October 13, 2023 - Israel-Hamas war news

Our live coverage of the?conflict in Israel and Gaza has moved here.

President Joe Biden spent about 45 minutes Friday speaking to family members of missing Americans in Israel, according to the father of missing American Sagui Dekel-Chen.

Dekel-Chen said it wasn’t an easy conversation, but that the president made it clear that he and the administration are in it for the “long haul.”

“As crazy as this must sound, at that moment, as proud as I am to be an Israeli I was no less proud to be an American as a result of that phone call,” he said. “And honestly most of the time he was listening to people’s stories and their desires for his action, and his answers were inspiring.”?

Although the president could not give much information, according to Dekel-Chen,?the president’s “willingness to listen” was “extraordinary.”?

Dekel-Chen’s son, Sagui has been missing since Saturday when his kibbutz was invaded.

Some context: Hamas, the militant group that governs Gaza, kidnapped a number of people, including both civilians and soldiers, during its October 7 attack on Israel. It’s unclear how many people are being held hostage; Israeli authorities have said as many as 150 people may have been kidnapped. The IDF said Friday that it had notified 120 families of those taken hostage.

The Israeli military?says?it?has struck a Hezbollah target in southern Lebanon after one of its drones was fired on.

The move came in response to “the infiltration of unidentified aerial objects into Israel and fire on an IDF UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle],” the Israeli military said in a statement Saturday morning local time,?adding that it intercepted both the aerial objects and the fire.

A CNN team on the ground in southern Lebanon heard two loud explosions in the early hours of Saturday.

In an earlier statement, the Israeli military said the?“infiltration of an unidentified object”?took place near the city of?Shfar’am?in northern Israel.

The closed gates of the Rafah Crossing Point, Gaza's border crossing with Egypt, on October 10, 2023.

Some Palestinian-Americans have received their first set of instructions that family members stuck in Gaza may be able to evacuate into Egypt on Saturday afternoon, according to emails shared with CNN.

The US State Department’s Consular Affairs Crisis Management System (CACMS) told family members that on Saturday the Rafah crossing “may be open.”

A State Department spokesperson told CNN they “are actively discussing this with our Israeli and Egyptian counterparts.”

Anas Alfarra, a Lawful Permanent Resident of the US living in the San Francisco area who is trying to get family members out of Gaza, says the email falls short of what the US Embassy needs to be doing.

“Two ‘mays’ and a ‘wish’ in a situation that warrants much more,” Alfarra told CNN.

Mai Abushaaban, a 22-year-old from Houston who also received the email, has been desperately trying to evacuate her mother and sister from Gaza this week.

This comes after the United States has continued to press the Egyptian and Israeli governments on “the importance of the Rafah crossing being open for American citizens and foreign nationals of other countries who want to leave and have the right to leave to be able to do so,” a senior State Department official said Friday.

US officials have been engaged in discussions for days to try to secure a humanitarian corridor that would allow Americans and other civilians to safely leave Gaza ahead of an expected Israeli military incursion.

The United Nations on Thursday said it was informed by the Israeli military that “the entire population of Gaza north of Wadi Gaza should relocate to southern Gaza within the next 24 hours,” but IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told CNN Friday that any deadline “may slip.”

The State Department official told the press traveling with Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the US’ focus has been “on American citizens, but other countries you could presume are engaged in trying to get their foreign nationals out as well.”

There are an estimated 500-600 Palestinian-Americans in Gaza.

Tens of thousands of?people left their homes in Gaza on Friday after Israel’s military warned over one million people living north of?Wadi?Gaza to move south,?according to a statement by?the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Saturday.

Prior to the warning, more than 400,000 Palestinians had been internally displaced, the statement added.

Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) said it had distributed food to 135,000 people in shelters across Gaza on Friday, but warned?“humanitarian supplies are running low.”

OCHA added that most people in Gaza now have no access to water.

Palestinians flee from northern Gaza to the south after the Israeli army issued an unprecedented evacuation warning on Friday, October 13, 2023.

As Israel tightens its chokehold in Gaza, a humanitarian crisis in the territory is rapidly spiraling amid warnings that people are at risk of starvation.

It comes as Israel has ordered more than a million people in Gaza to evacuate southward ahead of a potential Israeli ground operation, according to the United Nations. Many people in the enclave left their homes on Friday.

The Gaza Strip is one of most densely populated places on earth, with some 2 million people crammed in 140-square-mile territory.

Here’s where things stand:

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Hamas, the militant Islamic group that governs Gaza, said in a statement Saturday morning (local time) that it welcomes “Russia’s tireless efforts” aimed at stopping Israel’s aggression against the territory.

What Putin has said: On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin urged both sides in the fighting between Israel and Hamas to “minimize or reduce to zero” civilian casualties, and the?foreign ministry in Moscow made similar calls?for calm on Friday.

His comments come as Russia continues a ruthless war campaign against Ukraine and is being investigated by the?International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. That case includes, among other things, allegations of targeting civilians.

In addition to Putin’s comments, the Russian envoy to the UN circulated a resolution calling for a ceasefire Friday.

Remember: Israel has ordered a “complete siege” on the crowded Gaza strip — including halting supplies of electricity, food, water, and fuel — while also bombarding the densely populated territory in retaliation for Hamas’ devastating October 7 terror attacks. At least 1,900 Palestinians have been killed by near-constant shelling in Gaza, according to the health ministry, including journalists, medics and other civilians. The dead include 614 children and 370 women, says the Palestinian health ministry.

The number of Ukrainian nationals killed in Hamas’ attack on Israel over the weekend has risen to 11, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko told Interfax-Ukraine on Friday.??

Nikolenko also said there are still nine Ukrainian citizens missing.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health accused Israeli forces of the “targeting and killing of medical and ambulance personnel during their humanitarian missions to evacuate the victims of aggression.”

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment. The IDF told CNN it will look into these allegations.

At least 15 health facilities were damaged and 23 ambulances were destroyed in airstrikes Friday, according to the Palestinian ministry.

A dramatic video posted on the ministry in Gaza’s Facebook page captured the moment an ambulance was rocked by an explosion as it attempted to flee a chaotic scene.

In the video, explosions are heard going off when the person recording jumps into an ambulance. Several people can be seen inside the ambulance, including a woman on a stretcher and a young girl by her side.

An explosion rocks the ambulance carrying the child and woman. The young girl screams in panic as another explosion goes off.

It is not clear what happened to the woman and child. The exact source and cause of the explosion was unclear.

The ministry also said that “thousands of displaced citizens are sleeping in hospital courtyards, facing the immense number of wounded individuals who are congesting the hospital corridors, putting immense pressure on the fragile healthcare system.”

The?ministry?went on to call for “immediate action to open a secure passage to ensure the arrival of medical supplies, fuel, delegations, ambulance vehicles, and allow the departure of hundreds of wounded and patients before it is too late.”

The ministry also accused Israeli forces of targeting people in Gaza as they were trying to evacuate their homes.

The White House says national security officials held calls with United Nations officials on Thursday and Friday about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, but declined to offer details about progress on getting foreign nationals out of the area.?

On Thursday, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan and UN Secretary-General António Guterres “discussed Hamas’s brutal terrorist attack against Israel and the humanitarian situation in Gaza,” the White House said in a readout of the calls.?

On Friday, Principal Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer and USAID Administrator Samantha Power spoke with UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland about the crisis, and ongoing efforts with Egypt, Israel, and other regional players to help civilians move around Gaza safely and facilitate humanitarian assistance — including water, food and medical care, the statement said.

Separately, the National Security Council declined to comment to CNN about whether the calls secured the ability for foreign nationals to cross from Gaza into Egypt.

Remember: Israel has ordered a “complete siege” on the Hamas-run enclave — including halting supplies of electricity, food, water and fuel — while also bombarding the densely populated territory in retaliation for Hamas’ devastating October 7 terror attacks.

Americans in Gaza: US officials have said they are working on “potential options for?departure” for American citizens living in Gaza but have not provided further details. Secretary of State Antony Blinken previously said the US was in talks with Egypt and Israel about establishing a humanitarian corridor at the Egypt-controlled Rafah border crossing for Americans and other civilians in Gaza to leave amid Israel’s day-after-day airstrikes.

Palestinian-Americans previously told CNN that they feel trapped in Gaza and have received little help from the US Embassy.

President Joe Biden says the US is “working like hell” to get Americans missing from Israel back to the United States.

While Biden said he can’t disclose details of the efforts, the president said his message to those holding Americans hostage is that the US is doing “everything in our power.”

When asked why he felt so strongly about speaking personally to the families of the missing Americans, Biden said it’s because “they have to know that the president of the United States of America cares deeply about what’s happening.”

Nineteen Republican governors, led by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, penned?a letter?to President Joe Biden Friday calling for transparency on hostages and American loss of life, as well as “unequivocal support to Israel,” and the “immediate freeze of the $6 billion ransom payment made to the terror state.”

Along with DeSantis, fellow Republican presidential candidate North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum signed the letter, as well as Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and more.?

More on hostages: Hamas, the militant group that governs Gaza, kidnapped a number of people, including both civilians and soldiers, during its October 7 attack on Israel. It’s unclear how many people are being held hostage; Israeli authorities have said as many as 150 people may have been kidnapped. The Israel Defense Forces said Friday that it had notified 120 families of those taken hostage. Biden on Friday spoke with the families of 14 Americans “who are still unaccounted for” and are thought to be possible hostages.

Judith Raanan, and her 17-year-old daughter, Natali Raanan, were kidnapped by Hamas.

The relative of a mother and daughter who were kidnapped by Hamas said families’ call with President Joe Biden on Friday was touching, as he took the time to speak with each family involved.

Biden spoke with the families of 14 Americans “who are still unaccounted for” and are thought to be possible hostages.

Saray Cohen, whose brother was on the Zoom call with Biden, spoke with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Friday evening. She said a few hours prior they received word that her sister, Judith Raanan, and 17-year-old niece, Natali Raanan, had been kidnapped and were in Gaza.

Cohen said Biden reassured the families that the US would do everything in its power to bring their family members home.?

“We are very worried about my sister and niece,” Cohen said. She added that Natali’s 18th?birthday is in just a few days, on October 24.?

Cohen noted that 11 other members of her family have been kidnapped by Hamas.

Another person present described the call with the president as “emotional” and said there were no moments that could be described as contentious or heated.?Biden seemed to want the call to be informal, the participant added.?

More on hostages: Hamas, the militant group that governs Gaza, kidnapped a number of people, including both civilians and soldiers, during its October 7 attack on Israel. It’s unclear how many people are being held hostage; Israeli authorities have said as many as 150 people may have been kidnapped. The IDF said Friday that it had notified 120 families of those taken hostage.

Vassily Nebenzia, Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations, comments following a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters Friday, October 13, 2023.

Vassily Nebenzia, the permanent representative of Russia to the United Nations, is circulating a draft resolution at the UN Security Council which calls for a ceasefire in the “Israel-Gaza” war.

Nebenzia called for de-escalation in the conflict and said the resolution received a mixed reaction from the other 14 member countries.

When asked why the resolution doesn’t mention Hamas, the militant group that governs Gaza and staged the deadly October 7th attacks on Israel, the diplomat said it’s because his proposal is a humanitarian resolution.

The envoy said his country condemns any violence against residents of Israel and Gaza. Nebenzia said Israel has the right to defend its territory, but that the day-after-day shelling of Gaza by Israel recalls the siege of Leningrad during World War II. He also said Israel’s plan to move over a million people in northern Gaza to the south is similar to creating a ghetto.

Nebenzia blamed the US for over the years blocking action by the Quartet on the Middle East, which consists of United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia. The group was established in 2002 to help mediate the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Some context on Russia’s response:?Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday urged both sides in the fighting between Israel and Hamas to “minimize or reduce to zero” civilian casualties, and the foreign ministry in Moscow made similar calls for calm on Friday.

These comments come as Russia wages a ruthless war campaign against Ukraine and is being investigated by the?International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. That case includes, among other things, allegations of targeting civilians.

Commentators on Russian state TV have?mocked the US and Israel?after the Hamas attack, and Putin has?framed the brutal assault as a failure of US policy?in the Middle East.

Canadians stuck in Gaza may be able to leave the area Saturday, said?Julie Sunday, an assistant deputy minister with Global Affairs Canada.??

At least 150 Canadian citizens and residents have requested help in Gaza, Sunday said.??

?“In terms of the 150 people we’re focused?on who?have directly requested our assistance in Gaza, we are in contact with them to be able to validate their papers etcetera – if they have non-Canadian family members,” she said. “We are proactively working to get approval for them to be able to cross borders should the opportunity arise.”??

“We are not going to tell?Canadians to move until we know that that is a possibility and we have confirmation that these individuals can get across that border.?The last thing we want is?Canadians getting stuck at a border,” Sunday said.??

Sunday said that the government is in contact with the families of?Canadians who are missing as a result of the ongoing conflict – but it’s unclear how many are missing.??

“If we are treating this as a missing persons case, it’s because we have no evidence that they are deceased,” Sunday said.

Israel is denying claims it used white phosphorus munitions after the international advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Israeli forces of using them during military operations?in Gaza and Lebanon?this week.

According to a HRW report published Wednesday, the rights group said it verified one video taken on October 10?in Lebanon and another video in Gaza on October 11?that it claims shows “multiple airbursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over the Gaza City port and two rural locations along the Israel-Lebanon border.”

White?phosphorus is intended to provide illumination or to create a smokescreen in battle, but it?is known to burn flesh down to the bone, according to earlier CNN reporting.

The Palestinian Ministry of?Health?in Gaza on Friday reported the?evacuation of Durra children’s hospital in eastern Gaza after they said it was targeted by “white phosphorus bombs,” according to Dr. Ashraf Alquedra, ministry spokesperson.?

Asked if Israeli forces had used?white?phosphorus this week in Gaza and Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces?strongly?denied the claims.?In a live interview earlier on Friday, IDF spokesman?Lt. Col. Peter Lerner?told CNN?“categorically, no,” it had not.

HRW said it interviewed two individuals from the al-Mina area in Gaza City,?who described seeing strikes “consistent with the use of white phosphorus” and “both described ongoing airstrikes before seeing explosions in the sky followed by what they described as white lines going earthward,” they said.

The rights group said it reviewed the video and confirmed that it was taken in the port of Gaza City and “identified that the munitions used in the strike were airburst 155mm white phosphorus artillery projectiles. Other videos posted to social media and verified by Human Rights Watch show the same location,” the group said. “Dense white smoke and a garlic smell are characteristics of white phosphorus,” the statement said.?

The rights group also reviewed two videos on October 10 that occurred near the Israel-Lebanon border. “Each show 155mm white phosphorus artillery projectiles being used, apparently as smokescreens, marking, or signaling,” the release explained.?

CNN has reached out for comment to authorities in Lebanon.

Is white phosphorus illegal? Under an international protocol ratified by Israel in 1995, the use of such incendiary weapons is allowed when “not specifically designed to cause burn injury to persons,” CNN previously reported.

There is no prohibition, per se, against white phosphorus in conflict. But the timing and location of its use are restricted.

For example, it is illegal under the protocol to use white phosphorus against any personnel, civilian or military. It can be directed only against military targets. International law says incendiary weapons cannot be used where civilians are concentrated.

Israel’s history with white phosphorus: Israel previously faced widespread criticism for firing white phosphorus shells over densely populated areas during a Gaza offensive that began in late 2008. HRW said in a 2009 report that Israel’s white phosphorus munitions had killed and injured civilians and damaged civilian structures, including including a school, a market, a humanitarian aid warehouse, and a hospital. HRW claimed that Israel’s use of the weapons in crowded neighborhoods “violated international humanitarian law (the laws of war), which requires taking all feasible precautions to avoid civilian harm and prohibits indiscriminate attacks.”

