Tonight President Biden is on his way to Israel in a show of support and to press Israel to do

everything it can to minimize civilian casualties.

But just in the few hours since that trip was announced,

Biden's task has become considerably more difficult.

A major summit focused on the humanitarian crisis

is now cancelled.

Last night, after Secretary of State Anthonyinkin announced the President's visit,

Israel continued to launch airstrikes into southern Gaza.

I'm mentioning southern Gaza in particular because late last week Israel issued an evacuation order

for all civilians in the northern half of Gaza and hundreds of thousands of

Gazans complied. The Hamas-run Interior Ministry of Gaza claims that the airstrikes last night

and this morning in southern Gaza killed 80 people and wounded dozens more.

The New York Times asked an Israeli military spokesperson why Israel continued to

strike southern Gaza after calling for people to evacuate there.

The spokesperson responded by saying that Hamas fighters were

hiding among the Gazan civilians.

NBC News cannot confirm or deny that, but among the dead in that strike were women and children. One hospital tells

the New York Times that out of the 42 bodies they received, 10 were women and

15 were children. Today a doctor at a hospital in southern Gaza told the

times today is worse than all the previous bad days with many displaced from

the north more people share the same homes and thus there are more

casualties in each strike.

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