US officials continue to warn against invasion of Rafah — even as Israel presses ahead
From CNN’s Kevin Liptak
Top American officials offered stark warnings Sunday against an Israeli invasion of Rafah, predicting that a major ground offensive in the southern Gaza city would lead to widespread civilian casualties.
The alarm bells from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan came after President Joe Biden delivered an ultimatum last week on CNN that an Israeli invasion of Rafah would cause him to pause certain weapons transfers.
Blinken and Sullivan both said Biden made the determination because he didn’t want American weapons used in what he estimates would be a bloody, ill-advised operation.At the same time, they sought to rebut claims from Republicans and pro-Israel Democrats that Biden was leaving Israel to fend for itself.
Speaking on CBS, Blinken said the US believes Israel has killed more civilians than Hamas terrorists as part of its war in Gaza. And he said the country needed to do more to mitigate civilian deaths.
“While Israel has processes, procedures, rules, regulations to try to minimize civilian harm, given the impact that this operation, this war in Gaza has had on the civilian population, those have not been applied consistently and effectively,” he said.
Despite American warnings dating back months about the wisdom of a ground invasion into Rafah, Israel appears poised to continue advancing on the city and has issued evacuation orders for some of the 1.4 million civilians estimated to be sheltering there.
Going “headlong into Rafah” could have dire consequences, Blinken warned Sunday. “Israel's on the trajectory, potentially, to inherit an insurgency with many armed Hamas left, or, if it leaves, a vacuum filled by chaos, filled by anarchy and probably refilled by Hamas,” Blinken said on NBC.
Sullivan warned an Israel operation would cause “really significant civilian casualties” while still being unlikely to eliminate Hamas.“While Israel would also be able to kill some Hamas folks, many Hamas folks would melt away because they're terrorists,” he said on ABC.
Last week, the State Department released a report finding it is “reasonable to assess” that US weapons have been used by Israeli forces inGazain ways that are “inconsistent” with international humanitarian law. Butthe report stopped short of officially saying Israel violated the law.
Exodus from Rafah continues, but some say they are too exhausted and sick to move
From Tareq El Helou in Gaza and Sarah El Sirgany and Abeer Salman in Jerusalem
More people are streaming out of Rafah for other parts of Gaza following Israeli orders to civilians to leave much of eastern and central Rafah — but some are staying, too exhausted or sick to move on yet again.
An elderly man, Hassan Aboul Einien, told CNN he had not wanted to leave his home in the Shaboura refugee camp. “But now I want to because there is no one left in the camp. I want to see my wife and daughter," he said. "I’m going on foot. I don’t have money for a car. I sent my wife and daughter on foot as well."
Maher Soliman, also living at the Shaboura refugee camp, said he didn’t know where to go: "No-one is supporting us. It’s just destruction. I left home with a T-shirt." Soliman said there was no safe zone. "My 15-year-old daughter had burns over her body. There was a strike on the building next door while she was making food."
Ayman Abu Negira, who was driving a car with a broken windshield, said he was heading for Al Mawasi, an area to the north-west of Rafah to which the Israelis have instructed people to go. He said he hopes it is a safe zone, but has his doubts. "They will probably strike around it,” Negira told CNN.
Some, however, were planning to stay. An unidentified woman said: “We are not afraid. We are exhausted but we are steadfast.” Her tent stands alone in an area she says was filled with tents just few days ago.
She said she was from Khan Younis.“I wish I could go home and I hope it is still standing. I’m crying because I want to go home.”
The woman said it was tense last night. “Even the water distribution guy is afraid to come by. People are afraid to leave the tents at night to relieve themselves because they are afraid of the quadcaptors (armed Israeli drones) … All of us have hepatitis. There are lot of infections among people.”
The woman pointed to a scar under her ear and said it had been causes by a sniper’s bullet which had broken her jaw when she was trying to retrieve belongings from near Nasser hospital. “There was a window covered by a blanket and the sniper got me here.”
