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More than 600 children among 1,900 killed in Gaza: health ministry

Israeli strikes on Gaza since Hamas's deadly cross-border attack have killed at least 1,900 people, including 614 children, the territory's health ministry said Friday.

Some 370 women were among those killed in the seven days of air strikes, the Hamas-run health ministry said. It added that 7,696 people have been wounded.

A chilling audio dispatch from The New Arab's correspondent in Gaza, describing the anxiety and fear she and Gazans are living as Israel relentlessly bombards their homes and threatens to launch a ground invasion

In a disturbing escalation of Israeli settler violence, men from the Havat Ma'on settlement shot an unarmed Palestinian, Zakarya Adra, in the stomach on Friday, leaving him fighting for his life at a Yatta hospital in the southern West Bank amid Israel's onslaught in Gaza on the other side of historic Palestine.

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Egypt warns against Israeli call for Gaza residents to move south

Egypt's foreign ministry warned on Friday against calls from the Israeli army for more than 1 million of the Gaza Strip's residents to leave their homes and head south, saying it would have a serious impact on humanitarian conditions in the enclave.

Such a move would be a "grave violation" of international humanitarian law and expose the lives of Gaza residents to danger, putting hundreds of thousands of people in areas not fit to accommodate them, the ministry said in a statement.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Friday that Gallant said Palestinian civilians "who want to save their lives" must heed Israel's warning to evacuate southward in Gaza.

Egypt shares a border with Gaza and has been alarmed by the prospect that its residents could be displaced by Israel's siege and bombardment of the territory, launched in retaliation for a devastating incursion by Hamas militants.

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Israel made raids into Gaza over past 24 hours

Israeli ground forces made raids into Gaza over the past 24 hours, the military said on Friday, ahead of an expected ground offensive on the densely populated Palestinian territory.

"Over the past 24 hours, IDF (Israeli military) forces carried out localised raids inside the territory of the Gaza Strip to complete the effort to cleanse the area of terrorists and weaponry," an army statement said.

"During these operations, there was also an effort to locate missing persons."

The raids came amid incessant Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip, which have killed at least 1,799 people, and injured over 6,000.

War erupted between the two sides on Saturday, when Hamas militants carried out a cross-border attack in Israel.

Israel has ordered over 1 million Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza in the next 2 hours, causing panic for residents who have nowhere to evacuate to.

Moreover, Israel has imposed a complete siege on the already-blockaded enclave, cutting off fuel, water and food.

Protests across Middle East in support of Gaza

Thousands of protesters poured onto the streets of several Middle East capitals Friday in support of Palestinians amid Israeli bombardment on Gaza which has now entered its seventh day.

"No to the occupation! No to America!" chanted demonstrators gathered in central Baghdad after Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr called for a protest "in support of Gaza" and against Israel, an AFP journalist reported.

"This rally is aimed at condemning what is happening in occupied Palestine, the bloodletting and the violation of rights," said Abu Kayan, an organiser of the protest.

The besieged Gaza Strip has been under heavy Israeli bombardment since Saturday in retaliation for Hamas's cross-border assault on Israel.

The Israeli strikes that followed have killed at least 1,799 people, also mostly civilians, in the Gaza Strip which has already been under an illegal land, sea and air blockade for more than 15 years.

🇮🇶 #Iraq || Thousands of Iraqi people gathered in Al Tahreer square in Baghdad city in solidarity with Gaza. 13.10.23

الالاف يحتشدون في ساحة التحرير بالعاصمة العراقية بغداد؛ إسناداً لغزة . pic.twitter.com/DJsa0Yk9oq

— Eye on Palestine (@EyeonPalestine) October 13, 2023

In Egypt, videos on social media showed hundreds of protesters near Cairo's Al-Azhar mosque chanting in solidarity with Gaza.

"Arab and Muslim countries have the duty and the responsibility to provide urgent humanitarian aid and help to the Palestinians of Gaza", the university of Al-Azhar, the highest institution in Sunni Islam, said in a statement.

