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As the prospect of a ground assault on Gaza looms, defence and security editor Dan Sabbagh has taken a look at the risks, uncertainty and potential humanitarian consequences of such an operation.
“Hamas has long been ready for an Israeli incursion, digging a sophisticated network of tunnels across Gaza intended to allow its forces to survive aerial bombardment,” he writes. “Some tunnels previously discovered by Israel because they went under the border fence are as deep as 70 metres.
“The heavily urbanised terrain – the Gaza Strip is one of the world’s most densely populated areas – will also favour the defenders as they try to fight back. Each remaining building will have to be fought over, and heavy mining could further impede the Israelis if Hamas copies the technique used by Russia to blunt Ukraine’s counteroffensive.”
Sabbagh adds: “The near certain reality is that a ground invasion will be bloody, and it is possible international political support for Israel, which is high after Hamas’s brutal attack a week ago killed 1,300 Israeli civilians, will dip as more Palestinian civilians are killed or remain trapped without shelter, food or electricity.”
Updated
Chinese envoy Zhai Jun will visit the Middle East next week to push for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict and promote peace talks, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV has reported.
Zhai “will visit the Middle East next week to coordinate with various parties for a ceasefire, to protect civilians, ease the situation and promote peace talks”, Agence France-Presse quoted CCTV as saying on Sunday in a video posted to its official social media account on Sunday.
Israel will start “significant” military operations in Gaza once it sees that civilians have left the area, CNN has quoted the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as saying.
The network reported that IDF spokesman Lt Col Jonathan Conricus said Israel had been very generous in giving “ample warning, more than 25 hours” for the more than 1 million Gazans in the northern part of the densely populated territory to move south.
Conricus said:
I cannot stress more than enough to say now is the time for Gazans to leave. Take your belongings, go south. Preserve your life, and do not fall into the trap that Hamas is setting up for you.
CNN also quoted Conricus as saying the area around the Gaza Strip was packed with “hundreds of thousands of Israeli reserve units” preparing for various missions.
The Palestinian health ministry said early on Sunday that 300 people, mostly children and women, had been killed and 800 others had been injured in Gaza over the past 24 hours.
Reuters quotes Gaza authorities as saying more than 2,200 people have been killed – a quarter of them children – and nearly 10,000 wounded in total as Israel hits back after last weekend’s unprecedented attack by Hamas militants.
Palestinian rescue workers have been desperately searching for survivors of nighttime air raids.
One million people have reportedly left their homes after the Israeli military told residents of the northern half of the Gaza Strip – which includes its biggest settlement, Gaza City – to move south immediately.
Israeli troops continued preparations on Sunday for their expected ground assault on the Hamas-controlled enclave.
Updated
The Israel Defence Forces says it is continuing to attack targets throughout the Gaza Strip and that “terrorists identified coming out of a tunnel shaft in Gaza territory were killed”.
Black-and-white footage of apparent explosions, filmed from above, accompanied the IDF’s post on X/Twitter.
It said:
The IDF continued throughout the day to vigorously attack military targets of the terrorist organization Hamas, with an emphasis on the neighborhoods of Jabaliya, Zeytun, al-Furkan and Beit Hanun.
צה"ל ממשיך לתקוף מטרות ברחבי רצועת עזה: חוסלו מחבלים שזוהו יוצאים מפיר מנהרה בשטח עזה
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) October 14, 2023
צה"ל המשיך לאורך שעות היום לתקוף בעוצמה מטרות צבאיות של ארגון הטרור חמאס, בדגש על השכונות ג'בליה, זייתון, אל-פורקן ובית חאנון>> pic.twitter.com/oTqF5TwJWW
Tens of thousands of people have rallied in London and other British cities at pro-Palestinian demonstrations, amid police warnings that anyone showing support for the militant group Hamas could face arrest.
Protesters marching through the heart of the UK capital on Saturday were shadowed by a heavy police presence of more than 1,000 officers, Agence France-Presse reports.
Similar rallies took place in Manchester in northern England, Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland, and other British cities.
In London, demonstrators massed neared BBC News’ headquarters before an afternoon rally near prime minister Rishi Sunak’s Downing Street residence.
Parts of the entrance to the building in central London’s Portland Place, where the rally started, were left splattered with red paint thrown by protesters from the Palestine Action group.
The broadcaster has been criticised by supporters of both Israel and the Palestinians.
A Reuters videographer killed in Israeli shelling of southern Lebanon has been laid to rest in his hometown in a funeral procession attended by hundreds of people, Associated Press reports.
Draped in a Lebanese flag, Issam Abdallah’s body was carried on a stretcher through the streets of the southern town of Khiam from his family’s home to the local cemetery.
Dozens of journalists and Lebanese legislators attended the funeral on Saturday.
Abdallah was killed on Friday evening near the village of Alma al-Shaab in south Lebanon when an Israeli shell landed on a gathering of international journalists covering exchange of fire along the border between Israeli troops and members of Lebanon’s militant group Hezbollah.
The Lebanese army said in a statement on Saturday that Israeli troops fired a shell the day before hitting a civilian car used by journalists, killing Abdallah and wounding others. The army said other areas in south Lebanon at the time were targeted by an Israeli helicopter gunship and artillery.
Lebanon’s foreign ministry asked Beirut’s mission to the UN to file a complaint against Israel over Friday’s shelling, calling it a “flagrant violation and a crime against freedom of opinion and press”.
The Israel Defence Forces said in a statement that it responded with tank and artillery fire after a missile was fired from Lebanon by Hezbollah. The incident was under review, the IDF said.
Israeli military spokesperson Lt Col Richard Hecht, speaking in Jerusalem earlier on Saturday, did not confirm that journalists had been hit by Israeli shells but called the incident “tragic”, adding: “We’re very sorry for his death.”
Updated
President Joe Biden has underlined US support for efforts to protect civilians amid the Israeli siege and bombardment of Gaza in a phone call with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The call was held on the same day Washington announced a second US carrier was being deployed to the eastern Mediterranean Sea near Israel.
“President Biden affirmed his support for all efforts to protect civilians,” Agence France-Presse reported the White House as saying in a statement about the call, which did not specifically mention Gaza.
Biden also spoke on Saturday with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmud Abbas for the first time since hostilities broke out, condemning “Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel”.
A White House statement about the talk between the two leaders said Biden told Abbas:
Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination.
Updated
US sending second aircraft carrier ‘to deter hostile actions against Israel’, Lloyd Austin says
The US defence secretary has confirmed the US is sending a second aircraft carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean, saying it is “to deter hostile actions against Israel or any efforts toward widening this war following Hamas’s attack”.
Lloyd Austin said on Saturday the deployment signalled Washington’s “ironclad commitment to Israel’s security and our resolve to deter any state or non-state actor seeking to escalate this war”, Agence France-Presse reports.
The USS Eisenhower and its affiliated warships will join another carrier group already deployed to the region in the wake of the attack on Israel a week ago and Israel’s ongoing response.
The US has sent munitions to Israel and warned other countries not to escalate the conflict.
Hamas has confirmed that its leader Ismail Haniyeh has met with Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian in Doha, Qatar, and said the two had agreed to continue cooperation to achieve Hamas’s goals.
The Reuters report on Hamas’s statement follows earlier reports that the meeting appeared to have taken place, without giving exact details.
US sending second aircraft carrier to eastern Mediterranean – reports
The United States is ordering a second aircraft carrier to the eastern Mediterranean near Israel, according to US ABC and CNN reports.
The ABC quoted US officials as saying the Pentagon was sending the second carrier to the area to deter Iran or Hezbollah from joining the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The USS Eisenhower carrier strike group will be ordered to the eastern Mediterranean to join the USS Gerald R Ford carrier strike group that arrived there earlier this week and is in international waters off Israel, it quoted a senior US official as saying.
CNN reported that the US warships were not intended to join the fighting in Gaza or take part in Israel’s operations but that the presence of two of the US navy’s most powerful ships was designed to send a message of deterrence to Iran and Iranian proxies in the region such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The Pentagon did not immediately comment on the reports.
Updated
Russia has asked the United Nations security council to vote on Monday on a draft resolution on the Israel-Hamas conflict that calls for a humanitarian ceasefire and condemns violence against civilians and all acts of terrorism.
Reuters reports that Russia’s deputy UN ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy, said no changes had been made to the text since it was given to the 15-member body on Friday and that he expected the vote to be scheduled for 3pm EDT (1900 GMT) on Monday.
This is Adam Fulton picking up the live blog from my colleague Maya Yang
Summary
It is slightly past 2am in Gaza where thousands of Palestinians have been evacuating towards the southern part of the Gaza Strip as Israel prepares for a ground invasion. Here is where things stand:
The World Health Organization has issued a statement condemning Israel’s orders of the evacuation of 22 hospitals in northern Gaza that are treating more than 2,000 inpatients. In a statement on Saturday, the WHO warned that the “forced evacuations of patients and health workers will further worsen the current humanitarian and public health catastrophe”.
Iran has warned of “far-reaching consequences” if Israel’s “war crimes and genocide” are not stopped immediately. On Saturday, the permanent mission of Iran to the United Nations added: “The responsibility of which lies with the UN, the Security Council & the states steering the Council toward a dead end.”
Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian appears to have met with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Doha, Qatar, this evening. The exact meeting details have yet to be disclosed.
