Gazans say nowhere to go as they prepare for Israeli assault after Hamas raid

Palestinians in Gaza are preparing for an Israeli offensive of unprecedented scale after Saturday's deadly Hamas raid, with more than 130,000 fleeing their homes and stockpiling supplies as air strikes pound the crowded enclave with 560 already dead.

Amid an intensified Israeli siege cutting off water, food and power, and a sudden new assault, conditions look worse than at any point since Palestinian refugees flocked there during the 1948 fighting when Israel was founded.

Israeli military phone messages have warned people to leave some areas, indicating a new ground attack that could eclipse previous bouts of destructive warfare in the dense concrete townships that grew up in Gaza's original tented refugee camps.

"Where should we go? Where should we go?" asked 55-year-old Mohammad Brais.

He had fled his home near a possible front line to shelter at his shop - only for that to get hit in one of the hundreds of air and artillery strikes already pounding Gaza.

The surprise Hamas attack on Saturday caused Israel its bloodiest day, as fighters smashed through border defences and marauded through towns, killing more than 800 people and dragging more than 100 into captivity in Gaza.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant warned that the price Gaza would pay "will change reality for generations" and Israel was imposing a total blockade with a ban on food and fuel imports as part of a battle against "human animals".

At the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, men clambered on a pancaked building to pull an infant's tiny body from the rubble, carrying it down through the crowd below amid still-smouldering remains of bombed buildings. That air strike left dozens killed and injured, according to the territory's health ministry.

As ambulances arrived at a hospital, workers ran out to haul in stretchers bearing the injured. Inside, a man lay next to the shrouded body of his nephew, hysterical with grief, alternately striking the floor and embracing the corpse as he screamed.

Funeral processions wound down Gaza streets. In Rafah, in the south, men strode behind a body being carried on a bier, Palestinian and Hamas flags raised behind.

At the cemetery a family buried Saad Lubbad, a small boy killed in air strikes. His body, wrapped in white, was passed down to be laid on a patterned cloth before burial.

FOOD AND FUEL

The densely populated enclave's 2.3 million residents have endured repeated bouts of war and air strikes before.

They expect this one to be worse.

"It doesn't need much thinking about. Israel suffered the biggest loss in its history so you can imagine what it is going to do," said a resident of Beit Hanoun on Gaza's northeastern border with Israel.

"I took my family out at sunrise and dozens of other families did the same. Many of us got phone calls, audio messages from Israeli security officers telling us to leave because they will operate there," he said.

Families began stockpiling food as soon as Saturday's attack began but fear that despite Hamas assurances supplies will run low.

With Israel cutting off electricity supplies into Gaza, a looming fuel shortage means private generators as well as the enclave's own power station, which is still providing about four hours of energy a day, will struggle to function.

Electricity shortages mean residents cannot recharge phones, so are cut off from news of each other and from events, and are unable to pump water into rooftop tanks.

At night the enclave is plunged into total darkness, punctuated by the blasts of air strikes.

Gaza health ministry officials said hospitals were expected to run out of fuel, needed to power lifesaving equipment, in two weeks. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said 137,000 people were sheltering in U.N. schools and other facilities.

At one in Gaza City, 13-year-old Israa al-Qishawi pointed to the corner of a classroom where she lays her mattress each night alongside 30 other people.

Fear makes her want the toilet every few minutes, she said, but there is no water.

"It is disgusting," she said.

Dressed in green and playing with a hula hoop, she said: "The war came suddenly and we are afraid of it".

BOMBARDMENT

Air strikes have damaged and blocked streets, making it harder for ambulances and rescue vehicles to reach bomb sites, according to residents and medics. The civil defence said it could not cope with so many bomb sites, and asked for foreign rescue teams to help it save survivors trapped under rubble.

The Beit Hanoun resident said the bombardment of streets seemed like preparation for another Israeli ground offensive, like ones he watched rolling into Gaza from the roof of his house in 2008 and 2014.

