Israeli military has told 1.1 millions Gazans to move to south, UN says
Reuters reports that the United Nations says it has been told by the Israeli military that some 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza should relocate to the enclave’s south within the next 24 hours.
“The United Nations considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
“The United Nations strongly appeals for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation,” he said.
Dujarric said the order by the Israeli military also applied to all UN staff and those sheltered in UN facilities, including schools, health centres and clinics.
Key events
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Summary
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Israeli envoy says ‘UN’s response to Israel’s early warning to the residents of Gaza is shameful’
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IDF request is ‘impossible’ says UN
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Israeli military has told 1.1 millions Gazans to move to south, UN says
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UN calls for $294m for ‘urgent needs’ in Gaza, occupied West Bank
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Netanyahu: ‘Difficult days await’
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Israeli death toll stands at 1,300
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Israeli bombing has destroyed eleven mosques, damaged 90 schools
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More than 423,000 people displaced in Gaza: UN
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Israel has dropped 6,000 bombs on Gaza since Saturday
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Scalise drops out of House Speaker race
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Hundreds of Australians preparing to catch repatriation flights
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Israel’s parliament approves national unity government
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Gaza hospitals ‘in a critical situation’
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Gaza morgue has run out of room
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Israel and White House condemn Trump remarks
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Will Hezbollah join the war?
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UK Prime Minister speaks to Netanyahu
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Summary
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Iran warns crimes against Palestinians could open ‘a new front’ in war
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Egypt’s Sisi says Gazans must ‘remain on their land’ amid calls to allow civilians to leave
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Israel used white phosphorus in attacks in Gaza and Lebanon, says Human Rights Watch
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Gaza’s health system ‘at breaking point’ after 34 attacks since Saturday, says WHO
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Israel’s public affairs minister resigns
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Hamas hints Iran, Hezbollah not involved in decision to attack Israel
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Palestinian death toll rises to more than 1,500 in Gaza
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Number of US citizens killed in Israel rises to 27
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Macron: France ‘doing everything possible’ to find 17 missing citizens in Israel
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Summary
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US and Qatar agree to deny Iran access to $6bn fund
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Police officers injured in shooting attack in Jerusalem
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Sunak says UK deployment will ‘ensure regional stability and prevent further escalation’
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UK to send Royal Navy ships and aircraft to support Israel
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Two Jewish schools in London to close ‘for safety of children’ – report
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Blinken: World seeing ‘new evidence of Hamas’ depravity and the inhumanity every day’
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Blinken: US stands shoulder to shoulder with Israel
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Blinken: US is doing everything it can to secure release of hostages
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‘The situation is devastating’: UN warns food and water in Gaza will run out ‘very soon’
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Palestinian president ‘rejects’ civilian killings, hostage taking, on both sides
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Gaza health ministry says 447 children and 248 women killed in Israeli strikes
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Gaza health ministry says Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,400 Palestinians
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Damascus and Aleppo airports reported out of action after Israeli attacks
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First UK evacuation flight to depart from Tel Aviv later today
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Blinken says 25 Americans killed in Hamas attacks
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Syrian state news says Israel launched air attacks on Damascus and Aleppo airports
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How Israel responds to the Hamas attack matters, says Blinken
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Summary
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Israeli settlers killed two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health ministry says
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Israel confirms identity of 97 hostages held in Gaza
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UK minister says Hamas responsible for Israeli attacks on Gaza
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US secretary of state Antony Blinken lands in Tel Aviv
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Israeli minister says no power, water, fuel to Gaza until hostages freed
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Hamas fighters still making attempts to enter Israel but have been blocked, IDF says
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German chancellor Scholz confirms suspending development aid
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German chancellor Scholz says working to free all hostages
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Norwegian Air cancels evacuation flight over lack of insurance
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Summary
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Red Cross says ready to help ‘facilitate’ the release of hostages
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Israel conducts ‘large-scale’ strike on Gaza
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Israeli ambassador says Japan should be ‘vigilant’ on Palestinian aid
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China envoy willing to work with Egypt to promote immediate ceasefire
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15 Palestinians killed, several wounded in Israeli strikes, says Hamas
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‘Senior Hamas operative’ killed, says Israeli air force
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What is Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza?