US president Joe Biden spoke separately with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday. Netanyahu’s office said that the prime minister told Biden that “unity and determination” are needed to achieve Israel’s goal of defeating Hamas. Meanwhile, Abbas’s office said that the president told Biden that he rejects the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza as thousands flee amid deadly Israeli airstrikes.
Israel’s military said on Saturday that it has fired back at Syrian areas from which two rockets were launched towards Israeli territory and fell into open areas. The military also said it fired an interceptor towards a “suspicious target” that crossed into Israeli territory from Lebanon but did not provide any additional details.
The European Council chief has called on a virtual summit with EU leaders next week to discuss the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. “It is of utmost importance that the European Council, in line with the treaties and our values, sets our common position and establishes a clear unified course of action that reflects the complexity of the unfolding situation,” said Charles Michel, president of the European Council.
Médicins Sans Frontieres has called on the ‘Israeli authorities to ‘show humanity’. In a statement issued on Saturday, MSF condemned Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip “without restraint for a week”.
Israel has admitted to intelligence ‘mistakes’ in failing to predict Hamas’s attacks last weekend. “It’s my mistake, and it reflects the mistakes of all those making [intelligence] assessments,” Israel’s national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said at a press briefing.
The Israeli military announced on Saturday that its forces are preparing to implement a wide range of operational offensive plans. It also announced that its forces have been deployed throughout Israel and is preparing for the next stages “with an emphasis on significant ground operations”.
Lebanon said on Saturday that Israel had launched a deadly strike on Friday that killed a Reuters journalist and injured six other journalists from Agence France-Presse, Reuters and Al Jazeera. The Lebanese army said in a statement that “the Israeli enemy fired a rocket shell that hit a civilian car belonging to a media team, leading to the death of Issam Abdallah”.
The UN’s under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, Martin Griffiths, has warned that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is “fast becoming untenable”. In a statement issued on Saturday, Griffiths said: “Even wars have rules, and these rules must be upheld, at all times, and by all sides. Civilians and civilian infrastructure, including humanitarian workers and assets, must be protected.”
The European Commission announced this afternoon that it will triple humanitarian aid for Gaza. The move comes after the EU faced criticism for conflicting messaging from its senior leadership. The commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, spoke with the UN secretary general, António Guterres, today, the commission said.
Thousands around the world demonstrate in pro-Palestinian rallies
Here are some images coming through the newswires of pro-Palestinian protests held across the world over the weekend as Gaza’s humanitarian crisis intensifies amid deadly Israeli airstrikes:
Updated
World Health Organization says evacuating Gaza patients 'tantamount to a death sentence'
The World Health Organization has issued a statement condemning Israel’s orders of the evacuation of 22 hospitals in northern Gaza that are treating more than 2,000 inpatients.
In a statement on Saturday, the WHO warned that the “forced evacuations of patients and health workers will further worsen the current humanitarian and public health catastrophe”.
The lives of many critically ill and fragile patients hang in the balance: those in intensive care or who rely on life support; patients undergoing hemodialysis; newborns in incubators; women with complications of pregnancy, and others all face imminent deterioration of their condition or death if they are forced to move and are cut off from life-saving medical attention while being evacuated,” the WHO said.
Hospital directors and health workers are now facing an agonizing choice: abandon critically ill patients amid a bombing campaign, put their own lives at risk while remaining on site to treat patients, or endanger their patients’ lives while attempting to transport them to facilities that have no capacity to receive them.
Overwhelmingly, caregivers have chosen to stay behind and honor their oaths as health professionals to “do no harm”, rather than risk moving their critically ill patients during evacuations. Health workers should never have to make such impossible choices,” it added.
It went on to urge Israel to immediately reverse evacuation orders to hospitals in northern Gaza.
Evacuation orders by Israel to hospitals in northern Gaza are a death sentence for the sick and injured
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) October 14, 2023
As the @UN's agency responsible for public health, the World Health Organization (WHO) strongly condemns Israel's repeated orders for the evacuation of 22 hospitals treating… pic.twitter.com/lTFIsmLRe0
Updated
The White House has released readouts of president Joe Biden’s calls with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority’s president Mahmoud Abbas.
On Biden’s call with Netanyahu, the White House said:
President Biden discussed with Prime Minister Netanyahu US coordination with the United Nations, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and others in the region to ensure innocent civilians have access to water, food, and medical care. President Biden affirmed his support for all efforts to protect civilians.
As more information comes to light about Hamas’s brutal atrocities committed over the past week, President Biden reiterated the need for all countries to unequivocally condemn Hamas as a terrorist organization that does not represent the aspirations of the Palestinian people.
On Biden’s call with Abbas, the White House said:
President Biden condemned Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel and reiterated that Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination. President Abbas briefed President Biden on his engagement in the region and his efforts to bring urgently needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinian people, particularly in Gaza. President Biden offered President Abbas and the Palestinian Authority his full support for these important and ongoing efforts.
President Biden discussed with President Abbas US efforts to work with the United Nations, Egypt, Jordan, Israel and others to ensure humanitarian supplies reach civilians in Gaza.
The Syrian defence ministry has confirmed Israel’s targeting of its Aleppo airport on Saturday night.
“The Israeli enemy carried out an air attack from the direction of the Mediterranean Sea, west of Latakia, targeting Aleppo International Airport, which led to material damage to the airport and it being out of service,” Reuters reports the ministry staying.
Iran has warned of “far-reaching consequences” if Israel’s “war crimes and genocide” are not stopped immediately.
On Saturday, the permanent mission of Iran to the United Nations tweeted:
If the Israeli apartheid’s war crimes & genocide are not halted immediately, the situation could spiral out of control & ricochet far-reaching consequences—the responsibility of which lies with the UN, the Security Council & the states steering the Council toward a dead end.”
If the Israeli apartheid’s war crimes & genocide are not halted immediately, the situation could spiral out of control & ricochet far-reaching consequences—the responsibility of which lies with the UN, the Security Council & the states steering the Council toward a dead end.
— Permanent Mission of I.R.Iran to UN, NY (@Iran_UN) October 14, 2023
Updated
An Israeli airstrike is reported to have hit Aleppo airport in Syria.
Speaking to Agence France-Presse, Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said:
An Israeli air strike coming from the direction of the sea struck Aleppo airport.”
Agence France-Presse reports that Syrian state media SANA has also confirmed the strike, with state TV reporting: “Israeli aggression targeting Aleppo International Airport.”
Syrian state media is also reporting that the Aleppo airport is out of service following the airstrike, Reuters reports.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Saturday’s strikes hit the airport “hours after it went back into service, knocking it out of service again,” Agence France-Presse reports.
The reported strikes comes just days after Israeli forces launched missiles at the airports in Aleppo and Damascus, damaging their runways.
Reuters reports that sources have said the strikes on the airports are intended to disrupt Iranian supply lines into Syria.
Updated
Thousands of people attended rallies in London and other cities across the UK in a show of solidarity for Palestine.
Agence France-Presse reports that demonstrators took to the streets in London in the presence of more than 1,000 police officers.
[Thread] Gigantic demonstrations across Britain in support of Palestine today.
— Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) October 14, 2023
1) Londonpic.twitter.com/RMrzfq7Ojm
Other pro-Palestinian rallies took place in cities including Manchester and Edinburgh.
“I think all just people around the world, not just in Britain, must stand up and call for this madness [to end],” Ismail Patel, chairman of the Friends of Al-Aqsa campaign, told Agence France-Presse in London.
Ferouza Namaz, a 34-year-old student from Uzbekistan joined the protest in London and said: “Just being Palestinian does not give the rights to kill them. These appalling atrocities have been taking place for so many years.”
Absolutely unprecedented: Even as the UK government threatens to crack down on pro-Palestine activists and protesters, the masses come out in support of Palestine🇵🇸 on the streets of London amid Israel’s bombardment and siege of Gaza https://t.co/wiX1lU2EYS pic.twitter.com/WKUhYjJWPj
— Going Underground (@GUnderground_TV) October 14, 2023
Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which called the march, told Agence France-Presse it was designed to send a message to politicians who, he said, had “given the green light to Israel to commit war crimes”.
Jeremy Corbyn, the UK’s former Labour leader addressed the rally, saying:
What we’re searching for here today is a process for peace and a process for justice and a process for honor, particularly for the people of Palestine …
It is right to condemn the continuing occupation of Palestine by the Israeli military forces … The system that has been quite correctly described by the late archbishop Desmond Tutu as a system of apartheid has to be condemned and has to be opposed.”
"It is right to condemn the continuing occupation of Palestine by Israeli military forces."
— Sky News (@SkyNews) October 14, 2023
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is speaking at a pro-Palestine demonstration in London.
Israel-Hamas latest ➡️ https://t.co/5HylWXsPOL
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/14inFkC1y9
The demonstrations come amid intensifying Israeli strikes on Gaza as thousands of Palestinians attempt to flee to the southern part of the strip, many of them being killed in the process.
Updated
Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian appears to have met with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Doha, Qatar, this evening.
The exact meeting details have yet to be disclosed.
