Official warnas

Gaza conditions a ‘complete catastrophe,’ official warns as Israel prepares for imminent offensive

By Helen Regan, Hadas Gold, Nadeen Ebrahim, Abeer Salman, Hamdi Alkhshali, Jessie Gretener and Sara Smart, CNN

Video shows 'families killed amid their belongings' on evacuation route

- vpx 5

Video shows 'families killed amid their belongings' on evacuation route

rockets intercepted tel aviv

See moment six rockets are intercepted over Tel Aviv by Israel's Iron Dome

NYC israel couple returns 02

Packing knives and pepper spray, an Israeli family leaves US to fight

Joe Biden October 14 2023 SCREENGRAB

'We have to reject hate in every form': Biden speaks out about Israel-Hamas war

screengrab guest mastermind

CNN looks at 'the Guest,' the shadowy mastermind behind the Hamas attacks

Car

CNN walks through the horrific site of music festival massacre

04:22

Gaza Evacuations Clarissa Ward SCREENGRAB

See what it looks like inside Gaza as drumbeat of invasion grows

02:20

50-caliber gun oren pkg vpx

Weapons used by Hamas militants appear to be Russian or Chinese made

02:36

Yara Clarissa Ward Gaza Student

'I don't even know if I'll live for the next month': Hear from student stuck in Gaza

02:34

Festival vpx

How Hamas trapped civilians at music festival

04:24

esper vpx cnc

'Two failures': Former defense secretary reacts to US having intel ahead of attack

02:22

UN Relief & Works Agency spokesperson Tamara Alrifai

UN official: We do not know how to help people in Gaza move safely

02:11

Boaz Arbel

Dad rejoins Israeli military to fight alongside daughters

02:43

leaflets gaza vpx

CNN anchor presses IDF spokesman on time window for evacuation of northern Gaza

00:59

gaza girl bashir pkg screengrab

'Not fair for children like us': Girl in Gaza shares what life is like right now

03:15

drone footage reuters vpx screengrab

Drone footage of war-torn Gaza show immense destruction

02:46See More Videos

Gaza and Jerusalem

—

Conditions in Gaza have deteriorated into a “complete catastrophe,” according to one official, with serious shortages of clean water and food as tens of thousands of Palestinians attempt to flee crippling airstrikes and an imminent Israeli ground offensive.

Israel’s military said Saturday its forces are readying for the next stages of the war, including “combined and coordinated strikes from the air, sea and land” in response to the unprecedented October 7 terrorist attacks by the Islamist militant group Hamas, which controls the enclave.

At least 1,300 people were killed during Hamas’ rampage in what US President Joe Biden described as “the worst massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust.”

Further escalation of the long-running conflict now increasingly risks spilling over regionally, prompting the Pentagon to order a second carrier strike group and squadrons of fighter jets to the region as a deterrence to Iran and Iranian proxies, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The clock is ticking for residents fleeing south through the battered streets of Gaza after the Israeli military told civilians to leave northern areas of the densely populated strip.

More than half of Gaza’s 2 million residents live in the northern section that Israel said should evacuate. Many families, some already refugees, are now concentrated in a much smaller area of ​​140 square miles.

Civilians crowded into cars, taxis, pickup trucks and donkey carts. The roads were filled with winding cars packed with suitcases and mattresses. People who had no other choice walked away with whatever they could.

“We will begin any significant military operation only after we confirm that civilians have left the area,” said Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told CNN early Sunday morning: “I cannot emphasize this enough that it is time for Gazans to leave.”

People at the site of a rocket attack against Israel in the al-Shati refugee camp in western Gaza Strip on October 14.

People at the site of an Israeli rocket attack at the Al Shati refugee camp in western Gaza Strip on October 14. Mohamed Saber/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Israeli warplanes continued bombing the Gaza Strip throughout the weekend even as civilians fled south. Videos showed explosions and dead bodies along the Gaza evacuation route on Friday as tens of thousands of people fled their homes on advice from the IDF. Videos seen by CNN show large-scale destruction of Salah al-Din Street, a major evacuation route. Several bodies, including children, can be seen on a flatbed trailer that appears to have been used to transport people from Gaza City.

On Sunday, the IDF denied Israeli military involvement in the Salah al-Din Street airstrikes.

“It was only this morning that we were able to confirm and announce that this was not an IDF attack,” IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told CNN. Lerner instead said it appears from footage the IDF has viewed that “the explosion came from beneath,” suggesting “some sort of explosive device.”

The Palestinian Health Ministry said 2,329 civilians have been killed and more than 9,000 injured since the conflict broke out a week ago, with 300 killed in the past 24 hours.

Casualties in Gaza over the past eight days have now surpassed the number of those killed during the 51-day Gaza-Israel conflict in 2014, according to the spokesperson for the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Richard Brennan, a World Health Organization official in Cairo, told CNN that 60% of those killed in Gaza the last week were women and children.

Palestinians search for casualties under the rubble in the aftermath of Israeli