Israeli tanks head towards the Gaza Strip border in southern Israel. Photo / AP
Israeli tanks head towards the Gaza Strip border in southern Israel. Photo / AP
Israel’s military on Friday directed the evacuation of northern Gaza, a region that is home to 1.1 people - about half of the territory’s population - within 24 hours, a UN spokesman said.
This could signal an impending ground offensive, though the Israeli military has not yet confirmed such an appeal. On Thursday it said that while it was preparing, a decision has not yet been made.
The order, delivered to the UN, comes as Israel presses an offensive against Hamas militants. UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric called the order “impossible” without “devastating humanitarian consequences.”
Israel prepares for possible ground invasion
The Israeli military prepared for a possible ground invasion in Gaza on Thursday as it pounded the tiny coastal strip in retaliation for the unprecedented weekend attack on Israel by the militant group Hamas.
In a deliberate show of support for Israel, a US official confirmed that Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin plans to visit on Friday, a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Suffering in Gaza, meanwhile, rose dramatically with Palestinians desperate for food, fuel and medicine and the territory’s only power plant shut down for lack of fuel. The morgue at Gaza’s biggest hospital overflowed on Thursday as bodies came in faster than relatives could claim them.
Israel said on Thursday a complete siege would remain in place until Hamas freed 150 hostages taken during its incursion.
Egypt has engaged in intensive talks with Israel and the United States to allow the delivery of aid and fuel through its Rafah crossing point, which remained closed on both sides on Thursday.
The war has claimed at least 2800 lives on both sides, and displaced 423,000 people in Gaza.
Here’s what’s happening on Day 6 of the latest Israel-Hamas war:
Number of displaced in Gaza rises to 423,000
The number of people forced from their homes by the airstrikes soared 25 per cent in a day, reaching 423,000 out of a population of 2.3 million, the United Nations said on Thursday. Most crowded into UN-run schools.
Families were cutting down to one meal a day, said Rami Swailem, a 34-year-old lecturer at al-Azhar University, who had 32 relatives sheltering in his home. Water stopped coming to the building two days ago, and they have rationed what’s left in a tank on the roof.
The death toll from Israeli strikes on Gaza rose to 1537, with 6612 people wounded, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said on Thursday. Of those killed, 276 were women and 500 were under the age of 18, the ministry said.
The jump in the death toll comes as Palestinians report heavy Israeli airstrikes across the besieged Gaza Strip, with bombardment on residential buildings in densely populated city districts and refugee camps.
Nepalis return home from Israel
More than 200 Nepali nationals evacuated from Israel returned home Friday as the government worked to bring back the bodies of 10 Nepali students killed in the unprecedented attack by Hamas.
Nepal’s foreign minister, Narayan Prasad Saud, accompanied 254 citizens on a plane chartered by the government. The returnees were welcomed home by family and friends at Kathmandu airport.
Family members mourn during the funeral of Israeli soldier Shilo Rauchberger. Photo / AP
In addition to those killed, four Nepalis were wounded and one was still missing, Saud said. One of the wounded was flown back in the evacuation flight and three others were getting treated at hospitals in Israel, Saud said.
He said 54 Nepali nationals still in Israel had been moved to safer areas and will be evacuated eventually.
Many Nepalis in Israel are students studying agriculture techniques.
Hamas civilian member defends group’s incursion
A prominent civilian member of Hamas defended the group’s rampage through Israeli communities in a video released by the group on Thursday and decried the civilian deaths in Gaza from the six days of Israeli airstrikes that have followed.
The solemn video lacked the bravado of a recording aired by Hamas’ military wing Saturday hailing “the greatest battle” as the massacres still played out.
Basem Naim, a physician and former Hamas government minister, said in the “swift collapse” of the Israeli military on Saturday, “chaos prevailed and civilians found themselves in the middle of the confrontation” between Israeli and Hamas combatants.
The claim is contradicted by countless videos and survivor accounts of Hamas militants deliberately targeting and killing hundreds of civilians.
Naim said the 150 hostages taken back into Gaza would be treated according to religious values and international laws.
“At the same time we are really worried … they might be the victims of the Israeli army bombardment, like our people,” he said.
He added that Hamas would not consider freeing the captives until Israel stopped its bombardment.
If Israel doesn’t end bombardment, war may open on ‘other fronts,’ Iran says
Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Thursday if Israel’s bombardment of Gaza continues, the war may open on “other fronts,” an apparent reference to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Amirabdollahian arrived in Beirut late Thursday evening, where he was greeted by representatives of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad along with Lebanese officials.
“In light of the continued aggression, war crimes, and siege on Gaza, opening other fronts is a real possibility,” Amirabdollahian said, speaking to journalists on his arrival.
Palestinians search for bodies and survivors in the rubble of a residential building levelled in an Israeli airstrike. Photo / AP
Early on Thursday, Amirabdollahian had visited Iraq, where he made similar statements after a meeting with Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.
Questions have swirled around the extent of Iran’s role in the unprecedented surprise attack launched by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel on Saturday.
Hamas officials have denied that Iran was directly involved in planning the attack or green-lighted it, and to date no government worldwide has offered direct evidence that Iran orchestrated the attack. However, many have pointed to Iran’s long sponsorship of Hamas that has included training, funding and providing it with weapons.
European commission president to travel to Israel
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will travel to Israel on Friday to express support for the nation in the wake of last weekend’s attack by Hamas.
Von der Leyen will be accompanied by European Parliament president Roberta Metsola, the commission said in a statement late Thursday.
Von der Leyen has been one of the most outspoken European Union leaders in support of Israel since the attacks and the subsequent war with Hamas.
Hezbollah sends drone over Israel, official with Lebanon group says
The militant Hezbollah group sent a drone over Israel on Thursday, according to an official with a Lebanese group familiar with the situation along the Lebanon-Israel border.
The drone was shot down over Israel, the official said, without elaborating further. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorised to comment to the news media.
An Israeli military spokesman wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday afternoon that an air-defence missile was fired in northern Israel but it turned out there was no target in the air.
