Alert – Israel-Hamas war LIVE: ‘Unprecedented’ Israeli airstrikes rock Gaza, as communications are ‘cut’, IDF calls on civilians to flee south and Hamas demand Palestinians ‘mobilise’

Deborah Brown, a senior technology and human rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the near-total communication blackout in the Gaza Strip is preventing people from ‘communicating with loved ones and accessing life-saving medical and other essential services.’

She added: ‘This information blackout risks providing cover for mass atrocities and contributing to impunity for human rights violations.’

Parisians join New Yorkers and Istanbul natives in protests calling for an immediate ceasefire in the deadliest conflict between Israel and Hamas in decades.

Protesters were seen lighting candles in a vigil held at Place de la Republique in Paris tonight.

The last three weeks of the Israel-Hamas war has been the deadliest period for journalists covering conflict since 1992, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.

At least 29 reporters have been killed in the region since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.

At least 24 were Palestinian, four were Israeli and one was Lebanese, the CPJ said.

It added that it was ‘highly alarmed’ by the communications blackout in Gaza, caused by Israel’s bombardment campaign.

Videos shared publicly to Snapchat reveal the reality of living in Gaza in 2023.

Bright flashes of orange light can be seen as Israeli bombs drop on the enclave.

Michael Lynk, the former UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, told Al Jazeera that Israel’s decision to destroy telecommunication infrastructure in Gaza will make it harder for the outside world to hold it accountable.

‘Cutting off all kinds of communication is going to [make] that much harder to be able to do if power is dwindling and there’s no internet or access to the outside world,’ he said.

‘Keeping the world blinded on what’s happening I’m sure is one purpose.

‘I’m aghast that international political opinion from the West – from Europe and North America – hasn’t turned more decisively against Israel, even before this land invasion’, he added.

Protest groups across the world have demanded that Israel and Hamas agree to a ceasefire.

New York City’s Grand Central Station was overrun with protestors who disrupted the evening rush hour to show solidarity with the people of Gaza.

Over in Turkey, meanwhile, flares were lit and Palestinian flags flew as protesters took to the streets of Istanbul to show their support for Gaza.

Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy refused to confirm whether the IDF’s long-awaited ground invasion has already begun.

He told the BBC: ‘Israel has expanded ground operation in the Gaza Strip, but beyond that, I’m not going to comment on operational matters.’

An IDF spokesperson told the New York Times that Israeli troops are currently fighting in the Gaza Strip

‘Our troops and tanks are inside the Gaza Strip. They’re shooting and they’re operating,’ said Nir Dinar, a military spokesman.

‘But our troops and tanks were inside Gaza yesterday as well,’ he added.

It comes after Hamas revealed it was engaged in fighting in Beit Hanoun and the east of Bureij, in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Pentagon spokesperson Pat Ryder told Al Jazeera that he didn’t want to ‘speculate or get into hypotheticals’ when asked about the wider implications of Israel’s increased bombardment campaign.

We fully understand Israel’s right to defend itself from terrorism. Importantly, in our conversations, we are also making sure that there’s an understanding of the importance of the laws of war and protecting innocent civilians,’ he told the publication.

The executive director of the UN’s children’s fund says th agency has lost contact with its staff in Gaza.

Catherine Russell said in a post on X, formerly Twitter: ‘We have lost touch with our colleagues in Gaza.

‘I’m extremely concerned about their safety and another night of unspeakable horror for one million children in Gaza.

‘All humanitarians and the children and families they serve MUST be protected.’

Both Hamas and the rival Palestinian Authority welcomed a UN General Assembly resolution Friday calling for a humanitarian truce in Gaza, as Israel increased strikes on the territory over the October 7 attacks.

‘We demand its immediate application to allow the entry of fuel and humanitarian aid for civilians,’ read a Hamas statement.

The Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry said that as Israel’s campaign ‘reaches a new peak of brutality’, there was ‘a solid international position rejecting Israel’s unhinged aggression’.

Hamas’ military wing, the Al Qassam Brigades, says it managed to foil an Israeli ground force in the north of the Gaza Strip.

It claims to have ‘foiled an Israeli ground incursion into Beit Hanoun and the east of Bureij’, adding that ‘violent clashes’ are now taking place.

has not been able to verify these claims.

Gilad Erdan, Israel’s envoy to the UN, lashed out at the international community following a vote at the United Nations today, accusing the body of supporting ‘Nazi terrorists’, referring to Hamas.

He said the international body had no legitimacy or relevance, and added that the only way to destroy Hamas was to ‘root them out of their tunnels and destroy their subterranean city of terror.’

