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‘Hundreds of Thousands’ of Gazans Displaced, UN Says: Israel-Hamas War Live News - The New York Times
Israel-Hamas War ‘Hundreds of Thousands’ of Gazans Displaced Over 12 Hours, U.N. Says
"The Israeli military said it would allow Palestinians to move south on two of Gaza’s main roads between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. “without any harm.” Displaced Palestinians struggled to find food or places to shelter as the U.N. warned that clean water in Gaza was running out.
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JerusalemOct. 14, 6:47 p.m.
Israel's retaliatory airstrikes into Gaza extended into an eighth day on Saturday even as the military renewed calls for more than a million Palestinians to leave the northern part of the territory.
Reuters
The Israeli military extended its initial deadline for Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza.
Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times
Palestinian officials say that more than 2,200 people have been killed in Gaza in the past week and that at least 8,714 have been injured.
Yasser Qudih/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Anticipation of a ground invasion has continued to build as troops mass near the Gaza border. Israel has said it aims to strip away the military capabilities of Hamas, after the group launched attacks that killed more than 1,300 people.
Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
A rescue worker searching for casualties after an airstrike in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza. Negotiations have stalled over how to get humanitarian aid to the territory’s residents.
Mohammed Salem/Reuters
More than 400,000 people in Gaza had been displaced even before Israel’s evacuation order, according to the United Nations.
Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters
Collecting water in Khan Younis on Saturday. More than two million people in Gaza are at risk of running out of water, the U.N. says.
Yousef Masoud for The New York Times
Even as officials spoke of a broader offensive, Israel was grappling with the losses from last weekend’s assault by Hamas. On Friday, a funeral was held for Shani Kupervaser, a graduate student killed in the attacks.
Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times
Pinned
Hundreds of thousands of panicked Gazans fleeing south in response to Israeli warningsstruggled to find food and shelteron Saturday in an intensifying humanitarian crisis, with the United Nations saying that nearly half the population had been displaced and water supplies were dwindling.
Two days after the Israeli military first called for more than a million people to leave the northern part of the blockaded territory, anticipation was building that Israeli troops massed near the Gaza border were gearing up for a ground invasion. The Israeli military said on Saturday it would allow Palestinians to move south on two of the Gaza Strip’s main roads between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. “without any harm,” an announcement that some Palestinians took as a deadline.
Pool photo by Jacquelyn Martin
In a catalog of horrors that includes children murdered in their beds as they slept, one account has stood out: An Israeli television correspondent reported that soldiers responding to the scene of Hamas attacks in southern Israel told her they had found “babies — their heads cut off.”
The claim quickly went viral on social media, making its way onto the front pages of several newspapers and was ultimately repeated by President Biden himself — even though Israeli officials have repeatedly said they cannot confirm the reports.
Hamas terrorists trained on paragliders more than a year before last Saturday’s attack.The New York Times; video shared by Al-Qassam Brigades on Telegram
In 2014, and again as recently as May 2021, Israel bombed a key military base in Gaza, clearly seeing it as a threat. But videos and satellite photos show that over the last year and a half, the site significantly expanded and was used by Hamas to train paragliders, part of the first wave of the militant group’s deadly Oct. 7 terror attack.
The open-air base — over a mile wide and covering nearly 400 acres — has existed since at least 2013 and is about five miles from Israel’s border. It includes firing ranges, structures for urban warfare training and a nearly 2,000-foot-long airstrip.
Oct. 14, 2023, 10:41 a.m. ET
Edward Wong
Traveling with Secretary Blinken
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken toured the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi on Saturday evening. The building opened in March and has a church, synagogue and mosque. This visit is clearly aimed at sending a message of religious unity at a time of mass slaughter and war in Israel and Gaza.
Oct. 14, 2023, 11:19 a.m. ET
Edward Wong
Traveling with Secretary Blinken
Blinken signed a triangular tile at the Abrahamic Family House and wrote, “Light in the darkness.”
People gather outside the Rafah border crossing with Egypt in the hope of getting permission to leave Gaza.Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters
American citizens said they were stranded at Gaza’s border with Egypt on Saturday afternoon despite a U.S. official saying earlier that an agreement had been reached to allow them safe passage from the blockaded enclave.
