Israel-Hamas war: Israeli strikes demolish Gaza neighbourhoods as sealed-off territory deals with blackout

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

Gaza air strikes a prelude to next phase of Israel-Hamas war

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.

Israeli air strikes late on Tuesday struck the family house of Mohammed Deif, the shadowy leader of Hamas’ military wing, killing his father, brother and at least two other relatives in the southern town of Khan Younis, senior Hamas official Bassem Naim told Associated Press.

Deif has never been seen in public and his whereabouts are unknown.

Exchanges of fire over Israel’s northern borders with militants in Lebanon and Syria, meanwhile, pointed to the risk of an expanded regional conflict.

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.

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Soldiers find ‘massacre’ in Israeli village as air strikes continue to pummel Gaza

Soldiers find ‘massacre’ in Israeli village as air strikes continue to pummel Gaza

On Wednesday, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired anti-tank missiles at an Israeli military position and claimed to have killed and wounded troops. The Israeli military confirmed the attack but did not comment on possible casualties. The Israeli army shelled the area in southern Lebanon where the attack was launched.

In a new tactic, Israel is warning civilians to evacuate whole neighbourhoods – rather than just individual buildings – then inflicting devastation, in what could be a prelude to a ground offensive.

Hamas officials have said they planned for all possibilities, including punishing Israeli escalation. Desperation has grown among Palestinians, many of whom see nothing to lose under unending Israeli military occupation and increasing settlements in the West Bank, a 16-year-long blockade in Gaza and what they see as the world’s apathy.

The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said Israeli air strikes destroyed the entire al-Karama neighbourhood in Gaza City, with a “large number” of people killed or wounded. It said medical teams were unable to reach the area because all roads to it were destroyed. Rescue officials say they have struggled to enter other areas as well.

In another neighbourhood on Tuesday, Palestinian Civil Defense forces pulled Abdullah Musleh out of his basement together with 30 others after their apartment building was flattened.

“I sell toys, not missiles,’’ the 46-year-old said, weeping. “I want to leave Gaza. Why do I have to stay here? I lost my home and my job.”

Additional reporting by Reuters