TEL AVIV: Israel launched new attacks on Gaza, vowing there would be no letup in its bombardment of the Hamas-controlled territory until the militants release the estimated 150 hostages they are holding.
“Humanitarian aid to Gaza? No electrical switch will be lifted, no water hydrant will be opened, and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli hostages are returned home,” Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz posted on X, formerly Twitter. “Humanitarian for humanitarian. And nobody should preach us morals.”
Israel ramped up preparations for a ground invasion of Gaza but said no decision had been made on moving forward with such an offensive.
Israel’s military has positioned 300,000 reservists near the Gaza border as it responds to a Hamas attack that killed at least 1,200 people in Israel.
A campaign of Israeli airstrikes that began hours after Saturday’s Hamas incursion has killed at least 1,350 people in Gaza.
The U.S. said that 27 Americans were killed in the Hamas attack and 14 are still missing.
The United Nations said nearly 340,000 Palestinians have been displaced from their homes in Gaza, with more than two-thirds of them taking shelter in U.N. schools.
Humanitarian organizations have expressed alarm about the fast-dwindling supplies of food, water, fuel and medicine in Gaza amid an Israeli blockade of the narrow strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea.
Meanwhile, the chief of staff for Israel’s military, Herzi Halevi, acknowledged Thursday that the military had failed to protect people living near Gaza when Hamas launched its shock attack.
He said the Israel Defense Forces are “responsible for the security of the country and its citizens, and on Saturday morning in the area surrounding the Gaza Strip, we did not,” Halevi said. “We will learn, we will investigate, but now is the time for war.”
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi highlighted the need to “ensure the regularity of humanitarian and relief services, as well as aid to the people in the Gaza Strip.”
Sissi’s office said in a statement that he told British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a phone call Thursday that Egypt is pushing for calm to prevent “sliding into a bloody path” where civilians will pay the price.
Palestinian health officials said 14 health facilities have been damaged and 10 health care workers killed in the Gaza Strip by Israeli airstrikes since the Israel-Hamas conflict broke out.
(VOA)
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