Israel’s military ordered hundreds of thousands of civilians living in Gaza City to evacuate Friday ahead of a feared Israel ground offensive. The directive came on the heels of what the United Nations said was a warning they received from Israel to evacuate 1.1 million people living in northern Gaza within 24 hours.
Suffering in Gaza has been rising 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 as bodies came in faster than relatives could claim them.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was set to visit on Friday, a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The war has claimed at least 2,800 lives on both sides since Hamas launched an incursion on Oct. 7.
Here’s what’s happening on Day 7 of the latest Israel-Hamas war:
LLOYD AUSTIN LANDS IN TEL AVIV FOR TALKS WITH GOVERNMENT LEADERS
TEL AVIV, Israel — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived Friday in Tel Aviv to meet with senior government leaders and see firsthand some of the U.S. weapons and security assistance the United States rapidly delivered to Israel in the first week of its latest war with Hamas.
Austin is the second high-level U.S. official to visit Israel in two days. His quick trip from Brussels, where he was attending a NATO defense ministers meeting, comes a day after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit.
Austin is expected to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, and the Israeli War Cabinet. Defense officials traveling with Austin said he wants to underscore America’s unwavering support for the people of Israel and that the U.S. is committed to making sure the country has what it needs to defend itself.
HAMAS CALLS ON PALESTINIANS IN GAZA TO STAY IN THEIR HOMES DESPITE EVACUATION ORDERS
JERUSALEM — Hamas called on Palestinians to stay in their homes Friday after Israel issued sweeping evacuation orders in Gaza.
The Hamas Authority for Refugee Affairs told residents of the north of the territory to “remain steadfast in your homes and to stand firm in the face of this disgusting psychological war waged by the occupation.”
Israel has ordered the evacuation of northern Gaza, including Gaza City, which is home to hundreds of thousands of people. Palestinians would only be able to flee south within Gaza — a narrow strip of land about 40 kilometers (25) miles long — as Israel has completely sealed off the territory.
ISRAELI MILITARY SAYS IT WILL SOON OPERATE WITH ‘SIGNIFICANT FORCE’ IN GAZA
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says it will operate with “significant force” in Gaza in the coming days and is calling on civilians to evacuate in the sealed-off territory so it can strike Hamas militants, a spokesperson said Friday.
He made the remarks as half of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians tried to make sense of orders to evacuate south within the narrow coastal territory, which is just 40 kilometers (25) miles long. The unprecedented orders include Gaza City, home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesperson, said that the military “will make extensive efforts to avoid harming civilians.”
“Out of an understanding that there are civilians here who are not our enemy and we do not want to target them, we are asking them to evacuate,” he said.
ON HIGH ALERT SINCE THE LATEST ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR, ANTWERP EVACUATES CENTRAL STATION
BRUSSELS — Police in Belgium’s Antwerp, home to a large Jewish population, have evacuated its Central Station while they investigate a suspicious package left behind.
In a statement, the police of the port city of 500,000 called on everyone to avoid the massive station as “all entries are being closed off. The building is being emptied.”
Belgium, like most nations, had been on heightened alert since last weekend attacks of Hamas on Israel and the war between the two that followed.
NORTHERN GAZA’S STREETS ARE EMPTY AS RESIDENTS PUZZLE OUT EVACUATIONS
JERUSALEM — Residents of northern Gaza said the streets in cities and refugee camps were entirely empty as people stayed in their homes trying to figure out what to do.
There were no cars in the road except for ambulances. Because of the internet outages and collapse of mobile-phone networks, Palestinians said information was scant and most still hadn’t heard direct orders from the army to evacuate. But panic was spreading slowly as staff of United Nations agencies and other international organizations in the north learned from their superiors that people had been ordered to flee south immediately, though there was still no word on humanitarian corridors.
BLINKEN SEEKS DIPLOMACY IN TALKS WITH PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT AND JORDANIAN KING
AMMAN, Jordan — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has opened a second day of frantic Mideast diplomacy, seeking to avert an expanded regional conflict while pledging full support for Israel as it steps up its war with Hamas and prepares for an expected ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.
A day after visiting Israel to offer the backing of President Joe Biden’s administration, Blinken was in Jordan on Friday for talks with Jordanian King Abdullah II and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has a home in the Jordanian capital of Amman.
Later Friday, Blinken is to fly to Doha for meetings with Qatari officials who have close contacts with the Hamas leadership and have been exploring an exchange of Palestinian prisoners in Israel for the release of dozens of Israelis and foreigners taken hostage by Hamas during surprise attacks in southern Israel the previous weekend. Blinken will end the day in Saudi Arabia, the most important player in the Arab world that has been considering normalizing ties — a U.S.-mediated process that is now on hold.
