Aid agencies are calling for a ceasefire in Gaza as doctors warn an Israeli blockade on fuel means many more vulnerable babies and wounded people in hospitals will soon die. One agency says at least 2,000 children in Gaza have been killed in the past few weeks.
Israel’s leadership has vowed to wipe out Hamas in response to its October 7 deadly terror attacks and kidnap rampage in which 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed and more than 200 taken hostage.
On Monday, Hamas freed two Israeli citizens – both elderly women – amid growing international pressure to secure the release of the rest of those abducted and taken to Gaza.
Inside Gaza, cut off from the world by a near total blockade, Israeli airstrikes have decimated entire neighborhoods, leveling homes, schools and mosques. CNN drone footage from Monday showed the level of destruction across parts of the strip, with whole streets flattened in the al-Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City and a row of destroyed buildings known as al-Zahra towers in central Gaza.
Save the Children said Monday that over 1 million children are “trapped” in Gaza with no safe place to go and warned of the devastating impacts of lacking medication and electricity to power vital health infrastructure in the enclave.
“At least 2,000 children have been killed in Gaza over the past 17 days, and a further 27 killed in the West Bank,” the aid agency said on Monday.
“We call on all parties to take immediate steps to protect the lives of children, and on the international community to support those efforts,” Save the Children said, adding that Israeli airstrikes are “killing and injuring children indiscriminately.”
Latest figures from the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said the death toll resulting from Israeli strikes on the strip has reached at least 5,087, including 2,055 children.
“The health system [in Gaza] has reached the worst stage in its history,” said health ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qudra in a statement early Tuesday.
Fuel means life in Gaza. Without fuel, water cannot be pumped or desalinated, generators that power hospitals – that keep incubators, ventilators and dialysis machines running and to sterilize surgical equipment – will fail.
Twelve hospitals and 32 medical centers are now out of service after Israeli strikes and fuel depletion, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza. Early Tuesday, the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza had no electricity due to the fuel shortage, Hamas said.
Despite the urgency, no fuel trucks have entered Gaza as part of a humanitarian aid convoy from Egypt’s Rafah border crossing over the weekend, according to Israeli and UN authorities.
Israel has repeatedly said fuel would be purloined by Hamas for its own war effort, including rocket attacks.
On Monday, Mark Regev, senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told CNN that Israel would not allow fuel into Gaza even if all hostages were released.
“At the moment we have no interest in more fuel going to the Hamas military machine and we have not authorized fuel, we have authorized medicine, we have authorized water. We’ve authorized foodstuffs, we’ve not authorized anything else,” Regev said.
“The government decision is that fuel doesn’t go in because it will be stolen by Hamas and it’ll be used by them to power rockets that are fired into Israel to kill our people.”
However, US State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said Monday that while the UN is “watching closely” for signs that Hamas is diverting humanitarian aid meant for civilians in Gaza, they have not reported any such signs to date.
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A baby receives care inside an incubator at a hospital in Rafah, Gaza on October 23.
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A view of buildings reduced to rubble and ruins by Israeli airstrikes are seen in Gaza on October 23.
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Mourners hold hands during the funeral of Sgt. Yam Goldstein and her father, Nadav, in Kibbutz Shefayim, Israel, on October 23.
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An Israeli soldier stands in an armoured vehicle near the Lebanon border on October 23.
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A Palestinian woman mourns over the body of a relative killed in an overnight Israeli airstrike in Rafah, Gaza, on Sunday, October 22.
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Pictures of over 1,000 people abducted, missing or killed in the Hamas attack are displayed on empty seats in the Smolarz Auditorium at Tel Aviv University in Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 22.
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Palestinians look for survivors after an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on October 22.
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Relatives mourn for a man killed by Hamas during his funeral in Nir Oz, Israel, on October 22.
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Injured civilians are recovered from the rubble of a destroyed house following Israeli air strikes near a UNRWA school housing displaced people in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Saturday, October 21.
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IDF soldiers clean the barrel of a tank in southern Israel on October 21.