In response, the nation pledged to limit the use of white phosphorus and make greater efforts to protect civilians during conflicts. Still, the government said that it had used white phosphorus lawfully.

Ilan Kedar was in New York last Saturday, on a weekend trip with his mother, when he heard the news of the Hamas surprise attack on Israel.

His family was still “relatively safe,” he said, but only “as safe as you can possibly feel when you have sirens above you all the time.”?

Kedar was born in Jerusalem and moved to the United States with his family when he was a baby — his mother is American and his father is Israeli. He lived in Chicago through high school before returning to Israel to serve with the Israeli Defense Forces for five years and has been on reserves duty since he was released by the IDF in 2014.

Usually, he said, calls to return to Israel for reserve duty came via an automated phone call, but this time was different.

“It was literally just through WhatsApp — a message to all the reservists to come in, meet at the emergency warehouses,” he said.

By then, Kedar had already started looking for flights, preparing to join the 360,000 other reservists who have answered their country’s call to arms as unspeakable violence continues to escalate in Israel and Gaza. Of course, he said, people worried about his safety, but everyone was still supportive of his decision to serve.

Kedar will leave Saturday evening to join the war.

After nearly a week of deadly airstrikes on Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Friday: “It’s only the beginning.”

And ?Izzat al-Risheq, a senior Hamas official, said the militant group “will not surrender our legitimate fight for freedom and self-determination.”

The situation in Gaza, according to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, “has reached a dangerous new low” while Israeli forces mass near the enclave border ahead of a possible ground assault.

Here are other headlines you should know:

Daystar Church in Cullman, Alabama, has raised tens of thousands of dollars from local businesses and neighbors to help?bring?home Americans stuck in Israel,?according to its senior pastor.?

Lawson told CNN the church paid nearly $60,000 out of its general fund to help 47 stranded Americans, who?will be returning to the United States in groups.?Donations will go toward reimbursing the church for those immediate costs.

The first?of the assisted?groups consists of multiple Alabama church members, including?one?from Daystar.?Lawson?said?the group is expected to?arrive?in Atlanta on Saturday.??

The group landed in Israel?last Saturday?“as the first rockets came in from Gaza,” Lawson said. They were in the country on an?all-inclusive religious tour to visit holy sites, but when US airlines stopped flights in and out of Israel, the group was stuck. Many of them do not have?the financial means?to?arrange alternate travel home, Lawson added.

“Having watched videos of atrocities committed by Hamas, we’re so grateful that no one in our group was attacked or injured in any way,” Lawson told CNN.

The pastor credits Alabama state Sen. Garlan Gudger with helping to raise money and US Sen. Tommy Tuberville with helping expedite?visas to Jordan, to help?the group?make their way back home to the US.

Florida Gov.?Ron DeSantis told reporters that he expects the first evacuation flight to bring Floridians home?from Israel, in accordance with a newly signed executive order, will?arrive in the state on Sunday.

The first flight will depart tomorrow and will land in Florida on Sunday, the governor’s press secretary Jeremy Redfern confirmed to CNN.?

The first charter flight evacuating Americans from Israel landed in Athens on Friday. The State Department has said more flights will depart over the coming days.

More than 20,000 United States citizens have reached out to the State Department about the Israel-Hamas War since last Saturday, but not all have actively sought help getting out of Israel.

A State Department spokesperson would not share exactly how many US citizens wanted to leave Israel, “given this is an unfolding situation.”

The spokesperson told CNN the State Department has “sent messages to every U.S. citizen who contacted us to inform them that we will provide detailed information to any U.S. citizen who indicates interest in departure assistance.”

An aviation source shared with CNN a schedule with nearly three dozen flights over the next week. Most of the flights are between Tel Aviv and Athens, but other flights go between Tel Aviv and Sofia, Bulgaria.

Delta, American and United Airlines all announced Friday that they would use larger aircraft for chartered flights or that they were adding flights to and from Athens. The airlines also have said they’re in close contact with the US State Department.

Here’s what each airline is doing:

The first charter flight carrying Americans arrived in Athens on Friday.

National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby said there would be more flights arranged in the coming days.

“The State Department will continue to organize these charter flights for as long as there is a demand from US citizens for departure assistance,” he said.

Fletcher is an American from a Chicago suburb who has been called into duty to serve in the Israeli Defense Forces.

David Valentine said he is full of pride in his son who was called back to the Israel Defense Forces ranks Saturday, just hours after Hamas militants attacked.?

But, he is also completely terrified.

Fletcher Valentine, 32, was born in Northbrook, Illinois, a suburb roughly 45 minutes north of the Chicago. He joined the IDF after gaining Israeli citizenship while pursuing a master’s degree in diplomacy and counterterrorism in his late 20s, David Valentine, who still lives in the US, told CNN.?Fletcher Valentine spent three years in active duty, joining a paratrooper unit.?

After a year-and-a-half break from the military, Fletcher Valentine again joined the ranks with thousands of other reservists called back to fight for Israel.?

Fletcher Valentine is stationed near the Israeli-Lebanese border, living in an evacuated kibbutz, his father said. Valentine is staying in a little girl’s bedroom. A photo his father sent to CNN captures the paradoxes of war: Valentine’s rifle lay on the floor, propped up by his shoe, the barrel stretching across a box of abandoned Legos.?

David Valentine said the first notification that his son was being called up came early Saturday morning, shortly after the attack started.

“The first notice was basically get ready, and within 20 minutes it was, ‘You’ve been activated,’” David Valentine said.

He said he is afraid for his son’s safety, but also for the anguish war inflicts on soldiers.?

“I worry about the toll it would take if he had to actually start shooting people and killing people,” he added.

They speak daily by either text or voice memo on WhatsApp.?

“His dream was always to be there when they make peace in the Middle East,” Valentine said of his son. “That was a big reason why he went to study there for his master’s degree.”?

A group of BBC journalists covering Israel’s war with Hamas were held at gunpoint and assaulted by Israeli police in Tel Aviv Thursday night, according to the network.

The disturbing incident came as the team of three journalists drove to their hotel in a vehicle “clearly marked as media,” the British news network said.?

The BBC said that the team was “dragged from their vehicle,” searched, and pushed up against a wall during the stop. One of its journalists said that when he tried to film the incident, an officer threw his phone to the ground.

?An Israeli police spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The incident came as Israel faces questions after firing artillery into southern Lebanon on Friday, killing Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and injuring six other journalists.

In that instance, the journalists were wearing jackets identifying themselves as members of the press. The Israel Defense Forces acknowledged firing artillery into Lebanon on Friday but did not respond to additional questions specifically related to the victims.

The first charter flight from Israel organized by the US State Department arrived in Athens Friday afternoon, State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said.

“A big thank you to everyone involved in making this possible. Our work continues,” he added.

Delta, American and United Airlines all announced larger aircraft or that they were adding flights to and from Athens. The airlines also have said they’re in close contact with the US State Department.

Here’s what each airline is doing:

More on the US effort to get citizens out of Israel: Beyond air transportation, the US is also looking for ways to “expand capacity” via transportation by sea.

“We began?offering?departure?assistance to U.S. citizens who have completed our crisis intake form beginning on Friday, October 13, but it will take some time to schedule everyone seeking to depart,” the?US?Embassy in?Israel?said in a?security alert on Friday.

It’s unclear so far, what specific assets will be?used to transport citizens?by?sea, and Americans who take advantage of the US government transportation “will be asked to sign an agreement to repay the U.S. government prior to?departure,” the alert?said.

The Biden administration said once the travelers get from Israel to Europe – on Israeli, Turkish and other regional airlines – they’ll be ferried home by US-based and other carriers.

Worried about safety, United, American and Delta airlines all ceased operations to and from Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel’s lone international airport, earlier this week.

Some US citizens have been successful departing?Israel?into Jordan through the border crossings, including Allenby?Bridge, the alert said.

As for citizens in Gaza, US officials are working on “potential options for?departure,” according to the alert, but further details were not available.

President Joe Biden greets attendees after speaking at Tioga Marine Terminal in Philadelphia, on Friday, October 13, 2023.

When President Joe Biden was asked about what worried him about a ground invasion of Gaza, he had one word: “Death.”

Biden was speaking while greeting attendees following an economic speech in Philadelphia on Friday.

Earlier, the US president voiced concern about Palestinian civilians in Gaza, who he said were bearing the repercussions of Hamas’s terror in Israel.?

“They’re suffering as a result as well,” Biden said.?

He said US officials were working with regional partners to alleviate the humanitarian crisis.?

Some background: Israel’s military?warned 1.1 million people?living in northern Gaza to evacuate their homes ahead of a potential Israeli ground operation.

Gaza is already one of the world’s most densely populated pieces of land, with more than 2 million people crammed into 140 square miles. Now, the entire population is being told to move into the southern part of the strip – an order the UN has described as dangerous and “impossible” to carry out.

Riyad H. Mansour, Ambassador of the Permanent Observer Mission of the State of Palestine to the United Nations speaks during a stakeout before a Security Council meeting at the UN headquarters in New York City on October 13.

The Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations outlined a three-point plan Friday aiming to bring an immediate end to violence against Palestinians after millions of Gaza residents have been warned to flee south and signs point to an Israeli ground investigation in the coming days.

“All of us are united to stop this carnage against the Palestinian people now,” Riyad Mansour said to reporters at the United Nations.?

Mansour said the plan includes establishing a ceasefire, allowing for humanitarian assistance to be delivered to Gazans in need, and ultimately denouncing and rejecting the idea of displacing 1.1 million Gazans from the northern part of the territory.?

The ambassador thanked Egypt for opening El Arish Airport to allow for humanitarian assistance and acknowledged the efforts of global leaders, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, to stop the war and prevent what he called the implementation of “ethnic cleansing” by displacing more than 2 million Palestinian civilians.?

Mansour called on the Security Council to shoulder its responsibility toward the Palestinian people and to avoid further destruction and killing in Gaza.?

The Nakba: Mansour compared the calls for Palestinians to leave Gaza to the “Nakba,” which means “catastrophe” or “disaster” in Arabic. The term is used to describe the expulsion and flight of 700,000 Palestinians from their homes in what is now Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The?United Nations?says that Palestinian refugees and their descendants, some of them forcibly displaced during the Nakba, now number 5 million people, many living in camps in neighboring countries.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations said Friday that the Israeli government is doing “all that we can to minimize civilian casualties,” pointing to the advanced warning given to Gazans to evacuate the northern part of the city — an order the United Nations has called “impossible” to achieve.

Erdan criticized the UN for condemning what he called Israel’s preventative measures in mitigating the loss of life.?

The UN has said several times that Israel’s order?cannot be achieved, and has urged the Israeli military to withdraw, amid signs Israel is set to ramp up its retaliatory offensive against Hamas.

At least?1,900 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza since Hamas — the militant group that runs the densely populated enclave — launched its devastating terror attacks on Israel last Saturday, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Saudi Arabia – his fourth country in one day – as part of the US’s intensive shuttle diplomacy in the region.

Blinken began his day in Jordan for meetings with King Abdullah II and Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank. He then traveled to Qatar for meetings with senior officials and made a quick stop in Manama, Bahrain, before heading to the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

He is also slated to visit the United Arab Emirates and Egypt before returning to the US on Sunday.

Blinken said Thursday that he was visiting the Middle Eastern countries to press them “to help prevent the conflict from spreading, and to use their leverage with Hamas to immediately and unconditionally release the hostages.”

At least 1,900 people?have been killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza following the deadly Hamas attack last Saturday, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The toll includes?614 children and 370 women, officials said. An additional 7,696?people have been wounded, according to the ministry.?

Two Palestinians were killed on Friday during clashes with Israeli forces in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Al-Issawiya, according to the?Palestinian Red Crescent Society.

One of the victims was a?15-year-old who died from gunshot wounds, society told CNN.?The organization provides medical aid to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

The aid organization also said it treated five people with injuries, including two people with gunshot injuries, two with injuries from tear gas, and one injured by a rubber bullet.?

Al-Issawiya and other neighborhoods in East Jerusalem were blocked Friday by Israeli forces, which prevented some people from reaching Al-Aqsa Mosque for Friday prayers, according to residents who spoke to CNN.

As a result, clashes erupted between Palestinians and Israeli forces in those areas, and clashes are ongoing in Al-Issawiya.

Jerusalem police said Friday that officers in the area had aerial fireworks and Molotov cocktails launched at them, and in response, the officers fired shots at three perpetrators.

Some context: The Al-Aqsa compound is one of the most revered places in Islam and Judaism. The sacred grounds, known to Muslims as Al Haram Al Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) and to Jews as Temple Mount, have been a flashpoint of tensions between Israel and the Palestinians for decades.?

In a statement, Hamas said it had launched the October 7 attack on Israel — which targeted hundreds of troops and civilians —?in part?to defend the holy site.?

Israeli police have stormed the mosque multiple times over the past year, arresting hundreds of Palestinians.

East Jerusalem, where the compound is located, is also a contested location. Israel captured East Jerusalem in 1967, and considers both East and West Jerusalem part of its “eternal capital.” Most of the international community, including the UN, considers the area under Israeli occupation.

Currently, a “status quo” arrangement?between Israel and Jordan governs the Muslim and Christian holy sites in East Jerusalem.

President Joe Biden speaks during an appearance at Tioga Marine Terminal, Friday, October 13, in Philadelphia.

US President Joe Biden called Hamas “pure evil” but said the majority of Palestinians were suffering as a result of the militant group’s terror at a Friday speech in Philadelphia.

The president, in some of his most direct public comments about the suffering inside Gaza, said he was working “urgently to address the humanitarian crisis” in the coastal Palestinian enclave.?

He also recounted his conversation with the families of Americans missing after the Hamas attacks.?

“They’re going through agony not knowing what the status of their sons, daughters, husbands, wives, children are,” he said. “You know, it’s gut wrenching. I assured them my personal commitment to do everything possible, everything possible” to ensure their return.?

Biden emphasized that he was working to ensure “Israel has what it needs to defend itself.”

Fourteen Americans remain unaccounted for, and the White House believes “less than a handful” are being held hostage by Hamas following the October 7 attacks, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby has said.

Reuters' journalist Issam Abdallah takes a selfie picture while working in Maras, Turkey, on February 11. Abdallah was killed in southern Lebanon on Friday, according to a statement from the news agency.

Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah was killed near the Israeli border in southern Lebanon on Friday, according to a statement from the news agency.

What we know so far: CNN teams on the ground say a projectile that came from the Israeli side hit a group of journalists that included Abdallah. At around the same time, the Israel Defense Forces issued a statement saying it had fired artillery at Lebanese territory in response to an explosion at the security fence near Hanita, an Israeli community across the border from the Lebanese village where the gathering of journalists was shelled.

A Lebanese security source tells CNN that an Israeli Apache helicopter was seen over the site of the attack.

Israel Defense Forces did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment.

At least six other journalists, including two more from Reuters, and others from news outlets Al Jazeera and Agence France-Presse, were wounded in the same shelling. Abdallah and the group of injured journalists were wearing press-labeled jackets when the attack occurred,?videos show.

The Al Jazeera journalists injured were Carmen Joukhadar and Elie Barakhiya, and the other Reuters journalists were Thaer Al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh. The AFP has not publicly named the two wounded journalists from its agency.

Hezbollah response: The media relations department for Hezbollah — the Lebanese militant group designated as a terrorist organization by the US — released a statement condemning the “targeting” of affected journalists and offering condolences to their news outlets and families.

