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The evacuation order, which includes Gaza City, home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, sparked widespread panic among civilians and aid workers already running from Israeli airstrikes and contending with a total siege and a territory-wide blackout.<\/p>\n
\u201cForget about food, forget about electricity, forget about fuel. The only concern now is just if you\u2019ll make it, if you\u2019re going to live,\u201d said Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza City, as she broke into heaving sobs.<\/p>\n
The war has already claimed over 2,800 lives on both sides and sent tensions soaring across the region. Israel has traded fire in recent days with Lebanon\u2019s Hezbollah militant group, sparking fears of an ever wider conflict, though that frontier is currently calm.<\/p>\n
Weekly Muslim prayers brought protests across the Middle East, and tensions ran high in Jerusalem\u2019s Old City. The Islamic endowment that manages a flashpoint holy site in the city, the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, said Israeli authorities were barring all Palestinian men under the age of 50 from entering.<\/p>\n
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Israel has bombarded Gaza round-the-clock since a weekend attack in which Hamas fighters stormed into the country\u2019s south and massacred hundreds, including children in their homes and young people at a music festival. Militants also snatched some 150 people and dragged them into Gaza.<\/p>\n
Hamas said Israel\u2019s airstrikes killed 13 of the hostages in the past day. It said the dead included foreigners but did not give their nationalities.<\/p>\n
Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari denied that, telling Al-Jazeera Arabic that \u201cwe have our own information and do not believe the lies of Hamas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Israel said Thursday it would allow no supplies into Gaza until Hamas frees the hostages.<\/p>\n
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Don’t miss… <\/strong> The military urged civilians in Gaza\u2019s north to move south \u2014 an order that the U.N. said affects 1.1 million people. If carried out, that would mean the territory\u2019s entire population cramming into roughly the southern half of the strip, which is only 40 kilometers (25 miles) long, even as Israeli strikes continued Friday to hammer neighborhoods across southern Gaza.<\/p>\n Israel said it needed to target Hamas\u2019 military infrastructure, much of which is buried deep underground. Another spokesperson, Jonathan Conricus, said the military would take \u201cextensive efforts to avoid harming civilians\u201d and that residents would be allowed to return when the war is over.<\/p>\n Hamas militants operate in civilian areas, where Israel has long accused them of using Palestinians as human shields. A mass evacuation of civilians, if carried out, would leave their fighters exposed as never before.<\/p>\n But U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said it would be impossible to stage such an evacuation without \u201cdevastating humanitarian consequences\u201d. He called on Israel to rescind any such orders, saying they could \u201ctransform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation”.<\/p>\n
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