He added: ‘This is a dark day for the UN and for mankind.’

Erdan vowed his country would use ‘every means’ in fighting Hamas.

‘Today is a day that will go down as infamy. We have all witnessed that the UN no longer holds even one ounce of legitimacy or relevance.’

Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, condemned Israel’s current position on the rights afforded to Gaza hospitals under international law.

He said: ‘The Israeli army statement on Gaza hospitals raises grave concerns for the safety of patients and medical workers.

‘If accurate, the use of medical facilities by Palestinian armed groups for military operations is alarming and violates the laws of war.

‘But hospitals have special protections that they only lose if being used to “commit acts harmful to the enemy,” and after due warning. Doctors, nurses, and ambulances have to be permitted to do their work and be protected in all circumstances.’

The UN General Assembly has overwhelmingly called for a humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas, amid the deadliest conflict between the two in decades.

The Palestinian death toll passed 7,300 as Israel launched waves of airstrikes in response to the bloody Hamas rampage in southern Israel earlier this month.

Meanwhile, more than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, mostly civilians slain during the initial Hamas attack.

Hamas will pay for its crimes against humanity and Israel is starting its payback, Mark Regev, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told MSNBC in an interview on Friday.

Layla Moran, MP for Oxford West & Abingdon, and the Liberal Democrats’ spokesperson for FCDO & Science, Tech and Innovation, said in a post to X, formerly Twitter: ‘Fresh hell looks to be unleashed tonight.

‘We need to create an international movement for a lasting peace as remote as it may feel. These scenes must never be repeated.’

The MP said in a previous post minutes before: ‘Every night I go to sleep afraid of what new heart-wrenching developments I am going to wake up to. But tonight, I may not be able to sleep at all. Please let me be wrong.’

James Cleverly, the Uk’s Foreign Secretary, said in a post to X, formerly Twitter, tha the ‘UK’s top priority remains the safety of British nationals in Gaza and the region.

‘We support Israel’s right to self defense, in line with [international human rights law], and continue to push for the protection of Palestinian children.’

The UK’s Foreign Office has seemingly expanded its no-travel warnings in Israel, and advised British nationals against all travel from the Gaza Strip, all the way down to the Israeli border crossing with Egypt near Be’er Milka.

Mark Regev, an adviser to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Friday that the Gaza Strip would look ‘very different’ after ‘this is over.’

He told Fox News tonight: ‘We are beefing up the pressure on Hamas. We’re increasing the pressure that they’re under. Our military operations are underway.

‘They will continue to be on the receiving end of our military blows until we have dismantled their military machine and dissolve their political structure in Gaza. When this is over, Gaza will be very different.’

The former head of the British Army General Lord Richard Dannatt said that he is ‘increasingly worried’ by the IDF’s stepped-up bombardment campaign against Gaza.

He told Sky News tonight: ‘It would seem that they’re going to deliver on their word that making some further ground incursion. whether this is the major ground intervention or whether it will be a more limited incursion I think only time will tell.

‘But I think we should be in no doubt at all, that the potential for escalation, the potential for this whole situation in the Middle East to get out of hand, is increasingly worrying.’

The director of the Palestine Red Crescent, Marwan Jilani, told Al Jazeera that it lost contact with its Gazan team two hours ago.

‘We’re extremely worried and concerned for our colleagues,’ he said.

‘Apart from the humanitarian catastrophe that has been happening before the world’s eyes the last few days, we are now facing a total darkness. We don’t know what’s happening.

‘We’re really scared and we’re shaken to the core.’

Jordan’s foreign minister accused Israel of launching its long-anticipated ground war against Gaza, adding that the consequence of this will be a ‘humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions.’

The United States supports a pause in Israeli military operations in Gaza to get humanitarian aid, fuel and electricity to civilians there, White House spokesman John Kirby said on Friday.

Kirby also said that if getting hostages out of Gaza requires a localized temporary pause, then the United States is in support of that.

International charity Oxfam says it is ‘deeply concerned’ with tonight’s developments in Gaza, ‘especially the total loss of communication’ in the Strip.

The NGO called for a ceasefire ‘to protect innocent lives.’

ActionAid, an NGO that works to alleviate poverty across the world, says it is gravely concerned that it has lost contact with its team in Gaza.

The charity said in a statement: ‘We are gravely concerned for their safety and that of all the people of Gaza as signs grow of a major land escalation following almost three weeks of bombardment.

‘We urgently call for the restoration of communication channels, as this is not only a matter of principle but also one of practical necessity.’

Israel’s foreign ministry has blamed a missile and drone attack that hit Egypt earlier today on Houthi rebels from Yemen.

