There's a glimmer of hope for civilian relief in Gaza. Here's what you should know
From CNN staff
Egypt and Israel have signaled readiness for aid to begin moving into Gaza, following a high-profile visit to Israel by US President Joe Biden.
The glimmer of hope for civilian relief in Gaza comes after Tuesday's devastating hospital blast in the enclave that likely killed hundreds and infuriated the region.
Here's what you need to know:
Gaza aid: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has agreed to open the Rafah crossing into Gaza to humanitarian aid, Biden said following a phone call between the two leaders. Sisi has blamed Israeli shelling for preventing the vital facility from reopening. But there is "no update on if and when" the Rafah crossing will open for the passage of humanitarian aid, the UN Secretary General's deputy spokesperson said. Meanwhile, the Israeli prime minister’s office said Israel will not block humanitarian aid into Gaza through Rafah, but will also not allow supplies to the enclave from its own territory until Hamas releases all hostages.
Hospital blast: The top Democrat and Republican on the US Senate's Select Committee on Intelligence said they are "confident" that Tuesday's blast at a Gaza hospital was caused by a failed rocket launch by "militant terrorists" — not an Israeli airstrike. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson provided additional details about the US assessment, pointing to intelligence indicating that Palestinian militants in Gaza themselves believed the blast was caused by an errant rocket launch by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Israeli officials have released audio of what they say is Hamas militants discussing the blast and attributing it to a rocket launched by the rival Islamist group.
Lebanon border clashes: Israel is striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement early Thursday. Hezbollah conducted six attacks on Israeli military posts along the Lebanese border on Wednesday using guided missiles, machine guns and 57-mm mortars, the militant group said. Clashes this month between Israeli forces and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants have raised fears of a wider regional conflict.
Biden visit: The US presidentsaid he knew he was risking criticism by traveling to Israel, but he "came to get something done." Biden said he was "very blunt" with Israeli leaders during meetings on Wednesday — and that he laid out the expectation they would be "held accountable" if they didn’t allow for more assistance for people displaced by the conflict. Biden also said he received "no pushback" from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he raised humanitarian issues. Biden wouldn’t go into details about attempts to get Americans and other civilians out of Gaza, but assured "we're going to get people out."
International input: Biden plans to make a direct appeal to the American people to continue funding wars in Ukraine and Israel in an Oval Office address Thursday, according to two administration officials. The primetime address will take place on the eve of the White House requesting north of $100 billion from Congress to deliver aid and resources to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and the US border with Mexico. Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is expected to arrive in Israel early Thursday, in what is set to be his first stop in a two-day trip to the Middle East.
8 min ago
Biden to make case for US funding of wars in Israel and Ukraine in Oval Office address
From CNN's Kayla Tausche
Joe Biden delivers remarks in Tel Aviv on October 18. Evan Vucci/AP
President Joe Biden plans to argue the US should continue funding wars in both Israel and Ukraine during an Oval Office address Thursday, according to two administration officials.
The primetime address will take place the eve of the White House requesting north of $100 billion from Congress to deliver aid and resources to Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan and the US border with Mexico. Biden is expected to make the argument that supporting Israel and Ukraine is a matter of US national security at a time when the world is at an inflection point.
“He’s going to make the case that the cost of inaction and the cost of walking away is much higher,” according to one official.
Public opinion has been mixed on the conflicts. In a recent CNN poll, nearly all respondents were sympathetic with the Israeli people in the wake of surprise attacks launched by Hamas, but there was no clear consensus on the right level of US involvement. One-third (35%) said the US is providing the right amount of assistance — and another 36% were unsure whether the level of US assistance is appropriate. The US has long provided security assistance with Israel, which receives roughly $4 billion annually under a 10-year memorandum of understanding. The new request would provide billions more.
By contrast, support to sustain aid to Ukraine has waned significantly. An August CNN poll found 55% of respondents said Congress should not pass more funding to aid Ukraine. The partisan divide has been deepening, too: Nearly three-quarters of Republicans opposed more funding for Ukraine, while 62% of Democrats supported it.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the White House and Congress have provided more than $75 billion in funding to Kyiv, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
The Biden administration in August delivered its last so-called supplemental funding request, which encapsulates unique requests beyond traditional government programs. The proposal requested $24.1 billion to aid Ukraine through the end of the year, but Congress failed to approve it during a process to greenlight short-term federal funding.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen pledged to European leaders that the US would be able to secure support for additional aid and, in an interview with Sky News, said Washington could afford financing two wars at once.
