Updates | Day 7 of the latest Israel-Hamas war

Jerusalem, Oct 13 (AP) Israel's military ordered hundreds of thousands of civilians living in Gaza City to evacuate Friday ahead of a feared Israel ground offensive.
     The directive came on the heels of what the United Nations said was a warning they received from Israel to evacuate 1.1 million people living in northern Gaza within 24 hours.
     Suffering in Gaza has been rising dramatically with Palestinians desperate for food, fuel and medicine and the territory's only power plant shut down for lack of fuel.
     The morgue at Gaza's biggest hospital overflowed as bodies came in faster than relatives could claim them.
     US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin was set to visit on Friday, a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
     The war has claimed at least 2,800 lives on both sides since Hamas launched an incursion on October 7.
     Here's what's happening on Day 7 of the latest Israel-Hamas war:
    
     3 MORE PALESTINIANS WERE KILLED IN THE WEST BANK, DEATH TOLLS RISES TO 39
     As tensions flare in the West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported Friday that two Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli troops in Tulkarem and a third was shot dead in Nablus, bringing the death toll in the territory to 39 since the start of the war.
    
     GERMAN PRESIDENT CALLS FRIDAY A DAY OF FEAR FOR JEWS
     Germany's president has visited a synagogue to show his solidarity on what he called a “day of fear” for Jews.
     President Frank-Walter Steinmeier spoke on Friday at the Fraenkelufer synagogue in Berlin, the first in the city where an official service took place in 1945 after the Holocaust.
     Steinmeier was flanked by community members, including some holding posters depicting people missing in Israel.
     He said that Hamas had called for violence against Jewish communities worldwide on Friday, “and this Friday is a day of fear for German Jews, as well.”
     He added: “So my place today is among you. At this time, I represent our whole nation at the side of our threatened compatriots, at the side of all Jews in Germany.”
    
     WHO SAYS FORCED EVACUATIONS WOULD BE A DEATH SENTENCE FOR SOME HOSPITAL PATIENTS
     The World Health Organisation says the forced evacuation of severely ill or badly injured people from hospitals in northern Gaza would amount to a “death sentence” for some.
     WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told a UN briefing in Geneva on Friday that the two major hospitals in northern Gaza have already exceeded their combined 760-bed capacity, and warned of a shortage of blood in hospital blood banks across Gaza.
     Furthermore, several medications are in short supply, including for diabetes, seizures and asthma, as well as painkillers and dialysis solution.
     In general, “hospital corridors are overflowing. Dead bodies are piling up as there is no more space in morgues,” he said.
     Jasarevic said some patients — many of whom are children — were on life support systems like mechanical ventilators, “so moving those people is a death sentence. Asking health workers to do so is beyond cruel.”
    
     BEDOUIN VILLAGE IN WEST BANK IS LATEST TO EVACUATE
     An entire Bedouin village in the West Bank packed up and evacuated their home Thursday, a leading Palestinian rights group said, amid a wave of violence from Jewish settlers that Palestinian residents say has escalated dramatically since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.
     With the evacuation of Wadi Seeq, six villages in the West Bank have entirely pulled up stakes since 2022.
     Dror Sadot, a spokesperson for the rights group Btselem, said that many more villages are in danger of leaving.
     “The settlers are going crazy and receive active backing from the army, now more than ever before,” said Rabbi Arik Ascherman, the executive director of Torah of Justice, an Israeli human rights nonprofit.
     Ascherman said that in recent days, Jewish settlers from nearby outposts descended from hilltop outposts to brutalise Palestinians in the village, even as they packed up.
     Israeli authorities did not immediately respond to requests to comment.
    
     HEZBOLLAH'S DEPUTY SECRETARY GENERAL REITERATES SUPPORT FOR HAMAS
     Hezbollah's deputy secretary general on Friday said that the Iran-backed militant group will be “on the lookout” following news that the United States and United Kingdom will send military barges to the Mediterranean Sea near Israel in its ongoing war with Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
     Naim Kassim reiterated Hezbollah's support for Hamas, and while the group has clashed with Israeli troops along the border for almost a week, the group has not declared its involvement in the war.
     “Your battleships do not interest us, nor do your statements frighten us,” Kassim said at a rally in a southern suburb in Beirut, Lebanon. “We as Hezbollah … follow the steps of the enemy and have full preparedness. And when the time is right take action, we will do so.”
     Thousands of Hezbollah supporters waving Lebanese, Palestinian and Hezbollah chanted slogans supporting Gaza and “Death to Israel.”
    
     ABBAS SAYS DISPLACEMENT OF PALESTINIANS WOULD AMOUNT TO SECOND NAKBA
     Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is currently in Jordan, emphasized his “complete rejection” of displacing people from Gaza, saying it would amount to a “second Nakba,” or catastrophe.
     That's the term Palestinians use to describe their mass displacement from what is now Israel during the 1948 Mideast war surrounding its creation, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven out.
     The fate of the refugees and their descendants, who now number nearly 6 million and are scattered across the Middle East, is one of the thorniest issues in the conflict.
    
     EGYPTIAN NEWS OUTLET SAYS ISRAELI FORCES ATTACKED ITS CREW
     An Egyptian TV news station said Israeli forces attacked its crew in Jerusalem.
     The state-owned Al-Qahera News, which is close to security agencies, said some Israeli forces pointed their weapons at its crew filming the firing of sound bombs on Palestinians in the holy city.
     The station said Israeli troops forced them to leave the area.
    
     FIRST ROUND OF HUMANITARIAN AID FOR GAZA ARRIVES IN EGYPT, TURKISH GROUP SAYS
     The Turkish Red Crescent said Friday that its first planeload of aid for Gaza had arrived in Egypt.
     The organisation included photographs in a social media post of a cargo plane being unloaded at El Arish airport, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the Gazan border.
    
     TURKEY IS ATTEMPTING TO SEND AID TO GAZA, ERDOGAN'S OFFICE SAYS
     Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that Turkey is attempting to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza and condemned human rights violations against civilians, his office said.
     In a telephone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, Erdogan discussed efforts for peace “that are increasing in intensity day by day,” according to a statement on social media from the Turkish presidency.
     Erdogan told Macron that “especially Western countries should take steps to reduce tension and keep away from efforts that do not serve peace,” the statement added.
    
     ROMANIA CONFIRMS DEATHS OF 2 ROMANIAN-ISRAELI CITIZENS
     Romania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday that two dual Romanian-Israeli citizens have died since Hamas launched its attacks against Israel a week ago.
     The ministry said that the Israeli authorities confirmed the death of the second citizen on Friday, a day after they were reported missing by family members.
     The ministry had confirmed the death of the first person on Monday, and said both of those who have died resided in Israel.
     The ministry sent its condolences to the families of those who lost their lives and expressed its “firm condemnation of terrorism in all its forms.”
    
     CZECH EVACUATION FLIGHTS FROM ISRAEL RETURN 228 CITIZENS HOME
     The Czech Foreign Ministry said Friday the country has completed evacuation flights of its citizens from Israel, which is at war following the Hamas attacks on October 7.
     A total of six flights transported 228 people between the ages of several months to 93 years in what was “one of the most logistically demanding events,” Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said.
     Czech diplomats still remain in Israel, the ministry said.
     The Czech government planes also transported, from Prague to Israel, 73 Israeli nationals who wanted to return home to help their country.
     The Czechs offered the flights to the Israelis at the request of the Israeli side. (AP) FZH

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)