Israel-Hamas War: Israel orders evacuation of 1.1 million within 24 hours

Israeli authorities called for civilians to evacuate Gaza City on Friday, warning that the military “will continue to operate significantly” in the area in the coming days.

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The announcement, which the United Nations said would impact about 1.1 million people, came ahead of an expected ground offensive in Gaza. On Monday, Israeli officials ordered a complete siege of the area, blocking food, water, electricity and fuel. Humanitarian groups have warned of increasing dire conditions on the ground.

Thousands of people have died since Hamas launched surprise attacks against Israel on Saturday. One day after the attacks, the country declared war.

16 Palestinians killed in West Bank Friday

Update 9:54 p.m. EDT Oct. 13: The Palestinian Health Ministry reported that 16 Palestinians were killed Friday, according to The Associated Press. The 16 were killed in the occupied West Bank. It has brought the total number of West Palestinians killed since last Saturday to 51.

-- Jessica Goodman, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

19 Republican governors write letter to Biden over Israel support

Update 8:10 p.m. EDT Oct. 13: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and 18 other Republican governors wrote a letter to President Biden Friday asking for transparency on hostages and American loss of life, according to CNN. That along with “unequivocal support to Israel,” and the “immediate freeze of the $6 billion ransom payment made to the terror state.”

“We pray for the families of those killed and missing,” the letter read, according to CNN. “And we understand there is a process underway to locate American citizens taken hostage or otherwise missing and to bring them home swiftly and safely. But the lack of transparency in this process leads us to question whether your administration is pursuing this objective with maximum energy and diligence.”

The full letter can be read on the Republican Governors Association website.

-- Jessica Goodman, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

Biden says US is ‘working like hell’ to get missing Americans

Update 8:05 p.m. EDT Oct. 13: In an interview with CBS News, President Joe Biden said that the United States is “working like hell” to get missing Americans back to the states, according to CNN.

“I say we’re going to do everything in our power to find them,” Biden said in a CBS News, according to CNN.

-- Jessica Goodman, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

First US charter flight for Americans leaves Israel, arrives in Greece

Update 5:17 p.m. EDT Oct. 13: U.S. State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said confirmed that the first charter flight from Israel arrived Friday afternoon in Athens, Greece, according to CNN.

“While many U.S. citizens are departing Israel on commercial transportation, State Department is chartering flights to provide additional options and capacity. Our first flight carrying U.S. citizens and their immediate family members from Israel is wheels down in Athens. A big thank you to everyone involved in making this possible. Our work continues,” Miller said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Delta, American and United Airlines have announced larger aircraft or adding flights to and from Athens, CNN reported. The airlines said they have been in contact with the US State Department.

-- Jessica Goodman, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

Biden: US ‘working around the clock’ to rescue Americans kidnapped by Hamas

Update 3:45 p.m. EDT Oct. 13: U.S. officials are working with Israel and other partners in the Middle East to secure the release of Americans who have been taken captive by Hamas, President Joe Biden said Friday.

“We’re working around the clock to secure the release of Americans held by Hamas in close cooperation with Israel and our partners around the region, and we’re not going to stop until we bring them home,” he said.

At least 14 Americans remain unaccounted for after fighting broke out in Israel over the weekend. It was not immediately clear whether all were taken hostage.

Biden said he spoke earlier Friday with American families looking for their missing loved ones in Israel. The call, over Zoom, went on for a little over an hour, he said.

“They are going through agony, not knowing what the status of their sons, daughters, husbands, wives, children are,” he said. “You know, it’s gut-wrenching.”

Twenty-seven U.S. citizens have been killed in the clashes, officials said.

Amnesty International: Evacuation order ‘must be rescinded by Israel immediately’

Update 3:30 p.m. EDT Oct. 13: Officials with the human rights group Amnesty International urged Israeli officials to rescind the evacuation order it issued for people in Gaza City, saying it could “amount to a forced displacement of the civilian population” in violation of international law.

