More than 250 Palestinians die in past 24 hours, including many women and children killed in Israeli air raids on convoys fleeing Gaza City, according to health officials in besieged enclave.
Al Jazeera correspondents have reported that thousands of Palestinian civilians have fled northern Gaza after a warning from Israel.
Israeli shelling hit a group of reporters in southern Lebanon, killing one Reuters journalist and injuring several others, including two from Al Jazeera.
At least 1,900 Palestinians were killed and 7,696 wounded in Israeli air attacks on Gaza. The number of people killed in Israel has reached 1,300, with 3,400 wounded.
In the occupied West Bank, Israelis killed 16 Palestinians on Friday, taking the Palestinian death toll in the region to 52 since the war began.
Israel preparing for bloody urban warfare: Analyst
Israel is preparing for a ground assault that is likely to result in a large number of casualties, the success of which should not be taken for granted, according to international security analyst Yusuf Alabarda.
“Israel will try to dismantle Hamas and [evacuate] the civilians, but the reality on the ground is not so simple,” Alabarda told Al Jazeera.
Hamas is estimated to hold more than 100 captives in Gaza and will likely be able to capture Israeli soldiers as urban battles rage, the analyst said.
Israel has ordered 1.1 million residents to evacuate the northern part of the Strip. “Claiming that 1.1 people can move from one part to the other is easy to say but difficult to do, because of lack of fuel, electricity,” he said, adding that a number of them would likely support Hamas during urban fighting.
Fighting
Israel has warned nearly half of the population of the Gaza Strip to relocate as it plans an assault. Tens of thousands of people in Gaza are estimated to have fled south. More than one million Palestinians in northern Gaza faced an Israeli deadline to flee south, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had only just begun to retaliate for last week’s Hamas rampage across southern Israel.
Israeli ground raids were reported in northern Gaza and the West Bank early on Saturday.
An Israeli missile attack on journalists working in southern Lebanon killed a Reuters cameraman and wounded several other journalists, including two Al Jazeera staff.
Israel’s 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”.
Human Rights Watch accused Israel of using white phosphorusmunitions in its military operations in Gaza and Lebanon. The Israeli military denied it.
Human impact
At least 1,900 Palestinians have been killed and 7,696 wounded in Israeli air attacks on Gaza. The number of people killed in Israel has reached 1,300, with 3,400 wounded.
The forced evacuation of thousands of people is under way in northern Gaza, in what is described by human rights observers as a “war crime”.
Calls for an escape route for Palestinians from Gaza have been rebuffed by Arab neighbours. “It is important that the (Palestinian) people remain steadfast and present on their land,” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Netanyahu discussed establishing safe areas in Gaza where civilians could relocate to.
Diplomacy and international reaction
The White House said it has not seen any indications that other actors were considering joining and widening the conflict.
Saudi Arabia is putting US-backed plans to normalise ties with Israel on ice, sources said, signalling a rapid rethinking of its foreign policy priorities.
The International Criminal Court has jurisdiction over potential war crimes carried out by Hamas in Israel and Israelis in the Gaza Strip, even though Israel is not a member state, the ICC’s top prosecutor told Reuters.
Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem said the group would not be swayed by calls for it to stay on the sidelines of the conflict, saying the party was “fully ready” to contribute to the fighting.
Jordanian riot police forcibly dispersed hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters trying to reach a border zone with the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Republican infighting in the US House of Representatives has left the chamber unable to act to support Israel’s war and pass government spending bills before funding runs out.
Market and business
Hamas’s cash-to-crypto global finance maze is in Israel’s sights, to cut support from charities and friendly nations.
As big US corporations kicked off corporate earnings, executives addressed the Israel-Hamas conflict and some companies launched fundraising efforts.
Jordan says Palestinian displacement pushes region to ‘abyss’ of wider conflict
We have more Jordanian comments on the issue of Palestinian displacement. Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has just released a statement saying any move by Israel to impose a new displacement of Palestinians would push the region to the “abyss” of a wider conflict.
Here’s what he said:
“The raging Israeli war on the Gaza Strip represents collective punishment of more than two million Palestinians and pushes the entire region towards the abyss.