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Sydney pro-Palestine march replaced with ‘static demonstration’
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Report: desperation inside Gaza’s hospitals as casualties mount
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Blinken expected to meet Palestinian president Abbas
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Gaza death toll rises to 1,200
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Thai death toll in Israel-Gaza conflict rises to 21
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More than 338,000 people displaced in Gaza: UN
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Biden decries Hamas ‘campaign of pure cruelty’
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Opening summary
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Summary
It is shortly after 7am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here is where things stand:
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The United Nations says it has been told by the Israeli military that some 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza should relocate to the enclave’s south within the next 24 hours, a request it considers to be impossible “without devastating humanitarian consequences.” “The United Nations considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
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“The United Nations strongly appeals for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation,” the UN spokesperson said. Dujarric said the order by the Israeli military also applied to all UN staff and those sheltered in UN facilities, including schools, health centres and clinics.
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The Israeli air force has dropped 6,000 bombs on Gaza since Saturday, it said late on Thursday. “Dozens of fighter jets and helicopters attacked a series of terrorist targets of the Hamas terrorist organisation throughout the Gaza Strip. So far, the IAF has dropped about 6,000 bombs against Hamas targets,” the IAF said on X. The attacks have killed 1,500 Palestinians, a third of them children, according to the Palestinian health ministry. 6,6000 have been wounded.
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The UN called for $294m for ‘urgent needs’ in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. The United Nations has issued an emergency appeal for $294m to address “the most urgent needs” in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where more than 400,000 Palestinians have fled their homes in recent days. The funds would be used to help more than 1.2 million people, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said, adding that recent fighting in the region had left aid groups without adequate resources.
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Israel’s parliament approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s emergency unity government on Thursday, including a number of centrist opposition lawmakers, to display its determination to fight the war with Hamas in Gaza.
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As Israel’s unity government was sworn in, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a speech in which he promised, referring to hostages taken by Hamas, “We will not slacken in the effort to bring them back home.” Referring to Hamas, he called for countries that “maintain their presence” to face sanctions. As he ended the speech, he said, “Difficult days await us”.
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More than 1,300 people, including 222 soldiers, have been killed in Israel, according to the military. The majority of the dead were killed in a single day, when Hamas fighters broke through the border and attacked Israeli civilians. Scores of Israeli and foreign hostages were taken back to Gaza. Israel says it has so far identified 97 of them.
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Israeli bombing has destroyed eleven mosques, damaged 90 schools, according to the UN. It has also destroyed 752 residential and non-residential buildings, comprising 2,835 housing units, the UN says, citing numbers from the Gaza Ministry of Public Works and Housing. Another nearly 1,800 housing units have been damaged beyond repair and rendered uninhabitable, it said. The UN agency also voiced alarm at the significant destruction of civilian infrastructure damaged in the shelling.
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More than 423,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations said, following heavy Israeli bombardments in retaliation for Hamas’s attacks. As of late Thursday, the number of displaced in Gaza rose by 84,444 people to reach 423,378, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in a statement sent on Friday.
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Hundreds of Australians are preparing to get on repatriation flights out of Israel, with two planes to depart Tel Aviv for London in the next 24 hours. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said 1600 people had registered in Israel or the West Bank, including 19 in Gaza, for repatriation in what was an “extraordinary logistical exercise”.
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Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, warned that the “continuation of war crimes against Palestine and Gaza” could open a new front of war, and that Israel will be “responsible for the consequences”.
Israeli envoy says ‘UN’s response to Israel’s early warning to the residents of Gaza is shameful’
Back now to the IDF warning the UN that 1.1 million people should leave north Gaza in the next 24 hours.
Israel’s military did not immediately provide comment on the warning, which came as it amassed tanks near the Gaza border and pounded the enclave with air strikes.
But appearing to confirm a warning took place, Israel’s ambassador to the U.N., Gilad Erdan, told Reuters: “The UN’s response to Israel’s early warning to the residents of Gaza is shameful.”
Erdan said the UN should focus on condemning Hamas and supporting Israel’s right to self-defence.
The UN response that he refereed to was a statement from UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, saying, “The United Nations considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,” and that, “The United Nations strongly appeals for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation”.