“We pray to God for a speedy recovery for the injured. We demand that all media, humanitarian, and legal institutions to condemn the Zionist aggression on Lebanon and condemn the so-called free world’s blind bias to the murderers, criminals, and aggressors,” it said.?

Separately, Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati also released a statement condemning the attack on the journalists.?

What’s happening in southern Lebanon: Fighters in Lebanon and Israeli forces have regularly exchanged fire in recent days at the border following the?surprise Hamas attacks?on Israel on October 7.

Hezbollah’s has unambiguously voiced support for the Palestinian militants. It has sponsored rallies in support of Palestinian groups and has roundly condemned Israel’s large-scale airstrikes on Gaza.

It is still unclear whether Hezbollah will actively participate in the conflict. The US and its allies have warned the group against escalating the situation.

The Israel Defense Forces said it has notified the families of 120 hostages taken captive during the Hamas attack, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on social media on Friday.

The IDF said it also informed 265 families who lost a loved one.

Hagari added that “hundreds of thousands” of forces had been mobilized along Israel’s borders.

The United Kingdom's ambassador to the United Nations, Dame Barbara Woodward, speaks to reporters ahead of a closed-door Security Council meeting in New York on Friday, October 13.

The United Kingdom’s ambassador to the United Nations, Dame Barbara Woodward, said Friday that she will urge her Security Council colleagues to do all they can to secure the release of hostages in the Middle East, as well as de-escalate conflict in the region and allow humanitarian aid to reach Gaza.

Speaking to reporters before a closed-door Security Council meeting in New York, Woodward said, “I think it’s worth remembering that this is not just Israelis affected, but people from more than 40 countries have been murdered or missing, so we are all affected by what has happened.”

The UK Ambassador to the UN said any loss of human life is “tragic”.?

When asked about the plight of the people of Gaza, Woodward said, “Actions need to take place in line with international humanitarian law.” She added that when the “prime minister discussed the situation with Prime Minister Netanyahu, he urged him to look for the protection of civilians in all of the follow-up actions that have taken place.”?

Some background: During the October 7 terror attacks on Israel, Hamas militants took a number of people hostage. Israeli authorities have said that they believe up to 150 hostages are being held in Gaza.

The amphibious assault ship USS Bataan travels through the Red Sea on August 8. The 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, currently aboard the Bataan, is making preparations in case it is ordered closer to Israel to bolster the US’ force posture there,?multiple?US officials tell CNN.

The 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, a rapid reaction force capable of conducting special operations, is making preparations in case it is ordered closer to Israel to bolster the US’ force posture there,?multiple?US officials tell CNN.

The unit, which is currently on board the USS Bataan amphibious assault ship, is comprised of over 2,000 Marines and sailors and would be capable of supporting a large-scale evacuation.?Among the mission essential tasks for a Marine Expeditionary Unit are evacuation operations and humanitarian assistance.

No such order has been given yet to the unit, the officials said. But defense officials have said repeatedly in recent days that the Pentagon will be able to flow in additional forces and assets to the region quickly as needed, as Israel continues to fight a war against the terrorist group Hamas.?

The 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit and the USS Bataan are part of amphibious ready group that deployed to the region in July in response to increased Iranian aggression in the Gulf of Oman and surrounding waters.?

In recent days, it has been stationed near Kuwait as part of a scheduled exercise there, but it departed early “as a result of emerging events,” Capt. Angelica White, a spokeswoman for the unit, told the Marine Corps Times on Wednesday.

The US deployed the Ford carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean earlier this week as a show of deterrence against any groups or nations who may be tempted to enter the conflict.?

Asked for comment, the Navy referred CNN’s questions to the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres speaks to reporters at the UN in New York ahead of a closed door meeting by the Security Council on the Middle East and other matters on Friday, October 13.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Friday that the situation in Gaza “has reached a dangerous new low” after Israel warned 1.1 million residents of northern Gaza to flee south following days of near-constant airstrikes on the embattled territory.

The Secretary-General called for “immediate humanitarian access throughout Gaza, so that we can get fuel, food and water to everyone in need.”

“Even wars have rules,” Guterres said. “International humanitarian law and human rights law must be respected and upheld; civilians must be protected and never used as shields.”

He also called for the immediate release of all hostages held in Gaza.

After nearly a week of deadly airstrikes on Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Friday: “It’s only the beginning.”

Some background: Israel’s military on Thursday warned 1.1 million people living in northern Gaza to evacuate their homes, amid signs it is set to ramp up its retaliatory offensive against Hamas following the group’s October 7?terror attacks that killed more than 1,300 people.

For six days, Israeli warplanes have pounded Gaza with airstrikes that have reduced streets and homes to rubble and killed more than 1,799 people, including 583 children, and injured 7,388 others, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Jerusalem’s Old City was deserted on Friday evening.

The Old City of Jerusalem was deserted Friday night after a tense day that saw a number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Israeli police imposed severe restrictions on access to Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque on Friday, allowing only a limited number of worshipers into the compound for midday prayers, which are often a flashpoint for clashes.

The Old City remained largely empty, with many Palestinians prevented from entering for the rest of the day.

Jewish worshippers were allowed access to the Old City and were praying at the Western Wall, one of the holiest sites in Judaism, on Friday night.

The eerily quiet atmosphere spilled outside the walls of the Old City, with neighborhoods that are normally buzzing with life on Friday nights completely empty. Shops and restaurants were closed and people largely stayed in their homes.

Abbas Dkeidek said he was praying on the street on Friday after not being allowed into the al-Aqsa mosque.

Abbas Dkeidek, who lives near the Old City, said he wanted to go to the al-Aqsa mosque for the midday prayers but wasn’t allowed to — so he and his sons prayed outside on the street.

While Fridays are often marked by clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police, Dkeidek told CNN things feel different this time around.

His neighborhood was the site of clashes between Israeli police and locals, with police firing tear gas and skunk water — water that is mixed with a chemical that is made to smell like sewage — to disperse pockets of residents.

Qassem Kamal, who says his uncle was injured by Israeli police on Friday, in his home.

Qassem Kamal, who lives on the street where clashes occurred, said his uncle was injured by police when he tried to pray outside after being barred from al-Aqsa.

Kamel told CNN he thought what was happening right now in Jerusalem was “very ugly.”

“I can’t explain it to my kids. I’m trying to distract them so they don’t get scared,” he said.

Twelve Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem by Israeli forces and settlers on Friday, the Palestinian health ministry said.

A total of 47 people have been killed, and hundreds of others injured, since Saturday in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, during clashes with Israeli forces and by settler gunfire.

Further south, in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, a humanitarian crisis is unfolding as Israel ramps up its retaliatory offensive against the Palestinian militant group for its October 7?terror attacks.

Blinken speaks during a press conference in Doha on Friday, October 13.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended Israel’s military actions Friday, saying they were not retaliatory but rather defensive.

?“I think any country faced with what Israel has suffered would likely do the same thing,” he added.

Israeli forces appear to be poised to launch a ground incursion into Gaza and have bombarded the Hamas-run enclave with air strikes in the wake of the brutal attacks last weekend.

The US, Israel, and “many other countries in the region” are also thinking about “the day after and where this goes,” the top US diplomat said.

Israel has given Al Awda Hospital in Gaza just two hours to evacuate, according to?Doctors Without Borders, also known as?Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

The hospital, which is one of several that MSF supports in Gaza, was “still treating patients,” the medical aid group said.

Earlier on Friday,?MSF General Director?Meinie Nicolai in a statement had criticized Israel’s call for 1.1 million people in northern Gaza to evacuate as “outrageous,” saying “this represents an attack on medical care and on humanity.”

“We have consistently seen dehumanizing language and this violence is a manifestation of that. We are talking about more than a million human beings. ‘Unprecedented’ doesn’t even cover the medical humanitarian impact of this,”?Nicolai had said. “Gaza is being flattened, thousands of people are dying, this must stop now. We condemn Israel’s demand in the strongest possible terms.”

Amnesty International, a human rights watchdog group, said Friday that Israel’s warning to civilians in Gaza to evacuate towards the south “cannot be considered an effective warning,” and called for the order to be “rescinded immediately.”

On Friday, Israel Defense Forces called?on all civilians of?Gaza?City to?evacuate?“southwards” without specifying a deadline. Earlier, the United Nations said the Israeli military told the UN just before midnight local time Thursday that “the entire population of?Gaza?north of Wadi?Gaza?should relocate to southern?Gaza?within the next 24 hours.”?

Amnesty International called the 24-hour announcement an “impossible demand,” and added that “regardless of timeframe, Israel cannot treat northern Gaza as an open-fire zone based on having issued this order.”

A senior Hamas official said Friday that the current situation in Gaza represents “an extraordinarily audacious and brutal endeavor to forcibly remove the Palestinian indigenous people from their land.”

?Izzat al-Risheq, a member of the political bureau of Hamas, noted in a statement Friday that Israel struck Gaza with 6,000 bombs within the past week, which is also a number provided by the Israeli Air Force.

Hamas is rejecting Israel’s call “to be expelled from our homes once again” and will “resist Israel’s attempt to ethnically cleanse Gaza,” al-Risheq added.

This comes after Israel’s military warned 1.1 million people?living in northern Gaza to evacuate their homes, amid signs Israel is set to ramp up its retaliatory offensive against Hamas after the militant group, in a bloody attack last weekend, killed over 1,200 people in Israel. Since the attack, Hamas fighters are also said to be holding as many as 150 people hostage in locations across Gaza.

The senior Hamas official called Israel’s actions in Gaza “inhumane” and “barbaric,” and said they violate “all the laws and treaties that the so-called free and democratic countries claim they believe in.”

Hamas “will not surrender our legitimate fight for freedom and self-determination. We will either live standing tall or we will die fighting,” al-Risheq said.

Moscow is continuing discussions with Hamas about resolving the situation in the Middle East, the Russian foreign ministry said Friday.

“We are in contact with everyone,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told reporters. “We also have access to the Hamas leadership.”

Releasing hostages in the Gaza Strip must be resolved “very carefully and painstakingly,” Bogdanov said.

According to Bogdanov, Russian representatives intend to visit the Middle East as part of their efforts to resolve the crisis.

Bogdanov also called Israel’s call for the evacuation of civilians from northern Gaza a “violation of human rights.”

The Russian official also said Moscow opposes the “Israeli occupation” of the Gaza Strip in the event of a possible Israeli ground operation.

Some context on Russia’s response: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday urged both sides in the fighting between Israel and Hamas to “minimize or reduce to zero” civilian casualties. His comments came as he continues a ruthless war campaign against Ukraine and is being investigated by the?International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. That case includes, among other things, allegations of targeting civilians.

Commentators on Russian state TV have mocked the US and Israel after the Hamas attack, and Putin has framed the brutal assault as a failure of US policy in the Middle East.

Russia has been growing its ties with Iran during Moscow’s war on Ukraine, including by using Tehran-supplied drones against Kyiv’s forces. Iran is a longtime ally of Hamas, though it has denied involvement in the latest attacks on Israel.

Russian victims of Hamas: Currently there is no information about the Russian citizens who went missing following the Hamas attacks last week, the Kremlin said Friday.

Earlier in the week, at least?two Russian citizens?were confirmed to have been killed in the attack by Hamas on Saturday, Russian Ambassador Anatoly Viktorov said on Russian television. The number of Russians killed continues to grow, the Russian Embassy in Israel said, without specifying an exact number.

The number of French citizens confirmed dead following Hamas attacks in Israel has risen to 15, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told TV channel France 5 on Friday.

The number is changing due to the ongoing victim identification process in Israel, she said.

?Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi is interviewed by CNN.

Jordan is “extremely concerned” about the conflict in Israel spreading, the country’s foreign minister said.

Ayman Safadi said Jordan is working around the clock on de-escalating and preventing the conflict from spilling over into the West Bank and Lebanon, which he described as Jordan’s top priorities.??

Concerns about a wider regional conflict: Hamas’ operation was carried out in a sophisticated and coordinated manner and would have taken a significant amount of planning. Speculation has been rife that the group may have received assistance from abroad, which, if proven, could raise the specter of a wider regional war.

Israel may also face the threat of new fronts opening in the war. Of its immediate neighbors, it is only at peace with Jordan and Egypt, and is officially in a state of war with Lebanon and Syria. Israel has said it is ready in case there are attacks from those two countries.

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah,?which is backed by Iran, has praised Hamas’ attack and said it is in contact with Palestinian militant groups “at home and abroad,” its Al Manar channel said.?

Palestinians flee following the Israeli army's warning to leave their homes and move south in Gaza City on Friday.

The UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged Israeli authorities to “avert a humanitarian catastrophe”, a spokesperson said after Israel’s military warned 1.1 million people living in northern Gaza to evacuate their homes.?

“Since last night the secretary general and his team have been working the phones. He’s been in constant contact with Israeli authorities urging them to avert a humanitarian catastrophe,” said Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the secretary general, in a briefing at the UN headquarters in New York on Friday.

“He’s also had phone contacts with permanent representatives here in New York and other officials in the region,” Dujarric added.

The UN on Thursday said it was informed by its liaison officers in the Israeli military that “the entire population of Gaza north of Wadi Gaza should relocate to southern Gaza within the next 24 hours.”

Dujarric reiterated an earlier statement from the UN that the evacuation is “impossible” and has urged the Israeli military to withdraw.

“We consider it is impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences and we strongly appeal for any such order to be rescinded, avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation,” Dujarric said.

Dujarric also called for the safety of civilians, humanitarian assistance for them and protection of UN facilities, saying they “must never come under attack in accordance with international humanitarian law.”

He added, “We must ensure the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages being held in Gaza and we need of course to avoid a spillover of this conflict to the West Bank and to the wider region.”

US officials and lawmakers are generally coming to believe that Israel’s failure to predict the explosion of simmering rage from Gaza was primarily?due to?a lack of imagination, according to?conversations with dozens of current and former intelligence, military and congressional officials.

Hamas likely hid the planning of the operation through old-fashioned counterintelligence measures such as conducting planning meetings in person and staying off digital communications whose signals the Israelis can track. But US officials also believe Israel had become complacent about the threat Hamas posed and failed to recognize key indicators that the group was planning for a large-scale operation.

For example, Israeli officials failed to recognize routine Hamas training exercises as a sign that the group was preparing an imminent attack. The militants trained for the onslaught in at least six sites across Gaza, a?CNN investigation found,?including at one site less than a mile from Israel’s border.

In general, the Biden administration’s public posture in the lead up to the attack also did not reflect a heightened sense of alarm about the potential for violence. The intelligence community’s annual assessment of worldwide threats, released in February, does not mention Hamas.?

“The Middle East region is quieter today than it has?been in two decades,” national security advisor Jake Sullivan said at The Atlantic Festival on Sept. 29.

“Challenges remain,” Sullivan said, citing “tensions between Israelis and Palestinians. “But the amount of time that I have to spend on crisis and conflict in the Middle East today compared to any of my predecessors going back to 9/11 is significantly reduced.”

Hamas had refrained from entering two smaller cross-border skirmishes within the last year between another Palestinian militant group and Israel. Israel believed that its policy of offering work permits to Gazans and allowed Qatari money into the country had given Hamas something to lose —?and lulled the group into quiescence.?

“Hamas is very, very restrained and understands the implications of further defiance,” Tzachi Hanegbi,?Israel’s national security adviser, told an Israeli radio channel six days before the assault.

It’s also possible that the Hamas operation was more successful than the group anticipated, one former intelligence official and another source familiar with current intelligence said.?

Israel is?currently conducting?drone?attacks on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.?