“The failure of the international community to stop the war is a failure to protect innocent civilians who cannot find shelter or food. Silence over the war and destruction to which the people of Gaza are exposed is silence over an aggression that strips Gazans of their humanity and their right to protection.
“The international community must deal with the war on the Gaza Strip according to one criteria. Palestinian civilians are no less humane than Israeli civilians, and the war that Israel declared aimed at eliminating Hamas kills and displaces innocent Palestinians. We reject the displacement of Palestinians from their homeland and warn that Israel’s attempt to impose this will push the entire region towards an abyss.”
Plane with medical supplies lands in Egypt: WHO chief
A plane with medical supplies to support urgent health needs in Gaza has landed in al-Arish, Egypt, near the Rafah crossing, the head of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said.
“We’re ready to deploy the supplies as soon as humanitarian access through the crossing is established.”
What have Egypt and Jordan said about Palestinians displacement
Egypt, the only Arab state to share a border with Gaza, and Jordan, which is next to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, have both warned against Palestinians being forced off their land.
“This is the cause of all causes, the cause of all Arabs,” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said earlier this week. “It is important that the [Palestinian] people remain steadfast and present on their land”.
Jordan’s King Abdullah has also warned “against any attempt to forcibly displace Palestinians from all Palestinian territories or cause their internal displacement, calling for preventing a spillover of the crisis into neighbouring countries and the exacerbation of the refugee issue.”
Staff at Northern Gaza hospital refuse Israeli order to evacuate
Citing patients in serious condition and the continuing need for healthcare, medical teams at a hospital in the northern Gaza Strip are refusing the Israeli army’s order to evacuate, according to the hospital’s chief of medicine.
“I got a call from the Israeli army Friday asking us to evacuate the hospital,” Ahmed Muhanna of al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia told Anadolu news agency. “This is not possible.”
“Some patients were evacuated, but some other patients cannot be transferred due to their serious condition,” he said, indicating that the hospital is providing intensive medical care for five patients.
“The hospital staff, including 35 doctors and medical aides, are determined to stay and provide healthcare to patients,” he said.
Earlier reports said the army gave the hospital just two hours to evacuate and then gave it more time, but the evacuation order remains in effect.
RSF says intentionality of Israeli attack on journalists difficult to refute
The Israeli strike that killed at least one journalist and wounded six others – including two Al Jazeera reporters – in southern Lebanon on Friday likely targeted the press, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has said.
“There was no one else around them, there was no fighting, there was no military point,” the RSF’s Jonathan Dagher told Al Jazeera.
“The information that we have all points to an intentionality that is difficult to refute,” he said.
Attacks intentionally targeting journalists, as civilians, constitute war crimes. The Al Jazeera Media Network said it holds Israel legally and morally responsible for the attack.
Update about Deir el-Balah strike
We have more information about the bombardment near Deir el-Balah.
The Interior Ministry of Gaza says “a number” people have been killed and wounded in the air attack targeting a house east of Deir el-Balah.
Ambulances rushed to the area and rescue workers are trying to evacuate survivors from the rubble. The casualties have been brought to al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital.
More than 1,300 buildings destroyed in Gaza: UN
More than 1,300 buildings in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed in the Israeli bombardment, according to the United Nations.
The world body’s humanitarian agency OCHA said “5,540 housing units” in those buildings were destroyed and nearly 3,750 more homes were so badly damaged they were uninhabitable.
Air attack hits close to Deir el-Balah
We’re getting reports of an air raid close to Deir el-Balah, where many people are sheltering after evacuating from the north.
We’ll bring you more details shortly.
Palestinian bodies stored in ice cream refrigerators due to lack of space in hospitals
In Gaza, hospital refrigerators can no longer accommodate the bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli air raids, so the bodies have been stored in ice cream refrigerators instead.
Palestinian death toll in occupied West Bank this week rises to 52
Israeli fire has killed at least 52 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since Hamas’s attack on October 7, according to Palestinian health officials.
The latest casualty was a Palestinian killed by Israeli soldiers’ gunfire in the city of Jericho.