“American(s) can certainly afford to stand with Israel and to support Israel’s military needs, and we also can and must support Ukraine in its struggle against Russia," Yellen said.
6 min ago
IDF releases drone video it says shows hospital blast scene
From CNN staff
The video released by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) shows the scene at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza a day after the deadly blast. IDF
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Wednesday released drone video recorded over the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza a day after the deadly blast.
The IDF claimed in text accompanying the short video that "the damage from the failed rocket launch of the Islamic Jihad is in the parking lot nearby and is not similar to a crater resulting from a strike." "In addition, the buildings around the hospital were not damaged. This is further proof that the IDF did not strike this area," the military said.
During the video an Israeli drone operator can be heard describing in Hebrew the layout of hospital buildings.
"This here, there is nothing here," the drone operator says, according to a CNN translation.
Gaza officials have blamed Israel for the blast, which the Palestinian Ministry of Health says killed hundreds of civilians.
But the IDF rejected the allegation, claiming the blast was caused by a "failed rocket launch" by Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants.
CNN cannot independently confirm what caused the explosion.
2 hr 45 min ago
In call with Biden, Egypt's leader agrees to let aid into Gaza in "sustainable manner"
From CNN's Sharon Braithwaite and journalist Magdy Samaan
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and US President Joe Biden discussed in a phone call Wednesday ways to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, the Egyptian Presidency said in a statement.
The talks between the two leaders focused "on the humanitarian situation in Gaza and ways to facilitate the implementation of humanitarian aid," according to the statement.
"The call between President el-Sisi and the American president witnessed the agreement to enter humanitarian aid to the Strip through Rafah crossing in a sustainable manner," the statement said.
Egypt's statement said officials in the two nations are coordinating with international humanitarian organizations — supervised by the United Nations — to deliver aid.
"Biden expresses his thanks and appreciation for the efforts of the Egyptian leadership towards achieving peace and stability in the region," the Egyptian statement said.
The road into Gaza had to be fixed and potholes filled before the trucks could pass, Biden said. He said it would take about eight hours on Thursday to get the work done, and he expected the trucks to be rolling Friday.
The crossing would open only to get aid in, Biden said, not for evacuations.
How volunteer guards foiled a carefully planned Hamas attack on the kibbutz of Mefalsim
From CNN’s Casey Tolan, Matthew Chance, Florence Davey-Attlee, Scott Glover and Curt Devine
Israeli forces patrol areas along the Israeli-Gaza border on October 10. Ilia Yefimovich/picture alliance/dpa/Getty Images/File
When Hamas militants broke through the Gaza fence in this month’s unprecedented attack on Israel, the kibbutz of Mefalsim — less than 2 miles from the border — was on the front lines. Toting AK-47 rifles and grenade launchers, one group of militants headed straight for the community’s gates, while another group moved to destroy its generator, according to security videos and local residents.
That precision, local Israeli security personnel say, was no accident: The fighters seemed to have known exactly where they were headed.
CNN has reviewed documents that Israeli officials say were Hamas attack plans, which suggest the group collected remarkably granular detail on its targets. But neither of the attacks went according to plan — thanks in part to a handful of volunteer guards who defended their neighbors in dramatic firefights.
Photos of the plan to attack Mefalsim were posted online by an Israeli first responder group, which said it was recovered from the body of a slain Hamas fighter. Two local Israeli security personnel told CNN they independently saw photos of the plan, and it closely matched the Hamas fighters’ tactics during the attack.
The color-coded document includes detailed information about the kibbutz’s guards and security. It says that one group of militants would break through the community’s fence, while others were ordered to “capture soldiers and civilians and to keep hostages” for negotiation.
Yarden Reskin, a member of Mefalsim’s volunteer security force who spent hours exchanging fire with militants — helping prevent any deaths inside the community — said he was shocked by the level of detail.
“They knew everything,” Reskin said. “They knew where are the gates, they knew where are the generators, they knew where is the armory, they knew basically how many of us on the security team… they had very, very good intel.”
Israel is striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, IDF says
From CNN's Hadas Gold and Sarah El Sirgany
Israel is striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement early Thursday.
A CNN crew in southern Lebanon heard explosions around this time.
Clashes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah at the Lebanon border this month have raised fears of a wider regional conflict.
Hezbollah — an Iran-backed armed group that is also a regional force in its own right — dominates south Lebanon. It also operates alongside Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria, where the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights separates Israel from Tehran-aligned fighters.