Protests also took place in Jordan, Oman, Lebanon, Algeria, and Iran.

هنا مصر - الأزهر الشريف في القاهرة

"مظاهرة واحدة في القاهرة تساوي عملية فدائية في تل أبيب"

-الشيخ أحمد ياسين pic.twitter.com/LhrVxTlRfv

— مُضَر | Modar (@ivarmm) October 13, 2023

Journalist killed, three injured in Israeli shelling on Lebanon

One journalist was killed, and at least four others were injured in an Israeli airstrike near the town of Alma as-Shaab on the Lebanese border on Friday.

Essam Abdullah from the Reuters news agency was killed, while correspondents from AFP and Al-Jazeera were also injured in the Israeli strike.

It was unclear if any more journalists were injured as a result of the strike.

The injured journalists were transported to a nearby hospital, though the extent of their injuries is still unknown.

According to video footage shared by Lebanese media, a car belonging to one of the journalists was hit by the airstrike.

Footage captured one journalist screaming, "What happened? I cannot feel my legs," repeatedly.

The strike occurred on the fifth day of back-and-forth shelling between Israel and pro-Iran group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and northern Israel.

Hezbollah struck Israel "in solidarity" with Hamas's attack on Israel on Saturday.

17 Palestinians killed in new Israeli strike in northern Gaza

The Palestinian pro-Hamas Shehab news agency on Friday said 17 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza Strip. 

(Reuters)

Several journalists wounded in Israeli shelling on Lebanon border

One journalist has been killed and three injured by an apparent Israeli strike by the Lebanese-Israeli border, according to AFP and several Arabic-language outlets, including Al-Araby TV. 

The shelling reportedly took place Alma Al-Shaab and could be seen on a Reuters livestream. Among the injured are reportedly Al-Jazeera's Carmen Joukhadar and Elie Brakhia.

More to follow...

Hospital evacuation in Gaza 'impossible': Palestinian officials

Palestinian officials have told WHO that it would be impossible to move vulnerable hospital patients to the southern Gaza Strip, the UN health body said on Friday.

Israel has give Palestinians 24 hours to leave the northern Gaza Strip ahead of an expected ground offensive as the war in the besieged Strip has entered its seventh day.

The two major hospitals in the north of the Gaza Strip had already exceeded their combined 760-bed capacity, "and the hospitals in the south of Gaza are overflowing", WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva.

"With ongoing airstrikes, civilians have no safe place left to go. The Palestinian Ministry of Health has informed WHO that is impossible to evacuate vulnerable hospital patients from the north of Gaza."

Jasarevic said the health system in the Gaza Strip was now at "breaking point", with six of the seven main hospitals in Gaza only partially functioning.

Israel's forced transfer of Palestinians in north Gaza 'a crime': Arab League

Israel's order to Palestinians to evacuate the north of the blockaded Gaza Strip is a "forced transfer" that constitutes "a crime", Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit said Friday.

The secretary-general of the pan-Arab body, in a letter sent to UN chief Antonio Guterres, also accused Israel of carrying out "an atrocious act of revenge punishing helpless civilians in Gaza" rather than a "planned or studied military operation" on uprooting Hamas militants over their deadly attacks on Israeli soil.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency on Friday described Israel's call to move more than 1 million civilians in northern Gaza in 24 hours as "horrendous" and said the enclave was rapidly becoming a "hell hole".

"The call from the Israelis Forces to move more than 1 million civilians living in northern Gaza within 24 hours is horrendous," Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said in a statement.

"This will only lead to unprecedented levels of misery and further push people in Gaza into abyss."

Lazzarini said more than 423,000 people have already been displaced, and more than 270,000 had taken refuge in UNRWA shelters.

Vladimir Putin compares Gaza siege to 'Nazi blockade of Leningrad'

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday called Israel's siege of Gaza "unacceptable", comparing it to the Nazi blockade of Leningrad during World War II.