The attack hit two towns near the Red Sea, and left six injured.

‘Israel condemns the harm caused to Egypt’s security forces by the missiles and drones launched by the Houthi terrorist organization with the intention of harming Israel,’ a ministry spokesperson said in a statement.

The ministry has not yet provided any evidence for these claims.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society has revealed that it has lost contact with its operations room in the Gaza Strip.

It said in a statement: ‘We are deeply concerned about the ability of our teams to continue providing their emergency medical services, especially since this disruption affects the central emergency number ‘101’ and hinders the arrival of ambulance vehicles to the wounded and injured.’

Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf wrote today in a post to X, formerly Twitter:

‘Gaza is under intense bombing.

‘Telecommunications have been cut.

‘We can’t get through to our family who have been trapped in this war zone for almost 3 weeks.

‘We can only pray they survive the night.

‘How many more children have to die before the world says enough?’

It comes after he revealed his parents-in-law are currently trapped in Gaza, and have long ‘lost hope.’

Coloner Philip Ingram, a former officer in military intelligence, exclusively told that the IDF cutting off Gaza’s telecommunications may be a sign that a larger ground operation is on the horizon.

He said: ‘I fully expected them to cut off communications, including the internet, whenever they start their ground invasion. The last couple of nights there have been small incursions, where the Israelis have been probing the Hamas defenses.’

‘Tomorrow is only three weeks after the terrorist attacks by Hamas into Israel. It takes quite a long time to build your ground forces up and get them ready.’

‘It could be the start of the much larger Israeli ground offensive operation.’

Hamas called on the world to ‘act immediately’ on Friday to stop Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, as intense strikes pounded the Palestinian territory.

‘We call on the Arab and Muslim countries and the international community to take responsibility and act immediately to stop the crimes and series of massacres against our people,’ Hamas said in a statement.

When asked about a possible deal to release the over 200 hostages being held in Gaza, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari told reporters to ‘disregard rumors,’ claiming Hamas is using psychological terror to win the conflict.

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said: ‘In recent hours we have increased the attacks in Gaza. The air force widely attacks underground targets and terrorist infrastructure, very significantly.

‘In continuation of the offensive activity we carried out in the last few days, the ground forces are expanding the ground activity this evening.’

He added that the IDF was ‘working powerfully in all dimensions’ to achieve its military goals.

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the military’s ground forces are ‘expanding their operations tonight.’

It comes short after several large explosions rocked Gaza City.

Hagari said that the IDF had increased its strikes on the region ‘in a very significant way.’

‘We will continue to strike in Gaza City and around.’

He warned citizens of Gaza city to move south as soon as possible.

Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said at a press conference: ‘We are prepared to fight on all fronts to preserve Israel’s security.’

‘Our ground forces are expanding their ground operations. The IDF is operating at all dimensions.’

Discussing the al-Shifa hospital, which Israel has insisted Hamas is using as its headquarters, he said: ‘We’ve exposed the underground sphere.’

‘We will continue to attack in Gaza and its surroundings,’ he adds, telling citizens they will find ‘better conditions’ further south.

The Palestinian Red Crescent, the main emergency service in Gaza, said it was cut off from its operations room in the strip because of the internet blackout.

It comes after several Palestinian telecoms companies said that internet service has been cut off, following heavy bombing of the Gaza Strip.

Hamas said it has fired a ‘salvo’ of rockets at Israel, following intense bombing of the Gaza Strip.

‘Salvos of rockets in the direction of the occupied territories (Israel) in answer to the massacre of civilians,’ Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said on its Telegram channel.

The Hamas-run government of Palestine said that Israel has ‘cut communications and most of the internet’ across the Gaza Strip.

The government’s media office accused Israel of taking the measure ‘to perpetrate massacres with bloody retaliatory strikes from the air, land and sea,’ as heavy strikes hit northern Gaza.

Internet monitoring firm Netblocks seemingly confirmed the news on X, formerly Twitter, saying that there has been a ‘collapse in connectivity’ in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian telecoms company Jawwal added in a Facebook post that mobile phone service and internet in the Gaza Strip has been cut off due to heavy bombardment.

The United Nations secretary general warned on Friday that Gaza faces ‘an unprecedented avalanche of human suffering’ due to lack of food, water and power during Israeli bombing in response to the Hamas attack.

‘I repeat my call for a humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages, and the delivery of life-saving supplies,’ Antonio Guterres said in a statement.

‘Misery is growing by the minute. Without a fundamental change, the people of Gaza will face an unprecedented avalanche of human suffering.’

