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The French presidency, which considers the tense situation on the border between Lebanon and Israel “very worrying”, calls on Hezbollah and the Lebanese to “imperatively show restraint to avoid opening a second front in the region”, “including the first victim will be Lebanon”, underlined the Elysée during a briefing with the press, this Saturday October 14.
The Elysée also declared that Iran must “refrain from adding to tensions” and “operational support” to Hamas, while specifying “not having specific information” on Tehran’s involvement in the Hamas offensive against Israel on October 7. “Iran has a role to play which can be very negative in the current situation, it can also have a positive role, that is abstention” to “avoid a regional escalation”, indicated the French presidency.
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In Gaza, thousands of Palestinians flee after Israel’s call to evacuate
Thousands of Palestinians are fleeing through the devastated streets of Gaza City, hoping to find refuge further south following an injunction from Israel, which is preparing for a ground offensive in retaliation for the bloody attack launched by the Hamas. In a message in Arabic, the Israeli army asks residents to use evacuation corridors between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. “If you value your life and that of your loved ones, go south as instructed,” the army wrote. “Rest assured that Hamas leaders have taken care of themselves and are sheltering themselves from strikes in the region.” According to a Palestinian account on Telegramthe Israeli army ordered the evacuation of Al-Awda hospital.
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Overnight, the United Nations humanitarian office said it believed tens of thousands of people in Gaza had been evacuated south following Israel’s evacuation warning. Before the evacuation order, more than 400,000 Palestinians were internally displaced, Ocha said. The Israeli military has asked around 1.1 million people in northern Gaza to leave ahead of an expected ground invasion. Hamas urged the population to stay put and defy Israeli military order.
The number of deaths in Gaza continues to increase. The death toll rose to 2,215, including 724 children, the Palestinian Health Ministry of Hamas said this Saturday, October 14, after the increase in Israeli bombings on this Palestinian territory controlled by the Islamist movement. He added that 8,714 people were injured. A previous report showed 1,900 deaths.
Israel and Egypt agree to let Americans out of Gaza
Israel and Egypt have given the green light to let the Americans leave the Gaza Strip this Saturday through the Rafah crossing point, an American official told AFP on condition of anonymity. These two partners of the United States agreed to leave the only crossing point between Gaza and Egypt “open from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.”, said an official accompanying Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Riyadh.
Josep Borrell calls Gaza evacuation order “totally impossible”
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The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, declared this Saturday that an Israeli order to evacuate more than a million people from northern Gaza in a single day was “totally impossible to implement”. “Imagining that we could displace a million people in 24 hours in a situation like that of Gaza can only result in a humanitarian crisis,” he declared during a press conference in Beijing on the last day of his three-day visit to Beijing
At least 120 hostages confirmed in Gaza
The Israeli army confirmed this Saturday morning the presence of at least 120 people held hostage in Gaza by Hamas since the attack last Saturday.
UPDATE: At this time, the IDF can confirm that more than 120 civilians are being held hostage in Gaza by the terrorist organization Hamas. pic.twitter.com/ZXFm9mMujW
— Tsahal (@Tsahal_IDF) October 14, 2023
Furthermore, at least 1,300 Israelis, most of them civilians, have been killed since the attack on Saturday October 7. Around 1,900 Palestinians – most of them civilians – including 614 children, have died in the Gaza Strip, according to local authorities.
More than 1,300 buildings destroyed in Gaza, says UN
More than 1,300 buildings have been completely destroyed in the Gaza Strip, the UN announced this Saturday, after a week of intense bombardment by Israeli forces. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said 5,540 homes “were destroyed”, while almost 3,750 others were so damaged as to be uninhabitable.
Israel: several Hamas members killed during an infiltration attempt from Lebanon
Several “terrorists” were killed this Saturday, October 14, during an infiltration attempt from Lebanon to Israel which was foiled by the army, announced a spokesperson for the Israeli forces. “Soldiers identified a few hours ago a terrorist commando who was trying to enter Israeli territory from Lebanon. A drone targeted this commando and killed several terrorists,” it said in a press release.
A senior military official from the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas was also killed by the Israeli air force. “During an air force operation over the past 24 hours, command bases of the terrorist organization Hamas were hit. During this operation, Mourad Abou Mourad, head of air operations (of Hamas) in “Gaza City, responsible for a large part of the deadly offensive launched on Saturday against Israel, has been liquidated,” according to a military spokesperson.
A leader of the Islamist movement Hamas who led the bloody attack on Israel on October 7 was also killed by the Israeli army, a military spokesperson said on Saturday.
At least 24 Thais killed since the start of the war
The toll of Thais killed in the war between Israel and Hamas has risen to 24, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin announced on Saturday, while the country’s authorities have no news of 16 Thai hostages. “I have been informed that three more people have died, making a total of 24,” the leader told reporters. Two more Thai nationals were injured, the Foreign Ministry said, bringing the total to 16. About 30,000 Thais worked in Israel, mainly as agricultural workers, according to the kingdom’s labor ministry.
Lebanon: a Reuters journalist killed, six others injured, including two from AFP
A Reuters video journalist was killed and six other journalists from AFP, Reuters and Al-Jazeera were injured on Friday while covering the situation in southern Lebanon, the three media outlets said. A group of journalists from different media outlets were near the village of Aalma ech-Chaab, near the Israeli border, when they were caught in cross-border shelling, one of the two injured AFP journalists said.
A Lebanese security source told AFP that the first Israeli bombings followed an attempt by Palestinians to infiltrate Israel from the Lebanese side of the border. “We are deeply saddened to learn that our videographer, Issam Abdallah, was killed,” the Reuters news agency statement said. He was part of a Reuters team in southern Lebanon.
AFP photographer Christina Assi was in the area with fellow AFP video journalist Dylan Collins. Both were taken to Tire Hospital for treatment. Two other Reuters journalists, “Thaer Al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh, were also injured and require medical attention,” Reuters said in its statement, adding that it was “urgently seeking more information.” .
Blinken calls on China to use its “influence” in the Middle East
The American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, called this Saturday on China, Iran’s partner, to use its influence to calm the situation in the Middle East, a week after the bloody and unprecedented attack launched by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas. The head of American diplomacy, who was visiting Saudi Arabia, had a “productive” one-hour call with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller. “He thinks it is in our common interest to prevent the conflict from spreading,” he told journalists accompanying Antony Blinken on the plane from Riyadh to Abu Dhabi. “He felt it would be useful for China to use its influence.”
Lebanese Hezbollah says it targeted Israeli positions
Hezbollah announced it had targeted Israeli positions in a disputed border area, as tensions rise between the Shiite party and Israel. This strike comes after a Reuters journalist was killed on Friday and several others, including two from the AFP, injured, in a shooting attributed to Israel by the Lebanese authorities. In a statement, pro-Iranian Hezbollah said it had attacked “Zionist positions in the occupied Lebanese farms of Chebaa with guided missiles and mortar shells.” The Shiite party added that it had targeted these positions “with precision”. An AFP correspondent near the Chebaa farms reported hearing the sounds of shells and seeing clouds of smoke rising in the area.