Israel is now about to do something that is "comparable to the siege of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War," Putin told journalists in Kyrgyzstan. "In my opinion, this is unacceptable," he said.

Portion of Lebanese-Israeli border fence 'blown up': Hezbollah

Hezbollah announced that the blowing up of a portion of the border fence near the town of Alma al-Shaab on the western portion of Lebanese-Israeli border, as well as the targeting of an unspecified number of tanks there.

The Lebanese militia further said Israeli tanks shelled the area between alma al-Shaab and Dahira.

Israeli media has announced a suspected infiltration attempt in the same area from the Lebanese side, but has not reported any shelling.

In the last few days, Israeli border sensors have reported several false alarms of incursions and shelling from Lebanon, but in those cases, Hezbollah did not claim responsibility.

Local and international media 'leaves' northern Gaza

TNA's correspondent in Gaza reports that all local and international media has left Gaza city and the northern parts of the strip and relocated south. There is no official coverage possible of the northern part of the strip, as Gazans attempt to evacuate.

Gaza death toll increases to 1,799 casualties

The Palestinian Healthy said the death toll in Gaza has increased to 1,799 casualties as of Friday.

6,388 people are now wounded, with many in critical condition.

Evacuation in Gaza through the eyes of TNA correspondent 

The New Arab's Gaza correspondent, Sally Ibrahim, has been attempting to evacuate Gaza City with her relatives as of Friday, as Israel ordered over 1 million residents to leave the territory's to to the south within the next 24 hours, before Israel carries out an expected ground offensive. 

Gazans are without food and water, amid an imposed siege by Israel, which has been condemned by rights groups as "inhumane."

"People are worried, we cannot even do anything." "We are just praying, we are awaiting our fate, and waiting for the new massacres that will be committed by the Israeli army," Ibrahim said.

She further stressed that shelters and homes and already crowded with those who have evacuated, who are numbering in their hundreds of thousands.

"They don't have anywhere to escape to, we don't know we can deal with such a terrible situation" she emphasised.

Israel for the seventh consecutive day, has been relentlessly pounding the besieged Strip, where the death toll has now reached 1,537 people. 

At least 9 killed in West Bank by Israeli forces amid Gaza rallies

At least nine Palestinians were killed Friday by Israeli fire across the occupied West Bank during rallies in solidarity with war-battered Gaza, the Palestinian health ministry said.

AFP correspondents and a security official reported clashes in Ramallah, Nablus, Tulkarm, Hebron and other cities and towns across the West Bank, nearly a week after a massive Hamas attack on Israel's south spiralled into an all-out war.

least 1,537 people have been killed in Gaza since Israeli forces launched their fiercest onslaught in 70 years on Saturday.

At least 44 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank in violence related to the Israel-Hamas war conflict since Saturday, according to the health ministry.

By Friday afternoon, the ministry reported "nine martyrs by occupation (Israeli) bullets in the West Bank" and some 130 wounded across multiple locations, some critically.

At least three of the deaths were in Tulkarm.

In Beit Furik, near Nablus, a 14-year-old boy was killed, medical sources told AFP.

Deaths were also recorded in Beit Ula, Tammun, Bethelem and Hebron, the health ministry said in separate statements.

Gazans' relocation to south of enclave 'unrealistic': EU

The EU's top diplomat Josep Borrell said on Friday that Israel's call for more than a million Palestinians in Gaza to relocate to the enclave's south in 24 hours was "unrealistic".

"Certainly, civilians must be warned about incoming military operations, but it is utterly unrealistic that one million people can move in 24 hours," Borrell told a press conference in Beijing following talks with China's foreign minister Wang Yi.

(Reuters)

Palestinian solidarity protests in Lebanon

Protests in solidarity with Palestinians were held across Lebanon on Friday afternoon, with several hundred demonstrators attending a rally in downtown Beirut, TNA's Levant correspondent William Christou said on Friday.

