thousands fleeing. reporter: it is hard to put a number to it. i think the pace, the no of people out of there, we re talking about five, ten, perhaps even more. a thousand people. a huge number. and they just keep coming and coming. the further away you get from that area, people obviously disperse. they find cars that will take them elsewhere. i know from being here the last ten days, that even though many had fled, probably the majority was remaining behind. that certainly tells you something about why the casualty count and those injured, that the count was so high. thank you. we know that you ll stay on top of this for us. ben wedeman from gaza. and now on the phone from the
there in gaza. we had heard from you earlier. can you describe what s going on? reporter: thousands are fleeing the neighbor where overnight there was intense israeli bombardment. we believe mostly tanks and artillery on that densely crowded part of the city. as you mentioned, 13 people killed and more than 200 wounded according to palestinian medical sources in the overnight fighting. i spoke to people who talk about dead on the ground about house after house being hit in the shelling. the people walking out, look frankly shell shocked. they told me they had a terrifying night. there is no electricity in that area. much of the water in many parts of gaza is no longer functioning. what i saw is people carrying what they could which wasn t
soldiers being killed. in fact, four soldiers have been killed since yesterday. two of them were killed in an infiltration. by militants from gaza that tunnelled under the border and they got quite near to a kibbutz here. two of the soldiers were killed in that and one militant. then overnight, another two soldiers were killed. these were both inside the gaza strip when they were engaged by militants there. we are now starting to see israeli soldiers being killed in this conflict. and what is likely, as they continue to push further and further to these densely populated areas, engaging in street battles and going into houses, this is where we will see the death toll higher on both sides. you mention that had they ve managed to tunnel from gaza into israel. they ve done it three or four times in the past day or so. and they ve done that despite this massive israeli military operation which is ongoing right now.
good morning. i m devin dwyer. and i m reena ninan. here are some of the top headlines we re following on world news now. u.s. officials say the boeing jumbo jet brought town by surface-to-air missile was aiming at a military aircraft. malaysian airlines was not a specific target. malaysia airlines says it plans to release the passengers names once the loved ones are notified. many are gathering at the amsterdam airport where the flight originated. stay tuned for extensive coverage. also this morning, israel has announced its first casualty since launching a ground assault in gaza. one soldier killed after a night of heavy fighting with hamas. details are just ahead. and the dallas area is a soggy mess this morning after getting slammed with nearly a foot of rain in six hours. floodwaters flowed into stores, trapped drivers in their cars
gaza. abc s karen travers has the latest on israel s attempt to weaken the forces of hamas. reporter: a major escalation by the israelis. a ground operation in gaza. large explosions and fires could be seen across the night skyline. this video from the idf shows an israeli captain speaking to his soldiers. telling them, we re here to do what we drafted to do, which is protect the state of israel. the israeli military says the goal is to strike a significant blow to hamas infrastructure in gaza and stop the hamas rocket attacks. but there s no time limit on this operation. the escalation has been anticipated for days. israeli forces have been in position at the border of gaza, ready to move forward. a glimmer of optimism that a brief pause in the fighting could bring a permanent one. but as soon as the cease-fire ended, the back and forth attacks resumed. there have been at least 240 people killed in gaza so far.