Civilians in northern Gaza warned to flee within 24 hours

WASHINGTON — Midway through one of the most forceful speeches of his presidency, President Joe Biden noticed a woman in the audience had teared up.

He stopped and looked at Sheila Katz, one of the Jewish leaders gathered at the White House just four days after Hamas terrorists slaughtered more than 1,300 people in Israel, including young children.

“You OK, kiddo?” he asked, pausing behind a lectern he’d been pounding as he described taking his children to see the Nazi death camps.

“I felt really seen by him,” Katz, the CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women, recalled in an interview. “In that moment, to have the president of the country pause his remarks to check in on me was really moving.”

Not everyone at the White House is OK these days. Hamas’ attack has shaken an administration that feels a deep emotional bond with Israel and the Jewish community.

Read the full story here.

Nearly a week after Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, setting off a war as Israel retaliated with airstrikes over the Gaza Strip, the death toll continues to rise above 1,000. Of the victims, 27 have been identified as U.S. citizens.

Among the U.S. citizens slain was a mother protecting her son, an American Israeli soldier, an idealist daughter and a young man who had recently moved to Salt Lake City, where he was active in the Jewish community.

The White House on Thursday confirmed the number of American deaths.

Read the full story here.

The United Nations agency that works for relief for Palestinian refugees says it has moved its operations center and staff members to south Gaza after the Israeli military warned people to evacuate northern Gaza within 24 hours.

The agency, UNRWA, said on X, "We urge the Israeli Authorities to protect all civilians” in its shelters, which include schools.

“These UN schools and all other UN shelters are UN facilities. They must be protected at all times and must never come under attack in accordance with international humanitarian law,” the agency said.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the order to evacuate northern Gaza that was shared by the U.N. and said it included Gaza City, IDF Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said in a video livestream.

He said it was in consideration of noncombatants. “This evacuation is for your own safety,” the warning says, according to Conricus.

The warning says people will be allowed to return to Gaza City only when another announcement is made, he said. 

“The aim here is to minimize the damage to civilians,” he said. He did not announce a ground offensive.

Israel’s leaders have vowed to destroy Hamas after it carried out terrorist attacks in the country that killed at least 1,300 people.

“There are significant combat operations ongoing, and we are preparing for future and the continuance of our combat operations,” Conricus said.

Conricus has previously said that Hamas hides in civilian areas and that airstrikes are against legitimate military targets.

“We are asking them to evacuate so that we will be able continue to strike military targets belonging to Hamas in the Gaza Strip,” he said.

Israel's military has told the United Nations to evacuate northern Gaza within 24 hours, a U.N. official confirmed, in what could be a prelude to a ground assault.

U.N. offices “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,” said Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the U.N. secretary-general.

"This amounts to approximately 1.1 million people” he said in a statement. "The United Nations considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences."

The order also applies to U.N. personnel and people sheltering in U.N. facilities, Dujarric said.

Israel's military has not announced a ground offensive, but 300,000 reservists have been called up and ground forces have been positioned in southern Israel after Hamas terrorist attacks that killed over 1,300 people in Israel.

WASHINGTON — Irate in the wake of a brutal assault by Hamas fighters that has pushed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Joe Biden together, Donald Trump is lashing out with pointed criticism of Netanyahu and his government. 

An adviser to Netanyahu said there had been no outreach by Trump in the wake of the attacks. Instead, Trump has leveled repeated broadsides at the leader of a close U.S. ally in remarks on the campaign trail as he seeks a return to the White House.

Read the full story here.

There are 340,000 displaced Palestinians in Gaza, with 220,000 people sheltering at United Nations schools, the international body said Thursday.

"With no access to provide essential supplies, UN humanitarians warn that Gaza is on the brink of running out of food, water, electricity & critical supplies," the U.N. said on X.

Some schools have been struck, including two run by the U.N. agency for Palestine refugees, known as UNRWA, where people were sheltering, the U.N. said in a statement.

The U.N.'s previous number of displaced Palestinians was 338,934.

Rescuing the hostages held by Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip poses unprecedented and painful choices for Israel, which may have to place a higher priority on a military victory against its adversaries than saving all the hostages, former senior U.S. officials and military officers say.

Israel has a history of daring raids to rescue its citizens or kill its enemies, but the circumstances now are beyond anything the country has faced before. Israel estimates that 150 people are being held prisoner. Any rescue attempt in Gaza would most likely be paired with a major military push to smash Hamas, an operation that could jeopardize the lives of the hostages.

Hamas has threatened to kill a hostage every time Israel bombs civilian targets in Gaza without warning.

“This is not going to be a John Wayne ending,” said a former federal law enforcement official who worked closely with Israel.

Read the full story here.

A surgeon at Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital said she had treated so many injured people — most of them children — that she lost count and thinks it’s only a matter of time before she faces a similar fate. 

The entire medical complex has been turned into a trauma hospital, and it has become home for some who have sought refuge in its halls after their homes were destroyed in Israeli airstrikes, Dr. Sara Al Saqqa said in an interview.

The harrowing scene has been worsened by an Israeli blockade that has barred food, water, electricity and other essentials from entering the densely populated city of 2.3 million people, she said. Half of the Palestinians living in Gaza are younger than 19.

“According to the hospital manager of Shifa today, he said that we are running out of everything in a matter of hours,” Al Saqqa said. “So no one knows how much can we handle.”

Al Saqqa said that among the children treated at Al-Shifa, she had seen head injuries, abdomens punctured by shrapnel and injuries from blunt force trauma and falls. 

“All kinds of injuries,” she said. “It’s insane.”  

For every 20 patients the hospital treats, Al Saqqa estimated, only five may survive — though they still might not make it depending on how extensive or complex their injuries are, she said. 

She described treating two babies, one 8 months old and the other 9 months old, who were pulled from the rubble of a building. 

“They’re anonymous,” she said. No one knows “who they are or what family they are belonging to.”

Al Saqqa described Gaza as a “big huge cage” with a massive population trapped beneath relentless bombs. 

Asked about her safety, she said: “It’s just a matter of time, and it will be our turn soon.”