Mahmud Shahade, 27, was taken to Jericho State Hospital after being shot in the head but doctors could not save him, the health ministry said.
Israeli raids intensify in occupied West Bank: AJ correspondent
By Nida Ibrahim in Ramallah
Israeli forces have raided a number of regions in the occupied West Bank and Palestinian sources say at least 34 Palestinian civilians have been arrested so far.
The Israeli military also raided Jenin, a place known for some groups of Palestinians that carry arms.
Confrontations also took place in Nablus. We’ve heard that two Hamas leaders were arrested as a result of those raids.
Meanwhile, another raid targeted the refugee camp near Jericho. One Palestinian was killed during this raid, as a result of an armed confrontation.
After outcry over Ukraine, big business now muted
Major brands that spoke out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have so far been reluctant to weigh in on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Those that have – such as Microsoft, Google, Hewlett Packard, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs – have expressed support for Israel and condemned Hamas over its attack. By contrast, household corporations have been silent on Israel’s retaliatory air raids.
Marketing experts have told Al Jazeera that for companies known for touting their social justice credentials, the conflict represents a particularly challenging issue to weigh in on due to the sensitivities and complex dynamics involved.
“There’s a temptation to issue binary points of view in order to show fervour and strength, which oftentimes backfires when their following or consumer base is able to see through these efforts,” Rahat Kapur, editor of the industry publication Campaign Asia.
“Similarly, performative brand stances in social areas can often lead to more backlash, unprecedented reputation damage and overnight loss of customer sentiment and loyalty, which are all incredibly difficult, time-consuming and costly to recover.”
PLO in ‘intensive contact’ for ceasefire, humanitarian corridors: Official
Hussein al-Sheikh, the secretary general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, says the group is “in intensive contact with our Arab brothers and many countries for an immediate ceasefire and opening humanitarian corridors for our people in the Gaza Strip”.
“[And] to spare our people from the disasters of this devastating war, protect civilians, prevent their displacement, and stop the aggression immediately,” al-Sheikh wrote on X.
What do the Geneva Conventions say about ‘collective punishment’?
Even during armed conflict, countries and parties to conflict are still governed by an international humanitarian law, which is intended to limit the effects of war particularly on civilians and even those who can no longer fight. Those sets of rules are referred to as the law of war and the law of armed conflict.
The Geneva Conventions are a set of rules that make up a major part of international humanitarian law. Those rules embody a basic principle that war “must be waged within certain limits that are respected to preserve the lives and dignity of human beings”.
The four conventions were adopted by all nations in the world in 1949. Two more protocols were added in 1977 and another one in 2005.
According to the rules, any nation that has ratified the Geneva Conventions but not the protocols is still bound by all provisions of the conventions.
While not all nations have respected and abided by the Geneva Conventions, resulting in deaths, those rules also helped saved millions of lives, including children, women, men, older people, injured, sick, detainees and people with disabilities.
Experts and officials have repeatedly warned this week that the situation in Gaza amounts to “collective punishment“. So what does the international humanitarian law say about this?
Article 33 of the Geneva Convention Part 4 states:
“No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited. Pillage is prohibited. Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited.”
Israel says it killed fighters attempting ‘to infiltrate from Lebanon’
Israel’s army says it has killed three fighters trying to cross from southern Lebanon.
The military “identified a terrorist cell which attempted to infiltrate from Lebanon into Israeli territory,” the spokesman said, adding that a drone strike “targeted the terrorist cell and killed a number of the terrorists”.
Al Jazeera’s Lebanon correspondent Zeina Khodr noted that this would be the second infiltration attempt in two days along the Israel-Lebanon border.
She said there was no claim of responsibility for Friday’s incident and so far no independent confirmation about Saturday’s incident.
“But both believed to be carried out by Palestinian groups,” she said on X.
Latest images from Khan Younis
Palestinians search for survivors under the rubble of a building destroyed by an Israeli aerial attack.
Israeli army conducted raids into Gaza: AJ correspondent
By Charles Stratford in Ashdod, southern Israel
After conducting raids in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, Israel’s military spokesperson has said that they discovered bodies of Israelis and items which probably belong to Israeli civilians taken as hostages by Hamas.