Recorded phone messages and social media posts issued by Israel's military warning residents to quit some Gaza areas added to residents' fears.

Despite the danger, the 45-year-old was pleased by Hamas' raid into Israel, he said, requesting anonymity for fear of Israeli reprisals.

"We are afraid but still we are proud like never before," he said, adding: "Hamas wiped out entire Israeli army battalions. It crushed them like biscuits".

Standing outside his ruined shop, near wrecked houses where three entire families were killed, Brais said he just hoped for an end to Gaza's endless cycle of destruction.

"Enough. We had enough. I am 55-years-old and I spent those years going from one war into another. My house has been destroyed twice," said Brais. "Everything is gone," he said, looking at the wreckage of his shop.

** Hamas threatens to kill captives if Israel strikes civilians

The Islamist militant Hamas movement threatened to execute an Israeli captive every time Israel bombs a Palestinian home without warning, as Israel called up an unprecedented 300,000 reservists and imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip, raising fears it planned a ground assault.

The violence, which has claimed more than 1,500 lives, prompted international declarations of support for Israel after a devastating weekend attack by Hamas, and appeals for an end to the fighting and protection of civilians.

Israeli TV channels said the death toll from the Hamas attack had climbed to 900 Israelis, with at least 2,600 injured, and dozens taken captive. Among the Israeli dead were 260 mostly young people gunned down at a desert music festival, where some of the hostages were abducted.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed revenge in a fiery speech accusing Iran-backed Hamas of executing tied-up children and other atrocities. "This vile enemy wanted war and it will get war," he said.

Gaza's Health Ministry said at least 687 Palestinians had been killed and 3,726 wounded in Israeli air strikes on the blockaded enclave since Saturday. Apartment blocks, a mosque and hospitals were among the sites attacked, and the strikes destroyed some roads and houses, according to media reports and eyewitnesses.

Israel also bombed the headquarters of the private Palestinian Telecommunication Co., which could affect landline telephone, internet and mobile phone services.

The strikes continued into the night on Monday. The Israeli military said it hit targets in the Gaza Strip from the sea and air, including a weapons depot it said belonged to Islamic Jihad and Hamas targets along Gaza's coast line.

Hamas spokesperson Abu Ubaida issued the threat on Monday to kill Israelis among the dozens held captive after the surprise attack on Saturday morning. He said Hamas would execute an Israeli captive for every Israeli bombing of a civilian house without warning, and broadcast the execution.

There was no immediate response from the Israeli military to that threat. Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said more than 100 people had been taken captive by Hamas during the deadly cross-border incursion over the weekend.

FORCED FROM HOME

Palestinians reported receiving calls and mobile phone audio messages from Israeli security officers telling them to leave areas mainly in the northern and eastern territories of Gaza, and warning that the army would operate there.

Dozens of people in Gaza City's Remal neighbourhood fled their homes.

"We took ourselves, children and grandchildren and daughters-in-law and we ran away. I can say that we became refugees. We don't have safety or security. What's this life? This is not a life," resident Salah Hanouneh, 73, said.

In Israel's south, scene of the Hamas attack, Israel's chief military spokesperson said troops had re-established control of communities inside Israel that had been overrun, but isolated clashes continued as some gunmen remained active.

Sirens warning of incoming rocket fire blared in Israeli communities near the Gaza border overnight.

The announcement that 300,000 reservists had been activated in just two days added to speculation that Israel could be contemplating a ground assault of Gaza, a territory it abandoned nearly two decades ago.

"We have never drafted so many reservists on such a scale," chief military spokesperson Rear-Admiral Daniel Hagari said. "We are going on the offensive."

Washington - which provides Israel with $3.8 billion in military assistance each year - said it was sending in fresh supplies of air defenses, munitions and other security assistance to Israel.