The official said that both Israel and Egypt had agreed to allow Americans to go through the Rafah crossing from Gaza between noon and 5 p.m. local time. But as of 4 p.m., the crossing remained closed, according to two families.
Oct. 14, 2023, 9:40 a.m. ET
Edward Wong
Traveling with Secretary Blinken
U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has landed in Abu Dhabi from Saudi Arabia for meetings with senior officials, his latest stop on a trip across the Middle East.
Oct. 14, 2023, 9:30 a.m. ET
Iyad Abuheweila
Reporting from Cairo
Mohammed Ziara, a 30-year-old painter, was scrambling to leave Gaza City with his wife and two children to head south. "There is no time,” he said by phone with a trembling voice, adding that he hadn't heard that Israel's military said it would allow Palestinians to move south between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. “without any harm” because his internet and electricity were down.
Oct. 14, 2023, 9:22 a.m. ET
Edward Wong
Traveling with Secretary Blinken
U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken called Wang Yi, China’s top foreign policy official, this morning to ask for Bejing’s help ensuring that other actors in the region do not get involved in the Israel-Hamas war, a State Department spokesman told reporters.
Oct. 14, 2023, 9:23 a.m. ET
Edward Wong
Traveling with Secretary Blinken
The spokesman, Matthew Miller, said the hour-long call was “productive” but did not give further details about the conversation, which took place when Blinken was in Riyadh.
Oct. 14, 2023, 9:03 a.m. ET
American Lena Beseiso, 57, is currently waiting at theRafah crossing into Egyptwith her family for safe passage from Gaza. “We were told by the State Department to come and that the crossing would open from 12:00 till 5:00. It’s 3:17 now and still hasn’t been opened yet!,” she said in a text message about 20 minutes ago. She added: "I’m so worried now more than ever before.”
Oct. 14, 2023, 8:52 a.m. ET
Sergey Ponomarev
Reporting from Erez, Israel
Israeli military vehicles massed outside Erez, just north of Gaza's northern border with Israel. Military equipment and personnel have been shifted closer to the border over the past few days, in anticipation of a possible Israeli ground invasion into the blockaded enclave.
Oct. 14, 2023, 8:24 a.m. ET
Aaron Boxerman
Reporting from Jerusalem
Nearly one million people — or close to half of Gaza’s approximately two million residents — have been displaced since the fighting began on Saturday, according to the U.N. agency that aids Palestinians. “In the past 12 hours alone, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced,” the U.N. Relief and Works Agency wrote on the X platform.
Oct. 14, 2023, 7:45 a.m. ET
Megan Specia
Reporting from London
A large rally has begun outside the BBC in central London, as part of a planned ”March for Palestine.” London police have said they are stepping up patrols across the city today, with thousands of officers on the street, and have warned that anyone showing support for Hamas could face arrest.
Oct. 14, 2023, 7:45 a.m. ET
Aaron Boxerman
Reporting from Jerusalem
At least four Israelis were hospitalized after a Palestinian rocket landed in Nirim near the Gaza border, Israeli health officials said. Two were in serious condition, the officials added.
Oct. 14, 2023, 6:40 a.m. ET
Aaron Boxerman
Reporting from Jerusalem
In a WhatsApp message circulated on Saturday morning with foreign embassies and missions in Israel, an Israeli official told diplomats that Israel would enable the exit of “pre-coordinated foreign nationals” via the Rafah crossing through Egypt from 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Egypt has not commented publicly.
Oct. 14, 2023, 6:30 a.m. ET
Edward Wong
Traveling with Secretary Blinken
U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken is meeting Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the Saudi minister of foreign affairs, in Riyadh. “It’s important, I think, that we all condemn the targeting of civilians in any form at any time,” the prince said at the start of their meeting, adding that “the priority now has to be to stop further civilian suffering.”
