Israel-Hamas battle dwell: Gaza counteroffensive ‘just the start’ says Netanyahu as Palestinians flee | Israel

The US state division has despatched emails to diplomats advising them towards making public statements that recommend the US desires to see much less violence amid the continuing bombardment of Gaza, in keeping with a HuffPost report.

Excessive-level officers are not looking for press supplies to incorporate three particular phrases: “de-escalation/ceasefire,” “finish to violence/bloodshed” and “restoring calm”, the report says.

The emails have been despatched hours after Israel issued mass evacuation orders to the a couple of million residents of northern Gaza forward of an anticipated floor invasion of the area.

The BBC mentioned its journalists have been assaulted and held at gunpoint after they have been stopped by Israeli police in Tel Aviv.

Muhannad Tutunji, Haitham Abudiab and the BBC Arabic crew have been driving to a resort after they have been dragged from their automobile – marked “TV” in crimson tape – by police, the company mentioned.

Tutunji and Abudiab mentioned they recognized themselves as BBC journalists and confirmed police their press ID playing cards.

Tutunji mentioned whereas filming the incident, his telephone thrown on the bottom and he was struck on the neck.

A BBC spokesperson mentioned:

One in every of our BBC Information Arabic groups deployed in Tel Aviv, in a car clearly marked as media, was stopped and assaulted final evening by Israeli police. Journalists should have the ability to report on the battle in Israel-Gaza freely.

Rachel Goldberg final noticed her son Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, at 11pm the evening earlier than the assault, when he left the home along with his good friend and a few tenting tools to go to do “one thing enjoyable”. Goldberg was at house in Jerusalem when she woke to the sound of rocket-warning sirens. When she turned on her telephone, she noticed two textual content messages from him that learn “I really like you” and “I’m sorry”.

“I instantly know one thing horrible was taking place,” mentioned Goldberg. Her daughter searched on-line and noticed the information that the Supernova music pageant had come underneath assault. “So we knew instantly the place he was however we couldn’t attain him,” she mentioned.

Within the days since, his mom has tried to piece collectively a few of what occurred. Goldberg-Polin, she mentioned, and three mates had acquired right into a automobile to attempt to escape the bloodbath.

Rockets began falling into the road. It was full chaos. So that they stopped and went right into a roadside bomb shelter. Hamas terrorists got here, threw in hand grenades and spraying it with machine-gun fireplace. A complete horror.

She mentioned her son was attempting to throw the grenades out as quick as they got here in. After a lull, the terrorists got here in and ordered the survivors to face up. Most individuals have been useless; some have been alive however performed useless and a few have been alive however badly wounded. Goldberg-Polin stood up.

“The witness we spoke to mentioned Hersh’s arm beneath the elbow had been blown off, and he’d taken off his shirt to make a tourniquet. He walked out and so they put [him] in a pickup and [he was] taken to the Gaza border,” mentioned Goldberg.

His telephone final pinged at 12.45pm on Saturday on the border. “We all know nothing about him since, besides that he has a crucial wound that wants medical help instantly, if he’s nonetheless alive,” mentioned Goldberg. Requested if she was anxious that Israel’s bombing of Gaza may diminish her son’s probability of survival, Goldberg mentioned she was not considering of that.

“Proper now, there may be such horrible preventing occurring down there, so we’re simply attempting get any assist, readability or reply that we will,” she mentioned. The highest ground of her house is full of households whose kids are preventing.

The nation is at battle. It’s full chaos and pandemonium, and it’s a horrible scenario. I feel this nation’s life is at stake. My husband and I acknowledge that Hersh is an important precedence to us – he’s our world – however there’s a bigger image right here, and we’re attempting to be aware of that.

Hayim Katsman, a twin US-Israeli citizen, was initially thought to have been taken to Gaza however was later discovered killed in his house in Kibbutz Holit. It’s understood that Katsman, 32, shielded a neighbor from Hamas bullets, and that neighbor later saved two kids.

Katsman, whose grandmother fled Nazi Germany and whose grandfather survived the Holocaust, wrote his doctoral thesis on the College of Washington on “Spiritual nationalism in Israel/Palestine”. As a substitute of staying within the US, Katsman moved to the kibbutz, the place he labored as a landscaper.

His mom, Hanna Katsman, who buried her son on Thursday night, mentioned:

He was at all times in a very good temper and actually loved being with folks. It was honorable to me how he did his scholarship however he might additionally overlook about it, hang around and play music.

Katsman was concerned in peace initiatives, together with Mahsom Watch, which screens the impression of presidency exercise on Palestinian lives. His sister, Noy, an activist with the Israeli-Palestinian grassroots group Standing Collectively, informed the Jewish Ahead that her brother’s loss of life shouldn’t be used to justify retribution, a view their mom shared:

She mentioned Hayim wouldn’t have wished his loss of life for use towards harmless folks.

As US officers work to find out the whereabouts of 14 US residents unaccounted for since final Saturday’s lethal Hamas assault on Israel, US households of the useless or lacking are describing their loss.

At the very least 22 People are recognized to have died in final Saturday’s assaults, and officers have mentioned they’re working to find out whether or not these lacking have been killed or taken hostage.

Jonathan Dekel-Chen has not heard from his 35-year-old son since Saturday morning, when Hamas gunmen stormed the Nir Ounceskibbutz. There may be presently no data on the whereabouts of Sagui, a twin Israeli-US citizen from Connecticut.

He’s a loving man, humorous and charming, a deep thinker, a loving son and an attractive father, an imaginative and artistic doer of the issues that get into his head.

Dekel-Chen mentioned he understands that at about 6am the kibbutz was overrun by round 100 Hamas militants. Sagui, he mentioned, hurried to get households into bomb shelters as the lads did their greatest to repel the assault. The Israeli military didn’t arrive till mid-afternoon. Of 400 individuals who lived within the village, 240 have been useless or lacking.

Dekel-Chen mentioned Hamas used stolen autos and tractors to move a dozen folks to Gaza. Some might be tracked on their cellphones however a number of dozen others have merely disappeared. Dekel-Chen mentioned:

Sagui is a kind of folks – he didn’t merely evaporate. We’ve had no phrase from the Israeli or US authorities.

The UN’s secretary common, António Guterres, warned that the scenario in Gaza has reached a “a harmful new low”, and known as for instant humanitarian entry to permit gasoline, meals and water to achieve these in want.

“Even wars have guidelines,” Guterres informed reporters on Friday.

Worldwide humanitarian regulation and human rights regulation should be revered and upheld; civilians should be protected and by no means used as shields.

He mentioned the Israeli army’s evacuation order is “extraordinarily harmful – and in some instances, merely not attainable”.

Guterres appealed to all events “and people with affect over them” to do their utmost to allow humanitarian entry to the besieged Gaza Strip, to launch all hostages instantly and to guard civilians.

His feedback got here because the UN safety council met behind closed doorways on Friday to debate the Israel-Hamas battle.