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An aerial view of residential buildings destroyed in Israeli airstrikes in Zahra City, Gaza, on October 21.
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Relatives mourn for a family killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on October 21.
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Trucks carrying humanitarian aid enter Gaza from Egypt at the Rafah border crossing on October 21.
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Relatives of hostages speak to the media during the “Lighting up the Light” campaign for the return of those held captive, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 21.
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Palestinians inspect a destroyed area following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on October 21.
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Children use candles for lighting in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Friday, October 20.
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Muslim Palestinians take part in Friday noon prayers as Israeli police look on in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras al-Amud, on October 20.
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Women grieve at an event for the families of Israelis who are missing or being held hostage in Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 20.
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Civil defense teams and residents continue search and rescue efforts at a Greek Orthodox church after an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on October 20.
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A Palestinian woman mourns over the bodies of her relatives who were killed an Israeli airstrike that hit a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza City on October 20.
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Rockets are fired from Gaza toward Israel on Thursday, October 19.
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A man carries a wounded child at the site of an Israeli strike in Khan Younis, Gaza, on October 19.
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Friends and relatives of Ofir Libstein, who served as head of the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council and died during the Kibbutz Kfar Aza attack, mourn at his funeral in Even Yehuda, Israel, on Wednesday, October 18.
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A woman mourns over a dead man at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza City on October 18.
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A Palestinian man inspects a destroyed house belonging to the Al-Jazzar family after an airstrike in Rafah, Gaza, on October 18.
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Photographs of people taken hostage by Hamas are seen in Tel Aviv on October 18.
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People mourn a family during a funeral in Hod HaSharon, Israel, on October 18.
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Israeli security inspects debris from a rocket in Kiryat Shmona, Israel, on October 18.
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From left, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US President Joe Biden join Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials as they wait for the start of the Israeli war cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv on October 18.
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President Biden is greeted by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu after arriving at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv on October 18.
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Wounded Palestinians sit on the floor at the Al-Shifa Hospital after being transported from the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital following a blast there on Tuesday, October 17.
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Israeli security forces inspect a damaged residential building after it was hit by a rocket fired from Gaza in Sderot, Israel on October 17.
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A bakery prepares rations of bread to pass out to displaced Palestinians in the Rafah refugee camp, in southern Gaza, on October 17.
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People lay wreaths during a funeral for the Israeli Kutz family in Gan-Yavne, Israel on October 17. The family of five were murdered in their home by Palestinian militants who infiltrated the Israeli Kibbutz of Kfar Aza last week.
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Civil defense members and residents conduct search and rescue operations amid destroyed buildings after an Israeli attack in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Tuesday, October 17,
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Aid supplies are seen in North Sinai, Egypt on October 16.
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Street vendors work on a darkened street without power in Khan Younis, Gaza, on October 16.
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Palestinians wait to cross into Egypt at the Rafah border crossing in Gaza on October 16.
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People hold Israeli flags as friends and family mourn Dor Reder at his funeral in Beit Kama, southern Israel, on October 16.
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Palestinians carry a person wounded in Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Monday, October 16.
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People prepare to board a ship that will transport US nationals and their immediate family members from Haifa, Israel, to Cyprus on October 16.
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Mourners carry the body of a Palestinian youth during his funeral in Nablus, West Bank, on October 15.
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Israeli army soldiers patrol at an undisclosed position in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon on October 15.
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People carry children as they flee following an Israeli strike on Rafah in southern Gaza on Sunday, October 15.
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People react at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City on Saturday, October 14.
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Eli Albag cries over the photograph of his daughter Liri, as he gathers with others during a protest demanding the release of more than 100 Israelis who were abducted during last week’s Hamas attack, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 14.
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Leaflets dropped from Israeli army planes fall over Gaza City on Friday, October 13.
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An Israeli soldier looks inside a house that was overrun by Hamas militants in Be’eri, Israel, on October 13.
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Palestinians rescue a wounded man from the rubble of a destroyed building following an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, Gaza, on October 13.
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Israeli artillery fires on the Israel-Gaza border on October 13.