Some context: The northern border between Israel and Lebanon remains one of the most important, and dangerous, fault lines in this volatile region.

Following the?surprise Hamas attacks?on Israel on October 7, this frontier – largely calm since the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war – is even more charged with consequence.

Any conflict erupting here could pour fuel on the raging fire of the current Hamas-Israel war by drawing in the most powerful paramilitary group in the Middle East:?Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Israel did not consult with the United States ahead of issuing an evacuation warning to more than a million civilians in northern Gaza, the White House said Friday.??

“There was no prior consultation that I’m aware of before the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) issued that evacuation warning,” National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby said.

The US is “concerned” about civilian losses as it works “aggressively” on safe passage options, he said.

He declined to provide details on the ongoing diplomatic conversations on those efforts.?

Kirby later said that the US is “routinely” talking to Israeli counterparts “about issues regarding the law of armed conflict and respect for human life.”

“That’s a conversation we have had and will continue to have with them,” he said.

The?US?intelligence community produced at least two assessments based in part on intelligence provided by Israel warning the?Biden administration?of an increased risk for Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the weeks ahead of Saturday’s seismic attack on southern Israel, according to sources familiar with the intelligence.

One?update from September 28 warned, based on multiple streams of intelligence, that the terror group Hamas was poised to?escalate?rocket attacks across the border. An October 5 wire from the CIA warned generally of the increasing possibility of violence by Hamas. Then, on October 6, the day before the attack, US officials?circulated reporting from Israel indicating unusual activity by Hamas —?indications that are now clear: an attack was imminent.

None of the American assessments offered any tactical details or indications of the overwhelming scope, scale and sheer brutality of the operation that Hamas carried out on October 7, sources say.?It is unclear if any of these US assessments were shared with Israel, which provides much of the intelligence that the US bases its reports on.

But the assessments were among a wave of high-level warnings given to the Biden administration by both its own intelligence community and?Middle?Eastern?allies over the past year, raising questions about whether?the US?and Israel were appropriately attuned to the risk.?

A senior official from an Arab country in the region said the country repeatedly raised concerns with US and Israeli officials that Palestinian anger was reaching a dangerous pitch. “But they never listened every time we warned them,” the official said.

A Middle Eastern ambassador in Washington, DC,?also told CNN that their government had repeatedly warned the White House and US intelligence officials of a buildup of Hamas weapons and anger among Palestinians that was set to explode.

“The arms that exist in Gaza is beyond the imagination of anybody’s thinking,” they warned, the ambassador said. “The arms that exist in the West Bank, via Hamas, are also becoming a real problem and Hamas control of the West Bank is a real issue.”

“This in every meeting, every meeting in the last year and a half,” the ambassador added.

Read more about the intelligence warnings

Israeli army tanks and vehicles deploy along the border with Gaza in southern Israel on Friday.

Israeli troops have carried out local raids over the past day in the Gaza Strip, searching for hostages and collecting evidence to find people taken by Hamas, the Israel Defense Forces said Friday.

It came after the Israeli military ordered the population to evacuate northern Gaza ahead of a potential Israeli ground operation. Many Palestinians packed their belongings and began to evacuate their homes on Friday.

Here’s where things stand:

Evacuations: According to the UN, Israel had ordered some 1.1 million people — half of the population of Gaza — to move to the southern half of the densely packed enclave. CNN footage showed many families had taken heed of the IDF’s warning. Some had strapped several mattresses to the top of their cars. Others drove with the trunk and doors open, to take as many people and possessions as possible. Some were even seen sitting on the hood as families drove through the city. Others simply walked, carrying in bags as much as they could.

Claims hostages were killed: Hamas claimed that?13 Israeli hostages?held in Gaza have been killed by “random” Israeli bombings on parts of Gaza over the past 24 hours. The IDF said it could not confirm or deny the claim. Hamas said six of the 13 were killed in the north of Gaza and seven were killed elsewhere in the strip. The militant group captured?as many as 150 people?during its attack on southern Israel last weekend, and is holding them hostage in Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.

Humanitarian situation:?Gaza’s humanitarian crisis is deepening, with warnings people are at risk of starvation after Israel ordered a “complete siege” of the blockade in response to Hamas’ attacks. Israel dropped about 6,000 bombs on Gaza between October 7 and 12, according to the Israeli Air Force. Palestinian officials said at least 1,799 people have been killed in the strikes.

Fire and smoke rise above Gaza City during an Israeli airstrike on Friday.

No safe place: With no air raid sirens or bomb shelters, the more than 2 million Palestinians living in the besieged territory are relying on rare phone calls or text messages from the Israeli military to alert them of imminent Israeli strikes. In Gaza, the call or text alerts are far from guaranteed and – at most – give residents a few minutes to evacuate.

Negotiating a border crossing: US officials have been engaged in discussions for days to try to secure a humanitarian corridor that would allow Americans and other civilians to safely leave Gaza ahead of an expected Israeli military incursion. There are an estimated 500-600 Palestinian-Americans in Gaza.

What other world leaders are saying: Jordan’s King Abdullah II “warned against attempts to displace the Palestinians” and emphasized the need to prevent further deterioration of the humanitarian crisis, the Jordanian Royal Hashemite Court said. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani?said in a post on social media that Hamas “is like ISIS.” Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani condemned the killing of civilians in Israel and Gaza and called for the release of hostages.

Strikes at the Lebanese-Israeli border: The Israeli military shelled southern Lebanon in response to an explosion at a security fence near the border, the IDF said. There are rising fears of the?Lebanon-based Shia militant faction Hezbollah?entering the conflict, prompting the IDF to add tens of thousands of additional troops to its northern border with Lebanon in anticipation of an attack by the Iran-backed group. Hezbollah already claimed responsibility for attacks on four Israeli locations in a statement Friday.

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Israel’s hostage coordinator said his team is “investigating every piece of information” to help find those being held captive in Gaza.

Gal Hirsch said that “searches in the field are continuing and the difficult work of identifying the bodies continues” and his staff is working “around the clock” for those still missing and their families.

“Together, we will overcome and we will win,” he said in a statement to CNN Friday.

Hirsch was appointed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to coordinate searches for people that are missing following Saturday’s attacks. According to Israeli authorities, Hamas captured?as many as 150 people?during its attack on southern Israel.

Earlier Friday, Hirsch attended a meeting in Tel Aviv of relatives of the missing, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

The plane that German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock used to travel to Israel will be used to evacuate more than 80 German nationals from Israel, the country’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

“The Airbus (plane) of the Air Force, on which the Foreign Minister flew from Berlin to Tel Aviv, will return to Germany with more than 80 German nationals who want to leave Israel,” a ministry press release said.?

Baerbock will travel onward in a smaller aircraft from Tel Aviv to the Egyptian capital city of Cairo, a foreign ministry spokesperson told CNN. In Cairo, she will engage in crisis talks focused on securing the release of hostages kidnapped by Hamas, the ministry said.

The evacuating German nationals will be accompanied by the foreign ministry’s crisis management officer on the plane, the statement added.

US President Joe Biden on Friday held a call with the families of Americans believed to be held hostage by Hamas.

The White House confirmed the call included the families of 14 Americans “who are still unaccounted for.”

“President Biden participated in a call with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens, Undersecretary of State John Bass, National Security Council Coordinator for the Middle East Brett McGurk, and family members of the 14 Americans still unaccounted for following this week’s horrific attacks on Israel,” the White House said in a statement.

The call lasted just over an hour.

John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, told reporters that the president “conveyed directly to these families that they have been in his prayers and we affirmed for them that the United States government?is doing everything possible to locate and bring home their loved ones.”

The call was led by special presidential envoy for hostage affairs Roger Carstens, Kirby said.

“Several of the family members,” he added, “shared information about their loved ones — personal stories and experiences that they have gone through as they endure this, quite frankly, unimaginable ordeal.”

Ahead of the call, the president said in an interview with CBS’ Scott Pelley that he wanted the families to know that he deeply cares about their situation.

“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 (that) this is critical. This is not even human behavior. It’s pure barbarism,” Biden said in a clip of a “60 Minutes” interview that was released Friday morning.

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

Israeli troops have carried out local raids over the past day in the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces said Friday.

The raids involved “infantry and armored forces,” the IDF said.

Troops searched for hostages and collected evidence that would help them find the captives, according to the IDF statement. The military also said it “thwarted terrorist cells and infrastructure located in the area, including a Hamas cell that fired anti-tank missiles toward Israeli territory.”

The IDF said it has also continued strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza.

Egypt warned on Friday against the Israeli military’s call for residents of Gaza City to leave their homes and head south, along with any representatives from the United Nations and international organizations.

Egypt has called on Israel to “refrain from taking such escalatory steps, as they would have serious consequences on the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip,” the ministry added.

It also called on the United Nations and other international actors to intervene “to prevent further escalation with unforeseen consequences in the Gaza Strip.”

Remember: Gaza is already one of the world’s most densely populated territories, with more than 2 million people crammed into 140 square miles. Now, the entire population is being told to move into the southern part of the strip – an order the UN has described as “impossible.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference in Doha, Qatar, on Friday.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the country is working with Israeli officials and international aid organizations “to get aid to civilians in Gaza” and urged Israel to take “every possible precaution to avoid harming civilians.”

The US is working with Israel and aid organizations to establish “safe zones” for civilians in Gaza, he added. “We’re working through the details on that, and more to be said in the days ahead, but that’s a priority for us.”

Some background:?On Thursday, Israel’s military warned 1.1 million people living in northern Gaza to evacuate their homes, amid signs Israel is set to ramp up its retaliatory offensive against Hamas following the group’s October 7?terror attacks.

Gaza is already one of the world’s most densely populated pieces of land, with more than 2 million people crammed into 140 square miles. Now, the entire population is being told to move into the southern part of the strip – an order the UN has described as “impossible.”

Palestinians pack a car as they leave Northern Gaza on Friday.

Video footage showed many Palestinians packing their belongings and beginning to evacuate their homes on Friday, after the United Nations said the Israeli military had ordered the population to evacuate northern Gaza ahead of a potential Israeli ground operation into the enclave.

Later Friday, CNN footage showed civilians in Gaza City, Deir el Balah and elsewhere in northern Gaza cramming their possessions into cars, taxis and pickup trucks and driving south on the highway.

The UN said Friday that Israel had ordered some 1.1 million people — half of the population of Gaza — to move to the southern half of the densely-packed strip.

In a video provided by Reuters, a woman holding her child is seen reading a green and white leaflet, with a message written in Arabic.

These leaflets were reportedly dropped from planes into Gaza by the IDF on Friday. Live footage from new agencies showed leaflets falling from the sky, warning Palestinians of the expected incursion to come.

CNN footage showed many families had taken heed of the IDF’s warning. Some had strapped several mattresses to the top of their cars. Others drove with the trunk and doors open, to take as many people and possessions as they could. Some were even seen sitting on the hood as families drove through the city. Others simply walked, carrying in bags as much as they could.

It is not clear when Israel’s expected incursion will begin. The UN said Friday it was informed by their liaison officers in the Israeli military that the population of northern Gaza had been given just 24 hours to evacuate, and described the order as “impossible” to implement “without devastating humanitarian consequences.” The IDF has not confirmed a deadline for the evacuation order.

Watch Gaza City residents evacuate to the south after Israeli army warning:

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The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah claimed responsibility for attacks on four Israeli locations in a statement Friday.

A CNN team on the ground witnessed some of these attacks.

For context: Earlier this week, the US and its allies warned Hezbollah against escalating the?conflict in Israel?as the US prepositioned military assets to deter a potential widening of the war, multiple US officials and people briefed on the discussions told CNN.

Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani speaks during a press conference alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Doha, Qatar, on Friday.

Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani condemned the killing of civilians in Israel and Gaza and called for the release of hostages held by Hamas in a joint news conference with US Secretary of State Antony?Blinken.

He also called for a de-escalation in the region and an immediate ceasefire.

The United States and Qatar are “working intensively together to secure the release of hostages,” including Americans, Blinken said at the news conference in Doha on Friday.

Blinken, who met with top Qatari officials including the emir and the foreign minister, did not offer further details about those efforts.

CNN has previously reported that Qatar has been in talks with Hamas about the hostages that the militant group is holding inside Gaza, and the US has been coordinating with the Qataris as they play a key mediating role with Hamas, according to a senior US official and another person familiar with the discussions.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks during a press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in Cairo, Egypt, on Wednesday.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani traveled to Israel on Friday and met with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen in the city of Netivot.

Documenting his visit in a post on “X,” formerly known as Twitter, Tajani said Hamas “is like ISIS, it kills like the Nazis. They are murderous terrorists and must be stopped.”

Tajani’s comparison of Hamas to ISIS echoes similar comments made by the US and Israel this week.

“Hamas is ISIS, or as the US president said, worse than ISIS,” Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari?said?in a briefing.

Separately, Israeli Defense Minister Yaov?Gallant delivered a similar message to NATO defense ministers. According to his office, Gallant said: “Hamas is the ‘ISIS’ of Gaza, a savage organization, funded and supported by Iran. Hamas is ISIS.”

Remember: The US also made the comparison earlier this week, with President Joe Biden saying in a news briefing on Tuesday, “the brutality of Hamas, this blood-thirstiness, brings to mind the worst, the worst rampages of ISIS.”

The country’s Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also said Thursday that?Hamas’ “litany of brutality and inhumanity” evokes “the worst of ISIS.”

King Abdullah II speaks at the opening of the 11th term of the Jordanian Parliament in Amman, Jordan, on October 11.

King Abdullah II and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte held a call Friday to discuss the worsening situation in Gaza, the Jordanian Royal Hashemite Court said in a statement.

During the call, the king “warned against attempts to displace the Palestinians” and emphasized the need to prevent further deterioration of the humanitarian crisis and the spread of violence, the statement said.

The two leaders underscored the significance of intensifying efforts to de-escalate the conflict, protect civilians, uphold international humanitarian law, and ensure the unimpeded delivery of medical and relief aid through the establishment of humanitarian corridors.

Some background: On Thursday, Israel’s military warned 1.1 million people living in northern Gaza to evacuate their homes, amid signs Israel is set to ramp up its retaliatory offensive against Hamas following the group’s October 7?terror attacks.

Gaza is already one of the world’s most densely populated pieces of land, with more than 2 million people crammed into 140 square miles. Now, the entire population is being told to move into the southern part of the strip – an order the UN has described as “impossible.”

The United States is continuing to press the Egyptian and Israeli governments on “the importance of the Rafah crossing being open for American citizens and foreign nationals of other countries who want to leave and have the right to leave to be able to do so,” a senior State Department official said Friday.

US officials have been engaged in discussions for days to try to secure a humanitarian corridor that would allow Americans and other civilians to safely leave Gaza ahead of an expected Israeli military incursion.??

The United Nations on Thursday said it was informed by the Israeli military that “the entire population of Gaza north of Wadi Gaza should relocate to southern Gaza within the next 24 hours,” but Israel Defense Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told CNN on Friday that any deadline “may slip.”

The State Department official told the press traveling with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the US focus has been “on American citizens, but other countries you could presume are engaged in trying to get their foreign nationals out as well.”??

There are an estimated 500-600 Palestinian-Americans in Gaza.

Earlier this week, CNN spoke with several who expressed fear and frustration that they would not be able to get out safely. And on Friday, CNN heard from numerous Palestinian-Americans who had gathered on the border of Gaza and Egypt but had been unable to cross.?

New Jersey resident Haneen Okal told CNN she evacuated from northern Gaza today with her three children and headed south to the Rafah crossing, which connects to Egypt.?

As of 5 p.m. local time in Gaza, Okal said US citizens were waiting for the border crossing border to open.??

