Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Israeli infantrymen outside the Gaza Strip, his office said in a statement sharing a video showing him telling them, "You ready for the next stage? The next stage is coming." The infantrymen nodding in response to his question. The Israeli leader did not elaborate the next steps in the video.
This comes as the deadline for the evacuation of a hospital in Gaza City and for Palestinians to flee safely to the south passed. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said it received an order from Israeli forces earlier today with a deadline to evacuate its Al Quds hospital. It was later extended from the initial time of 6am today but the hospital could not be evacuated safely and it was obliged to continue caring for the sick and wounded, it said.
This also marked the end of a window for 'safe passage' marked by the Israeli military, which said Palestinians could travel along two main routes from northern Gaza without being harmed from 10am to 4pm local time.
Read more: ‘Barbaric’: Hamas chief accuses Israel of 'war crimes' days after deadly attack
{{/usCountry}}This also marked the end of a window for 'safe passage' marked by the Israeli military, which said Palestinians could travel along two main routes from northern Gaza without being harmed from 10am to 4pm local time.
Read more: ‘Barbaric’: Hamas chief accuses Israel of 'war crimes' days after deadly attack
{{/usCountry}}Israel have put the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, under a total siege and bombarded it with unprecedented air strikes. Gaza authorities said that more than 2,200 people have been killed, a quarter of them children, and nearly 10,000 wounded.
The US government encouraged its citizens in Gaza to move south toward the Rafah border crossing with Egypt to be ready for its possible reopening amid the humanitarian crisis in the coastal enclave.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA) confirmed that this week was the deadliest in the West Bank since the UN started recording in 2005 after Hamas launched its attack on Israel last Saturday.