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Israelis take cover after hearing warning sirens of incoming rockets fired from Gaza in Rehovot, Israel, on October 13.
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Fire and smoke rise above buildings in Gaza City during an Israeli air strike on October 13.
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A Palestinian child is injured during bombing in Gaza on October 13.
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Palestinians flee from northern Gaza to the south after the Israeli army issued an evacuation warning to seek refuge in the south, on October 13.
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Mourners attend the funeral of Israeli soldier Abraham Cohen at the Mount Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem on Thursday, October 12.
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Israeli soldiers patrol near Kibbutz Be’eri, Israel, on October 12.
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Family members of Valentin Ghnassia react during his funeral ceremony at the Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem on October 12. Ghnassia was killed in a battle with Hamas militants in Be’eri, Israel.
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An Israeli soldier patrols near the Nova music festival grounds near Be’eri, Israel, on October 12.
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An Israeli military helicopter flies near the border between Gaza and Sderot, Israel, on October 12.
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Palestinians seek shelter in Khan Younis, Gaza, after a house next door was hit by an Israeli airstrike on October 12.
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A morgue worker arranges body bags at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on October 12.
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Smoke plumes billow during Israeli air strikes in Gaza City on October 12.
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A Palestinian woman covered in dust and dirt carries a child in Gaza City on October 12.
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An Israeli soldier walks by a house destroyed by Hamas militants in Kibbutz Be’eri on Wednesday, October 11.
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An Israeli army self-propelled howitzer fires rounds near the border with Gaza in southern Israel on October 11.
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People carry bodies of Palestinians killed during an Israeli airstrike prior to their burial in Khan Younis, Gaza, on October 11.
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An aerial view of buildings destroyed by Israeli airstrikes at the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza City on October 11.
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Mourners react beside the body of Mapal Adam during her funeral in Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 11.
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Palestinians run from Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis, Gaza, on October 11.
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Israeli soldiers load donated food into the back of a military vehicle in Sderot, Israel, on October 11.
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A mourner reacts while burying a child from the al-Agha family, who were killed in Israeli strikes in Khan Younis, Gaza, on October 11.
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A boy carries salvaged belongings from the wreckage of his family’s home in Khan Younis, Gaza, on October 11.
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Smoke rises after Israeli strikes on the seaport of Gaza City on Tuesday, October 10.
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Palestinians mourn during the funeral of a relative killed in an Israeli strike, in Gaza City on October 10.
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Israeli soldiers take position in Kfar Aza near the border with Gaza on October 10.
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Palestinians rescue a young girl from the rubble of a destroyed residential building following an Israeli airstrike on October 10.
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Stranded travelers wait to be booked on a flight at Ben Gurion International Airport outside Tel Aviv on October 10.
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Palestinians walk amid the rubble following Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City on October 10.
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Israelis in Ashkelon take cover in a shelter as a siren sounds a warning of incoming rockets on October 10.
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People gather around the bodies of two Palestinian reporters, Mohammed Soboh and Said al-Tawil, who were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on October 10.
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Israelis mourn as they attend the funeral of Israel Defense Forces soldier Noam Elimeleh Rothenberg at Mount Herzel Cemetery in Jerusalem, on October 10.
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A Palestinian man reacts as he carries the body of his cousin who was pulled from the rubble after Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City on Monday, October 9.
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A family takes shelter at a neighbor’s house after their home was damaged in an Israeli airstrike in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza on October 9.
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Children run for cover as bombs fall near the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on October 9.
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A photo from a wedding is seen on the ground of a building in Ashkelon that was hit by rockets from Gaza on October 9.
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People take shelter in Jerusalem on October 9.
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The ruins of the Yassin mosque are seen in the Shati refugee camp just outside Gaza City on October 9.
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Friends and relatives of Ilai Bar Sade mourn next to his grave during his funeral at a military cemetery in Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 9.
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Six-month-old Sama Alwadia is rescued from the rubble in Gaza City on October 9. Though the child had survived the initial strike, she died later while being treated for her injuries.
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Lightning strikes over Gaza City following an Israeli bombardment on October 9.