Okal said the “situation is bad” and they have received no updates.?

The dozen refugees gathered at a spot just south of the deep blue waters of the Sea of Galilee to build their new community, safe from the rising tide of antisemitism in Europe.

It was an ambitious experiment. The 10 men and two women set out to create an agrarian Jewish utopia in what was then the Ottoman Empire, but none had any experience in agriculture. They had been raised in eastern European ghettos, far from any farms.

They formally founded their settlement sometime in 1909 or 1910 and called it Deganya.

Despite their lack of experience, the group quickly turned the barren but fertile land into a thriving agricultural collective. What started as a cluster of huts grew three decades later into a community of 60 homes and a dozen public buildings. Deganya’s main export was milk, but the community also sent out 20,000 bunches of bananas, 12,000 boxes of oranges and grapefruits and 15,000 boxes of tomatoes a year.

Deganya, which is still inhabited today, is considered Israel’s first kibbutz. Its success prompted imitators, and by 1950 – two years after Israel came into existence – there were 67,550 people living on 214 kibbutzim (the Hebrew plural of kibbutz) across the country,?according to the Jewish Virtual Library. While each settlement was different, all were underpinned by the economic and interpersonal ideals of socialism and the spirit of Zionism. Kibbutzim were run democratically, with their profits pooled and shared by members.

In Israel’s early days, the kibbutzim were an important economic driver for Israel and an integral part of the country’s identity. Volunteers from across the world –?including US Senator Bernie Sanders?– flocked to the kibbutzim to pick fruit during the day and enjoy the community lifestyle at night.

But as Israel transformed from a poor, desert state to a vibrant modern economy, the influence and prominence of the kibbutzim waned.

Read more about the kibbutzim.

Smoke rises after Israeli shelling in Alma Al-Shaab, southern?Lebanon, on October 13.

A CNN team on the ground heard the sound of three projectiles fired out of Israel, followed by two more projectiles, and then four projectiles going back into the?Israel?side on Friday.

The team heard a burst of distant gunfire from the direction of the Israeli border town of Metula and saw smoke from two locations on the Israeli side of?the?border.

The Israeli military says the area near Metula has been declared a closed?military?zone.

There was “an exchange of fire between the resistance and the Israeli enemy,” in the border area with Israel between the towns of Alma al-Shaab and Dhahira, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) said in a report on Friday.

NNA also said Israel is currently shelling the areas.

The exchange of fire is ongoing, the CNN team reports.

Cutting off electricity, water, fuel and food to 2 million people in Gaza is a “breach of the most fundamental human rights,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday.

The Turkish leader said a humanitarian aid plane landed at El Arish International Airport in Egypt this morning, carrying medicine, durable food, canned food, diapers and medical supplies to the region.

Erdogan called on the Israeli government to allow the delivery of aid through the Rafah Border Crossing between Egypt and Gaza.

Some background: Israel and Egypt have?imposed a strict siege?on Gaza since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007. Israel tightly controls the flow of goods and people in and out of Gaza, and maintains an air and naval blockade on the territory.

Human Rights Watch has called Gaza an “open-air prison.” More than half of its population lives in poverty and is?food insecure,?and nearly 80% of its population relies?on humanitarian assistance.

This week, Israel has halted the flow of food, fuel, water and electricity into the territory entirely, in what it has described as a “complete siege,” in response to Hamas’ devastating attack last week.

Rockets are fired toward Israel from the Gaza Strip, on October 7.

Islamist?militant group Hamas?attacked Israel last weekend with thousands of rockets and missiles, drones dropping explosives, and untold numbers of small arms and ammunition. But the attack was launched from the?Gaza, which is a poor, densely populated area, with few resources — it has been almost completely cut off from the rest of the world for nearly 17 years.

Which begs the question: How did Hamas amass the sheer amount of weaponry to pull off an attack of this scale and sophistication? Here’s what experts say:

The Iran factor: “Hamas acquires its weapons through smuggling or local construction and receives some?military support from Iran,” the CIA’s World Factbook says. While the Israeli and US governments have?yet to find any direct role by Iran?in last weekend’s raids, experts say the Islamic Republic has long been?Hamas’ main military supporter, smuggling weapons into the enclave through clandestine cross-border tunnels or boats that have escaped the Mediterranean blockade.

For bigger items, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of the Iranian military that answers directly to the country’s supreme leader, has been giving Hamas engineers weapons training for almost two decades, and Tehran keeps the training of Hamas’ weapons makers current, said Charles Lister, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.

A look at Hamas’ manufacturing: Ali Baraka, a senior Hamas official based in Lebanon, gave details of the Hamas’ weapons manufacturing in an edited interview with Russia Today’s Arabic-news channel RTArabic published on their website on Sunday. “We have local factories for everything, for rockets with ranges of 250 km, for 160 km, 80km, and 10 km. We have factories for mortars and their shells. … We have factories for Kalashnikovs (rifles) and their bullets. We’re manufacturing the bullets with permission from the Russians. We’re building it in Gaza,” he was quoted saying.

Recycling: How Hamas sources the raw materials for those indigenous weapons also shows the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the group. Gaza has none of the heavy industry that would support weapons production in most of the world. But among its main exports are scrap iron, which can provide material to make weapons in the tunnel network below the enclave.

And that metal in many instances comes from previous destructive fighting in Gaza, according to?Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, who wrote about it?for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Fikra Forum in 2021. When Gaza infrastructure has been destroyed in Israeli airstrikes, what’s left – sheet metal and metal pipes, rebar, electrical wiring – has found its way into Hamas’ weapon workshops, emerging as rocket tubes or other explosive devices, he wrote.

CNN’s Tamara Qiblawi and Jen Deaton contributed to this report.

Read the full analysis here.

Smoke billows after an Israeli strike on the Lebanese village of Alma Ach-Chaab on October 13.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have taken action in response to an explosion at a security fence near the community of Hanita at the Lebanese-Israeli border, IDF said in a statement.

The IDF is responding with artillery fire toward Lebanese territory, it said. Israeli forces have also activated an alert warning of a possible infiltration by terrorists into the community. Israeli soldiers are currently searching the area.

Military officials said the blast at the fence caused “light damage.”

Some context: There are rising fears of the Lebanon-based Shia militant faction Hezbollah entering the conflict, potentially opening a second front in the war. The IDF said Tuesday that it has added tens of thousands of additional troops to its northern border with Lebanon in anticipation of an attack by the Iran-backed group.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, right, attends a news conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen in Netifot, Israel, on October 13.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock appealed Friday to Hamas to release its hostages?during a joint news conference with her Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen in?Netivot, Israel.

“The immediate release of these people is the expectation of all those who stand on the side of humanity,” Baerbock said during the press conference after her visit to the scenes of the Hamas attacks in Israel.

Baerbock traveled to Israel to show German solidarity with Israel, denounce Hamas attacks, and talk to the family members of German hostages and work toward their release.?

“I appeal here to all those who have direct channels of communication and contacts to work for the release of these innocent people from many countries, first of all from Israel, but also from Germany, from the United States, from France, from Italy, from Thailand and probably some more,” she said.

Like his father Chumporn and dozens of other able-bodied men from their village in northeast Thailand, Manee Jirachart moved to Israel in search of work,?dreaming of a better life.

Jobs were hard to come by within the his rural community so when Manee found a cleaning position at a government office in southern Israel near the Gaza border it seemed like a real opportunity.

He’d been working that job for nearly five years when he was abducted and taken hostage last weekend by Hamas militants involved in last weekend’s murder and kidnapping rampage within Israel.

The 29-year-old was just one of the scores of foreigners who became caught up in the attack that has devastated families around the world.

But among?many of the foreigners killed and captured by Hamas were also migrant workers from Asia, without familial links to either Israel or the Palestinian Territories, who hail from mostly poor, rural families and work in the country’s agricultural, construction and health care sectors.

So far at least 21 Thai nationals have been killed as of Thursday, according to Thai authorities, with at least 14 others believed to have been captured by Hamas, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin confirmed.

Read more on the migrant workers killed in Hamas’ assault.

An aerial view of damaged buildings in the aftermath of Israeli airstrikes in the Er-Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City on October 10.

When Hamas fires rockets at Israel, advanced warning detectors set off alarms in targeted neighborhoods, civilians flee to an extensive network of bomb shelters, and the vaunted Iron Dome system works to intercept projectiles in the air.

But in Gaza, none of those high-tech defenses were available to protect 47-year-old Maisara Baroud when his apartment building was hit by Israeli airstrikes Monday night. The only thing that saved him and his family was a neighbor yelling from the street.

The neighbor received a call from the Israeli military, giving him a heads-up that a strike at a nearby residential building was imminent. Still, the neighbor told Baroud and the 15 other family members living in Baroud’s building – including nine children – to get out.

The first strike wrecked most of the six buildings on the block, including Baroud’s.

Still, Baroud and others assumed the worst was over and headed back into the building to salvage their belongings. Minutes later, the neighbor received a follow-up call from the Israeli military that a follow-up bombing was coming, and the families fled again.

A second strike destroyed Baroud’s home, reducing his building and his art studio to rubble.

This is the reality for Palestinians living in Gaza without the protection of a robust civil defense infrastructure. With no air raid sirens or bomb shelters, the more than 2 million Palestinians living in the besieged territory – half of whom are children – rely on rare phone calls or text messages from the Israeli military to alert them of imminent strikes.

“In Gaza, we don’t have anything…you have nowhere to go, no bomb shelters, no refuge, you are in the street,” Baroud said. “If you’re lucky enough to even get an alert to tell you to get out of the house, you leave saying, ‘Thank God.’”

In Gaza, the call or text alerts are far from guaranteed and – at most – give residents a few minutes to evacuate. Often, it’s just a guessing game.

Read the full story here.

After Hamas attacked Israel on Saturday, Israel responded by ordering a “complete siege,” of Gaza, cutting off food, electricity, fuel and water supplies.

The UN said in a?statement released Thursday?that residents in Gaza “have lived under unlawful blockade for 16 years,” and?condemned this “further tightening”?of the blockade.?

Take a look at how Israel is cutting off Gaza:

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Nevatim Air Base in Israel on Friday to observe a US C-17 plane delivering security assistance to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

Austin met with members of the IDF after deplaning to offer support, for which the Israeli troops said they were grateful.

Reiterating US support for Israel, Austin said,?“We’re going to continue to do what’s necessary to ensure that you have what you need to be successful.”

He then thanked the American crew of the C-17 delivering the supplies.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has raised an alarm over the evacuation order in Gaza, warning of catastrophic humanitarian consequences, the organization?said in a statement Friday.

With a military siege in place, humanitarian organizations, including the ICRC, face challenges in assisting the massive displacement of people in Gaza.?Their Gaza City office received the same instructions to leave, as did other international organizations.

The ICRC emphasized that recent attacks in Israel should not justify the limitless destruction of Gaza, urging parties to adhere to legal obligations regarding warfare methods.

Given Gaza’s limited resources and closed space, the ICRC underscored that all civilians, including the elderly, disabled, and sick, must be protected.

The organization also highlighted the need to ensure that basic necessities are provided for displaced populations and to prevent family separations.

The ICRC is scaling up its relief efforts but called for pauses in fighting to operate safely and efficiently.

A Palestinian child attends hospital in Gaza on October 13.

“Hundreds & hundreds of children have been killed and injured” in Gaza and the number is rising hourly, the United Nations Children’s Fund said Friday.

Elder joined calls from the international community saying, “Israeli children being held hostage in Gaza must be safely and immediately reunited with their families and loved ones.”

Elder concluded: “In every war, the ones who suffer the most are children. This is tragically true today.”

At least 1,799 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza from Israeli strikes, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.

The death toll includes 583 children and 351 women, according to the ministry.

An additional 7,388 people have been injured, including 1,901 children?and?1,185?women, the ministry added.

Israel has warned 1.1 million people living in northern Gaza to relocate to the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

Across the Middle East,?Gaza is among the smallest?and most?densely packed urban areas. The United Nations has said it considers “it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences.”

Take a look at the map to understand the area that’s impacted.

Almost one week on from Hamas’ brutal terror attack, which killed more than 1,300 people, Israel’s retaliation has come from the skies. It has dropped about 6,000 bombs on Gaza between October 7 and 12, according to the Israeli Air Force (IAF). Palestinian officials said more than 1,500 people have been killed in the strikes.

Israel’s next move looks set to come from the ground. Overnight Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) warned some 1.1 million people living in northern Gaza to relocate south, as some 300,000 IDF reservists have amassed near the border.

An IDF spokesperson told CNN the military is preparing to “strike Hamas and prevent them from ever being able to attack us again.” But how Israel expects more than one million Gazan civilians to evacuate under rapidly deteriorating conditions is less clear. Various international organizations have warned that Israel’s actions could amount to war crimes.

Here are the latest developments:

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell speaks during a press conference in Beijing, China, on October 13.

Israel’s 24-hour deadline for 1.1 million people in northern Gaza to relocate to the south is “utterly unrealistic,” the European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell has said.

While acknowledging that Israel has given civilians a warning about incoming military operations, he said, such warnings should be realistic.

While the European Union’s position is “Israel has the right to defend itself” in the wake of aggression, “it has to be done in line with international humanitarian law,” Borrell said.

He discouraged attacks against civilians, and expressed concern about the “deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, in particular due to the shortage of medical supplies, food and electricity.”?

“Creating a blockage of water, food, fuel and medical supplies, is not in accordance with international law,” he said.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, center, meets with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, left, and Israeli Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi in Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 13.

A forceful US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin pledged unwavering US support to Israel in the wake of the deadly Hamas attack, stressing that “this is no time for neutrality, or for false equivalence or for excuses for the inexcusable.”

“In times like these, sometimes the best thing that a friend can do is just to show up and to get to work,” said Austin emphatically offering full US support to Israel at a joint news conference.

The defense secretary who is traveling to Israel today offered a soft reminder to the Israelis that “this is a time for resolve and not revenge” as the IDF is under scrutiny for causing civilian casualties in Gaza in response to the Hamas attack.

“Democracies like ours are stronger and more secure when we uphold the laws of war,” Austin said.

Austin also pledged continued US support with munitions. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel is expecting the second shipment of lethal military aid from the US today as Israel warns civilians to evacuate Gaza.

“US security assistance to Israel will flow in at the speed of war,” said Austin.

Jordanian and Egyptian officials are applying “diplomatic and political pressure on the Israeli government to allow for the safe passage of aid into Gaza through the Rafah crossing,” a senior Jordanian official told CNN Thursday.

A plane carrying medical aid for Gaza from Jordan arrived in the Egyptian city of Arish, approximately 45 kilometers (about 27 miles) away from the Rafah crossing into Gaza, on Thursday.

Aid was loaded onto Egyptian Red Crescent trucks that have not yet been able to advance towards the border, according to the Jordanian official.

While the Egyptian side of the Rafah border is open, the source told CNN, the Palestinian side of the border is “non-functional,” following multiple Israeli airstrikes targeting the vicinity earlier this week.

A Palestinian border employee in Gaza, who asked not to be named told CNN Friday that the Rafah border with Egypt is still closed, three days after an Israeli airstrike.

“The border is closed. No employees are working at the moment, and the main building is still damaged after it was struck by Israelis three days ago,” the employee said.

“The border is closed due to safety concerns, and fear of another airstrike,” the employee said. “The Egyptians have not given us orders to open the gate connecting the Palestinian side of the border with the Egyptian side.”?

It is not clear if the border crossing is fully functional.?Israel Defense Forces have not said that the border crossing was struck but said that an underground tunnel for smuggling weapons and equipment was struck in the Rafah area. It’s unclear where exactly the strike occurred.

