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Nearly 14,000 children killed in Gaza since war began, UNICEF says
From CNN's Hande Atay Alam
More than 13,800 children have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Catherine Russell.
"Thousands have been injured and thousands more are on the brink of famine," she said during a news conference in New York.
In a separate statement, the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Womensaid that "one child is injured or dies every 10 minutes" in Gaza. And that more than 10,000 women have been killed in Gaza since the war began, and 6,000 of them left 19,000 orphaned children behind.
UNICEF communication specialist Tess Ingram, who recently visited Gaza, said in Genevaon Tuesday that what struck her was the number of wounded children she saw.
"Not just in the hospitals, but on the streets, in their makeshift shelters, going about their now permanently altered lives," she said.
CNN cannot independently verify death numbers due to a lack of media access to Gaza.
Israeli military says it killed militants in northern Gaza raid
From CNN's Benjamin Brown
The Israeli military said it killed and arrested several militants during an operation in the civilian area of Beit Hanoun in the northeastern Gaza Strip.
The Israel Defense Forces said it had raided a building complex that included two schools after receiving "intelligence that terrorists from the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists organizations were located in the building and using civilians present there as human shields."
CNN is not able to independently confirm the claims made by the IDF.
The IDF said it told civilians to leave the building before entering during its joint operation with the Israel Security Agency, Israel's domestic security agency, also known as Shin Bet or Shabak.
What Gazans told CNN: People living in the area said Israeli military vehicles began an operation there on Monday afternoon, firing shots and rounds of artillery shelling.
Residents said that Israeli forces had surrounded three schools early Tuesday morning, including one where hundreds of people had been sheltering.
They ordered people to leave the schools and detained dozens of men, including some elderly people and teenagers over the age of 15, according to residents. An elderly woman who had been sheltering in one of the schools said Israeli soldiers came in the middle of the night and arrested several men and women.
First aid shipment to Gaza through Ashdod Port enters Gaza
From CNN’s Benjamin Brown
The first shipment of aid to Gaza to be delivered into Ashdod Port was transferred Wednesday, according to the Israeli military.
The Israel Defense Forces said eight World Food Programme (WFP) trucks carrying flour entered via the Kerem Shalom Crossing after being inspected at Ashdod.
Israel earlier this month announced its decision to facilitate aid deliveries via the port.
At the time, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed the development but said the “real test” would be to see whether aid was “effectively reaching people who it needed throughout Gaza.”
CNN has reached out to the WFP for comment.
Hardline Israeli minister calls for "disproportionate" response to Iranian attack that will "rock Tehran"
From CNN’s Benjamin Brown in London and Tamar Michaelis in Jerusalem
Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said that Israel’s response to Iran’s attack should inflict a “disproportionate toll” and “rock Tehran” to deter Iran from future strikes.
Smotrich said Israel’s response to Iran’s missile and drone attack should make Tehran “regret the moment they even thought about firing” and be “fierce, severe and inflict a disproportionate toll.”
Smotrich, who is technically also a minister in Israel’s defense ministry due to a deal struck in coalition agreements, told Israel’s Army Radio(GLZ)that the nature of Israel’s response would “shape [Israel’s] position in the Middle East."
The response, he said, “should rock Tehran, so everyone there will realize they shouldn’t mess with us,” he said, adding that “this is the language spoken in the Middle East.”
The minister, who is head of the far-right Religious Zionism party, also said that Israel should maintain its strategic ties with the United States and other partners but must prevent itself from finding itself in a “bear-hug, which will limit and make us incapable.”
Key context: Smotrich is not a member of Israel’s war cabinet, which the security cabinet has authorized to decide on how to respond to the Iranian attack.
As tensions in the region intensify, many world leaders have urged restraint as Israel weighs the size and scope of its response to Iran.
