Israel pounds Gaza, evacuates town near Lebanon ahead of expected ground offensive against Hamas
UN Secretary General arrives at Rafah border, as first shipments humanitarian aid remain outside Gaza
Israel levelled a northern Gaza district on Friday, and ordered the evacuation of the biggest Israeli town near Lebanon, as it made clear that a command to invade Gaza was expected soon.
Israel has vowed to wipe out the Hamas Islamist group that rules Gaza, after its gunmen burst through the barrier fence surrounding the enclave on Oct. 7 and rampaged through Israeli towns and kibbutzes, killing 1,400 people, mainly civilians. The dead included several Canadian citizens.
The Israeli military said Thursday it had notified the families of 203 captives taken by Hamas.
Israel has pounded Gaza with airstrikes and put the enclave's 2.1 million people under a total siege, ordering a mass evacuation to the south of the enclave and preventing shipments of food, fuel and medical supplies.
Since Oct. 7, 3,785 Palestinians have been killed, including more than 1,500 children, Palestinian officials say. The UN says more than a million have been made homeless and an estimated 13,000 homes have been completely destroyed.
Gaza's overwhelmed hospitals are rationing their dwindling medical supplies and fuel for generators, as authorities worked out logistics for a desperately needed aid delivery from Egypt that has yet to enter. Doctors in darkened wards across Gaza performed surgeries by the light of mobile phones and used vinegar to treat infected wounds.
The deal to get aid into Gaza through Rafah, the territory's only crossing not controlled by Israel, remained fragile. Israel said the supplies could only go to civilians and that it would "thwart" any diversions by Hamas. More than 200 trucks and some 2,700 tonnes of aid were positioned at or near Rafah, but damage to the road on the Gaza side need to be repaired before the crossing can open.
Earlier this week, U.S. President Joe Biden expressed hope this would happen by Friday. "They're going to patch the road. They have to fill in potholes to get these trucks through," he said. But it's not clear how much work has been done or when it will be finished.
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United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres flew to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Friday in a push to get aid flowing into Gaza, but it was unclear when delivery of relief materials stockpiled in Egypt would start.
Guterres, at the Rafah border, implored officials to clear the way for the deliveries, calling the supplies amassed in trucks nearby a "lifeline" for Gaza residents.
"It is impossible to be here and not feel a broken heart," said Guterres. "Behind these walls, we have two million that [are] suffering enormously."
Church hit in deadly airstrike
Inside Gaza City, the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the main Palestinian Christian denomination, said Israeli forces had struck the Church of Saint Porphyrius, where Christian and Muslim residents driven from their homes had sought shelter.
Video from the scene at the church compound showed a wounded boy being carried from rubble at night. A civil defence worker said two people on upper floors had survived; those on lower floors had been killed and were still in the rubble.
"They felt they would be safe here. They came from under the bombardment and the destruction, and they said they would be safe here but destruction chased them," a man cried out.
Gaza's Hamas-run government media office said 18 Christian Palestinians had been killed.
The Israeli military said part of the church was damaged in a strike on a militant command centre and it was reviewing the incident.
In Zahra, a northern town in Gaza, residents said an entire district of some 25 multi-storey apartment buildings appeared to have been razed to the ground.
Evacuation order near Lebanon border
While Israeli troops are massing around Gaza in anticipation of an order to invade, with some receiving a visit Friday from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the conflict is also spreading to two other fronts — the West Bank and the northern border with Lebanon.
The defence ministry ordered residents of the largest Israeli town near the Lebanese border, Kiryat Shmona, to evacuate to guest houses. Clashes at the border between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement have been the deadliest since a full-blown war in 2006.
"This kind of evacuation, which has already been done in a number of towns on the northern border, allows the IDF to expand its operational freedom to act against the Hezbollah terrorist organization," Daniel Hagari, spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), said.
Evacuees from Kiryat Shmona will be put up in state-subsidized guesthouses, Israel's Defence Ministry said.
Israel's military said one of its drones "struck a terrorist in Lebanese territory" overnight. It also said it targeted Hezbollah assets in response to rockets fired from Lebanon.
The Canadian government said earlier this week it is preparing for a possible evacuation of citizens from Lebanon should the Israel-Hamas war escalate and spread to that part of the region, but encouraged Canadians in Lebanon to consider leaving before that might become necessary.
Palestinian militants have meanwhile fired daily rocket barrages into Israel from Gaza, and tensions have flared in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where clashes between Israeli soldiers and settlers and Palestinians have already turned deadly. Israel has arrested more than 900 people in the West Bank, conduction fresh overnight and dawn raids on Friday.
The Palestinian health ministry said 13 people were killed including five children after Israeli troops raided and called in airstrikes on the Nur Shams refugee camp near Tulkarm.
The territory, where Palestinians have limited self rule under Israeli military occupation, has seen the deadliest clashes since 2005.
Fears of regional hostilities
Diplomats fear the conflict could spread even further. The Pentagon on Thursday said a U.S. Navy warship operating in the northern Red Sea intercepted three cruise missiles and several drones launched by the Houthi movement in Yemen, potentially toward Israel.
Western leaders have so far mostly offered support to Israel's campaign against Hamas, although there is mounting unease about the plight of civilians in Gaza, which has yet to receive long promised aid.
"We can't ignore the humanity of innocent Palestinians who only want to live in peace and have opportunity," U.S. President Joe Biden said in a televised prime-time address from the Oval Office on Thursday.
Biden drew a distinction between ordinary Palestinians and Hamas. He linked the current war in Gaza to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying Hamas and Russian President Vladimir Putin "both want to completely annihilate a neighbouring democracy."
Biden said he was sending an "urgent budget request" to Congress on Friday to cover emergency military aid to both Israel and Ukraine. The White House on Wednesday announced $100 million in humanitarian aid to Gaza and West Bank.
The UN's Guterres is expected to attend a peace summit in Cairo on Saturday to discuss the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territories. In addition to the host nation Egypt, officials from the European Union, Turkey, Iraq Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Italy, Greece and Cyprus are expected to attend.
With files from CBC News and the Associated Press