Hamas commander who directed massacre on Israeli kibbutz and village is dead, Israel says
From CNN's Amir Tal
The Hamas commander who directed the October 7 attack in the Israeli kibbutz of Erez and the village of Netiv HaAsara was killed Monday, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israeli Security Agency (ISA) — also known as Shin Bet — said in a joint statement Tuesday.
IDF jets struck Nasim Abu Ajina, the commander of the Beit Lahia Battalion of Hamas' Northern Brigade, according to joint intelligence by the IDF and ISA.
His death will impede Hamas' efforts to "disrupt the IDF's ground activities," the statement read.
Hamas has not confirmed his death.
8:09 a.m. ET, October 31, 2023
Israeli military hit hundreds of Hamas targets overnight, according to spokesperson
From CNN’s Pauline Lockwood and Alex Hardie in London
Israeli army tracked vehicles move along a road near the northern town of Kiryat Shmona close to the border with Lebanon on October 31. Jalaa Marey/AFP/Getty Images
The Israeli military attacked "hundreds" of Hamas targets overnight, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said at a briefing Tuesday morning.
“In combined and coordinated attacks by the ground and air forces, terrorists were eliminated," Hagari said.
The IDF announced Friday it was "expanding ground operations" into Gaza, as it seeks to "destroy" Hamas and prevent it from being able to carry out further attacks on Israeli soil. CNN analysis on Monday suggested troops had advanced more than 2 miles (about 3 kilometers) into the enclave.
Attacks in Lebanon: Hagari also said that “in the north during the night, the warplanes attacked in Lebanon and destroyed the infrastructure of the terrorist organization Hezbollah.”
There has been continual crossfire since October 7 between the IDF and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group that dominates southern Lebanon, along the Israel-Lebanon border.
“The policy is clear: we will attack in any response to any attempted attack and eliminate any cell that tries to penetrate or shoot towards the territory of the state of Israel. IDF forces are at a very, very high level of readiness,” Hagari continued.
8:11 a.m. ET, October 31, 2023
Israel demolishes house of Hamas leader in occupied West Bank
From CNN’s Abeer Salman in Jerusalem
Palestinians look on as an excavator clears the rubble of the house of the deputy chief of Hamas' politcal bureau Saleh al-Aruri after it was demolished by Israeli forces in Arura village in the occupied West Bank on October 31. Zain Jaafar/AFP/Getty Images
The Israeli army demolished the house of Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in the occupied West Bank Tuesday morning, according to the Israel Defense Forces and eyewitnesses.
Videos of the scene obtained by CNN show several Israeli military vehicles entering the village north of Ramallah. Another video shows the house being struck by an explosion and the aftermath with destruction in the area.
The IDF said in a statement to CNN that forces “operated in the town” overnight to “demolish the residence of Saleh al-Arouri, deputy head of the Hamas terrorist organization’s political bureau and in charge of the Hamas’ activities in Judea and Samaria.”
“During the counterterrorism activity, a violent riot was instigated, including rock and stone hurling at the forces, who responded with riot dispersal means. In addition, the forces responded with live fire toward the air and the rock hurlers. Hits were identified,” the statement added.
Saleh al-Arouri is a senior leader of Hamas. He is considered one of the founding members of the group's military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and is now based in Beirut.
9:36 a.m. ET, October 31, 2023
Israeli ambassador criticized for wearing yellow star at UN Security Council
From CNN's Pauline Lockwood and Artemis Moshtaghian
Israeli United Nations Ambassador Gilad Erdan speaks during a Security Council meeting on the Israel-Hamas war at U.N. headquarters, New York, on October 30. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
The chairman of Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center based in Jerusalem, has criticized the Israeli ambassador to the UN for the decision to wear a yellow star during a UN Security Council meeting, saying the move "disgraces both Holocaust victims and Israel."
"The yellow star symbolizes the Jewish people's helplessness and the Jews being at the mercy of others. Today we have an independent state and a strong army. We are the masters of our fate. Today we shall wear a blue-white flag, not a yellow star," Dani Dayan said on X, formerly Twitter.
The Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, wore a yellow star — a symbol that those of the Jewish faith were forced to wear in Nazi-occupied Europe during the Holocaust — on Monday in protest at the UN Security Council's continued decision not to condemn Hamas for its terror attack on October 7.
Erdan and other members of the Israeli delegation wore yellow Star of David stickers with “Never Again” written in the middle as an affront to the Security Council’s silence.
"From this day on, each time you look at me, you will remember what staying silent in the face of evil means. Just like my parents, and the grandparents of millions of Jews, my team and I will wear yellow stars,” he said.
“We will wear this star until you condemn the atrocities of Hamas and demand the immediate release of our hostages. We walk with the yellow star as a symbol of pride, a reminder that we swore to fight back to defend ourselves," Erdan said on Monday.
Correction: An earlier version of this post misspelled Dani Dayan's first name.
6:51 a.m. ET, October 31, 2023
Netanyahu's office vows to do "everything to bring all the kidnapped home" after Hamas releases hostage video
From CNN's Eyad Kourdi, Lianne Kolirin, Amir Tal, Hadas Gold and Adam Levine
Daniel Aloni, Yelena Trupanob, Rimon Kirsht - three women who appeared in a video released by Hamas on Monday, October 30, and who are believed to be captives being held by the Palestinian militant group since its terror attack on Israel on October 7. Hostages and Missing Family Forum
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Monday it was “doing everything to bring all the kidnapped and missing people home.”
Netanyahu’s office issued a brief statement after Hamas released a short video Monday, showing three women believed to be hostages in Haza.
"Our hearts go out to you and the other abductees. We are doing everything to bring all the kidnapped and missing people home," the statement said.
