Israel Directs UN To Evacuate All Of Northern Gaza As Death Toll In Hamas Terror Attack Mounts To 1,300: Highlights

Israel continued air strikes in Gaza as the death toll in the attack by the Palestinian terrorist organisation on Israeli towns on Saturday increased to over 1,200.

Here are the highlights of the developments surrounding Israel-Hamas conflict:

Israeli Air Force strikes Hamas targets in Gaza

The Israeli Air Force said on Friday (13 October) said that it struck five residences operationally used by Hamas terror operatives, including the residence of a "Nukhba" (Naval Commando) operative, a terror operative of the "resistance committee", and an additional Hamas operations residence, where Yahya Sinwar's brother was presumably present, in Gaza.

"IAF fighter jets also struck a Hamas monitoring situation room that monitored and traced IAF activity. As part of the strike, two terror operatives were targeted in the situation room," it said.

Over 2,800 killed, thousands injured on both sides

Hamas’ assault Saturday and smaller attacks since have killed more than 1,300 people in Israel, including 247 soldiers.

Meanwhile, the retaliatory strike by Hamas has killed 1,530 people in Gaza.

Israel reportedly said roughly 1,500 Hamas militants were killed inside Israel, and that hundreds of the dead in Gaza are Hamas members.

Netanyahu's office releases images of infants and toddlers brutally killed by Hamas

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office took the extraordinary step on Thursday of releasing gruesome photos of murdered babies to reporters and the public, seeking to underscore the atrocities carried out by Hamas in its savage rampage through southern Israel on Saturday.

The Times of Israel quoted an Israeli PMO official as saying that the rationale behind sharing such images was simple: “So that the world will see just a fraction of the horrors that Hamas carried out.”

The Israeli PMO said that the photos released were some of what was shown earlier Thursday to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, adding that they are “difficult-to-see images of babies murdered and burned by the monsters of Hamas. Hamas are not human. Hamas is ISIS.”

Israeli military directs evacuations of civilians from northern Gaza

Israel’s military on Friday directed the evacuation of northern Gaza, home to 1.1 million people - about half of the entire territory’s population - within 24 hours, a United Nations spokesman said.

This could signal a ground offensive, though the Israeli military has not yet confirmed such an appeal. On Thursday, it said that although it was preparing, a decision has not yet been made.

The order, delivered to the UN, comes as Israel presses an offensive against Hamas terrorists.