“With this order, Israeli forces are setting in motion the mass forced displacement of more than 1.1 million people from Gaza City and the entire northern part of the Gaza Strip,” the group’s secretary general, Agnès Callamard, said Friday in a statement.

“It has sowed panic among the population and left thousands of internally displaced Palestinians now sleeping on the streets, not knowing where to flee to or where they can find safety amid a relentless bombing campaign by Israel and merciless collective punishment measures. This order must be rescinded immediately.”

Israeli officials called for civilians to evacuate Gaza City on Friday.

“Hamas terrorists are hiding in Gaza City inside tunnels underneath houses and inside buildings populated with innocent Gazan civilians,” officials with the Israel Defense Forces said. “Civilians of Gaza City, evacuate south for your own safety and the safety of your families and distance yourself from Hamas terrorists who are using you as human shields.”

Netanyahu: ‘This is just the beginning’

Update 2:50 p.m. EDT Oct. 13: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to destroy Hamas in remarks televised ahead of an expected ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, The Associated Press reported Friday.

“This is just the beginning,” he said, according to The Guardian. “Our enemies have only started paying the price. I will not detail now what is yet to come, but I would like to tell you this is just the beginning.”

He added, “We’re going to eradicate Hamas and we’re going to bring victory. It’s going to take time, but we’re going to come out of this war stronger than ever.”

Gaza hospital given ‘just two hours to evacuate,’ Doctors Without Border says

Update 2:25 p.m. EDT Oct. 13: Officials with Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders, said Friday that Israel gave Al Awda Hospital “just two hours to evacuate” amid the country’s war with Hamas.

“Our staff are still treating patients,” the group said in a statement posted on social media. “We unequivocally condemn this action, the continued indiscriminate bloodshed and attacks on health care in Gaza. We are trying to protect our staff and patients.”

Earlier, officials with the Israel Defense Force warned people to leave Gaza City.

A spokesman for the World Health Organization told the United Nations on Friday that forcing severely ill or badly injured patients to evacuate hospitals in northern Gaza would be a “death sentence” for some, according to The Associated Press.

1st charter flight organized by US leaves Israel

Update 2:15 p.m. EDT Oct. 13: The first charter flight organized by the U.S. government to get Americans out of Israel has left, The Guardian reported, citing White House officials.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Friday that the flight was “en route right now into Europe,” according to the newspaper. He declined to say exactly where the flight was headed.

On Thursday, Kirby said the U.S. was planning to arrange charter flights to get Americans out of Israel. He added that officials were also looking at options to help U.S. citizens evacuate by land and sea.

UN chief urges Israel to ‘avert a humanitarian catastrophe’

Update 2 p.m. EDT Oct. 13: United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has been in constant contact with Israeli authorities and urged them to “avert a humanitarian catastrophe,” a spokesperson said Friday, according to The Guardian.

In a briefing, Stéphane Dujarric said no aid is getting into Gaza as border crossings remain closed, the newspaper reported. Israeli officials announced a “complete siege” of Gaza earlier this week, blocking food, fuel, water and electricity.

Reuters journalist killed in southern Lebanon

Update 1:05 p.m. EDT Oct. 13: A news videographer working for Reuters died while working in southern Lebanon, the news agency confirmed Friday in a statement.

“We are deeply saddened to learn that our videographer, Issam Abdallah, has been killed,” the statement read. “We are urgently seeking more information, working with authorities in the region, and supporting Issam’s family and colleagues.”

Reuters said Abdallah was part of a crew that was providing a live video signal for the news agency.

Several journalists are among the more than 3,000 people killed so far as fighting between Israel and Hamas continues.

Israeli military carries out raids in Gaza

Update 12:50 p.m. EDT Oct. 13: Israeli troops have carried out raids in the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces said Friday, according to CNN and The Guardian.

“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,” the IDF said in a statement obtained by The Guardian. “During these operations, there was also an effort to locate missing persons.”

