you are live in the cnn newsroom. i m jim acosta in washington. good evening. we begin with an urgent call for evacuations across gaza, as israel expands its fight against hamas. the israel defense forces are now telling civilians in parts of both southern and northern gaza to evacuate as it carries out hundreds of air strikes. the u.n. estimates that more than 1.8 million people, nearly 80% of the population of gaza, have to leave their homes for safety since october 7th. and in the red sea, a u.s. defense official says an american warship shot down drones and responded after a cargo ship from the bahamas was attacked. let s go straight to cnn s matthew chance live in tel aviv for us. matthew, what is going on? what s the latest? reporter: well, when it comes to that attack on the cargo ship in the red sea, it issued an alert, a warning, and a call for help, a distress call, after a ballistic missile was fired toward it by houthi forces. these are iranian-backed forces i