TEL AVIV/GAZA CITY/ RAMALLAH/BEIRUT/ UNITED NATIONS   -  Defying United Nations appeals, Israel Friday said infantry forces and tanks entered the Gaza Strip in “localised raids” in order to clear the area and locate missing Israelis in a likely precursor to a full-scale incursion in response to the weekend Hamas attacks that killed more than 1,300 Israelis.

The United Nations Friday was told that Israel has told 1.1 million residents of northern Gaza to relocate to the south of the territory within 24 hours, a UN spokesperson said, calling for the order to be rescinded on humanitarian grounds.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appeals for Israel to “avert a humanitarian catastrophe,” after the Israeli army ordered more than one million people to evacuate north Gaza.

“The Secretary-General and his team have been working the phones. He’s been in constant contact with Israeli authorities, urging them to avert a humanitarian catastrophe,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric tells reporters.

“I can only tell you what we’ve been told,” Dujarric says when asked about the timeframe. “It is clear to us that the clock is ticking.”

He calls for the order “to be rescinded, avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous. UN officials working in Gaza were informed by the Israeli military “that the entire population of Gaza north of Wadi Gaza should relocate to southern Gaza within the next 24 hours,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN secretary-general said, adding that this amounts to approximately 1.1 million people.

Late Friday, the Israel Defense Forces say it is carrying out “widespread” airstrikes against many Hamas sites across the Gaza Strip. 

At least nine Palestinians were killed Friday by Israeli fire across the occupied West Bank during rallies in solidarity with war-battered Gaza, the Palestinian health ministry said. More than 1,537 Palestinians have been martyred including hundreds of children and over 6,612 injured so far as Israel pounded the Gaza Strip for a seventh day facing a growing humanitarian catastrophe.

At least 44 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank in violence related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since Saturday, according to the health ministry. By Friday afternoon, the ministry reported “nine martyrs by occupation (Israeli) bullets in the West Bank” and some 130 wounded across multiple locations, some critically. At least three of the deaths were in Tulkarm.

‘HOSTAGES KILLED’

Palestinian Health Authority says, explosions from air strikes echo every few minutes in Gaza. In a press statement today, the military wing of Hamas Al-Qassam Brigades said at least 13 hostages captured by Hamas were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza in the past 24 hours. In Gaza, over two hundred thousand people have taken shelter in ninety two United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees schools. Nearly half a million people have lost access to food rations. On the other side, Palestinian fighters in Gaza have continued to fire rockets at Israeli settlements. Israel has called for the immediate relocation of 1.1 million people in Gaza amid its massive bombardment in retaliation for Hamas’s attacks, with the United Nations warning of “devastating” consequences.

‘DRONE ATTACKS ON HEZBOLLAH’

Israel is currently conducting drone attacks on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. “Initial report – An IDF UAV is currently striking targets belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon. Details to follow,” the IDF said in a statement on Friday evening.

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah claimed responsibility for attacks on four Israeli locations in a statement Friday. “In response to the Israeli attacks this Friday afternoon on the vicinity of a number of southern Lebanese towns, the Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance attacked the following Israeli sites: the Al-Abad site, the Miskvam site, the Ramia site, and the Jal Al-Alam site, with direct and appropriate weapons, and all achieved accurate hits,” Hezbollah said in the statement.

At least 13 Israeli and foreign hostages held in the northern Gaza Strip were killed in Israeli air strikes in the past 24 hours, Hamas’s armed wing said Friday. In a surprise assault early Saturday, Hamas militants stormed Israeli communities near the Gaza border and fired barrages of rockets.

Israel says Hamas has taken more than 150 people hostage, including both civilians and security forces. “Thirteen prisoners... including foreigners” were killed in five locations targeted by Israeli fighter jets, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement. Israel has rained air and artillery strikes on the blockaded Gaza Strip -- a densely populated enclave of 2.4 million people -- flattening buildings and killing more than 1,500 people. According to the Hamas media office in Gaza, at least 500 children are among the dead.

‘24 HOUR DEADLINE’

The Israeli military on Friday dropped flyers on Gaza warning residents to flee “immediately” to the south. “Evacuate your homes immediately and go south of Wadi Gaza,” read flyers dropped by drones.

A map featured on the flyers showed an arrow pointing south across a line in the central Gaza Strip. The message signed by the Israeli military ordered residents to “evacuate public shelters in Gaza City”.

Israel’s military admitted Friday it would take time for Palestinians to follow its orders to evacuate north Gaza, but did not confirm a UN report that it had set a 24-hour deadline. “We are trying to provide the time and we are doing a lot of effort, and we understand it won’t take 24 hours,” army spokesman Daniel Hagari told journalists.

“I will not say (if) it’s an accurate time,” he added, when asked to confirm the army had informed UN officials Gazans had 24 hours to flee.

‘DEVASTATING HUMANITARIAN CONSEQUENCES’

The United Nations warned the displacement of 1.1 million residents from northern Gaza could lead to “devastating humanitarian consequences”, while the World Health Organization said it is impossible to evacuate vulnerable patients.

The evacuation order comes as Israel pounds the blockaded Gaza Strip with strikes and Palestinian militants fire rockets towards Israel.

‘SECOND NAKBA’ CATASTROPHE IN GAZA’

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Friday warned against a “second Nakba” catastrophe facing Palestinians after the Israeli army ordered more than one million people to evacuate north Gaza.

Abbas “completely rejects the displacement of our people from the Gaza Strip, because it will be tantamount to a second Nakba for our people,” he said, according to a statement published by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa. 

The Nakba, or “catastrophe”, refers to some 760,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes during the 1948 war that coincided with Israel’s creation. His remarks came after the Israeli military dropped leaflets on the blockaded Gaza Strip warning people to flee from the north, an area home to some 1.1 million people. 

‘HOSPITAL EVACUATIONS ‘IMPOSSIBLE’

Palestinian officials have told WHO that it would be impossible to move vulnerable hospital patients to the southern Gaza Strip, the UN health body said Friday. Israel has give Palestinians 24 hours to leave the northern Gaza Strip ahead of an expected ground offensive in retaliation against Hamas for the deadliest attack in Israeli history.

The two major hospitals in the north of the Gaza Strip had already exceeded their combined 760-bed capacity, “and the hospitals in the south of Gaza are overflowing”, WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva.