Situation of the civilian population
Minister: No water for Gaza without the return of the hostages
Since the Hamas massacres, Israel has responded with heavy air strikes on the Gaza Strip. photo
© Xinhua/dps
After the terrorist attack by Hamas, Israel responded with heavy air strikes on the Gaza Strip. Thousands of homes were destroyed. There is hardly any refuge for civilians.
After the major Hamas attack, Israel’s energy minister has suspended basic supplies The civilian population in the Gaza Strip is tied to the release of the Israeli hostages held by the Islamist Hamas.
“No power switch will be flipped, no water tap will be opened and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli hostages return home,” wrote Israel Katz on the platform X (formerly Twitter). Humanitarian gestures will only be given in return for humanitarian gestures. “And that no one preaches morality to us,” wrote Katz.
Last Saturday, terrorists carried out massacres on behalf of the Islamist organization Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, with more than 1,200 deaths in Israeli border towns and at a music festival. Around 150 people were abducted to the coastal strip and are being held hostage there.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) warns of a water crisis in the Gaza Strip. “UNRWA emergency shelters are overcrowded and the availability of food, non-food items and drinking water is limited. UNRWA emergency shelters and the entire Gaza Strip are facing a water crisis due to damaged infrastructure,” the current situation report said.
Fear and terror among the civilian population
Serious Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip are now spreading fear and terror among the civilian population. The strikes came from the air, sea and land, reported the UN Emergency Relief Office (OCHA).
Rocket attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip also continued unabated. By late Wednesday evening, almost 340,000 people had already fled their homes, OCHA reported. Around 2.2 million people live in the Gaza Strip. Last Saturday, only 45,000 people were considered displaced in the Gaza Strip.
As of midday on Wednesday, more than 4,600 homes had been destroyed or damaged to the point of being uninhabitable, OCHA reported, citing authorities in Gaza. 32,000 others were slightly damaged.
The refugees have hardly any safe refuge: Israel has completely sealed off the coastal strip, which is only 14 kilometers wide, and the only border crossing into Egypt is also closed. You can only move within the territory. According to OCHA, they flee to other neighborhoods to relatives, friends or to schools run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in the hope of avoiding attacks. In terms of square kilometers, the Gaza Strip is half the size of Hamburg.
Israel’s army: No area bombing in the Gaza Strip
Meanwhile, an Israeli military spokesman emphasizes that there is “no area bombing” in the Palestinian territory. “We do not attack any target that is not based on intelligence information,” said spokesman Richard Hecht.
The attacks were “bigger than anything we’ve seen before,” he said. However, the army always receives concrete information about where militant Palestinians are hiding. “If a person involved goes into hiding, we will warn (civilians) about the attack,” he said. “People who want to leave, then leave.”