Blinken: Ensuring safe areas for civilians in Gaza ‘a priority’ for US

Update 12:30 p.m. EDT Oct. 13: U.S. officials see creating safe areas for civilians in Gaza as “a priority” as fighting between Israel and Hamas continues, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday.

The top U.S. diplomat said during a news conference in Qatar that officials have been “actively engaged with U.N. relief agencies, with the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross), with others, to address the acute humanitarian needs of the people in Gaza, to protect them from harm and make sure that they have the ability to get what they need.”

“We need to ensure, for example, that there are safe areas in Gaza for civilians,” he said. “We’re working through the details on that, (with) more to be said in the days ahead, but that’s a priority for us. We’re discussing this with the Israeli government. We’re discussing it with others in the region.”

US ‘working intensively’ with Qatar, others to rescue hostages

Update 11:55 a.m. EDT Oct. 13: During a trip to Qatar on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said officials are working with leaders in the region to rescue hostages taken by Hamas since the militant group launched surprise attacks against Israel on Saturday.

Blinken said officials are “working intensively together to secure the release of hostages, including American citizens, being held by Hamas in Qatar.”

At least 14 Americans are unaccounted for amid the ongoing fighting. It remained unclear Friday how many of the missing had been taken hostage.

Blinken said he met Thursday with families whose loved ones had been taken.

“Their anguish is profound,” he said. “They’re desperate to bring their loved ones home, and we are working urgently on that effort. We’re doing that with Qatar and we’re doing that with allies and partners across the region.”

Gaza siege violates ‘most fundamental human rights,’ Turkish president says

Update 11:45 a.m. EDT Oct. 13: Cutting off electricity, water, fuel and food to people in the Gaza Strip, as Israel announced it was doing on Monday, is a “breach of the most fundamental human rights,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday, according to CNN.

“Collective punishment of the people in Gaza will only make the problem bigger, lead to more pain, more tension and more tears,” he said.

He called on Israeli officials to allow for aid to be delivered through the Rafah Border Crossing between Egypt and Gaza, CNN reported.

Palestinian PM accuses Israel of ‘genocide’

Update 10:45 a.m. EDT Oct. 13: Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh told reporters that Israel is committing “genocide” amid fighting between the country and Hamas militants, Al Jazeera reported.

“Our people in Gaza are going through genocide, and Gaza has become a disaster area,” he said Friday, according to the news network.

Nearly 1,800 Palestinians have been killed since fighting began Saturday, according to Al Jazeera.

WHO: Forced evacuations would be ‘death sentence’ for some hospital patients

Update 10:15 a.m. EDT Oct. 13: A spokesman for the World Health Organization said Friday that forcing severely ill or badly injured patients to evacuate from hospitals in northern Gaza would amount to a “death sentence” for some, according to The Associated Press.

Tarik Jasarevic said at a United Nations briefing Friday in Geneva that some patients are on life support systems like mechanical ventilators, “so moving those people is a death sentence.”

“Asking health workers to do so is beyond cruel,” he added.

Hamas tells Gaza residents not to leave despite evacuation order

Update 9:50 a.m. EDT Oct. 13: The spokesperson for the armed wing of Hamas, al-Qassam Brigades, urged Palestinians to “remain steadfast” and stay where they are following an evacuation order issued by Israeli officials, CNN reported.

In an audio message aired on al-Aqsa TV on Friday, spokesperson Abu Obaida told Palestinians to “be patient and steadfast” and promised “victory will be ours.”

“Israel is removing Palestinians from their homes and lands for a second time, and we have responded to the Zionist crimes by targeting them and Ben Gurion,” he said, according to CNN. “The only direction we are migrating is back to our rightful lands.”

UN Security Council to meet, discuss Gaza Strip

Update 9:20 a.m. EDT Oct. 13: The United Nations Security Council will meet Friday to discuss the situation in the Gaza Strip, Brazilian officials said.