NEW: Iranian FM Amirabdollahian met Hamas leader Haniyeh in Doha, Qatar tonight
— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) October 14, 2023
pic.twitter.com/cAdjsvLpCu
Earlier this week, US secretary of state Antony Blinken met with Qatar’s prime minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani as part of his seven-country regional tour in attempts to contain the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
Reuters reports that Blinken did not directly answer a question about whether the US was demanding that Qatar shut down a Hamas political office in Doha. However, Blinken did say that every country “needs to condemn” Hamas following its attacks on Israel.
“I’ve also been making it clear in all of my conversations throughout this trip that there can be no more business as usual with Hamas,” Blinken said following the meeting.
Updated
US president Joe Biden spoke separately with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday, Reuters reports.
Netanyahu’s office said that the prime minister thanked Biden for his support and told him that “unity and determination” are needed to achieve Israel’s goal of defeating Hamas.
Meanwhile, Abbas’s office said that the president told Biden that he rejects the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza as thousands flee amid deadly Israeli airstrikes.
Updated
Israel’s military said on Saturday that it has fired back at Syrian areas from which two rockets were launched towards Israeli territory and fell into open areas, Reuters reports.
The military also said it fired an interceptor towards a “suspicious target” that crossed into Israeli territory from Lebanon but did not provide any additional details.
It also added that the Syrian rockets set off sirens in northern Israel including the town of Alma which is situated near the Lebanese border. Sirens also went off in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights town of Avnei Eitan, Reuters reports.
Following Hamas’s attacks on Israel last weekend, Israel has also exchanged fire with Lebanon’s Hezbollah and militants in Syria.
Updated
European leaders to hold virtual summit on Israel-Hamas war next week
The European Council chief has called on a virtual summit with EU leaders next week to discuss the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
“It is of utmost importance that the European Council, in line with the treaties and our values, sets our common position and establishes a clear unified course of action that reflects the complexity of the unfolding situation,” said Charles Michel, president of the European Council.
Michel, who set the meeting for Tuesday 3.30pm GMT, went on to voice support towards Israel, saying: “We stand in full solidarity with the people of Israel and the victims of the terrorist attacks.”
“Israel has the right to defend itself in full compliance with international law, in particular international humanitarian law,” he added.
He also called called the ongoing evacuations of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza “tragic scenes”, saying that they “are raising alarm bells in the international community”.
Updated
Here are some images coming through the newswires as Israeli airstrikes continue to hit Gaza as thousands of Palestinians flee their homes:
Updated
Flights with humanitarian aid have been landing in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula amid efforts to open safe corridors into Gaza.
The Guardian’s Julian Borger reports:
Two new aid flights arrived on Saturday at El Arish airport in Sinai, 45km from the Gaza border, and another three landed earlier in the week.
One of the flights, the World Health Organization (WHO) said, was carrying trauma medicines and health supplies.
“Every hour these supplies remain on the Egyptian side of the border, more girls and boys, women and men, especially those vulnerable or disabled, will die,” the WHO director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in a statement.
Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, replied to the WHO chief on social media, insisting that Israel was taking “every feasible precaution available to mitigate unintended civilian harm”, including the dropping of leaflets and sending messages on social media warning people to leave northern Gaza. She blamed Hamas for using civilians as human shields.
Human rights lawyers say the forcible transfer for such a large population and the heavy bombing of residential areas could constitute war crimes, and the Israeli government has yet to allow humanitarian supplies to enter Gaza.
For the full story, click here:
Conservative American lawmakers including Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis and Georgia’s hard-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene have said the US should not accept refugees from Gaza as thousands of them continue to flee amid deadly Israeli strikes.
During an event for his 2024 presidential campaign, DeSantis issued scathing words against Gazan civilians, saying: “We cannot accept people from Gaza into this country as refugees … If you look at how they behave, not all of them are Hamas but they are all anti-Semitic, none of them believe in Israel’s right to exist.”
He went on to say that the neighbouring “Arab states should be taking them if you have refugees”.
Greene issued similar words, tweeting: “We cannot take in 1 million refugees from Gaza. We would be importing anti-Semitic people, many who support terrorism.”
The UN and numerous humanitarian organisations have called for the safe evacuation of Gazans and warned of a growing humanitarian crisis as they flee deadly Israeli airstrikes which have struck and reportedly killed dozens even in supposedly “safe” routes.
Updated
Canada’s foreign minister has confirmed death of fourth Canadian in last week’s attacks by Hamas
Twenty-two-year-old Shir Georgy went missing following Hamas’s attacks at a music festival near Kibbutz Re’im last Saturday. Her aunt, Michal Bouganim, mourned her niece’s death on Instagram, saying: “It is with great sadness and a broken heart that we announce the murder of our beloved Shir.”
Reuters reported Canadian foreign minister Melanie Joly said that Georgy’s death brings the total death toll of Canadians to four, with three still missing.
Joly also said that she is working on evacuating Canadians in Gaza through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt and out of the West Bank via bus and into Jordan.
“Canada has an agreement with Israel to get Canadians out of Gaza … Things are very volatile, obviously, in Gaza, where it is one of the worst places on earth right now to be living in,” Reuters reported Joly said in a phone call to reporters from Jordan.
Updated
Siren sounds appear to be ongoing in Tel Aviv as the Israeli military warns of possible incoming rockets, Reuters reports.
Rocket sirens blare in central Israel, Tel Avivhttps://t.co/F4aZk1afpw
— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) October 14, 2023
#WATCH | Israel: Latest visuals from Tel Aviv; siren sound goes off amid the Israel-Hamas conflict pic.twitter.com/heEOtdMs8H
— ANI (@ANI) October 14, 2023
Here is footage showing moments before and after an Israeli airstrike that hit civilian convoys fleeing Gaza:
The strike killed dozens of people and occurred on Salah-ah-Din Road, a supposedly safe route Palestinians are using to flee northern Gaza.
Updated
Médicins Sans Frontieres has called on the 'Israeli authorities to ‘show humanity’.
In a statement issued on Saturday, MSF condemned Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip “without restraint for a week”.
“We are calling for the most elementary humanity to be shown,” it said, adding:
Despite Israeli announcements suggesting that there are safe areas for the population trapped in the Gaza Strip, they are in fact exposed to bombardment throughout all the territory, including in the south, where tens of thousands of people have fled following the ultimatum.
The injunction to nearly 1.1 million people to move in a few hours to an already overpopulated territory with precarious access to food, water and healthcare is as absurd as it is intolerable. Our teams are witnessing the fact that drinking water is becoming scarce in the south of the Gaza Strip and the difficulty of obtaining it is adding to the distress of the population. MSF urgently calls for the restoration of sufficient and immediate access to drinking water for the population of the Gaza Strip.
A humanitarian corridor of a few hours decreed today by the Israeli authorities in the north of Gaza has just expired. We are extremely worried about the fate of those who will not be able to move, such as the wounded, the sick and the medical staff, who we fear will be wiped out in view of the statements made by the Israeli military authorities.
MSF is calling for safe zones to remain in the north and for regular ceasefires.
We are also calling for the possibility to flee through the Rafah crossing for those who wish to do so, without prejudice to the right to return. Médecins Sans Frontières has asked for its Palestinian staff who wish to leave to be evacuated.”
Updated
Israel has admitted to intelligence ‘mistakes’ in failing to predict Hamas’s attacks last weekend.
“It’s my mistake, and it reflects the mistakes of all those making [intelligence] assessments,” Israel’s national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said at a press briefing, Agence France-Presse reports.
“We really believed that Hamas learned the lesson from,” its last major war with Israel in 2021, Hanegbi added.
He went on to refuse negotiations surrounding prisoner swaps with Hamas, saying: “There’s no way to negotiate with an enemy we have sworn to obliterate.”
Updated
Israeli military preparing for 'significant ground operations'
The Israeli military announced on Saturday that its forces are preparing to implement a wide range of operational offensive plans, Reuters reports.
It also announced that its forces have been deployed throughout Israel and is preparing for the next stages “with an emphasis on significant ground operations”.
Updated
The Scottish government has announced that it will provide £500,000 towards the UN Relief and Works Agency’s appeal amid the increasingly deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza.
On Saturday, Scotland’s international development minister, Christina McKelvie, confirmed that the funding, saying:
Our thoughts are with all the innocent people caught in the middle of escalating conflict in Israel and Gaza. The Scottish government reiterates the call from the first minister and the UN secretary-general for a humanitarian corridor to be established so that urgent assistance can be given to those civilians who are trapped, helpless and cannot leave.”
Tamara Alrifai, a UNRWA spokespersonm thanked the Scottish government, saying:
“This generous contribution is an incredibly humane gesture towards tens of thousands of people who are in utter distress in the Gaza Strip. UNRWA is very grateful for the show of support by Scotland and will use every penny to help alleviate the suffering of civilian women, children and men in Gaza.”
Updated
Lebanon said on Saturday that Israel had launched a deadly strike on Friday that killed a Reuters journalist and injured six other journalists from Agence France-Presse, Reuters and Al Jazeera.
The Lebanese army said in a statement that “the Israeli enemy fired a rocket shell that hit a civilian car belonging to a media team, leading to the death of Issam Abdallah”, AFP reports.
Lebanon’s foreign ministry called the strike a “deliberate killing” and a “crime against freedom of speech and journalism”.
Fatima Kanso, Abdallah’s mother, said: “Israel deliberately killed my son. They were all wearing journalists’ gear and the word ‘press’ was visible. Israel cannot deny this crime,’” Reuters reports.
