Israel-Palestine war: First week ends with over 2,500 Palestinians, 1,400 Israelis killed

The Israeli army has drawn up military plans for the besieged Gaza Strip, and the Palestinian enclave could see territorial changes if Hamas puts up a prolonged resistance to an Israeli ground offensive, a serving Israeli colonel has told Middle East Eye.

Early on Friday, the Israeli military delivered sweeping evacuation orders to almost half of Gaza's 2.3 million people, telling 1.1 million Palestinians to immediately flee south.

Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the UN secretary general, told reporters that UN officials working in Gaza were told by the Israeli army "that the entire population of Gaza north of Wadi Gaza should relocate to southern Gaza within the next 24 hours".

The colonel, speaking to MEE on condition of anonymity, said that the military had devised plans to encircle areas in the north while air strikes pummelled the rest of the enclave.

The Israeli colonel said the army had divided the enclave into several sectors and "determined [which] points and settlements [in the Strip] will be surrounded", adding that "special operations will be carried out at least 25 points in sub-sectors".

Read more: Colonel reveals Gaza attack plan and says fight will be 'hell'

A group of BBC journalists were dragged from their car at gunpoint by Israeli security forces in Tel Aviv.

Members of BBC Arabic - Muhannad Tutunji, Haitham Abudiab and their team - were driving to a hotel when their car was intercepted.

According to the BBC, they were dragged from their vehicle, which was marked "TV" in red tape, before being searched and pushed up against a wall. Tutunji and Abudiab said they had identified themselves to the police as BBC journalists and showed their press cards.

Tutunji added that while attempting to film the incident, his phone was thrown on the ground and he was struck on the neck.

A BBC spokesperson said in response that journalists "must be able to report on the conflict in Israel-Gaza freely".

"One of our BBC News Arabic teams deployed in Tel Aviv, in a vehicle clearly marked as media, was stopped and assaulted last night by Israeli police. Journalists must be able to report on the conflict in Israel-Gaza freely."

Israel has extended the deadline for Al-Awda Hospital in the Gaza Strip to evacuate to 6am, after previously giving just two hours to move its patients.

"The evacuation of patients remains complicated,” updated Doctors Without Borders, in a statement.

“Our staff are still treating patients. MSF unequivocally condemns this action, the continued indiscriminate bloodshed and attacks on health care in Gaza - we are trying to protect our staff and patients.”

Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, the imam of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, is among dozens of Palestinians whose names and locations have been posted in a far-right Israeli Telegram channel calling for them to be killed, Middle East Eye has discovered.

The channel, called Nazi Hunters 2023, describes those targeted – often accompanied by photos with crosshairs over their faces - as “Nazis who are walking around freely and have not yet been eliminated”.

Khaled Zabarqa, the head of Sabri's legal team, told MEE that Sabri was aware of the threat against him, which he said was being incited by "extremist Jewish factions, supported by elements within the Israeli government".

Sabri had contacted the Kingdom of Jordan, the custodian of the holy sites in Jerusalem, and Arab consulates in Jerusalem to update them about the severity of the situation, Zabarqa said.

"This incitement is both transparent and dangerous. For nearly a year Sheikh Ekrima has faced continuous provocation, with these Jewish extremist groups directly inciting his assassination," he said.

Read more: Al-Aqsa imam among Palestinians on Israeli far-right Telegram hit list

Here's the latest death toll from Palestine since Saturday according to the health ministry: 

• In Gaza, 1,900 killed in Israeli air strikes. They include 614 children and 370 women. An additional 7,696 wounded, including 2,000 children and 1,400 women 

• In the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, 50 killed by Israeli soldiers and troops. They include at least six children and one women. An additional 600 wounded

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday said that it’s “simply not possible” to move 1.1 million people from the north to the south of Gaza.

He added that humanitarian law must be respected and upheld.

“Even wars have rules," he said.

Guterres called for an end to the exchange of fire across the Blue Line between Israel and Lebanon, but has not yet called for a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza.

Israeli forces have killed 14 Palestinians, including at least one child, in the occupied West Bank in less than nine hours on Friday.

