October 16, 2023 - Israel-Hamas war news

The communications director of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA has called for border crossings with Gaza to be opened to allow humanitarian aid to reach Palestinians.

She said 1 million people in Gaza had been forced to flee their homes with at least half of them sheltering in UN facilities and that the need for food and fuel was dire.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office told CNN on Sunday that Israel has restored water to southern Gaza.

On Monday, the director of Gaza’s water authority Munther Shublaq disputed that claim, telling CNN that water has not been supplied to the enclave.

Five empty UN petrol trucks are waiting at the Gazan side of the Rafah crossing, hoping to cross over into Egypt and refuel, a Palestinian official responsible for the Rafah crossing told CNN on Monday.

The official stressed that “nothing has come through Egypt” yet either, as multiple aid trucks congregate on the Egyptian side of the border hoping to cross over to deliver supplies to Gaza.

The Israeli prime minister’s office denied Monday the existence of any arrangements for the opening of the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

The Rafah crossing is the last remaining exit for Palestinians in Gaza, but Cairo has as yet been reluctant to open it.

Ten people were killed after an Israeli airstrike on Al Kizan neighborhood of Khan Younis on Monday, doctors in Nasser Hospital told CNN.

They were all members of a single family, the doctors said, adding 23 people had been injured.

Khan Younis is in southern Gaza, which has become increasingly crowded with displaced civilians after Israel told people to evacuate northern Gaza.

CNN has reached out to the Israeli military about the reported strike.

Water supply has not been restored to Gaza, the director of the enclave's water authority told CNN on Monday. 

“I strongly deny the news of supplying Gaza Strip with water, these are false allegations and lies,” Munther Shublaq said. 

His remark comes a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office told CNN that Israel had turned on water to southern Gaza. US national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday also shared the possible development with CNN.

It was unclear if Israel cutting electricity in Gaza had affected the water supply but the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Saturday that most people in Gaza had no access to water. 

 "As a last resort, people are consuming brackish water from agricultural wells, triggering serious concerns about the spread of waterborne diseases," it said in a statement. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Tel Aviv, where he is expected to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli war management cabinet. His first meeting with Netanyahu is scheduled for around 6 a.m. ET.

The US top diplomat was in Israel last week, days after Hamas launched its deadly attacks in Israel, in a show of support from the Biden administration as it seeks to reinforce the country's defenses and prevent the conflict from escalating further.

Blinken's return Monday comes as the US seeks to help American citizens trapped in Gaza make their way across the only remaining exit from the besieged strip, the Rafah crossing to Egypt. The US is also working with regional partners to help secure the release of hostages, including American citizens, taken by Hamas during their brutal attack on October 7.

Earlier Monday, the Israeli prime minister's office denied there were any arrangements to open the Rafah border crossing.

On Sunday Blinken promised the crossing “will be open” and that the US was working with the UN, Egypt, Israel and others to coordinate aid efforts.

China's special envoy on the Middle East issue, Zhai Jun, will visit the region next week, Chinese state media reported Sunday.

In an interview with CGTN, he said he would promote peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to provide further details Monday.

A UN humanitarian team is waiting on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing in the hopes that it will be given the green light to deliver aid supplies to Gaza.

In a situation update Monday, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said it has sent “an advance team to Egypt to prepare for the possible opening of a humanitarian corridor to bring humanitarian aid supplies into the Strip.”

“For the fifth consecutive day, Gaza has had no electricity, pushing vital services, including health, water and sanitation to the brink of collapse, and worsening food insecurity,” the UNRWA statement added.

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

There is an "urgent need" for a pause in hostilities to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, according to the UN Human Rights Office.

"There have been very mammoth diplomatic efforts to try to make this happen. The secretary-general is constantly liaising with all the parties that are involved, and many other member states are also exercising what leverage they can. We need the security for the aid deliveries to be able to happen," UNHRO spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told CNN on Monday.

Gaza is facing a critical humanitarian crisis, with shortages of water, electricity, food, fuel and medicine.

"We have seen hospitals that have been forced to evacuate. Doctors insisting that they will stay with patients who are in the ICU wards and the neonatal units, where you had the impossible choice of whether to abandon your patients or to stay with them and risk death.

The access to water, access to food, the forced evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people into southern Gaza has created a very, very difficult humanitarian situation in southern Gaza as well," Shamdasani said.

She said there is a significant amount of aid waiting at the border to get in.

The Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt is the only remaining outlet for supplies, but it has been closed for much of the past week, with neither Gazans nor foreign nationals able to cross.

The Israeli prime minister’s office has denied there are any arrangements for the opening of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. 

Hamas also issued a statement noting it had not received confirmation from Egypt about the possible opening of the Rafah border crossing.

A security alert from the US Embassy in Jerusalem earlier on Monday cited media reports saying the Rafah crossing will open at 9 a.m. local time (2 a.m. ET) on October 16.

“We anticipate that the situation at the Rafah crossing will remain fluid and unpredictable and it is unclear whether, or for how long, travelers will be permitted to transit the crossing,” the embassy statement said.

The Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt is the only remaining outlet for supplies, but it has been closed for much of the past week, with neither Gazans nor foreign nationals able to cross. Tons of vital humanitarian supplies for people in Gaza have been piling up on the Egyptian side of the border.