Israel-Hamas war live: UN says tens of thousands have fled south in Gaza; Israel strikes Hezbollah target in Lebanon, says IDF
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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 to evacuate homes.
The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, has said the order is “extremely dangerous – and in some cases, simply not possible”.
Key events
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.
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.
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.
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. The evacuation order has
“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 the evacuation order and warned yesterday that the situation in Gaza has reached a “a dangerous new low”. “Even wars have rules,” Guterres told reporters on Friday.
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.”
‘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.
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 to evacuate homes.
The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, has said the order is “extremely dangerous – and in some cases, simply not possible”.
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:
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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.
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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”, in televised remarks.
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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 on Friday. The UN Security Council discussed the crisis at a meeting behind closed doors on Friday.
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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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 in retaliation for Hamas attacks a week ago.
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Jewish communities in the US, France and other countries also held rallies on Friday in solidarity with Israel after the Hamas attack. Some governments have stepped up security at synagogues and Jewish schools, fearing that protests could lead to violence.
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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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