On Tuesday, Eyad al-Bozom, spokesperson for the Palestinian Interior Ministry, said Israeli warplanes struck the gateway and teams working at the crossing were asked to evacuate “immediately due to threats of strikes of the crossing.”

The order came from the management of the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian side, Bozom added.

A Palestinian protester hurls back a tear gas canister with a sling during clashes with Israeli forces in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on October 13.

Twelve Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli forces around the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem during protests in support of Gaza on Friday, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Israeli forces shot at Palestinians in the West Bank cities of Hebron, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Tolkarem, and the town of Tamun, the health ministry said.?

A total of 47 people have been killed and hundreds of others injured since Saturday in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem during clashes with Israeli forces and by settler gunfire.

The spokesperson of Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Obaida, urged Palestinians to “remain steadfast” and not respond to Israeli calls to leave their homes in an audio message aired on al-Aqsa TV on Friday.

Obaida urged Palestinians to “be patient and steadfast, victory will be ours.”?

Israel has called on all civilians in northern Gaza to leave their homes and head south today ahead of a potential ground invasion in response to Hamas’ terror attacks that killed more than 1,300 people.

The UN, however, said an order for the mass evacuation was “impossible” without major humanitarian consequences.

A CNN team in Sderot counted a maximum of 10 incoming missiles from Gaza – Hamas claims 50.

A heavily pregnant woman who fled Gaza City on Monday told CNN that she fears for the future as hordes of Gazan civilians start making their way to the southern Gaza strip following Israel’s evacuation order.?

Nardeen Fares, who is nine months pregnant, told CNN over the phone that she traveled with her husband from al-Rimal, a neighborhood in Gaza City, to the town of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza strip earlier this week.

Khan Younis is located in southern Gaza and is roughly 16 miles or a 39-minute drive from Gaza City. Videos obtained by CNN have also shown civilians driving towards the coastal town of Deir al Balah in central Gaza on Friday.

In the videos, cars can be seen piled high with mattresses and other belongings driving towards Deir al Balah. Another video shows a truck full of civilians driving towards the same location, which lies roughly 12 miles from Gaza City.

Those who have fled Gaza City are currently sheltering in cramped accommodation, Fares said, telling CNN that she is currently sharing a space with over 50 other people in Khan Younis.

“As a woman who is in her last month of pregnancy, God knows when it will happen and what the situation will be like then,” Fares said.

Fares told CNN that arrivals in Khan Younis continue to grow, observing that more and more people are “fleeing and hiding.”

At least 12 Russian citizens are still missing in Israel, the press service of the Russian Embassy in Israel told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti Friday.

The number of Russians killed due to the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East continues to grow, the Russian Embassy in Israel said without specifying an exact number.

Earlier in the week, at least two Russian citizens were confirmed to have been killed in the attack by Hamas on Saturday, Russian Ambassador Anatoly Viktorov said on Russian television.

Palestinians flee to safer areas following Israeli air strikes on Gaza City on October 13.

Warnings from Israel’s military that more than 1.1 million civilians in northern Gaza should evacuate “southwards” in the next 24 hours are a “tall order,” National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby said, while avoiding criticism of the Israeli Defense Forces.

“We understand what they’re trying to do: They’re trying to move civilians out of harm’s way and giving them fair warning. Now it’s a tall order. It’s a million people and very urban, dense environment. It’s already a combat zone. So I don’t think anybody’s underestimating the challenge here of effecting that evacuation,” Kirby told CNN Friday.?

The UN said the order for the mass evacuation was “impossible” without major humanitarian consequences.?

The US does not want to see “any civilians hurt,” Kirby added. “Obviously, the more time that people have the better, but I’d let the IDF speak to their to the orders they’re giving into the operations that they’re conducting and planning.”

The US continues to advocate for safe passage out of Gaza, and continues “actively talking” to Israeli and Egyptian officials, he said, but it remains closed at this time.

People attend a Pro-Palestine demonstration in Tehran, Iran, on October 13.

Mass rallies in support of Palestinians took place across Iran on Friday, according to images on state-run news agency IRNA.

In Tehran, demonstrators held anti-Israel signs and shouted “death to Israel.”

Many demonstrators were seen holding the Palestinian flag and pictures of Qasem Soleimani, head of Iran’s elite unit Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force,?who was killed in a US airstrike in 2020.?

Key Iranian politicians took part in the rally, including Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, and Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, the head of Iran’s judiciary.

Michal Muszkat-Barkan, a professor at the Hebrew Union College has spent the past 10 months organizing protests against the?Israeli?government’s?plans to weaken the country’s judiciary?– an issue that split the nation down the middle and caused a seemingly never ending political deadlock.

She was determined to keep going until?Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu?dropped the plan, which she believes is undemocratic. But her priorities drastically shifted when Hamas militants launched their mass killing spree from the Gaza Strip on Saturday.

Now she’s working on the cause that has brought the divided nation together: the war effort.

The group Muszkat-Barkan is helping to organize, Jerusalem Emergency Command, is formed of hundreds of volunteers from several civil society organizations. Some are working to connect evacuees from the attacked communities with families who can house them. Others are organizing car sharing for reservists who need to get to their bases.

One big room is now a makeshift call center receiving requests for help, while the theater has been turned into a donations warehouse.

Read more about Muszkat-Barkan’s work with the Jerusalem Emergency Command here.

Canada is providing an initial $10 million for humanitarian assistance to address the urgent needs related to “the crisis in Israel, West Bank and the Gaza Strip,”?Canada’s International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen?announced?on Thursday.?

Some of the funding will support the Canadian Red Cross and partners Magen David Adom (MDA) and the Palestine Red Crescent Society, the release states. More details on allocations will be shared.?

The assistance, which will provide emergency medical assistance, water, food, protection services and additional life-saving assistance,?is for “experienced and trusted humanitarian partners” who have been appealing for help, the news release added.?

The release also said that civilian safety and well-being must be a priority, and that humanitarian relief should reach them swiftly.

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks at a press conference on the sidelines of a strategic EU-China dialogue in Beijing, China, on October 13.

Today, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) stood by comments made Thursday in a call between Foreign Minister Wang Yi and a senior adviser to Brazil’s President about the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

In a call on Thursday with Celso Amorim, Wang Yi said “the Palestinian issue is the core of the Middle East question, and the crux of the matter is that justice has not been done to the Palestinian people. The conflict has proved once again, in an extremely tragic manner, that the way out of the Palestinian issue lies in the resumption of genuine peace talks as soon as possible, so as to realize the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.”

When asked Friday for comment on the remarks, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin repeated the Foreign Minister’s statement from the day before and added, “I would like to emphasize that China has no self-interest in the question of Palestine and has always stood on the side of peace and on the side of fairness and justice.”

Three Chinese citizens are among those killed following attacks by Hamas on Israel, China’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday. Two others are missing.

What Israel says: Israel’s Ambassador to China, Rafi Harpaz, expressed “deep disappointment” with China’s statements, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry on Friday.

Harpaz told China’s envoy to the Middle East Zhai Jun that Chinese statements on the issue carry “no clear and unequivocal condemnation” of Hamas attacks on Israel and do not include “any element of Israel’s right to defend itself and its citizens.”

Um Tamer at the al-Aqsa Mosque on October 13.

Um Tamer went to pray at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque this morning, one of the limited number of worshipers allowed into the compound by the Israeli police.

The 57-year-old mother of three said the mosque was very empty, which made her sad.

On a normal Friday, the mosque would be very busy because Friday prayers are a significant moment of the week for observant Muslims.

Tamer said the sermon she attended wasn’t unusually fiery — something she thought might happen before attending. She said people were praying for people in Gaza, who are currently under heavy bombardment by the Israel Defense Forces.

Some context:?The al-Aqsa compound is one of the most revered places in Islam and Judaism. The sacred grounds, known to Muslims as Al Haram Al Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) and to Jews as Temple Mount have been a flashpoint of tensions between Israel and the Palestinians for decades.

Only Muslims are allowed to pray in the compound under a status quo arrangement originally reached more than a century ago. Non-Muslim visitors are allowed visits at certain times and only to certain areas of the complex.?

But many in the Muslims world fear that the right to be the sole worshipers there?has been eroded?and that the sites themselves are being threatened by a growing far-right Jewish movement and Israel’s far-right government.?

Clashes have frequently broken out at the site between Palestinian worshipers and Israeli forces. Police?raided the compound?several times over the last year.

In a statement, Hamas said it had launched Saturday’s?“Al-Aqsa Storm”?attack on Israel in part to defend the holy site.

New fronts could open if Israel continues its “war crimes and humanitarian siege on Gaza,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said during his visit to Beirut, according to Iran’s state-aligned news outlet Tasnim.

Amir-Abdollahian said Western officials asked him whether it’s possible new fronts will open against the Israeli regime or not.

The resistance movement refers to groups that are opposed to the state of Israel, including Hamas, Hezbollah and armed groups in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.

The foreign minister did not elaborate on which Western officials he spoke to.?

He also met with Hassan Nasrallah,?secretary-general of Hezbollah.?During the meeting, the two reviewed the recent events and developments following Hamas’ attack, and Israel’s aggression against Gaza, according to Tasnim.

The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin told Vatican News that the Hamas attack on Israel was “inhuman” but the “legitimate defense should not harm civilians,” according to a transcript of the interview provided by the Vatican press office.?

Parolin also expressed solidarity with the families of the hostages, but insisted, “it is necessary to regain a sense of reason, abandon the blind logic of hatred, and reject violence as a solution. It is the right of those who are attacked to defend themselves, but even legitimate defense must respect the parameter of proportionality.”?

Parolin conceded that finding a peaceful solution may not be possible. “I do not know how much room for dialogue there can be between Israel and the Hamas militia, but if?there is—and we hope there is—it should be pursued immediately and without delay,” he said. “This is to avoid further bloodshed, as is happening in Gaza, where many innocent civilian victims have been caused by the Israeli army’s attacks.”?

The cardinal offered the Vatican’s availability to mediate saying, “The Holy See is ready for any necessary mediation, as always. In the meantime, we try to speak with the institutions whose channels are already open. However, any mediation to end the conflict must take into account a series of elements that make the issue very complex and articulated, such as the issue of Israeli settlements, security, and the issue of the city of Jerusalem.”

“A solution can be found in direct dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis, encouraged and supported by the international community, even though it will be more difficult now,” he said.

Some background: The Vatican has a long history of supporting peace in the region. Pope John Paul II met with the Palestinian leadership in 1987, which paved the way for an agreement between the Vatican and the Palestinian National Authority. Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis both visited the region, and Palestinian authority opened an embassy to the Holy See in 2017.?

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Amman, Jordan, on October 12, after meetings in Israel.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Bahrain on Friday, adding yet another stop to his multinational trip aimed at stopping the war in Israel from expanding further.

The top US diplomat is currently in Doha, Qatar. On Thursday, he was in Israel, meeting with senior officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the families of Americans killed or taken captive by Hamas. Earlier Friday, he met separately with King Abdullah II and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

From Doha, Blinken will travel on to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt before returning to the United States Sunday.?

“Across each of these engagements, we’ll continue pressing countries to help prevent the conflict from spreading, and to use their leverage with Hamas to immediately and unconditionally release the hostages,” Blinken had said at a news conference in Tel Aviv on Thursday.

US President Joe Biden said he will speak personally Friday via video conference with the families of Americans?believed?to be held hostage by Hamas.?

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

His comments come as 14 Americans remain unaccounted for after the surprise attack in Israel by the militant group Hamas over the weekend. The White House has said it believes a small handful are being held hostage.

CNN has reached out to the White House for more information on this call.

Jordanians gather in a rally to express solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, in Amman,?Jordan, on October 13.

Thousands of people took to the streets of Jordan on Friday to show their support for Palestinians amid Israeli airstrikes on Gaza this week.

Protesters gathered in the capital city Amman, as well as in other cities such as Zarqa, Karak, Ma’an, Mafraq and Irbid, according to images on state-owned TV Al-Mamlaka.

In the capital, thousands marched in the city center near the Grand Hussein mosque, and were met with a heavy police presence, per Al-Mamlaka footage.

Demonstrations also took place near the Israeli border, according to Al-Mamlaka.

Hundreds of protesters were seen marching towards a restricted military zone at the border, despite bans on gatherings in the area. Some of them were faced with police forces throwing tear gas to disperse the crowd, according to videos shared with CNN.?

The country’s public security directorate issued a statement calling on people to adhere to its instructions and limit protests to areas designated for that purpose.

Sharing Israel’s longest border, Jordan is home to 40% of the total registered Palestinian refugees in the Middle East, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

The Hashemite Kingdom committed $4.3 million “to fund its response to the unfolding tragedy in the Gaza Strip,” UNRWA said in a statement Thursday.

Almost half the population of Jordan, including its Queen Rania, is of Palestinian origin.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA) warned Friday of the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, after Israel’s order for people in the north of the enclave to evacuate south.

?UNWRA described the scale and speed on the humanitarian crisis as “bone-chilling.”

“Gaza is fast becoming a hell hole and is on the?brink of collapse,” it said.

Lazzarini urged “all parties and those with influence over them to put an end to this tragedy and provide immediate and unconditional humanitarian access and protection to the civilian, among them far too many women and children.”

A leaflet lies on the ground dropped by Israeli army planes above Gaza City, asking them to flee to the south of the Strip immediately, on October 13.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) dropped leaflets from planes into?Gaza?calling on?residents?to leave their homes and evacuate south, images on social media showed.

Live footage from news agencies earlier showed leaflets falling from the sky.

“All public shelters known in?Gaza?have to be vacated,” the leaflet added.

“It is forbidden to get close to the security border fence. Every person who approaches the fence is subjecting themselves to death.”

A diagram was drawn on the leaflet showing arrows towards south?Gaza?with a designated area at the top left corner of the map saying “Humanitarian Aid Zone.”

CNN has reached out to the IDF for comment.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said an Israeli “ground operation” into Gaza would be problematic because of the risks of using heavy military equipment in civilian areas.

“And to carry out these operations without the equipment is even more difficult.”

“The most important thing is that losses among civilians will be completely unacceptable, nearly 2 million people live there,” he added.

Putin’s remarks contrast with Russia’s own actions as it continues a full scale invasion of Ukraine. Moscow has been accused of numerous violations of international law and of committing war crimes, namely the targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure, as it continues to prosecute the war against its neighbour.

It has, on numerous occasions, according to numerous investigations, used “heavy equipment” in civilian areas.

Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure and rejected having committed any war crimes during what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Putin also said Moscow is prepared to act as a mediator in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Palestinians inspect the rubble of buildings hit by an Israeli airstrike at Al Shati Refugee Camp, Gaza, on October 12.

Israeli forces have dropped about 6,000 bombs on Gaza between October 7 and 12, the Israeli Air Force?(IAF)?said in a statement Thursday.?

This is equivalent to the total number of airstrikes on Gaza during the entire 2014 Gaza-Israel conflict, which lasted from July 7 to August 26 of that year, according to data from the Israel Defense Forces?(IDF).???

2014 was the deadliest year on record in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with?at least?2,251 Palestinians killed in Gaza during 50 days of war,?according?to data from?the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).??

As of Thursday, 6 days into the current conflict, at least 1,537 people have been killed in Gaza, the?Palestinian Ministry of Health?said.?

The Gaza neighborhoods of Beit Hanoun,?Shejaiya, Rimal, El-Furkan and?Tuffah?suffered “extensive and heavy damage”?it?added.