In the southern city of Tyre, a number buses carrying protesters departed from nearby Palestinian refugee camps heading towards the border. They were turned back by the Lebanese army, which had set up additional roadblocks in the south to prevent Palestinians from approaching the border. The protest was quickly dispersed after that.

"The Palestinian people should be able to go to the border at least. we are peaceful, we’re not trying to cross the border anyway. We know the Israelis would just shoot us if we tried," a Palestinian protester in the city of Tyre told The New Arab under the condition of anonymity.

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister has said that the country stands with Palestine, and that most of the events on the border are a result of Israeli violations.

Hamas leader denies 'targeting civilians'

Hamas deputy leader Salah Al-Arouri said that the Palestinian militant group 'did not target civilians' in an interview with Qatari broadcaster Al-Jazeera on Thursday.

"The military plan of the al-Qassam Brigades was to target the Gaza division of the occupation army, and to fight only the occupation soldiers, and we had information that the occupation was planning to launch an attack on us after the Hebrew holidays," he claimed.

Al-Arouri said that the group "cannot harm civilians or prisoners", and that they act "in accordance with international laws of war and according to the instructions of the Commander-in-Chief of al-Qassam, Abu Khaled al-Deif, not to harm children and women."

Among the 1,300 Israelis killed, however, have been reported to be civilians, despite Hamas' claims.

Gazans 'must remain' on their land: Egypt's Sisi

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Thursday that Gazans must "stay steadfast and remain on their land", amid calls for Cairo to allow safe passage for people stuck in Gaza, as Israeli bombardment of the Strip has entered its seventh day. 

The Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza is the only passage in and out of the coastal enclave not controlled by Israel.

Israel has relentlessly bombarded the Gaza Strip since Saturday in reprisal for a unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel. Israeli strikes have now killed at least 1,537 people, and wounded over 6,000.

Egypt said it is committed to ensuring the delivery "of aid, both medical and humanitarian at this difficult time", Sisi said, affirming Cairo's "firm position" of ensuring Palestinians' "legitimate rights".

But he stressed, in a speech at a military ceremony, that Gazans must "stay steadfast and remain on their land".

The tiny coastal enclave home to over 2 million people, already blockaded since 2007, is under siege by Israel which has cut off water, food and power supplies.

Almost a week of fierce Israeli air and artillery strikes have reduced entire districts to rubble.

Egypt, historically a key intermediary between Hamas and Israel, has called for donors to send humanitarian aid bound for Gaza to El Arish airport but has pushed against calls to allow fleeing Palestinians into its land.

In recent days, state-linked media has quoted high-level security sources warning against a mass exodus of Palestinians, who were being "forced to choose between death under Israeli bombing or displacement from their land".

Egypt has pushed for a diplomatic solution and called for restraint from both sides, while Sisi has asserted his country's national security was his "primary responsibility".

On Thursday, he said that Egypt was already hosting "nine million guests, as I call them, from many countries who came to Egypt for security and safety".

But the case of Gazans "is different", he said, because their displacement would mean "the elimination of the (Palestinian) cause".

Egypt was the first Arab state to normalise relations with Israel in 1970, after a six-year war that ended in 1973 with Egypt regaining the Sinai Peninsula from Israeli control.

Lebanon army sets up checkpoints on Israeli border

The Lebanese Army has set up checkpoints on the road to a defunct Lebanese-Israeli border crossing in the town in anticipation of protesters storming the border, reported TNA's Levant correspondent William Christou on Friday.

The town of Kafr Kala where the crossing is located has been the site of numerous protests in the past.

Demonstrations are being held across Lebanon in solidarity with the Palestinian people as Hamas called for a "Day of Rage" across the Arab and Islamic world.

There is mass sympathy in the Arab world for the Palestinian cause, as Israel called for the evacuation of 1.1 million out of northern Gaza on Friday in anticipation of a military operation there. Rights organisations have said the Israeli demand is tantamount to mass displacement and is "infeasible" given the state of destruction in Gaza.

