Israel-Hamas war: List of key events, day 8

Here is the situation on Saturday, October 14, 2023:

Fighting

Israel has warned nearly half of the population of the Gaza Strip to relocate as it plans an assault. Tens of thousands of people in Gaza are estimated to have fled south.  More than one million Palestinians in northern Gaza faced an Israeli deadline to flee south, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had only just begun to retaliate for last week’s Hamas rampage across southern Israel. Israeli ground raids were reported in northern Gaza and the West Bank early on Saturday. An Israeli missile attack on journalists working in southern Lebanon killed a Reuters cameraman and wounded several other journalists, including two Al Jazeera staff. Israel’s military said early on Saturday it had struck a Hezbollah target in southern Lebanon in response to the “infiltration of unidentified aerial objects into Israel”. Human Rights Watch accused Israel of using white phosphorus munitions in its military operations in Gaza and Lebanon. The Israeli military denied it.

Human impact

At least 1,900 Palestinians have been killed and 7,696 wounded in Israeli air attacks on Gaza. The number of people killed in Israel has reached 1,300, with 3,400 wounded. The forced evacuation of thousands of people is under way in northern Gaza, in what is described by human rights observers as a “war crime”. Calls for an escape route for Palestinians from Gaza have been rebuffed by Arab neighbours. “It is important that the (Palestinian) people remain steadfast and present on their land,” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Netanyahu discussed establishing safe areas in Gaza where civilians could relocate to.

Diplomacy and international reaction

The White House said it has not seen any indications that other actors were considering joining and widening the conflict. Saudi Arabia is putting US-backed plans to normalise ties with Israel on ice, sources said, signalling a rapid rethinking of its foreign policy priorities. The International Criminal Court has jurisdiction over potential war crimes carried out by Hamas in Israel and Israelis in the Gaza Strip, even though Israel is not a member state, the ICC’s top prosecutor told Reuters. Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem said the group would not be swayed by calls for it to stay on the sidelines of the conflict, saying the party was “fully ready” to contribute to the fighting. Jordanian riot police forcibly dispersed hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters trying to reach a border zone with the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Republican infighting in the US House of Representatives has left the chamber unable to act to support Israel’s war and pass government spending bills before funding runs out.

Market and business

Hamas’s cash-to-crypto global finance maze is in Israel’s sights, to cut support from charities and friendly nations. As big US corporations kicked off corporate earnings, executives addressed the Israel-Hamas conflict and some companies launched fundraising efforts. Airlines wrestled with the safety risk of evacuation operations.