Israel has significantly ramped up its airstrikes on Gaza in anticipation of a ground invasion, with the military saying it has hit more than 720 targets in the last two days, reports the New York Times. The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, meanwhile, said it logged more than 700 Palestinian deaths in the last 24 hours, the highest one-day total of the war, though the figure couldn't be independently verified. Related:
- Evacuation: The US is preparing for the reality that hundreds of thousands of Americans might need evacuation from the Mideast in the very near future, reports the Washington Post. An estimated 600,000 US citizens are in Israel alone, along with another 86,000 in Lebanon. While an evacuation of that scale is seen as a worst-case scenario, it "would be irresponsible not to have a plan for everything," one US official tell the Post.