Palestinians held rallies in solidarity with Gaza in different cities and confronted Israeli troops, who responded with live fire. 

There were also several reports of exchanges of fire between troops and Palestinian fighters in Jenin and Nablus. 

The spike in military violence came as armed settlers launched assaults on Palestinian villages, shooting unarmed residents and wounding at least one person. 

Israeli settlers and soldiers have killed at least 49 Palestinians since Saturday. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that Israel's week-old retaliation for the Hamas assault from Gaza was "only the beginning", though he did not elaborate on what might follow or for how long.

"We are striking our enemies with unprecedented might," Netanyahu said in a brief statement which, unusually, was televised after the Jewish sabbath had begun. "I emphasise that this is only the beginning."

Reuters has confirmed that videographer Issam Abdullah was killed in an air strike in southern Lebanon that also injured a number of other journalists.

In a statement, Reuters said they were "deeply saddened" over Abdullah's killing.

"Issam was part of a Reuters crew in southern Lebanon who was providing a live signal. We are urgently seeking more information, working with authorities in the region and supporting Issam’s family and colleagues," said the Reuters press team.

"Our thoughts are with his family at this terrible time. Reuters journalists Thaer al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh also sustained injuries and are seeking medical care. Our thoughts are with their families at this terrible time."

Israel has given a hospital in northern Gaza two hours to leave as doctors were still treating patients, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said.

"We unequivocally condemn this action, the continued indiscriminate bloodshed and attacks on health care in Gaza," MSF said on X, formally known as Twitter.

"We are trying to protect our staff and patients."

Palestinian news outlet Quds News Network has been removed from Facebook.

Both the Arabic and English pages of the outlet, which has been accused of having links to Hamas, have been removed from the platform.

QNN had previously been suspended from Twitter (now known as X) in 2019, though it was restored in 2021. It was also suspended from TikTok in 2021.

According to local reports, Israel will cut off all internet service in Gaza starting at midnight local time, in nearly three hours from now, the country's telecommunications minister said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin cautioned Israel on Friday against laying siege to Gaza in the same way that Nazi Germany besieged Leningrad, saying a ground offensive there would lead to an "absolutely unacceptable" number of civilian casualties.

Putin said Israel had been subjected to "an attack unprecedented in its cruelty" by Hamas, but was responding with cruel methods of its own.

He said there had been calls even in the United States for a blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on a par with "the siege of Leningrad during World War Two".

"In my view it is unacceptable," Putin told reporters at a summit in Kyrgyzstan. "More than two million people live there. Far from all of them support Hamas by the way, far from all. But all of them have to suffer, including women and children. Of course, it's hard for anyone to agree with this."

His criticism of Israel was made all the more stinging by the reference to the 1941-44 siege of Leningrad and the implied comparison between Israel and Hitler's Germany, with the potential for causing deep offence in Israel.

Putin said, however, that Israel had the right to defend itself.

He was speaking after Israel's military called for all civilians of Gaza City, more than one million people, to relocate south within 24 hours, as it massed tanks for an expected ground invasion in response to Saturday's Hamas attack.

Putin said a ground attack would lead to "serious consequences for all sides".

"And most importantly, the civilian casualties will be absolutely unacceptable. Now the main thing is to stop the bloodshed," he said.

At least 40 people have been killed in an Israeli air strike that hit a truck evacuating people from their homes in northern Gaza.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, 150 people were injured as well in the attack on the Salah al-Din Road which connects the north and south of the Gaza Strip.

The ministry said that 70 people, mostly women and children, had been killed in total by the Israelis in attacks on the road after they ordered residents of northern Gaza to leave their homes, while more than 200 have been injured.

Activists and human rights advocates in Britain have vowed to continue supporting Palestine despite fears that the UK becoming a hostile environment for pro-Palestinian activism.

Over the last few years, British activists have said they have endured a rising uptick in hostility towards pro-Palestine activism, especially as the UK plans to outlaw public bodies from boycotting Israel.

But this week, these concerns have been compounded after UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman ordered police constables to consider whether waving the Palestine flag is illegal and hostile towards Britain’s Jewish community.

Read more: How Britain became a hostile environment for Palestine activism