Hamas says Israeli strikes on the Gaza City district killed more than 195 people. As the Hamas-run administration of the Gaza Strip announced on Thursday that at least 195 Palestinians had died in Israeli assaults on a crowded neighborhood outside of Gaza City—attacks that Israel claimed had killed Hamas commanders—more foreigners were getting ready to evacuate the region.

According to an agreement between Israel, Egypt, and Hamas, at least 320 foreign nationals on a first list of 500, together with other Gazans who were critically injured, entered Egypt on Wednesday.

Passengers with passports from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, and Jordan were evacuated. To allow more foreigners to leave, Gaza officials announced that the Rafah border crossing would reopen on Thursday. According to a diplomatic source, 7,500 people with foreign passports will depart Gaza over the next two weeks.

Following its cross-border incursion into southern Israel on October 7, Israel began air, sea, and ground bombardments of Gaza to destroy the Islamist organization that receives support from Iran. Israel asserts that Hamas terrorists took over 200 hostages and killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians.

Since October 7, Israeli attacks have killed at least 8,796 Palestinians in the small coastal enclave, including 3,648 children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

In Jabalia, a region of Gaza designated as a camp for refugees in 1948, Israeli bombings on Tuesday and Wednesday killed two Hamas military officers. According to Israel, the organization purposefully puts Gazan residents in danger by having command centers and other “terror infrastructure under, around, and within civilian buildings.”

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed “serious concerns” that Israel’s “disproportionate attacks… could amount to war crimes” in a post on the social networking platform X.

According to the Hamas-run media office in Gaza on Thursday, there were at least 195 Palestinians killed and 120 reported missing in the two Israeli raids on Jabalia. It released a statement stating that at least 777 individuals had been hurt.

On Wednesday, Palestinians laboriously dug through debris in an attempt to find stranded casualties. One observer said, “It’s a massacre.”

The Israeli military said on Thursday that one more soldier has lost his life in the battle in Gaza, increasing the total number of casualties since ground operations began on Friday to 17. The military announced in a statement that troops had “confronted several terrorist cells in the northern Gaza Strip, during which dozens of terrorists were killed.”

Israel’s attack and tighter siege are making the situation in the beachfront enclave more dire amid rising international appeals for a humanitarian pause in hostilities. We’re low on fuel, food, water, and medication.

A U.S. passport bearer named Dr. Fathi Abu al-Hassan detailed the appalling situation in Gaza, where there is no food, water, or shelter. At the same time, he waited to enter Egypt on Wednesday. “We open our eyes on dead people, and we close our eyes on dead people,” he stated.

Fuel shortages have caused hospitals, notably Gaza’s sole cancer hospital, to close, which has caused them to suffer. Israel has rejected allowing humanitarian convoys to bring in fuel because Hamas forces would divert it for military use. A spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry, Ashraf Al-Qudra, stated that the fuel shortage had caused the Indonesian Hospital’s primary power generator to malfunction.

The hospital would no longer be able to run oxygen generators and morgue refrigerators, so it was moving to a backup generator. “If we don’t get fuel in the next few days, we will inevitably reach disaster,” he stated. It was scheduled on Thursday that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken would leave for his second trip to Israel in less than a month. According to his spokeswoman, he will meet with Israeli leaders on Friday, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to express support and reiterate the imperative of reducing Palestinian civilian fatalities.

Blinken will also visit Jordan, one of the few Arab countries with ties to Israel that have been normalized. Jordan removed its ambassador from Tel Aviv on Wednesday, pending Israel’s cessation of its attack on Gaza. Israel expressed disappointment over Jordan’s choice.

According to the spokesperson, Blinken will stress in Jordan the value of preserving civilian lives and reaffirm America’s commitment to preventing the forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza. This issue is becoming increasingly apparent in Arab countries.

Blinken will also continue the negotiations spearheaded by Qatar and Egypt to secure the release of every captive that Hamas is holding. Additionally, on Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives might vote to approve a plan worth $14.3 billion in aid for Israel.

However, given the strong opposition it faces in the Democratic-controlled Senate and the White House’s veto threat, it is unlikely to become law. President Joe Biden’s request for a $106 billion measure would pay for humanitarian aid and border security in Israel and Ukraine.