The AFP photographer Christina Assi and AFP video journalist Dylan Collins were among the six journalists wounded.
“We were filming smoke billowing from Israeli artillery fire targeting a distant hill in front of us,” Collins told the AFP, adding, “There was no military activity in our direct vicinity and no artillery fire near us.”
Al Jazeera has also accused Israel of launching the deadly strike, which injured its reporter Carmen Joukhadar. Joukhadar said she and her colleagues had been filming footage on a hill “in an open-air area, without any military sites near us”.
AFP reports Joukhadar running to her car for shelter when the first strike landed. “Then I thought I shouldn’t be close to the car, so I ran and the second strike hit” the vehicle, Joukhadar said.
An Israeli military spokesperson said that the military was looking into the circumstances surrounding the deadly strikes.
Updated
Saudi Arabia is reported to have suspended normalisation talks with Israel, a source tells Agence France-Presse.
“Saudi Arabia has decided to pause discussion on possible normalisation and has informed US officials,” the source told AFP, which reports that the source spoke the same day US secretary of state Antony Blinken met in Riyadh with his Saudi counterpart, Faisal bin Farhan.
Following the meeting, the Saudi foreign ministry called for “an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and its surroundings” and the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid.
UN aid chief: Gaza humanitarian situation "becoming untenable"
The UN’s under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, Martin Griffiths, has warned that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is “fast becoming untenable”.
In a statement issued on Saturday, Griffiths said:
“In Gaza, families have been bombed while inching their way south along congested, damaged roads, following an evacuation order that left hundreds of thousands of people scrambling for safety but with nowhere to go.
Nearly 2,000 people have been killed and many more have been injured. There is no power, no water and no fuel. Food supplies are running dangerously low. Hospitals, overwhelmed with patients, are running out of medicine …
Even wars have rules, and these rules must be upheld, at all times, and by all sides. Civilians and civilian infrastructure, including humanitarian workers and assets, must be protected.
Civilians must be allowed to leave for safer areas. And whether they move or stay, constant care must be taken to spare them.”
It’s been a dreadful week. Humanity must prevail. pic.twitter.com/vQUMy2jK1q
— Martin Griffiths (@UNReliefChief) October 14, 2023
Updated
European Commission to triple humanitarian aid for Gaza
The European Commission announced this afternoon that it will triple humanitarian aid for Gaza. The move comes after the EU faced criticism for conflicting messaging from its senior leadership.
The commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, spoke with the UN secretary general, António Guterres, today, the commission said.
“The commission will immediately increase the current humanitarian aid envelope foreseen for Gaza by €50m,” Von der Leyen said in a statement. “This will bring the total to over €75m.”
The commission chief added:
“We will continue our close cooperation with the UN and its agencies to ensure that this aid reaches those in need in the Gaza Strip. The commission supports Israel’s right to defend itself against the Hamas terrorists, in full respect of international humanitarian law. We are working hard to ensure that innocent civilians in Gaza are provided support in this context.”
Updated
Gaza civilians afraid to leave home after bombing 'safe routes'
A convoy of vehicles carrying fleeing civilians from Gaza to the southern half of the strip, which was traveling on a road marked as a “safe route”, has been struck by a deadly airstrike, according to analysis.
The Guardian’s Bethan McKernan and Sufian Taha report:
The Friday afternoon bombing in Gaza City, which killed a reported 70 people including children and which Hamas blamed on Israel, occurred on Salah-al-Din Road, a main thoroughfare in the overcrowded enclave, home to a trapped population of 2.3 million people.
Forensic Architecture, a London-based research agency, and its partner investigations unit at the Palestinian human rights organisation al-Haq, used aerial photos and social media posts to geolocate the site of the strike, sharing its findings with the Guardian. The BBC’s Verify unit also came to the same conclusion.
Video and pictures of the aftermath of the attack show 12 dead bodies, most of whom are women and children as young as about two years old, and several damaged vehicles.
The Palestinian health ministry said that 70 people were killed on the road, which was filled with traffic as Palestinians tried to adhere to Israeli orders given early on Friday to evacuate the northern half of Gaza.
Shadows and the position of the sun suggest the attack on the civilian convoy occurred at about 5.30pm. At 6.03pm, in social media posts, the IDF identified the exact same road in an infographic as the safe route to follow the Israeli evacuation directive for about half of the strip’s population to travel south of the Gaza River, which is just south of Gaza City.
For further details, click here:
Updated
Summary of the past hours
Thousands of Palestinians have continued to leave northern Gaza and cram into already crowded schools, homes and makeshift shelters in the south, as Israeli airstrikes pound the blockaded strip ahead of an expected ground invasion.
The US president, Joe Biden, said Washington “is working with the governments of Israel, Egypt, Jordan – and with the UN – to surge support to ease the humanitarian consequences of Hamas’s attack, create conditions needed to resume the flow of assistance, and advocate for the upholding of the law of war.”
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told troops in southern Israel that “the next stage is coming.”
Lebanon’s Hezbollah took responsibility for firing guided missiles and mortar shells toward Israel. In response, the Israel Defense Forces hit targets in Lebanese territory. Residents of multiple northern Israeli communities have been instructed to take shelter.
The US state department advised US citizens in Gaza to move south toward the Rafah border crossing with Egypt as diplomats try to negotiate a five-hour opening to allow civilians out of the blockaded enclave.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) called on the Israeli authorities “to protect all civilians who have been sheltering” in its premises in the Gaza Strip and said that its shelters “are not safe any more”.
The UNRWA also warned that “clean water is running out” in Gaza.
Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s ambassador to the UN and international organisations in Geneva, has insisted that Israel is complying with international humanitarian law.
Thousands of people have joined a pro-Palestine rally in central London over the Israel-Hamas war.
The death toll in Gaza has risen to at least 2,215, with 8,714 wounded, the local health ministry said.
Israel’s death toll is at over 1,300, the Israeli authorities said, with more than 3,360 injured.
Sirens have continued sounding in southern and central Israel.
Updated
Anniken Huitfeldt, Norway’s foreign minister, said she is joining warnings from the UN secretary general, António Guterres, and the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borell, “about the danger of a mass movement of people inside Gaza”.
“International humanitarian law must be respected,” she said.
I join warnings by @antonioguterres and @JosepBorrellF about the danger of a mass movement of people inside Gaza.
— Anniken Huitfeldt (@AHuitfeldt) October 14, 2023
International humanitarian law must be respected.
Humanitarian access must be ensured.
And civilians must be protected and never used as shields.
Updated
In an updated advisory for Israel, Gaza and the West Bank on Saturday, the US state department said it had authorised the departure of non-essential US government personnel owing to “the unpredictable security situation in Israel”.
The department had already advised US citizens to reconsider travel to Israel and the West Bank due to “terrorism and civil unrest” and not to travel to Gaza due to “terrorism, civil unrest and armed conflict”.
Updated
'Next stage is coming,' Netanyahu tells troops
“The next stage is coming,” the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told troops today.
He was speaking in southern Israel, in a video posted by his office.
“We’re all ready,” the prime minister wrote on social media.
עם הלוחמים שלנו בעוטף עזה, בקו החזית. כולנו מוכנים.
— Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) October 14, 2023
(צילום: אבי אוחיון, לע״מ) pic.twitter.com/TiGzHcWhPK
Updated
Turkey stands with Egypt in rejecting the exile of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, the Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, said during a visit to Cairo, Reuters reported.
Updated
US tells Americans in Gaza to move toward Rafah crossing
The US state department advised US citizens in Gaza to move south toward the Rafah border crossing with Egypt as diplomats try to negotiate a five-hour opening to allow civilians out of the blockaded enclave.
A senior department official traveling with the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said that the US was “trying to facilitate” an agreement with governments in the region to open the Egyptian-controlled gate, CBS reported. Earlier this week Egypt denied it had closed the crossing and accused Israel of blocking access on the Palestinian side with shelling and airstrikes.
“We have informed US citizens in Gaza with whom we are in contact that if they assess it to be safe, they may wish to move closer to the Rafah border crossing,” a spokesperson told CBS and other outlets, adding that “there may be very little notice if the crossing opens and it may only open for a limited time”.
The official said the department was “in touch” with a number of the 500 to 600 US-Palestinian dual nationals who had expressed interest in receiving information about leaving and had been working with Egypt, Israel and Qatar to open the crossing.
However, the official warned that it was “not clear at all if Hamas was going to allow people to make it to Rafah”.
Updated
After Hezbollah fired guided missiles and mortar shells, Israel retaliated by shelling the outskirts the Lebanese villages around Shaba’a.
Updated
Twenty-eight Palestinian medics have been killed in Israeli airstrikes since 7 October, the local health authorities have said, Reuters reports.
Updated
Sirens have sounded in central and southern Israel.
Two charter flights have now left Israel as efforts to help Britons leave the country continue, the UK Foreign Office has confirmed.
A British government spokesperson said: “Two flights facilitated by the UK government have now departed Israel.
“Further flights are expected to leave in the coming days while commercial options are limited.”
It was reported on Friday night that citizens trying to escape were seeing their flights repeatedly cancelled by the British government, while US and Australian emergency flights landed in UK airports.
This was because ministers ran into problems obtaining insurance, an aviation source told the PA news agency. Late on Friday it appeared the government had turned to using military transport.
