Israeli minister says no electricity, fuel or humanitarian aid into Gaza until Hamas releases all captives taken in unprecedented attack.
Officials in Gaza say the collapse of the health system has “truly begun” amid Israel’s heavy bombardment and “complete blockade”.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Israel for talks with senior officials a day after they announced the formation of an emergency unity government.
The death toll in Gaza now stands at 1,417 people, while the number of people killed in Israel has reached 1,300.
As heavy Israeli bombardments continued to hit the Palestinian enclave on Thursday, dozens of the United Nations’ rights experts said Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip “amounts to collective punishment”.
The statement comes after Israel imposed a “total siege” to stop food and fuel from reaching the enclave of 2.3 million people, many poor and dependent on aid in response to a surprise Hamas offensive on Saturday that left 1,300 Israelis dead, according to officials.
Pakistan condemns Israel’s ‘indiscriminate and disproportionate’ use of force against Palestinians, calls for ceasefirePalestinian president calls for ‘opening urgent humanitarian corridors’Gazans at risk of starvation as supplies of electricity, food and water cut offICRC urges both sides to reduce civilians’ suffering. Israeli minister says no let up in siege unless hostages freed
In retaliatory air and artillery strikes, Israeli forces have flattened entire neighbourhoods, hospitals and schools in Gaza, killing 1,400 Palestinians since Saturday, and displacing more than 338,000. Yesterday, electricity went out after the only power station stopped working.
A Palestinian girl reacts in the aftermath of an Israeli strike in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on October 12. —Reuters
While condemning the “horrific crimes committed by Hamas”, the group said that Israel had resorted to “indiscriminate military attacks against the already exhausted Palestinian people of Gaza”.
“They have lived under unlawful blockade for 16 years, and already gone through five major brutal wars, which remain unaccounted for,” the group, which includes several UN special rapporteurs, said in a statement.
As heavy Israeli bombardments continued to hit the Palestinian enclave on Thursday, dozens of the United Nations’ rights experts said Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip “amounts to collective punishment”.
The statement comes after Israel imposed a “total siege” to stop food and fuel from reaching the enclave of 2.3 million people, many poor and dependent on aid in response to a surprise Hamas offensive on Saturday that left 1,300 Israelis dead, according to officials.
Pakistan condemns Israel’s ‘indiscriminate and disproportionate’ use of force against Palestinians, calls for ceasefirePalestinian president calls for ‘opening urgent humanitarian corridors’Gazans at risk of starvation as supplies of electricity, food and water cut offICRC urges both sides to reduce civilians’ suffering. Israeli minister says no let up in siege unless hostages freed
In retaliatory air and artillery strikes, Israeli forces have flattened entire neighbourhoods, hospitals and schools in Gaza, killing 1,400 Palestinians since Saturday, and displacing more than 338,000. Yesterday, electricity went out after the only power station stopped working.
A Palestinian girl reacts in the aftermath of an Israeli strike in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on October 12. —Reuters
While condemning the “horrific crimes committed by Hamas”, the group said that Israel had resorted to “indiscriminate military attacks against the already exhausted Palestinian people of Gaza”.
“They have lived under unlawful blockade for 16 years, and already gone through five major brutal wars, which remain unaccounted for,” the group, which includes several UN special rapporteurs, said in a statement.
“This amounts to collective punishment. There is no justification for violence that indiscriminately targets innocent civilians, whether by Hamas or Israeli forces. This is absolutely prohibited under international law and amounts to a war crime,” the group said.
The group said that taking hostages in the context of hostilities also constituted a war crime.
“The civilians taken by Hamas must be immediately released, pending which their fate and whereabouts must be disclosed,” the experts said.
Abbas urges ‘immediate end to aggression’ against Palestinians
Separately, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has called for “an immediate end to the comprehensive aggression against the Palestinian people”, his office said following a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II.
In his first public remarks since Saturday, Abbas rejected “practices related to killing civilians or abusing them on both sides”, according to a statement.
The two leaders met in Amman and discussed “ways to stop the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people and deliver aid and relief” to Hamas-controlled Gaza, the statement said.
The targeting of civilians by both Israeli forces and Palestinian militants “contravenes morals, religion and international law”, Abbas said.
According to the statement, he stressed Palestinians “renounce violence and adhere to international legitimacy, peaceful popular resistance, and political action as a path to achieving our national goals”.
Abbas also “warned of the danger of the only power plant in the Gaza Strip stopping working due to running out of fuel” and urged action to secure the supply of electricity and water as well as “opening urgent humanitarian corridors”.
Fuel powering hospitals’ generators could run out in hours
The International Committee of the Red Cross said fuel powering emergency generators at hospitals could run out within hours.
“The human misery caused by this escalation is abhorrent, and I implore the sides to reduce the suffering of civilians,” ICRC regional director Fabrizio Carboni said in a statement on Thursday.
“As Gaza loses power, hospitals lose power, putting newborns in incubators and elderly patients on oxygen at risk. Kidney dialysis stops, and X-rays cant be taken. Without electricity, hospitals risk turning into morgues.”
Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz said there would be no exceptions to the siege without freedom for Israeli hostages.
“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. Humanitarian for humanitarian. And nobody should preach us morals,” Katz posted on social media platform X.
Israeli attack targets Aleppo, Damascus airports: Syrian state television
Syria’s state television said Israel launched attacks on the main airports in the capital Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo on Thursday.
Local media channel Sham FM said Syrian air defences were launched in response to both attacks. It said there had been damage but no casualties at the Aleppo airport, but did not give any information on the impact of the strike on Damascus Airport.
The Israeli military does not usually comment on such incidents, and there was no immediate statement from it today.The attacks came a day before Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, was due to visit Syria.
Pakistan condemns ‘indiscriminate, disproportionate’ Israeli force against Palestinians
Pakistan strongly condemned the “indiscriminate and disproportionate” use of force by Israeli authorities against the civilian population in Gaza and called for an immediate cessation of hostilities.
Foreign Office (FO) Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahrah Baloch said in her weekly press briefing that Pakistan was deeply concerned by the fast deteriorating and dire humanitarian situation in Gaza due to the “inhumane blockade and collective punishment by Israeli forces”.
The FO spokesperson said that the decision to cut off electricity, fuel and water supplies was “unjust and should be reversed as it would severely impact the lives of millions of people in the enclave”.
“The current cycle of aggression and violence is a sad reminder and a direct consequence of over seven decades of illegal foreign occupation, aggression and disrespect for international law, including UNSC resolutions that recognise the inalienable right to self-determination of the Palestinian people,” she added.