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Israel laid “total siege” to the Gaza Strip on Monday, vowing to cut off food, water and electricity supplies to the impoverished enclave as it pounded the Hamas-ruled territory in retaliation for a brazen and bloody incursion that caught Israel’s vaunted security apparatus completely off guard.
Two days after Hamas militants launched a surprise attack from Gaza, killing hundreds of Israelis and abducting scores more, the Israeli army said it had largely regained control of southern settlements close to the Gaza Strip and moved to tighten the noose around the Palestinian enclave.
Tanks and drones were deployed to guard breaches in the border fence that Hamas militants poured through early on Saturday, while the military summoned 300,000 reservists – portending greater fighting ahead and a possible ground offensive into Gaza.
“The price the Gaza Strip will pay will be a very heavy one that will change reality for generations,” Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said while visiting one of the towns that had been attacked by Hamas. He ordered a “total siege” on Gaza, a day after his government formally declared war on the Hamas militant group that has ruled the enclave since 2007.
“No electricity, no food, no water, no gas – it’s all closed,” Gallant said in a video message in Hebrew. “We are fighting animals and are acting accordingly.”
The ominous words heralded a looming humanitarian crisis in the overcrowded and impoverished territory of 2.3 million people that borders Israel and Egypt, both of which have imposed various levels of blockade since Hamas’s takeover 16 years ago.
“The Gaza Strip has already been facing a severe shortage of electricity, as well as scarcity of water, fuel, and food supplies,” said Gaza-based Bader Alzaharna, a Palestinian researcher and fundraising officer at the Gaza-based think tank Pal-Think for Strategic Studies. “Now the humanitarian situation…
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Source : france24