Updated
Israel is continuing to carry out strikes in Lebanese territory after about 30 mortar shells were fired from Lebanon toward Israel, the Israel Defense Forces said.
בהמשך לדיווח הראשוני על שיגורים לעבר הר דב, זוהו כ-30 פצצות מרגמה ששוגרו לעבר שטח ישראל, חלקם חצו לשטחינו. צה"ל תקף בתגובה את מקורות הירי וממשיך לתקוף בשטח לבנון כעת.
— דובר צה״ל דניאל הגרי - Daniel Hagari (@IDFSpokesperson) October 14, 2023
בזמן התקיפות זוהתה חוליית מחבלים שעל פי החשד התכוונה לירות טיל נ"ט לעבר מדינת ישראל. כלי טיס תקף את החוליה.
Updated
Residents of four northern Israeli communities have been asked to take shelter, Haaretz reports.
Biden: US working to 'ease' humanitarian consequences
President Joe Biden said today that Washington is working to “create conditions needed to resume the flow of assistance, and advocate for the upholding of the law of war”.
The U.S. is working with the governments of Israel, Egypt, Jordan — and with the UN — to surge support to ease the humanitarian consequences of Hamas’s attack, create conditions needed to resume the flow of assistance, and advocate for the upholding of the law of war.
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 14, 2023
Updated
Israeli airstrikes hit northern Gaza as Palestinians try to leave
Thousands of Palestinians have continued to leave northern Gaza and cram into already crowded schools, homes and makeshift shelters in the south, as Israeli airstrikes pound the blockaded strip ahead of an expected ground invasion.
Foreign citizens may be allowed to leave the enclave on Saturday, under a deal agreed by Egypt, Israel and the United States, senior Egyptian and US officials said.
Around 2.3 million Palestinians are trapped in Gaza, facing a terrifying escalation of bloodshed and misery, after Israel sealed all crossings into its territory and Egypt reinforced its border crossing, saying it would not allow refugees to enter.
Food, fuel and water supplies were dwindling fast on Saturday after Israel cut all movement in and out of Gaza. The death toll from airstrikes, already at unprecedented levels, had reached more than 2,200. That included 724 children and 458 women, the Gaza health ministry said on Saturday.
Israel has vowed to obliterate the Hamas militant group, after its fighters broke through the hi-tech fence surrounding the strip, and went on a murderous rampage, killing 1,300 people, mainly Israeli civilians, and seizing dozens of hostages.
Read the full story here.
Updated
Hezbollah says it fired rockets and mortar shells at Israel
Hezbollah said in a statement that at 3.15pmon Saturday “groups belonging to the Islamic resistance attacked Zionist positions in Lebanese-occupied Shaba’a farms … with guided rockets and mortar shells … hitting their targets accurately”.
Updated
Thousands attend pro-Palestinian rally in London
Thousands of people have joined a pro-Palestine rally in central London over the Israel-Hamas war.
The march, which will progress to Whitehall, set off from Portland Place just before 1pm, where pro-Palestine activists daubed the BBC’s headquarters with red paint earlier in the day.
Palestine Action claimed responsibility for targeting the building on Saturday morning, accusing the broadcaster of having “Palestinian blood on its hands”.
Supporters at the demonstration let off red, green and black flares and chanted: “Free, free Palestine”, and: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”. PA Media reports that tensions briefly boiled over between a protester and a member of the public on Regent Street.
The march is organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign alongside a number of other groups: Friends of Al-Aqsa, Stop the War Coalition, Muslim Association of Britain, Palestinian Forum in Britain, and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
More than 1,000 officers have been deployed by the Metropolitan police for the march and section 12 of the Public Order Act has been in force since midday covering the demonstration’s route.
Police have warned that anyone showing support for Hamas or deviating from the route could face arrest.
Updated
Pregnant women are faced with an impossible choice in Gaza, the NGO ActionAid said today. Riham Jafari, the group’s coordinator of advocacy and communication for Palestine, said:
As thousands of Gazans flee in fear of their lives – abandoning their homes and communities, it is deeply concerning to witness the threats to target hospitals and critical infrastructure, an egregious violation of international law and a blatant disregard for human lives.
We are particularly concerned about the devastating impact on the 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza right now and newborn babies, who are all left without essential medical care and the safety they deserve as they make the impossible choice of fleeing with no guarantee of safety or remaining at risk of almost certain death.
Updated
In Israeli media outlets, journalists and experts are debating the country’s international communication strategy and the impact of protests in western capitals.
On Israel’s Channel 12, viewers were shown footage from today’s pro-Palestinian protest in London.
Sirens are sounding in southern Israel.
Footage shows an Israeli airstrike on a neighbourhood in the city of Jabalia in northern Gaza.
Updated
The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, said today the priority needs to be “to stop further civilian suffering”, Al Jazeera reports.
Speaking after meeting the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, the Saudi minister said:
We need to find a way to quickly de-escalate the situation, to quickly bring back peace – at least stopping the guns – and then working towards addressing also the humanitarian challenges.
Updated
IDF carrying out strikes in Lebanese territory
Following an initial report of launches from Lebanese territory, the Israeli military is now attacking the origin of the fire, the Israeli Defence Forces said.
בהמשך לדיווח הראשוני על מספר שיגורים משטח לבנון לעבר מרחב הר דב, כוחות צה"ל תוקפים כעת את מקור הירי https://t.co/010QyjhhuL
— דובר צה״ל דניאל הגרי - Daniel Hagari (@IDFSpokesperson) October 14, 2023
Updated
Hussein al-Sheikh, the secretary general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, said he had spoken on the phone today with senior figures from Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Qatar.
The conversation focused on the Arab consensus to stop the aggression against our people immediately and open humanitarian pathways for food and medicine, as well as the restoration of water and electricity, and a categorical rejection of the displacement of the Palestinian people from their homeland. We agreed to join efforts with all countries of the world for this.
Updated
The Dutch defence minister, Kajsa Ollongren, said another flight is on its way to evacuate citizens from Israel.
Mooi om te zien hoe personeel van @Defensie, samen met de collega's van @MinBZ, zich blijven inzetten om Nederlanders die dat willen uit Israël op te halen. Op dit moment is een vierde repatriëringsvlucht onderweg naar Tel Aviv. https://t.co/m60jxT4Nuo
— Kajsa Ollongren (@DefensieMin) October 14, 2023
Updated
Hamas claims eight hostages killed in Israeli strikes
Hamas’s armed wing said in a statement that eight captives, including four foreigners, were killed in Israeli airstrikes over the last 24 hours, Reuters reported.
Updated
The US state department said today that it has authorised the departure of non-emergency government personnel and eligible family members from the US embassy in Jerusalem and the US branch office in Tel Aviv, Reuters reported.
Updated
Russian citizen held hostage in Gaza
Russia’s embassy in Israel said that 16 Russian citizens have been killed in the war, with eight missing, Ynet reported. At least one dual Russian-Israeli citizen is being held hostage by Hamas.
Updated
The Israeli Defence Forces say a number of launches were detected from Lebanese territory, and the incident is under investigation.
זוהו מספר שיגורים לפני זמן קצר משטח לבנון לעבר מרחב הר דב. הפרטים בבדיקה
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) October 14, 2023
Updated
Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City has been told by the Israeli authorities to evacuate by 4pm local time, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said in a statement posted on social media.
The PRCS cannot evacuate the hospital and will continue providing services, the statement said.
PRCS Statement on Al Quds Hospital Evacuation order.#Gaza_Under_Attack#NotATarget pic.twitter.com/4QGIFAAUAo
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) October 14, 2023
Updated
UNRWA shelters in Gaza not safe, organisation says
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) today called on the Israeli authorities “to protect all civilians who have been sheltering” in its premises in the Gaza Strip.
“Wars have rules. Civilians, hospitals, schools, clinics & UN premises cannot be a target,” the organisation said, adding that its shelters “are not safe anymore”.
🆘 UNRWA shelters in 📍#Gaza and Northern Gaza are not safe anymore.
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) October 14, 2023
This is unprecedented.
This war should be no exception - protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure including @UN buildings applies to this conflict too.
ENDs
Updated
Hundreds attended a protest in Tel Aviv today calling for the release of hostages held by Hamas. Here are photos.
Updated
Gaza health official calls for opening crossings
Dr Ashraf al-Qudra, the spokesperson for Gaza’s health ministry, has demanded that sick and wounded Palestinians be allowed to leave the territory, Al Jazeera reported.
The Ministry of Health urgently demands the opening of the crossings to take the sick and wounded out for treatment abroad and to bring its emergency needs of medicines, medical consumables and fuel to hospitals and medical centres in light of the power outage due to the Israeli aggression.
Updated
Hamas said Israeli airstrikes hit convoys leaving Gaza City on Friday, killing dozens of people and injuring hundreds more. Here is footage from Gaza.
Sirens sounding in southern Israel.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said his country loves peace and condemns Hamas’s terror attack in Israel, calling for the urgent release of hostages.
The Spanish leader also stressed that while Israel has the right to defend itself, it should be done while respecting international humanitarian law, which does not endorse the evacuation of Palestinians.
The conflict can only be resolved with the recognition of two states, he added.
España es amante de la paz. Por eso condenamos, con rotundidad y sin ningún tipo de ambages, el atentado terrorista de Hamás en Israel y las muertes de israelíes.
— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) October 14, 2023
Exigimos la urgente liberación de los rehenes y con la misma contundencia defendemos que Israel tiene derecho a… pic.twitter.com/0KJ2TFrUeC
Updated
Lebanon is set to submit a complaint to the UN security council over “Israel’s deliberate killing of Lebanese journalist Issam Abdallah”, Reuters reported.
The videographer was part of a Reuters crew in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli army said today it was investigating.
“We are aware of the incident with the Reuters journalist,” army spokesman Lt Col Richard Hecht said. “We are looking into it. We already have visuals. We’re doing cross examination. It’s a tragic thing,” he said.
LEBANON TO SUBMIT FORMAL COMPLAINT TO UN SECURITY COUNCIL ON "ISRAEL'S DELIBERATE KILLING OF LEBANESE JOURNALIST ISSAM ABDULLAH" - via @reuters
— Maya Gebeily (@GebeilyM) October 14, 2023
Updated
Protesters gathering outside BBC headquarters
Hundreds of protesters have gathered outside Broadcasting House, the BBC’s headquarters in London, ahead of a pro-Palestinian march.
Palestine flags and supportive placards were waved as people chanted, with police officers stationed near Portland Place.
A cordon had been placed outside the main entrance to the building after red paint was thrown at its entrance early on Saturday morning.
Victoria Derbyshire, a journalist and presenter for the corporation, posted images and footage showing a vandalised main entrance at its principal building near Oxford Street.
The revolving doors and brickwork had been covered in paint.
Just arrived at work. This is the front entrance to BBC this morning pic.twitter.com/BHkyAtKZWF
— Victoria Derbyshire (@vicderbyshire) October 14, 2023
The BBC, as the UK’s national broadcaster, has faced criticism in recent days for maintaining its editorial stance not to describe Hamas militants as terrorists.
A Metropolitan police spokesperson said: “We are aware of criminal damage to a building in Portland Place, W1A.
At this stage there is no suggestion this is linked to any protest group.”
Updated
Israeli ambassador: we respect international law
Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations and international organisations in Geneva, has insisted that Israel is complying with international humanitarian law (IHL).
IDF [Israeli Defence Forces] takes every feasible precaution available to mitigate unintended civilian harm, including warning of operations that may cause harm to civilians, in Arabic, through media, social media, dropping leaflets, civic and international organisations. Under IHL, warnings should be effective and in advance. IDF is complying with these requirements.
The ambassador was responding to comments from Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, who said earlier today a plane with supplies had arrived in Egypt and “we continue our plea to Israel to reconsider the decision to evacuate 1.1 million people”.
Using civilians as human shields and locating military facilities in populated areas are grave violations of IHL. This is what the Hamas terrorist organisation is doing.
— Meirav Eilon Shahar 🇮🇱 (@MeiravEShahar) October 14, 2023
Firing rockets indiscriminately from hospitals and medical facilities at Israeli civilians from built up… https://t.co/so1ijbkdye
Updated
Red Cross: we can't do our job without safe passage
The delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Israel and the Occupied Territories said today that “humanitarian work must be made possible at all times”.
Today, in #Gaza @ICRC is on the ground and ready to help. But we can’t do our job without:
— ICRC in Israel & OT (@ICRC_ilot) October 14, 2023
🔴Guarantees of safe passage
🔴Access to our supplies and bringing additional supplies
🔴Means of telecommunication
Humanitarian work must be made possible at all times.
Updated
The family of the Israeli journalist Oded Lifshitz has issued a call of his release.
“Oded (83 years old) and his partner Yocheved (85 years old) were kidnapped from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz near the Gaza border and have been held by Hamas ever since,” the family wrote.
Lifshitz “is a respected journalist who has worked for decades for peace and recognition of Palestinian rights”, the family said, noting that “in recent years, he was among the volunteers of the ‘On the Way to Recovery’ – an association that transports Palestinian patients for life-saving treatment in Israeli hospitals.
“Oded is a man of peace in every inch of his body,” the family said, calling on international organisations “to raise a voice for his release together with his wife and all the abductees who are in Hamas’s hands in Gaza”.
Updated
Doctors Without Borders has shared an update on al-Awda hospital:
“After spending part of the night in the street with bombs landing in close proximity, we understand that some medical staff and all patients have been able to move,” it said, adding however that “the situation remains extremely complicated and chaotic.”
🔴GAZA UPDATE:
— MSF International (@MSF) October 14, 2023
At time of writing the hospital is still standing.
After spending part of the night in the street with bombs landing in close proximity, we understand that some medical staff and all patients have been able to move...
Updated
An Israeli diplomat has criticised voices in Brussels who have spoken out against the EU’s muddled response to the war. Senior EU officials and politicians have expressed different and, at times, conflicting messages in recent days.
Jonathan Rosenzweig, the deputy chief of mission at Israel’s mission to the EU and Nato, said some organisations and researchers should “recalibrate” their “moral compass”.
The concern of some organizations and researchers in the Brussels Bubble for a “EU common position” while more than 1,300 innocent civilians were butchered, raped, beheaded, burnt and kidnapped is an absurd (to say the least). You need to recalibrate your moral compass.
— Jonathan Rosenzweig (@JonRosenzweig) October 14, 2023
Updated
Foreigners to be allowed to leave Gaza later today
Egypt, Israel and the United States have agreed to allow foreigners in Gaza to pass through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt, a senior Egyptian official told the Associated Press.
A second official at the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing point told the AP they received “instructions” to reopen it on Saturday afternoon for foreigners coming from Gaza.
Updated
Israeli ground offensive in Gaza faces physical and political risks
Israel is poised to launch a ground offensive into the northern half of Gaza, an attack that, for all the country’s military superiority, is fraught with uncertainty and whose humanitarian consequences are grim.
The military called up 300,000 reservists on Monday to add to its 170,000-strong standing army and has been massing them near the Gaza border. Hamas, it is estimated, can count on 30,000 fighters, perhaps a tenth of the likely invasion force, and it has neither the tanks nor the air power available to the attackers.
Such an overwhelming ratio should give the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) a high chance of ultimately capturing the area of the Gaza Strip, which includes its principal urban centre, Gaza City, from which its leadership ordered 1.1 million Palestinians to evacuate on Friday.
Hamas has long been ready for an Israeli incursion, digging a sophisticated network of tunnels across Gaza intended to allow its forces to survive aerial bombardment. Some tunnels previously discovered by Israel because they went under the border fence are as deep as 70 metres.
The heavily urbanised terrain – the Gaza Strip is one of the world’s most densely populated areas – will also favour the defenders as they try to fight back. Each remaining building will have to be fought over, and heavy mining could further impede the Israelis if Hamas copies the technique used by Russia to blunt Ukraine’s counteroffensive.
Israel, too, has been planning, and if the IDF gains control of the tunnel entrances it is more likely to mine them than try to enter them. But without full control of the subterranean network where Hamas command posts are likely to be based, any military control of northern Gaza will be insecure.
Read the full analysis here.
Updated
The US has negotiated a temporary opening at the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt for US citizens in Gaza seeking to leave, a senior state department official said, the Washington Post reported.
Updated
The Israeli Defence Forces said they have killed Hamas’s Ali Qadi. They said Qadi – who was among the Palestinians released in a hostage exchange for the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit – led an attack on Israel last weekend.
כלי טיס של צה"ל, בהכוונה מודיעינית של שב"כ ואמ"ן, חיסלו את עלי קאצ'י, מפקד בכוח הנח'בה של ארגון הטרור חמאס, שהוביל מתקפת טרור ביישובי עוטף עזה בסוף השבוע האחרון. בשנת 2005 עלי נעצר בעקבות חטיפה ורצח של ישראלים והוחזר כחלק מעסקת גלעד שליט. pic.twitter.com/aclnoXpGz5
— דובר צה״ל דניאל הגרי - Daniel Hagari (@IDFSpokesperson) October 14, 2023
Updated
Orly Goldschmidt, a spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in the UK, insisted Israel was not targeting civilians – but admitted innocent people would be casualties of the war in Gaza.
She told Times Radio: “There will be innocent people who will pay tragically with their life, but this is a state of war and we have to prevent anyone from harming us again.
“You know ‘never again’, this sentence we have said after the Holocaust, it’s happening at the moment, and never again is now and we need the full support of the international community because these are murderers and we need to make sure they won’t have any capacity ever again to harm.”
She added: “This war is different from anything that Israel has ever encountered before. Hamas infiltrated our borders and they raped, they massacred. They have burned bodies, houses of people, alive.
“They beheaded infants. I have personally seen a video of Hamas members trying to behead someone who seems partly alive.”
Updated
'Matter of life and death': UNRWA says water running out in Gaza
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has said “more than 2 million people are at risk as water runs out” in Gaza.
“It has become a matter of life and death. It is a must; fuel needs to be delivered now into Gaza to make water available for 2 million people,” said Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA’s commissioner general.
We need to truck fuel into Gaza now. Fuel is the only way for people to have safe drinking water. If not, people will start dying of severe dehydration, among them young children, the elderly and women. Water is now the last remaining lifeline. I appeal for the siege on humanitarian assistance to be lifted now.
Updated
The US has been working with Egypt, Israel and Qatar to have the Rafah border crossing from Gaza into Egypt open for five hours today, a senior state department official said, Reuters reported.
