In what has been described as a catastrophe, Israeli forces have killed at least 1,900 Palestinians in the Gaza, including 614 children, the Palestinian health ministry said Friday.
Israel officials say at least 1,300 Israelis are dead. Thousands of others have been injured.
Israeli military forces on Friday ordered 1.1 million people in Gaza to evacuate — a sign that Israel is setting up a ground operation against Hamas.
But a United Nations spokesperson said it is impossible to evacuate civilians “without devastating humanitarian consequences,” and said the U.N. “strongly appeals for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation.”
A Reuters journalist was killed on Friday when his crew was struck by Israeli shelling near the Lebanon border. More than 3,000 people in Israel and Gaza have been killed in the conflict, with thousands of others injured.
According to U.S. officials, at least 27 Americans are among those killed in Israel since Hamas launched its assault last weekend, and another 14 U.S. citizens remain missing. “Less than a handful” of Americans are believed to be held hostage by Hamas.
The Israeli military ordered more than 1 million Palestinians living in northern Gaza to evacuate on Friday to southern Gaza within the next 24 hours, a task the United Nations called “impossible” without “devastating humanitarian consequences.”
*IDF has notified families of 120 people taken hostage by Hamas
The Israel Defense Forces has notified 120 families that one of their own was taken hostage during Hamas’s surprise weekend attack, according to IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari.
“I can’t even imagine the extent of the pain you feel,” Hagari wrote Friday on X, the platform previously known as Twitter.
The IDF has also contacted the families of 265 people killed in the war.
“We have no choice but to fight,” Hagari wrote. “This is our country, we know what we are fighting for and for whom.”
*Thousands of US citizens in Israel have reached out to State Dept. for assistance
CNN and CBS are reporting that 20,000 US citizens have reached out to the State Department about the crisis in Israel since last Saturday.
A State Department spokesperson told CNN that it has “sent messages to every U.S. citizen who contacted us to inform them that we will provide detailed information to any U.S. citizen who indicates interest in departure assistance.”
Jessica Nagar Zindani, a mother of three hiding in a bomb shelter in southern Israel, told “CBS Mornings” that it has been “a mess” trying to evacuate out of Israel.
Zindani said that while the State Department’s STEP program helps American citizens on a vacation or trip, but “doesn’t work” for residents like her.
“Not just a lack of information, but it’s also really scary because just getting the kids in the car at this point is — it comes down to seconds,” she told CBS.
“Basically we have had to facilitate calling the embassy, calling whomever we can to get any information, and usually that’s none — that isn’t any information,” Zindani said.
*Experts say Hamas and Israel are committing war crimes
“A United Nations Commission of Inquiry said it has been ‘collecting and preserving evidence of war crimes committed by all sides” since the violence started last week.
Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine Director of Human Rights Watch, pointed to Hamas ‘shooting civilians en masse, taking hostages, including women and children — undeniably grave abuses of international law, for which there’s no justification.’ …
[At the same time], the International Committee of the Red Cross said [Israel’s] order to leave [the northern Gaza Strip ahead of a feared ground offensive] along with [its] siege [of the territory] ‘are not compatible with international humanitarian law.’
Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, also called the order illegal. It is ‘not an evacuation opportunity, it’s an order to relocate. Under humanitarian law, it’s called forcible transfer of populations, and it’s a war crime,’ he said.”
*Death toll in Gaza rises to 1,900
At least 1,900 Palestinians in Gaza, including 614 children, have been killed by Israeli strikes since Saturday’s deadly Hamas attacks, the Palestinian health ministry said Friday. More than 3,000 people have been killed on both sides in the last week.
* ‘Where is humanity?’: Scottish first minister’s mother-in-law sends tearful video from Gaza
Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf shared a video Friday of his mother-in-law pleading from the Gaza Strip for the world to show some “humanity” as more than a million Palestinians struggle to evacuate ahead of Israel’s expected ground operation.
“Everybody from Gaza is moving towards where we are,” said a tearful Elizabeth El-Nakla, the mother of Yousaf’s wife Nadia. “One million people, no food, no water — and still they’re bombing them as they’re leaving. Where are you going to put them?”
“But my thought is: All these people in the hospital cannot be evacuated,” El-Nakla continued. “Where is humanity? Where’s people’s hearts in the world, to let this happen in this day and age?”
El-Nakla, a retired nurse, traveled from her home in Scotland last week to visit family in Gaza. She has since been “trapped” there following Hamas’s weekend attack on Israel.
In a post on X, the platform previously known as Twitter, Yousaf wrote that El-Nakla, “like the vast majority of people in Gaza, has nothing to do with Hamas.”
Elsewhere, the Scottish leader — the first Muslim to serve as his country’s first minister — has urged the international community to “step up” and stop the mass evacuation, describing it as “collective punishment.”
*Biden says he spoke to families of missing Americans
President Biden said he spoke with family members of the Americans who are missing in Israel following Hamas’s attack launched a week ago. He says they spoke on a Zoom call for over an hour on Friday morning.
“They’re going through agony not knowing what the status of their sons, daughters, husbands, wives, children are,” Biden said while speaking at an event in Philadelphia. “It’s gut-wrenching. I assured them my personal commitment to do everything possible, everything possible to return every missing American to their families.”
The White House said earlier Friday that 14 U.S. citizens remain missing in Israel, and it’s believed “less than a handful” of Americans were taken hostage by Hamas. Another 22 Americans have been killed.
*UN Secretary General says situation in Gaza has reached ‘dangerous new low’
UN Secretary General António Guterres said Friday that the situation in Gaza “has reached a dangerous new low.”
He said Israel’s call to evacuate more than 1 million people from the north of Gaza in the midst of a densely populated war zone without basic human necessities is “extremely dangerous and in some cases simply not possible.”
Guterres warned that the hospital system in Gaza is on the “brink of collapse,” as the enclave “faces a water crisis, its infrastructure has been damaged, and there is no electricity to power pumps and desalinization plants.”
He said the UN is “working around the clock to support the people of Gaza.” Guterres said he has been in constant contact with leaders around the region to reduce suffering and further prevent dangerous escalation in the region.
Guterres said Friday he mourns the loss of 11 of his healthcare colleagues and said 34 healthcare facilities have been attacked. The UN previously reported the loss of 12 of their healthcare workers on Thursday.
*Pro-Palestinian rally in New York
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered in New York City’s Times Square on Friday afternoon. Organizers of the protest, the Palestinian-led group Within Our Lifetime, have called for support for Gaza.
The local ABC News affiliate reports heavily armed NYPD counterterrorism officers have been in Times Square. Authorities said they’ve ramped up security in schools, places of worship, public transit stations and in certain neighborhoods.
*Hamas says 70 people fleeing northern Gaza killed in Israeli airstrike
“Hamas officials say that 70 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on convoys fleeing Gaza City.
Hamas’ media office says 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.”
