October 15, 2023 Israel-Hamas war news

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

Desperate residents hoping to exit Gaza via the Rafah crossing may receive "very little notice" if it opens, the US Embassy in Israel warned on Monday.

The Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt is the only remaining outlet to get people out of the enclave and supplies into it, but it has been closed for much of the past week.

“It is unclear whether, or for how long, travelers will be permitted to transit the crossing. If you assess it to be safe, you may wish to move closer to the Rafah border crossing,” the embassy said, adding there may be “very little notice if the crossing opens and it may only open for a limited time.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that "Rafah will be open" after meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

About half a million people have left northern Gaza for the south following Israel's evacuation notice on Friday, an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said Sunday.

The estimate represents roughly half the population of northern Gaza, where the IDF is gearing up for the next stages of its war with Hamas, which runs the territory.

“The estimates — and I emphasize these are estimates and it is difficult to track — but we are looking at approximately half a million [people],” IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told CNN's Anderson Cooper.

The evacuation advisory came after Israel imposed a complete siege on Gaza. The IDF said Saturday it would allow safe movement on specified streets for residents to move from the northern city of Beit Hanoun to Khan Yunis in the south — a roughly 20-mile distance of rubble-strewn streets.

Southern Gaza is struggling to accommodate the influx of people. Shelters are overloaded and the area is experiencing shortages of food, water and fuel.

Conricus said Israel has “opened taps” on its side to allow water to enter southern Gaza, but said he "doesn't have visibility on exactly how much is actually flowing where it should."

Shelters in southern Gaza are overloaded, with shortages of crucial supplies, as tens of thousands of people flee from Israeli airstrikes on the north of the coastal enclave, a UN official said Sunday.

"We are at a very limited capacity in the south," Lynn Hastings, the UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said on UNTV. "There aren’t shelters available in the south in terms of the numbers that are coming."

Southern Gaza is also experiencing shortages of food, water and fuel, she said.

"There’s some food in distribution sites, but we can't get to them because of the bombardment," Hastings said.

The fuel scarcity has widespread ramifications for the area.

"No fuel means no desalination," Hastings said. "Gaza is heavily reliant on desalination. No fuel also means no health care because you need electricity to run hospitals."

On Sunday, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations told CNN water has been turned back on in southern Gaza, but he didn't say if electricity was on for desalination.

Israel "has no interest" in occupying Gaza but will do "whatever is needed" to eliminate Hamas, the country's ambassador to the United Nations said Sunday.

His remarks come after US President Joe Biden warned Israel against occupying the coastal enclave as it signals it is preparing for a ground invasion amid a spiraling humanitarian crisis.

"We have no interest to occupy Gaza or to stay in Gaza, but since we are fighting for our survival and the only way, as the president [Biden] himself defined is to obliterate Hamas, so we will have to do whatever is needed to obliterate their capabilities," Israel's ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan told CNN's Kaitlan Collins.

In an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday, Biden said it would be a “big mistake” for Israel to occupy Gaza.His comments amount to one of the few times the US president has called on Israel to use restraint in responding to the Hamas attacks that left 1,400 dead.

Michael Herzog, the Israeli ambassador to the US, told CNN on Sunday that Israel does not intend to occupy Gaza after the conflict ends.

“We have no desire to occupy or reoccupy Gaza. We have no desire to rule over the lives of more than 2 million Palestinians,” Herzog said.

Biden meanwhile, has called for the protection of civilians as the US has been working to alleviate shortages of food, water and gas.

Erdan said water has been turned back on in southern Gaza, but he didn't say if electricity was on for desalination.

Large-scale demonstrations in support of Palestinians took place around Europe this weekend as conditions in Gaza deteriorated with tens of thousands of residents attempting to flee Israeli airstrikes.

As the conflict reaches unprecedented heights, protests in support of both Israelis and Palestinians have been seen around the world — some resulting in violent clashes.

