World News | Updates | Israel Strikes Southern Gaza as Palestinians Brace for a Ground Invasion

Jerusalem, Oct 20 (AP) Israeli airstrikes are hitting southern Gaza, an area swelled by civilians who fled there from the north on Israeli instructions.

Meanwhile, Israel began evacuating a sizable town near the Lebanese border in the latest sign of a potential ground invasion of Gaza that could trigger regional turmoil.

Also Read | As Israel-Hamas War Rages, Israeli Citizens Can Now Travel to US Without Visa for 90 Days.

Palestinians in Gaza reported heavy airstrikes in the southern city of Khan Younis, where civilians had been told to seek safety amid Israel's bombardment of areas closer to the Israeli border.

Ambulances streamed into Gaza's second-largest hospital, already overflowing with patients and people seeking shelter.

Also Read | Hamas Militants Were High on Captagon Drug When They Launched Unprecedented Attack on Israel on October 7, Claims Report.

The UN secretary general is at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza seeking to find a way to get badly needed aid into the enclave.

The war, which is in its 14th day on Friday, is the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Thursday that 4,137 Palestinians have been killed and more than 13,000 others wounded.

More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, mostly in the initial attack on October 7 when Hamas militants stormed into Israel.

In addition, 203 people were believed captured by Hamas during the incursion and taken into Gaza, the Israeli military has said.

Currently:

1. US President Joe Biden meets with European leaders to assure them the US can deliver wartime aid to Ukraine and Israel.

2. In Nir Oz, a quarter of the residents are dead or missing after the Hamas attack

3. The current crisis in the Middle East has the potential to disrupt global oil supplies and push prices higher.

4. Egypt and other Arab countries typically don't want to take in Palestinian refugees.

Here's what's happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war:

SATELLITE IMAGES SHOW IMPACT OF AIRSTRIKES ON GAZA

UNDATED — The misery of life in Gaza can be seen from space.

The destruction and impact from Israeli airstrikes in retaliation for the October 7 attack by Hamas militants is visible in satellite imagery of blocks levelled by missiles and smoke rising over the blast zones — and also in more subtle photos.

Images by Maxar Technologies showed people sheltering in the courtyards at two schools in Gaza City and one in Deir al Balah on Thursday.

A tractor appeared to be overturning fresh soil to make way for new graves as the Marzouq Street cemetery expands in Gaza City.

An overview of Shifa Hospital showed where tents were set up in what used to be a grassy, tree-covered area next to the hospital.

Some hospitals have set up tents to treat the wounded and temporarily house the dead.

Along a stretch of road near the beach, a series of round craters marked the spots where airstrikes hit the dirt and didn't flatten homes.

GAZA HOSPITAL STRUGGLES TO FUNCTION WITH DWINDLING POWER

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The director of Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest, says generators in the hospital are operating at the lowest setting to provide power to vital departments that cannot function without electricity, while others work in darkness.

The hospital is prioritising intensive care, nursery, dialysis, oxygen generation, obstetrics and gynecology, heart care and the blood bank, Mohammed Abu Selmia said.

“I don't know how long it will last. Every day we evaluate the situation,” he said.

The numbers of wounded coming to the hospital is so high it's difficult to identify them, he said. Water is scarce, and patients with chronic diseases and cancer are suffering.

Asked what medical supplies were needed most, he said all medicines related to emergency care, intensive care and operations, obstetrics and gynecology and dialysis medications.

Doctors can't treat patients without these supplies, he said. “We cannot function without it.”

AID GROUP CARITAS SAYS A LOCAL EMPLOYEE KILLED IN GAZA

BERLIN – Aid organisation Caritas International says a local employee was killed in an explosion at a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza, where she and her family had sought shelter.

Caritas didn't release the name of the woman, an employee of Caritas Jerusalem. It said in a statement Friday that she, her family and four other Caritas employees had sought shelter on the grounds of the Church of Saint Porphyrios.

Palestinian authorities blamed the blast late Thursday on an Israeli airstrike, a claim that couldn't be independently verified.

NO PLANS FOR ISRAEL TO CONTROL LIFE IN GAZA, MINISTER SAYS

JERUSALEM — Israel's defence minister said Friday that after the country destroys the Hamas militant group, the military does not plan to control “life in the Gaza Strip”

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant's comments to lawmakers were the first time an Israeli leader discussed its long-term plans for Gaza.

Gallant said Israel expected there to be three phases to its war with Hamas. He said it first would attack the group in Gaza with airstrikes and ground maneuvers, then it would defeat pockets of resistance and finally it would cease its “responsibility for life in the Gaza Strip.”

UN SECRETARY-GENERAL ARRIVES AT RAFAH CROSSING

CAIRO — UN Secretary-General António Guterres arrived at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip on Friday and called on all international parties to work together to ensure humanitarian aid reaches Palestinians in besieged Gaza

Speaking to the media in front of the border crossing, he said the lorries packed with vital aid were a “lifeline” for Palestinians in Gaza, “the difference between life and death,” and needed to be moved into the enclave as quickly as possible.

Guterres pointed out that the deal reached between Egypt and Israel to allow aid to flow into the Gaza Strip has some conditions and restrictions.

“We are actively engaging with Egypt, Israel and the United States in order to make sure that we can clarify those conditions and limit those restrictions in order to have these trucks headed to where they are needed,” he said. He did not provide a timeframe as to when the trucks of aid would enter Gaza.

The UN chief also reiterated his call for a cease-fire between the warring parties. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)