Oct. 14, 2023, 6:32 a.m. ET
Edward Wong
Traveling with Secretary Blinken
It was a clear reference to concerns over the devastating Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, which have killed more than 2,200 people, according to Palestianian officials. The Saudi government has not explicitly condemned Hamas for its terrorist attack of Oct. 7 that resulted in at least 1,300 deaths, despite strong requests from Mr. Blinken and other American officials to do so.
Oct. 14, 2023, 6:25 a.m. ET
Vivian Nereim
Reporting from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
The American Embassy in Manama, Bahrain, announced that it would close to all personnel for two hours on Saturday because of plans for a demonstration near the facility. Bahrainis have held several protests in recent days to denounce Israel and in support of the Palestinians. The Persian Gulf island nation, home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, established relations with Israel in 2020, but that decision remains unpopular among its people.
Oct. 14, 2023, 6:23 a.m. ET
Raja Abdulrahim
Reporting from Jerusalem
More than two million people are at risk of running out of water in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations warned on Saturday. “It has become a matter of life and death,” said Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general for the United Nations agency that assists Palestinians. People are having to use dirty water from wells, increasing risks of waterborne diseases, the agency said.
Oct. 14, 2023, 6:23 a.m. ET
Raja Abdulrahim
Reporting from Jerusalem
Gaza’s three water desalination plants, which were producing 21 million liters of drinking water a day, have halted operations as a result of the lack of fuel after Israel imposed a "complete siege" on the territory. In addition, Israel cut off the supply of drinking water on Oct. 9, the U.N. said.
The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Tuesday.Said Khatib/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The Israeli and Egyptian governments have agreed to allow American citizens to cross from Gaza into Egypt between noon and 5 p.m. local time on Saturday, a senior State Department official said.
The U.S. government had been speaking with Israeli and Egyptian officials about the prospect of safe passage for American citizens and other foreigners out of Gaza through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt amid a punishing campaign of retaliatory Israeli airstrikes and fears the war with Hamas will escalate.
Palestinians collecting water in Khan Younis, one of the main cities in the southern Gaza Strip, on Friday.Yousef Masoud for The New York Times
Tens of thousands of Palestinianswho fled the northern Gaza Stripafter an Israeli army order to evacuate were struggling on Saturday to find food, water or a place to shelter.
The Israeli army on Friday called for more than one million residents of northern Gaza — about half the population of the territory — to clear out and head to the south of the besieged and densely populated coastal strip in anticipation of a possible ground offensive.
Oct. 14, 2023, 5:36 a.m. ET
Euan Ward
Reporting from Beirut, Lebanon
A funeral procession began on Saturday morning for Issam Abdallah, theReuters journalist killed amid clashes on Lebanon’s southern border. His death has sparked outrage inside the country. Prime Minister Najib Mikati blamed his death on Israel, whose military said it was investigating.
Oct. 14, 2023, 5:34 a.m. ET
Edward Wong
Traveling with Secretary Blinken
Israeli and Egyptian governments have agreed to allow American citizens to cross from Gaza into Egypt between 12 p.m. and 5 p.m. today, a senior State Department official said. The official said he did not know whether other foreign nationals would be able to cross. He added that it was unclear whether Hamas would allow people to cross and that Qatari officials were trying to persuade Hamas not to block Americans from leaving.
Oct. 14, 2023, 5:11 a.m. ET
Aaron Boxerman
Reporting from Jerusalem
Daniel Hagari, Israel’s chief military spokesman, told reporters on Saturday that Israel’s military was gearing up for the main offensive, though he did not elaborate on what such an operation would look like. “We are facing the next stages of the war," he said. "We are preparing the forces, going over the plans, executing trainings.”
Oct. 14, 2023, 5:08 a.m. ET
Aaron Boxerman
Reporting from Jerusalem
At least 2,215 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since the fighting began on Saturday, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said, including 724 children. At least 8,714 Palestinians have been wounded so far, the ministry said.
Israeli Arabs and Jews in August at the beach in Tel Aviv.Moises Saman for The New York Times
Fida Shehada is a member of the City Council of Lod, a town of some 84,000 people, perhaps 30 percent of them Arab citizens of Israel.
