Israel blocks aid to Gaza as it prepares for potential ground offensive | DW News

Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke to media outlets regarding the latest updates on the militant group Hamas's weekend attacks on Israel. "It will be a long and drawn out campaign against Hamas," Herzog said, adding that some 1,300 people were killed in Israel, with some 3,300 more injured. Herzog said victims came from 36 countries other than Israel, including the US, the UK, France, Germany and Russia. The number of those killed in the Gaza Strip since the Hamas militant group launched its deadly attacks on Israel over the weekend has risen to 1,354, Palestinian authorities said. The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza updated its death toll on Thursday afternoon. It said 6,049 people have been injured.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned that residents in the Gaza Strip were going to be in a very difficult situation without immediate funding and help. More than half the population in Gaza, or 1.2 million people, already struggled to feed their families before Israel declared a "complete siege" of the enclave in response to Hamas' deadly terror attacks on Israel over the weekend, the UN agency said. Hamas breached the border from Gaza on Saturday, killing hundreds and abducting others in an unprecedented attack during a major Jewish holiday. Hamas is deemed a terrorist organization by the US, EU and several others. The UN food agency together with others distributed fresh bread and food to 137,000 displaced people in shelters, and plans to reach more than 800,000 people across the enclave. "In less than one week, shops in Gaza will run out of food. Available food risks being spoiled due to electricity cuts. WFP food assistance stocks are running out," it said. Gaza's only power plant ran out of fuel and shut down Wednesday. Without power, communication is limited and information is scarce. Egypt has engaged in intensive talks with Israel and the US to allow delivery of food and fuel through its Rafah border crossing, which remained closed on both sides Thursday. But Egypt has pushed back against proposals to establish corridors out of Gaza, saying an exodus of Palestinians from the enclave could have grave consequences for the Palestinian cause. The conflict has claimed more than 2,500 lives on both sides since the weekend and is expected to escalate.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said he has been shown photographs "beyond what anyone would want to imagine. Babies riddled with bullets, young people burned alive ... It's simply depravity in the worst imaginable way. It almost defies comprehension and harkens back to ISIS on its rampage." ISIS is a reference to the so-called "Islamic State' (IS), a jihadi organization which once controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared some of the explicit photos on social network X, formerly Twitter. Holding his second press conference of the day in Tel Aviv, Blinken described Hamas' attack on Israel as, proportionally speaking, "the equivalent of ten 9/11s" in terms of loss of life. "That's how devastating this attack has been." Blinken also spoke about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, condemning Hamas for continuing to use civilians as human shields and saying that he had discussed with Netanyahu possibilities for safe passage for civilians who want to leave Gaza. Asked whether the US would intervene if Hezbollah militants in Lebanon were to open a second front to the north of Israel, Blinken said that "there will not be a second front" and that no-one should "try to take advantage of this moment." From Israel, Blinken will travel to meet with other leaders across the region in the coming days "to keep the conflict from spreading" and to discuss how to convince Hamas to release hostages, starting with King Abdullah and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Jordan.

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