The toll from the fighting between Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel rose to over 2,200 on Wednesday as Israeli warplanes bombed the Gaza Strip repeatedly overnight.
In Israel, the death count from Saturday’s unprecedented cross-border assault by Hamas militants rose to 1,200 while Gaza officials said that 1,055 have been killed as Israel hammered the territory with air strikes, according to Al-Jazeera.
Large number of people are trapped under the debris of buildings that were razed during the attacks, rescue officials in Gaza told the Associated Press. Rescue equipment and ambulances are unable to reach the locations as humanitarian aid has been disrupted from Israel.
The Israeli military said it had hit dozens of Hamas targets during the night, adding that its fighter jets destroyed “advanced detection systems” that the Palestinian group used to spot military aircraft.
“Hamas wanted a change and it will get one,” said Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant while speaking to soldiers near the Gaza fence, reported Reuters. “What was in Gaza will no longer be. We started the offensive from the air, later on we will also come from the ground. We’ve been controlling the area since day 2 and we are on the offensive. It will only intensify.”
The United Nations urged the international community to allow access to deliver urgent humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians trapped in Gaza.
On Wednesday, electricity in Gaza went out after the sole power station there stopped working after running out of fuel, Reuters reported.
The United States said that it is holding talks with Israel and Egypt on safe passage of the civilians in Palestine.
“We are focused on this question, there are consultations going on,” US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said. “But the details of that are something that are being discussed among the operational agencies and I don’t want to share too much of that publicly at this time.”
Notably, previous Israel-Hamas wars between 2008 and 2021 in Gaza have ended inconclusively as the Palestinian militant group still held on to the region. However, this time Israel is reportedly aiming to take full control of the Gaza Strip.
US President Joe Biden described the Palestinian militant group’s surprise assault on Israel as “sheer evil” and said that Washington will share intelligence with Israel.
Also read: Both Palestine and Israel will pay a heavy price, no matter which way their confrontation goes
Netanyahu, Opposition leader to form unity government
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Opposition leader Benny Gantz on Wednesday agreed to form an emergency unity government, according to The Jerusalem Post.
The development took place after Netanyahu and Gantz held a meeting for half an hour in Tel Aviv.
A joint statement said during the ongoing war, the country’s parliament will not pass any law that is unrelated to the war.
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