Explosions have been seen over Gaza City. The Israeli military told the AFP news agency it is ‘continuously striking in the Gaza Strip.’

It is not currently known what has been hit.

The IDF has warned that Gaza hospitals that are being used ‘terror facilities’ by Hamas may soon lose rights afforded to them under international law.

IDF spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner told Sky News: ‘We’ve been telling people to leave the north of the Gaza Strip, and we’ve made several calls to the al Shifa hospital.

‘Those calls have not been responded to and are not being adhered to.

‘Now we understand why – because Hamas is preventing people from moving, Hamas is limiting their capability.

‘If these actions continue from hospitals under certain conditions, indeed hospitals could lose their protections that they’re entitled to.

• The US Ambassador to the United Nations has declared that the world has reached a ‘perilous moment’ in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
• The Israeli Defence Forces have claimed that Hamas is using Gaza’s largest hospital ‘as a shield for its underground terror complex’.
• Hamas rejected the claims and accused Israel of making the allegations to ‘pave the way for a new massacre to be committed against our people’.
• The United Nations has suggested that war crimes may be being committed by both sides in the war.
• The death toll in Gaza has risen to over 7,300, including over 3,000 children, the Hamas-run health ministry has said.
• Gaza’s healthcare system is facing ‘total collapse’ and infectious diseases ‘are increasing at an alarming rate’, charities have warned.

The US Ambassador to the United Nations has declared that the world has reached a ‘perilous moment’ in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Addressing the UN General Assembly, Linda Thomas-Greenfield stressed: ‘The United States has made clear, in both public and private conversations, that as Israel exercises its right… to defend its people against a terrorist group, it must do so in line with the rules of war.’

Hamas has hit back at the IDF’s claims that it has turned hospitals into ‘operation centres’ to carry out attacks on Israel.

A senior member of the Hamas political bureau, Izzat al-Rishq, said: ‘There’s no basis in truth in what the spokesman of the enemy army stated.’

He accused Israel of making the allegations to ‘pave the way for a new massacre to be committed against our people’.

Israel’s defence minister has said a ground invasion of Gaza would include large forces, backed by airstrikes, and ‘will take a long time.’

Yoav Gallant said it would be followed by a third phase of lower-intensity fighting, as Israel destroys ‘pockets of resistance’.

He spoke after fighter jets and drones carried out a second ground raid into Gaza in as many days, striking the outskirts of Gaza City.

Britain’s Chief Rabbi has said that the level fear in the Jewish community now has not been felt since the end of World War II.

Speaking to ITV News, Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said ‘many thousands on the streets openly supporting Hamas terrorists’ has caused ‘a lot of anxiety’.

Watch his interview here:

Note: The materials shared by the IDF have not been independently verified.

Meta has denied censoring a pro-Palestine Instagram and Facebook page which shares pictures and videos from Gaza.

The @eye.on.palestine account, which had more than six million followers, became unavailable to view earlier this week.

A spokesperson said: ‘We did not disable these accounts because of any content they were sharing.’

They said Meta had been in touch with the account owners and that they were allowed to reactivate, Sky reports.

However, the accounts are still not active.

Omar Shakir from Human Rights Watch told Al Jazeera in response:

The Israeli Defence Forces have claimed that Hamas is using Gaza’s largest hospital ‘as a shield for its underground terror complex’.

Spokesman Daniel Hagari says the IDF has ‘concrete evidence’ to suggest Shifa hospital in Gaza City is a Hamas base of operations.

At a press conference he said ‘hundreds of terrorists flooded in there after their attack on October 7’.

He said it is ‘one of many’ hospitals being used by the terror group and that they chose it to ‘exploit innocent Gazan civilians as human shields’.

‘Hamas’s use of hospitals is systematic. Precisely because they know Israel distinguishes between civilians and terrorists.’

He said Hamas is committing a war crime by using hospitals and that ‘Israel is putting this red flag to the world’.

He reiterated Israel’s call for Gazan civilians to move south in the enclave ‘for their own safety’.

‘For over two weeks, the IDF has called and continued calling the civilians of northern Gaza and Gaza City to move south to Wadi Gaza.’

Qatari-mediated negotiations for the release of over 220 hostages taken by Hamas are advancing, sources have told Al Jazeera.

Medical Aid for Palestinians has warned that the healthcare system in the Gaza Strip is ‘facing total collapse’.

In an update this afternoon, the non-governmental organisation said:

At least 7,326 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes, the Hamas-run health ministry reports.

This figure includes 3,083 children who have lost their lives since October 7, it said.

The IDF has shared footage of a dramatic raid on southern Gaza which it says successfully destroyed Hamas infrastructure.