Blinken’s message has been to reassure Israel that America stands with it, to urge neighboring countries like Iran and Syria and anti-Israel groups like Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement not to enter the conflict. He is also seeking Arab help in trying to convince Hamas to release the hostages it is now holding.
PHILIPPINE NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER PUSHES TO DESIGNATE HAMAS AS A TERRORIST GROUP
MANILA, Philippines — A top Philippine national security official said Friday he would push for the designation of the Hamas militant group as a terrorist organization under his country’s anti-terrorism law for its “barbaric terrorist assault” on Israel which killed hundreds of people, including at least three Filipinos.
National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano said blacklisting the Hamas as a terrorist organization would be a Philippine expression of “solidarity with the people of Israel.”
Such a designation, which has to be approved by the government’s Anti-Terrorism Council, would allow Filipino authorities to temporarily freeze financial and other assets, if any, of Hamas and its supporters to prevent acts of terrorism.
The U.S. State Department designated Hamas, has vowed to annihilate Israel, a terrorist group in 1997. The European Union and other Western countries also consider it a terrorist organization.
GAZA AWAKES TO CHAOS UNDER EVACUATION ORDER THAT SOME ARE CALLING IMPOSSIBLE
JERUSALEM — Residents in northern Gaza awoke to panic Friday after its 1.1 million residents, including hundreds of thousands in Gaza City, were ordered to evacuate south.
“This is chaos, no one understands what to do,” said Inas Hamdan, an officer at the United Nations’ Palestinian refugee agency in Gaza City while she grabbed whatever she could throw into her bags amid the panicked shouts of her relatives. She said all the U.N. staff in Gaza City and northern Gaza had been told to evacuate south to Rafah.
“Forget about food, forget about electricity, forget about fuel, the only concern now is just if you’ll make it, if you’re going to live,” Nebal Farsakh, spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza City said, breaking into heaving sobs. She said there was no possible way that 1.2 million people could be safely evacuated.
Imad Abu Alaa, U.N. Palestinian refugee agency officer in charge of shelters in northern Gaza, echoed that there were too many people to evacuate on too short of notice for it to work. “What about U.N. shelters? We’re talking about civilians. Suddenly that doesn’t even matter?” he said.
Farsakh said there are hospital patients who cannot be moved under the current conditions, and many of the medics were refusing to leave and abandon their patients. Instead, she said, they called their colleagues to say goodbye.
VETERAN POLITICIAN ACCUSES ISRAEL OF TRYING TO DRIVE PALESTINIANS INTO EGYPT
CAIRO — Half an hour after a massive evacuation order was called in Gaza, veteran Egyptian politician Mustafa Bakri accused Israel of trying to drive Palestinians into Egypt.
“It seems that this warning foretells the imminent ground aggression and forced displacement of the people of the Gaza Strip towards the border with Egypt, so that they can eliminate the dream of establishing a Palestinian state,” Bakri said on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
Cash-strapped Egypt fears a mass influx of migrants on its eastern border. It has called for international aid to be funnelled through its Rafah crossing with Gaza.
ISRAEL ORDERS 1.1 MILLION PEOPLE IN NORTHERN GAZA TO EVACUATE, UN SAYS
JERUSALEM — Israel’s military on Friday ordered the evacuation of northern Gaza, a region that is home to 1.1 million people, within 24 hours, a United Nations spokesperson said.
The order, delivered to the U.N., comes as Israel presses an offensive against Hamas militants. U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said the evacuation would be “impossible” without “devastating humanitarian consequences.”
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 had not yet been made.
200 EVACUEES ARRIVE IN INDIA FROM TEL AVIV
NEW DELHI — India’s first chartered flight brought over 200 Indian nationals back home from Tel Aviv on Friday, nearly a week after the latest Israel-Hamas war erupted.
“Everyone is scared. We have no idea what would happen there. We had to move to shelters when there were missile attacks. This was not normal,” said Deepak Sharma, a 20-year-old student who was studying physics at a college in north Israel.
There are about 18,000 Indian citizens living in Israel, a small percentage of them students, according to India’s External Affairs Ministry. Nearly one-third of them have registered with the Indian embassy ready to fly back home.
New Delhi has not heard of any Indian casualties since Hamas launched its Oct. 7 incursion, the ministry said.
NUMBER OF PEOPLE DISPLACED IN GAZA RISES TO 423,000
JERUSALEM — The number of people forced from their homes by the airstrikes soared 25% in a day, reaching 423,000 out of a population of 2.3 million, the United Nations said Thursday. Most crowded into U.N.-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 1,537, with 6,612 people wounded, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said Thursday. Of those killed, 500 were under the age of 18, the ministry said.
Palestinians were reporting 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
KATHMANDU, Nepal — 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.
In addition to those killed, four Nepalis were wounded and one is 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 have been moved to safer areas and will be evacuated eventually. Many Nepalis in Israel are students studying agriculture techniques.
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