BI News, Gaza, Agencies : As the Israel-Hamas War entered its fifth day on Wednesday, Israeli government stated that it has demolished and taken control of portions of Gaza in retaliation for the most severe attacks carried out by Hamas in the 75-year-long history of its conflict with the Palestinians. Hamas militants, who were holding Israeli soldiers and civilians as hostages, had issued threats to execute a captive for every home in Gaza that was targeted.
The overall death toll in the Israel-Hamas War has crossed the 3000 mark with more deaths in Israel than Palestine. Israel has pounded downtown Gaza City with relentless bombardments since the preceding weekend after it vowed a retaliation that would “reverberate for generations” against the Hamas Group for its surprise and full-fledged weekend attack. Meanwhile, Israel’s state broadcaster Kan said that no casualties were reported in the Ashkelon Hospital incident earlier Wednesday. A rocket fired by Hamas struck a hospital earlier in Ashkelon.
Departures from Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport have been suspended after the airport came under attack by the Hamas Group on Wednesday, according to the Israeli Broadcasting Authority. Panic ensued at Ben Gurion Airport as red alert sirens warned of an incoming rocket barrage.
Israel has ordered a “complete siege” on the Gaza enclave, including halting supplies of electricity, food, water and fuel. On Wednesday, Gaza’s only power station stopped working after running out of fuel, the head of the Gaza power authority Galal Ismail told media.
People are still able to use power generators, Ismail said, but with a blockade on all sides of the border, the fuel needed for the generators to work is running out. The Palestinian health ministry warned that hospitals are set to run out of fuel on Thursday, leading to “catastrophic” conditions.
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Brutal attacks
Days after Hamas launched its large-scale surprise assault on Israel, horrifying details are still emerging.
In Kfar Aza, a kibbutz in southern Israel, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told media persons that militants carried out a “massacre” in which women, children, toddlers and elderly were “brutally butchered in an ISIS way of action.”
Less than 20 kilometers (12 miles) away, the farming community Be’eri was among the worst-hit, with more than 100 bodies recovered and eyewitnesses describing assailants going door to door, breaking into homes and executing civilians.
In retaliation for the atrocities, Israeli jets have been pounding Gaza – the densely-inhabited coastal strip that Hamas controls – with hundreds of airstrikes, reducing homes and neighborhoods to rubble and trapping residents, with many cut off from food and electricity.
Several global leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to offer support. American President Joe Biden condemned the attacks by Hamas as “an act of sheer evil.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to visit Israel on Thursday, demonstrating a show of solidarity. Meanwhile, Iran’s top authority Ayatollah Ali Khamenei clarified that Tehran was not involved in the Hamas attack, although he expressed support for those causing damage to Israel. Moreover, alumni of Harvard University have criticized a pro-Palestinian statement from students, which blamed Israel’s “apartheid regime” and “decades of occupation” for the escalation of violence.
The Palestinian envoy to the United Nations denounced Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip and its pledge to enforce a complete siege on the Hamas-controlled Palestinian enclave as “nothing less than genocidal,” during an address at the United Nations.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition has agreed to form an emergency unity government with opposition politicians following the Palestinian militant attack launched on Saturday, his ruling Likud Party said.