The military has previously said that dozens of Israeli civilians were taken hostage, including elderly people, families, women and children.
Since then, the military has been under pressure because the Israeli society wants to see some sort of effort undertaken by the military to rescue hostages, before Israel begins its land invasion into Gaza.
But this is a risky operation for the military and special forces might have to be deployed.
In less than 24 hours, 256 Palestinians killed: Report
Israeli air raids have killed at least 256 people, including 20 children, and wounded 1,788 others in less than 24 hours, according to hospitals in Gaza.
A correspondent from the Palestinian WAFA news agency reported that Israeli forces targeted Gaza City’s Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood and the Red Crescent’s al-Quds Hospital where hundreds of families took refuge seeking protection from Israeli bombing.
The bombardment also destroyed dozens of homes and residential buildings throughout the Strip, WAFA reported.
It said Nasser and Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospitals in the south are no longer able to help the wounded after they were damaged by the attacks.
Israel says air raid killed top Hamas commander; no comment from group
The Israeli military says a senior military commander of Hamas who headed the group’s aerial operations in Gaza City has been killed in Israeli air raids.
Murad Abu Murad was killed over the past day when fighter jets struck an operational centre of Hamas from where the group carried out its “aerial activity”, the military said.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
Here’s a recap of what happened in the occupied West Bank on Friday
At least 16 Palestinians were killed on Friday by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Health. They were protesting against the bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip. More than 550 other Palestinians were wounded according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRC). At least 21 Palestinian were detained by Israeli forces. Local sources have told Al Jazeera that four Palestinians were also shot whilst on the move on a road next to an illegal settlement west of Tulkarem. In total, 51 people have been killed in the West Bank since Hamas’s unprecedented attacks on Israel last weekend.
Israel tells Gaza residents to use two routes to evacuate south
The Israeli army says it will allow safe movement for Palestinians in Gaza to move from Beit Hanoon in the north to Khan Younis in the south between 10am and 4pm.
Spokesperson Avichay Adraee said residents can travel on two designated streets: Al-Bahr and Salah al-Din, “without any harm”.
“If you care about yourself and your loved ones, go south as instructed,” he wrote in Arabic on X.
‘Biden not saying Israel should stop complete Gaza siege’: AJ correspondent
US President Joe Biden said it was important to address the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the Gaza Strip, in a Washington, DC news conference earlier.
“We can’t lose sight of the fact that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians had nothing to do with Hamas,” Biden said.
The comments were his first about Palestinians since the president spoke about Hamas’s attack inside Israel last week, noted Al Jazeera’s Patty Culhane.
“But while he is talking about the need to bring in humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, he is not saying that Israel should stop the complete siege of Gaza,” Culhane said.
Israeli army resumes artillery shelling
The Israeli army has resumed artillery shelling from gunboats and tanks on the eastern and western Gaza Strip, an Anadolu correspondent has reported from the ground.
Thailand PM: Three more Thai nationals killed in Hamas attack
Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has announced that three more citizens from his country have been killed following the Hamas attack, bringing to 24 the death toll of citizens from Thailand.
His government also announced that the number of people who have requested to be evacuated from Israel has reached 7,000.
Srettha said his administration is working to coordinate with the private sector to bring their citizens home as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, families have been pleading for the release of 14 Thai workers who are believed to have been taken captive by Hamas.
“I just want to appeal to Hamas to release the Thais – they have nothing to do with this. They only left Thailand to work to provide for their families,” Kanyarat Suriyasri, whose husband is among the captives, told Al Jazeera earlier this week. “They all have children.”
These soldiers are from a country whose president is a Jew Zelensky. Orthodox churches are also being destroyed in this country. Synagogues are not touched. Surprisingly, it turns out that Jews get along well with the Bandera Nazis.
Mr.BadGuy
Publisher
These soldiers are from a country whose president is a Jew Zelensky. Orthodox churches are also being destroyed in this country. Synagogues are not touched. Surprisingly, it turns out that Jews get along well with the Bandera Nazis.