Washington has been in touch with Palestinian-Americans inside Gaza.
Updated
Gaza death toll rises to 2,215
The death toll in Gaza has risen to at least 2,215, with 8,714 wounded, the local health ministry said, Reuters reported. The death toll in the West Bank is at 54, it added.
Updated
Australia’s foreign ministry: Israel repatriation flights will not depart today or tomorrow
Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has just posted this on its Smart Traveller social media sites – the Israel repatriation flights will not be departing today, or tomorrow.
The situation is highly challenging and rapidly changing. Unfortunately, we have been advised our scheduled flights will not depart Israel today. A further flight will not depart as scheduled tomorrow.
The Australian Government is working to ensure Australians who want to leave can do so as soon as possible. We will communicate to registered Australians about next available flights.
Australians in Israel or the Occupied Palestinian Territories should register via https://crisis.dfat.gov.au/crisisportal/s/ or by calling the 24-hour Consular Emergency Centre on +61 2 6261 3305 (from overseas) or 1300 555 135 (from Australia)
Updated
The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights, along with a number of other NGOs, has sent a letter to Israeli authorities “demanding an immediate reversal of the decision to cut off water and electricity” to Palestinian prisoners in the “security wings” of Israeli prisons.
Updated
King Abdullah of Jordan is heading out today for a tour of European capitals to garner support to “end the war on Gaza”, Reuters reports.
Updated
There are 355 injured people in Israeli hospitals at the moment, 95 in serious condition, Israeli public radio reports, citing the country’s health ministry.
Since the start of the war, 3,526 injured Israelis had arrived in hospitals.
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Israeli airstrikes over the last 24 hours have killed 324 Palestinians and injured 1,000, Gaza’s health ministry said today, Reuters reported.
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Sirens have sounded in central and southern Israel.
People in northern Gaza will be given safe routes to the south, Israeli military says
The Israeli Defence Forces have told people in the north of the Gaza Strip that between 10am and 4pm there will be two safe routes for them to move south.
The routes, one along the coast and one down the centre of the Gaza Strip, were laid out in a tweet from the IDF spokesperson Avichay Adraee.
“For your safety, take advantage of the short time to move south,” the message said. On Friday, the Israeli military gave Palestinians in the north a 24 hour deadline to evacuate ahead of an expected ground operation.
Lack of fuel and electricity and bad internet connections mean people in Gaza have very little access to social media.
The UN has warned that the order to flee en masse would be calamitous, and urged Israel to reverse it. The order was also widely criticised by international and humanitarian organisations as being too brief to allow evacuation.
Palestinians are struggling to leave amid shortages of fuel and vehicles, while injury and disability makes it impossible for others to leave.
Asked if Israel would give people in Gaza longer to evacuate if needed before starting an evacuation, Lt Col Richard Hecht declined to comment directly.
“We understand it will take time. That’s it. If you’d be moving south, that’s all I can say,” he told journalists in an online briefing
Asked what an Israeli military victory would look like he said: “That is a big question. I don’t think I have the capability right now to answer that.”
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Belgian minister: all parties must respect international law
Hadja Lahbib, Belgium’s foreign minister, wrote on social media this morning that “all parties must respect international humanitarian law”.
“Civilians cannot be used as targets or shields,” she added.
Belgium joins the calls made by @antonioguterres and @JosepBorrellF regarding the evacuation of one million people in Gaza. All parties must respect international humanitarian law. Civilians cannot be used as targets or shields.
— Hadja Lahbib (@hadjalahbib) October 14, 2023
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Saudi Arabia has “decided to pause discussion on possible normalisation” with Israel and “has informed US officials” of its decision, a source familiar with the discussions told Agence France-Presse.
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Jordan said today that any move by Israel to impose a new displacement of Palestinians would push the region to the “abyss” of a wider conflict, Reuters reported.
The foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, said Israel’s blocking of humanitarian aid to Gaza and forcing its residents to leave their homes were a “flagrant” breach of international law.
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A resident of the Kfar Aza kibbutz whose wife and three children are being held hostage in Gaza has started a protest outside a military base in Tel Aviv, intending to stay until the hostages are returned. Tens of people have joined him, Ynet reports.
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Daniel Hagari, a spokesperson for the Israeli Defence Forces, this morning stressed that crossings into Gaza are closed at the moment. He reiterated that civilians in the north of Gaza who are not moving toward the south are in danger.
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WHO medical supplies arrive in Egypt
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, said this morning that a plane with medical supplies has landed in Arish, Egypt, close to the Rafah crossing with Gaza.
We’re ready to deploy the supplies as soon as humanitarian access through the crossing is established. We continue our plea to Israel to reconsider the decision to evacuate 1.1 million people. It will be a human tragedy.
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In Gaza, civil defence teams and residents are carrying out search and rescue operations around buildings destroyed in Israeli airstrikes. Israeli authorities are continuing to urge residents in the north of the Gaza Strip to move southward.
Here are pictures from this morning.
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British MP accuses government of potential complicity in war crimes
A Conservative British MP has served notice on his government that he is planning to bring legal proceedings, including a reference to the international criminal court, for being complicit in Israeli war crimes in Gaza.
Crispin Blunt, the MP for Redhill Surrey and a former chair of the foreign affairs select committee, has written the letter to the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, and the prime minister, Rishi Sunak.
Although Blunt’s pro-Palestinian views are well known, it is an extraordinary step for a Conservative MP to accuse leaders of his own party of potential complicity in war crimes.
The letter contains no reference to the attacks by Hamas that led to more than 1,000 Israelis being killed.
He has written the letter in conjunction with the International Centre for Justice for Palestinians.
In his letter he writes: “In light of the catastrophic situation currently unfolding in Gaza, and clear evidence that Israel has committed war crimes and is on the verge of committing mass atrocity crimes in Gaza, this letter is provided to the UK government in order to emphasise that under international criminal law and its jurisprudence on individual criminal responsibility, support provided to perpetrators of international crimes can be investigated and prosecuted by the international criminal court.”
The letter, written in conjunction with the ICJP’s co director Tayab Ali, says he is putting government officials on notice if they provide support to the actions of the Israeli government under circumstances in which war crimes and crimes against humanity are imminent. It adds such officials are likely to incur individual criminal liability and may be prosecuted at the ICC, domestic courts or other tribunals.
It says attacks in Gaza have not complied with the requirement under international law for proportionality and distinction, leading to children being indiscriminately killed and injured. “Entire residential housing blocks have been levelled to the ground, killing all inside. Reports document entire families being killed; with all members of the family – from every generation, young to old, being killed. Over 500 children have already been killed since 7 October – in the span of only 6 days.” It adds that under the Geneva convention “it must be remembered that the prohibition against collective punishment is absolute”.
Blunt has already told his constituency party that he is stepping down at the next election.
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Summary
It’s now 10.25am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here are the latest developments:
The UN humanitarian office has estimated that tens of thousands of people in Gaza have now fled their homes and moved south after Israel issued an evacuation warning ahead of a feared ground invasion. Israel’s military told about 1.1 million people in northern Gaza to leave the area, and, according to the UN, set a 24 hour deadline for this evacuation early on Friday. More than 400,000 Palestinians were already internally displaced prior to the evacuation order.
Israel’s military said on Saturday morning that it has confirmed more than 120 civilians are being held captive by Hamas. The bodies of several missing Israelis have been retrieved by the Israeli military after its forces entered the Gaza Strip, according to media reports. Troops also found items that might lead to more missing Israelis, reports said.
The Israeli military said early on Saturday it had struck a Hezbollah target in southern Lebanon in response to the “infiltration of unidentified aerial objects into Israel” and fire on an Israeli drone. The military intercepted the objects and the fire on its drone, it said. It later said a drone had killed a number of militants who tried to infiltrate from Lebanon.
The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, warned that the situation in Gaza has reached “a dangerous new low”, and called for immediate humanitarian access to allow fuel, food and water to reach those in need. “Even wars have rules,” Guterres told reporters. The UN Security Council discussed the crisis at a meeting behind closed doors on Friday.
At least 1,900 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza from Israeli strikes, including 614 children and 370 women, according to Gaza’s health ministry on Friday. At least 16 Palestinians were shot and killed in the West Bank over the course of the day, the Palestinian health ministry said.
Israeli airstrikes on convoys fleeing Gaza City killed 70 people, mostly women and children, the press office of Hamas said. Hamas said the cars were struck in three places as they headed south from Gaza City on Friday.
The US president, Joe Biden, said he had spoken with the families of Americans held by Hamas in Gaza, and that they were “going through agony” not knowing the fate of their loved ones. He told CBS: “We’re going to do everything in our power to find them... we’re working like hell on it.”
Tens of thousands of protesters have rallied across the Middle East and in parts of Asia, Europe and the US in support of Palestinians and condemnation of Israel as it intensified its strikes on Gaza. Jewish communities in the US, France and other countries also held rallies on Friday in solidarity with Israel. Some governments have stepped up security at synagogues and Jewish schools, fearing that protests could lead to violence.
A journalist has been killed and six others injured after an Israeli shell landed in a gathering of international journalists covering clashes on the border in south Lebanon on Friday. Reuters confirmed that its videographer Issam Abdallah was killed. Meanwhile, the BBC said its journalists were assaulted and held at gunpoint after they were stopped by Israeli police in Tel Aviv.