“Why would they target me? I was at a school. It was empty.”
Her son, 18-year old Raed Abu Salem, has a face injury which he said was caused by shrapnel from a drone attack in Khan Younis when he was trying to get water. He also lost several teeth.
“I would say how good-looking I was,” he said, when asked what he feels when he looks at his photos before the war. Now his injuries are painful and he hasto eat through a syringe.
His mother said she was struggling to feed the children. “These kids haven’t eaten. We don’t have fresh water.”
Israeliforcescontinueoperationsin northand central Gaza,aswellasRafah
From CNN's Michael Schwartz
The Israeli military has said that it began operating in northern Gaza overnight, and "precise operations" are continuing in eastern Rafah and near the Rafah crossing, as well as in the area of Zeitoun in central Gaza.
The death toll in the Strip since October 7 surpassed 35,000 Sunday, with 63 people being killed in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health said. The figure is somewhat higher than the recent average due to the expanding military operations.
The IDF said thatinRafah, troops had “locatedanddismantled a number of tunnel shaftsandrocket launchers ready to fire towardIsraeliterritory.”
It added that they also identified and eliminated ten armed Hamas terrorists.
The military action in Rafah comes ahead of a planned full-scale invasion.
The IDF also said its troops “eliminated a number of terroristsinclose-quarters combat,”and anIsraeliaircraft had also carried out strikes, inthe Zeitoun area. It reported earlier that five Israeli soldiers had been killed in the area on Friday.
In northern Gaza, following calls Saturday to evacuate several areas, including Jabalya, the IDF said its troops began an operation "based on intelligence information regarding attempts by Hamas to reassemble its terroristinfrastructureandoperativesinthe area."
Video captured heavy gunfire, Israeli tanks and the sound of drones in the area of Jabalya early Sunday.
Israeli military says senior officer injured in Gaza
From CNN's Michael Schwartz and Tim Lister
The Israel Defense Forces says that a senior officer was injured in Gaza Friday.
It named the officer as Rear Admiral Yogev Bar-Sheshet, the Deputy Head of the Defense Establishment Comptroller Unit, and said he was “moderately injured on Friday in the Gaza Strip. He was evacuated to the hospital to receive medical treatment.”
Bar-Sheshet was injured on the same day that five Israeli soldiers were killed in the Zeitoun area of Gaza. Four of the five were 19-year old sergeants who were killed by an explosive device.
272 Israeli soldiers have been killed inside Gaza since ground operations began there.
Death toll in Gaza since October 7 surpasses 35,000, health ministry says
From CNN's Tim Lister
The Ministry of Health in Gaza has reported that the number of people killed in the Strip as a result of Israeli military operations has risen above 35,000.
The Ministry said 63 people have been killed in the past 24 hours – bringing the total to 35,034.
A further 114 people were injured, bringing the total of injured since October 7 to 78,755 people, according to the Ministry.
The figures are somewhat higher than the recent average as Israeli military operations expand in Rafah as well as intensify in parts of northern and central Gaza.
CNN cannot confirm the numbers of the health ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its data.
UK opposes Rafah offensive but won't halt arms sales, foreign secretary says
From CNN's Amarachi Orie
UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron has said he does not support Israel's plan for a full-scale offensive in the southern Gazan city of Rafah, but also opposes the idea of ending arms sales to Israel.
Cameron told the BBC Sunday that ending arms sales to Israel would "make Hamas stronger and it would make a hostage deal less likely."
The UK last came under pressure to end arm sales to Israel when three British citizens were killed during an attack on an aid convoy in Gaza in April. Cameron said, "a few days later there was a brutal attack by Iran on Israel."
He said he is instead focused on "hammering away every day" on getting humanitarian aid into Gaza, as well as "what can we do to maximise the British pressure and the outcome that will help people in their lives - including getting the hostages, including British nationals, released."