Brazil is serving as chair of the Security Council for October. The presidency is rotated monthly by members of the council.

Blinken, Netanyahu discussed establishing safe areas in Gaza

Update 9:10 a.m. EDT Oct. 13: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke about establishing safe areas for civilians in Gaza with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to the country on Thursday, a State Department official told Reuters.

“One of the things that we did discuss with them was the need to protect civilian lives in Gaza, the need to establish some safe areas, where civilians could relocate to be safe from Israel’s legitimate security operations,” said the official, who was not identified.

Senate majority leader, US lawmakers to visit Israel

Update 8:45 a.m. EDT Oct. 13: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will travel to Israel with a bipartisan group of lawmakers over the weekend, Reuters reported.

A spokesperson for Schumer, D-N.Y., said told Reuters that the group will meet with the country’s new unity government and discuss U.S. assistance.

Doctors Without Borders condemns Israeli evacuation order

Update 8:35 a.m. EDT Oct. 13: The general director of Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders, on Friday called an evacuation order issued by Israeli officials “outrageous” in a recorded statement shared on social media.

“Israel’s 24-hour notice that people in Northern Gaza must leave their land, homes and hospitals is outrageous,” MSF General Director Meine Nicolai said. “This represents an attack on medical care and on humanity. We are talking about more than a million human beings.”

She added, “Gaza is being flattened. Thousands of people are dying. This must stop now.”

President to speak with families of hostages

Update 7:47 a.m. EDT Oct. 13: President Joe Biden said he will be speaking with the families of people who were taken hostage by Hamas, CNN reported. The conversations will happen on Friday via video conference.

CNN reported that Biden told 60 Minutes, “I think they have to know that the president of the United States of America cares deeply about what’s happening. Deeply. We have to communicate to the world this is critical. This is not even human behavior. It’s pure barbarism.”

He added, “We’re going to do everything in our power to get them home if we can find them.”

The administration says 14 Americans are missing, CBS News reported.

Leaflets dropped from planes

Update 7:20 a.m. EDT Oct. 13: Warnings to evacuate came from IDF planes dropping leaflets over Gaza. CNN reported that the papers read:

“For your safety, you should not return home until further notice from the IDF. All public shelters known in Gaza have to be vacated. It is forbidden to get close to the security border fence. Every person who approaches the fence is subjecting themselves to death. You have to vacate your homes immediately and head to the south of Wadi Gaza.”

It included a diagram with arrows pointing toward an area in south Gaza that is labeled “Humanitarian Aid Zone.”

The Israel Defense Force has been releasing bombs over Gaza over the past six days — about 6,000 of them, or the total number that was released during a conflict between Israel and Gaza in 2014. That time, the bombardment lasted from July 7, 2014, to Aug. 26, 2014, and was part of the deadliest year in the history of the conflict. About 2,500 people in Gaza were killed and more than 11,100 people were injured in the 50-day war, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Original report: Hamas said that Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has killed 13 hostages, though military officials but the Israel Defense Forces did not confirm or deny the claim. Six were allegedly killed in the north of Gaza while the remainder were killed in other areas of the territory, CNN reported.

Israel said Hamas is holding up to 150 people hostage in Gaza, CNN reported.

Israel’s military has ordered the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of civilians living in Gaza City after Israel warned the U.N. that 1.1. million people were ordered to leave the area north of Gaza in 24 hours, the AP reported.

News of the evacuations comes after Israel blocked food, water, fuel and electricity ahead of an expected ground invasion.

Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said the evacuation would “amount to the war crime of forcible transfer,” CNN reported. Egeland said the relocation order “must be reversed,” calling the evacuation “illegal and impossible.”

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said it is not evacuating and transferred its international staff to its Gaza compound, the AP reported. There are thousands of staff and their family members in Gaza who are, according to an agency spokesperson, making their own decisions about whether to stay or flee.

The UNRWA is not evacuating schools that are being used as shelters, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are living.

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