New calls to evacuate and a UN resolution under fire: What to know about the war in Gaza today

Residents and civil defense teams conduct search and rescue operation around the rubble of the building following an Israeli attack on house belonging to Khalifa family at the Nuseirat refugee camp in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on December 23. Ali Jadallah/Anadolu/Getty Images

Thomas White, the director of affairs in Gaza for the main United Nations agency in the enclave, has criticized a call from Israel's military to evacuate new parts of central Gaza, which he says will impact more than 150,000 people — many already displaced.

“The Israeli Army just orders people to move into areas where there are ongoing airstrikes. No place is safe, nowhere to go,” White wrote on the social media platform X.

The new warnings are part of what Israeli officials have said will be a widening ground offensive in the enclave, where a humanitarian crisis is worsening by the day.

Fresh Israeli strikes killed at least 18 people near the new evacuation areas in central Gaza on Saturday, according to hospital officials.

At least 20,258 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7, with another 53,688 people wounded, according to a statement from the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza on Saturday. The ministry also said 201 people had died and 368 people were wounded in the past 24 hours.

CNN cannot independently verify the numbers.

Here are other key updates for Saturday:

Compromise resolution passes: After days of negotiations, the United Nations Security Council on Friday finally approved a resolution that calls for humanitarian pauses and increased aid into Gaza. In watered-down language, it stopped short of calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities. While choosing not to use their veto power, the United States and Russia abstained from the vote, which passed 13-0.

"Nearly meaningless": The Security Council's call will be "nearly meaningless" to the lives of civilians in Gaza, Doctors Without Borders said in a statement slamming the compromise resolution. The resolution "falls painfully short of what is required to address the crisis in Gaza: an immediate and sustained ceasefire," the organization's US executive director said in a statement.

"Lifeline" for Hamas: Meanwhile, a senior adviser to the Israeli prime minister criticized UN Secretary-General António Guterres for calling for a ceasefire, saying in an interview with CNN Saturday that Guterres was “offering a lifeline to Hamas.” He also thanked the United States for its "diplomatic support at the United Nations," after it blocked attempts to pass versions of the resolution that included the ceasefire language.

IDF accused of atrocities: Israeli soldiers raiding a hospital in northern Gaza desecrated the bodies of dead patients with bulldozers, let a military dog maul a man in a wheelchair, and shot multiple doctors even after vetting them for terror links, according to allegations by staff and patients. The IDF did not address the allegations directly when approached for comment by CNN, but acknowledged that it had carried out an operation at the hospital.

Red Sea attacks: Newly declassified US intelligence suggests that Iran has been "deeply involved" in planning strikes on ships in the Red Sea. Houthi rebels have launched over 100 attacks against about a dozen commercial and merchant ships over the past four weeks.