Here's a roundup:

• In Amsterdam, about 15,000 people attended a pro-Palestinian march Sunday, according to police. One person was arrested for displaying the Hamas flag, while two others were held for covering their faces and threatening police officers, police said.
• In London on Saturday, more than 1,000 police officers were deployed as thousands of protesters marched from the BBC’s headquarters to Downing Street. Red paint was splattered across the British public broadcaster’s main entrance in protest against its coverage of the conflict, the BBC said.
• In Switzerland, a crowd of about 6,000 rallied in Geneva on Saturday, while around 500 gathered in Bern, to denounce what they called “the apartheid policy pursued by the Israeli government, the impunity enjoyed by the Jewish state and the blockade to which the population of the Gaza Strip is subjected,” according to Swiss public broadcaster RTS.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday reiterated Beijing’s support for an independent Palestinian state as a way out of the conflict in Israel and Gaza.

In a phone call with his Iranian counterpart, Wang presented China as a peace broker, saying Beijing would “stand on the side of peace and justice and to support the Palestinian people in their just cause of safeguarding their national rights.”

“The fundamental reason for the situation in Palestine and Israel to have developed to the present stage is that the Palestinian people's right to statehood has long been put on hold”, Wang told Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, according to a readout from China’s Foreign Ministry.

"This historical injustice should be brought to an end as soon as possible," he said.

In a separate call with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Wang called for a ceasefire, the opening of humanitarian aid routes to Gaza and the resumption of dialogue between Israel and Palestinian authorities.

Without mentioning Israel, he said, “the right to self-defence should be exercised in compliance with international humanitarian law and not at the expense of innocent civilian casualties,” according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry readout.

Some context: China has long supported a "two-state solution" to establish an independent Palestinian state. Both Israel and the United States have expressed strong dissatisfaction to China for not strongly condemning Hamas’ deadly and brutal attacks against Israelis on October 7, and for not showing support to Israel following the massacre.

Hospitals in Gaza are under constant bombardment and facing imminent shutdown due to a lack of fuel, a Palestinian humanitarian official said Sunday.

Speaking to CNN’s Erin Burnett from Ramallah in the West Bank, Palestinian Red Crescent Director General Marwan Jilani said food, water, medicine, and fuel are in critically short supply.

He said hospitals in the coastal enclave have only enough fuel for Monday, and perhaps the day after. They cannot operate without fuel, he said.

Jilani called for a ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza from the Rafah crossing. He said Israel and Egypt were ready to facilitate aid delivery, contingent upon a cessation of hostilities. 

Some context: The Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, the only remaining outlet for aid, has been closed for much of the past week, with tons of vital humanitarian supplies for people in Gaza piling up on the Egyptian side of the border.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that "Rafah will be open" after meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday warned of the risk of a wider regional conflict in the Middle East as Israel pounds Gaza with airstrikes in response to Hamas' unprecedented surprise attacks.

“There is a risk of an escalation of this conflict, the opening of a second front in the north, and of course of Iran’s involvement — that is a risk. And that’s a risk that we have been mindful of since the start," Sullivan said Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation."
"It’s why the President moves so rapidly and decisively to get an aircraft carrier into the eastern Mediterranean, to get aircraft into the Gulf, because he wants to send a very clear message of deterrence to any state or any actor that would seek to exploit this situation."

The Pentagon has ordered a second carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean Sea and is sending Air Force fighter jets to the region as Israel prepares to expand its Gaza operations, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement Saturday.

The US warships are not intended to join the fighting in Gaza or take part in Israel’s operations, but the presence of two of the Navy’s most powerful vessels is designed to send a message of deterrence to Iran and Iranian proxies in the region, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Some more context: If Hezbollah joins the conflict, it could provide the next flashpoint that would entangle bigger regional powers such as Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Israel has long accused Iran of engaging in a form of proxy war by backing groups — including Hamas — that have launched attacks on its shores. Iran has denied any involvement in the October 7 attacks.

US President Joe Biden on Sunday said there’s "no clear evidence" of Iran being behind the attacks.