Sealed Gaza neighbourhoods stare at imminent blackout as Israeli airstrikes reduce region to rubble on Day 5

Israeli warplanes on Wednesday hammered neighbourhood after neighbourhood in the sealed-off Gaza Strip, forcing people to look for safer shelters and reducing buildings to dust and rubble, as the Israel-Palestinian War entered its fifth day. The war, which has so far claimed at least 2,200 lives on both sides, is expected to escalate and cause further damage.

Palestinians, who occupy the Gaza Strip, struggled to survive on Day 5 of the war as Israeli airstrikes wiped out entire neighbourhoods and hospitals started running out of essential medicines and supplies. Massive power outages are also expected in the area within hours as Israel continues to bombard the region.

The death toll surpassed the 3,600 mark on Wednesday and is expected to climb higher dramatically five days after Palestinian terror group Hamas launched a surprise and daring attack on Israel, which has responded with massive shelling of Gaza.

Israel said it had recaptured Gaza border areas that were invaded by Hamas militants in Saturday’s assault. At least, 150 Israeli people comprising women, children and elderly people have been taken hostage by Hamas.

Nearly 1,200 Israelis have died in the surprise terror attack last weekend. The attacks on Israel were planned and executed by Hamas, which has run the Gaza Strip since 2007. Hamas refuses to recognise the state of Israel and has been involved in numerous rounds of conflict with the country. The conflicts see Hamas launching rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel, followed by Israeli airstrikes and bombardment of Gaza.

Adamant on punishing Hamas for Saturday’s daring attack on southern Israeli towns, Israel continued with the offensive, reducing the small coastal area to rubble and piling up bodies. Israel has vowed unprecedented retaliation against the Hamas militant group ruling the Palestinian territory after its fighters stormed through the border fence early on Saturday and gunned down hundreds of Israelis in their homes, on the streets and at an outdoor music festival.

Following the deadly attack, Israel stopped all entry of food, water, fuel and medicine into the territory — a 40-kilometer-long strip of land wedged among Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea that is home to 2.3 million Palestinians. The sole remaining access from Egypt was shut down late on Tuesday after airstrikes hit near the border crossing.

Palestinians have started crowding into UN schools and a shrinking number of safe neighbourhoods. Global humanitarian groups on Wednesday pleaded for the creation of corridors to flow aid in, warning that hospitals already overwhelmed with wounded people were running out of supplies rapidly.

Gaza’s power authority says its sole power plant will run out of fuel within hours, leaving the territory without electricity after Israel cut off supplies. Palestinians there have long relied on generators to power homes, offices and hospitals, but have no way of importing fuel for those either.

The United Nations World Health Organization said that supplies it had pre-positioned for seven hospitals have already run out amid the flood of wounded. Doctors Without Borders said surgical equipment, antibiotics, fuel and other supplies were running out at two hospitals it runs in Gaza.’

Israel, it is believed has mobilized 360,000 reservists and appears increasingly likely to launch a ground offensive into Gaza, with its government under intense public pressure to topple Hamas, which has ruled the territory since 2007 and remained firmly in control through four previous wars in the region.

Meanwhile in Europe, countries reported an uptick in anti-Semitic acts as the war in West Asia ground into its fifth day. The French police have arrested more than 20 people over dozens of anti-Semitic acts carried out since Saturday, including harassment of Jewish children by fellow pupils at school, the government said on Wednesday. Similar reports have also come from Denmark, Germany and a few other European countries.

France is home to some of Europe’s largest Muslim and Jewish populations and conflicts in the Middle East can lead to tensions there — which Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the government aimed to avert with heightened police protection of Jewish sites, including schools and synagogues.