As Israel hits the area with retaliatory air strikes, the UN warns of a humanitarian disaster.
Israel continues to hit Gaza with air strikes in retaliation for Hamas’s shock assault that has up to now killed 1,300 individuals in Israel and wounded 1000’s extra. A further 1,400 individuals have been killed in Gaza since then, based on the Palestinian Ministry of Well being.
Gaza is going through a “big” humanitarian disaster, one United Nations official informed The New York Instances, as Israel has lower off electrical energy to the area, and hospitals there are operating out of the gasoline essential to maintain turbines operating. Meals and water within the area are additionally shortly operating out, the UN’s World Meals Program warned. And as Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Israel right this moment to underscore the USA’ unequivocal help for Israel, he additionally mentioned that “it’s vital to take each attainable precaution to forestall harming civilians.”
In the meantime, Hamas is holding hostage at the least 150 civilians captured within the assault on Israel, together with youngsters and aged individuals. Officers in Israel imagine the hostages are being held inside Gaza’s community of underground cellars and tunnels, the place they might nonetheless be harmed by Israel’s air strikes on Gaza. “That is with out query essentially the most troublesome hostage scenario Israel has ever confronted in its historical past,” Michael Milstein, a senior analyst on the Institute for Coverage and Technique at Israel’s Reichman College, informed the BBC.
