Palestinians scrambled to flee northern Gaza after Israel’s military urged about 1 million people to leave for the territory’s south ahead of an expected ground invasion following the surprise attack a week ago by the ruling Hamas militant group — despite warnings from the U.N. that evacuating nearly half of Gaza’s population would be calamitous. Families in cars, trucks and donkey carts packed with their possessions crowded a main road southward from Gaza City as Israeli airstrikes hammered the territory Friday. Hamas’ media office said warplanes struck cars fleeing south, killing more than 70 people. The Israeli military said its…

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE Russian forces pound Avdiivka for fourth straight day Russian forces pounded the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka for the fourth day in a row on Friday, with both Moscow and Washington deeming the intensified fighting a new offensive in Russia's 19-month-old invasion of its neighbour. In attacks elsewhere in Ukraine, a Russian missile strike killed one person in the city of Pokrovsk, also in the east, while a drone attack in the south killed a women and seriously injured her husband. In Avdiivka, known for its large coking plant in Ukraine's Donbas industrial heartland, officials said the Russian…

Israel’s military directed the evacuation of northern Gaza, a region that is home to 1.1 million people, within 24 hours Friday, a U.N. spokesman said, as Israel presses its war to eradicate the Hamas militant group after its deadly attack. The order 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, no decision has been made. The order, delivered to the U.N., comes as Israel presses an offensive against Hamas militants. U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric called the order “impossible” without “devastating humanitarian consequences.”…

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE Fierce fighting rages around Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine Russian and Ukrainian forces fought fierce battles around the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka on Thursday after Moscow launched one of its biggest military offensives in months. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian forces were holding their ground on the third day of battle, but municipal officials said the Russian attacks were relentless. Kyiv says Moscow has redirected many soldiers and large amounts of equipment to the Avdiivka area, showing it can hit back over four months into a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the east and south that has encountered stiff Russian…