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As strikes devastate Gaza, Israel forms unity government to oversee war sparked by Hamas attack

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By JOSEPH KRAUSS and WAFAA SHURAFA

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined with a top political rival on Wednesday to create a war-time Cabinet overseeing the fight to avenge a stunning weekend attack by Hamas militants. In the sealed-off Gaza Strip ruled by Hamas, Palestinian suffering mounted as Israeli bombardment demolished neighborhoods and the only power plant ran out of fuel.

The new Cabinet establishes a degree of unity after years of bitterly divisive politics, and as the Israeli military appears increasingly likely to launch a ground offensive into Gaza. The war has already claimed at least 2,300 lives on both sides.

The Israeli government is under intense public pressure to topple Hamas after its militants stormed through a border fence Saturday and massacred hundreds of Israelis in their homes, on the streets and at an outdoor music festival.

Militants in Gaza are holding an estimated 150 people taken hostage from Israel — soldiers, men, women, children and older adults — and they have fired thousands of rockets into Israel over the past five days.

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. The militant Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak Saturday, firing thousands of rockets as dozens of Hamas fighters infiltrated the heavily fortified border in several locations, killing hundreds and taking captives. Palestinian health officials reported hundreds of deaths from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Israelis take cover from incoming rocket fire from the Gaza Strip in Ashkelon, southern Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. The militant Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak Saturday, firing thousands of rockets as dozens of Hamas fighters infiltrated the heavily fortified border in several locations, killing hundreds and taking captives. Palestinian health officials reported hundreds of deaths from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Mourners attend the funeral of May Naim, 24, during her funeral in Gan Haim, central Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. Naim and at least 260 more Israelis were killed by Hamas militants on Saturday at a rave near Kibbutz Re’im, close to the Gaza Strip’s separation fence with Israel as the militant Hamas rulers of the territory carried out an unprecedented, multi-front attack that killed over 1,000 Israelis. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

A Palestinian walks through the destruction by Israeli bombing in Gaza City on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

FILE – Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, speaks during a joint press conference with his Greek counterpart Nikos Panagiotopoulos, at the Greek Ministry of Defence, in Athens, Greece, Friday, Nov. 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Varaklas, File)

Mourners gather around the grave of May Naim, 24, during her funeral in Gan Haim, central Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. Naim and at least 260 more Israelis were killed by Hamas militants on Saturday at a rave near Kibbutz Re’im, close to the Gaza Strip’s separation fence with Israel as the militant Hamas rulers of the territory carried out an unprecedented, multi-front attack that killed over 1,000 Israelis. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Smoke rises following Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. The militant Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak Saturday, firing thousands of rockets as dozens of Hamas fighters infiltrated the heavily fortified border in several locations, killing hundreds and taking captives. Palestinian health officials reported hundreds of deaths from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

A person injured in an Israeli bombing is brought to a hospital in Gaza City on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Smoke rises during an Israeli strike on Gaza City on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

FILE – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting at the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)

Israelis take cover from the incoming rocket fire from the Gaza Strip in Ashkelon, southern Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

An Israeli mobile artillery unit fired a shell from southern Israel towards the Gaza Strip, in a position a near the Israel Gaza border, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Erik Marmor)

Destruction from Israeli aerial bombardment is seen in Gaza City, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. The militant Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak Saturday, firing thousands of rockets as dozens of Hamas fighters infiltrated the heavily fortified border in several locations, killing hundreds and taking captives. Palestinian health officials reported hundreds of deaths from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Israeli soldier drive a tank to a staging area near the border with Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency says Israeli shelling of southern Lebanese villages has wounded three civilians and damaged about 10 homes. The agency said the shelling hit the villages of Marwaheen and Duhaira. The Israeli shelling came after the militant Hezbollah fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli army position. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

A view of the rubble of buildings hit by an Israeli airstrike, in Jabalia, Gaza strip, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. Israel has launched intense airstrikes in Gaza after the territory’s militant rulers carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel Saturday, killing hundreds of people and taking captives. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in the airstrikes. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

A view of the rubble of buildings hit by an Israeli airstrike, in Jabalia, Gaza strip, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. Israel has launched intense airstrikes in Gaza after the territory’s militant rulers carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel Saturday, killing hundreds of people and taking captives. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in the airstrikes. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Palestinians search for survivors of Israeli aerial bombing on Jabaliya, near Gaza City, Wednesday, Oct.11, 2023 (AP Photo/Mohammad Al Masri)