And Ms. Shehada, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, is afraid, to put it mildly, of what may come now, after the massacre of Israeli civilians by Hamas. “Everyone is in great distress,” she said. “There is a great fear that there will be a mighty revenge.”
Oct. 14, 2023, 4:56 a.m. ET
Monika Pronczuk
Reporting from London
The Council of Europe, the continent’s main institution governing human rights, condemned “in the strongest possible terms the terrorist crimes of Hamas,” but called on Israel to “remain faithful to our democratic values, to respect the principle of proportionality and to strictly protect civilian populations.” Marija Pejcinovic Buric, the institution’s secretary general, said in a statement: “The necessary response to terrorism by democracies cannot and must not contradict our values.”
Oct. 14, 2023, 4:49 a.m. ET
Aaron Boxerman
Reporting from Jerusalem
The Israeli army says it is investigating the death of Issam Abdullah, a Reuters journalistwho was killed in Lebanonin escalating clashes between Israel and armed groups there. “It’s a tragic thing,” said Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, a military spokesman, adding that the circumstances behind his death remained unclear.
Oct. 14, 2023, 4:53 a.m. ET
Aaron Boxerman
Reporting from Jerusalem
The Israeli military has informed the families of at least 120 Israeli hostages who are being held in Gaza, Hecht said. At least 265 Israeli soldiers have been killed since Saturday’s surprise attack, he said, and Palestinian militants have fired at least 5,500 rockets at Israeli communities
Oct. 14, 2023, 4:17 a.m. ET
Monika Pronczuk
Reporting from London
A plane carrying health supplies from the World Health Organization’s hub in Dubai has landed at Al-Arish airport in Egypt, W.H.O. said in a statement. It added that the supplies will be delivered to Gaza “as soon as humanitarian access through the Rafah crossing is established.”
Oct. 14, 2023, 4:09 a.m. ET
Aaron Boxerman
Reporting from Jerusalem
After a lull overnight, Palestinian rocket fire set off sirens in Israeli cities near the Gaza border on Saturday morning, Israeli authorities said. Four rockets landed in the city of Sderot, but no injuries were immediately reported, the Sderot municipality said in a statement.
Oct. 14, 2023, 3:27 a.m. ET
Patrick Kingsley
Reporting from Jerusalem
Negotiations to send humanitarian aid to Gaza via Egypt have stalled over disagreement and confusion about how the aid convoys might be screened before entering the enclave, according to a senior Western diplomat familiar with the talks. Israel wants the convoys checked for arms, but the sides can’t agree on a mechanism, the diplomat said.
Oct. 14, 2023, 3:20 a.m. ET
Aaron Boxerman
Reporting from Jerusalem
The Israeli military said it would allow Palestinians to move on two of the Gaza Strip’s main roads between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. “without any harm” to comply with Israel’s order to leave the northern half of the coastal enclave. “If you care for yourselves and your loved ones, leave for the south according to our instructions,” Avichay Adraee, an Arabic-language spokesman for the Israeli military,wrote on social media.
Naim Jawad now lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, after fleeing the West Bank with his family a half century ago.Paul Frangipane for The New York Times
Naim Jawad still remembers the Israeli warplanes in the sky that forced his family to leave their West Bank home. He was 5 years old.
“We ran away from death,” he said.
Oct. 13, 2023, 10:33 p.m. ET
Keith Bradsher
Reporting from Beijing
The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said that while it was clear that Israel has a right to defend itself, the country must also follow international humanitarian law. Speaking at a news conference in Beijing after two days of meetings with Chinese officials, he called for an end to the violence, no attacks on civilians and the release of hostages.
Oct. 13, 2023, 10:34 p.m. ET
Keith Bradsher
Reporting from Beijing
Borrell said that not enough shelter is available for more than one million people to move from northern Gaza to the south, as Israel has ordered.
Oct. 13, 2023, 10:34 p.m. ET
Keith Bradsher
Reporting from Beijing
The spiraling violence in Israel and Gaza is threatening the stability of the whole region, Borrell said. He added that China and the European Union agree on the need for a two-state solution but that this is “not a solution for tomorrow.”
