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Israel-Hamas war: Gaza faces evacuation deadline; Netanyahu says ‘this is the beginning’. Latest updates
Israel-Hamas war news: The Israel Defense Forces targeted Hezbollah in southern Lebanon in response to the infiltration of unidentified unmanned vehicles.
Israel-Hamas War Latest Updates: The Israel Defense Forces or IDF reportedly targeted Hezbollah in southern Lebanon in response to the infiltration of unidentified unmanned vehicles and the firing towards unoccupied IDF aircraft amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine-based Hamas militants in Gaza. The strike against the aircraft was successful. An IDF spokesperson said the launch at the aircraft was intercepted.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas as the army prepares for an expected ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. Reports claimed that thousands of Palestinians fled to southern Gaza in search of refuge on Saturday after Israel warned them to evacuate before an expected ground offensive against Hamas in retaliation for the deadliest attack in Israel's history.
Netanyahu warned that nearly a week of fierce bombardment was "just the beginning" as Israel seeks to retaliate against Hamas after their fighters killed more than 1,300 nearly a week ago. Follow Live Updates on Israel-Hamas war
Israeli ground forces made "localised" raids into Gaza in the last 24 hours "to cleanse the area of terrorists and weaponry" and try to find "missing persons", the army said.
Hamas officials said 70 people, mostly women and children, were killed in Israeli airstrikes on convoys fleeing Gaza City. Hamas’ media office said the cars were struck in three places as they headed south from Gaza City. It was not immediately clear who the target of the airstrikes was, or whether militants were among the passengers.
Latest updates on Israel-Hamas war in Gaza:
- The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has shifted its Gaza centre of operations and some staffers to the territory’s south, but many of the world body’s 13,000 Gaza workers have chosen to remain in the north to continue helping people there, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Friday.
- The world body earlier warned of “devastating humanitarian consequences” after the Israeli military told the entire population of northern Gaza to leave.
- In a nationally televised address late on Friday, Netanyahu said, “This is just the beginning… We will end this war stronger than ever.”
- “We will destroy Hamas,” he added, saying Israel has widespread international support for the operation.
- Israel faces a potential second front in the north after the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon said it was "fully prepared" to join Hamas in the war when the time was right. There has been cross-border fire in recent days, sparking concern about regional stability and prompting the United States to send additional munitions and its largest aircraft carrier. US President Joe Biden has warned other regional powers not to get involved.
- US defence secretary Lloyd Austin assured Israel that “we have your back” as he and America’s top diplomat met on Friday with Israeli and Arab leaders. There was no indication the US was trying to prevent an expected Israeli ground offensive into Gaza that could worsen a humanitarian crisis for the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped in the blockaded territory. The visits to the Middle East by Austin and secretary of state Antony Blinken came as Israel escalated its war against Hamas militants in response to their shocking and brutal rampage last weekend.
- At least 1,900 Gazans – most of them civilians and including more than 600 children -- have been killed in waves of missile strikes on the densely populated enclave, the Palestine health ministry said.
- Hamas, classified as a terrorist organisation by the European Union and the US, took about 150 Israeli, foreign and dual national hostages back to Gaza in the initial attack, Israel has said.
- Relatives of Israelis abducted pleaded at the UN on Friday for the world’s help getting their loved ones home. Speaking by video from Israel, Yoni Asher told diplomats at an Israel-organised event that he hasn’t slept or eaten since his wife and two small daughters vanished on Saturday while visiting his mother-in-law in the country’s south.
- Before the evacuation directives, 423,000 Gaza Strip residents had already fled their homes, according to the United Nations. The militant group said that 13 of them had been killed in Israeli air strikes. It has previously said four hostages died in bombardments.
- An Israeli shell landed in a gathering of international journalists covering clashes on the border in south Lebanon on Friday, killing a Reuters videographer and leaving six other journalists injured. An Associated Press photographer at the scene saw the body of Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and the six who were wounded, some of whom were rushed to hospitals in ambulances. Images from the scene showed a charred car. Reuters said two of its journalists, Thaer Al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh, were wounded in the shelling in the border area. Qatar’s Al-Jazeera TV, said two of its employees, Elie Brakhya and reporter Carmen Joukhadar, also were among the wounded. France’s international news agency, Agence France-Presse, said two of its journalists also were among the wounded, but the agency did not release their names.
(With inputs from agencies)