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Israeli soldiers take position near the border between Gaza and Israel on October 9.
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A Palestinian man mourns over the body of his nephew killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on October 9.
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Israeli security and emergency officials respond after a rocket landed in the Israeli settlement of Beitar Ilit, in the occupied West Bank, on October 9.
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Palestinians inspect the damage following an Israeli airstrike on the Sousi mosque in Gaza City on October 9.
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Israeli soldiers work on a tank at the border between Israel and Gaza on October 9.
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Palestinians remove a body from the rubble of a building after an Israeli airstrike on the Jebaliya refugee camp in Gaza on October 9.
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A plume of smoke rises in the sky over Gaza City during an Israeli airstrike on October 9.
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The mother of Israeli Col. Roi Levy cries during her son’s funeral at the Mount Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem on October 9.
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Palestinians inspect damage from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City’s Shati refugee camp on October 9.
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An injured Palestinian child is pictured in the aftermath of Israeli airstrikes at al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza on October 9.
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Israelis view a damaged residential building in Ashkelon after it was hit by a rocket fired from Gaza on October 9.
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Tali Touito reacts as she describes how Hamas gunmen attacked and took over the police station on her street, in Sderot, Israel, on Sunday, October 8.
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Fire and smoke rise from Gaza City following an Israeli airstrike on October 8.
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A relative of an Israeli missing since the attacks is overcome by emotion during a press conference in Ramat Gan, Israel, on October 8.
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Palestinians inspect a mosque destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis, Gaza, on October 8.
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An Israeli soldier prays standing in front of a tank on the outskirts of the northern town of Kiryat Shmona on October 8.
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Israelis inspect the rubble of a building in Tel Aviv on October 8, a day after it was hit by a rocket fired from Gaza.
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Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from Gaza on October 8.
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Palestinians search the rubble of a home in Khan Younis that was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes on October 8.
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Palestinian citizens inspect damage to their homes caused by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City on October 8.
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Rockets launched from Gaza are intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system on October 8.
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Palestinian children look toward the sky at the sound of airstrikes at a United Nations-run school in Gaza on Saturday, October 7.
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A woman runs to her family’s reinforced concrete shelter moments after rocket sirens sounded in Ashkelon on October 7.
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From the window of his family’s apartment, a man surveys damage from a rocket that struck a parking lot in Ashkelon on October 7.
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Palestinians gather around an Israeli army vehicle that Palestinian militants drove from Israel into Gaza on October 7.
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Palestinians break into the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border, after gunmen infiltrated parts of southern Israel on October 7.
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Police officers evacuate a woman and a child from a site hit by a rocket in Ashkelon on October 7.
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Israeli police take cover in Ashkelon as sirens wail while rockets are fired from Gaza into Israel on October 7.
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Smoke rises over Gaza during Israeli airstrikes on October 7.
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An Israeli woman reacts over the body of her relative who was killed in the southern Israeli city of Sderot on October 7.
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Children are seen in a damaged house in Gaza after Israeli airstrikes on October 7.
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Vehicles in Ashkelon burn as rockets are launched from Gaza on October 7.
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A man in Ashkelon runs after rockets were launched from Gaza on October 7.
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Israelis donate blood in Jerusalem on October 7.
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Palestinians inspect a destroyed building as emergency responders try to contain fires after Israeli jets bombed Gaza on October 7.
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Outside of a hospital in Gaza, men sit next to the covered body of a Palestinian militant killed during Saturday’s clashes.
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Relatives of Palestinians killed on Saturday, October 7, mourn at the morgue of a hospital in Gaza.
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An Israeli soldier stands by the bodies of Israelis killed by Palestinian militants in Sderot on October 7.
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A woman stands in a room damaged by rockets in Ashkelon on October 7.
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A building in Tel Aviv is ablaze Saturday, October 7, following rocket attacks from Gaza.
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Smoke rises as the clashes between Palestinian groups and Israeli forces continue on the streets of Beit Hanun in Gaza on October 7.
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People take cover in a bomb shelter in Rishon Lezion, Israel, as rockets are launched from Gaza on October 7.