On Wednesday, Hezbollah said it had conducted several attacks on Israeli military posts along the Israel-Lebanon border.
The IDF said they would provide more details on Thursday's strikes.
3 hr 12 min ago
Here's how the Gaza hospital explosion set off a furious scramble before Biden's trip to Israel
From MJ Lee, Kayla Tausche and Natasha Bertrand
A deadly blast at a hospital in Gaza hours before President Joe Biden was set to leave the White House for the Middle East set off a furious scramble inside his administration as the president's advisers tried to ascertain who was responsible as street protests against Israel started raging across the Arab world.
Hours later, the president and his national security team were not confident enough to draw a final determination absolving Israel of responsibility. But the initial information they evaluated strongly suggested the Israelis were not behind the strike, serving as a green light for Biden's motorcade to roll out to Joint Base Andrews late Tuesday afternoon, sources familiar with the internal deliberation told CNN.
Had the early evidence examined by the president's team pointed in the other direction, the White House would have been more inclined to reconsider the trip. But advisers were sensitive about reversing course mere hours after the trip was announced by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and in the end, they never came close to canceling the altogether, sources said.
"He had no choice. Once he decided to do it, he wouldn't cancel it," one source said, describing what was understood to be an extraordinarily high bar for canceling Biden's visit, which only included a stop in Tel Aviv after Arab leaders canceled a planned summit with Biden in Amman, Jordan, in response to the hospital explosion.
Situation in Gaza is spiraling "out of control," WHO chief says
From CNN’s Akanksha Sharma
The situation in Gaza is spiraling “out of control,” World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on Wednesday.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Tedros said WHO supplies have been stuck at the border for four days, adding “every second we wait to get medical aid in, we lose lives.”
He called for the “violence on all sides to stop” and immediate access to “start delivering life-saving supplies” to Gaza.
Some context: On Saturday, Tedros had said that a plane with WHO medical supplies arrived in Egypt close to the Rafah crossing into Gaza.
With Gaza’s sole power plant running out of fuel last week, seawater desalination plants have been shut off, and drinking water is running out for hundreds of thousands of civilians.
Hospitals are facing shortages of medical supplies and, in some cases, have been forced to use makeshift morgues out of ice cream trucks to manage overflow.
2 hr 52 min ago
Biden will deliver a primetime speech Thursday about wars in Israel and Ukraine, White House says
From CNN's Nikki Carvajal
US President Joe Biden will deliver a primetime address from the Oval Office today about his country's "response to Hamas’ terrorist attacks against Israel and Russia’s ongoing brutal war against Ukraine,” the White House announced Wednesday.
The speech will be delivered at 8 p.m. ET from the Oval Office, the White House said.
The US assesses that Israel is "not responsible" for Tuesday's deadly blast at a Gaza hospital that likely killed hundreds and enraged the region.Israel said the explosion was caused by an Islamic Jihad rocket, while Palestinian officials blamed Israel.
Nearly 3,500 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials. WHO said conditions are "spiraling out of control" for millions trapped in the enclave.
Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza, in response to the October 7 terrorist attacks that killed 1,400 people.
Egypt and Israel have signaled readiness for aid to begin moving into Gaza, following a high-profile visit to Israel by US President Joe Biden.
The glimmer of hope for civilian relief in Gaza comes after Tuesday's devastating hospital blast in the enclave that likely killed hundreds and infuriated the region.
Here's what you need to know:
Gaza aid: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has agreed to open the Rafah crossing into Gaza to humanitarian aid, Biden said following a phone call between the two leaders. Sisi has blamed Israeli shelling for preventing the vital facility from reopening. But there is "no update on if and when" the Rafah crossing will open for the passage of humanitarian aid, the UN Secretary General's deputy spokesperson said. Meanwhile, the Israeli prime minister’s office said Israel will not block humanitarian aid into Gaza through Rafah, but will also not allow supplies to the enclave from its own territory until Hamas releases all hostages.
Hospital blast: The top Democrat and Republican on the US Senate's Select Committee on Intelligence said they are "confident" that Tuesday's blast at a Gaza hospital was caused by a failed rocket launch by "militant terrorists" — not an Israeli airstrike. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson provided additional details about the US assessment, pointing to intelligence indicating that Palestinian militants in Gaza themselves believed the blast was caused by an errant rocket launch by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Israeli officials have released audio of what they say is Hamas militants discussing the blast and attributing it to a rocket launched by the rival Islamist group.