The videos, taken from livestream feeds from Reuters and The Associated Press, show heavy clouds of smoke covering Gaza City’s skyline as Israel pounds the blockaded coastal strip.Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images
Reuters and The Associated Press are livestreaming video feeds of the Gaza Strip as thousands of Palestinians race to evacuate the northern region.
The Reuterslivestreamon YouTube of the Gaza skyline has been streaming since Oct. 7, while The A.P.’sfeedstarted on Friday. The feeds now show a darkened sky punctuated by the sounds of sirens and each have a couple thousand people watching them.
Oct. 13, 2023, 5:33 p.m. ET
Yousef Masoud
Reporting from Khan Younis
A Palestinian child wounded in an Israeli airstrike on Friday was rushed to a hospital in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.
Oct. 13, 2023, 5:15 p.m. ET
The Palestinian Ministry of Heath confirmed that some 1,900 Palestinians had been killed in Gaza and an additional 49 in the West Bank since Saturday,according to WAFA, the official Palestinian news agency. The agency said that more than 7,600 people had been injured in Gaza, and more than 950 in the West Bank.
Oct. 13, 2023, 4:51 p.m. ET
Lufthansa and its low-cost carrier Eurowings will suspend flights to Beirut, the Lebanese capital, for several days because of “the current situation in the Middle East,” said Tal Muscal, Lufthansa's director of group communications for the Americas.
Or Gat, left, with Gili Roman, his brother-in-law, in front of what remains of his family’s house at Be’eri Kibbutz in Israel, near Gaza. The house was overrun by Hamas gunmen in a coordinated attack last Saturday.Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
Or Gat returned on Friday to Be’eri, the Israeli kibbutz where he was born and raised, and found a totally different world: homes smashed, cars torched and streets packed with soldiers preparing for the next stage of Israel’s response to the Palestinian assault a week ago.
His mother, Kinneret; his sister, Carmel; and his sister-in-law, Yarden, are still missing, and the younger women are feared to be Hamas captives. His father, Eshel; his brother Alon; and his 3-year-old niece, Gefen, all barely escaped.
Oct. 13, 2023, 4:08 p.m. ET
Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, forcefully pushed back on criticism of Israel, saying, “For years the U.N. has put its head in the sand in the face of Hamas’s terror buildup in Gaza.”
Oct. 13, 2023, 4:07 p.m. ET
Peter Baker
Reporting from Washington
President Biden described a call this morning with family members of 14 unaccounted-for Americans as “gut wrenching,” and vowed to do all he could to find them. The families “are going through agony,” he said. He added: “We’re not going to stop until we bring them home.” Excoriating the Hamas attackers, he said, “These guys make Al Qaeda look pure. They’re pure evil.”
Zakaria and Laila Alarayshi at a wedding last month in Michigan. The Palestinian-American couple are in Gaza and have not been able to find a way home to the United States.Haia Alarayshi
In early October, Yahya Alarayshi’s parents, Zakaria and Laila, traveled from their home in Michigan to Gaza to visit Mr. Alarayshi’s brother and sister and their children, who still live there and whom they hadn’t seen in several years.
Mr. Alarayshi’s parents, who are American citizens, were only supposed to be in Gaza for a month, Mr. Alarayshi, 40, said on Thursday.
Oct. 13, 2023, 3:47 p.m. ET
Peter Baker
Reporting from Washington
President Biden said that the “humanitarian crisis” in Gaza was one of his top priorities and that he was consulting with regional leaders to alleviate it. “We can’t lose sight of the fact that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians had nothing to do with Hamas and these appalling attacks, and they’re suffering as a result as well,” he said in a speech in Philadelphia. But he offered no criticism of Israel’s response to the Hamas attacks, repeating that “the United States stands with Israel.”
An Israeli strike hit a group of journalists who were wearing flak jackets with “press” written on them. A Reuters cameraman was killed and at least six journalists were injured near Lebanon’s southern border.Storyful
A cameraman for the Reuters news service, Issam Abdallah, was killed and six other journalists, from Reuters, Al Jazeera and Agence France-Presse, were injured on Friday night amid escalating clashes on Lebanon’s southern border with Israel."
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