Watch the footage here:

The United Nations has suggested that war crimes may be being committed by both sides in the war.

Ravina Shamdasani, the spokeswoman for the UN’s human rights office, said:

She added that it was for an independent court of law to qualify whether war crimes had been committed.

• Iran’s deputy foreign minister for political affairs met Hamas representatives in Moscow, Russian state news agency Tass said Friday.
• Iran discussed a ceasefire and providing humanitarian support to Gaza at the meeting, Tass reports.
• Israel’s foreign ministry slammed Russia’s decision to invite Hamas representatives to Moscow as ‘an act of support of terrorism.’
• The Kremlin responded by saying that Moscow believes it is necessary to maintain contact with all parties.

Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said:

• A convoy of 10 aid trucks containing food, water and medicines is reported to have entered Gaza today.
• This would bring the total number of trucks that have entered the enclave since the war began to 84.
• A medical delegation of ten doctors has also made their way into the Palestinian territory, Al Jazeera reports.

More than 1,000 bodies are thought to be trapped under the rubble in Gaza.

The estimate was given by World Health Organisation representative Richard Peeperkorn, who said those beneath buildings struck by Israeli airstrikes had not been identified.

The figure is not included in the death toll of over 7,000 – which has been provided by the Hamas-run health ministry.

The United Nations warned Friday that ‘many more will die’ as a result of Israel’s ongoing siege of the Gaza Strip.

In his speech this morning, commissioner general for UNRWA Philippe Lazzarini said:

• The IDF says it has taken out Midhat Mabasher, the commander of the West Khan Yunis Battalion of Hamas.
• He had been involved in sniping attacks against IDF forces and Israeli settlements, the military said.
• It struck some 250 Hamas targets in the last 24 hours, including a ‘terrorist tunnel network in Gaza that detonated the secondary explosions.’

The IDF has shared more information about its ground raid in Gaza overnight.

‘The raid began yesterday in broad daylight, and all the forces I mentioned participated in it as combat forces, and it ended successfully in the hours of this morning,’ a spokesperson said.

The IDF said that an ‘aerial threat’ had been spotted in the Red Sea region and linked it to a projectile that landed on Egyptian coastal territory.

Egypt’s army spokesperson said that an unidentified drone crashed this morning near a hospital building in the town of Taba, near the Sinai Peninsula border with Israel, injuring six people.

Shortly after, reports emerged via Egyptian media that an ‘unidentified body’ fell near an electricity plant in the resort town of Nuweiba on the Sinai Peninsula – about an hour south of Taba.

A small convoy of around eight aid trucks is expected to enter the Gaza Strip later today, according to the UN agency for Palestine.

‘We have gotten in approximately 74 trucks. We’re expecting another eight or so today,’ Lynn Hastings said.

It comes shortly after the head of UNRWA said that the ‘handful’ of trucks that had passed through the Rafah crossing from Egypt ‘will not reverse the fact that Gaza is being strangled.’

The head of UNRWA, the UN agency operating in Gaza, said 57 of his colleagues have been killed since the war began.

Philippe Lazzarini said that 15 of the agency’s workers had been killed in one day.

‘One of our colleagues two days ago died while he was going to the bakery to get bread. He left six children behind, six displaced children in shelter.’

Hamas needs to locate where all the hostages it kidnapped from Israel are, according to an official.

During a trip to Russia, Abu Hamid told the Kommersant newspaper that the group has always been willing to release civilians, but ‘needs time to find them.’

He said that hostages are being held by various groups in the enclave and that it needs a ceasefire to retrieve and release them.

The chief of the UN agency operating in Gaza has said the small amount of aid being allowed into the enclave is insufficient.

Philippe Lazzarini said that while the trucks being allowed through had initially given a ‘glimmer of hope’, they are now a ‘distraction’.

He said they will not make a difference to the roughly 2 million people in need and that it is ‘not true that the siege is lifted’.

So far, just 74 trucks have been received by the Palestinian Red Crescent via the Rafah border.

‘This will not reverse the fact that Gaza is being strangled,’ Mr Lazzarini said.

• At least 481 people have been killed in Gaza by Israel airstrikes, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
• A total of 7,028 Palestinians have been killed in just three weeks, the authority has said.
• A list of 6,747 of the victims, including their names, ages and gender, has been released.
• It came after Joe Biden sparked outrage by casting doubt on the figures, saying he had ‘no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using.’

Watch footage of the ground raid and aerial strikes here:

Follow along for live updates as the Israel-Palestine war enters its 21st day.

Here is what happened yesterday and overnight: