JERUSALEM, Oct 11 : Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a leading opposition figure today created a war-time Cabinet to oversee the fight against Hamas militants after their stunning weekend attack. In the sealed-off Gaza Strip ruled by Hamas, Palestinians struggled to find safety as Israeli bombardment demolished entire neighbourhoods and the territory’s only power plant ran out of fuel.
The new war-time Cabinet will consist of Netanyahu, Benny Gantz — a senior opposition figure and former Defense Minister — and current Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, a statement released by Gantz said. The Cabinet will focus only on issues of the war.
It appeared that the rest of Netanyahu’s existing government partners, a collection of far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties, would remain in place to handle other issues.
The unusual arrangement cobbles together a degree of unity after years of bitterly divisive politics, as the military appears increasingly likely to launch a ground offensive into Gaza.
The government is under intense public pressure to topple Hamas, after its militants stormed through the border fence Saturday and gunned down hundreds of Israelis in their homes, on the streets and at an outdoor music festival.
Israel’s chief opposition leader, Yair Lapid, was invited to join to new Cabinet but did not immediately respond to the offer.
The war has already claimed at least 2,200 lives on both sides, and a ground offensive in Gaza is likely to dramatically hike casualties.
Already, Israeli airstrikes in Gaza smashed entire city blocks to rubble in the tiny coastal enclave and left unknown numbers of bodies beneath mounds of debris.
Militants in Gaza are holding an estimated 150 people snatched from Israel — soldiers, men, women, children and older adults. They continued to fire rockets at Israel on Wednesday, including a heavy barrage at the southern town of Ashkelon.
Israel stopped entry of food, water, fuel and medicine into Gaza — 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 Tuesday after airstrikes 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 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.
The UN’s World Health Organisation said that supplies it had pre-positioned for seven hospitals have already run out amid the flood of wounded. Doctors Without Borders 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.
Israel has mobilized 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 Defense 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.”
Israeli airstrikes late 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 The 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.
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.
“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.”
On Wednesday, an AP reporter witnessed waves of rockets rain down on Ashkelon, with shrapnel slamming into the street and Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepting at least one overhead. Residents screamed and wept as they heard the explosions.
In Gaza, more than 250,000 people have fled their homes, the UN said, the most since a 2014 air and ground offensive by Israel uprooted about 400,000.
The vast majority are sheltering in schools run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Damage to three water and sanitation sites have cut off services to 400,000 people, the UN said.
Tens of thousands of people in southern Israel have been evacuated since Sunday.(AP)
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