CNN has geolocated?more than 30?airstrikes, most of them in the northern part of the Gaza?Strip and?analyzed satellite imagery which?confirms?extensive damage?to?the Al-Shati and Jabalia refugee camps near Gaza City.

The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and European Parliament President Roberta Metsola arrived in Israel Friday.

Von der Leyen wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that she had arrived in Israel “to express our solidarity with the Israeli people in the wake of the horrific Hamas terrorist attack.”

Metsola, also writing on X, said: “We are here with a message of solidarity after the worst terror attack Israel has endured in generations.”

Just minutes before the prayers were set to begin in Jerusalem on Friday, a CNN team on the ground heard several loud bangs, likely stun grenades.?

Smoke was visible near the Lions’ Gate – one of several entrances to Jerusalem’s Old City.

The road leading to the gate has been sealed off by Israeli authorities, who restrict entry to the Old City.

Police have been restrictive about who can enter the city. Access to the al-Aqsa compound has been restricted to people over the age of 60, an eyewitness told CNN.?

In a video obtained by CNN, upwards of 10 Israeli soldiers could be seen climbing the stairs toward the al-Aqsa mosque.

CNN’s Becky Anderson and team reported from Jerusalem, overlooking the Old City at midday as the prayers took place.

“This is the most contentious site in Jerusalem and really at the heart of this conflict,” Anderson reported live on air.

“We are being told it is selective access today, but we just need to wait to see how this develops,” Anderson added.

Later, shortly before 2 p.m. local time (7 a.m. ET), a CNN team observed Israeli police firing more tear gas in East Jerusalem near the entrance to the Old City. The police also sprayed the Palestinian neighborhood with skunk water — a foul-smelling liquid designed to disperse crowds.

The atmosphere is tense. There have been some skirmishes and rock throwing, but the situation remains relatively calm.

Some context: Restricting access to the al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, is a contentious move that could be seen as provocation. Palestinians living in the West Bank have not been allowed to enter the city for days.

The UN Human Rights Office has said it is following the situation in Israel and Gaza with “deepening horror,” and urged all parties involved in the conflict to respect international humanitarian law.

Shamdasani said that UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk urges all States to “insist upon and assist the parties to the conflict in immediately implementing a humanitarian corridor to ensure safe and unimpeded access to humanitarian aid.”

“We should not look back and regret that we did not do everything in our power to avoid a disaster,” she added.

Israel’s military has warned all civilians in the north of Gaza to evacuate “southwards.”

“We echo the Secretary-General’s Spokesperson’s call for this to be rescinded, avoiding a calamitous situation,” Shamdasani said.

People gather at Tahrir Square in Baghdad, Iraq, during a demonstration against Israel on October 13.

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis gathered on Tahrir Square in Baghdad on Friday in one of the largest pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the country in decades, according to footage on state-run television Al-Iraqiya.

People traveled from different parts of the country in what Iraqi media called a “million man march,” following a call from Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Monday to unite “in support of the Palestinian cause.”

Al-Sadr called on Iraqis to protest against “international terrorism” and the “American occupation.”

Protesters were seen waving Iraqi and Palestinian flags, burning Israeli flags and heard shouting slogans against Israel and America.

The protest was followed by a large prayer gathering on the square in solidarity with Palestinians, amid Israeli air strikes on Gaza this week following the deadly Hamas attack.

Hamas has said it launched rockets towards Ben Gurion International Airport and the southern Israeli city of Sderot.

The militant group said in a statement Friday that 50 rockets were fired towards Sderot.

Hamas also said it targeted Israeli soldiers in Kfar Sa’ad with two explosive drones.

Israel’s order for 1.1 million people living in northern Gaza to evacuate their homes – ahead of a potential ground invasion – would “amount to the war crime of forcible transfer,” the Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council Jan Egeland said Friday.

The relocation order “must be reversed,” he said.

Egeland called Western and Arab Nations “who have influence over the Israeli political and military leadership” to “demand that the illegal and impossible order to relocate is immediately rescinded.”

Egeland stressed “the loss of civilian lives caused by deliberate or indiscriminate use of force is a war crime for which the perpetrators will have to answer.”

Jordan's King Abdullah II meets with US Secretary of State Antony?Blinken?in Amman on October 13.

Continuing his trip to the Middle East, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken underscored during his meeting with Jordanian King Abdullah II on Friday that “Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination,” according to a readout from State Department spokesperson Matt Miller.

During the meeting, Blinken and King Abdullah discussed Saturday’s Hamas attack on Israel and efforts since then to “secure the release of all hostages and prevent the conflict from widening,” Miller said.?

Blinken and King Abdullah also discussed “ways to address the humanitarian needs of civilians in Gaza while Israel conducts legitimate security operations to defend itself from terrorism,” he said.?

Blinken expressed appreciation for Jordan’s “special role in Jerusalem and as a force for stability in the region,” Miller added.

Hospitals in Gaza are “at breaking point” and “time is running out” to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned Friday.

“I visited Gaza in 2018. Access to care was already difficult,” Tedros said. He stressed that a mass evacuation to the enclave’s south – which Israel ordered overnight Thursday – “would be disastrous – for patients, health workers and other civilians left behind or caught in a dangerous and maybe a deadly mass movement.”

“We appeal for the reversal of the decision,” he said.

WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic stressed that hospitals “have only a few hours of electricity each day as they are forced to ration depleting fuel reserves and rely on generators to sustain the most critical functions.”

WHO called for an end to hostilities and for the “immediate opening” of a humanitarian corridor to ensure unimpeded access for health and humanitarian supplies, as well as for personnel, and the evacuation of patients and the injured.

The al-Aqsa compound was unusually empty on Friday as Israeli police appeared to have restricted access to some worshippers.

It’s noon in Jerusalem and tensions are running high. There is a palpable sense of nervousness as the Holy City marks the first Friday since Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel and the subsequent Israeli strikes on Gaza.

Fridays can be a fraught time in Jerusalem, with protests and clashes often erupting in the Old City. Friday congregational prayers are a significant ritual for Muslims, who pray at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque.

It appears that Israeli police are restricting access to the compound. Access from the West Bank has been restricted and the police are being selective about who is let in.

The compound is significantly emptier than what is expected on Fridays, even as the prayers are about to start.

Many streets in Jerusalem remained deserted on Friday with a significant police and military presence visible across the city.

Some context: The al-Aqsa compound is one of the most revered places in Islam and Judaism. The sacred grounds, known to Muslims as Al Haram Al Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) and to Jews as Temple Mount have been a flashpoint of tensions between Israel and the Palestinians for decades.

Only Muslims are allowed to pray in the compound under a status quo arrangement originally reached more than a century ago. Non-Muslim visitors are allowed visits at certain times and only to certain areas of the complex.?

But many in the Muslims world fear that the right to be the sole worshipers there has been eroded and that the sites themselves are being threatened by a growing far-right Jewish movement and Israel’s far-right government.?

Clashes have frequently broken out at the site between Palestinian worshipers and Israeli forces. Police raided the compound several times over the last year.

In a statement, Hamas said it had launched Saturday’s “Al-Aqsa Storm” attack on Israel in part to defend the holy site.

Lebanon's caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib and Iranian Foreign Minister?Hossein?Amirabdollahian?attend a joint press conference in Beirut, Lebanon, on October 13.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said “Lebanon’s security is Iran’s security” during a meeting with his Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib in Beirut on Friday.

Amirabdollahian is on a regional tour following the eruption of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The Iranian foreign minister called Israel’s recent actions in Gaza a war crime and said the recent operation by Hamas was “100% a Palestinian act.”

He said that “the Palestinian operation was a response to the continuous extremism and crimes?of the Zionist regime and the extremist government of this regime against the Palestinian nation and the repeated attacks on the Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

Hamas said 13 Israeli hostages held in Gaza have been killed by “random” Israeli bombings on parts of Gaza over the past 24 hours.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it could not confirm or deny the claim.

Hamas said six of the 13 were killed in the north of Gaza and seven were killed elsewhere in the strip. Hamas did not provide further details on who the hostages were.

Asked about the Hamas statement, IDF chief spokesperson rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said “we have now intelligence looking at that” and that “protecting the kidnapped is the priority.”

“When we have a credible source we will address it,” he added.

Hamas is holding as many as 150 people hostage in Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.

A third Filipino has been confirmed among those killed in Hamas’ brutal attacks on Israel last weekend, the Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo Jose de Vega said Friday.

The victim is a 49-year-old Filipino woman from Negros Occidental province, who was working as a caregiver in Israel, de Vega said.

The first Filipinos to be repatriated from Israel will depart on Monday, de Vega said.

The Philippine Embassy in Amman, the capital of Jordan, updated its figures, saying there are 131 Filipino citizens stuck in Gaza, including three tourists. The previous figure was 137.

“We are working with our diplomatic partners to see if a humanitarian corridor can be allowed for people to exit… through the Rafah border with Egypt,” he added.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has called on the world to help “prevent a humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, stressing there are “no safe areas” to evacuate civilians after Israel told half the population to migrate south.

“We do not have the means to evacuate the sick and the wounded in our hospitals, or the elderly and the disabled. There are no safe areas in the whole of the Gaza Strip.”

The PRCS described the Israeli evacuation order as “shocking and beyond belief.”

The PCRS called on international aid organizations on the ground in Gaza including the International Committee of the Red Cross to intervene with governments to “protect humanity and humanitarian space” and put pressure on “Israel to rescind this order.”

The British Foreign Office updated its travel guidance on Friday, telling its citizens in Gaza to follow the advice from Israeli authorities to relocate south.

Israel’s military on Friday warned all civilians in Gaza City to evacuate “southwards,” as the UN said an order for the mass evacuation of northern Gaza was “impossible” without major humanitarian consequences. Hamas militants told Palestinians living in the besieged Gaza Strip not to leave their homes.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Tel Aviv on Friday, where he is scheduled to meet with his Israeli counterpart and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Photos showed Austin being greeted by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

In a background call with reporters earlier, a senior US official said Austin was looking forward to speaking in depth with Israeli leaders about their operational planning and their objectives for the conflict in response to Hamas’ brutal attack.

As Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes and overwhelm areas, including hospitals, there is little room to go.

Across the Middle East,?Gaza is among the smallest?and most?densely packed urban areas.

Take a look:

Palestinian children wounded in Israeli strikes attend a hospital in Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, on October 12.

Human rights group Amnesty International on Friday urged Israel to “immediately” lift its blockade on Gaza, saying the “collective punishment” of civilians for Hamas’ terrorist atrocities amounts to a war crime.

Israel’s blockade on the densely-populated territory “has plunged the Gaza strip into darkness and will exacerbate an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe,” Amnesty said in a statement.

Amnesty also urged the international community “to work towards an agreement over humanitarian corridors,” in Gaza, where more than 423,000 people have been displaced.

The head of the World Health Organization on Thursday said he has asked Egypt to help transfer medical supplies to neighboring Gaza as the humanitarian crisis in the enclave deepens under Israeli bombardment.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi had agreed to help in transferring medical supplies through the crossing that connects Egypt with southern Gaza.

One way in: Under the Israeli siege, the only corridor through which Palestinians or aid can pass in and out of Gaza is the Rafah Crossing that borders Egypt.

Egypt on Thursday denied reports of the crossing being closed, saying it has however sustained damage due to repeated Israeli airstrikes on the Palestinian side of the border.

CNN could not independently verify whether the crossing is open.

Hamas on Friday told Palestinians living in Gaza not to leave their homes, according to a statement sent to media organizations.

The armed group, which governs the territory, accused Israel of engaging in “psychological warfare” by sending messages that told Palestinian civilians and employees of international organizations to evacuate to the south.

Employees of “international institutions” remained at their posts and were not evacuating, the statement claimed.?CNN has not independently verified the claim.

Israel is maintaining its bombardment of Gaza in response to?Hamas terror attacks that killed more than 1,300 people and has amassed more than?300,000 reservists?along its southern border — but has not confirmed whether it is planning an intensified military operation.

The Israeli military on Friday called on?all civilians in Gaza City?to evacuate “southwards.” The UN has said the order for 1.1 million?people?to leave northern Gaza was “impossible” without major?humanitarian consequences.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) on Friday said it has relocated its central operations center and international staff in Gaza to the south of the besieged enclave.

A UN post painted blue has a warning not to come between it and the Lebanon-Israel border wall on October 12, 2023, in Dhayra, Lebanon.

The silence on Lebanon’s border with Israel is deafening. After five days of near constant crossfire between fighters in Lebanon and Israeli forces, the guns seem to have largely gone quiet.

This remains one of the most important, and dangerous, fault lines in this volatile region. Following the?surprise Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, this frontier — largely calm since the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war — is even more charged with consequence.

Any conflict erupting here could pour fuel on the raging fire of the current Hamas-Israel war by drawing in the most powerful paramilitary group in the Middle East: Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Hezbollah’s political stance has unambiguously supported the Palestinian militants. It has sponsored rallies in support of Palestinian groups and has roundly condemned Israel’s large-scale airstrikes on Gaza.

At least 1,300 people have been killed in the?Hamas attacks on Israel, while more than 1,500 people have been killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza since Saturday.

But it is still unclear whether Hezbollah will actively participate in this conflict. So far, it has adhered to its current rules of engagement and repeatedly stated that it will fire at Israel only when Lebanese territory, or its fighters, are fired upon. It has broadly stuck to that, despite the spiraling wider tensions.

Read the full analysis here.

A UN vehicle moves as the Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) says it relocated its central operations center and international staff to the south of Gaza, amid Israeli strikes, in Gaza City, on October 13, 2023.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has relocated its central operations center and international staff in Gaza to the south of the besieged enclave, according to a statement Friday.

UNWRA will continue its humanitarian operations and provide support to its staff and to Palestinian refugees, it said.

More than two thirds of the 423,000 people displaced in Gaza are taking shelter in schools run by UNWRA, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

UNRWA?said?on Thursday that 12 of its personnel have been killed in Gaza since October 7.

Some context: The Israeli military on Friday called on all civilians in Gaza City to evacuate “southwards.” The UN has said the order for 1.1 million?people?to leave northern Gaza was “impossible” without major humanitarian consequences.

A view of an explosion following a strike by IDF fighter?jets on Hamas targets at a location given as the Gaza Strip, in this screengrab taken from a handout video released on October 13.

The Israel Defense Forces hit 750 military targets in northern Gaza overnight, according to an IDF statement on Friday morning.

The Israeli military on Friday called on all civilians in Gaza City to evacuate “southwards” as it maintains its bombardment of the coastal enclave in response to?Hamas’ terror attacks. The United Nations said the move was “impossible” without causing major humanitarian consequences. ?

Family and friends mourn Danielle, 25, and Noam, 26, an?Israeli couple who were killed in a deadly attack as they attended a festival, as they are buried next to each other at their?funeral?in Kiryat Tivon,?Israel, on October 12.

Atleast 1,300 civilians and soldiers have?been killed in Israel after Hamas launched a surprise attack over the weekend, the Israel Defense Forces said Friday.

In an update, IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus added that more than 3,000 people have been wounded in the terrorist attacks.

In response, Israel is hammering Gaza with airstrikes, hitting hundreds of targets and reducing neighborhoods to rubble.

Palestinians look at the destruction of a house in the aftermath of a strike amid the conflict with Israel in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on October 12, 2023.

The number of people internally displaced in Gaza by the Israel-Hamas war has risen to more than 423,000, the United Nations said Friday — a figure that represents over 20% of the besieged coastal enclave’s population.

The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said more than two thirds of those displaced are taking shelter in schools run by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA).

Human rights organizations have “expressed concerns about incidents where civilians and civilian objects appear to have been directly targeted by Israeli airstrikes,” OCHA added.