Thousands protest in Jordan capital in support of Gaza

Thousands gathered in the Jordanian capital of Amman on Friday for a demonstration in support of Palestinians amid Israel's fiercest assault on the Strip in over 70 years, which has killed at least 1,537 as of Friday. 

More than 10,000 people massed in central Amman near the Grand Husseini Mosque, responding to calls to protest on social media from Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood, as well as several leftist and youth groups.

The protest is set to officially begin after Friday prayers, but demonstrators eagerly gathered with Palestinian and Jordanian flags.

Thousands take to the streets in Amman, Jordan, in support of the Palestinian people and in protest of the Israeli aggression on #Gaza. pic.twitter.com/glInAQGr2S

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) October 13, 2023

They held banners reading "The victory march will continue, solidarity with Palestine" and "Stand with Palestine, Liberated Palestine".

There was a heavy police presence in the area, said AFP journalists at the scene.

Israel has launched its biggest assault on the Gaza on Saturday in over seven decades, and has plunged the Strip into a near-blackout while depriving it from food, fuel and water in a intensified siege.

Telecommunications blackout in Gaza 'attack on human rights': rights group

The leading rights Access Now has slammed Israel's complete siege of Gaza, plunging the enclave into a near-blackout, and demanded the restoration of internet access in the territory.

The group said data from the Internet Outage Detection and Analysis (IODA) shows a major connectivity plunge in Gaza coinciding with the start of Israeli strikes on the besieged enclave on Saturday, in response to Hamas' cross-border attack on Israel. 

Airstrikes by Israeli forces on Monday destroyed a building containing both offices and infrastructure for Paltel and Jawwal, two of the main telecommunications providers in Gaza. Al–Watan Tower, another building that houses media offices and serves as a hub for internet service providers, has also been the target of Israeli airstrikes.

Moreover, Fusion, Hadara, and Jetnet have been impacted by Israeli strikes, with damage to infrastructure causing widespread outages in both internet and telephone line access.

Access Now stressed that Gazans will no longer be able to charge electronic devices as Israel vowed to stop supplying the Strip with electricity via a complete siege. Additionally, Gaza's only power station ran out of power earlier this week.

"The Gaza Strip is being cut off from the world," said Marwa Fatafta, MENA Policy and Advocacy Manager at Access Now.

"Access Now demands the immediate restoration of internet access for the people of Gaza, who have already long endured horrifying conditions in what is described as the world’s largest open-air prison, and who have little to no means of escape as the violence escalates. The total blockade now in place will only exacerbate the situation and may result in more atrocities for those plunged under the darkness of a communications blackout."

Mournings held across US for Palestinians, Israelis

In cities across the US this week, the progressive Jewish group "IfNotNow" has been holding gatherings to mourn the Israelis and Palestinians killed in the latest large-scale outbreak of violence that started Saturday.

Read more from our Washington, DC correspondent Brooke Anderson.

Hamas rejects Israel order to evacuate north Gaza

Hamas has rejected an Israeli order for 1.1 million residents to evacuate northern Gaza ahead of an expected ground incursion into the overcrowded Palestinian territory.

"Our Palestinian people reject the threat of the occupation [Israeli] leaders and its call for them to leave their homes and flee from them to the south or Egypt," the Islamist militant group said in a statement.

"We are steadfast on our land and in our homes and our cities. There will be no displacement," it said.

The United Nations said an order by Israel to flee within 24 hours risked a "calamitous situation".

Hamas says at least 13 hostages in Gaza killed in Israel airstrikes

At least 13 Israeli and foreign hostages held in the northern Gaza Strip have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in the past 24 hours, Hamas's armed wing has said.

In a surprise assault early Saturday, Hamas militants stormed Israeli communities near the Gaza border and fired barrages of rockets, in an attack that claimed more than 1,200 lives.

Israel says Hamas has taken more than 150 people hostage, including both civilians and security forces.

"Thirteen prisoners... including foreigners" were killed in five locations targeted by Israeli fighter jets, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement.