Israel-Hamas war: Israeli strikes demolish Gaza amid power cut, US claims Egypt warned of weekend attack
- The war, which has already claimed at least 2,200 lives on both sides, is expected to escalate – and compound the misery of people living in Gaza
- Gaza’s only power plant ran out of fuel on Wednesday forcing it to shut down after Israel cut off supplies, leaving only generators to power the territory
Palestinians in the sealed-off Gaza Strip struggled to find any safe area on Wednesday, as Israeli strikes demolished entire neighbourhoods, hospitals ran low on supplies and the territory’s only power plant ran out of fuel, deepening the misery of a war sparked by a stunning and deadly assault by Hamas militants.
Air strikes smashed entire city blocks to rubble in the tiny coastal enclave and left unknown numbers of bodies beneath mounds of debris.
The bombardment raged on even though militants are holding an estimated 150 people snatched from Israel – soldiers, men, women, children and older adults.
Israel has vowed unprecedented retaliation against the Hamas militant group ruling the Palestinian territory after its fighters stormed through the border fence on Saturday and gunned down hundreds of Israelis in their homes, on the streets and at an outdoor music festival.
Since then, militants have continued to fire rockets at Israel, including a heavy barrage at the southern town of Ashqelon on Wednesday.
Israel was warned of attack
Israel got a warning from Egypt of potential violence three days before Hamas caught Israeli forces off guard in a large-scale attack, the chairman of the powerful US House Foreign Affairs Committee said on Wednesday.
“We know that Egypt has warned the Israelis three days prior that an event like this could happen,” Republican Michael McCaul told reporters following a closed-door intelligence briefing for lawmakers on the crisis.
“I don’t want to get too much into classified, but a warning was given,” he said. “I think the question was at what level.”
Gaza air strikes a prelude to next phase of Israel-Hamas war
McCaul said the attack may have been planned as long as a year ago.
“We’re not quite sure how we missed it. We’re not quite sure how Israel missed it,” he told reporters.
The war, which has already claimed at least 2,200 lives on both sides, is expected to escalate – and compound the misery of people living in Gaza, where necessities and electricity were already in short supply.
There is no safe place in Gaza right now. I am genuinely afraid for my life
After the attack, Israel stopped the entry of food, water, fuel and medicine into the territory – a 40-kilometer-long (25-mile) strip of land wedged among Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea that is home to 2.3 million Palestinians. The sole remaining access from Egypt was shut down on Tuesday after air strikes hit near the border crossing.
As Palestinians crowded into UN schools and a shrinking number of safe neighbourhoods, humanitarian groups pleaded for the creation of corridors to get aid in, warning that hospitals overwhelmed with wounded people were running out of supplies.
“There is no safe place in Gaza right now,” journalist Hasan Jabar said after three Palestinian journalists were killed in the bombardment of a downtown neighbourhood home to government ministries, media offices and hotels.
“I am genuinely afraid for my life.”
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Soldiers find 'massacre' in Israeli village as air strikes continue to pummel Gaza
Gaza’s only power plant ran out of fuel on Wednesday afternoon, forcing it to shut down after Israel cut off supplies, the Energy Ministry said. That leaves only generators to power the territory – but they also run on fuel that is in short supply.
Israel has put Gaza under “total siege” to stop food and fuel reaching the enclave of 2.3 million people, many poor and dependent on aid.
The UN’s World Health Organization said that supplies it had pre-positioned for seven hospitals have already run out amid the flood of wounded.
Medecins Sans Frontieres said surgical equipment, antibiotics, fuel and other supplies were running out at two hospitals it runs in Gaza.
China offers to work with Egypt to help mediate Israel-Hamas conflict
In one, “we consumed three weeks worth of emergency stock in three days, partly due to 50 patients coming in at once”, Matthias Kannes, the aid group’s head of mission in Gaza, said Wednesday.
He said the territory’s biggest hospital, Al-Shifa, only has enough fuel for three days.
Israel has mobilised 360,000 reservists and appears increasingly likely to launch a ground offensive into Gaza, with its government under intense public pressure to topple Hamas, which has ruled the territory since 2007 and remained firmly in control through four previous wars.
That would likely require a prolonged ground assault and reoccupying Gaza, at least temporarily. Even then, Hamas has a long history of operating as an underground insurgency in areas controlled by Israel.
“We will not allow a reality in which Israeli children are murdered,” Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in a meeting with soldiers near the southern border on Tuesday.
“I have removed every restriction – we will eliminate anyone who fights us, and use every measure at our disposal.”
The Israeli military said dozens of its fighter jets struck more than 200 targets in a neighbourhood of Gaza City overnight that it said had been used by Hamas to launch its attacks.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah said it fired missiles on Israel on Wednesday drawing retaliatory fire, after three members of the Iran-backed group were killed earlier this week amid soaring border tensions.
Hezbollah “targeted a Zionist [Israeli] position … facing Dhayra village, with guided missiles”, in a “firm response to Zionist attacks … which led to the martyrdom of a number of brothers”, the group said in a statement.
It warned of a “decisive” response to Israeli attacks “targeting our country and the security of our people, especially when these attacks lead to the deaths of martyrs”.
The Israeli military said that “in response to the anti-tank missile fired at IDF (army) soldiers a short while ago, an IDF aircraft struck a military observation post belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation in southern Lebanon”.
Israeli artillery shelled “the area from which the launch originated”, the military added.
US President Joe Biden on Tuesday warned other countries and armed groups against entering the war.
The US is already rushing munitions and military equipment to Israel and has deployed a carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean as deterrence.
Israel announces ‘emergency government’
Meanwhile, a top opposition Israeli politician says he has reached an agreement to enter a wartime unity government with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Benny Gantz, a former defence minister and military chief of staff, released what he said was a joint statement with Netanyahu.
The statement said they would form a five-member “war-management” cabinet. It will consist of Netanyahu, Gantz, current Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and two other top officials serving as “observer” members.
It said the government would not pass any legislation or decisions that are not connected to the war as long as the fighting continues.
It was not immediately clear what would happen to Netanyahu’s existing government partners, a collection of far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties.
Additional reporting by Reuters, Agence France-Presse