The Israeli military on Friday called on all civilians in Gaza City to evacuate “southwards” as it maintains its bombardment of the coastal enclave in response to?Hamas terror attacks that killed more than 1,200 people.

The United Nations warned Thursday that an Israeli military order to evacuate the entire 1.1 million population of northern Gaza to the south of the besieged enclave was “impossible” without causing major humanitarian consequences.

In its statement Friday, the IDF said evacuated civilians will be able to return to Gaza City “only when another announcement permitting it is made.”

“Hamas terrorists are hiding in Gaza City inside tunnels underneath houses and inside buildings populated with innocent Gazan civilians,” the IDF said, claiming that Hamas militants “are using” civilians of Gaza as “human shields.”

Israel has amassed more than?300,000 reservists?along its southern border with Gaza but has not confirmed whether it is planning for an intensified military operation.

It comes as Gaza’s humanitarian crisis deepens amid warnings from UN experts that people are at risk of starvation under Israel’s bombardment.

More than 1,500 people have been killed in?Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry. The airstrikes have also displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

After Hamas attacked Israel on Saturday, Israel responded by ordering a “complete siege,” of Gaza, cutting off food, electricity, fuel and water supplies.

The UN said in a?statement released Thursday?that residents in Gaza “have lived under unlawful blockade for 16 years,” and?condemned this “further tightening”?of the blockade.?

Here’s how Israel is cutting off Gaza:

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, on October 11, 2023.

Donald Trump’s inflammatory and artless comments about Hamas’ horror in Israel emphasize the defining characteristic of his attitude toward foreign policy and his entire political world view: It’s all about him.

Trump criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, lauded Hezbollah militants as “very smart” and sought political gain from the attacks that killed 1,200 people by claiming that if the last election was not “rigged,” he’d be the American president and they’d never have happened.

The ex-president?openly admitted a grievance against Netanyahu, complaining he had pulled out at the last minute from joining the US air attack that assassinated Iranian intelligence chief Qasem Soleimani in Iraq in 2020. Trump had previously fumed over the Israeli leader’s perceived disloyalty in recognizing he lost the election.

Trump is now a private citizen, and it’s possible he wouldn’t have addressed the situation in the same way if he were president — although there were multiple examples of his tone deafness and indiscretion when he was in the White House. But he’s also the 2024 Republican front-runner for president and his statements are therefore scrutinized for clues over how he would behave in office.

His latest comments add to plentiful evidence that a second Trump term would be even more riotous at home and globally disruptive than his first four years in power.

Read the full analysis here.

United Nations Secretary-General?Antonio Guterres sought clarity Thursday night from Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan after Israel issued an order to vacate northern Gaza within 24 hours, a source familiar with the situation tells CNN.

Israel gave the message to the UN team in Gaza just before midnight local time Thursday, which applied to?approximately 1.1 million people, the UN said.?

According to the source, Guterres, in at least two phone calls after, asked for clarity regarding how the order could be carried out after the UN said publicly it was?“impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences.”

In a statement after midnight, Ambassador Erdan called the UN’s response “shameful” and accused the body of “preaching to Israel.”

Israel has amassed more than?300,000 reservists?along its southern border with Gaza but has not confirmed whether it is planning for an intensified military operation.

The UN says an Israeli military order to evacuate the entire 1.1 million population of northern Gaza to the south of the besieged enclave is “impossible” without causing major humanitarian consequences.

Israel has amassed more than?300,000 reservists?along its southern border with Gaza but has not confirmed whether it is planning for an intensified military operation.

Gaza’s humanitarian crisis is deepening with warnings people are at risk of starvation as Israel maintains its bombardment in response to?Hamas terror attacks that killed more than 1,200 people, including at least 27 Americans.

More than 1,500 people have been killed in?Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry. The airstrikes have also displaced 338,000 people, the UN said.

Here’s what else you should know:

Horrors of Hamas’ attack on border communities are emerging, with?children found “butchered”?in a kibbutz, the Israeli military said, and at least 1,200 people killed in Israel.

Meanwhile, Israel is?hammering Gaza with airstrikes, hitting hundreds of targets, reducing neighborhoods to rubble and killing more than 1,500 people, according to Palestinian officials.

Here are the areas impacted by the fighting:

A man reacts outside of a burning collapsed building, following Israeli bombardment, in Gaza City on October 11, 2023.

An Israeli military order to evacuate the entire population of northern Gaza is “impossible” without causing major humanitarian consequences, the United Nations said Thursday.

The Israeli military told the UN just before midnight local time Thursday that “the entire population of Gaza north of Wadi Gaza should relocate to southern Gaza within the next 24 hours,” according to Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN Secretary General.

Israel has amassed more than?300,000 reservists?along its southern border with Gaza but has not confirmed whether it is planning for an intensified military operation.

Meanwhile, Gaza’s humanitarian crisis is deepening with warnings people are at risk of starvation as Israel maintains its siege and bombardment in response to?Hamas terror attacks that killed more than 1,200 people.

More than 1,500 people have been killed in?Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry. The airstrikes have also displaced 338,000 people, the UN said. More than 2 million Palestinians live in the Hamas-run enclave, which has been under a land, sea and air blockade by Israel since 2007.

The Israel Defense Forces on Thursday said it will investigate Hamas’ use of training camps in Gaza after locations?were reported by CNN,?according to?IDF spokesperson?Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus.

A CNN investigation?analyzing two years of Hamas training videos?identified six training camps that the militant organization and its affiliates used to train for Saturday’s attacks.?Two of the camps were discovered less than 2 kilometers (1.24 miles) from the most fortified and patrolled section of the Gaza-Israel border, the Erez Crossing.?

Another camp was found?720 meters — or?less than half a mile — from the border.??

When originally presented with the reporting, Conricus?told CNN?that identified camps were “nothing new,” that Hamas had many training areas and that they had?“struck many training areas over the years in the different rounds of escalation.”

Conricus said the IDF could not answer CNN’s questions “since they relate to the complex analysis of intelligence at the same time that we are fighting a war.”

The footage is from the last two years, but it is chillingly prescient. In a December 2022 video, Hamas fighters can be seen flooding a training area, shooting rockets and capturing pretend prisoners as they surround mock Israeli buildings.

The camp, CNN analysis shows, had just been constructed, and was very close to Erez Crossing, the pedestrian passageway between Gaza and Israel that Hamas fighters ultimately breached last weekend in a?bloody attack?which killed over 1,200 people in Israel.

Another video taken more than a year ago, shows Hamas fighters practicing take-offs, landings and assaults with paragliders — the same unusual assault mode that Hamas deployed with lethal effect in the same October 7 attack.

A CNN investigation has analyzed almost two years of training and propaganda video released by Hamas and its affiliates to reveal the months of preparations that went into last week’s attack, finding that militants trained for the onslaught in at least six sites across Gaza.

Read the investigation here.

Queen Rania al Abdullah of Jordan, who is of Palestinian descent, on Wednesday gave her response to the Israeli-Hamas conflict in a social media post, saying: “It isn’t self-defense if you are an occupying force.”????

Rania posted her message?as an Instagram story,?a format that disappears after 24 hours.?Jordanian state-owned media AlMamlaka TV republished the post.

Included in?the queen’s Instagram story was a post from Palestinian journalist Motaz Azaiza, which shows aerial footage of destruction in Gaza following Israel’s bombardment.

The queen, who has 10 million Instagram followers, also shared a video from the news website “Eye on Palestine,” which appears to show Palestinian children injured following Israeli airstrikes.

CNN has reached out to Rania’s office for comment.

More context:?Israel withdrew its troops from Gaza in 2005, but its blockade on the enclave effectively allows the country to control access to the land, air, and sea of the strip.

The blockade includes tight restrictions on the movement of residents in and out of Gaza and the movement of goods in and out.????

Current conflict: Israel’s?continued airstrikes in Gaza have hit hundreds of targets and neighborhoods, deepening the humanitarian crisis. The Israeli airstrikes are in response to Saturday’s attacks when Hamas members broke through the heavily fortified border fence into Israeli territory.?Hamas gunmen?killed more than 1,200 people, including civilians and soldiers, and also took hostages.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordanian King Abdullah II met on Wednesday to discuss recent events and how to stop the escalation in Gaza, Jordan’s Royal Hashemite Court posted on social media Wednesday.

The two-state solution is a decades-old plan to establish a Palestinian state next to Israel.

This week, thousands took to the streets of Amman, Jordan, in a protest supporting the people of Gaza.??

Palestinians walk amid the rubble of destroyed and damaged building in the heavily bombarded city center of Khan Younis in southern Gaza following overnight Israeli shelling, on October 10, 2023.

More than 338,000 Palestinians have been displaced by the conflict between Israel and Hamas, said Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the United Nations’ secretary-general.

Nearly 218,000 of those are sheltering in 92 schools run by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA), Dujarric said Thursday.

Airstrikes have hit at least 88 education facilities, including 18 UNRWA schools and 70 Palestinian Authority schools, according to the UN. Two of the UNRWA facilities were being used as emergency shelters for displaced people, the UN added.?

UNRWA said 12 of its personnel have been killed since October 7.?

The UN has warned the situation in Gaza is continuing to worsen as humanitarian organizations are unable to bring aid into the sealed-off enclave.

The World Health Organization said hospitals in Gaza are “at a breaking point.”

Earlier Thursday,?the International Committee of the Red Cross warned hospitals in Gaza “risk turning into morgues” as they lose power during Israel’s bombardment. And shortages of food, water and electricity have already been putting extra strain on medical facilities.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said it has plans to work with UNRWA to “reach over 800,000 people across Palestine.” On Wednesday, the WFP said it delivered food to more than 175,000 displaced people across 88 shelters.

Burned out buildings are seen in the aftermath of attacks on Kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel.

South First Responders in Israel said on Thursday it obtained footage from cameras found on the bodies of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants that shows the Saturday morning assault on the Israeli kibbutz Kfar Aza.

CNN geolocated the footage to the kibbutz.?

In one of the videos, militants wearing bulletproof vests and wielding rifles can be seen walking through the community and yelling as gunshots are heard in the background.?

In another video, several militants are seen positioned next to a tree inside the community with a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) that appears to have malfunctioned.?

“What’s wrong with it, what’s the defect?,” a militant says.?

As gunshots are heard, it appears as if militants are entering a home in the background of the video.????

Houses in Kfar Aza were ransacked and set ablaze, CNN has previously reported.?At least 1,200 people have died in Israel since the conflict erupted, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson, said Wednesday.

CNN’s Celine Alkhaldi contributed to this report.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Amman, Jordan, early Friday.

The top US diplomat will meet with?Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordanian King Abdullah II later in the day.?

The intensive shuttle diplomacy comes as the US seeks to stop the conflict between Hamas and Israel from expanding, tries to secure the?release of the hostages, and works with Egypt and Israel to open a?humanitarian corridor?from Gaza.

After Jordan, Blinken will travel to Qatar to meet with senior officials on Friday.

Qatar has been one of the key actors in talks with Hamas to try to secure the release of hostages held by the terrorist group.

An aerial view of buildings destroyed by Israeli air strikes in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in Gaza City on October 11, 2023.

Hamas on Thursday appealed to international relief organizations to provide essential medical and relief supplies to Gaza?as Israel continues airstrikes on the territory.

Gaza’s humanitarian crisis has deepened, with warnings that the population is at risk of starvation and fuel could run out within hours. Israel is withholding essential supplies from the enclave in response to?Hamas’ brutal terror attacks, CNN previously reported.?

The Palestinian Minister of Health Dr. Mai al-Kaila, in a statement on Thursday, “warned of the collapse of healthcare system in the Gaza Strip, as a result of the severe shortage of medical supplies, supplies for operating rooms, medicines, and blood bags.”

The establishment of a full blockade that would include cutting off access to electricity, water, food and other goods “that are indispensable” for the survival of civilians in Gaza, “is unacceptable,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said in a Thursday statement.

Israel “has an obligation to allow for the entry of humanitarian aid and to ensure access to humanitarian assistance for the civilian population in Gaza,” she said, adding that humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza “should be a key priority.”

More than 1,500 people — including 500 children and 267 women — have been killed since Israel started strikes on Gaza following the deadly Hamas attack on Saturday, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. More than 6,600 have been injured, the ministry added.

More than 330,000 people have been displaced in Gaza since Israel began its bombardment of the enclave, according to a statement by the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs early Thursday local time.

More context:?While Hamas — designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union — controls Gaza, Israel has for years?tightly restricted the movement of residents and goods?in and out of the densely populated territory. Now the country is tightening its grip further in response to Hamas’ unprecedented attack.

Children make up “between 30% and 40% of the wounded” in Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza, British-Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Thursday.

Speaking from Al Awda Hospital in Gaza, Abu-Sittah said “the overwhelming majority of the wounded are coming from the rubble of their own home.”

Children and other patients come in with wounds from “the blast, shrapnel, masonry that flies in and damages their bodies, or they are crushed under the rubble of their own home,” the surgeon said.

“As that body — that scarred body — tries to grow in the future, these kids will need surgery after surgery, as we have seen with the kids in Gaza’s previous wars — or in Syria, or in Yemen, or anywhere where children are hurt.”

“This has completely overwhelmed the health system, which was already on its knees at the end of 15 years of siege,” Abu-Sittah said, referring to?Israel’s tight control?over the occupied territory’s flow of goods, and its strict land, sea and air blockade.

“We are down on consumables, on the very material that you need to be able to treat patients,” he said.

Abu-Sittah traveled from London to Gaza on Sunday, saying that “as a Palestinian, I am driven to continuously come back and help my people here who are under continuous attack.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he will meet with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday, following a visit to Israel by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

A senior defense official confirmed to CNN that Austin — who is currently in Brussels for a meeting of NATO defense ministers — would travel to Israel to meet Netanyahu.?The official added that Austin is also expected to meet with the minister of defense, and the Israeli War Cabinet.

Austin would discuss Israeli leaders’ operational planning and the objectives for their response “to Hamas’s brutal ISIS-style attack,” the official said in a background call with reporters.

The official added that Israel has requested “precision-guided munitions” from the US in addition to Iron Dome missile interceptors.

Netanyahu met Blinken in Tel Aviv on Thursday.?

Warning: This post contains graphic descriptions of violence.

Israeli jets continued to pound the densely populated Gaza Strip on Thursday in response to?Hamas’ brutal terror attacks Saturday that left at least 1,200 people dead and thousands of others injured.

It has implemented a “complete siege,” of the Hamas-run enclave, cutting off food, electricity, fuel and water. Humanitarian groups are warning supplies are running low.

More than?1,500 people have been killed?in Israeli strikes on Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

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The United Nations has “unequivocally condemned” attacks on civilians in Israel and Gaza, and also Israel’s “further tightening of the unlawful blockade,” in a?statement released Thursday.

The killings and hostage-taking by Hamas “constitute heinous violations of international law and international crimes, for which there must be urgent accountability,” the statement read.

There is no justification for such violence in Israel or Gaza, the statement said.

The UN also focused on the plight of Palestinians in Gaza.

Independent experts of the UN said they “strongly condemn the horrific crimes committed by Hamas,” including the killing and hostage-taking of innocent civilians. “We also strongly condemn Israel’s indiscriminate military attacks against the already exhausted Palestinian people of Gaza,” the experts said.?

The experts also warned the withholding of essential supplies, such as food, water and medicine, will “precipitate a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where its population is now at inescapable risk of starvation.”

They called for the establishment of humanitarian corridors to allow people to leave Gaza.

The UN urged the international community to “address the root causes of the current conflict, including the 56-year-old occupation and the annexation pursued by Israel.”