The United States' top general warned Iran not to get involved in the crisis and said he did not want the conflict to the broaden. Iran makes no secret of its backing for Hamas and has applauded the weekend attack while denying any involvement.

"We want to send a pretty strong message. We do not want this to broaden and the idea is for Iran to get that message loud and clear," General Charles Q. Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters traveling with him to Brussels.

Governments including Italy, Thailand and Ukraine reported that their citizens had perished in the Hamas attacks. In Washington, President Joe Biden announced that at least 11 Americans had been killed and it was likely U.S. citizens were among those held hostage.

"I have directed my team to work with their Israeli counterparts on every aspect of the hostage crisis, including sharing intelligence and deploying experts from across the United States government to consult with and advise Israeli counterparts on hostage recovery efforts," Biden said in a statement.

As Israel conducted intense retaliatory strikes on Gaza, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant drew international condemnation by announcing a tightened blockade to prevent food and fuel from reaching the strip, home to 2.3 million people.

"Depriving the population in an occupied territory of food and electricity is collective punishment, which is a war crime," Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

Hamas-affiliated media said at least 20 people had been killed in Israeli strikes on houses in the Gaza Strip late on Monday. Palestinian media also reported that an Israeli air strike on a building in Gaza City had killed two Palestinian journalists and seriously wounded a third.

Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the reports. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

As it rained, explosions and lightning lit the skies, and the sound of bombings mixed with thunder.

INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said some 137,000 people were taking shelter with UNRWA, the U.N. agency that provides essential services to Palestinians.

The British, French, German, Italian and U.S. governments issued a joint statement recognising the "legitimate aspirations" of the Palestinian people, and supporting equal measures of justice and freedom for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

They also said they would remain "united and coordinated" to ensure Israel can defend itself.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan called on Hamas and Israel to immediately end violence and protect civilians, the Egyptian presidency said.

Qatari mediators held urgent calls to try to negotiate freedom for Israeli women and children seized by Hamas in exchange for the release of 36 Palestinian women and children from Israeli prisons.

The prospect that fighting could spread alarmed the region and world.

Lebanese armed group Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel in response to at least three of its members being killed in Israeli shelling of Lebanon. Israel said one of its deputy commanders was killed in an earlier cross-border raid from Lebanon.

Fears of a widening conflict meant more volatility for investors. Oil prices jumped more than 4%, gold gained and the U.S. dollar edged up against the euro. Major international air carriers suspended or reined in service to or from Tel Aviv.

The shocking images of the bodies of hundreds of Israelis sprawled across the streets of towns, gunned down at the outdoor dance party and abducted from their homes were like nothing seen before in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"I have never felt so close to death, this time I really felt like it was the end," said Zohar Maariv, 24, who survived the attack on the music festival.

** Israel-Hamas war forces Biden and Netanyahu into uneasy partnership

U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, uncomfortable allies in the best of times, will put their uneasy relationship to a further test with Israel preparing a possible ground assault on the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

After months of strain over the path forward in the Middle East, the two leaders, who have known each other for decades, have been thrust into a wartime partnership following a deadly, multipronged attack by Hamas militants from Gaza into Israel.

U.S. relations with Israel, Washington’s main Middle East ally, have frayed in recent months with the White House echoing Israeli critics who have organized protests opposing the far-right Netanyahu government’s plan to curb Supreme Court powers.

But the two leaders' differences go much deeper.

As president, Biden has frequently stressed support for independent Israeli and Palestinian states. Administration officials say he has raised it in every conversation with Netanyahu, while asking him to halt the expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Having returned to office in late December, Netanyahu opposes Palestinian statehood anytime soon and has approved thousands of new housing unitsfor West Bank settlers.

Their often fraught history includes Biden's time as vice president during Barack Obama’s presidency, when Netanyahu tried unsuccessfully to derail a 2015 U.S.-backed Iran nuclear deal.

Hamas is backed by Iran, Israel's regional arch-foe.