Israeli army arrives at Sderot, a town close to the Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Oct.11, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

An Israeli walks past a digger clearing the rubble of a police station overrun by Hamas militants last Saturday in Sderot, a town close to the Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Oct.11, 2023. P Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

An Israeli mobile artillery unit fired a shell from southern Israel towards the Gaza Strip, in a position a near the Israel Gaza border, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Erik Marmor)

An Israeli mobile artillery unit fired a shell from southern Israel towards the Gaza Strip, in a position a near the Israel Gaza border, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Erik Marmor)

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. The militant Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak Saturday, firing thousands of rockets as dozens of Hamas fighters infiltrated the heavily fortified border in several locations, killing hundreds and taking captives. Palestinian health officials reported hundreds of deaths from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Rockets are fired toward Israel from the Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. Israel has launched intense airstrikes in Gaza after the territory’s militant rulers carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel Saturday, killing over 1000 people and taking captives. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in the airstrikes. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

A bullet-shuttered window of the entrance to a kindergarten is seen in Kibbutz Be’eri on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. The kibbutz was overrun by Hamas militants from Neraby Gaza Strip Saturday when they killed and captured many Israelis. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

An Israeli soldier walks by a house destroyed by Hamas militants in Kibbutz Be’eri on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. The kibbutz was overrun by Hamas militants from Neraby Gaza Strip Saturday when they killed and captured many Israelis. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Israeli tanks move near the Israeli Gaza border, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Erik Marmor)

Israeli tanks move near the Israeli Gaza border, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Erik Marmor)

Itzik and Miriam Shafir, center and background, mourn during their son’s funeral, Dor Shafir, at the cemetery in Modiin Maccabim, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. Dor Shafir, 30, and his girlfriend, Savion Kiper, 31, were killed at the music festival in Southern Israel that was attacked by Hamas militants. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Itzik and Miriam Shafir, center, mourn during their son’s funeral, Dor Shafir, at the cemetery in Modiin Maccabim, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. Dor Shafir, 30, and his girlfriend, Savion Kiper, 31, were killed at the music festival in Southern Israel that was attacked by Hamas militants. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

An Israeli soldier walks past a house destroyed by Hamas militants in Kibbutz Be’eri on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. The kibbutz was overrun by Hamas militants from Neraby Gaza Strip Saturday when they killed and captured many Israelis. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Israeli tanks are stationed near the border with Lebanon Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Israelis look at the damage caused by rocket fire from the Gaza Strip in Ashkelon, southern Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Israeli soldiers work on a tank near the Israeli Gaza border, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

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The Cabinet, which will focus only on issues of war, will be led by Netanyahu, Benny Gantz — a senior opposition figure and former defense minister — and current Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. A former chief of a staff and another government minister were named as “observer” members.

Still, Israel’s political divisions remain. The country’s chief opposition leader, Yair Lapid, was invited to join the Cabinet but did not immediately respond to the offer. It appeared that the rest of Netanyahu’s existing government partners, a collection of far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties, would remain in place to handle non-war issues.

Israel’s increasingly destructive airstrikes in Gaza have flattened entire city blocks and left unknown numbers of bodies beneath debris. A ground offensive in Gaza, whose 2.3 million residents are densely packed into a tiny, coastal strip, would likely result in a surge of casualties for fighters on both sides.

Hamas launched a fresh barrage of rockets into Israel on Wednesday aimed at the southern town of Ashkelon.

Some 250,000 people have fled their homes in Gaza, most crowding into U.N. schools. Others sought the shrinking number of safe neighborhoods in the strip of land only 40 kilometers (25 miles) long, wedged among Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea.

After nightfall, Palestinians were plunged into pitch blackness in large parts of Gaza City and elsewhere after the territory’s only power station ran out of fuel and shut down Wednesday. Only a few lights from private generators still glowed.

Israel on Sunday halted the entry of food, water, fuel and medicine into the territory. The sole remaining crossing from Egypt was shut down Tuesday after airstrikes hit nearby.

The Gaza Strip’s biggest hospital, Al-Shifa, only has enough fuel to keep power on for three days, said Matthias Kannes, a Gaza-based official for Doctors Without Borders. The group said the two hospitals it runs in Gaza were running out of surgical equipment, antibiotics, fuel and other supplies. “We consumed three weeks worth of emergency stock in three days,” Kannes said.