Lebanon border clashes: Israel is striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement early Thursday. Hezbollah conducted six attacks on Israeli military posts along the Lebanese border on Wednesday using guided missiles, machine guns and 57-mm mortars, the militant group said. Clashes this month between Israeli forces and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants have raised fears of a wider regional conflict.
Biden visit: The US presidentsaid he knew he was risking criticism by traveling to Israel, but he "came to get something done." Biden said he was "very blunt" with Israeli leaders during meetings on Wednesday — and that he laid out the expectation they would be "held accountable" if they didn’t allow for more assistance for people displaced by the conflict. Biden also said he received "no pushback" from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he raised humanitarian issues. Biden wouldn’t go into details about attempts to get Americans and other civilians out of Gaza, but assured "we're going to get people out."
International input: Biden plans to make a direct appeal to the American people to continue funding wars in Ukraine and Israel in an Oval Office address Thursday, according to two administration officials. The primetime address will take place on the eve of the White House requesting north of $100 billion from Congress to deliver aid and resources to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and the US border with Mexico. Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is expected to arrive in Israel early Thursday, in what is set to be his first stop in a two-day trip to the Middle East.
Joe Biden delivers remarks in Tel Aviv on October 18. Evan Vucci/AP
President Joe Biden plans to argue the US should continue funding wars in both Israel and Ukraine during an Oval Office address Thursday, according to two administration officials.
The primetime address will take place the eve of the White House requesting north of $100 billion from Congress to deliver aid and resources to Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan and the US border with Mexico. Biden is expected to make the argument that supporting Israel and Ukraine is a matter of US national security at a time when the world is at an inflection point.
“He’s going to make the case that the cost of inaction and the cost of walking away is much higher,” according to one official.
Public opinion has been mixed on the conflicts. In a recent CNN poll, nearly all respondents were sympathetic with the Israeli people in the wake of surprise attacks launched by Hamas, but there was no clear consensus on the right level of US involvement. One-third (35%) said the US is providing the right amount of assistance — and another 36% were unsure whether the level of US assistance is appropriate. The US has long provided security assistance with Israel, which receives roughly $4 billion annually under a 10-year memorandum of understanding. The new request would provide billions more.
By contrast, support to sustain aid to Ukraine has waned significantly. An August CNN poll found 55% of respondents said Congress should not pass more funding to aid Ukraine. The partisan divide has been deepening, too: Nearly three-quarters of Republicans opposed more funding for Ukraine, while 62% of Democrats supported it.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the White House and Congress have provided more than $75 billion in funding to Kyiv, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
The Biden administration in August delivered its last so-called supplemental funding request, which encapsulates unique requests beyond traditional government programs. The proposal requested $24.1 billion to aid Ukraine through the end of the year, but Congress failed to approve it during a process to greenlight short-term federal funding.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen pledged to European leaders that the US would be able to secure support for additional aid and, in an interview with Sky News, said Washington could afford financing two wars at once.
“American(s) can certainly afford to stand with Israel and to support Israel’s military needs, and we also can and must support Ukraine in its struggle against Russia," Yellen said.
The video released by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) shows the scene at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza a day after the deadly blast. IDF
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Wednesday released drone video recorded over the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza a day after the deadly blast.
The IDF claimed in text accompanying the short video that "the damage from the failed rocket launch of the Islamic Jihad is in the parking lot nearby and is not similar to a crater resulting from a strike." "In addition, the buildings around the hospital were not damaged. This is further proof that the IDF did not strike this area," the military said.
During the video an Israeli drone operator can be heard describing in Hebrew the layout of hospital buildings.
"This here, there is nothing here," the drone operator says, according to a CNN translation.
Gaza officials have blamed Israel for the blast, which the Palestinian Ministry of Health says killed hundreds of civilians.
But the IDF rejected the allegation, claiming the blast was caused by a "failed rocket launch" by Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants.
CNN cannot independently confirm what caused the explosion.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and US President Joe Biden discussed in a phone call Wednesday ways to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, the Egyptian Presidency said in a statement.
The talks between the two leaders focused "on the humanitarian situation in Gaza and ways to facilitate the implementation of humanitarian aid," according to the statement.
"The call between President el-Sisi and the American president witnessed the agreement to enter humanitarian aid to the Strip through Rafah crossing in a sustainable manner," the statement said.
Egypt's statement said officials in the two nations are coordinating with international humanitarian organizations — supervised by the United Nations — to deliver aid.
"Biden expresses his thanks and appreciation for the efforts of the Egyptian leadership towards achieving peace and stability in the region," the Egyptian statement said.