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Rockets are fired toward Israel from Gaza on October 7.
In Gaza, outbreaks of smallpox, scabies, and diarrhea have emerged due to the deteriorating health environment, lack of sanitation, and consumption of water from unsafe sources, according to the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health based in the occupied West Bank.
Hospitals are nearing collapse, operating at more than 150% of their capacity and situations have become so dire that surgeries are being conducted without anesthesia, and in some cases, under the illumination of phone lights, the Palestinian Authority health ministry added.
Around 50,000 pregnant women are struggling to access health care, with about 166 unsafe births happening daily, and more than 5,000 women due to give birth in the next month, it said.
The Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City – the largest hospital in the enclave – has enough fuel to last a maximum of two days, according to senior surgeon Marwan Abusada on Monday.
Conditions in Al-Shifa are dire, with another doctor saying that without electricity, the hospital “will just be a mass grave” and “there’s nothing to do for these wounded.”
British-Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah told CNN overnight that the “system is disintegrating” and without a ceasefire and a proper humanitarian corridor, “there’s going to be an even larger catastrophe that the one that already exists here.”
The overwhelmed hospital has run out of burns dressings for the more than 100 patients in the facility with burns covering over 40% of their bodies, Abu-Sittah said. More than 150 patients on ventilators with critical injuries are relying on electricity to stay alive, he said.
Hospitals across Gaza are facing similar situations.
A neonatal doctor working in a hospital in southern Gaza told CNN Monday that premature babies relying on oxygen supplies will die if fuel is not urgently delivered into the enclave.
Hatem Edhair, head of Neonatal ICU at Nasser Medical Complex, said all non-emergency facilities have been turned off, as well as lights and air conditioning.
He said 11 babies – most weighing under 1.5 kilograms – are in his neonatal intensive care unit, with admission rates rising as residents from northern Gaza flee south.
Twenty more trucks carrying vital relief aid crossed into Gaza Monday, but aid agencies warn that the current rate of delivery will do little to address the needs of more than 2 million people living in the enclave.
The territory normally receives 455 aid trucks per day, according to the United Nations. That means that with the weekend deliveries, Gaza is more than 7,200 truckloads of aid short of what would normally have been received between October 7 and October 22, CNN calculations suggest.
That’s half of 1% – or one two-hundredth – of the amount of aid it ordinarily receives.
Family members welcomed the release of two elderly hostages from Hamas custody Monday, while relatives of the hundreds of others captives in unknown conditions in Gaza face an agonizing wait for news of loves ones being held at gunpoint.
Israeli citizens Nurit Cooper, 79, and Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, were released following Qatari and Egyptian mediation, according to two Israeli officials and two other sources briefed on the matter.
The women were abducted from their homes in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, a statement from Israel’s prime minister’s office said. Their spouses – Cooper’s 85-year-old husband Amiram and Lifshitz’s 83-year-old husband Oded – were kidnapped alongside them and are still held by Hamas, it added.
Around a quarter of residents from Nir Oz were killed or taken hostage in Hamas’ onslaught.
Their release follows that of two American hostages, Judith Tai Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter, Natalie Raanan, who were freed on Friday.
Speaking to CNN Tuesday, a grandson of Lifshitz said she “can hug her grandchildren.”
“She is talking, she can walk, she can hug her grandchildren, which we are very happy from that,” Daniel Lifshitz said after meeting his grandmother in Tel Aviv.
Asked about the fate of his grandfather held by Hamas, Lifshitz said, “now my grandmother is back but still now I’m more afraid about my grandfather that he’s still there, and still no men being released.”
On Monday, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby rebutted calls for a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza, telling CNN that Hamas must first release hostages.
“We don’t believe that this is the time for a ceasefire. Israel has a right to defend themselves. They still have work to do to go after Hamas leadership, we’re going to keep supporting them or giving them more security assistance,” Kirby said.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
David Turner is a globe-trotting journalist who brings a global perspective to our readers. With a commitment to shedding light on international events, he explores complex geopolitical issues, offering a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
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