Israeli official has declared a suspension of electricity, fuel, and humanitarian assistance to Gaza until Hamas releases all individuals held captive.
Concurrently, Israel has sustained airstrikes on Gaza, resulting in numerous casualties, including the tragic deaths of nine children in Khan Younis.
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A UN agency reported that Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, which began on Saturday, have resulted in the tragic deaths of nine UN employees.
Officials in Gaza say the enclave faces a humanitarian catastrophe with the territory’s only power plant shutting down due to a lack of fuel.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu promised to “destroy” Hamas following the armed group’s surprise attack as he announced an emergency unity government with opposition leader Benny Gantz.
Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford is in Re’im in southern Israel, where a music festival was taking place when Hamas’s fighters stormed in, killing and kidnapping a number of its participants. At least 260 dead bodies were retrieved from the area, according to Israel’s rescue service Zaka.
The open field next to the party’s location is now filled with burned cars that were abandoned there as the soil was too soft for vehicles to drive through it, making the escape even more difficult.
“You can see some of the abandoned vehicles,” Stratford reported from the site that lies about 5km (3.3 miles) from the Gaza fence.
The death toll in Gaza now stands at more than 1,350, while the number of people killed in Israel has reached 1,300.
“Inside, camping gears, personal belongings, tobacco, driving licenses, clothes … that were left in panic as the gunmen approached,” he said.
“You get a sense of the terror and fear that those partygoers must have experienced.”
