The media reported the start of a ground operation in Gaza

The Israeli military has killed a key Hamas commander as it continues to launch airstrikes into the besieged area as thousands of Palestinians flee south in preparation for a full-scale ground invasion.

According to the Daily Mail, Murad Abu Murad, the head of Hamas’s air operations, was killed over the past 24 hours when fighter jets struck an operations center, the Israeli military said today.

On Friday, Israel gave 1.1 million civilians in the northern Gaza Strip just 24 hours to flee to the south of the enclave. The UN demanded the move be reversed, saying it could not be met without “devastating humanitarian consequences.”

Families in cars, trucks and donkey carts laden with their belongings crowded the main road leading south from Gaza City. Hamas says 70 people were killed in airstrikes on the convoy of vehicles.

On Friday, Israeli military drones dropped leaflets demanding that all Palestinians, including those in critical condition in hospitals, evacuate the northern half of the strip or risk being drawn into military escalation. On Saturday, the Israelis said Gazans could safely flee along two main roads between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

The IDF then launched its first “localized” raids into the sector, deploying columns of Merkava main battle tanks along with elite troops to hunt down hostages and “clear the area of ​​terrorists and weapons.”

According to the IDF, an undisclosed number of bodies have been recovered and the families of the victims have been informed. An Israeli drone killed several militants who were trying to sneak into Israel from Lebanon, the military added in a statement Saturday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country would “never forget this atrocity” and warned that “this is just the beginning” after the Islamist group’s incursion last Saturday left at least 1,300 Israelis dead.

Horrifying scenes of the massacre of babies and families continue to emerge as Israel continues its ruthless offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has so far killed at least 1,900 people. The UN reports that 1,300 buildings have already been destroyed.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant added that his defense forces would wipe Hamas “from Gaza and from the face of the earth” and “make irreversible changes” in the Strip.

The IDF statement said the military would be “actively active” in Gaza City “in the coming days,” telling Palestinians: “You will only be able to return to Gaza when another statement is made allowing it.”

Hamas ordered local residents to ignore Israeli evacuation orders.

The Israeli strikes, writes the Daily Mail, leveled entire city blocks, and the Gaza Strip was cut off from supplies of food, water and medicine – all while there was a near-total power outage.

“Forget about food, forget about electricity, forget about fuel. The only concern now is whether you will be able to stay alive,” sobs Nebal Farsah, a representative of the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza City.

As the Daily Mail notes, Israel has been accused of violating international law for the sudden order to leave the country, and aid agencies have warned that such an unprecedented evacuation is impossible. The United Nations called on Israel to withdraw the demand and said it would have “devastating humanitarian consequences.”

World leaders have come together to condemn Israel’s hasty evacuation of civilians reeling from a week of almost continuous bombing.

US President Joe Biden, who remains a strong supporter of Israel, called on Israel “not to lose sight of the fact that the vast majority of Palestinians have nothing to do with Hamas and its horrific attacks.” In Russia, writes the Daily Mail, they compared the Israeli blockade of Gaza with the Nazi blockade of Leningrad.

Meanwhile, relatives of Israelis kidnapped in a Hamas attack last weekend asked the United Nations on Friday asking for global help to bring their loved ones home. Speaking via video link from Israel, Yoni Asher told diplomats at an Israeli-sponsored event that he had not slept or eaten since his wife and two young daughters disappeared last Saturday while he was visiting his mother-in-law in the south of the country. Usher said his wife called to tell him they were locked in a safe room after people entered the house and she heard gunshots. He said he later saw video footage of his wife and daughters, not yet 5 and 3 years old, being loaded into a car, and he tracked his wife’s phone to Gaza.

“I don’t know if I have any more tears left,” says the unhappy man. “I’m tired and I just want to speak to someone who can hear me in the international community. Please bring my little girls back.”