Kirby also told CNN that the US speaking to the Israeli military hourly about the hostages taken by Hamas.
“I can tell you that we are in literally hourly contact with our Israeli counterparts about the hostage situation, we’ve offered expertise and counsel, of course, they know how to do hostage recovery very, very well,” he said.
“We’re mindful of the delicate nature of this hostage situation, because they’re most likely being held somewhere in Gaza. It’s a war zone, it’s a combat zone that greatly complicates efforts to find them and to and to work on their release.”
White House National Security Spokesperson John Kirby has told CNN that the US is “working very hard hour by hour” to make sure that there is a way for Palestinians to leave Gaza safely.
“Whether or not there’s a ground incursion — and I’ll let the Israelis speak to their operations — we want to make sure that there’s a way for people who live in Gaza who want to get out to do it, and to do it safely and quickly, so we’re working on this very, very hard hour by hour,” Kirby said.
“We believe that there should be an opportunity for civilians in Gaza to leave now, yesterday, I mean, immediately.”
The Israeli military says it is preparing for a possible ground operation in Gaza but that political leadership has not yet decided on one. Lt. Col. Richard Hecht told reporters Thursday that forces “are preparing for a ground maneuver if decided.”
However, the evacuation order, if true, appears to indicate that a ground offensive may be imminent.
The military has invested tremendous resources for such a scenario, the Associated Press reports, even building a training base in its southern desert meant to replicate Gaza’s urban landscape.
Forces operating inside Gaza might have a better chance of killing top Hamas leaders and rescuing hostages, but such an assault all but guarantees far higher casualties on both sides. And it would involve street-by-street battles with Hamas militants who’ve had years to prepare tunnels and traps, AP reports.
IDF Spokesperson Jonathan Conricus will deliver a situational update at 7:40am local time, just under an hour from now.
The New York Times reports, “Israeli military officers conveyed the information to the leaders of the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Department of Safety and Security in Gaza just before midnight local time on Friday, the UN statement said. The UN was told that the marker dividing the north from south was Wadi Gaza, the statement said.”
Meanwhile the President of Brazil, which holds the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council, has appealed to his Israeli counterpart for the establishment of a humanitarian corridor to enable people in the Gaza Strip to flee to Egypt, he said Thursday.
The comments by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva add Brazil to the voices of European foreign ministers and the World Health Organization that have called for the establishment of a route to either allow people to flee the Palestinian enclave or let humanitarian aid flow in.
He did not appear to be speaking in response to the IDF order saying 1.1 million people should evacuate in the next 24 hours.
“I recently spoke on the phone with the President of Israel Isaac Herzog,” Lula said on X, formerly Twitter. “I conveyed my call for a humanitarian corridor so that people who want to leave the Gaza Strip through Egypt can be safe.”
A Hamas official has told Reuters that the relocation warning is “fake propaganda” and has urged Gazans “not to fall for it”, the news agency reports.
More now on that news, via Reuters:
Israel’s military informed the United Nations late on Thursday, New York time, that the 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza should relocate to the enclave’s south within the next 24 hours, a UN spokesman said, in what Palestinians fear could be a precursor to a planned Israeli ground offensive.
The Israeli military did not immediately provide comment on the warning, which came as Israel amassed tanks near the Gaza border and pounded the Palestinian enclave with air strikes following a deadly Hamas militant attack in Israel.
“The United Nations considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
“The United Nations strongly appeals for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation,” he said.
Dujarric said the order by the Israeli military also applied to all U.N. staff and those sheltered in UN facilities, including schools, health centres and clinics.
Israel’s mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
IDF request is ‘impossible’ says UN
If you’re just joining us, Reuters is reporting that the United Nations says it has received an order from the Israeli Defence Forces saying that “the entire population of Gaza north of Wadi Gaza should relocate to southern Gaza within the next 24 hours.”
This amounts to 1.1 million people, according to the report.
The UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric has reportedly said in a statement, “The United Nations considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences.”
Abhinav Thawait is a globe-trotting correspondent with a passion for international affairs. With a background in international relations, he offers a global perspective on the most pressing issues around the world. Abhinav’s curiosity takes his to the far corners of the earth, where he seeks to share untold stories and diverse viewpoints.
