The War - UK sending in ships and spy planes

 

Israel orders civilians to evacuate northern Gaza as forces mass on the border. Early Friday local time, the Israeli government broadcast warnings to leave within 24 hours. "The evacuation order, which applies to Gaza City, home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, sparked widespread panic among civilians and aid workers already running from Israeli airstrikes and contending with a total siege of Gaza," the Associated Press reports. 

The order was also widely viewed as a prelude to the first Israeli military ground incursion since 2014. U.N. officials decried the order, saying it would lead to calamity, while Hamas leaders called it a "ploy" and urged civilians to remain in their homes.

Currently: Israel has cut off all food, water and supplies to Gaza, which has lost electricity. Israeli artillery, missiles, and airstrikes continue to pound targets inside the territory, including residential buildings, while Hamas rocket barrages have slackened. The death toll on both sides has passed 3,000 since Hamas forces stormed Israeli towns and opened rocket barrages on Saturday.

The Israeli Air Force has dropped some 6,000 bombs on targets inside Gaza as of mid-Thursday, the service said in a tweet. That's more in seven days than any month in the U.S.-led coalition's fight against ISIS in the 2010s, Wesley Morgan noted on social media.

SecDef Austin: "I know a lot about ISIS, and this is—this is worse than what I saw with ISIS," he said Friday of Hamas' brutal attacks against Israelis.  

 The UK is sending ships and spy planes to the eastern Mediterranean to support Israel and deter regional threats, Sky News reports.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Taliban have thrown their support behind Hamas, according to a pro-Hamas rally held Friday in Kabul.