gunshots.

She was with her brother who later died in her arms, Litman said.

He told her to run and hide just before they lost connection, but that was the last time they heard from her. Litman said the family does not know if she is hurt, hiding or was killed.

After communication was cut off, Yahali Ricardo has been searching for her sister.

���I just need to hold her. I really need to see her,” Ricardo said.

Ricardo said she has called several hospitals and went to a place where bodies were being transported to see if she could identify her sister.

"When I arrived there there were eight more trucks filled with bodies and I asked them, let me search for her because I am calling and asking people where is my sister and nobody can give me answers,” she said.

Ricardo said she feels helpless trying to get information about what happened, but she won’t give up.

“There is nobody that I can talk to because everywhere I go they block me. Literally blocking me to go inside, literally stopping me to search for my own sister,” she said.

Ricardo described her as someone who was “very bright, very smart.”

"I cannot describe the pain I feel because I don't even want to connect to my own emotions because I know that I will fall apart. It's like a part of my own body is missing," Ricardo said.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said late Monday its emergency shelters in Gaza are at 90% capacity with more than 137,000 people taking cover from Israeli strikes.

The agency said 83 UNRWA schools have been turned into shelters.

It said that one UN school housing displaced families was "directly hit," without giving further details. It's unknown how many people were in the shelter at the time of the attack.

UNRWA also said they had been forced to close all 14 food distribution centers, writing in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that "as a result half a million people have stopped receiving vital food aid."

Israel has launched retaliatory strikes in Gaza after Hamas' surprise attack over the weekend, with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday ordering a “complete siege” of Gaza.

More than 680 Palestinians have died and more than 3,700 were injured, according to Gaza's health ministry. 

Some context: The Gaza Strip has been almost completely cut off from the rest of the world for nearly 17 years.

Governed by Hamas since 2007, the enclave is under strict siege by Egypt and Israel, which also maintains an air and naval blockade. It has been described by Human Rights Watch as the “world’s largest open-air prison.”

Gazans have seen Israeli strikes ravage the strip on several occasions since Israeli forces withdrew from the territory in 2005. Fighting regularly takes place between Israel and Palestinian factions in Gaza, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Warning: This post contains graphic descriptions of violence.

Dash camera videos obtained by CNN appear to show what happened when Hamas militants arrived near the site of a music festival where more than 260 people were killed over the weekend.

At about 7:39 a.m. local time on Saturday, according to the car's dash camera, an unknown driver was traveling northward on a highway just outside of Re'im, Israel, near the Nova Festival grounds. An armed man standing in the street starts shooting at the car.

The video, which has no audio, shows the car as it continues to slowly move up the road and bullets are fired into the vehicle. Its windshield shows some of the strikes. 

The video shows at least 10 more fighters open fire on the vehicle until it finally stops, crashing into another car. It's not known what happened to the people inside. 

A second video — another dash camera from a parked car just up the road — shows more militants near a bus stop and bomb shelter. Militants surrounded a bomb shelter and were screaming at a shirtless man standing outside it. This incident happened at 7:56 a.m. local time, according to the video.

It's unclear what is being said, but the man squats on the ground and they begin kicking him. It's also not known what happened to the man.

The video then shows a militant throwing a grenade into the bomb shelter. Another man runs out, trying to escape the explosion. 

He runs out of frame, but the militants immediately fix their guns on him and begin firing. His fate is also unknown.

CNN visited that bomb shelter today. Its interior was covered in blood. 

Alexandre Look was enjoying the outdoor music festival near the Gaza border Saturday when Hamas militants began killing scores of people.

Look’s parents, Raquel Ohnona Look and Alain Haim Look, told CNN news partner CBC that they were on the phone with the 33-year-old as he tried to escape the gunfire. Look and other festival-goers sought shelter in a bunker without a door, his parents said.

"And then I heard him tell his friends, 'They're coming back. There's a lot of them.' And then all I heard was a lot of gunshots, lots of rounds and then we heard nothing," Raquel Ohnona Look told CBC.

CBC reported that one woman who survived the attack messaged the parents to say she saw the son’s body and another said he prevented others from being killed. 

"He was our shield. I swear to you, he was our shield. If it wasn't for him, all 30 of us in there would be dead," a woman in the video, which was reviewed by CBC, told the parents.

CNN news partner CTV reported that Global Affairs Canada was aware of reports that one Canadian had died and two were missing. CNN reached out to the department, which handles Canada's diplomatic and consular relations, and has not heard back.

 “Like a true warrior, he left as a hero wanting to protect the people he was with. Alex was a force of nature, endowed with a unique charisma and unparalleled generosity,” his father, Alain Haim Look, posted on Facebook on Saturday. “The world will never be the same without you. Goodbye my son, I love you and watch over us from above.”

 Quebec Premier François Legault on Monday sent his condolences to the family.

 “My thoughts are with the family and loved ones of Quebecer Alexandre Look who lost his life in one of the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel,” Legault posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I am saddened by the dramatic circumstances of his death, he who was only 33 years old.”

Israeli officials have said at least 260 bodies were discovered after the massacre at the music festival.