Palestinians struggled on Saturday to flee areas in the Gaza Strip under attack by Israeli forces while facing a growing water crisis. Israel halted the flow of resources to the region ahead of an expected ground offensive a week after Hamas’ bloody attack on Israel.
Israel renewed its calls on social media and in airdropped leaflets for Gazans to move south, while Hamas urged people to stay in their homes. The United Nations and aid groups have said such a rapid exodus would cause untold human suffering for hospital patients, the elderly and others unable to move.
The evacuation directive applies to an area of 1.1 million people, about half the territory’s population. The Israeli military said “hundreds of thousands” of Palestinians had already heeded the warning and moved south. He said Palestinians could travel without harm on two main routes within the Gaza Strip from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. local time.
Hamas said it launched the attack because the suffering of Palestinians has become unbearable due to the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip 16 years ago, as well as Israel’s endless military occupation and expanding settlements in the West Bank.
Hamas insurgents are holding about 150 people captive in Israel and have fired thousands of projectiles into Israeli territory in recent days.
The United States announced that it is working with Egypt and Israel to create safe corridors for civilians to leave Gaza.
The war, which has already claimed more than 3,500 lives on both sides, is expected to intensify.
THE NUMBER OF DEATHS IN ISRAEL AND GAZA IS RISING
The latest numbers were confirmed this Friday at 5:50 p.m. ET and according to various sources, such as NBC News and AP, there are more than 3,500 dead so far on both sides of the conflict: 1,300 Israelis and 2,228 dead in Gaza.
IN ISRAEL
- Includes 265 dead soldiers
- 260 civilians were killed at the music festival
- 107 dead in Kibbutz Be’eri
IN GAZA
- These include 722 men, 458 women and 724 children
Although not technically a “dome,” the technology creates a “force field” effect when missiles are nearby. Is that how it works?
Israeli forces attacked a residential building in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza on Thursday, killing at least 45 people and wounding dozens more, Gaza’s Interior Ministry reported.
An airstrike hit al-Shihab’s family home in the center of Jabaliya camp, Interior Ministry spokesman Eyad Bozum told The Associated Press.
Al-Shihab’s house was filled with dozens of people at the time of the airstrike, Bozum said. Some family members had fled severe attacks in other parts of the Gaza Strip and sought refuge there.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war on Hamas on Saturday after the Palestinian militant group launched a surprise attack.
Bozum said the death toll from the attack was likely to rise as disaster relief workers continued to pull bodies from the rubble and count the dead.
During a visit to Iraq on Thursday, Iran’s foreign minister said if Israel does not stop its attacks on civilians in Gaza, the region will face “new conditions.”
“You cannot subject Gaza to a total siege, bomb citizens and commit war crimes and expect no response,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said in a statement released by the Foreign Ministry.
Why did the attack surprise Israel?
Israel appeared to have turned a blind eye to the Hamas attack that tore down Israeli border barriers and allowed hundreds of radicals to enter Israel.
“This is a huge failure,” said Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “This operation actually shows that the (intelligence) capabilities in Gaza were not good.” Amidror declined to offer an explanation for the failure but said lessons would have to be learned when the dust settled.
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the military’s chief spokesman, acknowledged that the military owes the public an explanation. But he said now was not the time. “First we fight. Then we will investigate,” he added.
Some say it is too early to blame intelligence failures alone. They point to a wave of low-level violence in the West Bank that shifted some military resources there, and the political chaos that rocked Israel over the far-right Netanyahu government’s efforts to reform the judiciary.
The controversial plan has threatened the cohesion of the country’s powerful military.
What motivated the attack?
Hamas officials cited long-simmering tensions, including a dispute over the sensitive Al-Aqsa Mosque, a holy site for both Muslims and Jews.
Both sides’ claims to the site known to Jews as the Temple Mount have led to violence before, including a bloody 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in 2021.
In recent years, Israeli religious nationalists – such as Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister – have increased their visits to the complex.
Last week, during Sukkot – the Jewish harvest festival – hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews and Israeli activists visited the site, prompting condemnation from Hamas and accusations that Jews were praying there in violation of the “status quo” agreement.
Hamas has also cited the expansion of Jewish settlements in the countryside that Palestinians demand for a future state, and Ben-Gvir’s moves to tighten restrictions on Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
Tensions have increased due to recent violent Palestinian protests. In negotiations with Qatar, Egypt and the United Nations, Hamas has pushed for Israel to make concessions that could ease the 17-year blockade on the enclave and help stem a deepening financial crisis.