Israel says siege will remain until hostages freed, as Gaza desperation grows

The Israeli military pulverized the Gaza Strip with airstrikes, prepared for a possible ground invasion and said on Thursday its complete siege of the territory would remain in place until Hamas militants free some 150 hostages taken during a grisly weekend incursion.

A visit by US secretary of state Antony Blinken, along with shipments of US weapons, offered a powerful green light to Israel to drive ahead with its retaliation in Gaza after Hamas’ deadly attack on civilians and soldiers, even as international aid groups warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis.

Israel has halted deliveries of basic necessities and electricity to Gaza’s 2.3 million people and prevented entry of supplies from Egypt.

“Not a single electricity switch will be flipped on, not a single tap will be turned on and not a single fuel truck will enter until the Israeli hostages are returned home,” Israeli energy minister Israel Katz said on social media.

Lt Col Richard Hecht, an Israeli military spokesman, told reporters that forces “are preparing for a ground manoeuvre” should political leaders order one.

A ground offensive in Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas militants and where the population is densely packed into a sliver of land only 25 miles long, would be likely to bring even higher casualties on both sides in brutal house-to-house fighting.

Hamas’ assault on Saturday killed more than 1,300 people in Israel, including 247 soldiers, a toll unseen in Israel for decades, and the ensuing Israeli bombardment has killed more than 1,530 people in Gaza, according to authorities on both sides.

Israel says roughly 1,500 Hamas militants were killed inside Israel, and that hundreds of the dead in Gaza are Hamas members. Thousands have been wounded on both sides.

As Israel pounds Gaza from the air, Hamas militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel.

Amid concerns that the fighting could spread in the region, Syrian state media reported that Israeli airstrikes on Thursday put two Syrian international airports out of service.

The relentless barrage on Gaza – 6,000 munitions dropped since the conflict began, the military said – left Palestinians running through streets with what belongings they could carry, looking for safety

A strike on Thursday in the the Jabaliya refugee camp collapsed a residential building on families sheltering inside, killing at least 45 people, Gaza’s interior ministry said.

At least 23 of the dead were under the age of 18, including a month-old child, according to a list of the casualties.

Ministry spokesman Eyad Bozum said dozens were wounded, and the death toll was likely to rise as rescue workers pulled more bodies from the rubble.

The home belonging to the al-Shihab family was packed with relatives who had fled bombing in other areas.

Neighbours said a second house was hit at the same time, but the death toll was not known.

“We can’t flee because anywhere you go, you are bombed,” one neighbour, Khalil Abu Yahia, said. “You need a miracle to survive here.”

By Wednesday night, the number of people who fled their homes reached 340,000 people – roughly 15% of Gaza’s population.

Most crowded into UN-run schools while others stayed with relatives or even strangers.

Families were cutting down to one meal a day, said Rami Swailem, a 34-year-old lecturer at al-Azhar University, who has 32 relatives sheltering in his home.

Water stopped coming to the building two days ago, and they were rationing what is left in the tank on the roof.

Alaa Younis Abuel-Omrain has been staying in a UN school after a strike on her home killed eight members of her family – her mother, aunt, a sister, a brother and his wife and their three children.

She said food supplies were running out. Most bakeries stopped producing bread for lack of electricity.

“Even if there is food in some areas, we can’t get to it because of strikes,” she said.

On Wednesday, Gaza’s only power station ran out of fuel and shut down, leaving only lights powered by scattered private generators.

Hospitals, overwhelmed by a constant stream of wounded and running out of supplies, have only a few days worth of fuel before their power cuts off, aid officials say.

“Without electricity, hospitals risk turning into morgues,” said Fabrizio Carboni, regional director of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Newborn incubators, kidney dialysis machines, X-ray equipment and more are all dependent on power, he said.

Ambulance crews carrying bodies to the morgue at Gaza’s biggest hospital, Shifa, found no space left.

Dozens of full body bags were lined up in the hospital parking lot. Fourteen health facilities have been damaged in strikes, health officials said Thursday.

With Israel sealing off the territory, the only way in or out is through the crossing with Egypt at Rafah, but Egypt’s foreign ministry said Thursday that airstrikes on Rafah have prevented it from operating.

Egypt has been trying to convince Israel and the United States to allow aid and fuel through the crossing.

Israel is employing a new tactic of levelling whole neighbourhoods, rather than just individual buildings.

Hecht, the military spokesman, said targeting decisions were based on intelligence on locations being used by Hamas and that civilians were warned.

“Right now, we are focused on taking out their senior leadership,” he said.

The military said strikes have hit Hamas’ elite Nukhba forces, including command centres used by the fighters in Saturday’s attack, and the home of a senior Hamas naval operative used to store weapons.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “crush” Hamas after the militants stormed into the country’s south on Saturday and massacred hundreds of people, including killings of children in their homes and young people at a music festival.

Mr Netanyahu said Hamas’ atrocities included beheading soldiers and raping women, descriptions that could not be independently confirmed.

Amid grief and demands for vengeance among the Israeli public, the government is under intense pressure to topple Hamas rather than continuing to try to bottle it up in Gaza.

Four previous conflicts ended with Hamas still firmly in control of the territory it has ruled since 2007.

Israel has mobilised 360,000 reservists, massed additional forces near Gaza and evacuated tens of thousands of residents from nearby communities.

A new war Cabinet, which includes a long-time opposition politician, was sworn in on Thursday to direct the fight.

A high-ranking Hamas official, Saleh Al-Arouri, warned Thursday that any Israeli invasion of Gaza “will turn into a disaster for its army”, saying the group was prepared to respond.

Israel captured the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, in a 1967 war.

The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state, but there have been no peace talks in over a decade.

The Palestinian health ministry says more than two dozen Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and two in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem since Saturday, most when police fired on stone-throwing protesters.