What to know on the seventh day of the latest Israel-Hamas war

Jerusalem: Israel's military ordered hundreds of thousands of civilians living in Gaza City to evacuate Friday ahead of a feared Israel ground offensive. The directive came on the heels of what the United Nations said was a warning they received from Israel to evacuate 1.1 million people living in northern Gaza within 24 hours.

Suffering in Gaza has been rising dramatically with Palestinians desperate for food, fuel and medicine and the territory's only power plant shut down for lack of fuel. The morgue at Gaza's biggest hospital overflowed as bodies came in faster than relatives could claim them.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was set to visit on Friday, a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The war has claimed at least 2,800 lives on both sides since Hamas launched an incursion on Oct. 7.

Here's what's happening on Day 7 of the latest Israel-Hamas war:

Blinken seeks diplomacy in talks with Palestinian President and Jordanian King

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has opened a second day of frantic Mideast diplomacy, seeking to avert an expanded regional conflict while pledging full support for Israel as it steps up its war with Hamas and prepares for an expected ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.

A day after visiting Israel to offer the backing of President Joe Biden's administration, Blinken was in Jordan on Friday for talks with Jordanian King Abdullah II and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has a home in the Jordanian capital of Amman.

Later Friday, Blinken is to fly to Doha for meetings with Qatari officials who have close contacts with the Hamas leadership and have been exploring an exchange of Palestinian prisoners in Israel for the release of dozens of Israelis and foreigners taken hostage by Hamas during surprise attacks in southern Israel the previous weekend. Blinken will end the day in Saudi Arabia, the most important player in the Arab world that has been considering normalizing ties a U.S.-mediated process that is now on hold.

Blinken's message has been to reassure Israel that America stands with it, to urge neighbouring countries like Iran and Syria and anti-Israel groups like Lebanon's Hezbollah movement not to enter the conflict. He is also seeking Arab help in trying to convince Hamas to release the hostages it is now holding.

Philippine National Security adviser pushes to designate Hamas as a terrorist group

A top Philippine national security official said Friday he would push for the designation of the Hamas militant group as a terrorist organization under his country's anti-terrorism law for its "barbaric terrorist assault" on Israel which killed hundreds of people, including at least three Filipinos.

National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano said blacklisting the Hamas as a terrorist organization would be a Philippine expression of "solidarity with the people of Israel."

Such a designation, which has to be approved by the government's Anti-Terrorism Council, would allow Filipino authorities to temporarily freeze financial and other assets, if any, of Hamas and its supporters to prevent acts of terrorism.

The U.S. State Department designated Hamas, has vowed to annihilate Israel, a terrorist group in 1997. The European Union and other Western countries also consider it a terrorist organisation.

Gaza awakes to chaos under an evacuation order that some are calling impossible

Residents in northern Gaza awoke to panic Friday after its 1.1 million residents, including hundreds of thousands in Gaza City, were ordered to evacuate south.

"This is chaos, no one understands what to do," said Inas Hamdan, an officer at the United Nations' Palestinian refugee agency in Gaza City while she grabbed whatever she could throw into her bags amid the panicked shouts of her relatives. She said all the U.N. staff in Gaza City and northern Gaza had been told to evacuate south to Rafah.

"Forget about food, forget about electricity, forget about fuel, the only concern now is just if you'll make it, if you're going to live," Nebal Farsakh, spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza City said, breaking into heaving sobs. She said there was no possible way that 1.2 million people could be safely evacuated.

Imad Abu Alaa, U.N. Palestinian refugee agency officer in charge of shelters in northern Gaza, echoed that there were too many people to evacuate on too short of notice for it to work. "What about U.N. shelters? We're talking about civilians. Suddenly that doesn't even matter?" he said.

Farsakh said there are hospital patients who cannot be moved under the current conditions, and many of the medics were refusing to leave and abandon their patients. Instead, she said, they called their colleagues to say goodbye.

Veteran politician accuses Israel of trying to drive Palestinians into Egypt

Half an hour after a massive evacuation order was called in Gaza, veteran Egyptian politician Mustafa Bakri accused Israel of trying to drive Palestinians into Egypt.

"It seems that this warning foretells the imminent ground aggression and forced displacement of the people of the Gaza Strip towards the border with Egypt, so that they can eliminate the dream of establishing a Palestinian state," Bakri said on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

Cash-strapped Egypt fears a mass influx of migrants on its eastern border. It has called for international aid to be funnelled through its Rafah crossing with Gaza.

Israel ordered 1.1 million people in Northern Haza to evacuate, UN says

Israel's military on Friday ordered the evacuation of northern Gaza, a region that is home to 1.1 million people, within 24 hours, a United Nations spokesperson said.

The order, delivered to the U.N., comes as Israel presses an offensive against Hamas militants. U.N. spokesperson St phane Dujarric said the evacuation would be "impossible" without "devastating humanitarian consequences."

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

Number of people displaced in Gaza rises to 423,000

The number of people forced from their homes by the airstrikes soared 25% in a day, reaching 423,000 out of a population of 2.3 million, the United Nations said Thursday. Most crowded into U.N.-run schools.

Families were cutting down to one meal a day, said Rami Swailem, a 34-year-old lecturer at al-Azhar University, who had 32 relatives sheltering in his home. Water stopped coming to the building two days ago, and they have rationed what's left in a tank on the roof.

The death toll from Israeli strikes on Gaza rose to 1,537, with 6,612 people wounded, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said Thursday. Of those killed, 500 were under the age of 18, the ministry said.

Palestinians were reporting heavy Israeli airstrikes across the besieged Gaza Strip, with bombardment on residential buildings in densely populated city districts and refugee camps. (AP)