The hostage video is only the second released since it captured up to 240 people, according to figures released Tuesday by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The video appears intended to undermine Netanyahu with pointed criticism over his leadership by the detained women.
In the video, the three women are seated in plastic chairs facing the camera, while the woman in the middle addresses Netanyahu directly with increasing fury.
She refers to a news conference by families of the hostages “yesterday,” suggesting it was filmed on Monday.
The video comes just days after progress in hostage negotiations fell through, a fact referenced by the speaker who mentions a supposed “ceasefire.” Israeli leaders Friday dismissed talks of a breakthrough in talks as a rumor as they announced an expansion of the IDF’s ground campaign in Gaza.
The woman speaks fluently and does not appear to be reading from a script, but because the women are hostages, the statement could have been made under duress.
“You promised to release us all,” she says, suggesting she is aware of hostage negotiations.
She finishes with a demand to “free us all,” screaming: “Now! Now! Now!”
Relatives of the hostages have named the women as Yelena Trupanob, Daniel Aloni and Rimon Kirsht; Aloni is the speaker.
The women do not show visible signs of physical mistreatment, but CNN is unable to verify anything about their circumstances or well-being.
"Our heart is broken by the cry of Daniel and from the faces of Yelena and Rimon who sit beside her," IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Danile Hagari said in a press briefing Monday.
4:56 a.m. ET, October 31, 2023
Number of hostages held in Gaza now up to 240, says IDF
From CNN's Amir Tal
A woman looks at posters showing the pictures of Israeli hostages near Azrieli Mall in Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 18. Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images
The number of hostages believed to be held by Hamas in Gaza is up to 240, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said at a press conference Tuesday.
Hagari also said 315 IDF soldiers have died since Hamas' attack in Israel on October 7.
Pvt. Ori Megidish was "actively rescued" with "boots on the ground" in a joint operation between the IDF and the Israeli Security Agency (ISA), also known as Shin Bet, IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told CNN.
3:59 a.m. ET, October 31, 2023
At least 13 killed in Israeli airstrike in central Gaza overnight, doctor says
From CNN’s Kareem Khadder and Manveena Suri
Flames and smoke rise over Gaza City after Israeli airstrikes on October 30. Ali Jadallah/Anadolu/Getty Images
At least 13 people have been killed in an overnight Israeli airstrike in central Gaza, according to a staff member at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
The strike hit a home in al-Zawaida in Deir al Balah killing all 13 people inside, including children, Dr Khalil Al Dikran, head of nursing at the hospital, told a journalist working for CNN.
The journalist, who was at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital on Tuesday morning, counted a total of 44 bodies in the morgue tent being prepared for burial, including the 13 killed overnight.
The other casualties were killed in strikes on Monday afternoon that hit two homes and a wedding hall being used to shelter displaced residents who had fled northern Gaza, according to Al Dikran.
He added that the Monday airstrikes occurred in central Gaza, killing 31 people.
3:26 a.m. ET, October 31, 2023
Analysis: New wave of antisemitism threatens to rock an already unstable world
Analysis from CNN's Stephen Collinson
Workers clean graffiti from the sidewalk in front of Congregation Beth Elohim synagogue on 8th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York City on October 27. Gardiner Anderson/NY Daily News/Getty Images
History is flashing warnings to the world.
Outbursts of antisemitism have often been harbingers of societies in deep trouble and omens that extremism and violence are imminent.
So the wave of global hatred directed against Jews — intensified by Israel’s indiscriminate response in Gaza to horrific Hamas terrorist murders of Israeli civilians on October 7 — should not just be seen as a reaction to the Middle East yet again slumping into war.
It is also a reflection of destructive forces tearing at American and western European societies, where stability and democracy are already under pressure.
The Hamas attacks — a pogrom against Jews that killed 1,400, mostly civilians — have initiated a sequence of events that have left Jewish people around the world feeling threatened. And now that the Israeli government has sought retribution through airstrikes and operations in Gaza targeting Hamas, the scenes of carnage in Palestinian communities threaten to further drain public sympathy for Israel abroad and, in some cases, contribute toan atmosphere that risks worsening harassment of Jewish people.
In the United States there is a climate of growing fear.
Jewish day schools have canceled classes. Synagogues have been locked. Social media has pulsated with hatred against Jews, leaving a community that can never escape its historic trauma yet again wondering where and when it can ever be safe.
Explosions in northern Gaza as Israel says it struck 300 Hamas targets
From CNN's Ivana Kottasova in Ashkelon, Israel
Smoke billows across the skyline of Gaza on October 31. Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
Fighter jets and helicopters have been heard flying around the areas surrounding Gaza early on Tuesday, following yet another night of intense fighting.
Overnight, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bombarded the enclave with artillery rounds, mortars and airstrikes. CNN teams saw numerous large explosions in northern Gaza, as the IDF appeared to be fire flares illuminating the ground, followed by artillery rounds and airstrikes.
Videos released by the IDF on Tuesday morning show Israeli soldiers on the ground in Gaza, progressing on foot and in tanks through rural areas as well as in what appears to be a significantly war-damaged urban district.
Despite the intensified IDF ground operation, Hamas has continued to fire rockets from Gaza. CNN reporters heard alarms indicating incoming fire in a number of areas around the Gaza perimeter overnight and early Tuesday.
The IDF said Tuesday its forces have struck "approximately 300 targets," including military compounds inside underground tunnels belonging to Hamas over the past day.
During ground operations, IDF soldiers "had several engagements with terrorist cells that fired both anti-tank missiles and machine gun fire toward them. The soldiers killed terrorists and directed air forces to real-time strikes on targets and terror infrastructure," it said.
Israel's expanded ground operations in recent days have killed "numerous Hamas terrorists," and hundreds of military targets have been struck, the IDF said.
