Israeli embassy staffer ‘attacked’ in Beijing amid war against Hamas in Gaza
Israel-Hamas war latest updates: Israelis and Jews worldwide have been advised to be on alert on Friday after Hamas called for a “day of rage".
Israel-Palestine conflict updates: An Israeli embassy staffer in China's Beijing was hospitalised after an attack, the Israel foreign ministry said. The diplomat is in stable condition, it added. A motive for the attack, which did not occur at the embassy, is being investigated, the ministry said.
A video circulating on social media appears to show that the man was stabbed with a knife. Video footage circulating on social media, which HT could not independently verify, appears to show a man being stabbed several times in the shoulder and chest by a man carrying a knife.
Israelis and Jews worldwide have been advised to be on alert on Friday after Hamas called for a “day of rage".
News agency Reuters, citing the statement, reported that the attack did not take place on the embassy compound itself, which is just one embassy over from that of the United States and in an area with a number of other embassies and a heavy police presence. An investigation into the attack is underway, the statement said.
The incident took place even as China's foreign ministry said on Friday it was deeply worried about a potential escalation of the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants. Follow Live Updates on Israel-Hamas war
Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks at a regular press briefing in response to a question regarding the United Nations saying Israel informed it that 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza should relocate to the enclave's south.
Israel warns Gaza civilians must be emptied within 24 hours
Israel on Friday gave Palestinians 24 hours to leave Gaza City ahead of an expected ground offensive in retaliation against Hamas for the deadliest attack in Israeli history.
The United Nations said it had been informed of the evacuation order shortly before midnight Thursday, six days after hundreds of Hamas gunmen broke through the militarised border barrier around the Gaza enclave and killed more than 1,200 people in Israel, drawing comparisons to the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
The UN said the mass relocation, affecting 1.1 million or about half the entire population of the Gaza Strip, to the territory's south was "impossible" and urgently appealed for the order to be rescinded.
Any Israeli ground operation is complicated by Hamas's holding -- according to Israel's government -- of around 150 Israeli, foreign and dual-national hostages.
Hamas on Friday said 13 hostages, including foreigners, had been killed in Israeli strikes. The militants had previously reported four hostages killed in strikes, and the latest deaths came at "five locations targeted by Israeli fighter jets", said the movement, listed as a terrorist organisation by the United States and Europe.
Israel has retaliated by hitting targets in Gaza with thousands of munitions, in strikes claiming more than 1,530 lives -- 500 of them children, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
(With inputs from agencies)