By contrast, Netanyahu had a meeting of minds with Biden's Republican predecessor and potential 2024 opponent, Donald Trump, whose ideological embrace of the right-wing prime minister was accompanied by staunch pro-Israel policies.

Netanyahu has nonetheless hedged and avoided taking sides in the U.S. presidential campaign.

After the weekend Hamas assault - the deadliest incursion since attacks by Egypt and Syria in the Yom Kippur war 50 years ago - Biden set aside differences in multiple phone calls with Netanyahu, saying his team was to give Israel "everything it needs" to fight the militant group, said a senior administration official.

Biden assured Netanyahu of "rock solid" U.S. support, scrambled to bolster Israel's military arsenal and dispatched a carrier strike group closer to Israel in a major show of support.

In his public statements Biden has yet to say Israel should show restraint in its military response or expressed U.S. concern for the Palestinian people, often part of White House reactions during previous crises.

"The president emphasized that there is no justification whatsoever for terrorism, and all countries must stand united in the face of such brutal atrocities," the White House said of Biden’s second call to Netanyahu on Sunday.

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WIDER WAR CONCERNS

Biden has directed his team to reach out to counterparts in the Gulf and neighboring countries to try to prevent a spiral into a wider war, especially focused on keeping the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah from opening a second front on Israel's northern border, administration officials said.

While Biden appears to have given Netanyahu a free hand for now, the policy differences remain and he could change course if the Gaza death toll rises further and the fighting drags on, foreign policy experts predict.

Israeli TV channels said the country's death toll from the Hamas attack had climbed to 900.

In Hamas-controlled Gaza, Israel pressed on with its most intensive retaliatory strikes ever, which have killed more than 500 people since Saturday.

"Eventually, if a conflict drags on for weeks or months, a number of U.S. allies are going to lose patience and publicly call for it to end. At that point, you may see the U.S. back channel to Israel to try and convince Jerusalem to bring the fight to an end," said Jonathan Panikoff, the U.S. government’s former deputy national intelligence officer for the Middle East who is now at the Atlantic Council think tank.

Biden also faces the potential challenge of securing the release of an unknown number of missing Americans who may be held by Hamas as hostages.

At home, Biden faces pressure on his right and his left, with Republican hardliners in Congress accusing him of emboldening Iran with a recent prisoner swap deal, something the president's aides strongly deny.

"If President Biden can stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes, I hope President Biden can stand with Israel for as long as it takes," said Republican Senator Tom Cotton, a foreign policy hawk, on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures."

Some fellow Democrats, before the attacks, were asking Biden to scrutinize whether Israel merits the multibillion-dollar military aid package it receives each year, and calling for him to do more for the Palestinians.

The powerful pro-Israel lobby, headed by AIPAC, is a major force in U.S. politics, often backs Netanyahu and is expected to play a role in the 2024 election.

NOT IN LOVE WITH 'BIBI'

Biden, 80, has called himself a "Zionist," and he and Netanyahu, 73, have both spoken of having a long friendship.

But Biden went months without talking to Netanyahu this year. The Israeli leader was unhappy that he did not get a face-to-face meeting with Biden until Sept. 20 and it was not at the White House but in a New York hotel on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

There, Biden expressed worries about the need for stability in the West Bank and settler violence that increased tensions with Palestinians, a senior administration official said.

They appeared to find some common ground on a U.S. push to broker a landmark agreement to open diplomatic relations between longtime foes Israel and Saudi Arabia. But the Hamas attack delivered a severe blow to that effort, leaving its future uncertain.

Aaron David Miller, a Middle East expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that despite Biden's problems with Netanyahu, "the people of Israel and security of Israel are deeply ingrained in Biden's DNA."

"Biden is not in love with Bibi Netanyahu," he said, using the prime minister's nickname. "But he is in love with the state of Israel, the people of Israel and he'll do everything he can to protect the people of Israel."

 

Reuters