Hamas militants took 150 hostages in a surprise attack last Saturday. Alana Zeitchik said half a dozen of her cousins ​​were kidnapped from the kibbutz. As of Friday morning, they were known to be alive, she said. “We don’t want any more bombs, no more rockets, no more blood, no more tears,” said Zeitchik, who lives in New York. “We want our family to return immediately.” And we want peace.”

Hamas demanded the evacuation of a large area of ​​northern Gaza, including the Hamas stronghold of Gaza City. Civilians were ordered to flee to the south of a 25-mile area, effectively forcing the entire population of two million into a tiny area.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Israel has “every right to defend itself” but stressed the safety of civilians must be “paramount in our minds”, joining a number of Western leaders who have called for caution as the situation threatens to deteriorate -under control…

Speaking to the media after talks with allies in Sweden, Rishi Sunak stressed how he had urged his Israeli counterpart during a conversation late on Thursday that any action was necessary to “protect civilians” caught in the crossfire.

There were clashes and panic across the Middle East region on Friday ahead of a possible full-scale offensive on Gaza.

In the West Bank, 11 people were killed in uprisings on a “day of rage” declared by Hamas leaders. Residents of dozens of Israeli villages were repeatedly ordered to hide in bunkers as Palestinian militants fired rockets across the border.

In the north of the country, Iran-backed Hezbollah fired rockets into the Israeli border town of Hanitha, prompting Israel to respond by opening fire on Lebanon.

Senior EU officials and Israeli President Isaac Herzog were forced to seek shelter in secure shelters as air raid sirens sounded across Tel Aviv.

Incredibly, Hamas terrorism suspects are still being found amid a massive security operation in Israel. Sky News, reporting from the scene of the Nova Festival atrocity, saw a man with a knife who it believed was a Hamas fighter who had been in hiding since last Saturday. He was stripped, blindfolded and handcuffed.

As civilians in Gaza gather what belongings they can take with them, international observers are calling on Israel to reconsider its decision to evacuate residents, saying the 24-hour notice is “impossible” to meet.

Both the UN and the World Health Organization urgently called on Israel to lift the evacuation order, saying it would lead to a humanitarian catastrophe whether people are able to escape or not.

“The noose around the civilian population in Gaza is tightening. How are 1.1 million people supposed to cross a densely populated war zone in less than 24 hours?” asked Martin Griffiths, head of the UN aid agency.

More than 80 percent of Gaza’s population relies on humanitarian aid, which the EU said it would “review” earlier this week, and most do not have access to transport.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Gazans have “nowhere to go for safety” and it is “impossible” for them to know which areas “will be attacked next.”

Under a military siege, humanitarian organizations “will not be able to provide assistance to such a massive displacement of people in Gaza.”

Generator-powered rescue vehicles are expected to soon stop working across the sector while doctors work around the clock to save the lives of men, women and children caught up in the conflict.

Ashraf Al-Kidra, spokesman for the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza, explained that Israel’s decision to blockade Gaza under a “total siege” puts “our medical operation in a dangerous position.”

He said without quick action to restore power, hospitals faced a “huge loss of these lives.”

US President Joe Biden, who has repeatedly given strong support to Israel, said resolving the humanitarian crisis in Gaza was a “priority”. “We cannot lose sight of the fact that the vast majority of Palestinians had nothing to do with Hamas and Hamas’ horrific attacks, and they too are suffering as a result,” Biden said during a speech in Philadelphia.

Even Saudi Arabia broke its silence on Friday to call on Israel to relent, condemning the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza and attacks on “defenseless civilians” – its sharpest criticism of Israel since the war began.

Riyadh “reaffirms its categorical opposition to calls for the forced displacement of the Palestinian people from Gaza and its condemnation of the ongoing attacks on defenseless civilians there,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The comments came despite efforts – brokered by US President Joe Biden – to promote normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, a move unfavorable to Hamas.

The Saudi statement came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Riyadh as part of a tour of six Arab countries.

US officials appeared to abandon earlier efforts to allow Gazans to flee to neighboring Egypt, saying they did not meet with widespread support, and are instead pushing the idea of ​​”safe areas” inside Gaza.