The road into Gaza had to be fixed and potholes filled before the trucks could pass, Biden said. He said it would take about eight hours on Thursday to get the work done, and he expected the trucks to be rolling Friday.
The crossing would open only to get aid in, Biden said, not for evacuations.
Israeli forces patrol areas along the Israeli-Gaza border on October 10. Ilia Yefimovich/picture alliance/dpa/Getty Images/File
When Hamas militants broke through the Gaza fence in this month’s unprecedented attack on Israel, the kibbutz of Mefalsim — less than 2 miles from the border — was on the front lines. Toting AK-47 rifles and grenade launchers, one group of militants headed straight for the community’s gates, while another group moved to destroy its generator, according to security videos and local residents.
That precision, local Israeli security personnel say, was no accident: The fighters seemed to have known exactly where they were headed.
CNN has reviewed documents that Israeli officials say were Hamas attack plans, which suggest the group collected remarkably granular detail on its targets. But neither of the attacks went according to plan — thanks in part to a handful of volunteer guards who defended their neighbors in dramatic firefights.
Photos of the plan to attack Mefalsim were posted online by an Israeli first responder group, which said it was recovered from the body of a slain Hamas fighter. Two local Israeli security personnel told CNN they independently saw photos of the plan, and it closely matched the Hamas fighters’ tactics during the attack.
The color-coded document includes detailed information about the kibbutz’s guards and security. It says that one group of militants would break through the community’s fence, while others were ordered to “capture soldiers and civilians and to keep hostages” for negotiation.
Yarden Reskin, a member of Mefalsim’s volunteer security force who spent hours exchanging fire with militants — helping prevent any deaths inside the community — said he was shocked by the level of detail.
“They knew everything,” Reskin said. “They knew where are the gates, they knew where are the generators, they knew where is the armory, they knew basically how many of us on the security team… they had very, very good intel.”
Israel is striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement early Thursday.
A CNN crew in southern Lebanon heard explosions around this time.
Clashes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah at the Lebanon border this month have raised fears of a wider regional conflict.
Hezbollah — an Iran-backed armed group that is also a regional force in its own right — dominates south Lebanon. It also operates alongside Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria, where the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights separates Israel from Tehran-aligned fighters.
On Wednesday, Hezbollah said it had conducted several attacks on Israeli military posts along the Israel-Lebanon border.
The IDF said they would provide more details on Thursday's strikes.
A deadly blast at a hospital in Gaza hours before President Joe Biden was set to leave the White House for the Middle East set off a furious scramble inside his administration as the president's advisers tried to ascertain who was responsible as street protests against Israel started raging across the Arab world.
Hours later, the president and his national security team were not confident enough to draw a final determination absolving Israel of responsibility. But the initial information they evaluated strongly suggested the Israelis were not behind the strike, serving as a green light for Biden's motorcade to roll out to Joint Base Andrews late Tuesday afternoon, sources familiar with the internal deliberation told CNN.
Had the early evidence examined by the president's team pointed in the other direction, the White House would have been more inclined to reconsider the trip. But advisers were sensitive about reversing course mere hours after the trip was announced by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and in the end, they never came close to canceling the altogether, sources said.
"He had no choice. Once he decided to do it, he wouldn't cancel it," one source said, describing what was understood to be an extraordinarily high bar for canceling Biden's visit, which only included a stop in Tel Aviv after Arab leaders canceled a planned summit with Biden in Amman, Jordan, in response to the hospital explosion.
The situation in Gaza is spiraling “out of control,” World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on Wednesday.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Tedros said WHO supplies have been stuck at the border for four days, adding “every second we wait to get medical aid in, we lose lives.”
He called for the “violence on all sides to stop” and immediate access to “start delivering life-saving supplies” to Gaza.
Some context: On Saturday, Tedros had said that a plane with WHO medical supplies arrived in Egypt close to the Rafah crossing into Gaza.
With Gaza’s sole power plant running out of fuel last week, seawater desalination plants have been shut off, and drinking water is running out for hundreds of thousands of civilians.
Hospitals are facing shortages of medical supplies and, in some cases, have been forced to use makeshift morgues out of ice cream trucks to manage overflow.
US President Joe Biden will deliver a primetime address from the Oval Office today about his country's "response to Hamas’ terrorist attacks against Israel and Russia’s ongoing brutal war against Ukraine,” the White House announced Wednesday.
The speech will be delivered at 8 p.m. ET from the Oval Office, the White House said.
