Israelis have razed a Palestinian pizzeria after it used the image of a kidnapped grandmother in a mocking ad.
In a video shot in the West Bank city of Huwara, a bulldozer could be seen ramming into the building and pulling it apart while reversing.
The order to destroy the pizzeria was given by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Central Command.
The ad appeared to mock an elderly woman who was kidnapped by terrorists during Hamas’ attack on Israel a week ago, showing a picture of her next to a photo of a pizza.
The restaurant’s owner was reportedly previously arrested for throwing a rock at an Israeli settler, but the charges were later dropped.
The Eiffel Bakery and Supermarket apologized on Facebook and said it did not know the source of the photo.
The ad appeared to mock an elderly woman who was kidnapped by terrorists during Hamas’ attack on Israel a week ago, showing a picture of her next to a photo of a pizza
In a video shot in the West Bank city of Huwara, a bulldozer could be seen ramming into the building and pulling it apart while reversing
The post said: “We are very sorry about the image that was uploaded.” Of course, the image didn’t come to mind.
“Someone tried to hurt us.” We are against harming people and women and just want to live a life with dignity and live in peace with everyone.
“We are very sorry for the members of the affected family and the others affected.”
More than 150 people were captured when Hamas launched its surprise attack on October 7, Israel said.
Horrifying footage showed women, bloodied and injured, being herded into vehicles, often with their hands tied behind their backs. Images showed Israeli pensioners being taken to Gaza in golf carts and families forced into trucks.
Hamas said yesterday that 13 hostages, including foreigners, had been killed at five locations attacked by Israeli warplanes.
The al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, warned this week that “any attack on our people will end without warning with the execution of one of the civilian hostages.”
More than 1,300 buildings in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed, the United Nations said today, after nearly a week of heavy bombardment by Israeli forces.
According to the UN aid agency OCHA, 5,540 residential units in these buildings were destroyed and almost 3,750 other houses were so badly damaged that they were uninhabitable.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the bombing was “just the beginning” as Israel sought retaliation against Hamas after its militants killed more than 1,300 people a week ago.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, rocket attacks on the densely populated enclave killed at least 1,900 Gazans – most of them civilians, including more than 600 children.
“According to the Gaza Ministry of Public Works, 1,324 residential and non-residential buildings, including 5,540 housing units, were destroyed,” OCHA said.
“An additional 3,743 housing units were damaged beyond repair and rendered uninhabitable.”
Another 55,000 residential units were partially damaged, it said.
Another image showed a woman being held hostage, holding a gun and raising her hands in a peace sign next to a Hamas member wearing a balaclava
Palestinians transport a captured Israeli civilian (center) from Kibbutz Kfar Azza to the Gaza Strip on Saturday, October 7, 2023
Palestinians transport a captured Israeli civilian (center) from Kibbutz Kfar Azza to the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023
The United Nations has been monitoring the number of people displaced from their homes in the Gaza Strip. By the end of Thursday, more than 423,000 people had been registered.
Israel then warned that around 1.1 million people in the north of the enclave would have to be quickly evacuated to the south ahead of an expected ground offensive.
Israel gave Palestinians until 2 p.m. today to evacuate.
As of 6pm GMT Friday, “tens of thousands are estimated to have fled,” OCHA said.
“The exact number of internally displaced people in the Gaza Strip is currently unknown,” it said.
Citing the Palestinian Ministry of Health, it said: “Vehicles of evacuees from the north were hit, killing more than 40 people and injuring 150 others.”
It said: “These incidents caused many people to abandon their evacuation efforts and return home.”
“Initially there were no safe corridors for people to safely comply with orders to move south.” Hundreds of people, including families, had to flee on foot.”
OCHA said most people in Gaza now lack access to clean drinking water.
“As a last resort, people are consuming brackish water from agricultural wells, raising serious concerns about the spread of water-borne diseases.”
OCHA said that since hostilities began, six water wells, three water pumping stations, a water reservoir and a desalination plant serving over 1,100,000 people have been damaged by airstrikes.
A Palestinian girl among cars fleeing Gaza from an expected ground invasion
Palestinians made the dangerous journey south from the southern Gaza Strip yesterday
Around 300,000 people had already been displaced by the war – within less than seven days
Palestinians search for victims among the rubble following Israeli attacks amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip
The Israeli military immediately issued an evacuation order on Friday morning, telling the 1.1 million people living north of an area called Wadi Gaza to move south. This would mean that the entire population of Gaza City and the surrounding area would have to leave their homes
The total blackout has brought key health, water and sanitation services “to the brink of collapse” and exacerbated food insecurity, it said.
The Hamas attack killed more than 1,300 Israelis, most of them civilians, and around 1,500 Hamas fighters were killed during the fighting, the Israeli government said.
Palestinians rushed to flee the northern Gaza Strip today after the Israeli military ordered nearly half the population to evacuate south and carried out limited ground attacks ahead of an expected land offensive a week after Hamas’s bloody, widespread attack on Israel.
Israel renewed calls on social media and in airdropped leaflets for about a million residents 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 because hospital patients and others would not be able to be relocated.
Families in cars, trucks and donkey carts full of possessions crowded a main road leading away from Gaza City as Israeli airstrikes continued to pound the small, besieged area.
Palestinian witnesses said Israel attacked cars traveling south, and Hamas said more than 70 people were killed in the attacks.
The Israeli military, which has not commented on the attacks, posted a message in Arabic on social media saying Palestinians could travel along two main routes without harm from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. local time.
The military said its troops were conducting temporary raids in Gaza to combat militants and search for traces of around 150 people – including men, women and children – abducted during Hamas’s shocking attack on southern Israel on October 7 be.
The mass evacuation order applies to all of Gaza City, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians live.
The Israeli military said it was planning attacks on Hamas underground hideouts, but Palestinians and some Egyptian officials fear Israel’s ultimate goal is to push Gaza’s population across the southern border with Egypt.
The UN called on Israel to reverse the unprecedented directive.
Israeli Merkava battle tanks poured into the Gaza Strip yesterday in preparation for the large-scale ground invasion
Smoke rises from buildings in the southern Gaza Strip after an Israeli attack yesterday
The rubble of buildings hit by an Israeli airstrike in Jabalia, Gaza, earlier this week
A Palestinian carries an injured girl after an Israeli attack in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 14, 2023
Families in Gaza faced agonizing dilemmas when deciding whether to leave or stay.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said today that an Israeli plan to evacuate more than a million people from the northern Gaza Strip in a single day was “completely impossible to implement.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed similar concerns.
“The situation in Gaza has reached a dangerous new low,” he said.
“Even wars have rules,” Guterres said. “International humanitarian law and human rights must be respected and upheld; Civilians must be protected and must never be used as shields.’