Cameron's position differs to that of US President Joe Biden, who threatened to halt weapon deliveries to Israel if there is a full-scale Rafah invasion.
Earlier this week, the United Statespaused a shipment of bombs to Israel amid concerns over their potential use in aRafah incursion.
Cameron argued that the US "is in a totally different position" to the UK since the US is "a massive state supplier of weaponry," while the UK supplies only 1% of Israel's weapons.
Israeli forces battle in northern Gaza in effort to prevent Hamas regrouping
From journalist Abdul Qader Sabbah in Gaza, and CNN's Abeer Salman and Tim Lister
Israeli ground forces are continuing an operation in Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday, according to witnesses and social media video.
Video filmed for CNN showed families trying to leave the area amid the sound of drones overhead.
Social media video also showed Israeli tanks close to the market in Jabalya refugee camp, as well as heavy gunfire early Sunday.
The Israel Defense Forces ordered an evacuation of parts of Jabalya on Saturday, ahead of an operation which it said was aimed at preventing Hamas from re-establishing itself in the area. Months ago, the IDF said it had dismantled Hamas's command structure in northern Gaza.
One man in Jabalya, Abu Muhammed Odeh, told CNN: "I don’t know where people should go, they tell people to go western Gaza which is Al Shifa hospital and Al Sinaa area, and those areas were all destroyed by the Israelis before.”
IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari also said Saturday that in the central Gaza Strip, troops from the 99th Division “are in the midst of a wide-scale operation in the Zeitoun area."
Father of three in northern Gaza: "Death is more honorable than this humiliation"
From CNN's Sarah El Sirgany, Kareem Khadder and Mohammed Tawfeeq
While much of the focus has been on the southern Gazan city of Rafah, there is ongoing military action in the north too.
A video obtained by CNN shows some families evacuating northern Gaza, following orders by the Israel Defense Forces Saturday to immediately leave several neighborhoods there due to a "dangerous combat zone."
"I don't know where we are going. We've been displaced 7 or 8 times. We and the children are suffering," a father of three, who did not give his name, told a CNN stringer.
The father, who was driving a motorcycle with his young children and belongings, said Israeli forces "dropped leaflets saying they will invade the north."
"We are only moving because of the little ones. I don't care if I would die, but I worry about them," he said.
He described the dangerous situation in the area, saying, "there is no safe place," adding: "Whenever we go, there is bombardment."
I don't know what to say. Is this a life? Death is more honorable than this humiliation," he said.
Another man described Friday night as "horrible" and "intense" due to ongoing strikes.
He said it was the "tenth time" they were being displaced, adding: "We are scared for our lives. I'll go look for a place, pitch a tent. Anything to escape death."
Families of dead hostages: "They deserve to be granted a dignified burial, and we deserve closure"
From CNN's Eugenia Yosef and Mohammed Tawfeeq
Families of hostages took part in fresh anti-government protests in several cities across Israel Saturday, demanding the release of all hostages held in Gaza.
Yael Adar, mother of Tamir Adar, who was abducted on October 7 and his death was announced in January, said during the rally that "all we ask is to bring Tamir and all the murdered hostages back for burial, here in the land they loved. To grant Tamir the burial he deserves. To grant us closure, to have a grave where we can be with his memory."
Hagit Chen, mother of Itay Chen, who was killed October 7 during the Hamas attacks on Israel, and Chen's remains were taken into Gaza, said she wanted to bury her son in peace.
"I have been invited to take part in many ceremonies for Israel's Remembrance Day, but the only ceremony that I ought to be in, with my family and with the memory of my own son, is a ceremony that the country has not enabled me to have," Chen said.
"How much more suffering can one take? I turn to the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu: It is time that you bring them all back! The living for rehabilitation and the fallen for a respectful, appropriate Jewish burial," she added.
The number of hostages taken on October 7 believed to be left in Gaza is 128, with 36 of them thought to have died.
