Blinken urges Israel to protect Gaza civilians as death toll climbs: Full coverage of the Israel-Hamas war

Royal Caribbean alters 2024 cruise itineraries to skip Israel

The 'Wonder of the Seas' cruise ship of the company Royal Caribbean in Malaga, Spain. (Jon Nazca/Reuters)

Reuters reports:

"Royal Caribbean Group is removing Israel from its 2024 itineraries due to the Israel-Hamas war, according to an email sent to travel agents on Thursday seen by Reuters, making it the second major U.S. cruise operator to alter its plans over the conflict.

The Miami, Florida-based cruise operator is modifying itineraries as late as October 2024 for its Royal Caribbean International unit that stops in Israel, the email said."

On Instagram, Palestinian journalists and digital creators documenting Gaza strikes see surge in followers

Search and rescue operations continue after an Israeli attack on the Maghazi cefugee camp in Deir al Balah, Gaza. (Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images)

NBC News reports:

"Before early October, Motaz Azaiza’s Instagram account documented life in Gaza to about 25,000 followers with a mix of daily life and the ongoing hostilities between Israel and Hamas.

That began to change in the days after Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel and the retaliation on Gaza. Since then, more than 12.5 million people have begun following Azaiza’s feed, which has become a daily chronicle of Israeli strikes.

Many other journalists, digital creators and people active on social media based in the region have seen a similar uptick in followers. Plestia Alaqad, a journalist whose work has been featured by NBC News, has gained more than 2.1 million, according to the social media analytics company Social Blade. Mohammed Aborjela, a digital creator, gained 230,000. Journalist Hind Khoudary drew 273,000 in the last five days of October. Photographer and videographer Ali Jadallah added more than 1.1 million."

'We can't bear this anymore': Gaza journalists break down on air

The Daily Beast reports:

"Salman Al Bashir, a journalist for Palestine TV, gave a heart-breaking on-air report after news broke that his fellow correspondent, Mohammad Abu Hatab, was killed on Thursday along with 11 members of his family in southern Gaza in what the Palestinian Authority-run network deemed an Israeli airstrike.

Abu Hatab, 49, had been reporting from outside Nasser Hospital on Thursday about Israeli airstrikes on neighborhoods in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. He was killed just half an hour later when he returned home, according to his network."

Yahoo News reported earlier this week that more than 30 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the fighting began following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.

Israel says it is 'severing all contact with Gaza'

Israel began sending thousands of Gaza Palestinians, who'd been working in Israel since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, back to the besieged enclave on Friday.

Israel said Thursday that it would proceed with a tax revenue transfer to the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank, but said it would withhold funds set aside for the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian Authority helps cover public sector wages and pays for electricity, Reuters reported.

The government press office said in a post on X, "The Security Cabinet decided today to deduct all funds designated for the Gaza Strip – in addition to the deduction, required by law, of funds paid to terrorists and their families – from Palestinian Authority funds."

In an additional post it said, "Israel is severing all contact with Gaza. There will be no more Palestinian workers from Gaza. Those workers from Gaza who were in Israel on the day of the outbreak of the war will be returned to Gaza."

100 U.S. citizens and family members left Gaza on Thursday, WH says

At least 100 U.S. citizens and their family members left Gaza through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt on Thursday, with another large group of Americans expected to leave Friday, the White House said.

"We continue to be focused on getting as many Americans out as quickly as possible, and we expect more Americans to depart over the next several days. But of course this is a fluid situation," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday.

Jean-Pierre didn't give an estimate as to how many Americans were expected to leave on Friday.

Israeli government urges citizens to reconsider international travel, avoid displaying signs of Jewish or Israeli identity

The Israeli government issued a warning Friday urging its citizens to rethink foreign travel and to exercise heightened caution while traveling abroad in light of a recent increase in antisemitic incidents.

In a video posted to X on Friday, Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy said that the National Security Council and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ “unusual global travel warning” calls on Israeli citizens to “consider whether any foreign travel anywhere in the world is necessary at this dangerous moment” and to postpone scheduled travel to countries with specific warnings, including Middle Eastern states, the North Caucasus, and countries bordering Iran.

“We are also asking citizens, and truly I cannot believe that we are doing this, we are asking all citizens to avoid displaying any outward signs of their Israeli or Jewish identity when traveling anywhere in the world,” Levy said.

Israel claims responsibility for ambulance strike outside Al-Shifa hospital

Palestinians check the damage after a convoy of ambulances was hit at the entrance of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Friday. (Mohammed Al-Masri/Reuters)

Israel has claimed responsibility for an attack outside Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest medical complex, on Friday.

The Hamas-run health ministry said more than a dozen people were killed in the strike.

Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesperson for the health ministry in Gaza, said that the ambulance was in a medical convoy carrying wounded people that was preparing to evacuate to Egypt.

The Israeli military said in a post on X, "A Hamas terrorist cell was identified using an ambulance. In response, an IDF aircraft struck and neutralized the Hamas terrorists, who were operating within the ambulance. We emphasize that this area in Gaza is a war zone. Civilians are repeatedly called upon to evacuate southward for their own safety."

In a separate statement, the IDF said, "A number of Hamas terrorist operatives were killed in the strike. We have information which demonstrates that Hamas' method of operation is to transfer terror operatives and weapons in ambulances.”

Women, children and newborns in Gaza bearing 'brunt' of Israel-Hamas war, U.N. agencies warn

Injured Palestinians, including children, are taken to al-Shifa Hospital following Israeli attacks on the Nasirat refugee camp in Gaza City on Friday. (Doaa Albaz/Anadolu via Getty Images)

In a joint statement released Friday, UNRWA, UNICEF, WHO and UNFPA warned that women, children and newborns in Gaza are "disproportionately bearing the burden of the escalation of hostilities in the occupied Palestinian territory, both as casualties and in reduced access to health services."

According to the agencies, 2,326 women and 3,760 children have been killed in the Gaza Strip as of Nov. 3 since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

"This means that 420 children are killed or injured every day, some of them only a few months old," the statement said. "An immediate humanitarian pause is needed to alleviate the suffering and prevent a desperate situation from becoming catastrophic."

In a worldwide war of words, Russia, China and Iran back Hamas

The New York Times reports:

"The conflict between Israel and Hamas is fast becoming a world war online.

Iran, Russia and, to a lesser degree, China have used state media and the world’s major social networking platforms to support Hamas and undercut Israel, while denigrating Israel’s principal ally, the United States.

Iran’s proxies in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq have also joined the fight online, along with extremist groups, like al-Qaida and the Islamic State, that were previously at odds with Hamas."

Meet the Gaza doctor traveling on a bicycle to deliver medical care

Palestinian doctor Hassan Zain al-Din travels by bike to attend to the wounded in the Gaza Strip, Oct. 29. (Ahmed Zakot/Reuters)

CBS News reports:

"Running out of gas in your car is often a sign to stop, but not for one doctor in Gaza.

Hassan Zain al-Din has been tending to those who have been injured by the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, a mission that he wanted to continue no matter what.

So, he bought a bicycle.

Al-Din said he uses that bike to travel more than 9 miles back and forth between the Chronic Disease Center and to see his patients at United Nations schools and makeshift shelters. In some areas, the rubble from the ongoing war is so bad that al-Din has to walk, carrying the bike as he goes."