Ghassan Abu Sitta, a reconstructive surgeon at al-Shifa said he had 50 patients waiting to go to the operating room as more critical wounded are treated. “We’re already beyond the capacity of the system to cope,” he said. The health system “has the rest of the week before it collapses, not just because of the diesel. All supplies are running short.”

The Palestinian Red Crescent said other hospitals’ generators will run out in five days. Residential buildings, unable to store as much diesel, likely will go dark sooner.

Egypt and international groups have been calling for humanitarian corridors to get aid into Gaza. Convoys stood loaded with fuel and food Wednesday on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, but were unable to enter Gaza, an Egyptian security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

In Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, rescue workers and civilians carried men covered with blood and soot towards ambulances after strikes toppled buildings. Streets were left blanketed with metal, chunks of concrete and thick dust.

Medical teams and rescuers struggled to enter other areas where roads were too destroyed, including Gaza City’s al-Karama district, where a “large number” were killed or wounded, according to the Hamas-run Interior Ministry. Strikes have killed at least four Red Crescent paramedics, the organization said.

The risk of the war spreading was evident Wednesday after the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired anti-tank missiles at an Israeli military position and claimed to have killed and wounded troops.

The Israeli military confirmed the attack but did not comment on possible casualties. The Israeli army shelled the area in southern Lebanon where the attack was launched.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday warned other countries and armed groups against entering the war. The U.S. is already rushing munitions and military equipment to Israel and has deployed a carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean as deterrence.

In the West Bank, Israeli settlers attacked a village south of Nablus, opening fire on Palestinians and killing three, the territory’s health ministry said. More than two dozen Palestinians have died in fighting in the West Bank since the weekend.

Israel has mobilized 360,000 reservists, massed additional forces near Gaza and evacuated tens of thousands of residents from nearby communities.

Toppling Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, would likely require prolonged ground fighting and reoccupying Gaza, at least temporarily. Even then, Hamas has a long history of operating as an underground insurgency in areas controlled by Israel.

Hamas said it launched its attack Saturday because Palestinians’ suffering had become intolerable under unending Israeli military occupation and increasing settlements in the West Bank and a 16-year-long blockade in Gaza.

Shock, grief and demands for vengeance against Hamas are running high in Israel. Past conflicts with Hamas included heavy bombardments of Gaza but ended with the group still in power. Netanyahu said this week that Israel is committed to destroying Hamas’ military and governing capabilities.

In a new tactic, Israel is warning civilians to evacuate whole Gaza neighborhoods, rather than just individual buildings, then levelling large swaths in waves of airstrikes.

Israel’s tone has changed as well. In past conflicts, its military insisted on the precision of strikes in Gaza, trying to ward off criticism over civilian deaths. This time, military briefings emphasize the destruction being wreaked.

“We will not allow a reality in which Israeli children are murdered,” Defense Minister Gallant said in a meeting with soldiers near the southern border on Tuesday. “I have removed every restriction — we will eliminate anyone who fights us, and use every measure at our disposal.”

Even with the evacuation warnings, Palestinians say some are unable to escape or have nowhere to go, and that entire families have been crushed under rubble.

Other times, strikes come with no warning at all, survivors say.

“There was no warning or anything,” said Hashem Abu Manea, 58, who lost his 15-year-old daughter, Joanna, when a strike late Tuesday leveled his home in Gaza City. “We were sitting there as civilians, dressed like anyone else.”

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Israel pounds Gaza neighborhoods, as people scramble for safety in sealed-off territory

Israeli airstrikes late Tuesday struck the family house of Mohammed Deif, the shadowy leader of Hamas’ military wing, killing his father, brother and at least two other relatives in the southern town of Khan Younis, senior Hamas official Bassem Naim told The Associated Press. Deif has never been seen in public and his whereabouts are unknown.

The Israeli military said more than 1,200 people, including 189 soldiers, have been killed in Israel, a staggering toll unseen since the 1973 war with Egypt and Syria that lasted weeks. In Gaza, 1,100 people have been killed, according to authorities there. Thousands have been wounded on both sides.

Israel says roughly 1,500 Hamas militants were killed inside Israeli territory, and that hundreds of the dead inside Gaza are Hamas members.

Shurafa reported from Gaza City, Gaza Strip. Associated Press writers Amy Teibel and Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem, Jack Jeffrey and Samy Magdy in Cairo and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.

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