After warning residents of a northern Gaza neighborhood for half an hour to evacuate, Israel bombed the area and an Orthodox Christian church where others had taken refuge on Friday, signaling that an order to invade Gaza was imminent.
Palestinian officials report a death toll of 3,785, including more than 1,500 children. The United Nations estimates that over a million people have lost their homes.
Israel, still reeling from the worst attack in its history, heaped foreign aid in Gaza, where Palestinians were in desperate need of food and water.
After Hamas began an offensive on Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7, Israel pledged to wipe out the organization.
Israeli airplanes have responded by destroying entire neighborhoods in Gaza ahead of an impending ground invasion.
More than a million of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents have been displaced, according to the United Nations, and the humanitarian situation is deteriorating by the day because the trucks waiting at the border have not been given permission to enter.
According to Ahmed Ali, the head of the Egyptian Red Crescent, “two to three planes of aid a day” are landing at El Arish airport near Gaza, where a correspondent from AFP witnessed medicine, water purifiers, and blankets being unloaded.
UNICEF Gulf spokesman Sara Alzawqari described the situation inside Gaza as “beyond catastrophic.” “Time is running out and the numbers of casualties amongst children are rising.”
The Egyptian government-affiliated Al Qahera News said on Thursday that the Rafah crossing will open on Friday, but later backtracked, saying the roads needed more time to be repaired.
It was described as “a drop in the ocean of need” by the WHO’s emergency director in Geneva after President Joe Biden reached an agreement to allow in 20 trucks. According to Michael Ryan, there has to be 2,000 trucks.
Still reeling from the bloodiest strike in its 75-year history, Israelis were hearing the drumbeat of war as their leaders prepared for a ground offensive.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged frontline troops near Gaza to “fight like lions” and “win with full force” while visiting them in full body armor.
To reassure the tens of thousands of troops ready for the invasion, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant reviewed the front line.
“While you are only familiar with Gaza from a distance at the moment, that will soon change. He predicted “difficult” battles ahead and claimed the order will come soon.
On Friday afternoon, Vice President Biden will make a “urgent” plea for funding from Congress when he addresses the nation from the Oval Office to encourage the United States to lead in backing Israel and Ukraine.
“American leadership is what holds the world together,” Vice President Biden said in his second prime-time address to the nation from the famous Resolute Desk.
While strongly supporting Israel, he brought up the hardship of those in Gaza, adding, “They urgently need food, water, and medicine.”
Biden has returned from a quick trip to Israel in an effort to prevent a larger conflict in the Middle East.
To prevent Iran or Hezbollah, Hamas’s allies, from intervening, the United States has deployed two aircraft carriers to the eastern Mediterranean.
Israel has announced plans to evacuate the city of Kiryat Shmona in the north after days of skirmishes with Hezbollah fighters along the border with Lebanon sparked worries of a wider conflagration.
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt and King Abdullah II of Jordan, both major powers in the Middle East, have expressed concern that the violence could spread and criticized what they called the “collective punishment” of Gazans.
The latest tragic strike, which occurred late Thursday at a church compound in Gaza, has not stopped the two sides from pointing fingers.
The Gazan Ministry of Interior blamed an Israeli airstrike for the deaths and injuries of several civilians seeking refuge in the church.
Many people were injured, and witnesses told AFP that the blow damaged the church’s exterior and triggered the collapse of a nearby building.
While bombing a “command and control centre belonging to a Hamas terrorist,” the Israeli military admitted that they accidentally hit a wall of the church.
We’ve heard there were casualties. A spokeswoman informed AFP that they were looking into the event.
