The United Nations has said is it “impossible” for Palestinians to move to the south of Gaza in the next 24 hours, after citizens were ordered to evacuate by Israel’s military.
Israel’s military issued the evacuation order, in its strongest hint yet that it prepares to launch a ground offensive almost a week after Hamas’s surprise assault.
UN officials in Gaza “were informed by their 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,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement in New York.
“This amounts to approximately 1.1 million people,” he added, or nearly half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population.
Mr Dujarric said the UN “considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences”.
It came after the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said “this evacuation is for your own safety”, but in response, Hamas has called the warning “fake propaganda” and urged Palestinians “not to fall for it”.
The UN has appealed for the order to be rescinded to avoid “what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation”.
Israel ‘strikes Syrian airports’ – follow live conflict updates
Earlier, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told Israel’s prime minister to “protect ordinary Palestinians” as it continues its fightback against Hamas.
The prime minister’s comments come after he pledged to send the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force to the eastern Mediterranean Sea to support Israel following the assault launched by Hamas last weekend.
A Number 10 spokeswoman said Mr Sunak “reiterated that the UK stands side by side with Israel in fighting terror” in his phone call with Benjamin Netanyahu, adding Hamas should “never again be able to perpetrate atrocities against the Israeli people”.
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Smoke billows following Israeli strikes in Gaza
Israel said a total of 1,300 of its people have died since Saturday’s raid as its troops continue to mass along the barbed wire fence ahead of a possible ground offensive on Gaza, with 300,000 reservists called up.
The country is targeting Hamas after the militant group carried out a wave of attacks in Israel as gunmen stormed the border and killed hundreds in their homes as well as 260 others at a music festival.
Meanwhile, at least 500 children and 276 women are among the estimated 1,537 Palestinians who have died with more than 6,000 wounded, the Gaza health ministry has said.
The number of fatalities in Gaza is expected to rise further as Israel’s siege of the territory has left Palestinians with dwindling supplies of food, water, electricity and medicine.
The IDF said it had struck 750 military targets overnight, including underground Hamas “terror tunnels”, military compounds, homes of senior terrorist operatives used as military command centres as well as weapons storage warehouses.
Israeli special forces soldiers also targeted three Hamas operatives who the IDF say were involved in mortar fire from the Gaza Strip.
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Sky News visits massacre site
White phosphorous has been used, human rights group claims
On the ground in Gaza, it has been claimed white phosphorous has been used as a weapon, which can indiscriminately burn people, thermally and chemically.
Human Rights Watch claimed Israel used the chemical in Gaza and Lebanon, verifying footage from 10 and 11 October, respectively, showing multiple airbursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over the Gaza City port and two rural locations along the Israel-Lebanon border.
It said the weapon’s use “violates the international humanitarian law prohibition on putting civilians at unnecessary risk”.
Asked for comment on the allegations, Israel’s military said it was “currently not aware of the use of weapons containing white phosphorous in Gaza”.
Key developments:
• UK navy to send ships and begin surveillance flights over Israel
• Four UK Jewish schools close for safety reasons
• FA criticised over refusal to light up Wembley in Israeli flag colours
• British-Israelis issue plea as families held hostage in Gaza
• Israel says it rescued 250 hostages on day of incursion
• Blinken tells Netanyahu the US will always be by Israel’s side
• Israel reportedly strikes airports in Syria
• Israel says no food or water will be supplied to Gaza until hostages are freed
• Israeli PM says Hamas beheaded soldiers and raped women
A map showing the main border crossings into the Gaza Strip
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Israel-Gaza misinformation
‘This is the equivalent of ten 9/11s’
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on a visit to Israel, where he said the government had showed him photographs and videos of the victims of attacks by Hamas.
He said the images included a baby riddled with bullets, soldiers beheaded, and young people burned alive in their cars or hideaways.
Mr Blinken added: “If you look at [the incursion] in proportion to the size of Israel’s population, this is the equivalent of ten 9/11s.
“That’s how big and how devastating the attack has been.”
Meanwhile, Hamas has said it “firmly denies” reports that its fighters have carried out beheadings as part of its attack on Israel.
Mr Blinken later flew to Amman in Jordan and will move on to Qatar and Saudi Arabia, where he will be “pressing countries to help prevent the conflict from spreading”.
Israeli howitzer fires at the Gaza Strip. Pic: AP
Israeli soldiers entering a tunnel near the Gaza border. File pic: AP
Israel Defence Force troops assemble on border
Troops from the IDF are building up near the Gaza border as an imminent ground invasion is possible – though no political decision on this has yet been announced, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht said.
Israel has also evacuated tens of thousands of residents from nearby communities.
Should the ground offensive go ahead, it would be the first since the 50-day Gaza war in 2014, which left thousands of Palestinians and dozens of IDF troops dead.
There have been protests and demonstrations around the world in the wake of the conflict in the Middle East.
