The Israel Hamas war is escalating as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens.

The densely packed Gaza Strip, that's home to roughly 2.2 million Palestinians is being leveled by Israeli airstrikes.

Retaliation for last week's deadly attack by the militant group Hamas that killed at least 1400 Israeli people and wounded more than 4000, according to officials.

Israel's military this weekend warned Palestinians to evacuate through southern Gaza as it prepares for a likely ground offense, pledging to wipe out Hamas with a, quote, even greater force.

Already more than 2600 Palestinians have been killed in the brutal war and thousands more injured.

The evacuation orders are being criticized by humanitarian agencies amid a standoff at the Rafah crossing, which is Gaza's only pathway to Egypt, where trucks carrying aid have waited days to pass through.

And desperate Palestinian civilians are being blocked from crossing.

The U.N. says hospitals in Gaza are at risk of collapses.

Water, fuel and medicine are nearly depleted.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was on the ground today in Israel pledging support while also urging restraint to spare civilian lives here at home.

Palestinian Americans are reporting receiving increased threats and harassment, while New Jersey's chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations says it hasn't had this many calls relating to Islamophobia since 2017, when a ban was placed on citizens in six majority Muslim countries.

Senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan has the latest.

Every day we sit waiting on our phones to see if our friends and or family are alive.

Do you know how few Palestinians in Passaic County with family back in Gaza spoke with emotion about their fears?

They're worried loved ones won't make it out of the evacuation zone before Israeli Defense Forces launch a full scale counterattack against Hamas.

And they claim they're now the target of anti-Palestinian bigotry right here in New Jersey.

I have text messages coming in of people telling me their stories.

One person being told she can no longer work in this company if she continues to post.

Palestinians want peace.

But this is not the way to achieve peace.

Weeping with anger and grief, several speakers from New Jersey's Palestinian community told stories of hatred directed against their people.

They blamed a power structure that demonizes Palestinians and biased reporting by journalists.

We have a physician who is employed at Hackensack Hospital, Jersey Shore, for over two and a half years.

He posted on social media in support of Palestine.

He was then terminated after his Zionist colleague pressured the hospital administration.

So tell them the truth.

There is no difference between a journalist and those giving the order to drop the bombs.

If you do not do that, the Paterson area is home to some 20,000 Palestinians, the largest concentration of any U.S. city families here have already lost relatives during Israeli reprisals for the Hamas attack October 7th, when the terror group slaughtered more than 1300 Israeli men, women and children.

Israel responded by pounding Gaza City with deadly airstrikes, decimating more than 2600 Palestinians and cutting off food, power and water.

Creating a humanitarian crisis the World Health Organization predicted would be a, quote, death sentence.

Palestinians say there's no safe space in Gaza.

Why is it so?

Tensions between both sides ratcheted up over the past week with demonstrations demanding justice.

After the Hamas attack, New Jersey officials tightened security at Jewish schools and temples and at mosques with incidents of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia spreading.

Folks caught in the cultural crossfire, fear for their safety.

Every day we are fielding distressing calls from our community members.

Teens are being harassed in public.

Students are being called terrorists.

Professors are threatened.

Governor Murphy called out all bias incidents warning violence or discrimination against anyone based on their religion.

Whether it's Judaism, Islam or anything else, is never justified, he stated.

May New Jersey be a shining example of how diverse communities can live, work and pray together.

I am tired of our voices not being heard.

We want this violence to end.

As families agonize over loved ones trapped in Gaza.

Diplomats continue negotiating over allowing Palestinians with dual U.S. citizenship to exit into Egypt.

But Hamas has ordered people not to leave.

Almost 200 Israeli hostages remain unaccounted for.

Families here who fled to New Jersey to escape decades of Israeli control over the fenced in Gaza Strip want state officials to address their grievances.

But this is not unprovoked.

This did not come from nowhere.

This is the result of 75 years of anger.

Anguish, pain, fear and frustration of having to fight for their own basic human rights.

U.S. diplomats have said that the Hamas attack was intended to derail negotiations for a two state solution.

But it's also started a war with grim consequences for families here and around the world.

In Clifton, I'm Brenda Flanagan, NJ.

Spotlight News.