AFP has gathered information on the number of foreigners killed or missing following Hamas’s attacks on Saturday. More than 100 foreigners have been confirmed dead. Many also held Israeli nationality.
US
At least 27 US citizens have been killed, US authorities said. An unspecified number of its citizens are believed to have been abducted.
Thailand
Twenty-four Thais have been killed, according to the prime minister, Srettha Thavisin. The foreign ministry said another 16 had been wounded, and 16 are thought to have been abducted. There are approximately 30,000 Thais in Israel, most of them working in the agricultural sector.
France
Fifteen French nationals have died, the foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, said on Friday. Paris had previously reported 17 people missing, including four children, according to President Emmanuel Macron.
Nepal
Ten Nepali citizens were killed in Kibbutz Alumim, according to Nepal’s embassy in Tel Aviv. The kibbutz was hosting 17 students at the time of the attack.
Argentina
Argentina’s foreign ministry confirmed that seven nationals were killed and 15 others were missing.
Many more have been reported dead or missing by governments in Ukraine, Russia, Chile, Austria, Belarus, Canada, China, Philippines, Brazil, Peru, Romania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Germany, Mexico, Italy, Colombia, Paraguay, Sri Lanka and Tanzania.
In the UK, two Britons have been confirmed dead by their families, and the Israeli embassy in London on Wednesday confirmed two more. The BBC has said that 17 Britons, including children, are dead or missing, a figure that has not been confirmed by the government.
The Guardian has also gathered stories of those killed.
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Protesters have gathered across the Middle East and in parts of Asia, Europe and the US in support of Palestinians and in condemnation of Israel as it intensified its strikes on Gaza.
Jewish communities in the US, France, Austria and elsewhere have also gathered in solidarity with Israel after the Hamas attacks. Here are some recent images from around the world.
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Reuters has a quick snap that the Israeli military says a drone has killed a number of militants who tried to infiltrate from Lebanon.
More details on this as it emerges.
Three more Thai nationals have died in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, bringing the death toll to 24, the Thai prime minister, Srettha Thavisin, has said.
Two additional Thai nationals have been wounded, the Thai foreign ministry said, bringing the total to 16. A further 16 Thais are believed to have been taken hostage.
Thais make up one of the biggest groups of migrant workers in Israel, with about 30,000 working in the country, mostly in the agriculture sector.
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Families, festivalgoers, soldiers and foreigners were among those killed in Hamas attacks last weekend. Here are some of their stories:
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Bodies of several Israelis retrieved in Gaza raids - IDF
The bodies of several Israelis have been retrieved by the Israeli military after its forces entered the Gaza Strip, according to a report by Haaretz. The families of the individuals, who had been missing since Hamas attacks last Saturday, have been notified, it said.
The report quotes IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari as saying that troops also found items that might lead to more missing Israelis. During the raids, the Israeli military also “destroyed terrorist infrastructure and squads, including a Hamas unit that fired anti-tank missiles toward Israel.”
Israel’s military said earlier this morning that it has confirmed that more than 120 civilians are being held hostage in Gaza by Hamas.
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EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Saturday that Israel’s order for more than one million people to evacuate northern Gaza in a single day was “utterly impossible to implement”.
Israel warned residents to evacuate to the south on Friday, before an expected ground offensive.
Borrell, speaking at a press conference in Beijing during a diplomatic visit to China, said:
I am saying that, representing the official position of the European Union... (the evacuation plan) is utterly, utterly impossible to implement… To imagine that you could move one million people in 24 hours in a situation like Gaza can only be a humanitarian crisis.
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More than 120 civilians being held captive - IDF
Israel’s military says it has confirmed that more than 120 civilians are being held captive in Gaza by Hamas, it says.
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IDF Spokesperson Conricus says he wants to address issues raised in media coverage, saying that “Palestinian civilians in Gaza are not our enemies. We don’t assess them as such and we don’t target them as such”.
The evacuation order was aimed at minimising risk to civilians, he says.
“It is extremely sad and regrettable that so many media outlets are focusing on our actions instead of putting the responsibility on the entity that governs the Gaza Strip, and that is Hamas,” he says. “They are the ones who initiated this war. They are the ones who targeted our civilians.”
He mentions the various officials who have visited Israel, including Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen, president of the European Commission and Lloyd Austin, US Secretary of Defense.
“European and American leaders are sending a clear message that they stand by Israel, and that they understand that this act of atrocity against Israel is not another round of conflict, and that they fully support our right to defend ourselves against these monsters.”
The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, has criticised Israel’s evacuation order and warned yesterday that the situation in Gaza has reached a “a dangerous new low”.
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IDF Spokesperson Conricus tells the briefing that the situation on the northern border is “very tense”.
Hezbollah fighters fired an anti-tank missile towards Israeli troops, he says. “There was a short battle and the situation eventually calmed down. Afterwards, Hezbollah sent drones into Israel and also fired surface to air missiles against the Israeli aircraft.” he says.
“All of those two attempts were successfully intercepted by the IDF, but the situation on the northern border remains very tense and we are monitoring the activities of Hezbollah very closely with additional enhanced capabilities in the north.”
More from IDF Spokesperson Conricus. Israeli reserve soldiers have been in formation around the Gaza Strip for several days, he says. “They are all around the Gaza Strip, in the south, in the center and in the north, and they are preparing themselves for whatever target they will get, whatever task,” he says.
“Our aim is very clear. The end-state of this war is that we will dismantle Hamas and its military capabilities, and fundamentally change the situation, so that Hamas never again has the ability to inflict any damage on Israeli civilians or soldiers.”
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'Significant movement of Palestinian civilians' - says Israel military
Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Jonathan Conricus is now giving a briefing on its operations.
He says yesterday the military issued a demand for Palestinian civilians to move south so that they are not in an area where IDF is “going to enhance our military operations.”
There has been “a significant movement of Palestinian civilians towards the south”, he says, and criticises Hamas for telling citizens to stay put, accusing the group of using “civilians as their human shields”.
He says “we are not trying to kill or injure any civilians”.
As mentioned in the previous post, Israel’s evacuation order has been criticised by the UN’s secretary general.
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UN estimates tens of thousands have fled northern Gaza
Here’s a recap of the UN’s estimates on the number of people who have fled their homes in northern Gaza. Overnight, the UN humanitarian office, OCHA, said it believes tens of thousands of people in Gaza have evacuated to the south following Israel’s evacuation warning. Prior to the evacuation order, more than 400,000 Palestinians were internally displaced, OCHA said.
Israel’s military has told about 1.1 million people in northern Gaza to leave ahead of an expected ground invasion. Hamas urged people to stay put and defy the Israeli military order.
The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, has said the order is “extremely dangerous – and in some cases, simply not possible”.
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Welcome and summary
This is the Guardian’s live coverage of the Israeli-Hamas war. I’m Rebecca Ratcliffe and I will be bringing you the latest developments as they happen.
The UN humanitarian office has estimated that tens of thousands of people in Gaza have now fled their homes and moved south after Israel issued an evacuation warning ahead of a feared ground invasion. Israel’s military told about 1.1 million people in northern Gaza to leave the area, and, according to the UN, set a 24 hour deadline for this evacuation early on Friday.
Here is where things stand elsewhere in the conflict:
The Israeli military says it struck a Hezbollah target in southern Lebanon in response to the “infiltration of unidentified aerial objects into Israel” and fire on an Israeli drone. The military intercepted the objects and the fire on its drone, it said.
Israeli troops carried out local raids on in the Gaza Strip, searching for hostages and collecting evidence to find people taken by Hamas, the Israel Defence Forces said on Friday. Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “eradicate” Hamas and said Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza “is just the beginning”.
The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, warned that the situation in Gaza has reached “a dangerous new low”, and called for immediate humanitarian access to allow fuel, food and water to reach those in need. “Even wars have rules,” Guterres told reporters. The UN Security Council discussed the crisis at a meeting behind closed doors on Friday.
At least 1,900 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza from Israeli strikes, including 614 children and 370 women, according to Gaza’s health ministry on Friday. At least 16 Palestinians were shot and killed in the West Bank over the course of the day, the Palestinian health ministry said.
Israeli airstrikes on convoys fleeing Gaza City killed 70 people, mostly women and children, the press office of Hamas said. Hamas said the cars were struck in three places as they headed south from Gaza City on Friday.
The US president, Joe Biden, said he had spoken with the families of Americans held by Hamas in Gaza, and that they were “going through agony” not knowing the fate of their loved ones. He told CBS: “We’re going to do everything in our power to find them... we’re working like hell on it.”
Tens of thousands of protesters have rallied across the Middle East and in parts of Asia, Europe and the US in support of Palestinians and condemnation of Israel as it intensified its strikes on Gaza.
Jewish communities in the US, France and other countries also held rallies on Friday in solidarity with Israel. Some governments have stepped up security at synagogues and Jewish schools, fearing that protests could lead to violence.
A journalist has been killed and six others injured after an Israeli shell landed in a gathering of international journalists covering clashes on the border in south Lebanon on Friday. Reuters confirmed that its videographer Issam Abdallah was killed. Meanwhile, the BBC said its journalists were assaulted and held at gunpoint after they were stopped by Israeli police in Tel Aviv.
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